What could be done to improve the Pokemon games?

[kabbes]

In my order of importance, these are the things that immediately spring to mind:

1) Ranking battles should be 6v6 and should ideally be at level 100. I don't bother with the ranking battles because 3v3 totally misses the point of the careful team crafting that should be the basis of the game. I am reduced to endlessly challenging passers-by, 90% of which never respond, in order to get my 6v6 fix. This is unnecessarily irritating. At the very least, the Battle Spot needs to have the option of 6v6.

2) Get rid of Guillotine, Sheer Cold and Fissure. Smogon rules aside, the average public still use these in WiFi. But, as I'm sure we all agree, they ruin a match by substituting the strategy of teamcrafting and tactics of matchplay with pure dumb luck. They are totally unnecessary and should be scrapped. Being on the receiving end of one of them is the only time I will ever ragequit, because I just don't see the point in playing on. I'm fine with other banlist stuff staying in the game, but these OHKO moves need to go.

3) Post-game content needs to be more challenging and replayable. The Pokemon World Tournament in BW2 was good in this regard -- the champions' tournament remained a real challenge to the bitter end. Black Tower in BW2 was similarly quite good, although I'd prefer something that doesn't cap out below level 100. Battle Maison is OK but (a) 3v3 again; and (b) you have to get through about 20 tedious battles before it really gets going. When you lose, you can barely face starting this process again.

4) Please give us something that just tells us what the IVs of our pokemon are. Unlike many of you, I am not wholly bothered about perfect IVs. If I can get perfect IVs in the key stat and then reasonable IVs elsewhere, I'm happy. But it's a real PITA working out what the non-perfect IVs are. The IV judge just tells you your best stat, any zero stats and the aggregate range.

5) The less said about the difficulty in the main game, the better. My first caught Hawlucha with no EV training whatsoever pretty much swept everything from (nearly) start to the bitter end. And what it couldn't handle, my started Greninja almost always could. This has already been well covered in the thread, however.

6) Dream World-only abilities, please just sod off. Either make them properly available in-game or do away with them altogether.

 

[Hulavuta]

VaporeonIce: You are missing a point. You don't have to use competitive movesets to play through the main story of any of the Pokemon games, because the games are not that hard. In fact I would say that a MUCH greater proportion of Pokemon are usable in each Pokemon game than in the corresponding OU metagame. So in this regard, I think that complaining about not being able to get competitive movesets on in-game mons is irrelevant. In any case, sometimes the Smogon-approved moveset may not even be useful in the game's main story, even disregarding how difficult it might be to obtain, because of how different competitive battling and the in-game story mode are.

I don't think the point is that you need to use the best sets or competitive sets to beat the game, just that people want to because it's what's the most fun for them. People want to use the Pokemon that are their favorites, and they want them to be "good" even if that's not really necessary to beat the game.

Now, most people don't bend over backwards for good IVs or EV train their Pokemon for the story mode (at least as far as I know) and that doesn't really matter either, but the issue is that that is sort of an equal playing field for all Pokemon. There are certain Pokemon that can have their best abilities in the wild and get a great move set just by level up, and there are some that require breeding for egg moves and hidden abilities to be good. It can get annoying for some people because it may seem like it was just arbitrarily decided that some Pokemon can reach their "full potential" during a story run and some can't. Nobody wants to use a non Huge Power Diggersby, even though it is usable enough in-game.

 

[noobcubed]

Hulavuta: let's not forget, the fact that some Pokemon can't be used to their full potential, and some are even impossible to acquire on a particular version, all goes to encourage trading and interaction with other players. This made Pokemon a game with a unique sociable aspect, and probably was part of the reason why it exploded in such a big way circa 1997 - I read somewhere that within a year of the release of RBY the total number of GameBoy Link Cables sold in the world had gone up fivefold. Rather than thinking of it as "some Pokemon can never reach their full potential in-game", you can think of it as "some Pokemon get big buffs if you get on Wi-Fi and shop around".

 

[Morningstar]

Personally My only suggestion to the game is that certain event Legedaries (Darkrai, Meloetta, etc) be made available in game instead of events. Perhaps for a later generation.

My other suggestion regards the GTS; Can we please do away with event only names (Meloetta, Genesect, Keldio and Arceus qualify) If you're only gonna make them available by events then what's the point of even asking for them on the GTS (beyond cloning and mocking players)?

 

[Abra Kapocus]

If Gamefreak could devise some way to make the "event legendaries" available in-game, but still much more rare and harder to obtain than anything else (like randomly present based on some arbitrary criteria), that would make the most sense. I mean, clearly the coding for those mons is already in the game. Why leave them locked in there? Dick move, guys. Seriously. You wonder why people hack? That's why. And then you remove the chip in the game card that lets us back up our saves to external devices. Supremo dick move.

But enough about phallic references applied to the morality of worldly deeds.

I would have to say yes to most of what has already been said. Much of this game feels too easy. My first runthrough of X I was always worried about being overleveled. I turned off the Exp. Share for that very reason. Pokemon Amie seems rather broken, too, at least when you get your mons to a high level of affection. Random healing of status ailments, dodging moves with 100% accuracy, taking a KO hit like they're wearing a focus sash, greater chance for landing crits, massive boost to exp... it adds nice flavor, but it almost feels like cheating. Handy for nuzlockes, though (the double-edged sword being that the bond you develop with your mons is stronger, making losing them all that much more painful).

Matter of fact, I, having too much time on my hands, drafted a tentative list of some changes I'd like to see in the series.

