What could be done to improve the Pokemon games?

What is the biggest flaw with the Pokemon video game series?

  • Too easy

    Votes: 58 44.3%
  • Too linear

    Votes: 19 14.5%
  • Boring/nonexistent storylines

    Votes: 20 15.3%
  • Poor Pokemon designs

    Votes: 5 3.8%
  • Too formulaic

    Votes: 14 10.7%
  • Other

    Votes: 7 5.3%
  • I don't think there are any problems

    Votes: 8 6.1%

  • Total voters
    131
I have to go with the flock and say that they're too easy. I think the comic below captures the end-game pretty well. The least they could do to correct it would be to have NPC's carry fully evolved monsters with decent movesets/natures.

 

Age of Kings

of the Ash Legion
is a Forum Moderator Alumnus
If you want substantial endgame content, get a team and play online or in Hax Tower/Frontier. XY did have a crappy "endgame" but if you find stuff like Mt. Silver, large chunks of Unova in B2W2, and Battle Zone unsubstantial post-game content then it's not Gamefreak's fault.

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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokémon_Colosseum#Sales
As of 2007, the game has sold over 1.15 million copies in the United States and 656,270 in Japan. It is the best-selling RPG for the GameCube.
lolwat? If anything's a "flop", it would be the Gamecube itself, which was in third place behind the PS2 and Xbox.
 
Mega Misdreavus: I totally agree that, Pokemon is a kids' game and shouldn't be too difficult. That doesn't mean it can't be fun! If you want Pokemon to be more challenging, do a Nuzlocke (which I will get round to doing eventually but I feel it would be hair-rippingly stressful).

Age of Kings: Really? 1.8 million copies? Without knowing it to be the case, I had always assumed that The Thousand-Year Door would be the top-selling Game Cube RPG - I hear a lot more praise for that than I do for Colosseum. Looking at that list of Game Cube game sales is surprising indeed. It seems odd that, with Colosseum receiving far greater sales than Pikmin or Kirby Air Ride, the lower-selling franchises are still active while the chances of another Colosseum look remote.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy VII sold a cool 9.7 million for the Playstation. Your analysis is probably correct in that the Game Cube itself was at fault. Well, the time to try and energise the series, when the Wii was the current console, has gone now. I, for one, was pretty hyped when the Wii U was released - but I still haven't bought one.
 
I dislike the way they force the linear progression in the game, specifically in Y Version. Linearity is ok and needed for a kids game, but at some points in middle and/or late game there should be alternative ways to go and different kind of obstacles.
Sure I´m biased because I had my first experiences with my friends silver edition and then later with my HeartGold where you had the option to do Pokeathlon in between, choose the gyms in between 5-7 and more natural obstacles although I did think the RageCandyBar guy was gross and silly.

In Y there was Violas sister, some blackout that got removed partially when you battled the Prof, partially after defeating TeamFlare at the PowerPlant and fully after the 5th gym, some guys waiting for the next model scout in geosenge, then finally some water that you could´t cross - fine with me, some other guys telling you about the blackout, the guy in Laverre, the Mamoswine plot, some guys telling you about Durants on rampage, some guys, some guys, some guys... ahhhhhhhhhh. always staccato when you want some legato.

But Y also taught me how a linear plot can be interesting and breathtaking with the Looker missions, very linear much Pokemon like battling, yet nice and full of emotion.
And the last is also my main problem with the way that GameFreak creates the linearity in Pokemon Y. There is so few emotion.
Why don´t we experience a horde of Lv. 100 Durant that are impossible to pass until we get some intel from a specific game character. No, just some workers doing nothing but standing the whole lifetime in a gateway and telling you about something that you could as well experience on your own...

Some gym "puzzles" were nice and the designs as well, but why not make a real puzzle by making it a challenge to reach the gym or a fun adventure.
They could for example lift the barrier at Geosenge(obviously eliminating the fighting Pokemon on the following route as well) and make a hard puzzle in Reflection Cave. Maybe even Place the gym inside some Cave/ at a hidden entrance with some Puzzles like the Alakazamite one.
And a real Pokemon trainer should feel the need to fight the evil team on his own and not by getting forced to do this by some other random in game trainer.
Really just reduce the amount of obstacles and give us some variety within them. And less trainers standing at one point in the Pokiversum the whole time of their life. LET THEM MOVE! :)
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
I honestly think the core gameplay is fine, but I have a few minor complaints.

Breeding is one of the worst types of grinding in series, since it is impossible to do passively. You want to hatch an egg? Go run around in a circle for 10 minutes. That fact that eggs can't hatch faster while you're doing anything else (like, I don't know, BATTLING) or when using the 3DS's built-in pedometer is really fucking irritating. I want to battle Pokemon in a Pokemon game, not watch my character go down the same pathway 20 times waiting for some egg to hatch.

Event Legendaries are BS. I honestly can't think of any justification for not being able to obtain them normally ingame with the exception of Mew in RBY, since he was an Easter Egg to begin with.

If you have to resort to using AI that blatantly cheats in an unfair way in your post-game content to present a "challenge", you should just quit being a game designer.

