#Gamefreak why can’t I adjust the toppings

[stuffifindoutside]

Ah yes, some good fucking food.

[crystalelemental]

Oh yeah, Sword and Shield removed moves on top of Pokemon.  Most are...fairly forgettable.  I do wonder what fills in for them.  Like, with Karate Chop and Magnitude gone, what early-to-mid-game Ground and Fighting type moves are things going to learn?  In a competitive sense, they’re useless, but they’re pretty useful as high PP moves for main game.  So their removal is...odd.

That said, there are some big ones, like Signal Beam and the like.  But there are three move removals that...wow.  Wow, are you serious with these?  That’s really ill-advised.  Technically it’s four moves, but...you’ll see.

In increasing order of stupid:

3) Return/Frustration.  This is such a weird choice.  I could get removing Frustration, but Return too?  That’s meant to be a free, Normal type attack that gets good base damage, that literally anything can learn.  And it’s just...gone now.  Why?  In a competitive sense, it’s not a massive loss?  Like, thing with Aerilate and similar abilities suffer, but most physical ones that use it were Megas, and they’re all dead now.  Really, the only ones truly suffering here are Normal types.  Who...kinda suffer enough already.  What’s the next best Normal move?  Body Slam, I guess, but that’s a TR.  So possibly limited to one each playthrough.  This feels like a really, really poor decision.

2) Hidden Power.  The one I’m angriest about, personally.  Hidden Power is frustrating to get correct, but super useful.  I can’t blame people for hating it in-game, as getting the correct values was a pain in the ass.  Breeding took forever with this, but that’s a reason to let Bottlecaps fine-tune IVs instead of maxing them out; you can adjust the Hidden Power that way and everyone wins.

The main issue I take here is for Grass types.  Listen...Grass type sucks.  It’s the worst in the game next to Ice types.  A huge part of that is because Grass gets no coverage options.  They get support, like Leech Seed and status moves, but Grass as an attacking type hits three types super-effectively, and is resisted by SEVEN TYPES.  You can’t hit a damn thing with Grass moves!  Which is why Hidden Power is so essential, because they don’t get coverage!  Roserade went from having Flamethrower with HP Fire and Technician, to only having Giga Drain and Sludge Bomb.  Technician is useless for it now!  Lilligant?  Sure, she’s not in the game, but mine was only ever as effective as she was because HP Fire existed.  Now it’s removed from the game entirely, and what fills the void?  Well...nothing.  At all.  Ever.  Which sucks, not just because Grass types now have 0 coverage options, but because competitively, what does Grass do?  Sure, Grass can come in on other Grass types, with their immunity to Leech Seed and powder moves, but...that’s it.  The only Grass types that can function now are those that can have any form of coverage.  That’s not a good look.  Not to mention there’s now no way around Steel types without HP Fire, no way around Fire types without HP Ground, and no way around Flying types without HP Rock.  At least when you had one of those picks, that was something.  And this doesn’t even touch on Psychic types.  If you don’t like relying on Focus Miss?  Too bad, HP Fighting is dead and gone.  I seriously hope more things got Aura Sphere.  But they didn’t.

1) Pursuit.  Now, I suck at competitive.  This is known.  A large portion of proof for that is that I can’t Pursuit trap.  I don’t understand it, I’ve never pulled it off, and it’s so far out of my ability that I honestly feel no actual loss on a personal level from its removal.  Now my beloved Psychic types can’t get obliterated whenever a Dark type walks in to the field, because Focus Miss is going to follow its namesake, and switching out means Pursuit death.  So it’s a net gain for me, I suppose.

But I feel like this is a disaster competitively.  Switching in Singles sucks.  It’s obnoxious, but it’s a huge component of the game.  It’s why hazard stacking teams are so effective, and also used by sub-human trash: you die just from switching too much.  Pursuit aides in the limiting of switches, and can punch open holes in a defensive team that relies too heavily on type coverage from a defensive standpoint.  Without that option, it’s going to be a lot harder to punish defensive teams for that over-reliance.  At least, without hazards.  I’d expect this to equate to a higher emphasis on hazard stacking teams, especially since Stealth Rock, the unquestionable best move in the game, received no nerfs whatsoever.

I’m fully convinced this is another move to make Single battles unplayable.  No, for real.  We’ve gotten awful thing after awful thing added to Singles, with more and more Pokemon now receiving abilities that can only be used in Doubles.  I’m convinced this is Pokemon Company and GameFreak again attempting to get people into their shitty Doubles format.  Well it’s not going to work, fuckers.  No amount of damage you do to Singles will ever get me to play Doubles.  You can get me playing Doubles when that’s how you structure your entire game.  Having the entire experience be in Singles format, only to have all of competitive revolve around Doubles, makes no goddamn sense.  Align your playstyles, motherfuckers.  Until then, fuck you.

[0poole]

Alright Let’s Go is imminent

All the previous rants I had about this where left when my last Tumblr account was terminated, so I’ll just fill it back in.

