Unpopular opinions

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Never been too hot on Salamence like some other people are. I don't hate it per se, it just feels like a more boring Dragonite in every way. Dragonite is a cute, friendly chubby dragon, Salamence is generic winged quadruped. Dragonite has a cool movepool full of unique options, Salamence gets little beyond the most bog-standard coverage for Dragons like Flamethrower and Earthquake. Dragonite has the almost one-of-a-kind Multiscale only shared with Lugia, Salamence has the insanely overused Intimidate + Moxie combo. It's just really lame to me, man

Meh, I actually like Salamence for being just a standard Dragon instead of the kid-friendly "how does it have all that Attack?" Dragonite and "the Dad Bod that isn't even a Dragon-type" Charizard.

Besides, the whole lore about it wanting wings so bad that it evolves to get them is great. Especially since Shelgon looks like a cocoon, so it straight up stole the early bugs tech lol.

Not to mention how its mega takes the wing thing to its logically hilarious conclusion of it being mostly just wings.

 

[Siggu]

Never been too hot on Salamence like some other people are. I don't hate it per se, it just feels like a more boring Dragonite in every way. Dragonite is a cute, friendly chubby dragon, Salamence is generic winged quadruped. Dragonite has a cool movepool full of unique options, Salamence gets little beyond the most bog-standard coverage for Dragons like Flamethrower and Earthquake. Dragonite has the almost one-of-a-kind Multiscale only shared with Lugia, Salamence has the insanely overused Intimidate + Moxie combo. It's just really lame to me, man

I've personally started seeing Salamence as more cute than cool once I realized that its ambiguous "height" can be interpreted as it looking much smaller than it probably is. Like, the lowest possible "height" (snout-to-tail length) would make it a tegu with wings.

 

[Bakugames]

the cut of pokémon is a good thing in theory, its just that swsh were lackluster, run of the mill games that didnt justify it in any sense.

but i feel like the fanbase doesnt realize that for most of the things that they want improved (gamewise) to happen, a dex cut would be one of the more sensible things to do for a few generations. Whenether it be balancing pokemon, new animations, better graphics etc, you cant really do that effectivelly while having to account for almost 900 critters at the same time. and im sorry, but neither the argument of "just use the money!" or "give it some more years" can cover the insane amount of work that'd be.

I honestly do not understand how other monster game fanbases are completly fine with new games not having all monsters, when they have way less monsters overall (except digimon with their 1.4k dudes!) which means their games roster will be smaller than what a pokemon game would, but the idea of 100 pokemon not making to the games is a disgrace or something.

again, the dex cut had no reason to exist in swsh, im pretty sure they could fit all mons just fine, but if we want actual improvements, instead of the "drip feed improvements every gen at a snails pace" model we have right now, we have to give up the idea of all pokemon making in the games.

edit: turtonator is good also u guys r just mean >:(

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

the cut of pokémon is a good thing in theory, its just that swsh were lackluster, run of the mill games that didnt justify it in any sense.

but i feel like the fanbase doesnt realize that for most of the things that they want improved (gamewise) to happen, a dex cut would be one of the more sensible things to do for a few generations. Whenether it be balancing pokemon, new animations, better graphics etc, you cant really do that effectivelly while having to account for almost 900 critters at the same time. and im sorry, but neither the argument of "just use the money!" or "give it some more years" can cover the insane amount of work that'd be.

I honestly do not understand how other monster game fanbases are completly fine with new games not having all monsters, when they have way less monsters overall (except digimon with their 1.4k dudes!) which means their games roster will be smaller than what a pokemon game would, but the idea of 100 pokemon not making to the games is a disgrace or something.

again, the dex cut had no reason to exist in swsh, im pretty sure they could fit all mons just fine, but if we want actual improvements, instead of the "drip feed improvements every gen at a snails pace" model we have right now, we have to give up the idea of all pokemon making in the games.

edit: turtonator is good also u guys r just mean >:(

Oh baby, Dexit talk, let's goooooo!!!

For real tho, while I can accept that Dexit was going to be necessary at some point, it sure as hell ain't now with them porting mon animations straight outta the 3DS.

And to make things worse. This is now a permanent policy.

It's a mess, but I don't wanna beat this old dead horse or whatever the saying is again.

 

[Worldie]

And to make things worse. This is now a permanent policy.