Hide

* Trainer reputation system: Depending on how you conduct yourself (demeanor, sportsmanship, story choices, relation to your Pokemon, etc.), you will establish a reputation in the trainer community. This will affect how certain people treat you and how you progress through the game's story. It will often affect the key items you receive (time, amount, frequency) and even the species of Pokemon that you can successfully train. If your reputation is ruthless and dirty, for example, you may notice other trainers pursuing you more aggressively in an effort to take you down a peg, or refusing to battle you altogether. Expect to also be ganged up on by two or three at a time. Your rep may attract the attention of special and/or famous trainers with varying motivations for seeking you out. Trainers and people alike will also react to your use of a legendary Pokemon. Increased sightings may attract the attention of even more special trainers who wish to test themselves or take the legendary pokemon from you.
In the end game, your reception by the public as a Champion will be based on your reputation. Your reception will range from being loved and embraced to being feared and hated. This reception will have a drastic impact on the after game. A feared and hated champion will face constant challenges from powerful trainers who want to take your title (mostly due to moral reasons). A loved champion will not receive near as many challenges for the title. If you lose your title, you have the opportunity to gain it back. You also reserve the right to refuse any challenge you desire, but doing so could damage your reputation.

* Story choice system: For certain story objectives, there will be two or three different methods for completion. Your reputation may be affected by the choices you make, and depending on your reputation some options will be closed off to you, but may also be earned back depending on your demeanor.

* Thieves: If a pokemon is stolen from you either outside of battle or in battle, that trainer is tagged and you can seek him/her out later to get your pokemon back. If all of your pokemon are stolen from you, you must contact a Ranger for help. Depending on the personality of the thief, the theft of your currently held Pokemon may result in Game Over / return to last save point.

* Dynamic trainer encounter system: Instead of specific trainers hanging around one spot forever, trainers come and go for each respective route, and will often have very different pokemon at various levels with various movesets on their teams. Some trainers may wind up being much stronger than you are at that point in the game. You will also often see other trainers battling each other, after which you may have a chance to interrupt the battle or "play the winner," (You can chose to wait for the trainer to heal up beforehand for good reputation points). Losing trainers will often be seen dashing off to the nearest Pokemon Center. For some trainers you may even have the chance to offer a revive or a potion to help heal one of their mons for the journey. Doing so will earn you a good reputation. Losing to a non-villain trainer will not result in Game Over, but will prompt you to seek a Pokemon Center before doing anything else. If there is no safe way to get to a center you must call a Pokemon Ranger for assistance. Losing to certain villian characters will result in Game Over /return to last save point.

* Loyalty system: You cannot use a fresh capture in battle immediately after the fact. You need to take it out of its ball and show it some love (or dominance). Some will take longer than others to win over, and with varying difficulty. Not doing so will result in disobedience, confusion, or sometimes even attacks on the trainer, forcing you to re-ball the pokemon. A select few will be so unruly that you will need your other pokes out so the unruly mon will not attack. This will need to happen before you can attempt to gain its loyalty. If the unruly mon in question is stronger than your team, this deterrent will fail, forcing you to re-ball it. Some mons may need to see your bonds with your other pokes before they warm up to you. The more loyal your pokemon are, the more experience they will gain in battle. Depending on your reputation and training style, there are some mons whose loyalties may be easier or more difficult to gain. If you are ruthless enough, there are a select few legendary pokes whose loyalties you will NEVER gain. Some pokemon, depending on species and nature, will respond better to harsh training methods.

* Level caps per badge: 15 is the baseline cap, and will increase by 10 for every odd numbered badge collected, with a cap of 55 at the seventh badge, and outright removal on the last badge. Any experience gained for captured mons at cap will be negated. Any mon caught at a level higher than your cap will be inherently disloyal (possibly unruly), which cannot be fixed until you earn the badge that increases your cap.

* HM system overhaul: Overworld objects and scenery need not be only acted upon by HM's. Example: Trees can simply be cut down by mons with naturally sharp implements such as Scyther and Weavile, or with moves like Slash, Scratch, or Razor Leaf. Naturally bulky Pokes will automatically be able to move boulders and smash rocks. All large water types can ferry you across water without learning Surf, but using Surf will allow faster travel. Using HM moves outside of battle is no longer restricted by badges held. If you have the HM, you can use it. Any object destoyed by HM's or otherwise (rocks and trees) is permanent, and will not respawn if you leave the screen and come back.

* Refined encounter and capture system: No more random encounters. You will actually see an assortment of Pokemon wandering around and choose which one to engage. Rarity is still a factor, and the assortment per area is still determined at random. Not all wild pokemon species will attack you, and some need to be provoked. Some wild pokemon, depending on their nature and your reputation, may join you without a fight, even without a pokeball. It is even possible to have a team entirely of volunteers, even to have a Legendary join you willingly. Note that any free-walking volunteer cannot be stored in a PC.

* Minor Battle system tweak: During battles against wild pokemon, you can command your team to hold back in order to prevent accidental critical hits. This would be an alternative to False Swipe.

* Improved battle AI. More intelligent move selection, item usage, and switches. Gym trainers will often have a contingency plan against type-counters, and the gym leader will always have them.

* Crossbreeding: A select few species/lines of Pokemon (around 4-6) can only be obtained by crossbreeding

* In-battle evolutions - If, during the course of a battle against a trainer with multiple pokemon, the player's pokemon levels up to where they can evolve, they will evolve mid-battle before the opponent sends out his next pokemon.

* Procedural animations to reflect individual natures

* Bring back follow sprites/models. Walking with your team will also play a key role in fostering loyalty.

Just some thoughts.

