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Your controversial opinions

DLCs for Pokemon games aren't bad. I would rather pay for the DLC than to play the same game (third version of the main games) again.
DLC is better than a third version but the DLC does need to be an actual enhancement. The SwSh DLC felt more like parts that already were supposed to be part of the base game instead of actual DLC.
 
Grusha is a slav of some sort. He is tall, has light blue eyes, light not blond hair, is associated with snow, and his name is Russian for pear.
 
3D Pokemon games are starting to get old and i want another 2D game. Which is ironic because by 2012 i think a lot of people were sick of Gamefreak sticking to 2D and not do a 3D game and i was one of them. But nearly ten years later and i'm pretty over 3D Pokemon games.

Something akin to 2DHD like Octopath Traveler and the Live a Live remake would also be something i would very much like to see because i think those games look great.
 
DLC is better than a third version but the DLC does need to be an actual enhancement. The SwSh DLC felt more like parts that already were supposed to be part of the base game instead of actual DLC.

Not entirely convinced about this, as the Sword/Shield DLCS feels like a natural evolution/extension of the base game, or at least an expansion of the initial concept of open areas presented in these games.

Whether content wise they're worth the hefty price tag I don't know, but they certainly made Sword/Shield has one of the best "postgames", if not the best, in the Franchise.
 
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While I would love to see a return to 2D (mainly because that would be a perfect excuse to bring back the Coloseum series, thus possibly making a sequel to Pokemon Battle Revolution), I, unfortunately, don't see it happening due to one reason: Requiring loads of sprites just to give the animation of movement and turning compared to just needing one model and the needed animations.

Again, I would really love to see a return to 2D sprites, but I can see why it might never come back.
 
  • The best game in the Pokémon series is Crystal. HGSS follow, but don’t capture the quite same feeling despite being fantastic enhanced remakes.
  • The Johto level curve isn’t bad - and in fact, most people are missing the point and function of that level curve entirely. It functions perfectly to offer the freedom of multiple paths to the player while maintaining the right level of challenge. It is maligned solely because of the false perception that one must grind and must be on par with trainers like Clair and Lance in terms of level once they are reached.
  • A Legends game set in Johto would be more fun and interesting than one that explores the “original dragon” of Unova or anything about Kalos, or even full remakes or sequels for either of those regions.
  • Sun and Moon had a significantly better story than Black and White, and remain the best main series Pokémon experiences narratively, followed by Legends. Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon making Lusamine’s character more straightforward and less nuanced does huge damage to the narrative because the original one was so strongly anchored to her relationship with her children.
  • ORAS were great but due to things like the 3D graphics have aged very poorly compared to Emerald, which remains by far the best Hoenn experience.
  • Platinum was not particularly difficult when compared to some later titles like the Alola games; it was just well-balanced and kept a very consistent pace.
  • The Pokémon series has been on shaky ground in terms of quality from the moment Black and White were released; their dex was poor and the forced use of new species was the first really notable misstep in the series’ history. Since then it’s been mixed hits and misses.
  • Perception of the quality of Gen 5 has seemingly flipped not because of some reappraisal of its merits or because its story was really just that good, but because the generation of kids who grew up with it are now older and engage with online discussion spaces at a much more frequent rate than fans who are still too young or who have largely aged out of regular participation in those spaces. The games are still good, and by no means the worst in the main series since they do have decent stories and a decent region, but there are real reasons they sold relatively poorly compared to all other generations besides the third.
 
LGPE is the best of the Kanto games, sorry FRLG fans. I have a soft spot in my heart for FRLG too, my first ever game in the franchise was Ruby, LeafGreen was 2nd, so I definitely have a lot of nostalgia for those games and I do appreciate the extra content that came with Gen 1 being brought up to Gen 3 specs, having the Sevii Islands, getting a sort of prologue to events in the Johto games with the Sevii Islands storyline, all of that was neat, but not being able to even evolve Golbat into Crobat or Eevee into Espeon might as well not have them coded into the game anyways, since you can't get them until getting the Ruby and Sapphire and linking to Hoenn. It wanted to be an authentic Gen 1 Kanto game but let you have access to Gen 3 things after the post-game, but at that point if you want a definitive Gen 3 game, Emerald is just the best of the GBA titles by a mile.

