Unpopular opinions

Vader_the_White said:
While I've never seen anyone take the opposite opinion, I'm glad that the Game Corner is dead, at least how it was pre-HGSS. I really dislike slot machines as they are a combination of random (which is why I dislike gambling. Also, I pick Flamethrower, etc. over Fire Blast, etc., so that should give you an idea of my feelings on it) and boring (zero imput). I will admit, the only flaw in HGSS's is the fact that the international version doesn't let you buy coins, but at least Voltorb Flip required skill and was rather fun to play.
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I'm actually waiting for slot machines to make their comeback (which they won't for gambling reasons, unfortunately). Voltorb Flip is nice, too, but yeah slot machines take priority. The ones in FRLG I actually had enjoyed because the slot symbols were easily distinguishable enough for me to repeatedly score triple 7s for fun (i.e. Slots do have some skill to them in FRLG). Veilstone Game Corner, home to one of the best tunes in all the games, was one of my favorite stops in Sinnoh for having those cool Clefairy-based Bonus Rounds that kept me around to play for more.

Also a brief shoutout to the Roulette in Mauville Game Corner. I was never good at it, but for some reason I always enjoyed playing it more than the slots there. Same goes for the original Card Flip in Goldenrod.
 
Regarding the gambling views, I don't disagree. I just see battles as gambling, in a sense. Tons of skill is definitely required, but luck just factors in there. Sometimes to ignorant degrees. Same for "true" gambling. There actually is a lot of skill that goes into it. Particularly for the experienced gambler. And different games do require a good amount of skill, knowledge, prediction, and bluffing. Just like battles.

It's just a difference of perspective. It's the skill to luck ratio that sets them apart.
 
Pudding_Pop said:
Regarding the gambling views, I don't disagree. I just see battles as gambling, in a sense. Tons of skill is definitely required, but luck just factors in there. Sometimes to ignorant degrees. Same for "true" gambling. There actually is a lot of skill that goes into it. Particularly for the experienced gambler. And different games do require a good amount of skill, knowledge, prediction, and bluffing. Just like battles.

It's just a difference of perspective. It's the skill to luck ratio that sets them apart.
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Though let's not forget the games are technically rigged. The reels are programmed to slip, infact the Mauville Game Corner's Slot Machine has a bonus mode where the point of it that the reels didn't slip. :P Not to sure if that's the case for the Roulette, but that has a lot of luck to it already so it doesn't need to be rigged like slots which would otherwise be a game of timing.
 
Random Passerby said:
VF was so stupid that there are many times where it had more than 1 possible solutions so you really need to rely on luck. A lot. If the RNG isn't with you, you might flip a Voltorb turn 1 and kiss goodbye to your entire progress. Same reason I didn't play the slots. Plus, they didn't allow you to buy coins this time so have fun getting multiple TMs.
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Still better than slot machines.
Pudding_Pop said:
And...isn't battling technically gambling, since the battles, at the end of the day, are luck based?
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First off, most outcomes of a Pokémon battle are based in skill, both in team building and in battling itself. Luck can be a factor (and can change the outcome of a match at times), but not as much as some people claim.
Two, you can minimize the risk of the RNG hurting you, though sometimes it comes at a cost. Like I said, I use Flamethrower, etc. since I like that 100% acc over the 110 BP of Fire Blast, etc.
Third, unlike slot machines (where there is nothing you can do to affect the outcome), you influence the battle GREATLY. It's not like you are just using Metronome all the time.
Pudding_Pop said:
Regarding the gambling views, I don't disagree. I just see battles as gambling, in a sense. Tons of skill is definitely required, but luck just factors in there. Sometimes to ignorant degrees. Same for "true" gambling. There actually is a lot of skill that goes into it. Particularly for the experienced gambler. And different games do require a good amount of skill, knowledge, prediction, and bluffing. Just like battles.

It's just a difference of perspective. It's the skill to luck ratio that sets them apart.
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There is no to little skill in slots!
 
I'm honestly surprised that slots have such a following, even on the unpopular opinion board. It could be that I never got the hang of them personally, I know there is a tiny bit of skill in timing and long-term betting but I just can't ever seem to wrap my head around anything other than pulling a lever and letting fate decide. Now, if they had a craps table, I'd be all over that! That game is fun!

There was one video-game slots implementation that I like, and that came from the Golden Sun series. To those who played it, remember the Tolbi street fair? You'd use the game tickets you collect to play a few games and the best one was this slot machine. This one was more "fair" for a couple tweaks (hope I got this all right, it's been forever since I played this game):
1. You got three chances to make a match of five.
2. You can match across, down, or diagonally (and you only needed one line to match, out of your 5x5 grid).
3. After pulling the reel, you could "lock" a slot so that it wouldn't move on the next reel, in case you get a few in your favor that you want to "keep" to match up on the next round.