 

[Morningstar]

Hide

* Trainer reputation system: Depending on how you conduct yourself (demeanor, sportsmanship, story choices, relation to your Pokemon, etc.), you will establish a reputation in the trainer community. This will affect how certain people treat you and how you progress through the game's story. It will often affect the key items you receive (time, amount, frequency) and even the species of Pokemon that you can successfully train. If your reputation is ruthless and dirty, for example, you may notice other trainers pursuing you more aggressively in an effort to take you down a peg, or refusing to battle you altogether. Expect to also be ganged up on by two or three at a time. Your rep may attract the attention of special and/or famous trainers with varying motivations for seeking you out. Trainers and people alike will also react to your use of a legendary Pokemon. Increased sightings may attract the attention of even more special trainers who wish to test themselves or take the legendary pokemon from you.
In the end game, your reception by the public as a Champion will be based on your reputation. Your reception will range from being loved and embraced to being feared and hated. This reception will have a drastic impact on the after game. A feared and hated champion will face constant challenges from powerful trainers who want to take your title (mostly due to moral reasons). A loved champion will not receive near as many challenges for the title. If you lose your title, you have the opportunity to gain it back. You also reserve the right to refuse any challenge you desire, but doing so could damage your reputation.

* Story choice system: For certain story objectives, there will be two or three different methods for completion. Your reputation may be affected by the choices you make, and depending on your reputation some options will be closed off to you, but may also be earned back depending on your demeanor.

* Thieves: If a pokemon is stolen from you either outside of battle or in battle, that trainer is tagged and you can seek him/her out later to get your pokemon back. If all of your pokemon are stolen from you, you must contact a Ranger for help. Depending on the personality of the thief, the theft of your currently held Pokemon may result in Game Over / return to last save point.

* Dynamic trainer encounter system: Instead of specific trainers hanging around one spot forever, trainers come and go for each respective route, and will often have very different pokemon at various levels with various movesets on their teams. Some trainers may wind up being much stronger than you are at that point in the game. You will also often see other trainers battling each other, after which you may have a chance to interrupt the battle or "play the winner," (You can chose to wait for the trainer to heal up beforehand for good reputation points). Losing trainers will often be seen dashing off to the nearest Pokemon Center. For some trainers you may even have the chance to offer a revive or a potion to help heal one of their mons for the journey. Doing so will earn you a good reputation. Losing to a non-villain trainer will not result in Game Over, but will prompt you to seek a Pokemon Center before doing anything else. If there is no safe way to get to a center you must call a Pokemon Ranger for assistance. Losing to certain villian characters will result in Game Over /return to last save point.

* Loyalty system: You cannot use a fresh capture in battle immediately after the fact. You need to take it out of its ball and show it some love (or dominance). Some will take longer than others to win over, and with varying difficulty. Not doing so will result in disobedience, confusion, or sometimes even attacks on the trainer, forcing you to re-ball the pokemon. A select few will be so unruly that you will need your other pokes out so the unruly mon will not attack. This will need to happen before you can attempt to gain its loyalty. If the unruly mon in question is stronger than your team, this deterrent will fail, forcing you to re-ball it. Some mons may need to see your bonds with your other pokes before they warm up to you. The more loyal your pokemon are, the more experience they will gain in battle. Depending on your reputation and training style, there are some mons whose loyalties may be easier or more difficult to gain. If you are ruthless enough, there are a select few legendary pokes whose loyalties you will NEVER gain. Some pokemon, depending on species and nature, will respond better to harsh training methods.

* Level caps per badge: 15 is the baseline cap, and will increase by 10 for every odd numbered badge collected, with a cap of 55 at the seventh badge, and outright removal on the last badge. Any experience gained for captured mons at cap will be negated. Any mon caught at a level higher than your cap will be inherently disloyal (possibly unruly), which cannot be fixed until you earn the badge that increases your cap.

* HM system overhaul: Overworld objects and scenery need not be only acted upon by HM's. Example: Trees can simply be cut down by mons with naturally sharp implements such as Scyther and Weavile, or with moves like Slash, Scratch, or Razor Leaf. Naturally bulky Pokes will automatically be able to move boulders and smash rocks. All large water types can ferry you across water without learning Surf, but using Surf will allow faster travel. Using HM moves outside of battle is no longer restricted by badges held. If you have the HM, you can use it. Any object destoyed by HM's or otherwise (rocks and trees) is permanent, and will not respawn if you leave the screen and come back.

* Refined encounter and capture system: No more random encounters. You will actually see an assortment of Pokemon wandering around and choose which one to engage. Rarity is still a factor, and the assortment per area is still determined at random. Not all wild pokemon species will attack you, and some need to be provoked. Some wild pokemon, depending on their nature and your reputation, may join you without a fight, even without a pokeball. It is even possible to have a team entirely of volunteers, even to have a Legendary join you willingly. Note that any free-walking volunteer cannot be stored in a PC.

* Minor Battle system tweak: During battles against wild pokemon, you can command your team to hold back in order to prevent accidental critical hits. This would be an alternative to False Swipe.

* Improved battle AI. More intelligent move selection, item usage, and switches. Gym trainers will often have a contingency plan against type-counters, and the gym leader will always have them.

* Crossbreeding: A select few species/lines of Pokemon (around 4-6) can only be obtained by crossbreeding

* In-battle evolutions - If, during the course of a battle against a trainer with multiple pokemon, the player's pokemon levels up to where they can evolve, they will evolve mid-battle before the opponent sends out his next pokemon.

* Procedural animations to reflect individual natures

* Bring back follow sprites/models. Walking with your team will also play a key role in fostering loyalty.

Just some thoughts.