The things I like about LGPE are first and foremost, the graphics and artstyle, easily the best-looking main series Pokemon game to-date, yes better than PLA and SV, following Pokemon was mastered in LGPE, the sizes were correct, Pokemon that should be big are big, Pokemon that should be small are small. LGPE tries really hard to be a Gen 1 game, no held items, Abilities, or EVs are all proof of that, and only a Gen 1 Dex (except for Meltan line + Alolan forms since they're all Kanto Pokemon). That being said, since they all try to be an authentic original 151 experience anyways, I have to give it to LGPE by a bit over FRLG for the presentation. Overworld shinies, legendary birds, Dragonites, Charizards etc. are all great, Master Trainers are a cool concept, Green making her first in-game appearance not as the player character of FRLG. Including Archer by name instead of as an unnamed character in FRLG, the starters are OP and are actually usable (trying to actually go through Yellow with Pikachu being your ace is extremely difficult, I can attest to it because I've done it many times).

Similarly, I consider ORAS the best Hoenn game, even with all the advantages Emerald has over ORAS. Mainly I liked the whole underlying Mega Evolution storyline as well as the Primals that ORAS added, Gen 6 was a good generation competitively and I played a lot of VGC16 so I have fond memories of battling on ORAS. The DexNav was by far one of the most satisfying catching features in any Pokemon game, I spent so many hours just looking for strong Pokemon with good Egg Moves, like how I spent hours just outside of Fallarbor Town on the night ORAS came out just hunting for a Skarmory with Stealth Rock so I didn't have to breed one later or wait until the Battle Resort to breed one. Speaking of the Battle Resort, aside from it lacking any of Hoenn's usual battle facilities, everything else outside of the facility itself was great, you had access to a lot of amazing tutor moves and items buyable with BP, you could team up with characters from the game during Multi Battle runs, the additional daycare and the circling nature of the island made it ideal for Masuda Method Shiny Hunting or any competitive breeding. Online Secret Bases was a game-changer and made the Secret Base so much more fun than it was in Gen 3, since back in Gen 3 if you didn't have friends at your school with a Hoenn game you didn't really get much out of the feature. Being able to reasonably get the Eon Ticket for once was nice, battling and catching Deoxys at the climax of the postgame story, Contests were expanded on and given an actual rival character for you to compete against with Lisia, and later you can also find Wallace participating. To this day me and my close friends will get on ORAS and play together, whether it's making secret bases, doing contests together, double battles, whatever we want, sometimes we'll just catch cool DexNav Pokemon and battle with them. They're very good games to play with other people if you have friends with them. Emerald really only gets the nod for having the Battle Frontier, everything Emerald contributed to RS, ORAS did better, expanded Safari Zone? Secret Spots. Deoxys Island Mystery Gift? Deoxys literally in the main story. Steven secret final battle? His ORAS rematch team is better. Johto Starter after Dex completion? Johto, Sinnoh, and Unova Starters at various points of the postgame. Expanded Hoenn Dex to include evolutionary relatives to Hoenn Pokemon, Regigigas is catchable after the original Regis which is a neat touch and helps tie the Regi storyline together.

I still play Emerald a lot and I enjoy the Battle Frontier as a battle facility more than any other battle facility in the game, but that's really the only thing Emerald has over ORAS, the actual gameplay of ORAS is simply better. I do however wish we get a Delta Emerald game on the Switch one day to serve as the ultimate Hoenn game and help market a Legends: Rayquaza/Jirachi game that's paired with it the same way BDSP and PLA were marketed together a lot. Delta Emerald could combine everything people like from Emerald and ORAS into one ultimate game.
 
AZ%27s_Floette.png

(Image Source)

I'm thankful Eternal Floette never got released.

A lot of people tend to think that AZ and his Floette are incomplete because AZ's Floette never fell into our hands. It has never made an official release to the player in any mainline Pokemon game. This was despite data for Eternal Floette existing throughout all of the 3DS titles, Eternal Floette receiving a dex entry for USUM, and it having a unique signature move with visible updates in USUM. I'm here to claim that by Gamefreak's failure to release Eternal Floette, they kept Kalos's lore significant.

Let me explain:
AZ was gifted a Floette from his mother when he was young. He loved this Floette very much and wanted to cherish it for the rest of his life. As far as we know, there was never any disconnection between AZ and his Floette during this time period. Unfortunately Kalos was in a war and Floette was forcibly taken by AZ's own soldiers to fight off in it. In the matter of years, AZ's Floette had died in that war. AZ was immensely overwhelmed with grief. He held upmost passion and love for the Pokemon while it was alive. He was willing to do anything he could just to be with it again... From there, he had an idea. AZ built a machine and used special stones around him to steal the life energy of countless Pokemon surrounding it. That load of life energy was then used to power up the machine and restore Floette back to life. The exposure to excess life energy in the process made AZ and his undead Floette immortal. AZ was relieved of the revival, but the grief he felt for his most beloved Pokemon did not end. He wanted vengeance on all the people and Pokemon responsible for Floette's death. AZ transformed the machine into a weapon and used the remaining life energy to fire off a large beam into the world, effectively ending the war.

