Do Pokemon SwSh have the best characters?

[shoz999]

So one thing I'm really looking forward to in Pokemon Adventures SwSh, a manga adaptation of the games, is just seeing the protagonists interact with the characters of the Galar Region and part of this is because I believe that if the SM and BW games have the best story, then the SwSh games have the best characters. I love their background stories, their actions, big and small, in the main story, their personalities, the big and subtle facial expressions they make, just all so awesome that I can't honestly say there was such thing as an unmemorable character. Even Hop is awesome, I'm seeing some people who once thought "Ugh... another friendly rival" now think that he's one of the best rivals that GameFreak has done.

 

[Eldegoss]

The characters beyond their facial expressions are all very bland. The only character I saw genuine growth in was Sonia, as we saw her slowly begin to forge a pathway to being a professor and re-ignite her passion for Pokemon and travelling.

As a whole, B/W, B2/W2, HG/SS and Pt have all had stronger characters without the need to rely on facial expressions.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

I don't think so. Perhaps if N, Lillie, and Lusamine didn't exist, but since they're so far above normal Pokemon characters, if we take them out of the equation, I'd probably agree with you.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I think that the characters rival the Gen V games for being the best. Both had Gym Leaders that had fun and unique personalities that made them feel real. XY had some Gym Leaders that had some personality but then there was Grant who just felt like he was just there and Valerie who had a rather unique look but no actual personality other than being some Fairy type master that came from a different region. We don’t know anything else about her and the very little info we get about her come from NPC and not Valerie herself. The Gen VII Games also had some interesting characters and I’d say they have the third best characters.

 

[Xuxuba]

To be honest with you, there aren't that many characters that i like from the games.

Overall, they tend to be as shallow and one dimensional as possible, so i don't really like them as much as i like their design.

There are a few exceptions though and a lot of them come from SwSh (such as Bede, Sonia, Hop, Marnie and Piers). I don't necessarily think it has the best story (if such thing even exist in a game where the story is nearly an afterthought), but i do like the characters' personalities and how they develop (aside from Leon).

I don't think so. Perhaps if N, Lillie, and Lusamine didn't exist, but since they're so far above normal Pokemon characters, if we take them out of the equation, I'd probably agree with you.

Which Lusamine? I personally think both are poorly written, but at least the first one was overall a more threatening villain. Both acted in a way that completely contradicted their motifs.

SM Lusamine created an Ultra beast killer even though she wanted nothing but to live amongst them. She harmed an UB to open a hole and spent so much time working on this overcomplicated plan, even though that was completely unnecessary and she could have just jumped into one of the wormholes that were already open, like the one that Nihilego came out of. I get that she is crazy because of Nihilego's juice or whatever, but even the craziest villains can make a little bit of sense in their own twisted way (like Joker for example). It also made no sense how anyone followed her orders. Like, what do they even get from helping her? I guess she could have payed them, but that was never said in the story and where is this money even coming from? After all, she works in a filantropic foundation that receives no money from helping pokémon (and at least in the games, i don't remember anyone mentioning any donor). Also, if their boss went to another dimension, there'd be no way for her to pay them anymore lmao

Meanwhile, USUM Lusamine was completely sidelined as a villain and the only real threat was Necrozma. She started off the game being crazy and abusive, just like SM Lusamine was, but then she suddenly turns into this overprotective mother after like 30 seconds of talking to her.

Regarding Lillie, i think she got a lot of focus to the point of your main character looking like a side character, but at the same time she was also very annoying constantly stopping you midway through your journey with useless shenanigans.

I do agree with you that N is not a bad character, although i don't exactly see what is so special about him. But i am open to discussions.

 

[Dragalge]

Meanwhile, USUM Lusamine was completely sidelined as a villain and the only real threat was Necrozma. She started off the game being crazy and abusive, just like SM Lusamine was, but then she suddenly turns into this overprotective mother after like 30 seconds of talking to her.

Lusamine wasn’t crazy in USUM. She was just a strict parent that thought that she didn’t need help from her children. It was when Necrozma kicked her ass that she realized that her children helping out was beneficial.

I mean yeah she still froze some Pokemon but iirc that had to do more with her losing Mohn and thus wanting to not lose anything else. (So a bit bonkers still but not batshit insane like in SM)

 

[Ignition]

They're good characters but definitely not the best. Alola's cast has that title

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

I prefer Lillie and N.

 

[Xuxuba]

Lusamine wasn’t crazy in USUM. She was just a strict parent that thought that she didn’t need help from her children. It was when Necrozma kicked her ass that she realized that her children helping out was beneficial.

