Your controversial opinions

[RK9]

I never liked the idea of inserting older Pokémon in newer regions' national dexes ever since Hoenn was a thing. I always desired to have a Pokémon region in the games that older ones would not show up in the nature. Black & White's biggest stand-out feature for me was that in that regard, except they stepped back in the sequels. I understand how beneficial and useful it can be for both the players (trying out older pokémon that they never had a chance to use in past games), and for the developers (less amount of original ideas for the new pokémon, recycling what's there), but still each region would have felt more unique that way.

Good to know I'm not the only one.

 

[Esserise]

It's a tempting idea, but I think it might be pretty hard to squeeze out such a huge amount of Pokémon with every new generation without risking some degree of creative fatigue, and there are some other issues worth considering:

• Dexit would probably have to be implemented much sooner.
• Unless GF had the idea for regional variants much, much earlier, it pretty much forecloses the idea of older Pokémon families getting new additions like Steelix or Electivire, at least outside of remakes.
• It could potentially lead to a lot of rehashing the same ideas; we already have the obligatory early route bird/rodent/bug archetypes that we can't seem to break free from, and Unova having to create everything from scratch seemingly only multiplied that effect, what with all of its Gen 1 "homages" like Throh/Sawk (Hitmonlee/Hitmonchan) and Audino (Chansey).

 

[BigBadButterfree]

Triple battles were amazing and it's a shame they were removed.

The multi-mode in the Tower/Maison/Tree was my favorite part of Pokemon. That's all my friend and I did together. Without that mode in SwSh, there's nothing to do together anymore.

 

[RK9]

Oh man triple battles. Loved that shit.

I miss the Dens we had in Unova. While locked to spawn rates, the Pokémon in there were great (Multiscale Dragonite!) while not being a drag like the Raid Battles.

Alternatively, they could have doubled as Hidden Bases too.

 

[Esserise]

I miss the Dens we had in Unova. While locked to spawn rates, the Pokémon in there were great (Multiscale Dragonite!) while not being a drag like the Raid Battles.

Ehh... much like the difficulty modes, for me, the architecture of this mechanic was a complete travesty that it really negated any value it might have had.

For that Dragonite, you have a 1% chance that it will be the Pokémon spawned in that grotto, within a 20% chance that what the grotto generates will actually be a Pokémon (hope you don't mind mulch instead!), within a 5% chance that anything will generate at all, with the reroll occuring every 256 steps, all of which is predicated on a single grotto in the entire region.

 

[AngryBinacle]

I miss the vs. recorder.

Another pointless omission.

 

[Esserise]

I miss the vs. recorder.

Another pointless omission.

I do agree with this, although I always wished you could use it for regular in-game battles as well. I'd love to have a record of this one battle I had against Mustard.

 

[Poke Dragon]

Okay, I have been kind of saying this for a while now, but Mega Evolution was the worst addition to the series. It favored too many fan-favorites rather than Pokemon who actually needed a huge power-boost. Moreover, I hate the alternate versions that are just different names and slightly different mechanics. I'm glad Sword and Shield gave Zacian and Zamazenta a permanent form change (even if they aren't visible outside of battle, I still count them as permanent due to them not being mid-battle transformations).

 

[AngryBinacle]

I'm of the opinion that if they want to make some Pokémon more viable, they should 'just' give it a stat buff / a niche instead of making a new 'form', because the new form isn't the original design you're using in the battle.

That's why I think megas were 'meh'.

I like (most) regional forms, though, as they are still 'permanent' forms but focus on a different side of the species, and sometimes even take it further with Regional Evolutions. It doesn't necessarily take away from the other, 'original' form.

 

[Poke Dragon]

I'm of the opinion that if they want to make some Pokémon more viable, they should 'just' give it a stat buff / a niche instead of making a new 'form', because the new form isn't the original design you're using in the battle.

That's why I think megas were 'meh'.

I like (most) regional forms, though, as they are still 'permanent' forms but focus on a different side of the species, and sometimes even take it further with Regional Evolutions. It doesn't necessarily take away from the other, 'original' form.

I found permanent forms to be great considering it gives more options for how individual Pokemon can battle without much complication.

