Your controversial opinions

[Daenerys]

• Although many people love Black/White/Black2/White2, it's my least favorite. I'd go as far as to say I really don't even like it.

I don't like Black and White either. I mean I appreciated N's storyline and it was one of the most memorable moments of the games for me, but that aside I didn't like being restricted to just Gen 5 Pokemon during the main storyline, plus I didn't like many of the new Pokemon themselves aside from maybe about a dozen out of 156. I loved B2/W2 though. They basically solved all the issues that I had with the original B/W.

• BDSP are amazing, though I may be biased towards gen 4. It makes me even happier that they're pretty much exact remakes of DPP.

Don't you mean exact remakes of just DP? I was under the impression that Platinum's features were mostly ignored except for some minor stuff like the Platinum version form changes and some rematch rosters?

I've never played Scarlet or Violet, so I might be uneducated on the matter, but are they really disliked by the fandom? If so, what are the main complaints about them?

 

[Greninjaman]

I've never played Scarlet or Violet, so I might be uneducated on the matter, but are they really disliked by the fandom? If so, what are the main complaints about them?

Rushed. A lot of bugs and glitches. Lag. The sort of thing that happens when you rush something.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

I don't think SV are that hated by the fandom. There's a lot to criticize, but also a lot to love.

 

[Pasio]

To point out some of the major issues regarding SV:

1) Outside of the games being slow and glitchy, Scarlet and Violet have so many oversights in their coding in general that it's hilarious at this point. These have all affected the vast majority of fans negatively. Generational transfer was delayed harder than ever before, Tera Raids were delayed, Some people had saved data wiped, classifications being wrong, such as Shiinotic being a mythical and Marshadow not being a mythical, Legendaries having no guaranteed 31 IVs when intended to have at least 3 guaranteed, hacked Ogerpon being freed online and crashing people's games, OHKO moves being unavoidable for some time. Their "push it now fixed it later" mindset also enabled them to start off SV with a 20 minute PvP battle timer for 3 months. There's more, but it's honestly ridiculous that these are all coming from an AAA company, let alone one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world, serving as the heart of what's currently the very biggest media franchise in the world.
2) Their worldbuilding was soulless. Basic lore for their theme isn't even really explained. Nothing is said about what makes paradoxes special (there is an explanation for what they are, however it just makes them reskinned Ultra Beasts, or really like any Pokemon you find from some random Ultra Wormhole, get from transfer, get from Dream World, get from Hoopa rings in ORAS, get from trades, etc etc. Also does not explain what makes Koraidon and Miraidon legendary or even what Terapagos really does outside making Terastallization happen. This is the first time their theme is this brutally unexplored, but I argue nothing about it was even creative in the first place. I believe Gamefreak had no idea what they wanted to do with these games, so they took a bunch of ideas previously used by them or a spinoff company, then slathered them together.
3) Their overworld was very lacking, with many buildings unexplorable, and many of which you can enter, showcasing a menu where you can order food or drink then watch an animation of your mouth hovering over a jpeg image in order to "take a bite". They even devolved to making TMs breakable again just to give the open world a reason to explore, instead of allowing the player to find unique items that provide greater value, like blocks that could have a Pokemon's IVs set to whatever number the block is. Keeping features Legends Arceus introduced such as Poke Ball crafting, medicine crafting while making them more expensive (but not impossible) to buy would have also helped. There are plenty of ways they could have gone about this.
4) The game lacks shiny sound effects, making it more difficult to not miss shinies in the wild. All the legendaries in the game, including returning ones are also shiny locked.
5) Scarlet and Violet powercrept the series to oblivion and is at its most broken state competitively in the past, maybe 2 or so decades. This has created major dents in some aspects of Smogon and was part of what made VGC 2023 the most miserable year of VGC for many.
6) The game is marketed as open world but because they lack level-scaling, there is an influenced path players have to take to get the most enjoyment of their experience. Not even the main gimmick of these games (open world) was handled well.
7) The entire National Pokedex was programmed into Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, but instead of making the most they could out of the Pokemon in the game, they held the Pokemon back to market the game's $35 DLC. Not to mention none of the proclaimed benefits of dexit occurred here, as competitive is overall worse than it was pre-dexit, animations are significantly worse than before, graphics look several consoles (a few decades) behind, and more basic content we thought were staples, such as a battle facility, being able to pet your Pokemon, even being able to feed your Pokemon are being stripped away.
8) People are spending $60 for a major Pokemon game that's expected to hold the players off for at least three years, but the overall content of this game is less than many of its predecessors, since all the general things people do after beating Pokemon games have either been removed or watered down to a rather significant extent in these games, in comparison to games on previous consoles. They then have to spend another $35 to get about as much recyclable content as what previous entries had for just $40 for their time.

rip to the people interested in lore
rip to the people interested in shiny hunting
rip to the people interested in competitive battling or postgame battle facilities (the most usually consistent postgame battling option)
rip to the people who like exploring Pokemon regions, and the potential beauty of them.
rip to the people who have dexited favorites and wanted to have them play with new Pokemon, or to the hardcore collecters who want to catch them all, suddenly losing the ability to do that with nothing to make up for it.
rip to overall quality.