Also I’m feeling the emotions so like

Basically, my general opinion about Pokemon as a whole is very positive. If someone were to ask me what my favorite video game was, I’d just say “Pokemon” because the games are similar enough to each other that I could just group them together, and because I’ve never not liked a Pokemon game I’ve played. I’m a simple man who likes fun and cute girls, and basically every game has done that for me (except for the original gen 2 games and earlier since I’ve never played them and also doubt I’d like them. I do look for good graphics in enjoyment tbh)

Obviously, all of this becomes a problem sometimes, since so many Pokemon “fans” have such stupid reasons for hating some the games... So much of it is just generic “It’s badly designed” or other stuff that’s literally just them saying “I don’t know why I hate it but I might as well try to sound smart” since you can’t just “not like” something nowadays. Not liking something is okay, since people have different wants and opinions, but saying that it’s bad because you don’t like it is such a self-absorbed idea. You’re saying that you’re so well immersed in the specifics of design that you simply going through and feeling negative emotions means that, deep down, it’s a bad game. It’s not.

There’s a serious gap between the consumer and the creator. You can’t just “consume” a bunch of games and then know what makes them good. You can’t just watch a bunch of Youtube videos about game design and know from them either, although that’s a step in the right direction. I don’t know what good game design is either, and I sure as hell won’t pretend that I do.

The biggest, most insulting thing I hear tossed around a lot is that Gamefreak “doesn’t care about their fans,” “is super lazy,” or “isn’t even trying.” This is one of the few times where I’m legitimately insulted on someone else’s behalf, because, even though I’ve never made a game and don’t plan on it, if I did and THAT was the response I got, I would feel like absolute shit. Sure, some Gamefreak executives probably just look at the numbers and do whatever gets them more money, but how the hell can you say that every single person involved in the creation process just doesn’t care, or is just lazy? They’re working on fucking POKEMON for Pete’s sake. How could you not only not enjoy that, but just casually toss something into the wind? That’s also not to mention how fucking ungrateful a lot of fans are. Some people just will not be pleased, and even though you’re trying to find what does, they’ll still hate it no matter what. It’d be aggravating. I’m sure after a while you’d just get used to it, but that obviously doesn’t mean it’s okay. 

Speaking of being ungrateful, with regard to Let’s Go, just be glad you’re getting ANY Pokemon this year. I don’t remember it personally, but apparently there wasn’t even close to a major Pokemon game each year. There were spinoffs of course, but you couldn’t get that mainline itch scratched as much as they are now. People are mad that they’re getting a game that they don’t like, and they’d also be mad if they didn’t get any game at all. It’s like a bunch of whiny babies who will flail their arms if they don’t get exactly what they want.

Again, not all fans are like this, but obviously the vocal ones are.

Going into Let’s Go more specifically, I feel like a lot of people’s complaints are just things that MIGHT be able to be interpreted as negatives, so they then go on and say they’re bad. The big one that definitely leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths, is that the whole “gamer” community seems to have such a gigantic vendetta against mobile games. They’re for the casual gamers, not the HARDCORE #GAMERS like us. They’re simple, and I want complexity. They’re popular, and I want to be unique. It’s fucking insufferable. And then, once they hear that their non-mobile franchise is connecting with a mobile aspect, they go buck fucking wild. How DARE they. How DARE they appeal to more people, and do things that are strictly better for business. That sort of ties in with that one new Diablo game, but that hate is a bit more vindicated since (as far as I understand it) it’s REPLACING the console/PC game, instead of being a sort of tie-in like Let’s Go. Phones definitely aren’t made for major games like that, so I can sort of understand it. Hell, I hate using my phone for normal phone things...

Anyways, a lot of the more specific criticisms are either specifically designed to fit the target audience, or are completely subjective. 

Talking about Let’s Go’s “Target Audience” is a pretty hefty topic, but it’s still a legitimate one. The game is not made for kids, nor for adults. It’s for people who either don’t know Pokemon and want to learn, or people who just want to play a casual, simple, and fun Pokemon game. GO players can fall into either of those categories.

For the former, things like forcing the player to catch certain types Pokemon to get into a gym, removing items and abilities, and especially only having the first 151 (Plus Meltan, Melmetal, and Alolan forms) help in that. There are over 800 Pokemon now, and many more abilities, moves, items, strategies... That’s so much to learn and adjust to for someone who knows nothing about the games. It’s intimidating, so these games help them adjust slowly to those things so they can delve deeper once they’re ready. Hell, personally, I think they shouldn’t have removed abilities and items for that purpose. They’re usually things that lie in the background, and can usually only be strictly good for you in a specific situation. You don’t usually have to work around them too much, meaning you might as well just keep them in so people can get used to them. Does it make the game bad? Not even close. Just because something could be better doesn’t mean they’re bad.