But yeah, they should just straight up buff a Pokemon's stats when there is absolutely no reason for it to get a different form. There are only two reasons I see that a Pokemon getting a new form is valid: they are important to the story of the region and that they change typings to accommodate the form. Heck, both would be amazing at the same time, but I also believe that the two reasons are valid on their own.

Deerling and Sawsbuck for example, I'm 100% okay with them having new forms because they change based on Unova's seasons, thus making the Pokemon important to Unova's story of some kind.

 

[AngryBinacle]

I found permanent forms to be great considering it gives more options for how individual Pokemon can battle without much complication.

But yeah, they should just straight up buff a Pokemon's stats when there is absolutely no reason for it to get a different form. There are only two reasons I see that a Pokemon getting a new form is valid: they are important to the story of the region and that they change typings to accommodate the form. Heck, both would be amazing at the same time, but I also believe that the two reasons are valid on their own.

Deerling and Sawsbuck for example, I'm 100% okay with them having new forms because they change based on Unova's seasons, thus making the Pokemon important to Unova's story of some kind.

Definitely! No problem if it's part of a Pokémon's design/gimmick/philosophy whatsoever, I had this problem with Megas, though.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

I don't usually go for those kinds of theories, but I can admit that the overall evidence is generally compelling. However, Fennekin is pretty much my one outstanding hang-up against it, for the same reason: Why go with something that's only adjacent to a dog rather than simply making a Fire-type dog Starter? It's like choosing to go with a lynx or an ocelot instead of a proper tiger in Gen 7, because "well they're both felidae so it's close enough"

Of course, there's a funny potential scenario in my head where the zodiac theory turns out to be true in the long run, but sometime within the next few generations, we still get a proper Fire-type dog Starter, and it turns out that Fennekin was just a casual deviation because they felt like taking a break from the pattern or something, lol

Personally, I see the zodiac theory as just trivia about how Game Freak gets a base concept for starters. Cyndaquil's already pushing the envelope pretty hard (even I'll admit that if it wasn't for the category, there'd be no leg to stand on there), but even starters that fit nicely into roles leak into other species, like how the dragon starts as a salamander and the tiger starts as a tabby.

The way I see it, Game Freak at some point decided that it'd be helpful to have a smaller pool of animals to draw from, since, unlike Water and Grass, there's not really a lot of animals naturally associated with fire. This probably came up in designing Gen 3, since (if I'm not mistaken) Gen 2 was designed as a sequel, not the next in a series, so they probably didn't think they'd be making a lot of starter trios. And they decide, "Well, Charizard's a dragon, we called Cindaquil a mouse- why not just mark em off as the rat and dragon and use the Chinese zodiac?"

If I'm not mistaken, starter trios didn't really get themes together until Gen 5, so it makes sense that we'd start to see more deviation from the base ideas after that. (In my little imagined scenario, Fennekin would have started out as a wizard dog, and then someone would have said "Well, let's make it a fox instead, because they're clever and that matches with wizards") Which makes it kind of surprising that Fennekin's the only one that doesn't match up, really, you'd expect it to be tricky to fit a specific animal from a shrinking list into a theme that you want to reflect your game's atmosphere and setting.

 

[Emmy]

I know people will cry foul if the games are made any easier than they already are, but when I obtained a certain Pokémon in the Crown Tundra whose Dex entry said that it digs in search of a Moon Stone I was like "oh yeah, that's how you evolve isn't it - good to know" and that got me thinking that more than once I have been tripped up grinding a Pokémon only for it not to evolve because it'll have some ridiculous gimmick. I think the most egregious was by far Galarian Yamask's "you have to travel under the stone bridge in Dusty Bowl after Yamask has lost 49HP without fainting"... how in the world was I meant to figure that out without looking it up!?

So yeah, my controversial opinion is that I'm not necessarily opposed to gimmicky Evolutions but could GF at least put a hint in the Dex entry or something?

 

[prog rocker]

So yeah, my controversial opinion is that I'm not necessarily opposed to gimmicky Evolutions but could GF at least put a hint in the Dex entry or something?

There was a system like that... in B2W2. To this day I have no idea why it never came back.

