>>49990791I disagree. It definitely did make the system more complex, but I think the simplicity worked in its favour.
In contrast to what you say, type match ups have only become MORE central with the split. Before, a Pokémon like, say, Torkoal was weak to ground rock and water. But it’s physical defense was way higher than it’s special defense so it’s functionally more weak to water than ground or rock, and I’m fairly sure that was by design. Another more extreme example is Aggron. His typing gives him a quad weakness to ground and fighting, but you could ALWAYS be sure those types would hit his monstrous physical defence so it was balanced. A water type move would actually do more damage than a ground or fighting move due to the lopsided nature of his defenses.
Essentially, the type matchups of any given Pokémon went hand in hand with their stats to determine their weaknesses and strengths. That’s nearly completely gone now. A Pokémon like Aggron now absolutely COWERS in fear of special fighting and ground moves. It was a simpler system, sure, but there was purpose to the simplicity, being able to be sure that a type will always deal one type of damage allowed the developers to better design Pokémon around their type match ups. As a whole I just prefer the system for that reason, even if some aspects of it were mind dumbingly dumb like bite being a special move, yet they distribute it like it’s physical.
