I wonder if that was actually Baten Kaitos influence. In the first game of that series, you take pictures in combat and sell them to earn money. Monolith Soft developed Baten Kaitos, and was involved with Breath of the Wild. (There's even a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 promotion sidequest.)
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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
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I wonder if that was actually Baten Kaitos influence. In the first game of that series, you take pictures in combat and sell them to earn money. Monolith Soft developed Baten Kaitos, and was involved with Breath of the Wild. (There's even a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 promotion sidequest.)
If pokemon wants to improve gameplay-wise, they have to stop making the battles 1v1 and instead make them 3v3, or even 4v4 (and also 3/4vs Bigboss), there's a reason of why almost any other RPG ever is a party beatdown, 1v1 formats drastically reduce the amount of strategy that both you and your opponent can make use of and rewards juggernauting to a ridiculous degree. I would also really apreciate if there was more dungeons, routes are a fucking corridor with a few scrubs to take down, why can't they add puzzles to spice things up like in older games? heck, freaking let's go has puzzles, so the "it's too complex for little kids" isn't a valid excuse.
Also get rid of X items, they are ridiculously overpowered, at least on the 1v1 format (but they see uses in colloseum too, so)
Also get rid of X items, they are ridiculously overpowered, at least on the 1v1 format (but they see uses in colloseum too, so)
p0ip0le
it's a billion lions
conquest did dexit before swsh did. theres an entire venn diagram to be made here but
- some starters got axed (notably, bulbasaur and squirtle) but charmander is still in
- a lot of legendaries got smacked out
- some pokemon exist in the game's files but aren't implemented
- major mechanics are gone :^)
- some starters got axed (notably, bulbasaur and squirtle) but charmander is still in
- a lot of legendaries got smacked out
- some pokemon exist in the game's files but aren't implemented
- major mechanics are gone :^)
x items arent common and when enemies use them it's a free turn. why even bother with them when you can sell them?
Because they make most gyms a joke even with underleveled teams.
They're extremely undervalued casually, when giving +2 to a fast pokemon (or +2 speed to a bulky hard hitter) on turn 1 can easily wipe up an entire 6 mon team.
Speedruns always abused X-items, and I can confirm you the route in SwSh heavily also abuse X-items to sweep most of the game with 1 pokemon or 2 even in losing matchup (they run down Nessa with a X-buffed Arcanine, in a *losing type matchup*, should say something to you)
I would have agreed to it before Gen VII, but now that they give a +2 boost, it's the same as using the equivalent move. And they are common and cheap...
The Elite Four as a system is probably one of the weakest parts of the Pokemon games consistently, and it’s because they feel like such a fundamentally video game-y concept. Beating the strong bosses consecutively in order to face the final boss feels less like a Pokemon game at first glance and sounds more like - well, pretty much any other RPG out there. It’s a rather tame, unsatisfying way to end the adventure - it always bothered me that in the anime, trainers with 8 badges got to partake in a massive, grand scale competition, while in-game you were confined to fighting the same 4 trainers every go-around at the League.
Sure, fighting the best of the best is a pretty major challenge in-story, but it feels less like the climax to one‘s adventure and moreso just a last-minute extension of the gym system in an odd sense: fight the type specialist to move on to the next type specialist to reach the top. It takes place in closed doors away from the public eye, so it comes off as a rather austere and outdated tradition as opposed to the glory that is shown in the grand tournaments present in the anime. I don’t even care much for the anime anymore but I always check out the tournament episodes because they’re some of my favorite Pokemon content.
