- Mon Feb 01, 2021 3:46:07 pm
#56845
I think most like Totodile due to the anime, tbh. For me, Litten is too high because of Incineroar. Without Incineroar, Litten is in a good spot. If you include every starter's first, second, and third stage separately in a list, Incineroar would just be left off of it and not even be in last place. We don't need another bipedal final evo for the fire type, and this Tony the Tiger rip-off is an insult to Litten and Torracat. I don't even acknowledge his existence in Smash. Worst Final Evo for me by far. You seem to like him a lot though, so I'll leave him alone and won't bash or critique him further. I mainly like the Tepig line just for Tepig only. Pignite is ugly and Emboar gets too much hate, but it isn't a top tier final evo. I'll address your points now:
1 - You shouldn't look solely at OU; of course Dragon types would be higher in Gen 5 meta since only Ice and other Dragon moves would do anything super-effective against them. I'd argue more Dragon types were needed since every type should have a good amount of representation, and it shouldn't be a type just left for mostly legendaries and pseudo-legendaries. On your point about adding the Fairy type for balancing purposes, that's what Dark and Steel did too in Gen 2. Psychic was broken in Gen 1 so Dark types did the trick to help balance Psychic types. Every new type is added simply for game balance.
2 - You are right that Gen 5 did not give new mechanics (However I think you could make a case that Hidden Abilities were a good consideration if you had to find something as a new mechanic, especially since you seem really focused on competitive meta), but is that really a bad thing nothing was added? One problem I have with newer gens is that they add too big new mechanics. Don't fix what isn't broke. The first two gens can't really have a good meta, Gen 3 is still not the best because of mechanics existing still like switching your Pokemon into battle as soon as they faint as opposed to when the turn ends, Gen 4 is where a healthy competitive meta finally builds up, especially during the HG/SS years when it was easy to pass down IV's during breeding thanks to the Power items. Gen 5 is when competitive battles start to take priority and really focused on by TPCi and they're done well, even if Landorus and Weather and Rocks are abused (side note; waiting for that SR nerf). Anyway on topic, Gen 6/7/8 have mechanics which seem more worse than the last. I actually love Mega Evolutions as a concept, but some just got more broken than others, so it isn't fully flawless. Z-Moves were smart on paper but dumb in practice, and then Dynamax is fucking stupid overall and I agree with the ban that Smogon had. We don't need kaiju fighting. I'd rather a gen not introduce new mechanics than to introduce stupid mechanics, especially with Sword and Shield's main mechanic being detrimental to the meta. You don't need new game mechanics every gen, and that's one thing I actually like about Gen 5.
3 - Team Plasma is one of the best villain teams. I'll agree that the doomsday teams which don't really have a strong motive (or have a dumb motive) are hot garbage, but this is not one of them. Ghetsis was fake, but his followers weren't and believed in the PETA-like message, and it felt very real as an IRL question which some have posed. Neo-Team Plasma sucks in philosophy since they just turned into generic bad guys, but their costumes are better. Team Plasma sucks in terms of literal design if you meant the outfits. In terms of their in-game philosophies and what they're doing though, is amazing. Top 3 favourite team for me. Some concepts though are overkill like the Sages, those were fat that could have been trimmed from the final product.
4 - I agree with you there.
5 - That is a fact, and it is a shame since they could have just left it alone and didn't need to add Fighting onto the fire starter 3 gens in a row. Sort of why I hate Cinderace's HA since combined with its movepool makes it a pseudo Fire/Fighting type. Also part of a reason why I hate Incineroar's design so much even if it is Dark type.
6 - The whole concept of Black and White was like a return to Gen 1. First region based off a place outside of Japan, most new Pokemon introduced, etc. It was an homage on purpose, to try and replicate the feeling of the first Gen, and I think they did it alright. Only a couple Pokemon are powercreep worthy to their Gen 1 counterparts, like Amoonguss to Parasect. Now, designs are subjective and can't fully be argued, but most of the time people who say things like "oMg ItS jUsT aN iCe CrEaM cOnE" don't realize that Pokemon designs have always been just like that. Geodude is a fucking rock with eyes, a mouth, and arms, and on paper that sounds super uninspiring, but you never hear anyone complain about Geodude the way you hear complaints about Vanillite. There are bad designs in every generation, including Gen 5, but I don't think the majority of them are bad.
7 - Alright I won't discuss this much on the board and we can take it to the Discord server or our PMs if we want to continue this since Point 7 brings up sensitive issues, but I'll just say that except for talking about the design of the Cottonee, this whole point is such a fucking stretch that it is laughable, I can hardly take it seriously. Like, you could have said something about Lenora, which is genuinely questionable and problematic and I'd definitely have given you that, but to talk about the designs of the Pokemon and about the game exclusive aspect of it? This ain't Pokemon Caucasian and African-American Versions.
I hope you'll come lurk with us!
