mZuzek said:
Bleh. Gen 7 had one of the worst lineups in my opinion, a huge letdown coming from gen 6 which had the best bunch easily. I too don't understand why anyone would want HMs back, that was a good riddance, but hardly a great solution. Sure, I'd much rather use those "ride Pokémon" than HMs, but they were an incredibly lazy and uninspired solution. No one wants to play a Pokémon game to be forced to use plot-based Pokémon they can't choose, people want to use their own, that's the whole point of the games. HMs should be a "built-in feature" of every Pokémon, so whatever you have on you is what you can use, but they're not tied to specific moves. As in, you can surf on water if you have a Lapras, you can push a boulder if you have a Machamp, you can travel quickly if you ride on your Rapidash, etc. Of course, some Pokémon could have access to multiple abilities, but regardless, they would always be your own. Forcing plot-based Pokémon on the player was one of the most stupid choices I've seen. That said, it goes in line with everything Sun & Moon are all about, which is 1. dumb choices everywhere, and 2. forcing stuff on the player. That game is a gigantic, 30-hour long dialogue/cutscene borefest. You never get even the slightest bit of freedom in that game, it's all "come here", "do this", "go there", blah blah blah. I get that Pokémon games aren't exactly the pinnacle of non-linearity, but at least previous games had the decency to give you a specific goal and then allow you to explore a given area for a while, and maybe do one thing or two. And you know, I don't mind linearity when it's done well, but here it wasn't. Linearity requires a good story, to begin with. Pokémon Black/White did this really well - they were extremely linear, however because the characters were deep and the story was interesting, it was always thrilling to keep on going and find out what would eventually happen. Sun/Moon, though? Their story and characters are about as interesting as any other average Pokémon game, except in this one they REALLY want you to like it, like someone wrote a dreadful 400-page book and are forcing the whole thing down your throat. Well it's that, and then the other dumb shit like the Z-moves, Ash-Greninja, Z-moves, Ultra Beasts, Alolan forms, Ultra Beasts, not to mention the Z-moves. Oh and did I mention the Ultra Beasts? Yeah, those too. Shitty ideas everywhere. I still don't understand why they felt it was necessary to show the player exactly which moves are super-effective on every Pokémon after your first encounter, because I guess Pokémon is too hard for people to win without knowing type matchups (lol). I mean finding out the enemy's type combinations and figuring out their weaknesses was never interesting in the first place, right..? And don't get me started on that abomination of a soundtrack. It's one of the worst I've listened to in gaming. There's a few outliars here and there, and one proper masterpiece in Vast Poni Canyon, but 80% of the music in that game is pure garbage. |
-You're certainly entitled to our opinion; neither of us are more right than the other on the other on our thoughts on this gen's roster. I'm prepared to give examples on why I disagree with you though, if you'd like to continue the discussion on it.
-I can't agree more on tweaking the HM system, but I was talking in terms of the HM system from gens 1-6 vs. Gen 7's Pokemon Ride system. And I think you'll agree with me that being forced to use plot-based Pokemon that don't take up a slot in your party >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> carrying around an HM slave or two for the duration of your solo playthrough, then having to go dig one out whenever you're hunting for an item later on and you find out it's behind a bush or on a distant island in a cave.
-I can't disagree with you about all the stupid cutscenes, but in my case, I skipped the original S/M, so I had a year's worth of complaining to hear about. I got Ultra Moon at launch, and the complaining online had become so exaggerated (and having recently slogged through games that are FAR worse when it comes to not letting the player just play the f'n game like Okamiden and *gasp* Metal Gear Solid), it didn't seem as bad as I was expecting.
-I thought I would hate Z-moves, but they are really not that bad. Speaking from the persepective of a competitive player, they are what mega evolution should have been: everyone gets access to them, and they are a one-time nuke instead of a constant nuke. They can turn the tide of a battle, but they aren't guaranteed to be gamebreakers. Even if you aren't a competitive player, they have their merits. Do you play the Battle Tree, or any of the resident Battle Towers of the past? If you have, then you know the opponent that loves to cheese Double Team/Minimize, or stall strategies. You see human opponents like this online too. Z-moves ignore evasion boosts. Z-crystals are versatile enough to not only make good Pokemon better, but to give some Pokemon just enough oomph to hit hard enough, or to make previously unavailable strategies with Pokemon that aren't built for attacking possible. I can live without Z-moves, but I can certainly live with them too.
-I don't care about the soundtrack. Once I finished the game, I mostly play with the sound muted because I'm usually watching or listening to something else.
