Your controversial opinions

[Pasio]

Would be saying that the yandere memes about Nemona are entirely based upon a shallow reading of her character and annoy me count as a controversial opinion or just a regular one lol?

Anything about people making shallow reads ends up controversial, I think.

 

[Greninjaman]

Anything about people making shallow reads ends up controversial, I think.

What about reading too deep?

 

[PugScribe]

Scarlet & Violet is the best main series game. It succeeds on all fronts, from the characters to the plot, to the Pokémon concepts/designs, to the Paldea region. The DLC's nostalgia bait to Gen V helps too. I don't disagree that the game runs like crap, but people really miss the forest for the trees in that regard. Gen IX is part of my Pokémon holy trinity, with V and VII being the other two.

I totally get getting three Fire/Fighting starters in a row was a bit fatiguing at the time, but it's been 10+ years and 4 gens since the last one, and we've got other Fire combinations since. I think enough time has passed that I wouldn't be opposed to seeing another Fire/Fighting if they so choose, assuming the execution is good.

Fire/Ghost has become the new Fire/Fighting.

 

[Norzan]

This is more from a competitive standpoint, but i'm getting kind of tired of seeing people saying specific pokemon got buffed when in reality they just got replaced by a better version. Iron Boulder just replaced Terrakion because it has everything Terrakion should have had to be better. Same for Hisuian Samurott. Hisuian Electrode and several other pokemon that replaced their counterparts.

Alolan, Hisuian, Paldean and Paradox forms are NOT buffs to old pokemon, they are replacements in terms of combat ability.

 

[Pasio]

A war between all Pokémon regions would end with the entire world having to battle off against Hoopa-Unbound and whoever is controlling it, if anyone.

 

[StormyStinger]

A war between all Pokémon regions would end with the entire world having to battle off against Hoopa-Unbound and whoever is controlling it, if anyone.

That's only if the war lasts for less than four days.

 

[Greninjaman]

A war between all Pokémon regions would end with the entire world having to battle off against Hoopa-Unbound and whoever is controlling it, if anyone.

That's only if the war lasts for less than four days.

I think Galar would win thanks to Eternamax Eternatus.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

A war between all Pokémon regions would end with the entire world having to battle off against Hoopa-Unbound and whoever is controlling it, if anyone.

Or, y'know......Arceus. I mean, Arceus kinda makes Hoopa Unbound look like small potatoes.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Alright, give me a sec

Rummages through Smogon's Unpopular Opinions thread for a post I can reheat and slap in here

The vast majority of the classic spinoffs/spinoff series do not make sense to be revived under the current climate

-Mystery Dungeon's gameplay is just an outdated, clunkier version of the average modern roguelike, with consumers clearly agreeing as the series has cratered in sales past the 2000s
-Ranger is basically only viable as a mobile game due to how fundamentally tied to the touch screen it is, which I don't think many of its diehards would be too happy about
-Conquest is a crossover with Nobunaga's Ambition, a franchise that until extremely recently was almost completely dead in Japan (A quick Wikipedia scroll shows it got a new release in 2022, anyone capable of telling me if it was successful enough to facilitate a broader revival of that series?). The prospects for a sequel on this one would be significantly better if they had gone with the original idea of Pokemon X Fire Emblem
-Orre existed solely to provide a 3D Pokemon campaign in a time where the main series wasn't doing that. It has now been doing so for nearly a decade.

Console spinoffs are cool and we could use more of them, it's just that we should think a bit outside the box and ask for some new stuff. A non-main series 3d game like Colosseum/XD is a bust, but what about a fancy new sprite-based affair in the vein of Square's HD-2D offerings? A Pokemon life simulator, perhaps? Table tennis? I dunno! Your call!

 

[Pasio]

Or, y'know......Arceus. I mean, Arceus kinda makes Hoopa Unbound look like small potatoes.

Arceus would remain uninvolved unless specifically asked, then it may just immediately end the war in some way

That's only if the war lasts for less than four days.

Hoopa can make it last less than 4 days

I think Galar would win thanks to Eternamax Eternatus.

Nah Hoopa could summon thousands of Zacian and Zamazenta Crowned to face it at once

or take Eternamax, and push it somewhere else

 

[zoroarctic]

A war between all Pokémon regions would end with the entire world having to battle off against Hoopa-Unbound and whoever is controlling it, if anyone.

Now I can’t stop thinking about what the regional alliances would look like. Maybe Unova/Alola against the Eurasia-based regions? Or East vs West?

 

[StormyStinger]

Hoopa can make it last less than 4 days

Not if it can't catch the light trio flying through Ultra Space!

This discussion could be it's own entire thread, I'd love to what chaos it devolves into.

