Why did gamefreak transition from asshole rivals that you WANT to destroy every time you battle them to friendly "rivals" that you feel sorry for when you sweep their team?
>>57139914FERNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!
>>57139957Absolutely despised the cunt>"waaa a lot of people don't get to see their 10th birthday but me sad cause people don't give me positive attention for being a twat"
>>57139914>transition
>>57139914“I think the biggest reason that rivals were more of a jerk in the early days is that we were just limited in what we could express with the pixel graphics. There’s not much that you can do with that kind of little sprite on the screen, so we worked harder to characterize them through dialogue and give them certain personalities.Also, because it’s just dialogue and there’s not a whole lot going on on the screen, it doesn’t give as harsh of an impression even if they’re jerks, I think. Now we have HD graphics and the visuals are much more impressive. If you also made him a jerk, the impression would be a lot stronger on players. Another thing, just my own personal take, is that it feels that people with those kinds of personalities these days are just not as accepted by players as they were back then.”from Masuda
>>57139914Silver was the only asshole rival>B-but Blue said smell ya later!
>“I think the biggest reason that rivals were more of a jerk in the early days is that we were just limited in what we could express with the pixel graphics.There’s not much that you can do with that kind of little sprite on the screen, so we worked harder to characterize them through dialogue and give them certain personalities,” said Masuda, through an interpreter.>He continued, saying: “Also, because it’s just dialogue and there’s not a whole lot going on on the screen, it doesn’t give as harsh of an impression even if they’re jerks, I think. Now we have HD graphics and the visuals are much more impressive. If you also made him a jerk, the impression would be a lot stronger on players. Another thing, just my own personal take, is that it feels that people with those kinds of personalities these days are just not as accepted by players as they were back then.”They no longer have to rely on dialogue alone for characterization + those kinds of personalities aren't as popular nowadays
>>57140057both stupid as fuck reasons, as expected
>>57139914In general, Game Freak/TPC/Nintendo try to make sure their mainline IPs are as family-friendly as possible. A common complaint Nintendo has received starting in the early-2000s for various games aimed at all audiences was that the character dialogue was sometimes too upsetting for young children. While those complaints were mainly attributed to the original Animal Crossing game, I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo made sure from then on that all the games associated with them didn't result in those complaints anymore.
>>57140032homie is so out of touch with player demands
>>57139914Losing all the time made the rivals' trash talk ring hollow
Also, players no longer engage with the supplemental material like they used to. It's not Blue that people remember, they remember Gary OakMost of the characters from older games were expanded on by stuff like the anime and the manga but nowadays most people only play the games and don't engage with the other material
>>57139914I am so tired of the cuck rival trope, it was not good in gen 6, it wasn't good with Hau, it was complete ass with Hop aka Hau 2.0 and though it was admittedly not as bad with Kieran (I mean it was still handled like shit, especially the conclusion but I'll take it because it was kinda funny due to the lengths of cuckery the story reaches).I just want an asshole I want to curbstomp into the ground while still feeling like I'm being challenged and tested, if said rival gets a growth arc at least do it naturally in a way that isn't just "WOWZERS, I can't beat the MC so I must now suck his dick and completely give up on my dreams because I'm such a massive failure" and there are plenty of ways of doing it still while keeping it PG if you want to appease football moms.I mean fuck they already did edgetard and friendly rivals okay with Hugh and Nemoma respectively and everyone still loves Blue and especially Silver to this day. >Picture relatedBizarre how Fern becomes a cocksucker by Reborn's postgame in the most forced possible.
>>57139914oh hey it's the speedbump which I just swept 6-0 the last time i saw him>>57140213>I am so tired of the cuck rival tropefor your own sanity, don't play rejuvenation(besides you'll also go insane trying to play it without rampant cheating anyways for a load of other reasons too since the story is just that fucking ass)
>>57140213>Kieran VS Plot Armor
>>57140035>B-but Blue said smell ya later!I'd let Blue snif me.
>>57140524Is this real dialogue? This is something you would see a romhack character say.
>>57140569>Is this real dialogue?Yes, SV had soul
>>57139914Kids today lose their minds over cyber bullying and other nonissues. GF is probably afraid to make a jerk rival cuz some karen will complain their kid is traumatized by the meanie words on the video screen.
>>57140524This dialogue doesn't really make sense since it's the NPCs that always get lucky hax
>>57140524>The cuck complains he gets cuckedThis is why you should've never been a Pokémon character, Kieran. Now lose already so I can take your lunch money and super legendary.Again.
>>57140524Cringe: the character
>>57140614>This is why you should've never been a Pokémon character, KieranExactly, Kieran is too good for pokemon>>57140621cope
>>57139914the reason we don't get asshole rivals now is bc they'd 100% be called tryhard-y and edgy.EG Gladion
>>57140722He was edgy like shadow in a cool way
>>57140025Kek, this really reads like some shitty fanfiction
>>57140722Gladion was tryhard and edgy, though.