I wouldn't be so sure about this one.

In the end "dexit" happened because for <reasons> GF wasn't able to port the get the new Camp and Dynamax animations done in time (absolutely nothing to do with models).
They threw a bunch of disorganized lies once they saw how bad the reception of the fact not all Pokemon were going to be available right away, but fact is, they had the models futureproofed ages ago and what they really needed time to make were the new animations (which to be fair, are pretty solid, just a shame they're really rarely seen).

However, slowly but surely every Pokemon is getting added to the game, so it isn't exactly unrealistic that future Switch games will just be featuring all of them.

 

[hypno28]

It's almost like they would have lots of time to focus on making the region and actual game better if they didn't waste so much on absurd gimmicks that by definition make them worse.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

I wouldn't be so sure about this one.

In the end "dexit" happened because for <reasons> GF wasn't able to port the get the new Camp and Dynamax animations done in time (absolutely nothing to do with models).
They threw a bunch of disorganized lies once they saw how bad the reception of the fact not all Pokemon were going to be available right away, but fact is, they had the models futureproofed ages ago and what they really needed time to make were the new animations (which to be fair, are pretty solid, just a shame they're really rarely seen).

However, slowly but surely every Pokemon is getting added to the game, so it isn't exactly unrealistic that future Switch games will just be featuring all of them.

Iirc, they specifically said it was going to be a recurring thing from now on.

And it makes perfect sense. Locking mons behind DLC passes add a ton of value to them.

But yeah, the obvious problem is that GF said not everyone would make it back because they were working on more expressive animations for each mon.

We now know this was 100% BS.

Though tbh, the main issue with the mon animations are the idle animations. Actual camera work and idle animations that aren't soulless garbage would let the good animations shine better, and there are a lot of them.

 

[Worldie]

And it makes perfect sense. Locking mons behind DLC passes add a ton of value to them.

They're not locked behind the DLC and we could stop spreading this lie.
Moreso once gen 8.5 or 9 happen and you're not even going to need the old Bank sub to pass them over.
Gen 8 even added the "Battle ready mark", meaning that after you caught the legendary once, in any game, it's going to be able to be used in any future game assuming the mechanic is maintained.

If they wanted to "make money off the returning mons", they wouldn't have given the pokedex upgrade for free to everyone, nor made a mechanic that basically removes the need to buy multiple titles in future.

Iirc, they specifically said it was going to be a recurring thing from now on.

They said it amongst all the other disorganized stuff that was being told, which also included that SwSh would never have got the missing ones.

The reality is that when Masuda tried to sneak the "Only 400 available" at the press event, the already lacking PR system of GameFreaks panicked seeing the horrible reaction they caused, and started giving a million different incoherent replies.
Including the most "hilarious" one, that they were being cut "for balance reasons", which kinda crumbled in the light of both the pokemon picked in the "400", including lord and savior 97% competitive usage Incineroar (higher than even Xerneas), and the simple fact gen 8 is featuring some of the biggest powercreep in the series to begin with.

 

[Samtendo09]

Quoting my post from "Pokemon that disappointed you despite looking good initially"... for context, it was about the bloated items stuff, unfixed things like Nidorina and Nidoqueen's breeding problem, lots of bad mons remained bad for too long, the power creep, etc.

Haven't they already removed Mega Evolution and Z-Moves in Gen 8? The Mega Stones code of several Pokémon were there but not fully programmed, likely just item leftovers.

But keeping everything intact also means Pokémon who were bad stays bad, or overwhelmingly powerful Legendary Pokémon like Zacian to be untouched. This can be a bad sign for balance in the future, potentially resulting in even more crazier or asinine battle gimmicks or even more ridiculous power creep within Legendaries or even normal Pokémon. It would be awful for Gen 9 now that it would want to keep all of the underwhelming and overpowered stuff as is.

Look, I understand it is impossible to make a perfectly balanced Pokémon game, but it shouldn't kill anyone to give some crapmons at a time (per Generation) some much-needed buff and keeping the most powerful ones in check instead of constantly showering new battle gimmicks that end up being at the hand of the more popular ones. Z-Moves at least allows for variety, but the one-per-team does make it feels limited and lame.