I mean yeah she still froze some Pokemon but iirc that had to do more with her losing Mohn and thus wanting to not lose anything else. (So a bit bonkers still but not batshit insane like in SM)

She wasn't completely crazy since her reasoning at least made a bit of sense but in the first half of the game's story she acted like a crazy person and looked crazy aswell despite not being affected by Nihilego's toxins.

It's like they tried to keep most of her dialogue in the game, despite USUM Lusamine's motifs being so different from SM Lusamine's. Had they adapted her dialogue more to her new story arc, this wouldn't have been a problem.

The writers clearly tried to make so it would look like she was just a strict parent who didn't want her kids to help her and yet she still makes that whole abusive speech from SM where she says her children are terrible and awful and that she doesn't want to listen to them, which makes no sense for an overprotective mother who loves her children to say.

It made no sense for her to freeze her pokémon aswell. Even if losing Mohn caused her to do that, what about her other pokémon? She still has a bunch of them in her team. And i am sorry no sane person would freeze alive the ones she loves. That is not just a bit bonkers, it is quite insane. I know they didn't want her to be that insane in this version, but that was not the right way to do it. Things like that totally contradict her more reasonable personality.

 

[Sham]

I’ve already stated why I loved the characters of SWSH mostly because each of them teaches the main character (you) a universal lesson. Seeing Bede’s, Sonia’s and Hop’s outcomes was great. However I can’t deny SM is a close runner up.

 

[Aduro]

I don't think the main characters topped Gen V or Gen VII. But the secondary characters were good.

If there's a sequel and the characters actually progress, then they are better than Lillie and her family. Some of them weren't fleshed out enough, but we really needed a few more scenes, with Rose and Sonia in particular. Too much time was spent with Hop and Leon repeating themselves.

Maybe have more detail on why Rose needed Leon or thought he could bring him around. Design-wise they were great. Leon was such a hilarious fashion disaster, Opal reminded me of a couple of Studio Ghibli characters. And they had personality rather than just puns.

I wasn't that fond of Hop compared to Hau either. They're similar, but Hop seemed like he felt entitled to win against anyone but Leon,while Hau wasn't sure he could. Hop felt like everyone but Leon was a prop to him, including his own team. While Hau seemed to instantly connect with people.

 

[PrinceOfFacade]

I won't say it has the best characters, but definitely some good ones.

My only wish is that the characters were expanded on more.

 

[Zoruagible]

N and Ghetsis exist, so nope!
Those two hold the reins of best character. Polar opposites, one pure good and the other so evil he tried to screw over the franchise's big bad himself!

Galar has good characters like Alola, but nobody compares to Ghetsis or N

 

[DannyDark]

I've seen more hate for Hop than any other character, honestly.
By the way, did you know, his brother is super strong and undefeatable? And well done for using a super effective move in the post-game?
I'd definitely say Hop is even more unbearable than Hau, honestly.

And having Protag and Hop simply mirror Leon and Sonia in the post-game isn't good development?

Honestly a quite forgettable bunch of characters, but I don't think GF have ever excelled in storytelling.

 

[PrinceOfFacade]

To say, though, I think Hop is becoming my favorite rival, on sheer character development alone.

Never has there been a rival who goes from gay and cheerful to grim and stoic. This dude hardly even smiles anymore. His spirit has been broken so many times he just stopped caring. It's sad, but also incredible in terms of writing.

 

[catzeye]

I won't say it has the best characters, but definitely some good ones.

My only wish is that the characters were expanded on more.

You hit the nail on the head with that one. The characters were great but not expanded upon (barring Hop and to a lesser extent, Sonia). There were way too many instances where the interesting facts of the characters are only revealed through random NPCs and league cards. That's not an inherently bad thing if it's just fun little tidbits about their quirks, but when pieces of information that actually give them more depth are only revealed in passing that's when the trouble starts. I like having subtlety in stories but there has to be a balance between being subtle and more overt plot/character development.

Leon is a prime example of this. If you miss certain pieces of dialogue it's easy to see him as a fairly one-dimensional as his main traits in the story are him talking about how he's the champion and having a terrible sense of direction. However through little tidbits its revealed that he's incredibly hard to read (this is from Opal of all people through her notes), that he was the one to raise Hop which explains a lot of Hop's need to prove himself (this is revealed by Sonia), that something happened between him and Sonia that caused their rivalry to sour (an NPC in Wedgehurst), and that he actually seems happier and livelier as the head of the battle tower than he was as champion (his own Rare league card). Those four pieces of information, if given more importance in the storyline would have given him a lot more depth than he ended up getting which was just a rushed realization that he needed to focus on other things besides battling and being the best. All that said, it's nice to see a champion get some development, but he and others (Rose, Marnie, Bede, Piers, Oleana, Magnolia) could have definitely gotten a lot more considering their relative importance to the story.

