Your controversial opinions

[SushiBurrito]

The idea that Charmander=Hard Mode and Bulbasaur=Easy mode is ludicrous. Bulbasaur doesn't learn a GOOD grass move until level 13 by that level you can beat Brock with Charmander by spamming Ember and just being smart enough to not attack when Onix is using bide. Also Charmander's speed makes it way easier to use in gen 1 game where speed is everything. You're pretty much guaranteed to get a critical with slash nearly everytime. Good luck fighting Blue or Sabrina's Alakazam with Venusaur.

To clarify I'm not here to bash Bulbasaur, I love the little guy but I definitely have a harder time using him than Charmander.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

The idea that Charmander=Hard Mode and Bulbasaur=Easy mode is ludicrous. Bulbasaur doesn't learn a GOOD grass move until level 13 by that level you can beat Brock with Charmander by spamming Ember and just being smart enough to not attack when Onix is using bide. Also Charmander's speed makes it way easier to use in gen 1 game where speed is everything. You're pretty much guaranteed to get a critical with slash nearly everytime. Good luck fighting Blue or Sabrina's Alakazam with Venusaur.

To clarify I'm not here to bash Bulbasaur, I love the little guy but I definitely have a harder time using him than Charmander.

Bulbasaur will destroy Misty and Lt. Surge though. as for that Alakazam, by that time you will have plenty of teammates to deal with it. the early gyms are where your starter choice matters the most.

 

[SushiBurrito]

Bulbasaur will destroy Misty and Lt. Surge though. as for that Alakazam, by that time you will have plenty of teammates to deal with it. the early gyms are where your starter choice matters the most.

Countpoint: By the time you get to to Misty you probably either have a decent leveled Pikachu if you took the time to catch one in Viridian Forest or you can just catch a Oddish or Bellsprout (depending on which version you're playing) by Nugget Bride and train it up on the path to see Bill before fighting Misty. True you'l have the easiest time beating Misty with Bulbasaur as your starter but its just a matter of "Do you want to beat Misty as soon as you get to Cerulean City or do you want to fight Misty after you've gone through your Rival and the Nugget Bridge Gauntlet and the trainers on the way to see Bill.

You can also steamroll Surge with Charmander by simply teaching it the Dig TM you have to get anyways or capture a Diglett (or if you're luck an overleveles Dugtrio) in Rock Tunnel. I really don't think your starter is that big of crutch by the time you get to Misty and definitely not by the time you're at Surge.

Bulbasaur is going to have a lot harder time than Charmander in the pre-Brock portion of the games because it's not so effective against all those Pidgey and bug Pokemon

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Countpoint: By the time you get to to Misty you probably either have a decent leveled Pikachu if you took the time to catch one in Viridian Forest or you can just catch a Oddish or Bellsprout (depending on which version you're playing) by Nugget Bride and train it up on the path to see Bill before fighting Misty. True you'l have the easiest time beating Misty with Bulbasaur as your starter but its just a matter of "Do you want to beat Misty as soon as you get to Cerulean City or do you want to fight Misty after you've gone through your Rival and the Nugget Bridge Gauntlet and the trainers on the way to see Bill.

You can also steamroll Surge with Charmander by simply teaching it the Dig TM you have to get anyways or capture a Diglett (or if you're luck an overleveles Dugtrio) in Rock Tunnel. I really don't think your starter is that big of crutch by the time you get to Misty and definitely not by the time you're at Surge.

Bulbasaur is going to have a lot harder time than Charmander in the pre-Brock portion of the games because it's not so effective against all those Pidgey and bug Pokemon

true, and you can also get a butterfree from viridian forest and use confusion to murder brock to death. also, neither the pidgey nor the bugs will have any moves that are super effective on bulbasaur at that level; they're about the same difficulty regardless of your starter.

also, you said bulbasaur doesn't learn a good grass move until level 13, but it learns leech seed at level 7, which is very useful for disposing of brock's defensive mons. you barely even have to worry about bide.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Countpoint: By the time you get to to Misty you probably either have a decent leveled Pikachu if you took the time to catch one in Viridian Forest or you can just catch a Oddish or Bellsprout (depending on which version you're playing) by Nugget Bride and train it up on the path to see Bill before fighting Misty. True you'l have the easiest time beating Misty with Bulbasaur as your starter but its just a matter of "Do you want to beat Misty as soon as you get to Cerulean City or do you want to fight Misty after you've gone through your Rival and the Nugget Bridge Gauntlet and the trainers on the way to see Bill.