Believe it or not, that's a problem Pokémon fangames have to contend with, as despite a lot more liberty than GF ever had, I see too many fangames that never bothered with fixing at least several problems for sake of legacy, even those who go for the B/W route (only new Pokémon, no returning official Pokémon). That's a bit out of subject but let it be known that even the most popular fangames aren't immune to the common problems the official Pokémon games have to deal with.

The last paragraph could be an unpopular opinion of mine since I saw nobody ever said something like that before...

Adding to that is that some fangames run the problem of not fixing the problems people tend to have in common, such as more than two weak single-staged Pokémon without a helpful Ability or overtly gimmicky ones, constantly put Ice-type as late game, early route Pokémon that barely deviates from the official Pokémon, Pika Clones that feels like made for sake of tradition, too many Dragon-type fan Pseudo-Legends to count, etc...

In other words, the Fakémon Dexes in general doesn't really feel as creative as many fans claimed. Too many traditional archetypes were done already done so often in a single Dex to the point it feels... mechanically unoriginal at worst. If I ever go back to making a Dex of new Pokémon, I try to avoid common pit traps of the common archetypes, or even go crazy and avoid the type used for the early route archetypes, for example.

 

[earl]

Establishing Dexit as a policy going forward is the right move. Dexit happens again? Well they said it was gonna happen. Dexit doesn’t happen and the natdex is back? Pleasant surprise.

 

[Bakugames]

For real tho, while I can accept that Dexit was going to be necessary at some point, it sure as hell ain't now with them porting mon animations straight outta the 3DS.

thats fair, i honestly dont belive that dexit should have happened this gen, i just think pokemon fans have this unrealistic idea (when dont they) that gamefreak can just revamp everything and make an open world with all pokemon because "well they have the money lol"

theres a difference between demanding quality that we deserve (this IS a 60$ game) and thinking that just throwing money can solve every single problem and make everything possible. franchises with way bigger budgets and care that can barely port all their dudes when their rosters are in the 300s, there is absolutely no reason to belive that pokemon could bring 900 pokemon while also putting all these improvements in.

i just posted it here because, being completly honest, no matter if swsh was a fantastic game, people are too accostumed with pokemon always being avaliable, and many dont want to compromise losing pokemon (unless its only pokemon they dont like, of course!) for anything. swsh certainly didnt help with the popularity of the idea, though

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

They're not locked behind the DLC and we could stop spreading this lie.

Ok, ok, geez, no need to get feisty.

Yes, the mons themselves come with the update. As for Bank/Home, that's another fee, but theoretically, you can obtain said mons for free via all kinds of trades.

However, one must recognize that their availability is hurt by not purchasing the DLC.

thats fair, i honestly dont belive that dexit should have happened this gen, i just think pokemon fans have this unrealistic idea (when dont they) that gamefreak can just revamp everything and make an open world with all pokemon because "well they have the money lol"

theres a difference between demanding quality that we deserve (this IS a 60$ game) and thinking that just throwing money can solve every single problem and make everything possible. franchises with way bigger budgets and care that can barely port all their dudes when their rosters are in the 300s, there is absolutely no reason to belive that pokemon could bring 900 pokemon while also putting all these improvements in.

i just posted it here because, being completly honest, no matter if swsh was a fantastic game, people are too accostumed with pokemon always being avaliable, and many dont want to compromise losing pokemon (unless its only pokemon they dont like, of course!) for anything. swsh certainly didnt help with the popularity of the idea, though

Yeah, people go a bit too crazy on both extremes. I've heard people expect something like BotW for Pokémon, and that's completely absurd no matter how you slice it.

I believe that if Dexit was going to be implemented, it had to be on SwSh. However, while I'm pleased with certain baby steps GF took (The Wild Area being the most notable), the game looks... rough.

And I don't mean it on just a graphical standpoint, even though those textures are of very poor quality, but you still stumble on way too many places where optimization and polish are absent, boneheaded design decisions, evidence of cut corners, artifacts from previous gens muddying up everything...

It's a game with potential, but the problem is that it's another game "with potential". I'm not saying "throw money at the problem", even though manpower could cover some of these issues, but there's a need to focus more on polish.

For example, the textures I mentioned earlier. They're passable once you're distracted enough, but they're never good. This isn't a particularly demanding problem to fix. Modders had textures for the trees ready in... an hour!?