These are really good but I might wanna improve on these ideas

Hide

* Loyalty affects friendship and affection, building up one affects the other stats and a betrayal will decrease Loyalty and outright zero out friendship and affection (ribbons gained through these stats as well as Draco Meteor will be removed)
* The master ball would have a huge break out rate and will break depending on your reputation
* If you reputation is bad enough then pokemon with low loyalty will side with the trainer
** this will work similarly t the "Pokemon Thief" mechanic but you will have to do it alone and re-earn the pokemons trust
** If you fail, the trainer keeps the poekmon.
* You will occasionally hear rumors about yourself depenidng on your reputation (E.G if you hear rumor speculation that you work for what team is the antagonist then your reputation is very bad)
** Speaking of which every time you encounter the evil team of the week you can choose to help them, but your reputation will take a huge blow
* There will also be a sort of karma Meter to check on your reputation (Blue/Green=good, Red=evil)
* Pokemon can form bonds depending on various factors
** If a disloyal pokemon braks out, up to 2 pokemon will join him and you will have to face them in a triple battle
* Nuzlocke Mode:
** Pokemon die when they faint.
** How you react to the loss will affect the reputation, loyalty and bonds of you pokemon.
** If your current team dies. Game Over, erased save, do not pass go, do not collect 200P
* Master Balls will be a little more common, but using them decreases your reputation
* There will be one pivotal choice you must make before facing the Legendary. Choosing the "evil" choice will permanently cement your reputation as evil
* You will get a "title" based on your reputation. These are not classes but instead work with the meter and rumors to track your reputation
** The titles are in order of Good-Evil: Messianic, Heroic, Altruistic, Great, Good, Neutral, Bad, Bully, Maniacal, Villainous, and Irredeemable (only gained by choosing the evil option in the aforementioned pivotal choice)
* There will be SpecOps-level of calling out and mockery if your reputations bad enough.
** The first effect will be that the music will gradually get garbled up,
** Then your pokemon will react horrible to your victories (even the disloyal ones)
** Then as you challenge the Elite 4 with a Manical or lower reputation, you will see hallucinations and your opponents will get cheated teams of various levels of blatency depending on reputation (as in, the worse your reputation, the more hacks there are)
*** When you face At Irredeemable; his/her team will be 6 Arceus with typing and moves tailored to your party and Wonder Guard in addition to Multitype
* You reputation will determine the ending:
** Good reputation means that the champion recognizes your skill and empathy. And you shall be revered as a hero throughout
*** Messianic level will make you a Living Legend
** Bad reputation will elicit boos and jeers from the population and will have the champion curse himself for losing to the scumbags that is the player character
*** Irredeemable level will have the champion as nothing more than a hallucination and the protagonist found himself in a secluded alleyway on the other side of the region, only to be caught by the police and given the death penalty (albeit done by implications so that the kiddies won't be scared) for crimes against humanity. Also you game is deleted afterwards.

Just some suggestions to go with your suggestions.

 

[Abra Kapocus]

These are really good but I might wanna improve on these ideas

Hide

* Loyalty affects friendship and affection, building up one affects the other stats and a betrayal will decrease Loyalty and outright zero out friendship and affection (ribbons gained through these stats as well as Draco Meteor will be removed)
* The master ball would have a huge break out rate and will break depending on your reputation
* If you reputation is bad enough then pokemon with low loyalty will side with the trainer
** this will work similarly t the "Pokemon Thief" mechanic but you will have to do it alone and re-earn the pokemons trust
** If you fail, the trainer keeps the poekmon.
* You will occasionally hear rumors about yourself depenidng on your reputation (E.G if you hear rumor speculation that you work for what team is the antagonist then your reputation is very bad)
** Speaking of which every time you encounter the evil team of the week you can choose to help them, but your reputation will take a huge blow
* There will also be a sort of karma Meter to check on your reputation (Blue/Green=good, Red=evil)
* Pokemon can form bonds depending on various factors
** If a disloyal pokemon braks out, up to 2 pokemon will join him and you will have to face them in a triple battle
* Nuzlocke Mode:
** Pokemon die when they faint.
** How you react to the loss will affect the reputation, loyalty and bonds of you pokemon.
** If your current team dies. Game Over, erased save, do not pass go, do not collect 200P
* Master Balls will be a little more common, but using them decreases your reputation
* There will be one pivotal choice you must make before facing the Legendary. Choosing the "evil" choice will permanently cement your reputation as evil
* You will get a "title" based on your reputation. These are not classes but instead work with the meter and rumors to track your reputation
** The titles are in order of Good-Evil: Messianic, Heroic, Altruistic, Great, Good, Neutral, Bad, Bully, Maniacal, Villainous, and Irredeemable (only gained by choosing the evil option in the aforementioned pivotal choice)
* There will be SpecOps-level of calling out and mockery if your reputations bad enough.
** The first effect will be that the music will gradually get garbled up,
** Then your pokemon will react horrible to your victories (even the disloyal ones)
** Then as you challenge the Elite 4 with a Manical or lower reputation, you will see hallucinations and your opponents will get cheated teams of various levels of blatency depending on reputation (as in, the worse your reputation, the more hacks there are)
*** When you face At Irredeemable; his/her team will be 6 Arceus with typing and moves tailored to your party and Wonder Guard in addition to Multitype
* You reputation will determine the ending:
** Good reputation means that the champion recognizes your skill and empathy. And you shall be revered as a hero throughout
*** Messianic level will make you a Living Legend
** Bad reputation will elicit boos and jeers from the population and will have the champion curse himself for losing to the scumbags that is the player character
*** Irredeemable level will have the champion as nothing more than a hallucination and the protagonist found himself in a secluded alleyway on the other side of the region, only to be caught by the police and given the death penalty (albeit done by implications so that the kiddies won't be scared) for crimes against humanity. Also you game is deleted afterwards.

Just some suggestions to go with your suggestions.

Wow... a few of those, particularly the SpecOps stuff, are a little overboard. We don't want to narrow the demographic (though I sure wouldn't mind seeing a fan-game in that style). I do like more than half of the ideas, though.

 

[Morningstar]

Wow... a few of those, particularly the SpecOps stuff, are a little overboard. We don't want to narrow the demographic (though I sure wouldn't mind seeing a fan-game in that style). I do like more than half of the ideas, though.