Then for the latter, things like the game being super easy comes to mind. I’ve NEVER enjoyed grinding. NEVER. I have no idea how some people could enjoy grinding. I will turn the EXP Share off from time to time if I feel like I’m at an okay level, but in general it’s super useful for me to not have to go through the painstaking process of fighting little wild Pokemon over and over again. I played through B2W2 recently, and for some reason I ended up super underleveled in that playthrough, and whenever I felt like I couldn’t beat someone, I had to go searching for Audino, running back and forth and back and forth until I saw shaking grass, and even then it wasn’t guaranteed to be there. Rinse and repeat many more times. That’s not fun, and people who think that is fun are one in a million, and honestly I’m jealous. 

Also when it comes to ease, the “Handholding” aspect. That’s the biggest term that’s thrown around nowadays, like it’s the be-all end-all of quality. A lot of the times, it’s not even where people say it is. In Let’s Go, obviously there is handholding, because people want their hands held to adjust to the vast world of Pokemon, as mentioned. But, going back to Gen 7, all of the cutscenes and map markers that point you where to go are NOT handholding. They’re just story. Believe it or not, people IRL will tell you where to go if you need to do something somewhere. That goes into my idea that any kind of story can either be Realistic or Good For Storytelling if they want to be good in quality, and either can be acceptable. But, that’s a rant for another day. Also, I explicitly remember just leaving behind Firered/Leafgreen as a kid because I didn’t know I needed to go to Cinnabar Island, or where to get the tea to give to that one guard. Telling you where you NEED to go is fine because you don’t always HAVE to go straight in that direction. Plus, it’s pretty damn commonplace in other games, so why is it suddenly bad here?

That’s another thought I had about how some people seriously hate some Pokemon games: They’re comparing them to other Pokemon games, not other games as a whole. As far as it seems to me, all Pokemon games are “good games.” Everyone goes to war about which generation is the best, completely forgetting that they all could be so much worse. Like mentioned, a ton of stuff they say is “bad” is very likely just something they don’t like, but either way they’re still so good. My least favorite generation is EASILY Gen 2, but Heartgold and Soulsilver are widely seen as the BEST games, and I can’t blame them. That’s TWO regions! I really only don’t like the Generation because I don’t really like any of the Pokemon, but basically everything else is clearly top-notch, for both a Pokemon game and any old game.

Some other ones:

The “Friendly Rival.” It’s completely subjective whether or not the rival should be an asshole. Saying it’s “bad” and blaming this petty thing for your dislike of the current games is extremely dumb. A lot of the people who say this are just looking for a reason to say something it’s bad, instead of just saying they “don’t like it”

The One-to-one scale replica of the original games. H.. how... How is this a negative? It’s a REMAKE! Sure, it would be nice if they freshened it up a bit, but it’s not necessary! All that “B-but it’s a different console with different needs!” is, again, just you trying to deny that you only don’t like the game. It does have different needs, and they met those needs. The scale of the world isn’t one of those needs.

The two new Pokemon designs (or just any design in general). I’m repeating myself here: You can’t just consume designs and know good designs. Even then, you’re still just trying to sound smart and not emotional. I’ll probably go more in detail about this later, since I’m actually trying to study character design (as much as possible at least) and this is actually where I know some things.

But, I guess the tie-in for all my ideas is that people are angry/worried that Let’s Go will be the future of the franchise. I actually have no idea how fucking stupid those people can be.

It’s not. Not even close.

They EXPLICITLY said that these games are not for hardcore fans, and THEIR game is going to be in 2019. They’re deviating from you people FOR A REASON. THEY KNOW THEY’RE DOING IT, AND THEY ARE NOT GOING TO KEEP IT THIS WAY. Seriously, they make one game that deviates from the norm, and all of a sudden people think that it’s “THE FUTURE OF THE FRANCHISE!!!” Sure, they might end up making Let’s Go versions of Johto or whatever in the future, but if they do then they’ll basically be spinoff-main games for casual people. The main-main games will stay as they are, and likely will become better if this is the case, since all the casual fans will go to Let’s Go, and the non-Let’s Go games can focus even more on the hardcore fans.

All in all, the existence of Let’s Go is an objective positive for the franchise. Stop whining, you’ll get your chance.

I’m gettin Let’s Go Eevee btw. I’m excited, since I’ve never actually played through Kanto in its entirety. I have Firered, but I never really got into it. I obviously know every point of it, but it’s obviously because it’s so famous. I never really liked the Kanto mons, but I can probably forge a team from them nowadays since I haven’t used them as much. I usually try to make teams of Pokemon I haven’t used before, mixed with Pokemon I just genuinely like. So far, I think I’m going to go somewhere along the ways of having Blastoise/Poliwrath, Primape, Nidoking, Dodrio, Rapidash, and obviously Eevee. I don’t know too much about where to find Ponyta, Squirtle, and Poliwag, but I’d say that’s my favorite team possible from the Kanto mons.