All of this is to say that I find the Elite 4 is an incredibly clunky, outdated way to do the “final challenge” situation in Pokemon that feels more like an outdated relic of Generation 1’s constraints more than any other reason. It was fine to keep it in Gen 2 since, well, it’s the Kanto-Johto League, but Generation 3 onwards, the game had not only the space but the justification to include a tournament-style league given that there were more major tournament-eligible characters with significance to you as a player - Brendan/May, Wally, perhaps even Maxie and/or Archie in a sort of redemption arc, with Steven waiting at the top. There was even more potential justification in this in Generation 4 thanks to the Stat Trainers, such as Cheryl, Mira, and Riley, who even got strong in-game teams in Platinum, yet we get another set of bland faces with no personality other than to be overcome by you, the player. It lacks excitement and personal investment when it’s just another set of randos who focus in a type, compared to the exciting possibilities of fighting significant characters in the story, or even just fellow strong, up-coming trainers who want a shot at glory. The Elite 4 feels reactionary to you, whereas fighting in a League Tournament, both you and your opponent are actively competing for the same goal. It’s far more exciting and raises the stakes for both parties substantially.
Basically, what I’m saying is Sword and Shield did the Pokemon League completely right and the series should stick to its precedent in the future in this regard
Sure, fighting the best of the best is a pretty major challenge in-story, but it feels less like the climax to one‘s adventure and moreso just a last-minute extension of the gym system in an odd sense: fight the type specialist to move on to the next type specialist to reach the top. It takes place in closed doors away from the public eye, so it comes off as a rather austere and outdated tradition as opposed to the glory that is shown in the grand tournaments present in the anime. I don’t even care much for the anime anymore but I always check out the tournament episodes because they’re some of my favorite Pokemon content.
All of this is to say that I find the Elite 4 is an incredibly clunky, outdated way to do the “final challenge” situation in Pokemon that feels more like an outdated relic of Generation 1’s constraints more than any other reason. It was fine to keep it in Gen 2 since, well, it’s the Kanto-Johto League, but Generation 3 onwards, the game had not only the space but the justification to include a tournament-style league given that there were more major tournament-eligible characters with significance to you as a player - Brendan/May, Wally, perhaps even Maxie and/or Archie in a sort of redemption arc, with Steven waiting at the top. There was even more potential justification in this in Generation 4 thanks to the Stat Trainers, such as Cheryl, Mira, and Riley, who even got strong in-game teams in Platinum, yet we get another set of bland faces with no personality other than to be overcome by you, the player. It lacks excitement and personal investment when it’s just another set of randos who focus in a type, compared to the exciting possibilities of fighting significant characters in the story, or even just fellow strong, up-coming trainers who want a shot at glory. The Elite 4 feels reactionary to you, whereas fighting in a League Tournament, both you and your opponent are actively competing for the same goal. It’s far more exciting and raises the stakes for both parties substantially.
Basically, what I’m saying is Sword and Shield did the Pokemon League completely right and the series should stick to its precedent in the future in this regard
Cresselia~~
Junichi Masuda likes this!!
I still prefer the animations in Pokemon Battle Revolution than Sword and Shield.
I don't know why. (I'm not a professional animator)
But I just think the animations in PBR had way more character in them-- you feel the Pokemon's personality.
Also, when using a contact move in PBR, the Pokemon actually runs towards its opponent.
I don't know why. (I'm not a professional animator)
But I just think the animations in PBR had way more character in them-- you feel the Pokemon's personality.
Also, when using a contact move in PBR, the Pokemon actually runs towards its opponent.
I was going thru the dex today and noticed that the new pokemon have infinitely better animations than the old ones (obviously). It’s pretty obvious that a lot of these pokemon were designed to look good and be interesting in motion- most obvious one is Falinks, but stuff like Perrserker, Grimmsnarl, and Mr. Rime have just so much personality in their animations. Even stupid Stonjourner has really neat animations with how he moves his body. Still images of these ‘mons aren’t doubt them justice
Not that I disagree with you, but all the choices you listed are bipedal and have arms. It’s much easier to animate and portray characters who are bipedal than those who are not.
Look at the starters for this generation: Ever since XY, the starter Pokémon have become more Humanoid to the point that Intelleon has fingers that resemble fingers rather than claws, while Cinderace seriously looks like a human with the rabbit face.
Not that I mind Pokémon who resemble people, but Pokémon who look like people for the sake of Animation is starting to turn old. I hoping they challenge themselves in the future by doing less humanoid animations in the future and more quadruped.