Besides the fact that certain crucial details are just brought on in passing, the main story doesn't do a good job at balancing screentime (a running issue in Pokemon Games). Like I can definitely understand why Hop would get top billing (and I loved his character arc), but they could have slightly decreased his screentime to add more depth to Bede and Marnie. Like Marnie has this "certain goal" but there's barely any attention paid to it until Spikemuth. Instead of one of the 12 battles we get with Hop, I wish we could have gotten an extra one with Marnie where she at least hints at the fact that she comes from a place of struggle. Also it' would have been nice to have more interaction with Rose prior to the legendary plot where we could have seen some more his subtle underhandedness. Like it would actually make sense in-story for Rose to want to meet with the player considering we are a rising star so it would seem out of place whatsoever, and maybe he could slip in some references to Dynamaxing and why he is so fascinated by it which would nicely tie in to why he wants to awaken Eternatus.

 

[shoz999]

N and Ghetsis exist, so nope!
Those two hold the reins of best character. Polar opposites, one pure good and the other so evil he tried to screw over the franchise's big bad himself!

Galar has good characters like Alola, but nobody compares to Ghetsis or N

A bit off-topic but you know how sometimes I say Black & White is the Steel Ball Run to Kanto, a great reboot that barely resembles the original? What if N and Ghetsis are a reboot of Giovanni? N represents the Charismastic side that the villainous team loves while Ghetsis represents the cruel darker side that the villainous team fears.

 

[Dragalge]

Now that I can share my thoughts properly, no lol. This isn’t related to his development but shut up about how I used a super effective move on your Dubwool for one, Hop. B/

That aside, I found it annoying how he still can’t get over losing after like eight battles. Sure I creamed him in the Champions Cup but you’d think by then he’d grow a spine and accept loses and be chill without hating on himself but nah. The execution of Bede becoming a gym leader was also handled awfully but that’s kind of a problem with how everything just stops for a while after the fifth gym.

Despite all this, I still prefer these two over Marnie by a long shot. She appears like three times prior to Spikemuth where we finally get to see something interesting going on...only to have her be upstaged by Piers who managed to be far more interesting in the initial meeting. Leon was meh, Rose’s goal was stupid, I like Oleana for her ace being odd, and Sonia was the best SWSH character imo.

Speaking of Piers, gym leaders! Not the worst bunch like Gens 1 - 3 + 6 but probably just tied with Sinnoh’s at best imo. Overall not the worst cast of characters but things could have been handled waaay better. Unova and Alola still reign supreme on this front.

 

[Orphalesion]

Yeah I usually don't like the human characters in most Pokemon games either because they are often blander than bland (and sorry, I don't care whether some manga or anime fleshes them out more, I have no interest in either) and for most generations I don't remember the names of the gym leaders or other characters with some obvious exceptions (I remember N, for example, yeah he was well written for a Pokemon game, Looker and Bianca)
But I honestly think Alola and Galar have better and more memorable human characters (overall) than the previous generations. You see many of the trial captains, kahunas, professors and gym leaders during multiple parts of the story and they do something more than just sit around their gyms/laboratories all day.
Not sure whom I call "better" between Alola and Galar. I think the Galar cast is, overall, a bit more interesting than the Alola cast, but I feel their stories kind of ended abruptly/happened off-screen, while in Alola, we saw Lillie develop. Maybe the updated version will give them more complete arcs (debatable, Ultra SuMo ruined Lusamine in my eyes)
But maybe that's just showing how interesting the characters were? I would have loved to see a lot more of Marnie, Piers and Bede's character development, for example.
Or maybe it's the weird story in Galar harming the characters...I constantly had the feeling that the plot/story was happening off-screen while I was told to run along and concentrate on my gym challenge.

I still think the overall best human character in Pokemon was Lillie, but the Galar cast is excellent as well.

 

[Leonhart]

I like a few of the characters such a Beet (Bede) and a few of the new Gym Leaders such as Nezu (Piers), but overall I'm not exactly impressed by the new characters in Shield and Sword. I guess that my main issue with a lot of them is that they're basically rehashes of previous characters.