My word, this is more embarrassing than I remember. I kid you not.

Like, I don't even have words for this. How do you let this happen? Months of roasting over the trees looking like hot garbage and they didn't even bother working on that detail?

 

[Pikachu315111]

franchises with way bigger budgets and care that can barely port all their dudes when their rosters are in the 300s, there is absolutely no reason to belive that pokemon could bring 900 pokemon while also putting all these improvements in.

Well that right there is the problem, the improvements they did were very little. The biggest improvement that needed to be done was going over every Pokemon to see if they could improve their stats, movepool, Abilities, and in-battle animations (and evolution level in some cases). But they didn't, and that's the problem, the ONE reason people would have accepted Dexit and something that GF desperately needs to do for many older gen Pokemon and they didn't even do it. Thus why what they said for doing Dexit rings hollow. Heck, and that's not mentioning the decisions they made for the new Pokemon and the game itself (especially in the graphics department).

 

[Bakugames]

snip

i agree with u tbh. i dont care about graphics because i've never been a graphics person (i prefer stylization and colors over it) but the game is just rough.

i think the main thing that needs to happen is that the whole franchise needs to shift perspective. ever since the anime and merch outsold the games, they've become means to an end to something way more profitable. why bother spending money and giving this time when they can get a new anime arc, new pokemon to make merch and new products with the 1 year cycle we have rn? its scummy but its how shareholders and the ceos of all the three companies (gf, creatures and nintendo) see it.

i dont know what could incentivize the change, because financially, changing it to anything else is a stupid move. they've hit the sweet spot of what passes the mark as a pkmn game to sell and the fastest they can get new stuff out. quality would please fans, but would diminish profits.

man i hate capitalism can we go back to monky

snip 2 electric boogaloo

i agree, but my post was more about the fundamentals of a dex cut than the specific swsh one. its more in the veins of "swsh dexit had no reason to happen, but even if a game improved on every single way to justify it happening, people would still complain because stantler didnt make in"

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Yes, the mons themselves come with the update. As for Bank/Home, that's another fee, but theoretically, you can obtain said mons for free via all kinds of trades.

However, one must recognize that their availability is hurt by not purchasing the DLC.

And? How is having to trade or transfer for a Tornadus because you don't have Crown Tundra's Dynamax Adventures any different from having to do so because you don't have USUM's Ultra Space Wilds or ORAS's Mirage Spots?

This isn't a new phenomenon.

 

[Rarycaris]

And? How is having to trade or transfer for a Tornadus because you don't have Crown Tundra's Dynamax Adventures any different from having to do so because you don't have USUM's Ultra Space Wilds or ORAS's Mirage Spots?

This isn't a new phenomenon.

Or, for that matter, any of the generations from 2 to 5. For all people like to hold gen 6 as the point where the franchise first started to go downhill, it's the first generation where "you can catch every Pokemon within the current gen" became standard -- albeit largely as a side effect of GF trying to prune the accumulation of legacy moves and transfer requirements in official formats, but I think it's widely appreciated nonetheless.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

The biggest improvement that needed to be done was going over every Pokemon to see if they could improve their stats, movepool, Abilities, and in-battle animations (and evolution level in some cases).

I'll be blunt. This is just unreasonable.

Sure, a couple of patches and revisions here and there are feasible, but still a herculean work. Trying to rebalance all mons just cannot happen. It was impossible as early as Gen 2. And trust me, I speak from experience on that front.

And? How is having to trade or transfer for a Tornadus because you don't have Crown Tundra's Dynamax Adventures any different from having to do so because you don't have USUM's Ultra Space Wilds or ORAS's Mirage Spots?

This isn't a new phenomenon.

Sadly it isn't. It's been kind of a recurring way to make money and stimulate trading. Has been since day 1.

The returning mons just make that list a lot bigger. I'd still take the DLC over a 3rd version anytime though. Much more consumer-friendly.

My point really just was "Returning mons are a way to entice people into buying the DLC." Not the only way. Or exclusively used for that, you can still trade for these mons. But walking around and capturing them? Not likely.

 

[Rarycaris]

I don't massively mind that "returning mons as an incentive to buy DLC" thing tbh, but a big reason for that is that online Dynamax Adventures remain fun for a surprisingly long time. I've caught most of the legendaries and I'm still nowhere close to bored of them.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Sure, a couple of patches and revisions here and there are feasible, but still a herculean work. Trying to rebalance all mons just cannot happen. It was impossible as early as Gen 2. And trust me, I speak from experience on that front.