This made the game waaaay more fun and gave it an even balance of skill, risk/reward, and luck. Definitely my favorite gambling mini-game in a Nintendo series. Wish they'd remember Golden Sun more, a new game came out in 2010 and it still didn't even get a trophy in smash bros. (T-T)
 
I think the reason slots have a lot of following was because it was easy to just play it while doing something else like watching a television programme, unlike Voltorb Flip where you really need to devote your attention to solve it. Yes, you may lose coins but by Soft Resetting, you essentially negate the lost anyway. Plus, if you play the slots and got lucky to have lined up 777, it's an easy reward and you can Save Scum it and this can be done from the first round. You can't do that with Voltorb Flip because the payout is pathetic unless you have reached the higher levels (and if you get unlucky to flip Voltorb on your first turn, you need to make your way back all over again). Voltorb Flip also discourages Save Scumming because if you quit the game for whatever reason (Save Scum or need a break or whatever), then you got demoted to Lv1. This is extremely time-consuming. The final nail in the coffin is the removal of the option to BUY COINS. What were they thinking? Not everyone has the patience to play this "skill" (read: luck) -reliant game.
 
Here is an unpopular opinion: gen 5 wasn't the best generation. Quite a lot of people on this site seem to like and even say it was the best. Competitively, It probably was but I didn't like pokemon black and white as much as some pokemon games.
 
The_Emperor said:
Here is an unpopular opinion: gen 5 wasn't the best generation. Quite a lot of people on this site seem to like and even say it was the best. Competitively, It probably was but I didn't like pokemon black and white as much as some pokemon games.
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Competitively Black and White is actually one the least popular. Just walk into an OU thread and say "weather wars" [Disclaimer: Please do not do this]

And in terms of sales Black and While stands about in the middle ground at about 15 million units sold, out performing X and Y's 14 million but under-performing to Diamond and Pearl's 17 million. It's about tied with Ruby and Sapphire's 16 million though (I've been rounding down). As a "third version," Black 2 White 2 actually is the best selling at 8.52 million (except Yellow 14 million) which is pretty impressive since Third Versions don't really put up that high of numbers. It loses to all the remakes that all get over 10 million units sold (ORAS currently has 11 million).

Now, there is some obscurity to these numbers in that obviously older games have more time to sell units but on the flip side the majority of a game's sales occur in the first two years on the market and then fall off hard afterwards. And ''units sold" isn't a 100% translation to "popularity," since as you can see Diamond and Pearl has done the best after Gameboy Color "Pokemania" era (can't really top 33 million R/G/B units sold) while D/P is seen as relatively unpopular at the moment, especially in regards to all fixes Platinum brought.

Personally, while I viewed Black and White as a welcome breath of fresh air to the series, and I appreciated what they were trying to do with the deeper story focus, it just came off as preachy and very linear to me. I'm also mixed on the moving Pokemon sprites, some of them looked more like a pixelated mess and they weren't very reactive (as opposed to our current 3D models which have a TON of life to them).

I did really like the design of Unova (very Earthbound, I love it) and all the post-game content of B2W2, definitely the best bang for your buck after the story finished (HG/SS is a close second, mostly due to the post-game level gap making accessing said content more difficult).
 
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Reasons to like b2w2, no matter at wich part of the game you are, there is always something to do.

Heck their endgame is the best we have gotten in the entire franchise and their dexes made the replayabilty value huge, I mean platinum has a bigger challenge element in some self imposed challenges but unova has a superior sense of freedom despite it being a bubble experience, it's partially due to the lack of geographic shit slowing you down that the roadblocks feel downplayed despite still being there for linearity sake.
 
Norne said:
Reasons to like b2w2, no matter at wich part of the game you are, there is always something to do.

Heck their endgame is the best we have gotten in the entire franchise and their dexes made the replayabilty value huge, I mean platinum has a bigger challenge element in some self imposed challenges but unova has a superior sense of freedom despite it being a bubble experience, it's partially due to the lack of geographic shit slowing you down that the roadblocks feel downplayed despite still being there for linearity sake.
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Am I the only one who liked Pokestar Studios?
 
stage7_4 said:
Competitively Black and White is actually one the least popular. Just walk into an OU thread and say "weather wars" [Disclaimer: Please do not do this]
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AAAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry, I was the guy who chose Sand in a format dedicated to Rain (tell me I'm wrong...before the release of X and Y, which oddly caused a shift in how Generation V OU was played). Still did very well, though.
The_Emperor said:
Am I the only one who liked Pokestar Studios?
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While I didn't play it as much as I should have, I loved the idea of Pokéstar Studios. I also loved how your Pokémon got a special animation if you completed a movie with it. I actually sat and did a film for all six members of my Sand team just so they would all have it. It was awesome.
 
Don't know how unpopular this actually is, but I can't think of where else to post this and I'd like to rant on it.