>>57139914Asshole rivals in fangames often feel way too forced, and usually lack the option to really humble them at the end, which is what the mainline games rather highlighted on, to a satisfying extent, when someone else tries it, they always end up as unlikable with no way to really knock them down a peg or twelve.Unironically, the best fangame rivals are the friendly ones, more specifically the ones who are cute and want to fuck the player, pic very much related
>>57140827>more specifically the ones who are cute and want to fuck the player, pic very much relatedUnless you pretend you get to "wrestle" with her during some fades to black, yeah you're just gonna get cockblocked because the writer is a literal faggotbut you did specify "want" and not "gets to"also the TRUE and HONEST reason why she's as fit as she is is because she's basically forced to carry the entire bloated mess of a game she's in almost on her ownbecause apart from the handful of actually decently written characters (within the main story; not counting sidequests because you're realistically gonna miss most of them without a walkthrough) and the maps being actually well made, Rejuvenation just fucking sucks for a huge list of reasons that won't fit in 2000 characters so I decided it'd be faster to instead list its few redeeming qualities (characters, maps, and yeah that's basically it for stuff that's already good in its current state)She deserves a way, way better game; and fortunately RPG maker games are easily moddableunfun fact: it just so happened that the lack of content involving one of the game's widely agreed upon best characters (who even won the official character popularity poll) was just an "oversight" and definitely not because she was way more popular than the developer's petgod forbid anyone have anything nice in a rebornlike
>>57140881>play an edgy autistic bastard version of pokémon made by an edgy autistic retard>is surprised when the edgy autistic retard colours its development with autistic reactions to feedback involving its edgy autistic bastard version of pokémonlole, it's like you just ignored the last 20-ish years of romhacking.
>>57140919>calling the maker of that mess autisticapologize to everyone with autism for disfavorably comparing them to himNOW>is surprisedi went into that game twice with low expectations both times thinking it'd be so bad it's goodthose expectations were too high because the parts that weren't actually good or in the sweetspot of being so bad it's funny were just either dull or actively sapped my motivation to continue, with the hilariously bad (as opposed to horrifyingly bad) sections being less common than I'd wishat least the next time i gaslight myself into thinking i have a reason to play it i'll have properly calibrated expectations of "this is gonna be an inconsistent abomination"
>>57139914Kids consume Pokemon products and they don't want to teach kids to be jerks
>>57141100even though they're already fully capable of being jerks on their own without a game about beating up everyoner you see for money having one of the glorified speedbumps being written as a jerk
>>57139914Honestly I feel like the example you posted has the exact opposite problem: rather than being so friendly it's annoying, Fern's so much of an asshole it's annoying.It's been a hot minute since I touched Reborn but iirc he starts off kind of a jerk but bearable... then ramps up his shitheadedness from his second encounter onwards for no real reason, to the point he joins the genocidal terrorists just to get back at (you). He dismisses every single one of your victories as flukes or cheap shots and never questions his own superiority until your last match, shit was so bad that I didn't even get any satisfaction from kicking his teeth in and every time he showed up I could only think "oh my God just FUCK OFF already".I never got to the postgame but I hear he doesn't get any comeuppance for the shit he pulled and only kinda mellows out, again, for no real reason.
>>57140881I ain't playing rejuvenation, redpill me on this character and why the writer hates her
>>57141252that's Aelita, one of Rejuvenation's few genuinely well written characters (in what's otherwise a total clusterfuck of a game), who's the player's cute tomboy gf (implied because the creator doesn't want you romancing any of the cute girls citing excuses that fall flat immediately upon thinking about them or considering other stuff that gets added) that, as punishment for being more popular than the creator's spotlight whoring totally-incompetent-when-not-stealing-the-spotlight mary sue OC, has to suffer, in approximate order-actually nevermind that's not fitting within 2000 characters, but it involves across various points watching her family die, torture, forced separation from the few people she can genuinely trust in the shithole of a region she lives in, a fucking avoidable magic bullshit plot coma to lazily take her out of the story for several chapters, getting frequently separated from the player for dumb reasons (if there's a reason at all) in general, and also getting (sexually) harassed by some assholes you're not allowed to break the ribs ofdespite all that suffering, you only get to show her any onscreen affection exactly onceoh yeah also outside of very few exceptions (mostly within the earlygame) she's not allowed to have more than 1-2 good mons with actually decent movesets, while that mary sue bitch gets multiple high tier mons with literal copypasted smogon setsincluding among other things a hydreigon and a FUCKING AEGISLASH (which is first used on a field that makes it very overpowered because why not rip off the wrong things from reborn?)but from what limited onscreen appearances her mons have, she gets a blaziken, staraptor, hawlucha, gliscor, hisuian lilligant, lucario, mienshao, and starmie, but unfortunately you almost never see more than 3 of those on the same team at once and some only appear only onceat least it's not v12
>>57140750>the reason we don't get asshole rivals now is bc they'd 100% be called tryhard-y and edgy.>EG Gladion>Gladion was tryhard and edgy, though.thanks I was wondering what the first poster said
>>57140827hahahahah good luck finding more than like two or so fangames that meet your criteria for having the best rivals