Falinks? Other stuff like Cursola and Dragapult also have really cool animations, and I'm a big fan of the cool flourishes like Bolthund's tail turning into a lightning bolt (and yamper's static fur), Sinistea has fun animations, Appletun's camp animations, etc. I don't think only the humanoid pokemon that have good animations (altho I agree on the starters becoming more humanoid for this reason, even if I typically prefer bipedal starters to 4 legged ones only because the last one, samurott, was super ass), those were just the first few that came to mind.
And why would Intelleon, an amphibian, have claws
It’s a Chameleon, a lizard and reptile. Why wouldn’t it have claws?
Isn't it water dwelling though? The whole line always gave off a more slimy, amphibian type look even if it does possess chameleon traits and naming.
Sobble is classified as the ‘ Water Lizard ‘ Pokemon. And there are lizards that live with water, such as marine iguanas and Jesus Christ Lizards.
Well, Chameleons don't have claws (in the traditional sense). Sobble's "hands" are actually quite accurate.
p0ip0le
it's a billion lions
hot take: gamefreak is recognizing that 30% of their fanbase is furries and theyre adapting accordingly
jokes aside i wouldnt be surprised if this was actually happening. gen1's most "humanlike" starter was zard, then gen2 didnt have one. gen3 had sceptile and blaziken (and swampert to.. some extent?), gen4 had infernape, gen5 didnt really have one (emboar? but thats a stretch) and suddenly in gen6 we're jumping to all 3 starters being relatively humanoid, gen7 too, and its especially prominent in gen8
probably bc theyre like, the first pokemon you see. gotta appeal to as many people as possible
jokes aside i wouldnt be surprised if this was actually happening. gen1's most "humanlike" starter was zard, then gen2 didnt have one. gen3 had sceptile and blaziken (and swampert to.. some extent?), gen4 had infernape, gen5 didnt really have one (emboar? but thats a stretch) and suddenly in gen6 we're jumping to all 3 starters being relatively humanoid, gen7 too, and its especially prominent in gen8
probably bc theyre like, the first pokemon you see. gotta appeal to as many people as possible
But that doesn't quite work with fully evolved starters.
The first pokemon you see are usually the starters, the legendaryes (which are on the cover), + some of the early route 1 pokemon (Wooloos in case of SwSh), and occasionally the signature Pokemon of a important person (Leon's Charizard, in this case).
You don't really see the starters fully evolved version until waaaay later in the game.
(No, the argument "i saw it on the internets" doesn't quite work as that's applicable to any pokemon :P )
I think the fully evolved starters are made to convey "personality", and the easiest way to do so is to make them as humanlike as possible. So many gestures, stances or facial expressions are tied to the human form, which we learn to recognize from a very early age, and that simply means it's easier to make a humanlike Pokémon more expressive. You could never see Torterra or even Typhlosion pull off the "Come at me bro" taunt Incineroar does in Smash Ultimate, for instance.
The downside of this, of course, is that you get pretty far removed from the idea of Pokémon as animal companions. I think it creates a bit of a dissonance when your fully evolved starter looks less like the dog you had growing up, and more like your co-worker Dave in a fancy fur suit. I saw somebody coin the term "jobification" somewhere, and I think it's an excellent term to describe starters post Gen V. They look more like anthropomorphic animals doing human jobs than they do pets. "It's a ninja!" "It's a knight!" "It's an archer!" "It's an opera singer!" "It's a football player!" "Oh, and they're all Pokémon too. Make them blow bubbles or fire or something." It's a bit of a far cry from the Kanto starter trio, to put it like that.
When GameInformer covered SwSh, Masuda and Ohmori officially did say that the starter Pokémon are designed differently than the other Pokémon because they want to provide “personality” for them. Sobble for example, cries a lot, so sensitive people might want to choose Sobble about of empathy.
Technically the Gen V starters also follow that route. "It's a french nobleman!" (Well, Serperior is the least obvious but that's the official inspiration) "It's a samurai!" "It's a sumo wrestler".
