What Are Your Pokemon Hot Takes?

[ForsetiMaster06]

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.

 

[ambam]

I usually prefer bipedal Pokemon to quadrupedal ones. Lots of bipedal hate going on right now and I just don't get it.

 

[ForsetiMaster06]

I usually prefer bipedal Pokemon to quadrupedal ones. Lots of bipedal hate going on right now and I just don't get it.

I think the hate is a byproduct of burnout of that kind of design, especially among starters. The Fuecoco line is the first ever 4-legged starter since Gen 5, so I guess people miss the design variety of older gen starters. I don't mind bipedal Pokemon myself (my favorite Pokemon is one) but I think on average their designs are not quite as good as other Pokemon.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

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.

 

[Orion☆]

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.

 

[Explorer of Time]

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.

 

[SquirmyWorm064]

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.

I disagree that mega evolutions were the worst gimmick. They had the best designs and made much more sense then why they made the gigantimax or terastelize gimmick. Pokemon has been running out of ideas once Sun and Moon came out

 

[Squirtkipfan01]

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)

 

[Adam's IQ]

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.

I honestly love how alike we are. Regional, Paradox and those Ultra Beasts too, they can disappear and I would be happy. All it does is reskin an old one into new attire. And Legends was a game I could care less about since I had zero interest from the start. The moment they said it took place in the ancient past I was already checked out.

 

[moon]

I usually prefer bipedal Pokemon to quadrupedal ones. Lots of bipedal hate going on right now and I just don't get it.

me too, haha


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.

 

[Corveone]

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.

I usually prefer bipedal Pokemon to quadrupedal ones. Lots of bipedal hate going on right now and I just don't get it.

It's not necessarily dislike towards bipedal, but for being too human-like. Plenty of mons, including many starters from the first gens, were bipedal while still retaining a monster attitude, unlike these human-esque stereotypes such as a football player, wrestler, dancer, etc. whose stances, movement, and/or attacks are based on literal humans' behavior.

 

[Nah]

-Legends Arceus made team building better than any main game.

What makes you say this exactly? Not asking out of agreement or disagreement, just that what makes certain Pokemon games better/worse for teambuilding is not something I've thought about much.

 

[ambam]

It's not necessarily dislike towards bipedal, but for being too human-like. Plenty of mons, including many starters from the first gens, were bipedal while still retaining a monster attitude, unlike these human-esque stereotypes such as a football player, wrestler, dancer, etc. whose stances, movement, and/or attacks are based on literal humans' behavior.

I can completely understand that, but if that's the issue, why don't people just say that? I see many people specifically use the word bipedal when talking about Pokemon design traits they dislike (See the whole "keep Sprigatito a quadruped" thing before S/V's release). Maybe they're just confusing being bipedal with being human-like, Idk...

 

[ForsetiMaster06]

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.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

What makes you say this exactly? Not asking out of agreement or disagreement, just that what makes certain Pokemon games better/worse for teambuilding is not something I've thought about much.

I'm assuming because Pokémon Legends: Arceus lacks EVs, IVs, and abilities, things that casual players typically believe are too complicated. In my opinion, it just makes the game boring.

 

[Corveone]

What makes you say this exactly? Not asking out of agreement or disagreement, just that what makes certain Pokemon games better/worse for teambuilding is not something I've thought about much.

I mean it's better because the developers put some sense behind the mechanics involved in building your team and making your Pokémon stronger.

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.

 

[Squirtkipfan01]

Actually based opinion that i never really QUITE thought about

 

[Sweet Serenity]

I mean it's better because the developers put some sense behind the mechanics involved in building your team and making your Pokémon stronger.

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.

Yet, nothing that you mentioned would help improve your team or truly make your Pokémon stronger when playing competitively. The reason this "worked" for Pokémon Legends: Arceus is because it is a single-player game for causal players that battle against NPCs, whom are much more likely to have Pokémon that are much weaker than your own without advanced AI. It shouldn't be incorporated anywhere near a mainline Pokémon game with a competitive scene. If this same system was incorporated with competitive Pokémon, then every other player would have the same Heracross, for example, with the same level of strength, which removes the individuality and would affect the overall game negatively. For instance, even if you believed that you made your Heracross "super strong," other players will definitely be doing the exact same thing, meaning that your Heracross is not "super strong" anymore. Instead, this ruins things, such as by making it even more luck based and overall pointless because nearly every Pokémon would be capable of doing the exact same thing. The entire premise of Pokémon is to be the best Pokémon trainer. The EV system represents the way that you train your train Pokémon and the IV system represents their potential.

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.

 

[Orion☆]

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.

 

[Corveone]

Yet, nothing that you mentioned would help improve your team or truly make your Pokémon stronger when playing competitively. The reason this "worked" for Pokémon Legends: Arceus is because it is a single-player game for causal players that battle against NPCs, whom are much more likely to have Pokémon that are much weaker than your own without advanced AI.

Not everything is about competitive. My point is about game design, don't know why you take criticism over team building mechanics so personal and argue argue about any arguments against IVs/EVs because you're a pro who loves competitive, and those who criticize those aspects are apparently just lazy casuals who don't understand how things work.

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.

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.

Having a 31 IV Gengar with 252 Sp. Attack and 252 Speed doesn't make anyone a better trainer, just someone who spent a lot of time grinding, which has nothing to do with skills. And it won't make that Gengar any special either because there will be tons of Gengars out there with identical or very similar stats. You can make your Pokémon or your team as a whole special in different ways, yet none of that has anything to do with IVs. Your point applies to EVs, because those do require some thinking and strategy and allow for different builds, but not to IVs.

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.

Anybody can win by simply copying what is most common.

Something that the current system has not prevented from happening, at all.

Spoiler:

The entire premise of Pokémon is to be the best Pokémon trainer. The EV system represents the way that you train your train Pokémon and the IV system represents their potential.

That's just your personal take. Pokémon has different premises, and not everyone cares so much about being or having the best. Pokémon is an advanced rock paper scissors in which every Pokémon, and every team, is supposed to beat others while being beaten by some others. All you can do is try to build a team that can overcome different challenges and win as much as possible, but there is no best anything because every trainer, Pokémon, team, and strategy is expected to be countered by something else, no matter how good they are, and even luck plays a large part. And if something is so broken that very few things can counter it, then it has to be banned or rebalanced accordingly because that's not supposed to happen.

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.

Sounds like you're worried about the competitive player base growing larger, as your VIP circle becomes accessible to more players and may be eventually contaminated by tons of casuals who didn't earn the right to be there. The only reason to perceive changes like no longer forcing players to level up all the way to level 100, or somewhat toning down other grindy and time consuming tasks as something negative, is because it feels bad that other players will be able to enter the competitive scene without investing as much heavy work and time sink as you do. But, as you can't possibly ignore, lots of players hack IVs, shinies, and all they want and build competitive teams in minutes using external tools anyway, so players building teams with minimal effort (which they probably wouldn't if team building mechanics were more fun and enjoyable) has allways been a thing.

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.