What are your unpopular opinions in pokemon?

Saw this mentioned earlier in the thread, so I figured I would comment on it: we need to stop comparing every single Pokemon game to Breath of the Wild, which some people consider the greatest game ever made. That is a ridiculously high standard. People did this with Sword and Shield and BDSP (which I can’t comprehend because general Pokemon games are absolutely nothing like Zelda) and now they’re doing it with Arceus. Pokemon was never, ever compared to Zelda until Sword and Shield. Now all of a sudden, every game that comes out is contrasted with BOTW. It doesn’t make any sense.

I also don’t see where @kurodu is seeing all of these positive reviews. I’m seeing a ton of negative reception to the game, largely because people are hating on the graphics.

In my personal opinion, the whole “the graphics aren’t good” (I think the Arceus graphics are fine) and “it isn’t BOTW” is a product of groupthink. Hating on Pokemon games (particularly the graphics) has become the cool thing to do. Even if Pokemon releases a game where the graphics are even better than BOTW, people will still poke fun at the graphics because it’s what their minds have been trained to do. This started around the time of Sun and Moon and has only gotten worse with some of the most ridiculous complaints like people actually boycotting the games because of the absence of voice acting (seriously?).

People will say “I know we don’t play Pokemon for the graphics BUT the graphics should be better” and then turn around and spend hours playing Minecraft. More evidence in my mind that it’s groupthink more than anything else.

Like, it’s funny how much everyone complained about Sword and Shield, but yet the games have sold 23.9 million copies to this date, placing them behind Red and Blue as the second-best selling games in the franchise. People whined and moaned about the trailers and the previews, but yet they went and bought the games anyway lol.

People in general just want something to complain about.

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@mjs61290, I think its obvious pokemon games are rushed or have significant less work than compared to other nintendo games which makes sense since all pokemon merch (which is what its all about lets be honest) revolves around a new pokemon game every 2 years or so. I think pokemon games are perfectly deserving of criticism. If theyre gonna make them AAA 60 dollar console games, the product should reflect that, which it doesnt. The original pokemon games were revolutionary and took iirc 6 years to make so its sad to see what its become. Also yes people will complain and yes it sells well because a lot of the people are complaining arent the ones buying it. And even if you do buy it, you cant criticize a game you bought? Please.

Also as a side note a pokemon game doesn’t NEED amazing graphics, it can be stylized, but the arceus game is clearly a result of poor effort. It looks exactly like a wii game that shoulda came out over 10 years ago because it was undoubtedly rushed.

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BotW set the bar extremely high for the switch right out of the gate. The game became the most successful mainstream open-world experience Nintendo has ever put out - it was a launch title after all, and sold extremely well. Zelda games were never like BotW either, so comparing the two is apples to oranges. But it told consumers the Nintendo Switch could take what’s known and transform it into something new and exciting, just like BotW did to the Zelda franchise. Hence why everything is compared to BotW, and the term “BotW moment” was created.

Mario, Fire Emblem and Smash Bros got their BotW moment, and Kirby is getting its BotW moment. SONIC of all things is getting a BotW moment too. Pokemon just got its BotW moment with Arceus, and to me its painfully obvious they borrowed heavily from the actual design of BotW. Everything from the art style, sound and music direction, UI setup, even down to the marketing for the game made this clear. Your player character wakes up without their memory, “ninjas” randomly appearing in the overworld and attacking you, the ride Pokemon function is akin to the champion’s powers function in BotW, bag storage needs to be unlocked, mineable ore and trees are the only spots for resources, wisps are literally Korok seeds and the hints for Unown are a twist on BotW’s hints for memories…normally one would chalk these similarities up to nothing more than coincidences or necessary game design, but there’s just too many parallels for that to be the case. Arceus intentionally and blatantly copied BotW’s game design, so of course people are going to compare it to BotW. And the game unfortunately falls flat on its face at every comparison, so of course you’re going to see bad reviews. What Arceus gets right is what it doesn’t copy from BotW - the catching/battling gameplay and the Pokemon. Everything else is just…poorly made.

