The +10 stat boost was only in Gen 6. Gen 7 had boosts greater than 10 points. As for new abilities, Drizzle was all that changed for Pelipper, and it rose all the way from PU to OU.
Honestly I think some Pokemon just need a stat redo to make them more specialized because I noticed a lot of Pokemon are held back because they're too rounded. Mainly this is for the offense stat, if a Pokemon is definitely a Physical or Special attacker their other offense stat should be either half or less (there are exceptions of course, like Pokemon with a lot of BST like Legendaries who can afford to dump a lot of extra points in the other offense stat so they could use it if they wanted to; but for most com mons they need to be careful how they distribute those points).
Still, Pokemon could use a Special Attack variant of Intimidate.
Or they could just have Intimidate halve the highest offense stat (or, if that seems OP, I always thought some Abilities like Intimidate could have a customization option where you got to choose where if effected either the Physical or Special stat).
Gen 2 ingame is overrated. This was a childhood favourite of mine alongside Gen 3, but after playing it again I've changed my opinions on it. There are too many stone evolution Pokemon and not enough evolution stones - why can you only get them through phone call or in the post game? Attacks are also annoying to come by: Typhlosion learns Flamethrower at level 60, and given the lower level scales, you're likely not getting that until the post game; Rhydon doesn't learn any STAB moves until level 55 (later if you don't halt its evolution); Xatu doesn't learn Psychic until level 65, and so on.
Speaking of levelling, the level scaling is really dumb. Why am I going through the Radio Tower after having 7 badges and battling people with Pokemon level 25? Why are the wild Pokemon so underlevelled? Want to get an Ice type for Clair/Lance? Lmao Swinub/Jynx at level 23 is unironically your best choice and that's right before the 8th Gym.
Another thing I don't like about it is that they introduce a lot of cool Pokemon but don't make a lot of them available until the post game. Examples include Misdreavus, Houndoom, Murkrow.
Worst part is that they could have fixed the level progression and Pokemon distribution issue with the remakes but nope, same as the GB games.
But I think the thing people like about Gen II is that it's a direct sequel to the Gen I games and post game you visit Kanto for essentially a second game. It's something no other games has done.
My unpopular opinion: Psyduck is not a duck.
I also don't think Golduck qualifies as a duck, but that's not the focus for today.
(...)
Now, what real-world animal do we know that has all of those features? That's right, it's a platypus! Although Psyduck lacks the beaver tail or otter feet (and it also lacks the venom that most platypodes have), it certainly has more in common with a platypus than a duck.
I think the thing confounding Psyduck & Golduck's design is that they're also based on the Kappa. Not to the the extent like the Lotad family, but the claws hands instead of wings and a tail (also never mentioned they have feathers or not so it could have but they're just drawn in a way that makes it look smooth).
I have always wondered what diffenetrates a human and a human-like Pokemon actually, other than "can('t) speak and can('t) use moves".
Guess just appearance and behavior. There's really no Pokemon that looks like a human so no problem there. And humans don't have the powers Pokemon have but rather formed complex communication skills, wear clothing (a have a wide variety of clothing be it shape, design, color, or material), and are less instinctual than Pokemon (while some Pokemon are smarter than humans, they are still Pokemon so rely on instincts to survive where as humans, even if not as smart, do prefer relying on intelligence to solve their problems). Also Pokemon are affected by Poke Balls and can be stored as data, humans cannot (apparently the Poke Ball beam just stuns as human but not much else).
Z moves were horribly marketed compared to Megas. A few of the reasons I can say people liked Megas is because of the anime and some older forgotten designs got an upgrade like beedrill, lopunny, ampharos. Even with the "dark edgy lore" of how painful mega evolution is, I also feel like Pokemon themselves don't care about that, since they ultimately want to win a battle.
But that's still more than what we got with Z moves. Wow cool they're leftover pieces of power from necrozma. The anime also does a poor job of showing off z moves. Besides maybe one or two times showing that you can use a z move to cancel another z move. It's just showing the Z move cutscene but in the show, not even any status z moves.
Theres also merchandise, and Z moves were complete garbage. Yay a braclet you hold and it makes noise when you use it. Megas got plushies, key chains, figures, mega bracelet, list goes on. It's no wonder many people want Megas back, z Crystal's are pathetic by comparison.
Well depends what media you're talking about. If you're talking about the anime I would agree, Megas were painted in a way better light than Z-Moves. However I feel for the games it was the opposite, the Z-Moves were given way more attention than Megas since EVERY Pokemon can use the basic Z-Moves so, once you got it, you could use it immediately (if you got that Type of move).
About the lore, I feel the lore may only be referring to Pokemon who go Mega outside of a battle or maybe in the wild. Now there's nothing supporting my theory, it's a fan theory, but since in battle a trainer needs to have a strong bond in order to Mega Evolve their Pokemon the energy going into the Pokemon is actually cycling between trainer and Pokemon: both are sharing the extra energy so the Mega isn't feeling any of the negative effects.
Anyway, you're right that Z-Crystals aren't really made for merchandise. Like the TCG could do something with them and maybe they could have "Z-Move" figurines, but overall it's much more limited than having a new Pokemon. Though that does make me wonder if, due to not able to merchandise Z-Crystals well, if that may have an affect on what they do in the next game. Like would the "big new mechanic" be made something more merchandise-able or could this be the excuse to make more Megas.
USUM were heartless cash grabs that added barely any new content and would have better been sold as a DLC instead of being re-branded as a new game.
Pokemon Let's Go is a glorified mobile game that adds nothing new (recycles everything from gen 1) and is a disgrace of a game.
I thought this was supposed to be unpopular opinions.
Digimon has also had this conversation too, as there's a trend that the strongest Digimon are more humanoid in shape (Wargreymon and Omnimon/Omegamon being the initial offenders) and that most truly animal digimon are either evil or lower ranked.
Not to mention Digimon LOVES to just add robotic/cybernetic/armor parts to higher level Digimon.
I really worry that the Pokémon team is running low on ideas in general. The UBs are the exception, but look at the recent starters, they all end up humanlike by stage 3. I don’t really think I’ve absolutely loved any recent designs or been truly surprised by a mon i the last couple gens. I don’t think it’s insurmountable for them, but it is concerning. We’re 800 mons in at this point, they may be running out of new stuff.
Actually I think they're more either holding back and/or are trying to be inclusive as possible. We're close to having over 1000 species of Pokemon and I feel GF doesn't want to cross that line as long as they could. In addition to being careful with the amount of Pokemon they add they also want to include as many things as possible, and I just don't mean the Pokemon's design. They're also trying to include animals/myths/objects/concepts from as many places and cultures as possible.
But that all said,
I have an entire thread about how they are not anywhere near scrapping the bottom of the barrel.
My probably more unpopular opinion: GF should give serious thought to allowing more than 6 Pokemon on your team. In a meta with ~150 Pokemon, it makes sense, but there are far too many threats now and the six mon limit means a lot of matches are won and lost at the teambuilding stage.
Not sure how I feel about this. While I'm all for letting Pokemon have more Move slots (which could very well open the way for more diversity), the amount of Pokemon you can use I feel doesn't need to change. NOW, maybe giving you the option to bring in more Pokemon (like say nine) BUT you can only send out six before locking you in I think that could maybe work. You have a selection to choose from and more options to adapt to situations but still keeps the number used in battle the same.