You can also steamroll Surge with Charmander by simply teaching it the Dig TM you have to get anyways or capture a Diglett (or if you're luck an overleveles Dugtrio) in Rock Tunnel. I really don't think your starter is that big of crutch by the time you get to Misty and definitely not by the time you're at Surge.

Bulbasaur is going to have a lot harder time than Charmander in the pre-Brock portion of the games because it's not so effective against all those Pidgey and bug Pokemon

In the same way you can catch Pikachu, Oddish, or Bellsprout to use against Misty, you can catch a Pikachu, Pidgey, or Spearow to use in Virdian Forest. Brock is really the only part of the game where your starter choice really matters, and even then only in RB. You have other options such as Mankey, the Nidorans (where they learn Double Kick at Lv. 12 starting in Yellow instead of Lv. 43 in RB), and in LGPE, Oddish and Bellsprout, but in RB if you picked Charmander you have nothing SE against Brock.

 

[SushiBurrito]

In the same way you can catch Pikachu, Oddish, or Bellsprout to use against Misty, you can catch a Pikachu, Pidgey, or Spearow to use in Virdian Forest. Brock is really the only part of the game where your starter choice really matters, and even then only in RB. You have other options such as Mankey, the Nidorans (where they learn Double Kick at Lv. 12 starting in Yellow instead of Lv. 43 in RB), and in LGPE, Oddish and Bellsprout, but in RB if you picked Charmander you have nothing SE against Brock.

You have nothing super effective with Charmander against Brock but Brock isnt exactly difficult in the gen 1 games even with Charmander. If anything he's way more difficult in the gen 3 remakes with rock tomb.

 

[prog rocker]

You have nothing super effective with Charmander against Brock but Brock isnt exactly difficult in the gen 1 games even with Charmander. If anything he's way more difficult in the gen 3 remakes with rock tomb.

To a certain extend. Charmander gets Metal Claw in FRLG.

 

[team_____grunt]

if you ask me, all of the middle evolutions are BAD.

 

[SushiBurrito]

if you ask me, all of the middle evolutions are BAD.

Quilava in the gen 4 remakes is the cutest thing ever how dare you?

As a kid I remember actually preferring the Kanto middle evolutions over their first and final forms. Maybe because they didn't get as much exposure? Nowadays I wouldn't say they were bad but I'm not as fond of them. Still somewhat partial to Ivysaur though.

 

[Beer&Nyquil]

I desperately wish they’d kept blastoise as its own thing and finished squirtle line the way they planned to

 

[Bolt Strike]

To a certain extend. Charmander gets Metal Claw in FRLG.

Which again isn't really the sticking point because you also have Mankey (which they even removed as a version exclusive in FRLG presumably so LG players who chose Charmander can have something to use against Brock) and early Double Kick on the Nidorans in FRLG. In RB you have nothing.

 

[Pasio]

Not sure if controversial but I believe that Legends Arceus isn't as unique as we'd think. Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon laid down the entire blueprint for how Legends Arceus was created. Legends Arceus took from Generation 7 and experimented with its changes much more.

To explain...
1) Wardens act like Trial Captains and even share the same name of "Captain" in Japanese titles.
2) Ride Pokemon have almost all the same functions. Tauros = Wyrdeer, Stoutland = Ursaluna, Sharpedo = Basculegion, Charizard = Hisuian Braviary, Machamp and Sneasler do somewhat different things but they both involve physically carrying a player with their arms through rough terrain, whether that'd be climbing mountains or pushing boulders. Gen 7 has two extra ride Pokemon.
3) There is a flute you have to play to summon the games' mascot. Sun/Moon Flute = Solgaleo/Lunala, Azure Flute = Arceus.
4) The story utilizes space/time shenanigans and tries to have it justify bringing over random battle facility heads from the past. Anabel = Ultra Wormhole, Ingo = Space/Time rift.
5) Legends Arceus has you collecting all the plates of each type similar to how USUM has you do this for Z-Crystals.
6) Both Hisui and Alola are the only regions where wild Pokemon are "extra". Hisui has alphas who can increase their stats especially when aggravated, Alola has wild Pokemon summon a partner vs S.O.S when they're aggravated.
7) Nobles are Pokemon boss fights, similar to how Totems are. We fight Pokemon instead of trainers with Pokemon.
8) Volo carries an omniboosted legendary dragon Pokemon in your final fight against him! Wait where have we seen this before??