AZ's Floette must have figured out that the lives of many Pokemon had to be taken in order for its own life to be restored. It felt disgusted by how AZ would mistreat so many Pokemon like this, even if it were for the sake of itself. As a result, Floette made the decision to leave AZ and never return until the very day AZ learned to care for Pokemon as a whole again.

AZ immediately felt longing regret for firing his weapon and had it buried with the hopes that nobody would ever try to use it again. He then went on a 3000-year journey in search for the lost Floette. Based on AZ's character, Bulbapedia believes he was based off the Wandering Jew legend. If we take from this, we can presume that AZ primarily spent the next 3000 years wandering around the world, searching anywhere for his Floette. In XY, that Floette was mostly all he could ever think about, and he was still going after all of these years. He was immensely dedicated to searching for the beloved Floette he revived, but he was also a mere shell of a man by this point. AZ looks and acts as if like he gave up on everything in life a while back and is just wallowing about in pure misery. All he wanted in life was that Floette back. No other Floette could he accept. Nothing more off life he could accept. Just that one single Floette. Maybe some day... AZ could find it again.

The events of XY were pretty strange for AZ's life. Apparently this time there exists a person who acknowledges the weapon and has the scientific tools he needs to gather resources for its reawakening. This person is the long descendent of AZ's brother, who helped AZ build the weapon 3000 back. They were given the name Lysandre. Lysandre was about to force AZ to witness events he wished would never reoccur, and he was left helpless until the player and their group of friends stopped them. It wasn't just that they stopped Lysandre; they used special bonds they've made with their own Pokemon in order to do so. AZ watched and realized how five random kids used their committed ties with various Pokemon to accomplish saving the world. AZ soon learned that these kids would call themselves Pokemon Trainers and the source of their strong bonds were battles their Pokemon would participate with them in. He also learned that these Pokemon would be placed in Poke Balls whenever they were not being used and that those Poke Balls were their home. I speculate that sometime after the event of XY's climax, AZ went out to find three distinct Pokemon and catch them. He would then befriend those Pokemon to max happiness. By the time he was done, the player already became Champion of Kalos.

A ceremony was held for you and your friends for saving the entire world. During that ceremony, AZ himself arrived, and he challenged you to a battle. This was the first Pokemon battle he has ever had against a trainer. He wanted to know what a Pokemon Trainer was and how they worked. AZ carried three Pokemon on his team, all knowing the move Return, to indicate high-friendship and AZ's change in character over the last 3000 years. Through this battle, the player showed AZ how being a Pokemon trainer worked, and AZ finally starts caring for Pokemon as a whole again. He feels completely relieved from his grief, and the part of him that fired the ultimate weapon in the first place. From there, his Floette made a very sudden return, for reasons unexplained through dialogue but visually pointed out. All Floette wanted was for AZ to care for Pokemon again, not just itself. They were both very happily reunited and the plot of XY ends here.

Why did I write all of this?
I need to greatly emphasize that the level of dedication this man had for his Pokemon is unparalleled by ANY other character we have seen in the video game series. AZ's machine even went as far to create Mega Evolution as a byproduct, a mechanic that emphasizes further on having significant ties to Pokemon. For Eternal Floette to fall into our hands after this event ruins the value of AZ's bond with his Floette, the entire point of his redemption, and possibly the reason Mega Evolution is so significant. This would have disrespected Kalos and the moral of its story. AZ was made to be a caring folklore character who gave an example of what to and not to do with Pokemon, and because of the lengths he's gone through to care for Pokemon again, he could be seen as a role model in the series.

Not to mention that aside from Arceus, AZ and his Floette are the most defining characters to Pokemon lore in general.

The only reason we want Eternal Floette is because it's a unique forme of a good design that was left in the game's data. There's not a reason good for us to have it. Xerneas overshadows Eternal Floette in many ways, Magearna-Original was created as a piece directly inspired by Kalos lore, and Florges is a viable evolution of regular Floette that exists.

We also haven't truly done anything to warrant breaking the most significant tie between human and Pokémon in the video game series, nor have we made any specific bonds with his Floette itself. Floette was shown to have deeply cared for AZ all this time based on the timing of its return and Sycamore even backed this up afterwards. All Eternal Floette wanted was to see AZ change back into his old, caring self.
 
but not being able to even evolve Golbat into Crobat or Eevee into Espeon might as well not have them coded into the game anyways, since you can't get them until getting the Ruby and Sapphire and linking to Hoenn.
actually, you can evolve them the moment you get the national dex, so you can use them throughout the sevii isles postgame. still bullshit though; they should have just been added to the kanto dex
 
While I would love to see a return to 2D (mainly because that would be a perfect excuse to bring back the Coloseum series, thus possibly making a sequel to Pokemon Battle Revolution)
Why would going back to 2D bring back these games? They are 3D. If anything they have an excuse now because everything is 3D in pokemon.

