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Pokemon feels like the game series with the single most wasted potential of all time
- Thread starter Revolsin
- Start date
This.
It's bonkers.
They could tone down the spawns from Let's Go somewhat and remove the red/blue auras, but overall it gave the games so much more life.
I think it would benefit from the increased diversity of Pokémon as well.
Choice about having Pokémon in the overworld? That's a bit much.
As for towns being standard, you're thinking of the first town not the overall cities. Everything we've seen about them makes them look far more sprawling than before.
That's a big much for a game which sells regularly 15-16m units...? What...? Also, you can, at least, introduce a frequency slider like the one in Bravely Default, whether you adopt random encounters or not.
As for towns, for what we have seen they still don't seem as explorable and big as those in YW.
Is it? It's not like their animations are super complex or anything tbh
Then everything is an aesthetic touch. Why should we have explorable towns instead of menu like in Etrian Odyssey? Why should we have animations during battles? Etc.
Many of my friends are animators and it is a hard job, let alone 800 creatures with several unique routines and cycles.
I do not see it comparable. A Charizard following you behind seems to me more against immersion than in favor. I can understand it with small Pokémon like Pikachu or like that but there are many cases where I find it ridiculous.
That's true as well. GF seems to focus on single-player spinoff titles like Tembo rather than pursue MMO experiences.
Its Game Freak status quo to use an idea once, MAYBE twice then scrap it.
Unless their plan is to only use following animations and overworld pokemon for the Lets Go branding which is even more asinine.
I like the series the way it is, it has a combat system that is perfect for me and I love the multiplayer, and everything else its like filler to me.
I hope it never changes and they just add more options for MP and better balanced teams (that its almost imposible with more than 800 pokemon).
People talk about the series not evolving and only talk about small cosmetic changes like seeing pokemon in the overworld, having a partner pokemon or changing clothes that in the end are meaningless in the experience.
On one side it would make EV training or farming a pokemon faster, but I think it would make the campaign just too easy.
I hope it never changes and they just add more options for MP and better balanced teams (that its almost imposible with more than 800 pokemon).
People talk about the series not evolving and only talk about small cosmetic changes like seeing pokemon in the overworld, having a partner pokemon or changing clothes that in the end are meaningless in the experience.
I think it would make an easy game even easyer by letting you farm/train against the pokemon of your choice the whole time.
On one side it would make EV training or farming a pokemon faster, but I think it would make the campaign just too easy.
Having dozens of little details like that is what actually builds immersion in a video game. From having a Machamp holding a crate because its owners are moving, to being able to pet and dress your pokemon, riding your pokemon or flying with it, all these things and many more might seem useless but subtly make the world vastly more intriguing to be a part of.
Yeah, with some Pokémon I can understand it, but having a Garchomp following you down the street seems to me against immersion.
WoW is what, 15 years old?
I bet they considered it but the sheer amount of work turned them off. But the end result would have paid them back handsomely.
It's honestly the perfect game for an MMO. It's the kind of game where social interaction would add a hugely appealing element and all the kinds of systems they could add in there....it would live as long as WoW, it would be as popular as WoW, it would make a shit ton of money like WoW.
But maybe they missed the boat on this one.
I bet they considered it but the sheer amount of work turned them off. But the end result would have paid them back handsomely.
It's honestly the perfect game for an MMO. It's the kind of game where social interaction would add a hugely appealing element and all the kinds of systems they could add in there....it would live as long as WoW, it would be as popular as WoW, it would make a shit ton of money like WoW.
But maybe they missed the boat on this one.
Yeah and there's nothing stopping them from making a separate franchise with the IP that tries to realize that dream, leaving the "meta" in tact for those who enjoy repetition. In fact they've shown they're capable of getting out of their box by making weird spin offs that cater to very small slices of the audience.
I really can't think of a more monied publisher/IP that has continued to not attempt to deliver on what has been widely seen as the ideal vision for over 20 years. Even Square is willing to try and fail answering to the FF7 remake clamor.
All the animations are already in the game. Every single Pokémon has a unique running and walking animation.
The worst is just how fucking static everything is. Why do we need to wait two seconds for a jingle to play after a level-up for it to repeat immediately after for the next level-up when you're leveling lower lvl Pokémon in your party? Why does everything go so fucking slow in the battle system and needs to be laid out? Why do we need to wait for a paralysed animation to play when the textbox indicates the Pokémon is paralysed? Just shit like this, archaic in any modern day game.
You wouldn't be forced to choose Charizard as a Pokémon following you.
I want full party battles. Four pokemon on each side. Could be really deep and engaging battle system. 1on1 just feels so limited and boring.