TPCi or whoever is in charge of organizing events and rulesets for VGC or tournaments has no real clue what they're doing. There's the most recent elephant in the room with the Mascots and Primals being allowed in, but it's just the latest in a line of blunders. Beforehand, the format chosen (4 v 4 Doubles with Item Clause and mostly Mystics and Mascots banned) was horribly centralized by the mons comprising "CHALK", and it took until now for anything to change at all, to say nothing of changing for better or worse. The hack checks are incredibly flimsy and inconsistent both for the tournaments and Pokemon Bank, one of the most notable being the infamous Dream Ball Aegislash. For that matter, my own college club has gone over how to use tools like PKhex simply because Hacking for stats is not going to get caught and it's necessary to be competitive.

Since I do most of my battling on a simulator I don't object to hacking for legal mons to build a team, but it belies something I hate more: The Pentagon rule. The obvious intent is to bar mons from prior gens, but why?

- Is it because of mons that were hacked then? People are just going to hack things that do have the Pentagon now, so it doesn't stem hacking itself.

- Is it to deal with RNG abuse? I personally don't think it's worth it since Hacking is still available and abusable, and RNG abuse is a gray-er zone since it doesn't "Alter" anything already done.

- Is it a way to bar combinations only legal in prior gens like Dream World moves or certain Legendaries with HA's? That seems like an extremely specific set of targets, viable/broken or not, for such a blanket ban.


Most of the restrictions, balance wise or just for "legality/legitimacy", just feel really half-assed, whether out of laziness in inception or genuine intent to work that no one thought through.
 
Doubles is there to avoid stall, nothing also nothing more. At best you can hope for a 3v3 but that opens the you fucked up can of worms with certain Megas on their most centralized form.

Kind of wish they did a 6v6 with mythicals allowed and no item restriction, even if it degraded into a sash fest or stall vs stall.
 
I vaguely remember hearing from someone that the switch to Doubles was to deal with Wobbuffet vs. Wobbuffet especially before they changed Struggle recoil (The two would typically not do enough damage via struggle and recoil that you would probably heal completely via leftovers)
 
pika pal said:
For that matter, my own college club has gone over how to use tools like PKhex simply because Hacking for stats is not going to get caught and it's necessary to be competitive.
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It is NOT necessary to be competitive, at least if you don't want to use Legends (and it is possible to build strong teams without using a single Legendary).

On the pentagon, while it might be partially meant to limit hacking, I think it might be more along the line of why Mythicals are banned: a more even playing ground. There are moves that are only obtainable through past events or through older games and it does make the playing field even if people without access to those older games can make the same teams as those with them.
 
To expand what Vader_the_White said, remember how Wish is used on Chanseys and Blisseys on the site's analysis? Well, the only Wish Chansey event was ALL the way back in Gen III and it was an extremely RARE event too. In addition, before Gen VI, Seismic Toss was only available on Chansey via Move Tutor in FRLG. I'm certain there are other moves like this *cough*Defog*cough* so I can see why pentagon status would make things more even.
 
Darth Manaphy said:
To expand what Vader_the_White said, remember how Wish is used on Chanseys and Blisseys on the site's analysis? Well, the only Wish Chansey event was ALL the way back in Gen III and it was an extremely RARE event too. In addition, before Gen VI, Seismic Toss was only available on Chansey via Move Tutor in FRLG. I'm certain there are other moves like this *cough*Defog*cough* so I can see why pentagon status would make things more even.
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If so, wouldn't the more sensible move was to MAKE THOSE MOVES / MONS AVAILABLE? By limiting access to moves (read:Defog) or event moves, you are forcing people to resort to sub-par sets instead of a better set.
 
Random Passerby said:
If so, wouldn't the more sensible move was to MAKE THOSE MOVES / MONS AVAILABLE? By limiting access to moves (read:Defog) or event moves, you are forcing people to resort to sub-par sets instead of a better set.
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That would imply that those in charge of VGC would make a reasonable decision. I mean, they've banned Phione, which is banned simply because it can't be obtained normally, despite the fact that it isn't strong at all.
Also, Defog isn't that useful in VGC as entry hazards aren't that useful. Similar case with Wish and Chansey/Blissey.
 
Over the years Pokemon had released I'd say hundreds of Pokemon who know a move they don't normally learn (and that's not even mentioning the Pokemon who learned a move in a past generation it lost access to). Be it from another game, event, or an additional feature like the Dream World, over time it had created many Pokemon which is being used that people aren't going to have easy access to. The pentagon allows them to clean the slate, leave no stone un-turned.

Of course with that all said I would say maybe they should have looked through many of the popular ones and decide whether to actually give that Pokemon the move. I mean sure you originally gave that Pokemon a move for a special reason, but at the same time you just wiped the slate clean so that excuse no longer needs to apply. Also there was a reason you gave that Pokemon the move, aside from the obvious ones like Victini having the Tao Dragon's Signature Moves or Rayquaza having V-Create, why not give the ones which make sense normally? I don't see why the Chansey family can't get Wish as an Egg/Tutor Move. You're going to make Defog a HM again in the Gen IV remakes so why beat around the bush and just make it a Tutor Move until then?
 
New Unpopular Opinion.

I don't want easy access Defog because I don't want Gliscor to be able to run it with Poison Heal.
 
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