Yeah I suppose I did get a little wild with that. Some of my suggestions were also riffed from iMFAMOUS

 

[Age of Kings]

Honestly? Idgaf about the storyline difficulty, it's an all ages game, there are plenty of tactical RPGs and Fire Emblem & co. if you want a hard RPG. If you like the Pokemon setting, get ahold of Colosseum because it has all of the elements that are pretty much the only way to make a Pokemon game difficult: limited resources (no wild Pokemon to grind to overlevel opponents), fixed choice of Pokemon and the good ones are few and far between, restricted movepools thanks to sparse TMs/HMs, the purifying mechanic delaying team additions, and no trading at all until you beat the storyline.

As for endgame....if they would remove the NPC advantage in Battle Tower etc. that would be awesome because it's bullshit that they programmed an outright cheating AI in order to create the illusion of difficulty.

I love Pokemon but quite frankly Gamefreak has their heads in their collective ass and it hasn't been wiped. It took them 6 generations to make getting good Pokemon accessible (yes, I RNG abused in the 4th and 5th generation but it's ridiculous it had to come to that for a basic game mechanic), fan resources far exceed what they make available (Pokecheck being better than Pokebank in every single way), no status screen for GTS and trading leading to widespread scamming, I could go on. It feels like the fandom has made the games reach their potential and Gamefreak is picking their nose and collecting the profits.

 

[MicfiJasan]

There were only two real issues I had with the games, one mainly specific to XY.

1. The difficulty: This has been touched on a ton already, and all I'm going to say was that GameFreak underestimated how their experience overhaul was going to pan out, and balanced it pretty much like a normal game. I've run some numbers, and most games are balanced so a team of 3 fighters facing every trainer in the game and no wild battle will be on par level wise with the trainers in game, and you could probably get away with 4 thanks to the buildup of EVs which are not plotted onto enemy trainers to my knowledge. You are NOT expected to train a team of 6 and be over-leveled. XY were balanced the same way, but without accounting for the extra exp this gen offered, from capture exp to new exp share to all participants receiving full EXP even with exp share off. There were some movesets that were in fact altered outside of Gym Leaders. As someone who used a Granbull to counter Fighting-types in a run, I was shocked when I started getting pounded by super-effective Poison Jabs. The first games in a generation are typically easier than the later ones, and I would expect something similar here.

2. The story: Although I am never expecting Pokemon to have extremely deep stories, I felt like this one was one of missed opportunities. Xerneas never really stood out as a key component to Team Flare's plan other than "it had a lot of energy" which even by GameFreak's standards is kinda dull. In addition, Malva being part of Team Flare (*spoiler alert*) was a complete missed opportunity. I love when the evil team blends into the Gym Leader/Champion quest, which is why I was a big fan of the N/Ghetsis champion fight, and I loved how Giovanni was handled in Gen I. With Malva, she does nothing to stand out until post-game, and you would have a hard time convincing anyone of her Team Flare affiliations if not for the Looker quests. Speaking of Looker, I would not have minded had they been part of the main quest, even if space becomes a bit cramped.


I actually don't have a problem with linearity. They tried a bit of open world expansion in GSC, since I think Pryce could be fought after Morty. But what ended up happening is the player ended up 10 levels above some of the trainers in that phase, and they were quite slow to bring it back up until the Elite 4 really. In addition, Kanto was go at your own pace, and you pretty much destroyed everything there until you got to Red, who was 20+ levels higher than everyone else in the game. So, obviously some form of linearity must be maintained to keep difficulty balanced. Level caps don't fix the problem of trainers in certain areas being massively underleveled if you can truly choose your own path. In fact, I felt the linearity of this game helped keep wild Pokemon levels somewhat close to the parties

I'm only going to briefly touch on Pokemon design. Every Gen has had some clunkers, and no single Generation is significantly worse in my eyes (though some are worse than others), and Gen I's were good enough to get the franchise rolling, despite some bad designs like Muk, Exeggcute, Lickitung.

I'll be honest when I say the reputation system doesn't feel like Pokemon to me. The whole premise is that you're this special trainer for the "good guys". Also, taking out the "bad guys" is generally a more kid-friendly thing, which again is better for GameFreak. I'm not completely closed to the idea, but I'd have to see it. Loyalty isn't a new concept in Pokemon games, but I'll touch on that in the (longer than anticipated) suggestions list.


tl;dr My only real issues with XY at least were the difficulty and the story. I do have some ideas, but mostly minor ones (looking back through the list, some aren't so minor). As has been numerously reiterated, we are not the target audience, although I would like if GameFreak looked to our demographic even a little bit.

Hide

• Challenge mode was a good idea. It's been the only thing I've seen so far that appeared to cater to us older players.
• The one thing I haven't seen mentioned In BW you could beat the entire E4 rematch with a freshly caught Volcarona, Altaria, and some X Items easily replenished due to their cheap cost. Speedrunners make heavy use of X Items as well, and healing items make any boost much easier to maintain. By contrast, the only items you see from opponents are 2 Full Restores/Hyper Potions from high-level trainers.
• In addition, I might look at how the Elite 4 system works. In earlier gens, the Elite 4 got progressively harder, so that the Champion was pretty much guaranteed to out level you unless you only used 1 or 2 fighters or fought a lot of wild Pokemon. The newer gens allowed you to choose the order you fight them, which is fine, but I felt the level curve was less steep (not to mention they have less Pokemon as well). Reinstating this might make the end game a bit more of a challenge.
• Changing AI/movesets are always good if it really makes teams better. I don't want them knowing level up moves from higher up though (that's more of a pet peeve than anything else though).
• Replace the exp share with it's old counterpart. The other changes to the exp system should be enough for the old exp share to work perfectly fine.
• Regarding linearity, the only thing I can think of is to make evil encounters "missions" of sorts. Each one would include some evil Team fight, and conveniently place you next to a gym. Since every gym has grants an obedience level now with the badge, setting the level to say 20+10*badges could work. Trainer levels would be adjusted in a similar fashion. There would have to be convergence points though, for major confrontations at least. As someone who's looked into hacking GSC games a bit, something like this could be done so long as there's only 2 options and there's enough space for option 2.
• No access to legendaries. XY was the closest on this thing for a while, as the only legendary you get is the title one. However, I would prefer that event to happen after all 8 badges, and all pseudo-legends should appear only in trainer fights until post-game.
• Rival joins the evil team. N was the closest thing we got, but we always felt like he was up to no good from the first two fights. If someone you started the journey with, created a connection with, perhaps even WANTED to destroy at every opportunity, shows up on the evil team with a heartfelt explanation with logic you can follow even if misguided, you're bound to feel something. If not that, make him a complete dick that is sure he's better than we are. Make the fights a pleasure rather than a chore.