Again, I would really love to see a return to 2D sprites, but I can see why it might never come back.
The true reason is that Gamefreak has been doing 3D for nearly 10 years and it would be jarring for some to go back to 2D. And also 2D for some unholy reason is considered "dated" by some people in the internet (it's basically the same as people claiming 2D animation in movies is dated), which is kind of ironic because some people like to claim that Pokemon has been dated for years because of their usage of turn based combat.

Perception of the quality of Gen 5 has seemingly flipped not because of some reappraisal of its merits or because its story was really just that good, but because the generation of kids who grew up with it are now older and engage with online discussion spaces at a much more frequent rate than fans who are still too young or who have largely aged out of regular participation in those spaces. The games are still good, and by no means the worst in the main series since they do have decent stories and a decent region, but there are real reasons they sold relatively poorly compared to all other generations besides the third.
It's basically the fact that the detractors of Gen 5 have long moved on to criticize some other game in the franchise, a lot of the times the new release. So the only people talking about Gen 5 are the ones singing its praises.
 
actually, you can evolve them the moment you get the national dex, so you can use them throughout the sevii isles postgame. still bullshit though; they should have just been added to the kanto dex
That, or do like future games and let you evolve them no matter what. In fact, I feel they did that after the complains in FRLG...
 
Open world Pokémon always seemed like a terrible idea. I don't know what's more surprising that Gamefreak actually made it or people actually like it. With games like Elder Scrolls or Xenoblade Chronicles X there are all kinds items weapons and ability upgrades you can get to upgrade your characters. Each Pokémon by contrast only has 4 moves, 1 ability, evs and a tera type. It just seems uncreative and boring. "But I can run around, explore; and collect hundreds of Pokémon species". You can do that in X and Y without a ridiculously oversized map to slow you down. People shit in Johto's Level curve but are ecstatic to just dick around for hours and hours with just wild Pokémon that have to be weaker than the champion?
 
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The performance issues in SV aren't as bad as people are saying.
The mere fact that freaking Nintendo of all companies is allowing people to refund the game shows that it's as bad people claim it is. It might be able playable in a sense, but it doesn't change the fact that the game is really lacking in terms of perfomance and polish and that is unacceptable. Specially when they ask for 60 bucks.

Honestly, i was gonna wait for a while before i got the game, but this whole controversy put me off hard of the game.
 
I'm having a good time with Pokemon Violet, but I have to echo the sentiment @Peppermint Phoenix shared above; Pokemon just doesn't do well in an open-world format, at least not in the way it is presented in Paldea. Its level-grinding is actually worse than Johto at times because you have to regularly retread areas of the map and encounter incredibly low-level Pokemon compared to your team. It's also very grindy at times, moreso than Legends Arceus was. I feel like Pokemon actually does better with sectioned off areas and more linearity in their approach as opposed to the general free for all presented in these games.
 
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I'm having a good time with Pokemon Violet, but I have to echo the sentiment @Peppermint Phoenix shared above; Pokemon just doesn't do well in an open-world format, at least not in the way it is presented in Paldea. Its level-grinding is actually worse than Johto at times because you have to regularly retread areas of the map and encounter incredibly low-level Pokemon compared to your team. It's also very grindy at times, moreso than Legends Arceus was. I feel like Pokemon actually does better with sectioned off areas and more linearity in their approach as opposed to the general free for all presented in these games.
But the problem is not caused from the games being open world, instead from the games not scaling the levels accordingly depending on your achievements.
 
But the problem is not caused from the games being open world, instead from the games not scaling the levels accordingly depending on your achievements.
And a lot of that comes from the way the open-world concept is portrayed in Scarlet and Violet, but there are other issues I personally have with the games' layout as well. The lack of routes seems trivial, but really does remove the sense of modernity in the games. It made sense for Legends because the region was supposed to be relatively unexplored, but for a region as large as Paldea? It just makes it seem barren and empty. I think the general organization of the map could be executed better imo.
 
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I'm fine with an open-world RPG as long as the levels actually scale with the player. Pokemon hasn't fully reached that yet in my opinion, the highest level for wild Pokemon should be a lot more fluid, which I mean depending on the party that you have at the moment, not due to the number of badges or where you are in the story at the moment. I can see set trainers not having their Pokemon levels scaled as valid because they are supposed to be challenges that the player must overcome to progress through the game.
 
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