9) Both games being very cutscene focused for Pokemon, unlike anything else in gens 1-6 or gen 8!
10) I don't known about you but Pokémon Legends Arceus and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon tend to put the most focus on the lore and character traits of their not only their mascot, but legendaries associated with said mascot.
11) While not Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, the special Spiritomb quest sharply resembles Sun and Moon's Zygarde quest.
12) Best of all, the guy who directed Legends Arceus was the same guy who directed Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon; Kazumasa Iwao. These are the only games he directed so far.

Some of these may or may not be enough by themselves but when combined it all connects.

How do I feel about all of this? I find this really cool but am most definitely stoked that the same guy responsible for Volo's final battle was also responsible for the Ultra Necrozma battle. Kazumasa Iwao is onto something!

Edit: Volo also acts as crazy obsessive over Arceus as Lusamine did over the Ultra Beasts. In hindsight elements from all Alola games were taken here.

 

[prog rocker]

How do I feel about all of this? I find this really cool but am most definitely stoked that the same guy responsible for Volo's final battle was also responsible for the Ultra Necrozma battle. Kazumasa Iwao is onto something!

Oh God... So that's the guy that forced me to "cheat" by having multiple Revives and waiting for Necrozma to run out of moves...

I'm now fearing for my Legends playthrough...

 

[Bluemew1512]

I actually prefer the console spin-off games to the phone ones. I know that people like Pokemon Masters and Go, but I'm not really a fan of the phone games as their mostly free-to-play model means that they are a bit reliant on grabbing money from you if you want to make any good progress in the game.

 

[Bolt Strike]

I actually prefer the console spin-off games to the phone ones. I know that people like Pokemon Masters and Go, but I'm not really a fan of the phone games as their mostly free-to-play model means that they are a bit reliant on grabbing money from you if you want to make any good progress in the game.

Is that even a controversial opinion? It feels like a lot of people think this way, even the ones that like the mobile games. I see a lot of people, especially on forums like these, constantly ask for the return of various console spinoffs like Mystery Dungeon, Ranger, Colosseum/XD, etc.

 

[bittersweetVICTORY]

Y'all expecting Pokemon to make Skyrim, y'all got it.

Be careful what you wish for.

you say that like it was a bad thing LMAO. the bugs were some of the funniest things to come out of that 1.0 release.

that said i now owe a controversial opinion or two so i can keep this thread on topic. uh. hm.

oh wait got one. THE CHESPIN LINE IS FANTASTIC. YOU GUYS ARE JUST MEAN (/not actually mad)
mildly more controversial: i would've liked to see the 2.5d approach expanded on for a while longer. the 3ds had the power to do it with decent lighting, too.

 

[skynerel]

I don’t care about Ash’s butterfree.

 

[Sheep40]

Fun game is more important than good game.

Applies to everything, but has always and will forever always apply to pokemon.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Fun game is more important than good game.

Applies to everything, but has always and will forever always apply to pokemon.

sorry, what's the difference?

 

[Pasio]

sorry, what's the difference?

My guess is that a game could be made very poorly with programming issues, fundamental features lacked, rushed decisions that ultimately affect the quality of gameplay, but could still be fun because of what's at the game's core or because the game brought something new to the table. This can probably be interpreted as "It doesn't matter how messed up a game is as long as it's still fun. Being fun is what matters most."

edit: imo a good game provides you more lasting opportunities to have fun, even if the main story itself does not stand out. A bad game can be fun in the main story but lacks in opportunities to have more fun after the fun part ends. This opinion I have is solely tied to the major mainline Pokemon games. The ones from RB and USUM, alongside SwSh and SV. These are games responsible for defining an entire generation of Pokemon. LGPE, BDSP, and Legends Arceus are minor mainline games and closer to spinoffs, more so just their independent thing, so their quality should be weighed more lightly.