 

[Nodqfan]

I actually don't mind the Cyndaquil line's 3D sprites because it just shows that they can control its flames at will and plus the anime has shown them without their flames before the games made that change so I don't see why everybody was or still is up in arms about it.

 

[Greninjaman]

I actually don't mind the Cyndaquil line's 3D sprites because it just shows that they can control its flames at will and plus the anime has shown them without their flames before the games made that change so I don't see why everybody was or still is up in arms about it.

Because of the coolness factor if I recall.

 

[Esserise]

I actually don't mind the Cyndaquil line's 3D sprites because it just shows that they can control its flames at will and plus the anime has shown them without their flames before the games made that change so I don't see why everybody was or still is up in arms about it.

For me, the 3D models themselves are fine; the problem with the Cyndaquil line for me is that even on the 3D models, the flames (when visible) are still 2D. It’s kind of immersion-breaking and looks weird when every other Pokémon with a fire element to its body renders the effect in 3D.

Side-note: I don’t like how 3D Musharna’s gas is a solid object that’s attached to Marsharna’s head, like some kind of bizarre horn. I think it should be more like the smoke effects used for Koffing and Torkoal. Also, they should give a smoke effect to Vanilluxe like it had back in the sprite era.

(Not that I have any particular nostalgia for the sprite era; like I said in one of my earlier posts in this thread, I think the models are (for the most part) head-and-shoulders above the sprites.)

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Everyone talks about how hard it is to find Fee as in Generation III due to the way it appears. And that is perfectly true. I just think there's another annoyance factor that people often forget about: the Generation III Hoenn fishing mechanics.

Spoiler

..........
Not even a nibble...
..........
Not even a nibble...
..........
Not even a nibble...
..........
Oh! A bite!
.......
Oh! A bite!
...
Oh! A bite!
.......
Oh! A bite!
...
Oh! A bite!
It got away...

Rrrgh!

 

[Esserise]

Everyone talks about how hard it is to find Fee as in Generation III due to the way it appears. And that is perfectly true. I just think there's another annoyance factor that people often forget about: the Generation III Hoenn fishing mechanics.

Spoiler

..........
Not even a nibble...
..........
Not even a nibble...
..........
Not even a nibble...
..........
Oh! A bite!
.......
Oh! A bite!
...
Oh! A bite!
.......
Oh! A bite!
...
Oh! A bite!
It got away...

Rrrgh!

Overall, fishing has such a weird history across the series, and I'm not sure they've ever figured out a way to make it into a very engaging mechanic. In Gens 1 and 2, it's understandably pretty basic, but so much of what you're able to get is just Magikarp and Tentacool, so it kind of feels like, once you've got that Dratini or Corsola, there's not much of a reason to keep doing it, and that just makes me wonder why they had it be an entirely separate mechanic rather than just adding these species in as Surf encounters. (Cough cough, Let's Go)

Gen 3, like you said, tries to make the mechanic more involved; more of a minigame, but it ends up being more frustrating, especially when you factor in convoluted nonsense like Feebas.

Gen 4 and Gen 8 work the same way as each other, just press A once you get the indication of a hook. But that's... so mundane and unsatisfying, although I guess for the relative low quality of the reward, it's fair. But it doesn't really make me excited about fishing.

Gen 5... much like Gen 1, I'm not sure why it even exists in Gen 5? It has some good potential rewards like Dragonite and Milotic, but just utilizes another variation of the rippling water mechanic, and is strictly a post-game option with only one sort of Rod available to use. I think they could have at least made it so that fished Pokémon had a chance of having their Hidden Ability or something, to make it more distinct and worth doing, and since that was the generation that introduced Hidden Abilities, it would help to highlight them a little more while also making them a bit more accessible, for some species at least.

I think Gens 6 and 7 had some decent ideas to try to make fishing a little more worthwhile. The mechanical action itself is still pretty dull, but Gen 6 had chain fishing as an option to get certain Shinies rather easily. That's something unique to fishing in that generation that you can't take advantage of with other kinds of encounters. And Gen 7 had separate tables depending on whether you were fishing at a still spot or a bubbling spot, so at least you know what to look for if you're searching for a rarer reward.

 

[Shib]

Giratina’s Origin form is a terrible Pokémon design - it’s just a spikey worm!