SwSh only started to receive large amounts of criticism when Gamefreak announced the national dex was cut. I was watching that livestream, and as soon as the words were spoken, the chat went ballistic. The devs stated the dex was cut to provide “higher quality animations” and “balancing”, so naturally people looked right at those alleged animations. When the animations turned out to be the exact same since XY, all the hate came crashing down. While other series were improving on the switch, for many people it felt like Pokemon was regressing. Whether you agree with that or not is irrelevant, because we are talking about other people’s opinions. I was critical of the game but bought it anyway. I enjoyed it but would not play it again. Out of my friend group I’m the only one who enjoyed it. Everyone else found it too lackluster and because of that, a majority of my friends refuse to buy Arceus.

We could sit and debate why then SwSh sold so well, but here are the facts: the Nintendo Switch is the best selling Nintendo console, and best selling Nintendo system beating out everything except the DS. Red/Blue were the very first Pokemon games, and SwSh were the first Pokemon games on the Switch. If sales were to indicate how good a game is, then Red and Blue would be considered the greatest Pokemon games of all time. The greater community however believes Emerald, Platinum, HGSS, and BW2 are the top 4… and the sales for these games are in the bottom third of all mainline Pokemon titles. If sales equate to how well a game is made, whether that be story, content, graphics/art direction, gameplay…any one of these games would have sold much higher OR would instead be considered much worse games. Fan reception is a good measurement of how good a game is, and the latter four titles have all been received extremely well by fans compared to SwSh. Actually, there’s really no comparison.

I agree though that most Pokemon fans can’t be pleased, and complain just to complain. But sometimes there is solid reasoning behind a complaint, and its not just a “hive mind” when a lot of people disagree with you. Nothing wrong with that either, we are all entitled to our own opinions and that’s a beauty of humanity.

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Legends Arceus is certainly not perfect. But to suggest that the graphics are comparable to Wii graphics is ridiculous. Maybe not you specifically @wooltchi, but a lot of the people I see complaining about graphics haven’t seen the game run on Switch for themselves. I’m thinking this criticism is coming from people who have only watched gameplay on Youtube. With the sheer amount of compression that Youtube puts videos through on upload, it does a huge disservice to gameplay content in terms of graphics portayal. What people see on Youtube is NOT what Legends Arceus looks like on the actual Switch. I’m actually very shocked that people are complaining about the graphics so much, and agree that it’s a product of groupthink and typical, internet, echo chamber complaining. I would say Legends Arceus is not only great looking, but one of the most innovative Pokemon games ever made, aside from the originals. They have literally reimagined what a full-feature Pokemon game can be, and set the innovative groundwork for ridiculously rich and immersive gameplay going forward. Sorry, but I love the game, and am very excited for the future. At this point, a return to the traditional formula of classic Pokemon games would honestly be disappointing to me, unless they were released alongside corresponding “Legends of” games. THAT’s how good the game is. To miss out on a game this good just because others think the game looks bad is a huge misstep for anyone.

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@kromaticlanturn, while I cant speak about graphics on switch as compared to a youtube video, I will say the only reason this game is innovative is because of how far behind modern pokemon games are. I’ll be impressed when they actually ditch the archaic turn based combat.

I don’t see the reason NOT to compare this new game to BotW. As mentioned, everything from the visuals to the sound to the gameplay has clear inspiration from BotW. There’s nothing wrong with this, but the game does lend itself to a direct comparison to BotW because of this. It’s not like this was an entirely predicable outcome from the second they announced the game.

I also don’t subscribe to the logic that a best selling game is somehow beyond criticism or that makes it immune from being a low quality game. It says more about the masochistic devotion and huge following of the franchise than it does about the actual quality of the game.

