Pokémon What is Pokémon’s biggest downfall?

[-Apples-]

I may like what Pok?mon has become, but there are a few things that are not good for the franchise or any other franchise. But out of everything that happened to the franchise, what do you think was the biggest downfall of the franchise?

In my opinion, it has to be the fact they included all 1st Gen and 2nd Gen Pok?mon in Pok?mon Gold and Silver (and both regions), because once they didn’t include all species in Ruby and Sapphire (as well as have only one region), the Pok?mon fad has been killed. It used to be a lot bigger back in the first generation (and maybe the second generation), but I’m very sure that was when the popularity of Pok?mon started fading. Adding insult to injury, looking at today’s sales, Pok?mon X and Y outsold Ruby and Sapphire alone, and the total sales of Ruby, Emerald, and Sapphire’s GBA games did not sell as well as the total sales of 7th Gen Pok?mon games (excluding the Let’s Go games). Granted, Diamond and Pearl alone sold better than Ruby and Sapphire, but not once has any Pok?mon game since then (not even the spin-offs) sold as well as Diamond and Pearl. It may be an awesome feature that you could go back to Kanto in the postgame, but have they not included all the Pok?mon species in Gold and Silver and just made you stick to the Johto region, this wouldn’t have been a problem in future games, and there may have been less 1st Gen pandering today. At the same time, there were changes in the anime (like when May replaced Misty as Ash’s female companion) that were not well received by fans. It was also when Pok?mon movies stopped showing up in theaters in the long run.

 

[Alienfish]

I think how they did Sun and Moon. (I mean US/UM got better but it was still for babies holding your hand every time etc.)

I honestly don't still get what they did there with all the holding hands, cut cenes etc. and that damn Rotom Dex talking ALL THE TIME...just shut up. And I didn't like the system with trials and the fact that you couldn't use level 100 Pok?mons first time you did Elite Four, like okay? Also the Plaza was pretty unnecessary, the only thing I use is the friendship caf? still and they could have made that a building?

Sure, it had some cool feature like the 'pelago but honestly I'd rather play ORAS any day.

 

[Vonny]

Pok?mon Go and GF making the main series games cater to casuals that find real Pok?mon games too complicated

Really hope they took the complaints seriously and Sword/Shield don’t give you that brain dead feeling Sun and Moon did

 

[chet_manley]

I honestly don't still get what they did there with all the holding hands, cut cenes etc. and that damn Rotom Dex talking ALL THE TIME...just shut up.

It would be nice to have the option to skip cut scenes. While it is hilarious to have an explanation about how to use a Pok?ball in every single game, you have to remember the target audience is not necessarily the people who have been playing since Red and Blue, and every day the anime or game is found by another seven year old who needs the extra help. Pok?mon has gotten more complicated throughout the years--Special being split into Special Attack/Special Defense, the addition of natures and EVs and Pok?rus and Abilities, not to mention the addition of additional types (Dark, Fairy, Steel, etc.). I have been playing since Red and Blue and still need the type chart out when I am battling sometimes.

 

[-Apples-]

I think how they did Sun and Moon. (I mean US/UM got better but it was still for babies holding your hand every time etc.)

I once thought excessive tutorials is what critics hate about the game, but I learned more about what they mean.

So you think the biggest downfall of the franchise is adding type effectiveness to moves in a battle, putting objective markers on the map, and giving you as much instruction as Fi did in Skyward Sword. Am I right? I’ve seen others criticize two of what I said because of how it eliminates the need to use common sense. I didn’t realize that those were downfalls.

 

[Reginald Fairfield]

It would be nice to have more post game stuff like the Frontier.

 

[Alienfish]

The GO franchise is also a joke but I think you know my onions on that.

While you can include tutorials, you don't have to make it as excessive as they did in sm/usum. You can include it on npc's or in booklets but yeah the gen 7 3ds games, just no.