 

[AlolanFigment]

-Mystery Dungeon's gameplay is just an outdated, clunkier version of the average modern roguelike, with consumers clearly agreeing as the series has cratered in sales past the 2000s
-Ranger is basically only viable as a mobile game due to how fundamentally tied to the touch screen it is, which I don't think many of its diehards would be too happy about
-Conquest is a crossover with Nobunaga's Ambition, a franchise that until extremely recently was almost completely dead in Japan (A quick Wikipedia scroll shows it got a new release in 2022, anyone capable of telling me if it was successful enough to facilitate a broader revival of that series?). The prospects for a sequel on this one would be significantly better if they had gone with the original idea of Pokemon X Fire Emblem
-Orre existed solely to provide a 3D Pokemon campaign in a time where the main series wasn't doing that. It has now been doing so for nearly a decade.

Note how he doesn't mention PokePark. I win.

 

[AlolanFigment]

Definitely agree with Dramps, the only old ones I can see coming back are Pokepark and Pokken, if not those two, just make a new series to be honest. It's the obvious idea but how have we NOT gotten a Pokemon rhythm game yet?

 

[Norzan]

-Orre existed solely to provide a 3D Pokemon campaign in a time where the main series wasn't doing that. It has now been doing so for nearly a decade.

The Colosseum games offered more than just being a 3D campaign, it differed a lot by not using the clearly tired at this point (and honestly by 2005 it was already starting to get old) formula of gym leaders and elite four. Because if the main series refuses to drop this, i want at least a 3D spinoff with the same basic gameplay with its own new mechanics but with a completely different structure.

And if anything, i want another company to take a crack at a 3D pokemon game with the normal gameplay.

 

[StormyStinger]

i want at least a 3D spinoff with the same basic gameplay with its own new mechanics but with a completely different structure.

We already got that, it's called Pokemon Legends: Arceus. And it's great.

 

[Bolt Strike]

-Mystery Dungeon's gameplay is just an outdated, clunkier version of the average modern roguelike, with consumers clearly agreeing as the series has cratered in sales past the 2000s

Not familiar with roguelikes, what exactly is Mystery Dungeon lacking that others have? Can Mystery Dungeon just add those features to stay alive?

Definitely agree with Dramps, the only old ones I can see coming back are Pokepark and Pokken, if not those two, just make a new series to be honest. It's the obvious idea but how have we NOT gotten a Pokemon rhythm game yet?

Ehh, maybe, but those two styles are a bit limited and I don't think they have much chance of selling well. Pokepark was mainly built around the minigames, and Game Freak seems to feel like the mini games don't garner much interest. At best maybe they could make a mobile sequel, but I don't think it's coming back. Which is sad because I like 2, and that has a completely different appeal (it's more like Pokemon's take on a Zelda game with a few mini games thrown in than a proper party game). Pokken meanwhile hasn't really sold super well (it's only sold 1 million) and I don't think an arcade fighting game has much appeal.

I do think Pokemon needs to continue aspects of those spinoffs, but not the spinoffs themselves. I think instead we need a new one that's more of an ARPG with real time battling. Let you play as the Pokemon themselves, have them battle in real time and give them unique abilities in battle and exploration, and have a multiplayer mode for competitive players. That should satisfy everything from both these series. Now they could also trend the Legends subseries towards real time battling to differentiate it from the main series, but I feel like that would be lacking Pokepark 2's strengths. Having the Pokemon themselves be playable and giving them each unique abilities in the overworld really enhanced the exploration in a way that the main games are a bit more limited in, I think having a game where this is the primary mechanic is worth building on.

The Colosseum games offered more than just being a 3D campaign, it differed a lot by not using the clearly tired at this point (and honestly by 2005 it was already starting to get old) formula of gym leaders and elite four. Because if the main series refuses to drop this, i want at least a 3D spinoff with the same basic gameplay with its own new mechanics but with a completely different structure.

And if anything, i want another company to take a crack at a 3D pokemon game with the normal gameplay.

They refuse to drop this? Have you played a Pokemon game since 2016? They've been experimenting with this a lot. SM does not have gym leaders, it has trials which are vaguely similar in concept but function completely different. SwSh doesn't have an Elite 4 and instead replaces it with the Champion's Cup. LA has Noble Pokemon and otherwise is more story based like Colosseum/XD. SV has the typical gym and Elite 4 quest, but that's only one part of the quest and there are others which are a bit more unique.

Now it's true, they all have some form of "beat X amount of strong trainers/Pokemon to progress" quests, but many games are built like that. Hell, even Colosseum/XD is basically like that with the Cipher Admins filling a similar role, it's just not telegraphed ahead of time (which it pretty much needs to be now because of the shift to open world). If at the beginning of the game they told you you have to go out and beat all of the Cipher Admins like you end up doing, those games would be roughly similar to Starfall Street in SV.

 

[Norzan]

SwSh doesn't have an Elite 4 and instead replaces it with the Champion's Cup.

Still have Gym Leaders and the Champion's Cup is basically the Elite Four, let's not kid ourselves. Sword and Shield went right back to the same old, tired formula because apparently people didn't liked SM's formula. The entire thing is still "beat 8 gym leaders, beat evil team, beat four trainers and a champion at the end".

Sword and Shield is the poster child for this tired setup. don't know why you are even bringing it up since it just proves my point.