Hey, if you feel that you are at risk for any reason, please seek help and call any toll-free mental-health hotline and talk to any trained professional who can help you. Unfortunately I cannot simply tell you to shrug it off and ignore the hostility directed to you since it clearly affected you personally and I do not any experience in dealing with these matters but do note you can seek help anytime for any reason.
It's not complicated. People like seeing their pokemon actually tagging along for the adventure. Besides Let's go(or at least the demo in my case) let players turn it off if they wanted.
Most animations like that can be switched off in the options by switching off battle animations. The series has had this option since it started I believe, if not then as early as Gold and Silver.
That said, Disgaea style "press button to skip animation" and "skip all animations, but press button if you want to watch a specific animation as it happens" would be appreciated I suppose.
Options. Don't like having a Garchomp out of it's pokéball? Then don't.
I don't these games could be selling that much better, but they certainly could be much better.
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Not saying I don't agree ehh you but their games review well and sell well. Not sure they have much incentive.
Well the comparison to indie games is a bit farfetch'd, but
I could stomach the relatively little changes each new game brings if Game Freak wasn't allergic to features from past games (Battle Frontier replaced with personally inferior versions barring BW2, Mega evolutions being a massive pain in the ass to access in Sun and Moon or locked until the post game in Let's Go, following Pokemon gone despite being in Let's Go, Game Corner being taken out for being problematic but not giving an alternative, and a decent post-game being the luck of the draw for the newer games). But nah, that's for the inevitable full-priced third version to amend where other games would just charge you for DLC.
This is more of a personal issue, but having less new Pokemon these past few generations is a bummer too.
Man, has mainline Pokemon felt like a love-hate relationship for me.
I could stomach the relatively little changes each new game brings if Game Freak wasn't allergic to features from past games (Battle Frontier replaced with personally inferior versions barring BW2, Mega evolutions being a massive pain in the ass to access in Sun and Moon or locked until the post game in Let's Go, following Pokemon gone despite being in Let's Go, Game Corner being taken out for being problematic but not giving an alternative, and a decent post-game being the luck of the draw for the newer games). But nah, that's for the inevitable full-priced third version to amend where other games would just charge you for DLC.
This is more of a personal issue, but having less new Pokemon these past few generations is a bummer too.
Man, has mainline Pokemon felt like a love-hate relationship for me.
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There are many options between "no animations at all" and "slow ass animations". The SMT series has solved this problem years now, yet Pokemon still clings to the outdated non-options that it still has. Repeatable animations like whenever a Pokemon gains more than one levels are things that should have been solved in the first sequel of the series. Yet, as with tons of things with this franchise, here we are.
It's gonna be really painful when it turns out that none of the excellent things that a generally mediocre game like LGPE did makes it to the next mainline series. And that would barely be the first time for Gamefreak. We are already 0/2.
Because they don't take critics or fan feedback seriously? A Pokémon main game would sell no matter how midcore or uninspired because I reached the point of playing the games out of habit and I don't think i'm alone. I think they just finish a game to move to the next one.
The game are so un-Nintendo in term of polish and innovation but the games sell and that's what matters to them in the end of the day.
I honestly think any Nintendo studio could honestly develop a better Pokémon game than GF if given the chance. Even Level 5 would do a way better job specially with the open world if they take the Ni no Kuni style.
I don't know how this is realistic to be honest XD
is there even any JRPG out there with the scope of Xenoblade Chronicles 2? even FFXV with its very big dudget, doesn't have half the amount of content.
the thing with Xenoblade is, its not really about the budget, GF and Monolith are very similar in size. Monolith are just crazily good, they are one of the best developers in this entire industry, they are even a big reason why Breath of the Wild is as great as it was.
in Iwata's asks, they explained how they have been designing 3D maps since the very first Playstation system. i bet they also work extremely hard, even by Japanese standards.
GF who only worked on handhelds don't have the same experience or capability. they also don't have Takahashi :P
increasing budget is also not as easy as a lot of people are thinking. it is true that Pokemon is the biggest cross media franchise of all time, but it is a franchise that is owned by 3 companies which all share the revenue, and not all that revenue come from the games themselves. also, the games used to sell for 40$, so it was probably risky for GF to grow as much as some people may hope.
however, Pokemon Sword and Shield looks fantastic to me.
The funny thing was that this wasn't a thing in Gen 1, it came into effect from Gen 2 onward. I think it was them putting in a safeguard so that way when a Pokemon hits a certain level, it'll prompt you on learning a move, versus skipping it entirely.
That's why it's so clunky now.
I wouldn't use Sun and Moon as examples of expanding the series. The changes in those games primarily limit player choice. It is unreasonable to compare the most linear games in the series with the idea of a big open world pokemon game.