 

[Rusolando-Kun]

What's wrong with tutorials and making the games accessible? ; o

 

[Melodie]

What's wrong with tutorials and making the games accessible? ; o

I guess long-time fans just find it annoying to get things explained over and over again which they
already know from playing the previous games. Sure, it may makes the game more accessible for
people who play for the first time in their lives a Pokemon game, but not for those who already know
what to do. Having a option where you can decide if you would like to hear and see the tutorials or not
would be nice in that case for people who would like to skip it, as it is otherwise just a waste of time
(and yes, Sun and Moon exaggerated it a little bit with this).

 

[Alienfish]

I guess long-time fans just find it annoying to get things explained over and over again which they
already know from playing the previous games. Sure, it may makes the game more accessible for
people who play for the first time in their lives a Pokemon game, but not for those who already know
what to do. Having a option where you can decide if you would like to hear and see the tutorials or not
would be nice in that case for people who would like to skip it, as it is otherwise just a waste of time
(and yes, Sun and Moon exaggerated it a little bit with this).

basically this, and that you can't skip it or move where you want somewhat freely. and accessible doesn't mean explaining literally every second, it takes away the fun exploring and you can always ask people or look it up? :/

 

[Jason Voorhees]

Nintendo/GF's incessant greed.

 

[Soot Sprite]

The tutorials are a big gripe of mine also... I get wanting to include the newer audience but at least give the option so the people who know how to use a pokeball don't have to sit through it.

I hope Sw/Sh isn't going to be as easy or hand holding as USUM. I appreciated GoP/E for what it was, and like a lot of people it was far from my first time playing in the Kanto region so the simplicity didn't bother me that much. It was an easy game that I enjoyed, but since it was a remake and not a mainline game I'm really hoping they'll lose the easiness of the game and make it a little more challenging. Alola was probably my least favorite region because of how easy it was and how much I felt like the entire game was a tutorial. There's no need to have your pokedex guide you through the game.

 

[Sweetley]

It feels like as if they now only focus on Pokemon mobile game right now, which is so lame. I miss the days where they made a bunch of Spin-Offs games such as Mystery Dungeon, PokePark, Colosseum, Ranger (guess this one is forgotten now), Battle Revolution and how they all called. The new features they add with each new Gen just sucks too. Z-Moves where already boring, now your Pokemon becomes gigantic? Seriously? Why not bringing back old features like Mega-Evolutions, they were at least kinda interesting...

Also agree with the problem about the tutorial. Make them in general shorter or just cut them out completely. Like come on, explaining every single little thing is not needed, besides Pokemon isn't that hard to understand, at least the basic things like how to catch a wild Pokemon etc. Pretty sure you can figure out how that works on your own without any tutorial.

 

[Alienfish]

The fact that it feels like as if they now only focus on Pokemon mobile games is so lame. I miss the days
where they made so many Spin-Offs games such as Mystery Dungeon, PokePark, Colosseum, Ranger (is
this even a thing anymore?), Battle Revolution and how they all called. The new features they add with
each new Gen just sucks too. Z-Moves where already boring, now your Pokemon becomes gigantic?
What the heck? Why not bringing back old features like Mega-Evolutions? They were at least kinda
cool.

Also agree with the tutorial problem. Make them shorter or just cut them out completely. Like come
on, explaining every single little thing is not needed, besides Pokemon isn't that hard to understand,
at least the basic things like how to catch a wild Pokemon. Pretty sure you can figure out how that
works on your own without a tutorial.

Yeah, while I agree Shuffle can be fun all this recent decade app gaming rather than focusing on main games suck balls.

Yeah, they should add an option like if you want it on or not or just cut it out, it's not to understand like you said.

 

[Tao]

I think Game Freak themselves are a detriment to Pokemon.

