Hello. These threads are typically terrible ideas because people love to corrupt them with tons of fact-based claims that are often false; people do not (want to) understand the difference between opinion and fact. I'm here to point out the facts and to correct the sheer number of misconceptions brought up in this thread alone; nothing in this post will be opinion-based. People need to write opinions that actually sound like it, or these silent wars all over the world will impede progress forever.
Before I start, I should probably mention that I really don't want to hear people complaining about competitive play, because I will be mentioning it more than once. Disliking competitive play is a great opinion for this actual thread, but it (and the numerous opinions behind it) is not even remotely a response to anything that I have to say. Similarly, I don't want to hear people complain about Smogon, because very few people actually understand what Smogon is and how they work, and that majority will often cite some irrelevant excuse for their refusal to do so. Finally, yes, anyone's cries of "it's just a game" are exactly as bad as anyone's cries of "you're doing it wrong", and this is one of those cases where two wrongs do not make a right (noted because it's a common misconception that they never do).
False. One, disliking Unown's design (another facet of "bad") is extremely rare and would be the actual opinion to use in this thread. Two, since Pokemon is (by basic concept and design) a competitive video game before anything else, whether a Pokemon is bad or not depends on how they actually play. Unown has always been in the bottom or near-bottom tiers, though it might be able to do something in the particularly tiers it's in (I'm not familiar enough with its matchups in each game to be able to determine that, and people making "overpowered" jokes for it everywhere doesn't help).
True. They lie to themselves about a game they barely played when they were young children, and refuse to understand the very basics of how game design works.
False. Many series portray the protagonist as the greatest individual in the entire story, and Pokemon does this in two ways:
-The games make each player character better than the previous, and the player characters are the only ones in any given game who ever have a chance at obtaining every single known Pokemon as they are revealed (never mind the numerous god-like Pokemon within that number). Being able to fight and defeat Red at the end of G/S/C (and HG/SS) is a nod to this.
-The only manga you can take seriously (Pocket Monster Special; not an opinion) explicitly makes Pokedex Holders the greatest characters in the story, and Red and Gold (somewhat forced) as the greatest Pokedex holders.
False. With Unown in mind, exactly how good Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise are depends on which generation you're playing. In generation 1 specifically (since it's a generation 1 starter), Venusaur is slightly better than the others for most ways of playing.
True. Ash is specifically designed to not develop as a character, because Nintendo does not want to replace him or end the show.
False. Nearly everything Smogon does has real effort put into it, and no such critic has put in the effort to prove them so fundamentally wrong. What they get wrong is generation 1; they do not put in their standard effort for that game, and those that do are considered to be a different community altogether.
False. The entire point of introducing Fairy was to have a more accessible hard counter to the still-strong Dragon and to have a new defensive type.
False. They have historically made generally renowned games such as Mendel Palace, Pulseman, Drill Dozer, and HarmoKnight, while also making a long-running and highly-regarded series of games that even have a better sense of balance (feel free to complain about Stealth Rock, because it's irrelevant) than most other popular competitive video games. If that's not competent, no video game developer is competent.
False. Like so many things, Pokemon will only ever be killed due to things that have nothing to do with it; that is all humans will allow.
False. Charizard has always been considered the best generation 1 starter design, ever since generation 1 itself.
False. Mega Evolutions are not related to the big problems such as Dragon/Steel and Stealth Rock (both of which were supposed to be mitigated with X/Y), nor have they been shown to be a new problem in and of themselves. Evolutions themselves cause a much bigger imbalance, and that isn't exactly a fault.
False. Again, the capability of Dragon and Steel was always seen as a problem.
False. The currently single dual-type move makes as much sense as Hidden/Secret Power, dual-type Pokemon, and so on. It isn't even properly dual-type; it is treated as a Fighting-type move that happens to turn into Flying-type one against certain types.
False. Just in generation 1, Mewtwo is much stronger than the second-strongest Pokemon (Dragonite and Mew; from them down, strength is a gradual downward slope), and it has the moves to take advantage of that. Even to this day, it is still one of the strongest Pokemon ever; its Mega evolutions now give it some different things to do.