Yes, but the fact that you had to say "technically" suggests - in my opinion - that it was executed better. Serperior is a snake that's a nobleman, and Samurott is an otter that's a samurai - but Incineroar is a wrestler who's a tiger, and Inteleon is a spy who's a chameleon, if that makes sense. Recently it has been about the job first, and the animal inspiration later. The Gen V starters (and to a slight degree both Blaziken and Empoleon) did it the other way round.
I don't think the problem is that they remove features, I think the problem is that we get features that end up being replaced by worse features. I can understand not being able to have every feature in every game- that would be unreasonable. But look at contests for example. They were replaced by Musicals in Gen 5, and they were worse in everyday. Contests had a more dynamic system of choosing moves at the right time or using certain moves in combos in appeal points, while musicals only had flipping the props when twice for the musical. The way to advance was to stealing spotlight by appealing when your opponent was appealing, so it just turned into a game of waiting-for-your-opponent to move then you move. Not to mention your Pokemon actually needed hands to use props. If they did not have hands, your Pokemon can't use props at all, severely limiting the viable Pokemon for Musicals.
Another example was the PSS system. An easy to use interface that with the ability to find friends very easily, as well as an easy way to access features like wonder trade, Battlespot, and GTS. But for Gen 7, festival plaza requires you to disconnect when you want to go into the real world, forcing you to disconnect Wifi and when you log back in, you have to save and connect to the wifi every time.
While Y-Comm doesn't require disconnecting, it does have several flaws. The Link trade system is just awful. You have to input a code to trade and its so inconsistent. I remember doing a trade with someone on the forums and I got mismatched 4 times before finding the right person. The Y-Comm takes so long to update, I often get a bunch of promising raidbattles only to find that they are over. The other flaw is that when I do a surprise trade, I can't do a raid battle until the trade is over. I find it really annoying since there's often a thrilling raid that I can't do because of design choices.
So yeah, its for those reasons people are upset at GF for culling beloved features and replacing them with vastly inferior features.
Yes and No. There are some strategies in Singles that won't work nearly as effectively in doubles, like Stealth Rock. That being said, there should be a good balance between doubles and singles, since moves like Helping Hand and Follow Me are invaluable and it does teach players invaluable concepts about the game, especially since Doubles is the official format.
As for dungeons, well let's go back to Masuda's controversial Let's Go interview:
So when we tried to think about how kids these days generally play games, what came to mind was mobile games really. Games which you play for a short time, and perhaps you'll be moving between various games pretty quickly, so if it was a game that kind of takes about two hours to get into, we thought that perhaps people might get a bit bored and then decide to move on to a different game. So back in the day, even playing in the virtual console version of the original Pikachu version, it might take you know thirty hours, forty hours to kind of complete, or progress significantly in the game. And in this age with so many games to choose from, we thought that we'd rather make something that was easier to progress through, and kind of tailor that playstyle to how we think that the playstyle has evolved over the years and how children are playing games now.
And that is why the dungeons on SwSh are so short to the point that I wouldn't call them even dungeons. There hardly any exploration or reason to backtrack- all diverging routes lead to an item or just serve as a way back to the same spot. Route 5 is a perfect example: There'a a detour, but it only has a lake and Pokemon camp and backtracks to the nursery. This was a red flag, and its sadly became a reality. You know, at this point, I wonder why TPC and GF just give the core series to another studio like Nintendo themselves if they think kids are going to play mobile games over SwSh and have themselves make mobile games. The job is probably a lot easier for a smaller studio.
And one last thing about SwSh. We've already praised it for being very competitive-friendly, between nature mints, Exp Candy, Max Raid Battles making the competitive scene easy to get into. The game even provides rental teams that can be used on rank battles. But I can't help but think that's part of a grander scheme of things. To look at it, you already have devoted VGC players like Aaron Zheng and Wolfe Glick paying for the games, well because, VGC is part of their life. So that's already money given regardless of personal thoughts on the game. In other words, you have a fanbase who has to buy the games no matter what. Then you have actual VGC events. When I first started playing in 2014, the fee was around 5$. But now when I played in 2019, the fee was 50$. I understand that's because that there are huge cash prizes, but that's still a lot of money. Regardless, the main attraction other than that is merchandise. These events have tons of merchandise ranging from plushies to expensive jewelry. Remember the majority of Pokemon's money comes from merchandise. So you gather Pokemon fans at an event that costs 50$ admission, and include tons of Pokemon merchandise of Pokemon fans love. So you can see where this is going. TPC can make huge sums of money from regionals, Nationals, Worlds off this merchandise. Of course they want more players to join. Even though they have to give out cash prizes, its a small dent in their revenue. Of course, I'm not criticizing anyone or bashing VGC, but I'm just trying to lay down a theory based on previous theories and current events.