The people designing the Pokemon and other assets I don't see an issue with, basically anything you would hire an artist or writer for. Artistically I've never had any real issue with anything in Pokemon other than a few Pokemon I just don't personally like...And I guess many of the people designs shown so far for Sword/Shield (like, seriously, I've can't think of a human character design in an older Pokemon game I particularly dislike more than "it's not my cup of tea". Sword/Shield I've already seen a few that I really despise).

In terms of them programming the game, you can find tons of examples with evidence to back of their sheer incompetency. A well known one being that rather than having 1 asset of a character used throughout the game, they'll have multiple assets of that same character in multiple folders taking up more storage space and adding to load times just because they can't work out how to keep using that 1 asset in different parts of the game. It's bizarre really...Or how a LOT of mechanics flat out didn't work in the original games.
Iwata obviously got the game working on the Game Boy but it honestly feels less like he performed a miracle in getting the game on the system and more that he was just a guy that actually knew what he was doing fixing their shoddy work.

Their refusal to keep fan favourite features too because...Reasons? Pokemon following you, mega evolutions, Z moves, etc etc. There's nothing wrong with them adding new features, but it's like they're always taking away things fans like to force the new gimmick instead, or removing a liked feature to add something that's pretty similar to say there's something new because they can't think of something actually new to add. Instead of refining good ideas, shove out some new stuff for the sake of new stuff even if it's not that great.

Oddly despite always trying to focus on new features for the sake of new features, they also seem to bank way too much on nostalgia pulling in the sales. What's wrong with gen 1? Absolutely nothing really, but I've grown to dislike gen 1 because I'm kind of just sick of seeing it get the focus every release whilst every other gen gets nothing.

I also think that they kind of just got a bit lucky with Pokemon, it being a series that's going to sell and be successful even when a game isn't that great because the formula is inherently fun despite the flaws a game might have. Their non Pokemon games don't do fantastically and from what I've played of them I understand why (they're not awful, but they're not brilliant either). I can't think of another example of a series where I would like another studio to have a shot at the main titles, but Pokemon is definitely one of them.


As I say, I don't think the Pokemon games are bad, I just don't think we're seeing the full potential of the series with Game Freak behind the wheel.




Oh, and a non GF related one: they've ruined the appeal of legendaries. I never used legendaries myself, just caught them and shoved them in storage, but they at least used to feel pretty special to find and encounter. Now there's so many of them and in certain games a high amount of them available that it feels like they're no more rare than your starter Pokemon.

What's wrong with tutorials and making the games accessible? ; o

Absolutely nothing.

It does irritate me having to go through tutorials for games when I already know what I'm doing or it's a genre I'm familiar with thus could probably work it out for myself, but I understand and accept why they're there, for people who don't know or may not be able to work it out for themselves (though a 'skip' or "leave me alone, I know this already" option is always welcomed).

The Pokemon games have been adding more and more 'accessibility' and tutorials with each game which is fine, but Sun/Moon went so friggin' overboard with it to the point where you could be stopped from playing and told the exact information 3 times within the space of 2 minutes and THEN the game basically hold your hand and force you to do that thing anyway removing the need for it to have told you in the first place.

I played about 20 hours of Sun, which surprised me since I hated near every minute of it. Even after that much play time I was still getting excessive amounts of hand holding and being told how to play the game. The game would tell you which move you should and shouldn't use, it'll tell you which type is strong against what during battle removing the need to learn that information yourself, it had a GPS and about 3 other ways that it forced onto you of telling you where to go when a character just saying "go here" with repeatable dialogue if you spoke to them again would suffice.

Accessibility and helping people to play the game is fine, but they took Sun/Moon to the point of treating the player like an incapable brainless moron. I don't feel I made many choices in Sun outside of which Pokemon I wanted, I just had to follow everything the game was telling me because it did tell me almost everything whether I wanted it to or not.

 

[Circus]

The fact that they've been making so many mobile games now, all of which seem to be P2W. They're becoming so money hungry with these games, hopefully SwSh have enough good content to make them worth the $60.