Overall, there are definitely a lot of critical opinions of modern Pokemon games, some more valid than others. I think most are rooted in a frustration that Pokemon can and should do better. I just see that as people advocating for a higher standard of quality and from that perspective I just don’t see it as a problem. It’s not hard to just buy the game and have fun and just block out the noise if you disagree with it.

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Fair point

Interesting take, and definitely unpopular haha. I think there will always be a market for grading because people are not nearly as authoritative on condition as PSA. When you buy a PSA 9, sure you can argue it should be an 8 or a 10, but very few are actually deserving of an over 1-point difference from the given grade. When I get a PSA 9, I am confirmed to have a pretty mint card. If it is egregiously off, I can send it to PSA and I get the difference in price from its old grade to its new grade. There are far too many people on ebay who slide their raw card on the pavement and then list it as NM. Also especially with vintage sports, having the authentication alone is worth the price of a slab. Vintage cards are far too easy to fake. I will never buy an 86 Fleer Jordan raw because for every real raw card, there are 10 fakes.

I agree that comparing BDSP or SWSH to BOTW is silly, but I think Arceus is a fair comparison because it is an open-world, adventure-fantasy nintendo game. When you make a certain style of game, it will be compared to the best of that type of game, and that is how it should be. Every new platformer is compared to mario, and every new open world adventure will be compared to BOTW.

Minecraft is not a good comparison imo because it is intentionally blocky. Arceus made actual tree renderings and such, but just happened to make them feel like a game from 2008. Every game doesn’t have to be as good as BOTW, but to see a similar style game take such a huge step back in only a few years is jarring. I agree that everyone wants to complain. We are both doing it right now.

I really don’t care what the pop of a card is. I guess if you’re selling it, rarity makes something more valuable to others on the market, and it’s worth considering…but that doesn’t change how much I like the card! To me the fact that others decided to submit a card to a grading company makes no difference to how precious I think the card is

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Authentication is a little different- that I can understand wanting a 3rd party for. I’m just talking about evaluating condition.

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It’s definitely one of the better ones.

I agree! Recently, I’ve bought some raw cards all rated mint in the listing. Upon receiving em, the cards are clearly not mint. At least with the big grading companies, the grades are more consistent. Authentication is even more important

Yep I played breath of the wild not for me. I think Pokemon legends arceus will not be for me. I find huge 3D open worlds game boring, not my type of game, that is what I compare.I do like 2d Zelda games though but do find the classic 2d Pokémon boring now :open_mouth:

I don’t understand the appeal of paying more for a PSA 1 vs a 2 or 3. I do understand grading your beat up Charizard from your childhood and keeping it forever. But buying someone else’s beat up card and paying more for it makes no sense.

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Big brain move is to buy semi played charizards, then beat them up yourself to make sure they get a PSA 1.

I’m sure this has been said more than once in this massive thread. But the longer I’ve been in this hobby, the more turned off I am by graded cards. Cards belong in a binder.

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No! It belongs in a museum!

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This is a hot take that I know I couldnt post on insta without starting major shit. May be different here.

NOBODY grades their cards for “protection”. I hear this all the time, and I swear its just hipsters trying to convince themselves they aren’t grading their cards for profit. “I’m not increasing its value cuz I used XYZ grading!” Right, you made an even dumber decision and are now trying to justify it. Changes nothing.

Sub take: There isn’t a single reason to grade a Pokemon card other than increasing its value. Cases aren’t waterproof, can all crack relatively easily, and don’t protect from sunlight. There are actual, cheaper ways to protect your cards from damage, the sun, and water. Nobody does them.

I will say though, I don’t see anything wrong with wanting to increase the value of your collection. However, people stating that they grade their cards for any other reason are simply lying in my opinion.

I guess you found the right thread for this… then again I suppose this is less of an opinion and more of an easily falsifiable claim.

I have sent off multiple cards for grading that I either never have an intention of selling or that are absolutely not worth selling even after grading. It’s one thing to claim that YOU only grade for money but to apply that to literally every single other person who is not you is a pretty drastic claim

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