![]() |
What Are Your Pokemon Hot Takes?
What are your controversial or otherwise unpopular opinons within this community? I have quite a few, so I guess I'll share:
1. US/UM are underrated gems. It has a good difficulty, tons of Pokemon variety and in my opinion looks great for a 3ds game. Also the long cutscenes never really bothered me. 2. Mr. Rime is my 2nd favorite Pokemon, just behind Alakazam. Love his tap dance animation. 3. Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee are far superior to FR/LG, and is overall the best pure-Kanto experience. Trainers like Koga, Bruno and Sabrina get way more appropriate teams and Pokemon are distributed much better throughout the reigon. |
I usually prefer bipedal Pokemon to quadrupedal ones. Lots of bipedal hate going on right now and I just don't get it.
|
Quote:
|
1. Regional variants are the worst thing to ever happen in Pokémon because it only encourages Game Freak to continue being lazy. They even took this to the extreme based on what they did with Paradox Pokémon, but I bet nobody says anything about it. Some people have tried to convince me that regional variants aren't bad for Pokémon, but I'm not having any of it.
2. I couldn't care less about a Pokémon's design (for the most part). The only time I can say I care is when the design is offensive (original Jynx) or so bad it's distracting (Quaquaval). While many players seem to discount Pokémon based upon how they look, a Pokémon's appearance doesn't win battles. When I play Pokémon, I play to win. The way a Pokémon's abilities, stats, and moves are designed is what I care about. 3. Pokémon Legends: Arceus is overrated. Many people seem to enjoy it because they like having more freedom to explore, as well as the new catching mechanics introduced in the game, which were good, don't get me wrong, but overall, the game was just a boring and repetitive grind game that took place in an extremely bland wasteland that got tiring really fast. 4. The first Pokémon games in generation I, Red, Blue, and Yellow were horrible because of their horrible sprite art, lack of balance, and plethora of glitches. 5. It's 100% possible to be successful in competitive Pokémon using your favorites, as long as you know what role they can excel in the best based on their attributes. Others have tried to tell me that it isn't possible, but I was actually ranked high on the ladder (near the top) on Pokémon Showdown for gen 8 OU Doubles using only my favorites, even though only briefly. I also reached Master Rank in Sword ranked battles using a completely non-legendary team centered around Butterfree and other favorites. |
Hey, I agree with your take on LGPE! For the reasons you mentioned and others as well, such as the redesigns to all the characters, the art direction and the little touches that made Kanto feel a lot more alive. Don't get me wrong, I know why PLA is more critically-acclaimed than the rest of the Pokémon Switch games, but LGPE looked like they had a lot more thought put into them than they should have for a game that was meant to be "filler." Sometimes I wish Game Freak would stop trying to innovate in order to "catch up" with other franchises and instead refined what gives Pokémon its own distinct identity in the first place.
My other take is that Scarlet/Violet didn't need "another year in the oven" or "more time to be better games"... because many of its aspects are unsalvageable from the concept stage. They made a region based on Spain and failed to include many of the local traditions like the Valencian falles, the culture and debates around paella, and references to local literature and game shows, among others. Heck, as cringy as it would have been to me, I actually find it baffling that the original Japanese version doesn't feature any characters speaking Spanish or even saying "Hola!". The Pokémon designs we got could use more refining, sure, but a lot of them just don't work because they don't fit in the context of a region based on Spain (all the starter evolutions, the Tarountula and Nymble lines) or just don't work as Pokémon period (the Gimmighoul line, the Wattrel line, the Tinkatink line, the Capsakid line). Nothing suggests all these terrible designs would have been scrapped had Game Freak been given more time to work on the games. These seem carefully planned to be as bad as they are, and there is proof of that - Dudunsparce, a well-played but extremely mean-spirited jab at people who wanted a Dunsparce evolution. Even the story and characters are inconsistent as hell; just what the hell is a Japanese salaryman doing in Spain of all places, and why does he look more like a hitman for hire, like his workmates in the Elite Four, than an actually ordinary salaryman/office worker? Why do all the past Paradox Pokémon look universally more high than the fandom says Hisuian Typhlosion is caveman-like, and why do all future Paradox Pokémon look like robots instead of a healthy mix with natural evolutions of Mons we know? So no, for these and many other reasons, I don't think ironing out the bugs and performance issues will make the games the best in the series. They could be as nice-looking as they come, perform at a stable 60fps, and they'd still be the absolute worst main series games because they were ill-conceived from the get-go. |
1: Mega Evolutions are by far the worst gimmick. All the others are accessible to basically every Pokemon, but only 46 (28 in X and Y) Pokemon can Mega Evolve at all. The others? Nothing. And the Pokemon that do get Megas are heavily weighted towards Gen 1 and Gen 3 Pokemon. Every Pokemon is someone's favorite, but Mega Evolution as a mechanic punishes people for not using the ones that the developers like the most. Z-Moves, Dynamax, and Terastalization all work fine on anything, so I don't mind them as much as I do Mega Evolution.
