Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

@TrainerRosa Not to mention Lumiose City was the biggest and most ambitious urban environment in the series to date. Loved the way the game actually shifted camera angles to increase this feeling of scope.. And yeah, that shift to 3D battles at the time was massive.

Also had the best in-game multiplayer suite of any of the mainline games.

And the OST is probably one of the best in the series.

X/Y really felt like it was flexing the 3DS hardware in the best ways.

X and Y got the short end of the stick, given that it was the first 3D pokemon. They had to cut tons of content and cut a bunch of story content as well.

Also, Black and White was the start of the series getting more linear, but I still love those games. The more linear structure didn’t bother me, given the game still lets you breath and play it. The routes still have places to explore despite the game guiding you into the next town. Compared to the Alola games, Unova isn’t that linear. Alola is far more linear, far more hand holding, and all of it’s routes are small halls that have little to no reason to go back to them.

@VoidofLight oh no I agree when it comes to Alola. It's the constant handholding and lack of exploration that make it difficult for me to go back to that region. In fact, I'm even tempted to say that SM and USUM are the only main series games I don't enjoy.

I remember enjoying X and Y a lot at the time but they're bizarrely the only Pokemon games I've never gone back to, so I'm not sure how I'd feel about them these days.

I don't think a linear, story-driven Pokemon game is a bad thing - but if they go for it, it needs to be all-out IMO. I haven't really enjoyed the storytelling in main series Pokemon enough to warrant the restrictions on exploration that it affords. In particular if they go for a "story-focused" game they need to ditch the typical setup of Prof with 3 starters, gyms plus league, and go for something a bit more out there. I think Colosseum and XD were reasonably successful in this regard.

@TrainerRosa Actually, I started Pokemon X recently, I'm loving it so far. Was even up late one night playing it.

Picked up the game over a year ago, and haven't gotten around to playing it until recently, mostly bought it being the last copy a store had. I'm glad I got around to it. Honestly, I wanted it because I really liked Fennikin from the anime, and mained Braixen when I got Pokken Tournament on Wii U (I really feel this is an underrated and overlooked fighter personally).

B&W had a pretty solid campaign, so yeah, I didn't mind the linearity all that much. What I object to linearity + a crap main quest. That game, to date, is the only Pokemon game I've played with actually emotionally interesting characters and a story that could measure up to other JRPGs.

The soft reboot approach was also satisfying, since it meant escaping from generations of baggage. Felt like it could have represented a new start for the series.

@Ralizah Agreed. The story itself made the linearity worth it. I get tons of people praise Sun and Moon for having the "best pokemon story", but I couldn't enjoy it. The characters seemed kind of flat in comparison to Black and White's characters, and Lillie wasn't very interesting.

@Ralizah @VoidofLight I don't find the story to be all that great tbh. While the general theming is interesting, and I like the climax and how it shakes up the traditional approach to the Pokemon league...most of the cutscenes just feel like padding with no real substance. I don't think the characters are particularly interesting either - Bianca and Cheren have development arcs but they can be summarised in a sentence - the only positive for me with regards to characters is that N and Ghetsis are some of the best villains in the series (which isn't saying much...)

@Buizel I mean, in terms of actual JRPGs, the story is incredibly lacking. For pokemon's standards however, the story itself is probably the best the games ever had. Most pokemon titles are way worse when it comes to story, always presenting alright ideas, but never truly living up to them. Even Legends Arceus, one of the better stories in a while, is incredibly rough when compared to games like Final Fantasy, Persona, or Yokai Watch.

@VoidofLight Exactly (although I wouldn't necessarily agree about Yokai Watch). Which is why I'm pretty bummed that they made such sacrifices for story. SM is the extreme example, where I often feel like I'm playing a mediocre RPG rather than a Pokemon game.

Essentially, I think Pokemon games need to make a decision between player agency and an actually engaging story. I feel the earlier Pokemon games leaned well towards the former, but the sidestepping to the latter (without fully committing) has put me off some of the more recent games a little. And I believe this to have started with Black and White.

@TrainerRosa Awesome. I like Fennekin in the anime, I thought Serena's Fennekin was really cute, so I wanted Pokemon X just to have Fennekin in my party. Being someone who just started, I'm loving the game so far. Had Aquacorde Town's music stuck in my head too.

@Sunsy If you were to go onto Pokemon's official site and to their Pokemon TV section right now, all of the XY seasons of the anime are currently on there! Highly recommend them personally, some of the best in the entire show's run. Pokemon TV is (somewhat amazingly) also on Switch if you would prefer to watch them on there.

By the way, bask in the glory that is Geosenge Town's theme once you get there, it is a masterpiece.

It might be an unpopular opinion around these parts that I loved Pokemon Sun when I played it at launch. I didn't care about the linearity or handholdiness, I just loved the new Pokemon, the sunny region, even the storyline and lore surrounding Pokemon like Type: Null. The trials were a nice change of pace from gyms as well.

Whether I would enjoy it as much if I played it now is another matter. I tried replaying Platinum recently - my first Pokemon game, which I adored as a kid - and I couldn't bring myself to keep going with it. I don't know why because I do still like the battle system of Pokemon, but the traditional gameplay as a whole just feels tedious to me now. It's a shame, I do still have a lot of affection for the DS era of Pokemon but it seems I don't actually enjoy playing them any more. Maybe one day I'll be in the right mindset for it. In the meantime I'm glad Game Freak is trying new things with mainline Pokemon these days; Legends is fantastic.