Honestly...yeah, i wonder about that too. Even if the games get all the time in the world to be developed, their design phylosophy is...not good at all, not only in dungeons and difficulty, but also in stuff like thinking that "a pokemon experience closer to traditional RPGs" just means shoving a shit ton of cutscenes and a half-assed story that just gets in the way of the fun stuff instead of actual RPG staples like party beatdowns or...well, dungeons. Im not going to act like if the older games were perfect, heck, i would even call them painfully mediocre, but the recent ones are just going down to the rabbit hole for stuff like forced deadlines, refusal of hiring more stuff (apparently they did hired a good chunk of people in GF just to be able to finish the game to begin with),not fixing the older games' biggest flaws and most importantly, a severe case of stagnation. I won't blame all the fault on GF, TPC/nintendo are the main responsables for this, but i think it's their time to finally retire, and fortunately get another company that can reinvent this series, if we just get the same shit but prettier, then why i should even bother.
I’m guessing it’s more like Masuda and specifically the veteran developers of the series is holding it back. Masuda mentioned in GameInformer interview that he dislikes working in large groups because ‘it’s too messy’ preferring to work in groups of 20. Which is really small game/animation studio.
And yes, TPC is also responsible for this, since things TCG and the Anime forces the games to come out due to the money that merchandise makes, in which delaying results in a loss.
And yes, GF’s designing philosophy is questionable, Pokemon gets a lot of slack cause it’s Pokémon, but if you look at other games like Little Town Hero, you’ll see how inherent GF is at gameplay and programming.
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
People regularly debate how to make Pokemon games harder. What do I think is the definitive solution? It's really quite simple: Prohibit the player's Pokemon from gaining EVs until reaching a certain postgame milestone such as unlocking the Battle Tower.
I feel like the difficulty balancing issues in this series come from how EVs give players too much of an advantage over the NPC trainers, who often don't have any of those. EVs gained over one's adventure can give them just enough speed to creep certain foes, and just enough bulk to avoid OHKOs or 2HKOs. By restricting their gain until it's time to grind out any available battle facilities and online battles, the playing field is made more even between the player and the AI. Even ROM hacks like the works of Drayano60 fall into this problem where despite going out of their way to give major trainers quasi-competitive sets and trying other ways to make them challenging, their attempts fall flat past a certain point when the player's mons are all EVed up while the foes are still stagnant. Simulated EVs could be a possibility, but the line between still being underwhelming or being too difficult to face is razor-thin for that approach.
I feel like the difficulty balancing issues in this series come from how EVs give players too much of an advantage over the NPC trainers, who often don't have any of those. EVs gained over one's adventure can give them just enough speed to creep certain foes, and just enough bulk to avoid OHKOs or 2HKOs. By restricting their gain until it's time to grind out any available battle facilities and online battles, the playing field is made more even between the player and the AI. Even ROM hacks like the works of Drayano60 fall into this problem where despite going out of their way to give major trainers quasi-competitive sets and trying other ways to make them challenging, their attempts fall flat past a certain point when the player's mons are all EVed up while the foes are still stagnant. Simulated EVs could be a possibility, but the line between still being underwhelming or being too difficult to face is razor-thin for that approach.
Oooor give enemy trainers EVs (split exactly evenly between all stats, with EV totals dependent on point in the game if you’re concerned about making it too hard - this roughly falls in line with an average player’s EVs).
This also helps make trainer battles feel stronger than equally leveled wilds.