 

[Mulan15262]

On the topic of things to change (note that most are small tweaks or are already posted in this thread):

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+Mythical pokemon can be caught in-game, albeit in a hard manner.

+Ability to choose between a few paths that can lead to different end results in the storyline.

+PP is restored after every battle.

+An optional quiz at the beginning of the game that determines a difficulty setting for the main storyline (and post-game).

+An occasional challenger that will approach and battle you once you become champion. If you lose those battles, you will no longer be champion.

+A higher-level AI that will switch out of a bad match-up into a good one and react to patterns in the player's behavior.

+A reputation system. Doing good things like tipping performers and fighting villains would raise your reputation, and bad things like overworking your pokemon and helping a villainous team lowering it. A better reputation will reduce the amount of challengers, and worse one will raise it. A better reputation will also give you a discount in some shops.

+A "nature capsule" that functions like an ability capsule for natures.

+Trainers increasing in level and intelligence when you cross a new milestone (i.e. Gym Badge, beating E4, beating that regions battle place, etc.).

+An ability to change the pokemon's Hidden Power type (will always increase IVs, and will increase power, if doable).

+More of the "Looker Chapters", perhaps even some events that will happen a lot later.

-IVs lose effect in Wi-Fi matches. Hidden Power keeps its type, and has its power set to 70.

-Hidden Power having its effects changed back to how it worked in 5th Generation.

-Exp. Share regaining its Gen V effects.

*Gym type specialty is replaced with a common strategy (physical offense, sandstorm, etc.).

*Elite Four become more difficult.

*Hidden Power's type and power being generated seperately from IVs.

*Champions always havigng a full team a few levels above your team.

 

[noobcubed]

On event legendaries: I'm not sure. What Morningstar and Abra Kapocus are suggesting (a harder-to-catch in-game legendary) pretty much already exists: they're called roaming legendaries. I still haven't caught the legendary dogs on my Silver cartridge. Is that not hard enough?

Age of Kings: yes, Pokemon is not Fire Emblem. I think a lot of people here want the Pokemon games to be challenging because they are members of a website dedicated to competitive Pokemon battling, which can be very challenging at times. Part of the problem is, as I have already mentioned, that competitive Pokemon metagames are, fundamentally, from a different genre to the games from which they come - they're as different as Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy (although Pokemon sure ain't Final Fantasy either - it's its own thing, and should be appreciated for what it is).

Here's something that hasn't been brought up at all yet: the games are thoroughly lacking in any kind of humour. That's something that you can't justify by saying "it's for kids", because kids love jokes. I'm not saying stuff it with jokes, but when you play an Earthbound or Paper Mario game, there are enough gags to get you through the more grind-y sections of the game without getting bored, and indeed those jokes can be some of the most memorable parts of the game. So why don't they put a few jokes in Pokemon?

(And yes, I realise the hypocrisy in saying "Pokemon isn't Fire Emblem" and then expressing a desire for it to be more like Earthbound.)

 

[Morningstar]

On event legendaries: I'm not sure. What Morningstar and Abra Kapocus are suggesting (a harder-to-catch in-game legendary) pretty much already exists: they're called roaming legendaries. I still haven't caught the legendary dogs on my Silver cartridge. Is that not hard enough?

We're not suggesting harder to catch in-game legendaries (well I'm not) I'm suggestion a way to catch certain legendaries (Darkrai, Meloetta, Jirachi etc.) in game without having to wait years for events, trading some mon you ethier don't have are aren't willing to part with or hacking/pokegenning. (Poketransfer doesn't count because that still requires you to actually have the legendary first)

Age of Kings: yes, Pokemon is not Fire Emblem. I think a lot of people here want the Pokemon games to be challenging because they are members of a website dedicated to competitive Pokemon battling, which can be very challenging at times. Part of the problem is, as I have already mentioned, that competitive Pokemon metagames are, fundamentally, from a different genre to the games from which they come - they're as different as Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy (although Pokemon sure ain't Final Fantasy either - it's its own thing, and should be appreciated for what it is).

Here's something that hasn't been brought up at all yet: the games are thoroughly lacking in any kind of humour. That's something that you can't justify by saying "it's for kids", because kids love jokes. I'm not saying stuff it with jokes, but when you play an Earthbound or Paper Mario game, there are enough gags to get you through the more grind-y sections of the game without getting bored, and indeed those jokes can be some of the most memorable parts of the game. So why don't they put a few jokes in Pokemon?

(And yes, I realise the hypocrisy in saying "Pokemon isn't Fire Emblem" and then expressing a desire for it to be more like Earthbound.)

I think the jokes came in the form of memes the translaters though the kids would get (Like the "My body is ready" guy) or running gags (such as the fat guy in awe of modern technology, the shorts kids etc.)

