Ghetsis from Pokemon is an overrated villain. Don't get me wrong, Black/White/Black2/White2 do a very good job making you hate him through his personality and his actions, so in terms of a villain you love to hate, Ghetsis is good at that. However, I've come to notice Ghetsis lacks something major for a villain: there's no explanation behind his main motivation. In the all the generation 5 games, we never learn why Ghetsis wants to rule the Unova region. When I look back at the generation 5 games, I get the impression Ghetsis wants it just for the sake of it, and to me, that makes him fall flat. All of the other villainous team leaders in the main series games had an explanation regarding why they want to accomplish their main objectives (original Maxie and Archie also had the same issue as Ghetsis did, but the remakes did them justice in that regard), but Ghetsis doesn't it. To me, he just didn't feel very fleshed out, especially when compared to other generation 5 villains like N and arguably Colress. It's because of that I don't think Ghetsis is
that great for a villain despite what most of the Pokemon fandom thinks of him.
Speaking of Pokemon villains, I prefer Lusamine over Guzma when comparing the two main S/M villains. I just find her character and backstory more interesting than the latter (I still like Guzma though), and I genuinely found her quite intimidating, especially during the Aether Raid arc. I do agree that she suffers from not appearing in the story as often as she should have, though USUM did seem to fix that issue... at the cost of butchering her character by turning her into some anti-hero that didn't fit her all that well.
Temporarily switching to a different franchise, I don't find Berkut from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia to be a compelling villain. In fact, I'd say he was ultimately a disappointing villain. The game never bothers to show us how accomplished he is as a Rigelian general and only tells it to us, and the game portrays him as an abusive boyfriend to Rinea and thus giving the impression they are not a good couple despite the game wanting us to believe they truly love each other. The way how he was quickly forgiven by both Alm and Rinea in his final moments also felt like a disappointing conclusion to his character, especially since what he has done to them throughout the game made him not the kind of the person that should be forgiven that quickly. The fact he also didn't actually affect SoV's plot to the point he can be removed from the story without the plot changing significantly also showed how he wasn't that great of a villain for me. The only things I like about Berkut now are his stellar voice acting and all of his themes, which are among my top favorites in Echoes' soundtrack.
I also did not like Fernand from the same game at all, and I'd say I dislike him more than Berkut. Fernand comes across as a huge scumbag since the start of the game, even if he has his reasons for hating commoners. Every time he appeared, he frustrated more and more, to the point that I felt no sympathy for him in his final moments. For a tragic villain, he falls flat IMO. The DLC does portray Fernand in a much better light though, but I think Fernand would've made a much better villain if his betrayal happened around the halfway point in SoV's story rather than very early on; that way, we would see more of his sympathetic side and we'd see more of his conflicted nature that would eventually lead him to his betrayal.
Moving away from the villain talk, I find Super Mario Odyssey to be overrated. The excessive amount of Moons the game throws at you not only made a good chunk of them easy to find, but also quite exhausting to collect. I mean, 999 Moons? That's a bit too much, no? The game ultimately ultimately left me feeling rather burned out by the time I beat the story because of how the Moon collecting system felt so unsatisfying. I remember taking a hefty break from the game after collecting a good chunk of Moons in the Mushroom Kingdom, the postgame level. I wouldn't say Mario Odyssey is a bad game though. In fact, it still has several things that I enjoyed, namely the visuals, Mario's movement, New Donk City, and the ways Mario can use his cap.
Revisiting a franchise I previously focused on, but slightly changing courses for what I'll examine in it, I personally think ORAS are much better and more enjoyable games than Emerald, and I'd even go as far as saying ORAS is the best way to experience Hoenn. What I like about ORAS the most is that it improves on the original RSE's story in many ways:
- Wally went from one of the most forgettable rivals in the series to one of the most memorable just from the way ORAS portrays him and his development.
- Archie and Maxie now have an explanation behind why they want to accomplish their respective goals.
- The evil team admins featured here now have personalities in the remakes, whereas they could just be swapped with generic grunts in the originals.
- Steven Stone has a more active presence in the plot, and I thought it was a nice touch to make him interested in Mega Stones since it was previously established he is an avid rock collector. He even had some more character building moments, such as his banter with his dad in the Delta episode.
- The remakes explain why Team Magma/Aqua raid the Weather Institute, whereas the original games never delved into that.
ORAS ultimately gave a more engaging story for me because of those changes. Other reasons I think ORAS is superior to Emerald is because Steven is back as the champion (and rightfully so since I find him to be a more interesting character and more of a challenge than Wallace), the inclusion of all improved battle mechanics built up from the past generations incorporated here, the fact Secret Bases could be shared online through QR codes, the Pokenav having more utility than the originals, the 3D graphics making feel more alive, and there was more to do in the postgame thanks to the Delta episode and all the legendaries you can catch. My only issues I had with ORAS is the lack of a Battle Fronter, the inability to rematch Gym Leaders, and not having the Gym Leaders use their Emerald teams (Tate and Lisa in ORAS being the most notorious examples). In all, I'd say ORAS are my second favorite Pokemon games.
That's about it for some of my new unpopular gaming opinions for now. I might add more if they come to mind.