To note that the movie Detective Pikachu is based on the Detective Pikachu 3DS game with is a narrative-focused point-and-click spin-off that does explore more in depth the Pokémon-human interactions outside of combat.
Misleadingly timestamped gameplay extract: https://youtu.be/7soSWy0n6UU?t=1202
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There's nothing wrong with pure turn based combat, I stil love it. Rather, I think a different approach with a greater scope would be really exciting. It's about trying something new.
Ultimately the scope of what GameFreak has created in previous games can't be applied to this hypothetical open world game. For example, you have large trees that obscure what's in the leafy tops of them, so hitting the tree or throwing something into the treetops has a random chance to produce a Pokémon from a list of available Pokémon. Depending on what Pokémon are chosen it might be the only way to find them. Not only that, image of you walk up carefully enough to a metapod dangling from a tree and throw a pokeball at it, you can get a guaranteed catch (or highly increase odds). You can generally make most of these sorts of idea work in the current format - as you pointed out there have already been similar ways of interacting with the environment before - but when you remove the vary gamey feel of selecting a menu option for a Pokémon attack or a predetermined action and instead make it feel like you are actually exploring and interacting with a real world, the increase in presentation and scope make a huge difference.
Sure. What I'm suggesting is a marriage of the chemistry physics stuff in Breath of the Wild and Pokemon. I would scale down the amount of puzzles, but if I can give some bad examples (I'm not actually trying to develop a game):
There's a dark room with unlit torches. You bring out a Pokémon with a fire move and you select the fire move while locked on it aiming at the torch. You have a switch that needs to be depressed, so you bring out your heaviest Pokémon, and if it's not enough maybe you need more than one on the Switch. You might notice and area in the wall has a crack in it so you have a Pokémon use rock smash on it to revel a hidden path to an item. When the button is depressed some of the walls lower to reveal platforms around the room at different heights. You notice a switch that is powered by electricity but is currently off, so you use a Pokémon with an electrical move, and it turns on some water fountains at different heights as well as illuminates the correct hallway in the above hallway that you could have proceeded to earlier but it would have been dark. And if you're clever you can use a freeze attack on the water and it creates a platform to another hidden area. These are just very simplistic, vaguely connected ideas of how to use your Pokémon to help you solve puzzles focusing on elemental attacks equating to specific outcomes as well as predetermined physical attacks working in certain situations, all in real time. If you reduce attacks into categories such as: fire, electric, ice, gust of wind, break hard objects, etc. you can design a system not too dissimilar to BOTW.
Since this is hypothetical I'm not factoring in whether it's more cost effective to fade to black or trim animations or whether this version of Pokémon would be more profitable. Rather, I'm simply suggesting ideas that for me and probably a lot of people would make Pokémon a new, very exciting game.
This version is less focused on managing resources and more focused on the actual exploration, like most open world games. And some areas are gated off by requiring certain Pokémon skills, like an area that can only be visited by cutting through trees, or flying to a plateau, or surfing to islands. Gym leaders can give you whatever means of unlocking HM's for Pokémon, or items that let you access some areas, or you can keep it mostly non-linear. There are plenty of ways to Gate some content away for a while and lead players down certain paths without making it completely linear. This allows you to still have an increase in difficulty.
I mean, yeah there is weather based stuff, but it's nothing as complex and fun as what I described that's similar to Divinity: Original Sin. Just like in BOTW your interactions with the game work in combat and with interacting in the world. So elements react in a reasonably logical manner than is reflected in puzzle solving situations. Other status affects are applied during combat to emphasize the synergy of the elements. Like most of my suggestions it's basically taking things Pokémon already does but making it much more involved and dynamic.
HM's aren't a combat option. So if a Pidgeotto knows Fly, Pidgoet will too. And I would try to make it so any Pokémon that can learn an HM it will make sense that in their evolved forms that could still do it. As to getting stuck, that's just a normal part of designing a game. In this scenario I'm trusting whoever is making the games to keep up with everything so you can't geg stuck.
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Ultimately there is a dynamism and cohesiveness to exploration and combat, along with the scale of everything, that isn't possible with the current form of Pokémon. All of the ideas that exist are greatly expanded upon, or new ideas are introduced that wouldn't work in current games or would be clunky.
I wish this game could happen, but I don't think it will.
The highest rated Pokémon game is Pokemon Y with an 88 Metacritic score.
I think that Let's Go are better games than Sun/Moon in a lot of areas, and I'm not a "gen wunner".
To each his own I guess.
That always makes me wonder.
Is going to be funny once that people miss the changes Let's Go made.