 

[Age of Kings]

Age of Kings: yes, Pokemon is not Fire Emblem. I think a lot of people here want the Pokemon games to be challenging because they are members of a website dedicated to competitive Pokemon battling, which can be very challenging at times. Part of the problem is, as I have already mentioned, that competitive Pokemon metagames are, fundamentally, from a different genre to the games from which they come - they're as different as Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy (although Pokemon sure ain't Final Fantasy either - it's its own thing, and should be appreciated for what it is).

Here's the thing: how to make a Pokemon game hard? Yeah, I know competitive =! casual experience but generally "our" crowd tends to be more experienced. I myself have been playing for many years, since the RBY era, even if your first generation was DPPt that is still 6 or 7 years. I'm not sure how they can make a Pokemon game hard....Colosseum is the hardest "main series" game and it had many elements that made it so that wouldn't translate well to the handheld without people calling it shallow. You can't remove trading without removing a huge part of interacting with other players. You can't simply bump up the levels of the enemies because you can simply grind them with wild Pokemon and concentrating the experience on 2 or 3 Pokemon....I differ from lots of people in which I think EXP Share was an excellent addition to the game because I was able to try out a full party of new Kalos Pokemon in my game runthrough without fear of underleveling. Colosseum had no wild Pokemon, you either had the tedious Mt. Battle where it was an hour until you got to relevant leveled Pokemon, wait until late game to get access to the Colosseums (some of which were waaay higher leveled than you once you gained access to them), or you had to get the sparse trainer resets after you beat some of them once. Those would not fly in a regular Pokemon game without sacrificing crucial game elements. There were also secondary objectives which I guess you could try (oh my god catching Entei on an Earthquake team and all you had for sleep is Jumpluff, Slugma, or Noctowl grrr) but they did that with the roaming mons and the "set-turn" battles and neither of those really go well. By the way, you would have the vastly limit the "good" Pokemon and I highly doubt that a main series Pokemon game would limit encounter tables for the sake of a demographic that's not their focus. You could give them competitive movesets but that's all moot with the above concerns for grinding.

tl;dr: I don't think it's possible to make a difficult Pokemon game without sacrificing core elements of the design philosophy.

 

[Abra Kapocus]

noobcubed, it's almost like you completely missed the part where I was referring to the "event legendaries," ie: what Morningstar already clarified. :/

As for humor, I dunno, I thought Team Galactic was pretty funny at times. Although I will say the game could use some more legit attempts at humor.

For increased difficulty to mesh with a more free-roaming experience, I would say maybe levels of the gym leaders' pokemon could automatically scale and readjust according to the player's level, like how KOTOR implemented it (there were probably others who did it before, but that's the first one that comes to my mind). B&W2's optional challenge mode is a step in the right direction regarding this. It needs to be an option in all games from this point forward, and unlocked from the start of the game.

Crazy Story Idea

I want a story where at the very beginning the villains orchestrate a pokemon attack in a highly populated area (like Vermilion Harbor, or something) that costs a bunch of innocent lives (Too dark? X talked constantly about a war that took a lot of people's and pokemons' lives. As long as the deaths are shown off-screen it could still be made to be more family friendly). At the same time, the villain organization is lobbying the government to outlaw pokemon training in the wake of these attacks for anyone not involved with law enforcement. It passes, and this forces pokemon trainers into an underground community who have to expose the organization behind the attacks and overturn the new law. Meanwhile the villain organization basically becomes the enforcement arm of the new law and are having their way with the entire region, hoping to spread it to all other regions. I dunno, though, it would probably work better as a spinoff game.

 

[Morningstar]

noobcubed, it's almost like you completely missed the part where I was referring to the "event legendaries," ie: what Morningstar already clarified. :/

As for humor, I dunno, I thought Team Galactic was pretty funny at times. Although I will say the game could use some more legit attempts at humor.

For increased difficulty to mesh with a more free-roaming experience, I would say maybe levels of the gym leaders' pokemon could automatically scale and readjust according to the player's level, like how KOTOR implemented it (there were probably others who did it before, but that's the first one that comes to my mind). B&W2's optional challenge mode is a step in the right direction regarding this. It needs to be an option in all games from this point forward, and unlocked from the start of the game.

Crazy Story Idea

I want a story where at the very beginning the villains orchestrate a pokemon attack in a highly populated area (like Vermilion Harbor, or something) that costs a bunch of innocent lives (Too dark? X talked constantly about a war that took a lot of people's and pokemons' lives. As long as the deaths are shown off-screen it could still be made to be more family friendly). At the same time, the villain organization is lobbying the government to outlaw pokemon training in the wake of these attacks for anyone not involved with law enforcement. It passes, and this forces pokemon trainers into an underground community who have to expose the organization behind the attacks and overturn the new law. Meanwhile the villain organization basically becomes the enforcement arm of the new law and are having their way with the entire region, hoping to spread it to all other regions. I dunno, though, it would probably work better as a spinoff game.

Yeah terrorist attacks might not fly and it may run the risk of strawmaning and setting off some of the more political fans. Also didn't team plasma do something similar? This definitely won't be in the Main games (but it would seem almost perfect for an XD sequel).

 

[Age of Kings]

For increased difficulty to mesh with a more free-roaming experience, I would say maybe levels of the gym leaders' pokemon could automatically scale and readjust according to the player's level, like how KOTOR implemented it (there were probably others who did it before, but that's the first one that comes to my mind). B&W2's optional challenge mode is a step in the right direction regarding this. It needs to be an option in all games from this point forward, and unlocked from the start of the game.

And give them all fixed competitive movesets? I suppose that could work. I personally think they should go farther than that to make them truly difficult without making it outright cheat. *cough*like Battle Tower*cough*

 

[Abra Kapocus]

And give them all fixed competitive movesets? I suppose that could work. I personally think they should go farther than that to make them truly difficult without making it outright cheat. *cough*like Battle Tower*cough*

Absolutely. No one likes fake difficulty. Though I dunno about fixed movesets, per se. They would have to be in accordance with their levels. Maybe have a few fixed variations, like your rivals team if you pick X as a starter. And they would need counters to trainers who abuse type advantages.

