I think this game has convinced me that I just don’t like Pokemon games anymore.
I went into this game with pretty high hopes. My gripes with more recent Pokemon games has been a shift away from expression through catching Pokemon and building your team in favor of weirdly grand and linear plots, forced legendaries, and hollow gimmicks that no one cares about. But everything from the gameplay trailers for this game made it seem like it could be great, potentially my favorite Pokemon game ever.
It was a remake of gen 4 which I enjoyed, I liked the aesthetic, and it had all the good roleplaying aspects of past games: clothes and following Pokemon.
At first it was everything I wanted. The grand underground in particular is very enjoyable to explore. It was doing everything right but at some point between two towns it dawned on me. Pokemon is not fun.
The actual gameplay part of this game is just not engaging. What’s the core loop of this game? You go from one town to the next fighting trainers that are 10 levels too weak and running away from wild Pokemon that are 20 levels too weak. There’s very little actual thought, I’m just mashing the A button so my starter can sweep the opponent with their strongest attack. Then the game tasks you to go through a building of Team Galactic baddies and fight the same 3 pokemon 5 times over. This is tedious, this is exhausting.
Catching Pokemon is a chore. Constantly catching or breeding guys until you catch the one with the right nature and ability is a nothing experience. Early in the game you can get a Machop and I’m not going to settle for one that doesn’t have an adamant nature. So on route 207 I have a 35% chance of running into the guy and a 3.3% chance of it being adamant. That’s around a 1 in 100 chance. If I wanted a specific ability it becomes a 1 in 200. That is not fun. I am not having fun. I caught like 60 and gave up. If I didn’t know about natures this would maybe be alright but I do and it’s a cancer on my brain. To steal a quote from Steeb, “the fact that I know so much about Pokemon’s mechanics is an active detriment to the play experience.”
All of this can be mitigated with held items and breeding but that’s all end game stuff. It is very strange to me that it’s just accepted that the main game is just not fun and you only get to have fun once you reach the battle tower in the post-game.
(DISCLAIMER: Now this part sucks because it is dumb to tell anyone how to make a game as a person who does not make a game but here it is anyways)
The solution to this seems so easy. They have all the tools at their disposal to create two game modes. You have this core experience of non-engaging early game combat. That’s what Pokemon is so you don’t want to get rid of that. Call it Classic mode.
Then just make another mode called Battle Tower Mode or something. Random encounters levels scale like they do in the grand underground, random trainers have competent teams, trainers in gyms and gym leaders scale your Pokemons level like they do in the battle tower. Since random trainers are harder you can have them give you potions along with money. Maybe the bad guy trainers don’t give you potions. Maybe the stores sell good held items.
Changing natures should be free, easy, and immediate. Make it so you can give a Pokemon to your Mom and tell her how to take care of them. Tell her to feed him sour food and be strict. Go one screen over and one screen back, grab him from your Mom, and now the Pokemon is adamant.
IVs should just not be a thing, max all IVs for everyone. I guess you can keep EVs but make it easier to remove them. Like a milkshake that just removes all EVs from one stat.
That’s it. I have solved Pokemon.
All the complaining aside, I did finish the game. I don't think a Pokemon game is capable of being below 3 stars. The core idea and world is just too good, but these games have so much more potential not being explored.
Also why do I have to beat the game before you let me catch like 50% of the species. Who does this serve?? Oh god I have to stop typing about Pokemon I could literally go on forever.
I went into this game with pretty high hopes. My gripes with more recent Pokemon games has been a shift away from expression through catching Pokemon and building your team in favor of weirdly grand and linear plots, forced legendaries, and hollow gimmicks that no one cares about. But everything from the gameplay trailers for this game made it seem like it could be great, potentially my favorite Pokemon game ever.
It was a remake of gen 4 which I enjoyed, I liked the aesthetic, and it had all the good roleplaying aspects of past games: clothes and following Pokemon.
At first it was everything I wanted. The grand underground in particular is very enjoyable to explore. It was doing everything right but at some point between two towns it dawned on me. Pokemon is not fun.
The actual gameplay part of this game is just not engaging. What’s the core loop of this game? You go from one town to the next fighting trainers that are 10 levels too weak and running away from wild Pokemon that are 20 levels too weak. There’s very little actual thought, I’m just mashing the A button so my starter can sweep the opponent with their strongest attack. Then the game tasks you to go through a building of Team Galactic baddies and fight the same 3 pokemon 5 times over. This is tedious, this is exhausting.
Catching Pokemon is a chore. Constantly catching or breeding guys until you catch the one with the right nature and ability is a nothing experience. Early in the game you can get a Machop and I’m not going to settle for one that doesn’t have an adamant nature. So on route 207 I have a 35% chance of running into the guy and a 3.3% chance of it being adamant. That’s around a 1 in 100 chance. If I wanted a specific ability it becomes a 1 in 200. That is not fun. I am not having fun. I caught like 60 and gave up. If I didn’t know about natures this would maybe be alright but I do and it’s a cancer on my brain. To steal a quote from Steeb, “the fact that I know so much about Pokemon’s mechanics is an active detriment to the play experience.”
All of this can be mitigated with held items and breeding but that’s all end game stuff. It is very strange to me that it’s just accepted that the main game is just not fun and you only get to have fun once you reach the battle tower in the post-game.
(DISCLAIMER: Now this part sucks because it is dumb to tell anyone how to make a game as a person who does not make a game but here it is anyways)
The solution to this seems so easy. They have all the tools at their disposal to create two game modes. You have this core experience of non-engaging early game combat. That’s what Pokemon is so you don’t want to get rid of that. Call it Classic mode.
Then just make another mode called Battle Tower Mode or something. Random encounters levels scale like they do in the grand underground, random trainers have competent teams, trainers in gyms and gym leaders scale your Pokemons level like they do in the battle tower. Since random trainers are harder you can have them give you potions along with money. Maybe the bad guy trainers don’t give you potions. Maybe the stores sell good held items.
Changing natures should be free, easy, and immediate. Make it so you can give a Pokemon to your Mom and tell her how to take care of them. Tell her to feed him sour food and be strict. Go one screen over and one screen back, grab him from your Mom, and now the Pokemon is adamant.
IVs should just not be a thing, max all IVs for everyone. I guess you can keep EVs but make it easier to remove them. Like a milkshake that just removes all EVs from one stat.
That’s it. I have solved Pokemon.
All the complaining aside, I did finish the game. I don't think a Pokemon game is capable of being below 3 stars. The core idea and world is just too good, but these games have so much more potential not being explored.
Also why do I have to beat the game before you let me catch like 50% of the species. Who does this serve?? Oh god I have to stop typing about Pokemon I could literally go on forever.