Not improve all of them, most Pokemon honestly are good/okay, but there are a few dozen that could use a bigger push and there with a few select that could probably do with a redo.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

I don't massively mind that "returning mons as an incentive to buy DLC" thing tbh, but a big reason for that is that online Dynamax Adventures remain fun for a surprisingly long time. I've caught most of the legendaries and I'm still nowhere close to bored of them.

Truth be told, me neither.

It doesn't even move the needle for me. Even when I compared IoA to CT in this thread (I think? Could've been the DLC one) I didn't even mention the returning mon selection.

I won't ignore that it is relevant for DLC marketing though. No one ever said "Garchomp is coming back in the 1.30 update!". People said "Garchomp is coming back in the Crown Tundra update!"

This keeps the product's name fresh on a consumer's mind, it's a solid marketing strat. Nothing wrong or evil with it.

 

[DreamPrince]

I wouldn't be so sure about this one.

In the end "dexit" happened because for <reasons> GF wasn't able to port the get the new Camp and Dynamax animations done in time (absolutely nothing to do with models).
They threw a bunch of disorganized lies once they saw how bad the reception of the fact not all Pokemon were going to be available right away, but fact is, they had the models futureproofed ages ago and what they really needed time to make were the new animations (which to be fair, are pretty solid, just a shame they're really rarely seen).

However, slowly but surely every Pokemon is getting added to the game, so it isn't exactly unrealistic that future Switch games will just be featuring all of them.

Really? I could have sworn most of the camp animations seem to have been reused from Refresh which came from Amie, as well as the walking animations seem to be the same from the unused animations from SM.

They're not locked behind the DLC and we could stop spreading this lie.
Moreso once gen 8.5 or 9 happen and you're not even going to need the old Bank sub to pass them over.
Gen 8 even added the "Battle ready mark", meaning that after you caught the legendary once, in any game, it's going to be able to be used in any future game assuming the mechanic is maintained.

If they wanted to "make money off the returning mons", they wouldn't have given the pokedex upgrade for free to everyone, nor made a mechanic that basically removes the need to buy multiple titles in future.


They said it amongst all the other disorganized stuff that was being told, which also included that SwSh would never have got the missing ones.

The reality is that when Masuda tried to sneak the "Only 400 available" at the press event, the already lacking PR system of GameFreaks panicked seeing the horrible reaction they caused, and started giving a million different incoherent replies.
Including the most "hilarious" one, that they were being cut "for balance reasons", which kinda crumbled in the light of both the pokemon picked in the "400", including lord and savior 97% competitive usage Incineroar (higher than even Xerneas), and the simple fact gen 8 is featuring some of the biggest powercreep in the series to begin with.

The Pokémon perhaps not, but a lot of other aspects are locked behind a paywall to a degree. The IOA move tutors for example, or the Ability Patch in CT. While they aren’t strictly behind a paywall, it you don’t have the DLC, you have to arrange to teach these moves through trades, which is a hassle. And the moves and Abillity Patch are huge for competitive play, so those who don’t have the DLC are at a disadvantage.

And lastly, while the Pokémon themselves are free, some of them can’t actually evolve without the DLC. For example, Seadra can’t evolve without the DLC, and Kubfu can’t evolve without the Towers, and Porygon line is probably the worst offender, since both their items can’t be obtained without the DLCor trading without the DLC.

Calyrex’s formes are the only strictly paid Pokémon. The Reins of Unity cannot be traded due to being a key item.

And if Dexit really was unintentional, I wonder if they’ll add a patch to add the remaining Pokémon? They’ve shown to do that with the DLC, adding Pokémon back into the game.

Never been too hot on Salamence like some other people are. I don't hate it per se, it just feels like a more boring Dragonite in every way. Dragonite is a cute, friendly chubby dragon, Salamence is generic winged quadruped. Dragonite has a cool movepool full of unique options, Salamence gets little beyond the most bog-standard coverage for Dragons like Flamethrower and Earthquake. Dragonite has the almost one-of-a-kind Multiscale only shared with Lugia, Salamence has the insanely overused Intimidate + Moxie combo. It's just really lame to me, man

I think my biggest issue with Salamence compared to Dragonite is that they are too similar. Both are Psuedo Legendaries that evolve from pure Dragons into Flying Dragons, and are used by final member of Elite 4s.