I think it can be done. Gamefreak has spent long enough with the franchise to know how to implement something like this. I'm sure they're at least tangentially aware of the competitive side of their audience. I'd hate for them to be as insular as Nintendo.

 

[Morningstar]

Absolutely. No one likes fake difficulty. Though I dunno about fixed movesets, per se. They would have to be in accordance with their levels. Maybe have a few fixed variations, like your rivals team if you pick X as a starter. And they would need counters to trainers who abuse type advantages.

I think I know to this can be achieved

* Force the play to use one or two mons
* Then weave a sense of illusion. The games tricks you into thinking you will be facing say an Fighting type gym so you bring a Psychic/Fairy/Flying Pokemon
* Surprise! the Gym full of Sneasel, Weavile, Aggron and Electabuzz, all with level Scaling based on you strongest 'Mon. This wasn't a fighting gym, it was a trap! an Anti-Fighting-Counter gym

Of course this would seem more fitting in Orre, again.

 

[Teru_XD]

I think I know to this can be achieved

* Force the play to use one or two mons
* Then weave a sense of illusion. The games tricks you into thinking you will be facing say an Fighting type gym so you bring a Psychic/Fairy/Flying Pokemon
* Surprise! the Gym full of Sneasel, Weavile, Aggron and Electabuzz, all with level Scaling based on you strongest 'Mon. This wasn't a fighting gym, it was a trap! an Anti-Fighting-Counter gym

Of course this would seem more fitting in Orre, again.

We need a sequel to XD. Those games seemed to be targeted at the more experienced players (especially Colosseum). They had a darker story, an anti-hero protagonist (again, in Colosseum) and limited resources. Too bad these games never met sales expectations, and all we got for the Wii was the awful Battle Revolution.

 

[Abra Kapocus]

I think I know to this can be achieved

* Force the play to use one or two mons
* Then weave a sense of illusion. The games tricks you into thinking you will be facing say an Fighting type gym so you bring a Psychic/Fairy/Flying Pokemon
* Surprise! the Gym full of Sneasel, Weavile, Aggron and Electabuzz, all with level Scaling based on you strongest 'Mon. This wasn't a fighting gym, it was a trap! an Anti-Fighting-Counter gym

Of course this would seem more fitting in Orre, again.

No, they would still be of that type, but they would be of a subtype that would resist normally super-effective moves. Or they would always have a move that serves as a check against counters (ex: "Oh, you brought a fairy type to counter my fighting types? Toxicroak, bitch!). I know this is more or less how it's been done for a while, but its application isn't consistent at all.

Poor electric gyms. Especially ones that come so late in the game. Ground types are a magic "I win" button.

While I'm at it, can I just say how pathetically weak that grass gym was? Seriously, what respectable gym leader uses a Jumpluff? That gym had so much potential. Why not Roserade? Or Trevenant? Gourgeist? Lilligant? Leafeon? Tangrowth? Anything but freaking Weepinbell and Jumpluff!

 

[Morningstar]

While I'm at it, can I just say how pathetically weak that grass gym was? Seriously, what respectable gym leader uses a Jumpluff? That gym had so much potential. Why not Roserade? Or Trevenant? Gourgeist? Lilligant? Leafeon? Tangrowth? Anything but freaking Weepinbell and Jumpluff!

Give him a break. He's only 3000 years old Its not like he heard of mons later than Gen 2 =P

In all seriousness that is pretty ridiculous I prolly expedied Gourgeist and Treveant.

We need a sequel to XD. Those games seemed to be targeted at the more experienced players (especially Colosseum). They had a darker story, an anti-hero protagonist (again, in Colosseum) and limited resources. Too bad these games never met sales expectations, and all we got for the Wii was the awful Battle Revolution.

Well they were Gamecube games, to my knowledge that platform left a lot to be desired. So I'm not surprised that sales were low.

 

[noobcubed]

Teru_XD: I have never played any of the spin-offs, but, with Game Freak pretty much depending on Pokemon sales alone, they are not inclined to repeat past failures. And while many people (from what I've heard) consider Colosseum and XD to be underrated classics, that doesn't stop them being commercial flops. If another more sophisticated game were made, it would probably be for the 3DS, since the Wii U is tanking worse than the Game Cube ever did.

The other fear I have is that, although Colosseum and XD are very different from the more familiar titles in the series, if Game Freak did revive the series they might just as easily fall into the trap of producing games that are very similar to Colosseum/XD again, which is one of my biggest issues with the main series in the first place.

(Every time I write the name of that game, I feel as though someone else should have said something funny. Just me?)

 

[Teru_XD]

Teru_XD: I have never played any of the spin-offs, but, with Game Freak pretty much depending on Pokemon sales alone, they are not inclined to repeat past failures. And while many people (from what I've heard) consider Colosseum and XD to be underrated classics, that doesn't stop them being commercial flops. If another more sophisticated game were made, it would probably be for the 3DS, since the Wii U is tanking worse than the Game Cube ever did.

The other fear I have is that, although Colosseum and XD are very different from the more familiar titles in the series, if Game Freak did revive the series they might just as easily fall into the trap of producing games that are very similar to Colosseum/XD again, which is one of my biggest issues with the main series in the first place.

(Every time I write the name of that game, I feel as though someone else should have said something funny. Just me?)

I know. That was just some wishful thinking from me. But still...they could adapt a thing or two from those games to their next projects. A twist in the usual "new trainer who sets off in his journey" is needed. That's why Colosseum was awesome: You start as part of the bad guys, then turn on them...Wow...I'm feeling the need to play through Colosseum again.

 

[Mega Misdreavus]

The 8 badges doesn't need to be mandatory.