2: It's not really relevant to me because I don't own a Switch, but I don't mind Dexit all that much. I rarely, if ever, transfer my Pokemon between games, and transfer between generations is usually a one-way street anyway. When going back to previous generations, I already can't bring in most of my favorite Pokemon, so it doesn't feel much different when I can't have certain Pokemon in a current-gen game. 3: I know I said "every Pokemon is someone's favorite" earlier, but I actually like when regional dexes are limited and don't cram in every Pokemon in the series like some romhacks and fangames do. It really helps characterize regions to have their own list of native Pokemon. 4: Nuzlockes are a popular challenge, but thematically they completely clash with the tone and themes of the series. Think about what happened in the anime when Damian released his Charmander for being "too weak". Remember how much we all hated him? He did basically the same thing that Nuzlockers do. 5: I haven't reviewed all the new Scarlet and Violet Pokemon yet, but Pokemon designs (aside from fully-evolved starters), have otherwise consistently improved throughout the generations. The only exception, IMO, was Gen 5 because its early route mons were spiritual successors of Pokemon from Gen 1, the gen with my least favorite Pokemon designs. 6: Evil teams are unnecessary and don't really add all that much to the games. Their grunts all tend to use similar, weak Pokemon as well. |
Quote:
|
1. Charizard is incredibly overated by game freak and the community
2. Mega evolution was the best battle gimmick( maybe not unpopular idk) 3. Gen 4 is not very good 4. Design wise most fairy types are awful or there something that already existed that was made a fairy(jigglypuff) |
Quote:
|
Quote:
Also I dislike all the generational gimmicks except for Mega Pokémon - which I absolutely loved - and I think more Megas should be made. The special moves of Alola, the weird hats of Paldea and the ridiculous gigantic sizes that made absolutely no sense in Galar... While the Alolan gimmick worked alright, Megas were just so much more interesting and gave some new cool designs and typings to explore. |
I doubt all of these are unpopular, but I guess they could be considered hot take:
-IVs should have stopped being a thing long ago, and anyone at Game Freak who actually believes this is a good mechanic shouldn't be anywhere near a game design department. -Legends Arceus made team building better than any main game. -Gym "puzzles" were pointless distractions that had nothing to do with actual Pokémon gameplay and didn't add anything relevant to the experience. -Terastal is the best one-gen gimmick so far. -Convergent species is one of the dumbest ideas ever. Changing a "D" for a "W" is the only thing that makes Wiglett a "new" species instead of a Diglett regional variant. Toedscool should have been Paldean Tentacool as well, there's no need to convolute things even more by creating new names for things that aren't actually adding anything new, they're just regional forms but with a new name and dex number. Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Dang, there are a lot more negative takes than I expected on here. Hoped there would be a bit more positivity is all. Interesting at the very least.
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
You want a super strong Heracross for your team? Well, you can catch any Heracross and it will be totally fine. No need to play Pokémon eugenics, catching the same Pokémon over and over again or spend countless hours working until you breed the good one and trash all the failures, because in PLA any Pokémon can reach its peak regardless of its origin (which btw, is more lore-appropiated). No need to spend more time grinding than playing the game to earn the right to make your Pokémon as strong as possible. Wrong nature? Mint harvest can eventually fix that. Ugly EV spreads that you cannot control due to random battles? No, since there's no EV gain from battling, you have ELs instead that can be enhanced through specific items, which are rewarded for exploration, side-missions, and properly integrated into the natural game progression. More advanced Grit for higher ELs also become available as you progress enough through the game, adding a sort of soft cap that prevent players from maxing out stats early on through power grinding. The EL system also makes mixed attacker builds a more viable choice. In the main games Pokémon with base stats meant for mixed attackers typically have to choose between the physical or the special route, in PLA you can max all stats and fine-tune your movesets accordingly. They even removed the pointless Trade evolutions, something that the main games should have done long ago. |
Actually based opinion that i never really QUITE thought about
|
Quote:
Not unlike real life, different people and/or creatures have more potential in certain fields than others. For instance, some people are simply better at playing sports than others, resulting in them being more likely to play professionally. As a result, sports teams are more likely to sign the best players at playing the sport to increase their chances of winning games and eventually a championship. The same logic applies to Pokémon whereas, if the goal is to win battles and eventually win a championship, it's wise to train the absolute best Pokémon to increase chances of winning. Thus, focusing on using the best to obtain the goal isn't "eugenics," just as the reason a professional sports team doesn't sign random people off the street in favor of skilled, accomplished athletes isn't "eugenics." In the process, you're not "trashing" your Pokémon, but rather "signing" the best Pokémon for your team. The entire point of competitive Pokémon is to determine not only which player has the best strategy in a battle to decide a winner, but also to determine which player is the best at training their Pokémon. The IV and EV system is a great thing for a number of reasons. For one, it makes Pokémon not so determinant on luck compared to many other turn-based strategy games and separates the casuals from the players that are dedicated, take the game seriously, and keep the level of competition high. The different EV and IV spreads make the game much more unique and dynamic. For example, the game is much better when you're facing a player using, say, a Groudon that was trained to be fast enough to sweep your entire team, but then you face another player with a Groudon that is extremely slow, but bulky enough to take many hits and do massive damage with its attacks. If Pokémon removed EVs and IVs, literally every single Groudon would be the same, which makes Pokémon seem less like living creatures with different skills and potential levels, and too much like game data. The developers never intended for Pokémon to be this way, especially not these days. This is also why competitive Pokémon is able to give out a $10,000 to the winner of the annual VGC tournaments. Without this system, competitive Pokémon would be nothing more than a linear game of rock-paper-scissors where practically every Pokémon functions the exact same way and would be checkers instead of chess. Anybody can win by simply copying what is most common. If Pokémon were all linear and functioned the exact same way, people are only going to copy the strongest Pokémon solely, which overall ruins the quality of the game and discourages unique teambuilding. It would make Pokémon worse than it already is in terms of balancing as well. The argument about EV training and breeding for good IVs has always been silly to me. Nowadays, the developers are attempting to make it ridiculously easy to have a competitive Pokémon without putting in much work. Now, you can hyper train a Pokémon at level 50 instead of 100 and the Bottle Caps needed to make it happen can be store bought now without having to grind for BP. The same thing applies for vitamins that increase EVs. With that being said, players should no longer claim that training a good competitive Pokémon is a "waste of time" now because Game Freak is making almost impossible not to make a competitive team. This was actually meant to be just a response to Corveone's post, but I guess you can say that this is another "hot take" of mine, whereas I am a person that is perfectly fine with the EV/IV system. I'm sure this is probably a controversial view for many members of the forum. |
One about my favourite line in Scarlet/Violet, despite how much I dislike these games: If there's a redundant stage in the Pawmi line, it's Pawmi itself.
I made it no secret that Pawmi didn't catch my eye when it was first revealed, but when Pawmo and Pawmot were leaked, I fell in love with the line. Why, then, did Pawmi not have the Fighting-type from the get-go? I'd even say Pawmo is a lot cuter with its bipedal stance, its lighter colour and its extremely cute cry. A lot of people dislike it and I respect that, but at the same time I'm not sure I agree with them any longer. Heck, no disrespect to Pawmot, but Pawmo could have been single-stage like every Pikaclone and have its evolution's stats and signature move, and I would have been a happy camper. tl;dr: The only reason people hate Pawmo is because it was misplaced in the evolution line. If it had been a single-stage Pikaclone, a lot more people would love it like I do now. |
Quote:
This video explains it, and the comments show why a lot of players prefer it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7f38FjtWc8 You say Legends Arceus has boring repetitive grind (which yeah, in some areas it has), yet you apparently love and justify the boring repetitive grind in the main games, because it's fine when it's all for the mighty competitive. So since PLA doesn't have competitive it makes sense that it's not worth your time. So apparently you do agree that grinding is bad, you just endure it when according to you it's for a good cause. Quote:
No matter how much you try to sugarcoat it, you do selective breeding and forced RNG manipulation to obtain Pokémon with perfect IVs, which literally goes against the purpose of IVs you've mentioned about reflecting that same species can have somewhat different stats, and perfection (as in nature) doesn't exist. Imperfect IVs only exist so that competitive players can spend a lot of time perfecting them and feel good for "achieving" something that wouldn't be necessary to achieve if IVs were perfect or didn't exist to begin with. Quote:
Spoiler:
Quote:
Quote:
I understand that some gatekeeping (because that's what it looks like) might be necessary in order to prevent an overpopulation in the competitive scene, that would somewhat justify the obtuse mechanics, but wouldn't invalidate the point about them being obtuse. |
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
If all IVs were perfect or didn't exist, Honchkrow wouldn't be used at all because its stats make it really difficult to use. A 71 base Speed is too fast for Trick Room under normal circumstances, but if you breed one with 0 Speed IVs, combined with Honchkrow's ability to land critical hits easily, it can be really good on a Trick Room team as a sweeper. In addition, you might need to breed a special attacker with low Attack IVs to minimize confusion damage. The current system gives many Pokémon their own individual chance to shine. Another example would be that 30 Speed IVs might be better than 31 in certain circumstances. For instance, during a mirror match, the chances are great a Pokémon with a pivot move such as Volt Switch or U-Turn would be able to use its move last to do some damage and pivot out last to ensure that the next Pokémon switches in safely, but would still be fast enough to move very close to how it normally can against other Pokémon with its full 252 Speed EV spread. Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
You don't even have to EV train Pokémon the hard way anymore, as vitamins and similar items can get the job done without even having to battle. Thus, I just simply find it silly when players call preparing for competitive a "long boring grind" when Game Freak literally made it so easy and accessible for everybody. I also rarely put in "heavy work" when playing Pokémon. For years, I've always just bred Pokémon with good IVs and EV trained them with vitamins before transferring them over to the next game at level 1 after freshly hatching from eggs, skipping the EV training process in the new game for all except my starter. However, because Pokémon Scarlet and Violet does not have Pokémon HOME compatibility, I actually had to play the game the "hard way" this time, but even then, it wasn't "heavy work" because this is perhaps the best generation for EV training. You can choose which Pokémon you want to battle, as you're no longer forced into battles anymore, and while the EV spreads won't be perfect as you progress, EV-reducing berries are scattered all over the map. When you use them as you're progressing, you can make your EV spreads exactly how you want to make them. All three of my Pokémon teams in Violet are already fully EV trained and I haven't even beat the game yet and it didn't even feel like I was grinding. It just felt natural. As for hacking, I understand that players do it, but why hack your game and risk having your Nintendo Switch being banned when preparing for competitive is ridiculously easy and simple now? I mean, if a player desperately feels the need to hack that bad despite things being easier and love competitive Pokémon so much, then they're just better off battling on Pokémon Showdown and not risk their Switch essentially becoming a brick. Anyways, as I said, we don't need to prevent an overpopulation in the competitive scene; we need a bigger population and Game Freak set the groundwork for it. |
gastly doesn't get enough love
|
I don't find Legends Arceus to be a particularly compelling or fun game. Searching for items for Pokeballs is extremely tedious and the game's world feels empty and lifeless. I also didn't like the lack of trainer battles.
Pokémon Ranger and its sequels are some of the most fun I've had with a Pokémon spin-off. The champion's team in Scarlet and Violet is actually pretty good. I think they use an interesting mix of Pokémon. Their battle theme also fits the Spain inspired region perfectly. Mr. Mime and Jynx (the fixed design) are way too over-hated. I think they're both unique Pokémon that offer a lot to the series. They're great to use on in-game teams too. Mr. Rime is a wonderful evolution too. GameFreak really needs to make a Pokémon region based on China, Mexico, the Pacific Northwest, or Germany. All four places have very distinct cultures that would work well. At least there are some fans making a Pacific Northwest region a reality in their fan game... |
A lot of pink shinies aren't good (looking at you Qwilfish)
|
The Sun/Moon anime art style was good and I will die on that hill.
|
^Agreed lol. SuMo was also my favorite of the anime series in general.
My (maybe?) hot take: Sinnoh is a bad region and Dawn is boring, anime included. :( She's my least favorite protagonist along with Lucas (they're a bit better in Legends though) and DPPt were my least favorite Pokémon games. Legends was great though. |
Dudunsparce is great, actually, because its design is the best possible punchline to a 22-year-old joke. Imagine waiting seven generations for your favorite bootleg tsuchinoko to get an evolution, and it's just bigger. I love it because it's so fittingly underwhelming.