SV has the typical gym and Elite 4 quest

Yeah, so my point is proven? Okay then.

but that's only one part of the quest and there are others which are a bit more unique.

Hardly and still fall into the same formula.

I want anything resembling Gym Leaders. Elite Four, Pokemon League Champions, picking between three starters at the start, a pokemon professor, Evil teams (and that includes Team Cypher from Colosseum) and so on to be completely gone. I don't want crap like Champion' Cup which is just Elite Four by a different name. i don't want Trials which are just Gym Leaders with extra steps. I don't want old things pretending to be new things to trick people into thinking the setup is new when it isn't (and it seems it worked on you, but it didn't on me).

I want something completely new, completely divorced from this setup that has been used since 1996. I don't want to be yet another kid wanting to be a pokemon trainer because you present this world with so many different jobs and occupations and yet we are always the same thing. Let me be a ranger, let me be a hiker, let me be whatever i want. You want true open world? Let me be actually anything i want and have content made around it.

And if you can't do it with a mainline title, then a Colosseum type game can more than do it, hence why i completely disagree that it can't be made just because the series is 3D now. The Colosseum games offered more than just being 3D, they were a relief from the already stagnant formula of the mainline titles.

 

[Daren]

-Conquest is a crossover with Nobunaga's Ambition, a franchise that until extremely recently was almost completely dead in Japan

Was it almost dead? The release of new entries slowed down in the later 2000s but it still keeps getting releases (and expansion packs) at what I'd call a decent rate. Especially considering the company works on multiple series' and not just Nobunaga's Ambition.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Still have Gym Leaders and the Champion's Cup is basically the Elite Four, let's not kid ourselves. Sword and Shield went right back to the same old, tired formula because apparently people didn't liked SM's formula. The entire thing is still "beat 8 gym leaders, beat evil team, beat four trainers and a champion at the end".

Not quite. The Elite 4 is a series of completely original battles, whereas the Champion's Cup is just gym leader rematches, and post game they're somewhat randomized. If you're claiming it's similar because it's "do 4 battles back to back with a 5th final boss", there's a lot of story sections and gameplay modes that are like that. Hell, Realgam Tower is basically like that in Colosseum (the only difference is that there's 6 battles, not 5), as are the Colosseums in general (which are 4 battles instead of 5). If you're going to overlook these kinds of details and ask for something different on a broad strokes level, there's going to be little to nothing that would be enough to satisfy you. You have unrealistic expectations here.

Hardly and still fall into the same formula.

I want anything resembling Gym Leaders. Elite Four, Pokemon League Champions, picking between three starters at the start, a pokemon professor, Evil teams (and that includes Team Cypher from Colosseum) and so on to be completely gone. I don't want crap like Champion' Cup which is just Elite Four by a different name. i don't want Trials which are just Gym Leaders with extra steps. I don't want old things pretending to be new things to trick people into thinking the setup is new when it isn't (and it seems it worked on you, but it didn't on me).

I want something completely new, completely divorced from this setup that has been used since 1996. I don't want to be yet another kid wanting to be a pokemon trainer because you present this world with so many different jobs and occupations and yet we are always the same thing. Let me be a ranger, let me be a hiker, let me be whatever i want. You want true open world? Let me be actually anything i want and have content made around it.

And if you can't do it with a mainline title, then a Colosseum type game can more than do it, hence why i completely disagree that it can't be made just because the series is 3D now. The Colosseum games offered more than just being 3D, they were a relief from the already stagnant formula of the mainline titles.

Again, Colosseum and XD don't actually break from this formula in the way you want. It's really just the main formula without gym leaders and Elite 4. There's nothing different or revolutionary about its plot/progression structure, the evil team plots in the main game work the same way. Again, this is virtually (if not wholly) impossible. Nearly every video game is structured in a "do the thing X times" kind of setup to its main story. That's the wrong aspect to point to if you want to argue "Colosseum and XD are unique games that deserve to be brought back". Colosseum/XD's unique points are its map design (which is arguably a negative because they're simple areas that you warp to with a menu screen instead of physically travel to through an overworld) and Shadow Pokemon (which was brought back in Go, so not that unique anymore).

As far as the occupations go, they can't be too narrow because they have to accommodate varied tastes for a large number of people. That's why they have you be a Pokemon trainer usually, it's the best way to reach all of those people. Not everyone wants to be a ranger or a hiker, so if they limit the character to only being that, they could limit the game's appeal and sales (now they actually did do that with Ranger because they had a solid gameplay formula of temporary capturing Pokemon to help clear obstacles, but they can't do the same for every trainer class). And most of what you might be able to do as those trainer classes you can probably just do as a regular old Pokemon trainer. So I don't think there's enough appeal to go for this. At best they could bring back the feature from older games where you could choose a trainer class and expand on that, like maybe choosing a certain trainer class will give you buffs in battle and the overworld, but that feature was mainly created to distinguish trainers from each other, which we don't really need any more because of customization.