Most counterarguments against these issues boil down to people accepting Gamefreak does not care about major parts of their community. I've heard too many "nobody cares about lore" and "nobody cares about singles/competitive". Almost every major part of Pokemon's community was hit in some way by these games.

I don't get the mentality that just fixing the bugs would make the game great, when from observing these games, they carry almost every issue the community has complained about for the past decade, combined, and even emphasized, as if the complaints about issues from let's say, the 3DS games, don't matter anymore.

There are far too many signs of the main people responsible for Scarlet and Violet just, not caring at all for these games, the Pokemon community or the people in general just purchasing them to try out Pokemon. I find how these games panned out to be incredibly disrespectful to the entire Pokemon community as a whole, regardless of what positives they do bring. Some will say otherwise, others will simply enjoy it for the unique experience they offered. Either way, I don't think a Pokemon community could sustain this way and it's no wonder the fans have been so split apart over it. It all circles back to this post: Your controversial opinions

 

[Daren]

I've never played Scarlet or Violet, so I might be uneducated on the matter, but are they really disliked by the fandom? If so, what are the main complaints about them?

The major recurring complaints I've seen:
*Further cutting of long-term features: "Set" mode was removed and there's not even a Battle Tower.
*Bad post-game with not much except Raid battles to do.
*Terrible performance and slowdown.
*Buggy.

6) The game is marketed as open world but because they lack level-scaling, there is an influenced path players have to take to get the most enjoyment of their experience. Not even the main gimmick of these games (open world) was handled well.

I agree with a lot of your points but to be fair, here, there are a good number of players who hate level scaling and feel it destroys the entire point of being an RPG; it's been controversial since Oblivion back in the 2000s.
Personally I dislike scaling but I also don't expect GameFreak to have a good amount of content for different level ranges the way something like Morrowind did. Even in the old days the series' worlds were never that large.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Yeah, one of the main reasons why i didn't want pokemon to go open world was because i feared they'd implement level scaling. Level scaling destroys the feeling that you're constantly getting stronger. Leveling up feels meaningless if your enemies level with you.

 

[Sheep40]

RIP to the people interested in lore?! We've been eating good since Legends and it's only gotten better since.

 

[Pasio]

RIP to the people interested in lore?! We've been eating good since Legends and it's only gotten better since.

Scarlet and Violet provided nothing new or unique to the lore, nor even explained what any of the new things they brought were about.

The whole shenanigan of time/space travel has been done multiple times over in the series, the paradox Pokemon are simply just a part of that, but with no other details this time. They are the equivalent of random Pokemon that come out of space-time rifts in Legends Arceus, as per DLC2 states.

Koraidon and Miraidon have nothing really going on that defines them as legendary, or makes them stand out. Terapagos is just kinda there as a catalyst for Terastallization. Even when its story is complete we know nothing else about how it's relevant to the series. All this makes Sword and Shield's setup look great, when that one was already deemed not great.

 

[Sheep40]

You do realize this is how all pokemon lore and story works?

This is literally a replication of necrozma and the Z-moves, or eternatus and dynamaxing (well, not really as that was very fast-tracked). We still don't know how mega evolution came to be.

Also, each pokemon game's story is rather self-contained. Even the sequel.

 

[skynerel]

I wish pokemon would do away with EVs and IVs.

 

[Pasio]

You do realize this is how all pokemon lore and story works?

This is literally a replication of necrozma and the Z-moves, or eternatus and dynamaxing (well, not really as that was very fast-tracked). We still don't know how mega evolution came to be.

Also, each pokemon game's story is rather self-contained. Even the sequel.

Mega Evolution was a result of AZ's Weapon. When it fired, the energy radiated all across the universe and seeped into many stones, turning them into Mega Stones over time. The same energy that fired from the weapon is what matches the energy Xerneas creates and Yveltal takes. Infinity Energy / Pokémon Life Energy. (This is all explained by Sycamore in XY, then more by Zinnia in ORAS).

Rayquaza happens to have a very hefty diet of rocks so after 2000 years of eating rocks since the incident it managed to have a whole organ developed to channel the infinity energy it consumed in some way. People wanted something done for it to stop a battle between both primals 1000 years before ORAS, and so they raised their wishes, held up stones, and Rayquaza became the first ever Mega Evolution in Pokémon's history.