Double super effectiveness is dumb because it completely screws over certain Pokémon. Regional forms are a great idea but really should've been implemented at least a few generations ago. Generation V especially could've benefitted from fleshing out older Pokémon over adding a bunch of new ones, considering how hit-or-miss Generation V's Pokémon are, at least for some people (for example, did we really need the Timburr line if we could've just given Machop a Unovan form or something?). Some people need to stop saying that Game Freak needs to hire fanartists, especially when the designs of new Pokémon have only surfaced thanks to leaks. This is the "Nintendo hire this man" meme all over again. You might not like some of these Pokémon, but I assure you that they at least put some thought into each and every single Pokémon design. As someone who dislikes designs like Bruxish, Enamorus, and Squawkabilly, I have to concede that they were, in all likelihood, made with at least some consideration and with Game Freak's design conventions in mind. Transferring Pokémon from generation to generation, while cute, feels unnecessary and might be the root of every logistical problem the core series has. |
Gen 5 is one of the worst Pokemon games. The dex is uninspired and just a knockoff of Gen 1 for the most part. The sprite animations and overall graphics are a total downgrade from Gen 4. Even the story is overrated by the Gen 5 fanboys that obsess over N. Also we never needed B2/W2.
|
Platinum is boring as all hell. HGSS are not great, altho props for making the worst designed Pokémon games remotely bearable, I guess. Object based, absurd and visual simple designs are better than the most complex ones by a landslide. Megas were the worst and most unbalanced gimmick. Toucannon is the most creative regional bird.
|
Here’s a few things I can list from the top of my head:
1. Kalos is the best designed region geographically. It is breathtakingly beautiful. Galar and Paldea are also stunning, but both suffer from a lack of explorable locations in towns and cities specifically. 2. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games are far superior to main series Pokémon games, there’s no comparison, really. PMD Explorers of Sky is my favourite game of all time, and always will be. 3. Design > Stats. I could care less about a pokemon’s stats, if I consider it to be visually appealing, I will adore it and I will subsequently use it. 4. BDSP are phenomenal games. Sure, they weren’t perfect and there are things I wish they had improved upon, however, I think they were enjoyable games overall. Although, I will say, they had no business nerfing contests like that. 5. All of the generation 9 starters are well-designed. 6. The Pokeathlon is 90% of the reason why I love HGSS as much as I do. Likely 40-50% of my time in-game has just devoted to competing in the various pokeathlon events continuously. 7. The immense disdain for bipedal starters, and bipedal Pokémon in general is so unnecessary. I just don’t quite understand it, most bipedal starters are very well-designed. I also don’t really see the issue with humanoid Pokémon, either. 8. I like Smoochum. I just think she’s the cutest thing! Jynx, not so much. 9. I don’t generally tend to dislike over saturated or over-popularized Pokémon. Take Charizard for instance, while I can recognize and understand why people dislike it do to its preferential treatment, I still very much am fond of Charizard. 10. This is a bit similar to the last one, but the internet will never ruin something for me. Gardevoir, Lopunny, Lucario, etc have all been portrayed in rather interesting ways and thus have acquired certain negative connotations as a result. However, if I like something, I like it and I’m unlikely to be influenced by external sources. I love Lopunny, Gardevoir, Tsareena, etc because they are girlboss Pokémon, and that’s that. 11. Generation five introduced some of the best designed Pokémon, cities, and characters in the entire franchise. 12. I love Chesnaught. Design wise, I prefer Chesnaught to both Delphox and Greninja. |
Here are a few more hot takes that I forgot to mention before. I believe that Cynthia is overrated and is one of the easiest Elite Four Champions to defeat in the entire series and I couldn't care less if a starter Pokémon is bipedal, quadrupedal, or even no pedal.
|
Quote:
Speaking of human characters I find overrated, the entire Paldea Elite Four except Poppy is this for me. It'd be a blessing if I could go on S/V-related fanart website/image boards for once without finding fanart of Rika, Hassel, Larry or any combination of them. None of them struck me as particularly pleasant (in fact my hatred of both Hassel and Larry began months before release, when they were just leaked) and I find it kind of baffling that they're so popular. |
Quote:
|
I can assure you all that yes, I am a straight male, but I never found the Scarle proffessor attractive at all… never did, she just seemed like a jerk to me and overall just don’t care much.
|
Quote:
|
Legends: Arceus is the best Pokémon game that's sort of mainline since Platinum. I like Black and White and all, the last main game I truly enjoyed, but I actually liked Legends more.
|
| All times are GMT -8. The time now is 9:19 PM. |
![]()
© 2002 - 2018 The PokéCommunity™, pokecommunity.com.
Pokémon characters and images belong to The Pokémon Company International and Nintendo. This website is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo, Creatures, GAMEFREAK, The Pokémon Company or The Pokémon Company International. We just love Pokémon.
All forum styles, their images (unless noted otherwise) and site designs are © 2002 - 2016 The PokéCommunity / PokéCommunity.com.
PokéCommunity™ is a trademark of The PokéCommunity. All rights reserved. Sponsor advertisements do not imply our endorsement of that product or service. User generated content remains the property of its creator.
Acknowledgements
Use of PokéCommunity Assets
vB Optimise by DragonByte Technologies Ltd © 2023.