False. Simply put, the only people who stop to notice are those who consider themselves fans of the show, who watched it in the past.
False. It's clear that Game Freak is planning on doing a remake every so often. We didn't get one with generation 5 because that was meant to be a special generation with a lot of ties to generation 4, similar to generation 2 to generation 1. Right now, there are two moves one could guess:
-They'll make the third version of X/Y on regular 3DS and the new generation for the New 3DS, and the latter will be like the aforementioned generation 2 and 5; no remakes yet.
-They'll make the third version of X/Y for the New 3DS, and make a new generation for a possible successor platform with the potential for a remake in that generation.
Related, whenever you hear rumors that there won't be a "follow-up version", disregard them. Game Freak tried to scare people with B/W in order to hide what they were trying to do with B2/W2. If there is no Z, GF will be doing something they have never done before (I would think everyone understands by now that the remakes have created their own separate pattern and do not count).
False. Every single trainer in the entire series is a joke who does not understand the rules of the game they're in. Red is the most threatening of these simply due to using the starters, Snorlax, and Espeon, all at higher levels than anyone else in the entire main series.
False. Generation 5's storyline, the strongest example of this, is generally considered to be the best storyline in the series because of it.
False. Slash has worked exactly the same since its debut.
If anyone cares, LeSabre sounds like a troll.
False. Magikarp isn't being praised, it's being joked about. It's a meme dating back to an old video of someone jokingly taking out a team of legendaries with a complicated and normally useless strategy; supposedly the opponent was some random who had no idea how to play the game. The only people who are taking Magikarp seriously are the people who don't get the joke.
False. What you describe is actually what happens. Nintendo tries to prevent hacks as long as they can so that hacking doesn't take over online and doesn't cause drama at officially sanctioned tournaments. They know people can easily screw around with emulators and save editors and such, and they don't really care beyond the legality of people playing games they don't own (ignore the Nintendo Clause about not being able to make backups, because they don't really care either).
True. People really don't know what they want, and really don't know how to ask for it.
True. People put too much stock in a vocal minority that doesn't really know anything about their community, something that nearly every single community is subject to (because it's a result of human nature). The axiom about "weakest links" is generally as false as "two wrongs make a right"/"eye for an eye" is true.
False. See the first paragraph of this post.
False. Game Freak has always wanted to work in such patterns, as they were the ones who created pairs like Butterfree and Beedrill, and the remakes pattern, to begin with. The imbalances in this series come from their current inability (designing even Mega Evolutions is difficult and time-consuming) or outright refusal (Nidorina/Nidoqueen breeding, taking until generation 4 to fix the physical/special imbalance, taking until generation 6 to do something about Dragon/Steel and Stealth Rock) to fill in these gaps.
False. All GF has ever done is make the games less time-consuming while making gameplay both more complicated and more complex.
False. Team Rocket is one of the most competent gangs in the series. Even in the irrelevant anime, Jessie and James (and Team Rocket in general) refuse to give up even as every other gangs does.
False. There is nothing "unique" about taking three of the same Pokemon and having them move together.
True. It's entirely a matter of opinion that non-animals are being considered and entirely a matter of opinion to criticize them.
True. Yes, it's a meme. No, just about everyone who takes generation 4 and 5 seriously says this; those that don't don't actually play. It may even still be an issue in generation 6, but supposedly Defog has helped a lot.
True. Aqua and Magma are the most incompetent teams in the games. The often-criticized Team Flare are far more competent, being more like Team Rocket and about as effective.
True. Game Freak is being lazy instead of strict, especially since default Calem and Serena have always overpowered all other possible options.
True. A lot of it is just people being contrary and ignoring their own possible opinion.
False. Pokemon game development is very complicated compared to other games, so it is completely possible that more effort spent on legendaries means less effort spent on normal Pokemon.
False. Blaziken has actually been buffed, and what few counters it has now aren't great; there is absolutely nothing "easy to beat" about it. Please remember that Blaziken is neutral to Stealth Rock.
False. Instead of focusing on the superficial, they've focused on the actual gameplay; generations 3 and 6 have the most depth in the entire series. Generation 5 is also considered to have the best plot in the entire series despite this, and Pocket Monster Special is still a thing.