The Lucario in XY was probably the first specifically done by a trainer + Pokémon with a specific mega stone. The first mega evolution done  normally since Rayquaza doesn't need a stone or really a trainer half the time to mega evolve.

 

[Bolt Strike]

I wish pokemon would do away with EVs and IVs.

I want to see them bring back LA's EL system. It's a vast improvement over the EV/IV system. It's much simpler, they actually display the values, and it's easier to grind. ELs should permanently replace EVs and IVs.

 

[Daenerys]

I wish pokemon would do away with EVs and IVs.

Competitive battlers sweeties I'm so sorry.

Dunno if this is unpopular or even controversial, but Sinnoh is easily one of the worst regions to traverse imho. I love Gen 4 and many Sinnoh Pokemon and characters, but there was way too much backtracking, cave exploring, and HM usage required. And a minor nitpick, but I dislike that the trees in eastern Sinnoh are different from the ones in western Sinnoh. The fir tree design of the trees in western Sinnoh makes far more sense since Sinnoh is a cold region.

I'd say Hoenn is the worst region to traverse due to the need to Surf to Mossdeep, Sootopolis, Ever Grande and Pacifidlog and all the routes in between them the first time around. It makes 1/3 of the region super annoying to travel through, and there's not much to see except water and a few scattered islands and trainers. I know that IGN's "too much water" rating was a meme, but maybe IGN had a good point after all.

 

[Daren]

I want to see them bring back LA's EL system. It's a vast improvement over the EV/IV system. It's much simpler, they actually display the values, and it's easier to grind. ELs should permanently replace EVs and IVs.

I also just hate how the EV/Nature system punishes Pokémon with balanced stats and leads to increased "rocket tag" gameplay.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Dunno if this is unpopular or even controversial, but Sinnoh is easily one of the worst regions to traverse imho. I love Gen 4 and many Sinnoh Pokemon and characters, but there was way too much backtracking, cave exploring, and HM usage required. And a minor nitpick, but I dislike that the trees in eastern Sinnoh are different from the ones in western Sinnoh. The fir tree design of the trees in western Sinnoh makes far more sense since Sinnoh is a cold region.

I'd say Hoenn is the worst region to traverse due to the need to Surf to Mossdeep, Sootopolis, Ever Grande and Pacifidlog and all the routes in between them the first time around. It makes 1/3 of the region super annoying to travel through, and there's not much to see except water and a few scattered islands and trainers. I know that IGN's "too much water" rating was a meme, but maybe IGN had a good point after all.

I mean it's controversial to me. I like Hoenn and Sinnoh and think they're peak region design IMO, I like having mazelike region design and having to work out where I'm going. It's much more stimulating as opposed to the mindless linear regions of Unova, Kalos, and Alola. Most of the issues with HMs and Surfing have more to do with how HMs worked back then, not with the design. Because HMs needed to be in your moveset and because you could spawn a random encounter at any tile in the water or caves, those design elements became annoying and tedious to navigate. In more modern games where you have alternative systems to HMs and overworld encounters you can see and more easily avoid, these aren't issues.

 

[Vulcanos]

I like Trace.

There, I said it.

As a champion, I get it, he comes off as baby's first challenger especially as he purposefully holds back with limiting his team's movesets, and as a rematch, he's only a little better with basic coverage moves, but in a franchise where I feel like the majority of the playerbase is dominated by grindset hardcore "I only play nuzlocke" types who insist that every champion must compete with Cynthia, we always forget that not everyone is going to be at that level... or quite frankly, cares. So a game like Let's Go offered a slower, simpler experience and if you wanted that true final boss, Red was waiting for you with his Level 87 Venusaur over there. I found his existence inoffensive.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Lance is the worst champion we've had, even worse than Geeta. Idk if this is a controversial take, but it's true. He chastizes Silver for only caring about strong pokemon, yet he has three fucking dragonites. Not only does this seriously not feel like the team of someone who doesn't just care about a pokemon's raw strength, it also makes it way too easy to just sweep him with a good ice move.

 

[Daren]

Johto Lance is so comically binary; the whole battle's difficulty is decided by whether or not you have something faster than his Dragonite trio that can one hit KO with an Ice move or not. Then the other half of his team is weak to Electricity.
Edit: In theory the removal of badge bonuses makes him a lot more difficult to OHKO in the remake, and it's also a bit harder to get good Ice moves around with Ice Punch banished to post-game and Ice Beam locked behind Voltorb Flip.

 

[Poke Dragon]

Mythical Pokemon is a useless idea that only favors fortunate players, and this is coming from someone who had the ability to get Mythical Pokemon ever since Sun and Moon.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Mythical pokemon make collecting them all more fun because you actually have to trade for the ones you've missed. And it isn't like the version exclusives where people will just give you them because they can get a spare; you actually have to bring something valuable of your own to the table.