Since Pokemon's inception, up to generation 5, there has been permanent improvement/addition to the battle system in every new generation game.
- Generation 1 introduced the system.
- Generation 2 added held items and weather effects. Items an have various effects such as boosted attack, or healing some health after each turn. It also introduced two new types, dark and steel, which helped it be more balanced from generation 1 by not having Psychic type. The "special" stat from gen 1 was split into special attack and special defense. Various other fixes were also made.
- Generation 3 introduced natures and abilities. The latter in paticular added a pretty significant layer to give more depth and strategy to the game. Abilities can range from a pokemon levitating, so theyre immune to all ground type attacks, or giving them some boosted stats under a certain weather condition or status effect. It also helped differentiate each pokemon more from each other.
- Generation 4 brought the physical/special split, which I argue is the single biggest improvement. Prior to this, the moves being physical/special were determined by type. That really screwed up certain pokemon such as sneasel or flareon, where they had a high physical attack stat, but all their STAB types were special moves. This change made it so that moves can be either physical/special regardless of what type they are, based on what makes most sense, given their name. For example, Fire punch (making physical contact with opponent) is physical, and Flamethrower (shooting flames at opponent from a distance) was special. This change really made a lot of previously useless pokemon more viable.
- Generation 5 improved didn't bring a major change, but it made a handful of minor improvements. Presentation became much better with animated sprites and a drastically faster battle speed. The reliance on HM's was significantly toned down, while TMs were changed so they have infinite uses, giving more flexibility. Oh, and triple/rotation battles.
Generation 6, generation 7, and generation 8 each added an expendable gimmick, which was thrown in the trash bin after the generation ended. Unlike previous generations, they added nothing to the core of the system as a permanent addition. Infact, a few things were removed. Generation 7 and onwards removed triple/rotation battles, and generation 8 removed the ability to turn the exp share off, making it the most mindlessly easy pokemon game. Pokemon Lets Go gutted the the depth battles had completely, with abilities and held items both taken out. None of these things are hard to understand, even for children. On the contrary, they kept in the hard to understand stuff, EVs/IVs, in the game, which doesnt make any sense for a more casual pokemon game.
Further permanent additions would be awesome. Maybe pokemon get different statures for attack or defense, or maybe dual type moves, something like that. Not saying these ideas would be good, but something along the vain of them, instead of gimmicks like megas and dynamax.
Also, a word on presentation:
3D models were added in generation 6. Problems with them, at least for me, was washed out colors (completely butchered Starmie), awkward idle poses for a lot pokemon, especially flying ones (Thyplosion and Skarmory got the worst of this). And the fact that theyve been the exact same models for three generations, whereas there were new sprites for old pokemon every game or two, kept things fresh. Because of this, generation 5 still reigns supreme in presentation, at least for me.
Edit: this thread is a work in progress, I pressed enter by accident.
- Generation 1 introduced the system.
- Generation 2 added held items and weather effects. Items an have various effects such as boosted attack, or healing some health after each turn. It also introduced two new types, dark and steel, which helped it be more balanced from generation 1 by not having Psychic type. The "special" stat from gen 1 was split into special attack and special defense. Various other fixes were also made.
- Generation 3 introduced natures and abilities. The latter in paticular added a pretty significant layer to give more depth and strategy to the game. Abilities can range from a pokemon levitating, so theyre immune to all ground type attacks, or giving them some boosted stats under a certain weather condition or status effect. It also helped differentiate each pokemon more from each other.
- Generation 4 brought the physical/special split, which I argue is the single biggest improvement. Prior to this, the moves being physical/special were determined by type. That really screwed up certain pokemon such as sneasel or flareon, where they had a high physical attack stat, but all their STAB types were special moves. This change made it so that moves can be either physical/special regardless of what type they are, based on what makes most sense, given their name. For example, Fire punch (making physical contact with opponent) is physical, and Flamethrower (shooting flames at opponent from a distance) was special. This change really made a lot of previously useless pokemon more viable.
- Generation 5 improved didn't bring a major change, but it made a handful of minor improvements. Presentation became much better with animated sprites and a drastically faster battle speed. The reliance on HM's was significantly toned down, while TMs were changed so they have infinite uses, giving more flexibility. Oh, and triple/rotation battles.
Generation 6, generation 7, and generation 8 each added an expendable gimmick, which was thrown in the trash bin after the generation ended. Unlike previous generations, they added nothing to the core of the system as a permanent addition. Infact, a few things were removed. Generation 7 and onwards removed triple/rotation battles, and generation 8 removed the ability to turn the exp share off, making it the most mindlessly easy pokemon game. Pokemon Lets Go gutted the the depth battles had completely, with abilities and held items both taken out. None of these things are hard to understand, even for children. On the contrary, they kept in the hard to understand stuff, EVs/IVs, in the game, which doesnt make any sense for a more casual pokemon game.
Further permanent additions would be awesome. Maybe pokemon get different statures for attack or defense, or maybe dual type moves, something like that. Not saying these ideas would be good, but something along the vain of them, instead of gimmicks like megas and dynamax.
Also, a word on presentation:
3D models were added in generation 6. Problems with them, at least for me, was washed out colors (completely butchered Starmie), awkward idle poses for a lot pokemon, especially flying ones (Thyplosion and Skarmory got the worst of this). And the fact that theyve been the exact same models for three generations, whereas there were new sprites for old pokemon every game or two, kept things fresh. Because of this, generation 5 still reigns supreme in presentation, at least for me.
Edit: this thread is a work in progress, I pressed enter by accident.
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