None of the indie games trying to outdo Pokémon are very appealing and it’s because they don’t understand character design and general presentation. Modern Pokémon leaves a LOT to be desired, but despite that still has a lot of appeal in its presentation. The character and monster designs are leaps and bounds ahead of any indie take on the genre, they can manage to look cool or cute or both, and usually have some sort of memorable design factor. Human designs have also been very appealing and snazzy the last gew gens.
Not sure how Nexomon is allowed to get away with this knockoff design:
^ This also highlights a failure in the indie monster catching games, in that they don’t make evolutionary forms exciting or surprising, they generally
only go the “same thing but bigger” route. There’s no wonder in what your monster will evolve into next, but that’s a huge part of Pokémon’s appeal back to some gen 1 designs (Magikarp->Gyarados, Eevee, even the mild surprise of Squirtle getting cannons later). The Pawmi line stands out as a modern exception, but in one of these other games, something like that isn’t even surprising (the more shocking thing about this line is what an obvious knockoff of Dwebble it is).
Also unpopular: Pokémon best stories by far was gen 7’s, followed by 9. Not 5. I’ve already shared my dislike for gen 5 on this board anyway…
And finally I don’t see these indie entries in the genre actually fixing many of Pokémon’s outstanding issues… no better story, no better animations (granted that these are made by indies but I think the animations are actually
more bland than current Pokémon and highlight the lack of surprise/intrigue/inspiration of the monster designs)… They aren’t even going for feeling different.
It’s just so disappointing. I don’t even know if this is unpopular so maybe I’m just venting but for all the issues with Pokémon none of the indie takes on the genre hold a candle. Fangames aside. I can’t take it seriously if someone is sincerely recommending one of these games over Pokémon. This genre deserves better but these indie games aren’t it.
Yeah. I have no idea what to respond when someone asks me my favorite celebrity. I know the type of answer they want to hear but the most they are getting from me is my favorite professional athlete, which I’m almost certain is not what they want to hear.
I think athletes should count and it’s lame if other people don’t.