There stats is what I dislike the most though. They are too similar. Salamence literally has 1 pt higher attack, while having slightly higher Special Attack while being very fast. Dragonite has higher Defensive stats in contrast to Salamence. It really does feel like GF tried to replace Dragonite in Hoenn.

Speaking of Dragonite, I always found it odd that it’s Atrack is higher than Sp. Atk, I mean it has Hurricane, Draco Meteor, Flamethrower, Thundebolt, Surf, and Ice Beam, but it’s Attack stat is so much higher than Sp. Atk. I just think it’s a waste since most Dragonite prefer to be physical.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Really? I could have sworn most of the camp animations seem to have been reused from Refresh which came from Amie, as well as the walking animations seem to be the same from the unused animations from SM.

The Pokémon perhaps not, but a lot of other aspects are locked behind a paywall to a degree. The IOA move tutors for example, or the Ability Patch in CT. While they aren’t strictly behind a paywall, it you don’t have the DLC, you have to arrange to teach these moves through trades, which is a hassle. And the moves and Abillity Patch are huge for competitive play, so those who don’t have the DLC are at a disadvantage.

And lastly, while the Pokémon themselves are free, some of them can’t actually evolve without the DLC. For example, Seadra can’t evolve without the DLC, and Kubfu can’t evolve without the Towers, and Porygon line is probably the worst offender, since both their items can’t be obtained without the DLCor trading without the DLC.

Calyrex’s formes are the only strictly paid Pokémon. The Reins of Unity cannot be traded due to being a key item.

And if Dexit really was unintentional, I wonder if they’ll add a patch to add the remaining Pokémon? They’ve shown to do that with the DLC, adding Pokémon back into the game.

I think my biggest issue with Salamence compared to Dragonite is that they are too similar. Both are Psuedo Legendaries that evolve from pure Dragons into Flying Dragons, and are used by final member of Elite 4s.

There stats is what I dislike the most though. They are too similar. Salamence literally has 1 pt higher attack, while having slightly higher Special Attack while being very fast. Dragonite has higher Defensive stats in contrast to Dragonite. It really does feel like GF tried to replace Dragonite in Hoenn.

Speaking of Dragonite, I always found it odd that it’s Atrack is higher than Sp. Atk, I mean it has Hurricane, Draco Meteor, Flamethrower, Thundebolt, Surf, and Ice Beam, but it’s Attack stat is so much higher than Sp. Atk. I just think it’s a waste since most Dragonite prefer to be physical.

And honestly, DNite doesn't really look like a physically imposing threat. If its SpA and Atk were swapped, I'd have no problems with that mon.

I wonder if all that Attack was just to pump up Lance's Hyper Beam spam in RBY...

 

[hypno28]

It's semantics, I guess, but the "National Pokedex" was cut in Gen 7, not 8. (And that's probably a good thing if they're not going to rename it to something less absurd and rework it so the classification of things doesn't just so happen to match the order in which things appeared in the games.) The actual Pokemon were cut in Gen 8.

 

[didls]

I wonder if all that Attack was just to pump up Lance's Hyper Beam spam in RBY...

Probably. I feel like a lot of design choices in RBY were done with story progression in mind, like Onix serving as a threatening early-game "boss", but having less attack than a Geodude. They didn't have metagaming in mind then, and that's definitely part of the appeal of RBY and GSC.

That said, I wish Hyper Beam still had its Gen 1 mechanics. It's pretty much just a joke move at this point. It's only ever used in 1v1 (lol) and was used in early DP because of Porygon-Z. I don't think it would be overpowered, or at least, not as overpowered as some of the shit they've done since.

 

[Ironmage]

Probably. I feel like a lot of design choices in RBY were done with story progression in mind, like Onix serving as a threatening early-game "boss", but having less attack than a Geodude. They didn't have metagaming in mind then, and that's definitely part of the appeal of RBY and GSC.

I think the big thing here is that the AI just didn't use TM moves in gen 1. Dragonite has always had very good special coverage, but every attack it learned by level-up was physical (or Dragon Rage).