True. Noone really disagrees with these except the genwunners, the people who mindlessly refuse to accept Arceus's existence.
True. Charizard is the most difficult Pokemon to use in generation 1. In later gens, it's not really clear, but they don't seem to compete with each other.
False. There has always been a window for rushing Special ever since Gold and Silver had been released around the time Yellow Chapter had started. The HG/SS chapters are the same basic quality as every other; anything beyond that is opinion.
False.
-See above about how Red's been treated.
-The player is supposed to be so collected and moody-looking (not arrogant), after what would be an entire series of adventures. That doesn't target shounens, so it's never really been exported.
You can only refer to a joke as a joke.
True. All you can do is tell them the truth and hope they listen.
False. All three are powerful upgrades, and Mega Salamence in particular is tearing competitive to pieces. Sounds like someone's mad.
False. See above. Smogon is all we really have because all alternatives are concerned with either a completely different game or allowing people to overrun everyone else with unfair tactics.
False. The problem is that Dragon is something of an upgraded Flying, so it's difficult to get the right type combinations. It was decided to make Charizard Fire/Flying because Dragon was and has always been very strong, so giving it to a starter would be insane. Mega Evolutions allow Game Freak to solve both problems.
False. This is a complete misunderstanding of how wings work; please read up on basic flight.
False. See above. The suggestion that it's wrong to show respect to people who still love Pokemon, a series meant for all ages, as it evolves over the years, is simply hate. The situation is more complicated than that anyway, as the remakes are not just meant for fans of the original games.
True. How the concept of "beauty" is treated is why the world is such a miserable place.
False.
-It's wrong to say that generation 1 being glitchy is a slight, as glitches have always been considered to typically add more to a game; see speedrunning. Generation 3 actually has more harmful glitches than generation 1 does.
-Psychic also has Drowzee/Hypno.
-The only Dragon move being Dragon Rage is because of just how insanely powerful Dragon-type is in generation 1 alone; if there were serious Dragon moves for Dragonite (there), it might actually be more powerful than Mewtwo (there).
False. What are you actually going to do about it? Absolutely nothing, because you don't have a point. You're just mad about something you're not going to bother actually researching, like so many people.
False. It's just that popular; see Pikachu and the generation 1 starters. This isn't like Zelda where having multiple identical versions of a character like that is sketchy, or Fire Emblem where the series isn't really big enough to justify having so many characters from it (Marth is kept because he represents the series as a whole never mind the recent remake; Ike is kept because his games are "special" and because he's unique; Awakening has two characters from it because it was a huge success everywhere and the most successful game in the series period).
Having trade evolutions is more consistent with the big emphasis on trading this series is supposed to have.
False.
-Generation 1 has gameplay that doesn't really resemble any other, and the community for it is not for genwunners. It is the only generation to have such a community playing it other than generation 3.
-Final Fantasy VII is not overrated by any stretch of the imagination. That is a meme and one just as destructive as the genwunner nonsense.
False.
-Venusaur takes care of everything Charizard can't, and Arcanine and Ninetales are both very good just starting out and competitively.
-Electric is one of the more represented types in the series, especially in generation 1.
False. You're as bad as it gets.
-Again, Game Freak is removing time-wasting and adding more depth.
-They don't come out with "a game every year" (versions are very easy to make), and the recent games are far less rushed and glitchy than previous ones.
-Change is not inherently good, especially when the majority does not want it. Pokemon changes a lot each generation anyway; it's often ignored for superficial or "don't like it" reasons.
-Instead of being targeted largely at kids, the series is now targeted largely at everyone.
-Dragon and Steel really were that good, sorry. Stop being so mad.
-Everything that Game Freak has removed has either been readded or has been a mostly unliked/unused gimmick, sometimes both.
True. This is what 99% of these people are focusing on, and they are huge hypocrites. They demand that Smogon stop enforcing their hard research on them, while demanding that their unbalanced "anything goes" rules be enforced on everyone else.
That's everything I saw. I know it's a lot, but it's all very important to understanding what's really going on with this series. Hopefully, someone out there will read and understand this (without having already known it all, of course); thanks to those who do.