I think Kinect is more appealing to me than PSVR since Kinect was basically Eyetoy 2.0 with better games.

Unpopular opinion: I like the way that the Souls series, BOTW and MGS Phantom Pain tell the story of the games. I think that when people say that there's "no story" in them, they are missing all the dialogue and clues about them, they are just not presented the way that we are used to. In the Souls series, there's SO MUCH information if you read the items. In Phantom Pain, there's many recorded tapes. BOTW might be the less story focused Zelda, but there's still a lot told through Link's memmories and talking to people. I also like games using conventional ways to tell a story, but I have seen these games being criticized by this when there's room for both. I find more realistic and engaging to have aspects about the story left out and to simply imagine and investigate as much as possible to understand what really happened. Also, what you experience through the gameplay is telling a good chunk of the story, so for these games that are more "gameplay-focused", you are still witnessing and doing the story constantly. Decisions like in the Souls series, like when joining a covenant or helping or killing an NPC are harder and more significant because just like in real life, you have many doubts,limited questionable information and your own judgement to take them as your only tools. It's realistic not to have all the information available.

Again, to clarify, I also like games that tell all the story, there's definitely space for both. But it's sad that not many people appreciate this about these games and that many are missing out on the lore of them, which is really rich.This also allows the gaming community to speculate and work together to discover the secrets in them.

@roy130390 Item descriptions don't count as proper storytelling. Lore is fine, but it needs to be accompanied by an actual narrative framework of some sort that's developed over the course of the game. Otherwise it's just like you're reading the rough notes compiled for an unfinished manuscript.

BotW tackles the storytelling issue well, IMO, insofar as it provides a minimalistic narrative framework that works well in the context of an open world game and actually rewards the player with more development of the characters and backstory when they find certain locations in the world. So the gameplay loop and narrative development harmonize into one seamless experience. You also have more linear chunks of gameplay structured around the divine beasts that help it to hold together as well.

I think Elden Ring actually works better than other Soulslikes I've played in this context as well. The narrative framework is fairly clear and established at the beginning of the game, and while it lacks the harmonious marriage of narrative development and goal-focused exploration that BotW features, exploring does allow for more interaction with NPCs, who are written a bit more straight-forwardly in this game. There's still the cryptic blather filled with Proper Nouns, of course, but I've generally been piecing together the structure of this world without having to go diving into youtube lore videos.

Haven't played MGS V yet, but if you're entirely reliant on tape recordings to understand what's going on, I'd say it has probably failed on a narrative level. Which is even more devastating insofar as the MGS games were well-known for being rich with story-telling and character development.

@roy130390
Completely agree. One example is the fact that Sidon used to be a monster Hunter for the zora. Most will never know that because they don’t find the zora tablets worth their time.

@DarthNocturnal Nah. Past games had routes with branching paths and optional areas/dungeons to explore. Sun and Moon was just a hallway simulator that stopped you every three seconds to do a rival battle, or a conversation from some of the worst characters in the series… coughHauandLilliecough.

@Ralizah Elden Ring has pretty much the same style than every other Souls game, including an opening cinematic in which a hint of the story is given but you have to discover everything else through interpretation of the dialogue with characters as well as events happening. It's a larger game with more story because of that, but not more exposure of it. You literally interact the same way than in others Souls games, finding many events that you might miss or change if you don't pay attention and who's right or wrong and what to do as well as beliefs are up to interpretation.

As for storytelling, these games aren't trying to do that in a conventional way or as direct and that doesn't make them "improper". If they feel like "rough notes" that's because that's what they are trying to do, although personally the information is too clear to be compared like that in my opinion. Item descriptions are somewhat brief, at least until you realize how much there's out there and how they connect. Characters will tell you things that happened in the past and instead of a cinematic showing perfectly what happens and how, you just hear different sides and chunks of information here and there. In my opinion putting some lore in items is a fantastic idea and a brilliant way to do "optional storytelling" as it's reserved for the people that want to know more without forcing it while leaving the necessary stuff through things that you can't miss.

Not all the story is exposed on tapes in Phantom Pain. It's simply more light in comparison to other MGS in terms of cinematics but there's still a considerable amount. As a fan of the series for many years, MGS always used other things to gather the whole story, like many optional Codec calls. They simply improved the pacing on the game and didn't overcharge the game with information as they usually do.

BOTW, at least from what you are saying, is pretty much doing the same thing that these games are doing in that regard, and of all of them, I see it as the one with less exposure of said things. All of these games, at least in terms of the core of the story, are minimalistic and you get as much exposure as it needs from those brief cutscenes and mandatory dialogue.

It really is a matter of another approach and just as with everything it isn't for everyone. It doesn't mean at all that it's flawed. Not every game has to expose everything about every situation and that's why different narrative styles exist. There's a predominant, easier way, but not mandatory, and neither of them is superior and simply up to preference.

@blindsquarel Exactly. And when you gather more information you can visualize how the champions were even better. They don't paint the whole picture because they aren't trying to. They are putting you in the shoes of Link, who is slowly remembering some aspects about it but there's still some blurry things because that's intended.

@roy130390 My friend told me recently, that soul games are amazing for there environmental storytelling, sounds about right.

Oh Did I tell you I got elden ring two days ago?

@lolwhatno Do people really say that? Because that just doesn't make sense at all, not to mention some people can't even play VR without getting sick.