At least test your Pokemon before banning them from your competitions and Battle Facilities. Why the hell can't I use Kyurem in the Subway if I want to, but I can totally troll it with Entrainment Truant Durant?

Fuck IV based Hidden Powers.

The maingame needs a good story so people don't feel like they're wasting time trying to get to the postgame where all the good stuff is. BW was perfect in this regard with N and Team Plasma, and I was way more invested in it than Platinum, even though that game had higher stakes in-story for not winning.
 
Breeding is one of the worst types of grinding in series, since it is impossible to do passively.
This is exactly why I've never bothered with it. Simulators are good and satisfy all my battling needs :)

Event Legendaries are BS. I honestly can't think of any justification for not being able to obtain them normally ingame with the exception of Mew in RBY.
I don't have a problem with this. They are banned from Wi-Fi battling and the VGCs anyway, and it's only the fact you know they exist that annoys you really. They don't take anything away from the game by their existence, they just don't add anything unless you can access an event. (Aslo, lol that you consider massively glitching the game to catch Mew "normal".)

At least test your Pokemon before banning them from your competitions and Battle Facilities.
GameFreak's testing time will not be about game balance, it will be making sure the game isn't riddled with bugs. Although, with RBY failing hideously on both scores, you have to wonder...

Fuck IV based Hidden Powers.
Simulators are good :)
 
....
Breeding is one of the worst types of grinding in series, since it is impossible to do passively. You want to hatch an egg? Go run around in a circle for 10 minutes. That fact that eggs can't hatch faster while you're doing anything else (like, I don't know, BATTLING) or when using the 3DS's built-in pedometer is really fucking irritating. I want to battle Pokemon in a Pokemon game, not watch my character go down the same pathway 20 times waiting for some egg to hatch.

....
You are right aobut the breeding. Tho, I do enjoy breeding even when it's tedious, but it only gives you more satisfaction when finally hatching your perfect poke.
What Game Freak should have done is made more use of the DS built-in pedometer. Like real steps counts as ingame steps. Now it only serves as a O-power charger...
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
This is exactly why I've never bothered with it. Simulators are good and satisfy all my battling needs :)



I don't have a problem with this. They are banned from Wi-Fi battling and the VGCs anyway, and it's only the fact you know they exist that annoys you really. They don't take anything away from the game by their existence, they just don't add anything unless you can access an event. (Aslo, lol that you consider massively glitching the game to catch Mew "normal".)



GameFreak's testing time will not be about game balance, it will be making sure the game isn't riddled with bugs. Although, with RBY failing hideously on both scores, you have to wonder...



Simulators are good :)
We're talking about how to improve the GAMES, talking about sims is irrelevant.
 

Hulavuta

keeps the varmints on the run
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
I tend to agree with Karxrida on this one. Simulators do not solve the problem because they are not part of the Pokemon games, they are just something very similar to them. The fact that, out of necessity, simulators had to be created at all highlights the major problem that everyone wanted changed: the difficulty and/or time consuming process (at least in past games) of making a competitive team. The fact that the most competitive battling occurs on simulators is a sign that people care more about getting the best Pokemon quickly than they do about being purists and playing only on the cartridge.

I have sort of a love-hate relationship with this though. X and Y seemed to introduce a ton of new features to make breeding easier, although it does seem to still be time consuming. I've only recently started getting into breeding so I am not even completely sure on the mechanics and how hard it is, but the common opinion seems to be that it's been made much easier. I also tend to agree with Mieel that finishing a lot of breeding and getting a good Pokemon that you put a lot of time and effort into should be very satisfying. I also kind of enjoy being in the elite club that knows about competitive mechanics and all that, so I'm not sure if I'd like for the breeding process to be as accessible as Pokemon Showdown. (Maybe it should just be a little bit quicker, like maybe a 6IV Destiny Knot
)
 
The worst thing in any of the games for me is hands down the boring story lines. I absolutely LOVED B/W because there was finally a plot worth paying attention to. The fact that they wrote a Pokemon game with a plot twist that actually caught me off guard and surprised me was very impressive. I feel like they tried to replicate that success with X/Y, but it just didn't work. Lysandre was an extremely obvious villain, having a big group of rivals/supporting friends made them even less interesting than usual, and the Mega Evolution subplot felt completely unnecessary. I like the 8 badges + a big dungeon to complete a subplot + E4 formula so I don't think they need to completely scrap the structure of the games, but paring down the number of characters and giving them real personalities instead of "bubbly sidekick", "annoying opponent" and "really really evil guy" does a lot for my personal enjoyment of the game. I felt like B/W did that well and I was disappointed that X/Y went back to the same old crap.

I was also really disappointed at the low number of new Pokes in X/Y. My favorite part of playing through each new generation is usually running into something I've never seen before and trying it out on my team, and X/Y was severely disappointing in that regard. I'd rather they add another 50 Pokes with stupid designs as long as we get new type combinations and movepools.

(All that being said I will obviously continue to buy every Pokemon game that comes out, so I guess GF/TPC could really give two shits what they do with the story.)
 
I have to agree; The first time I saw Lysandre, I knew that he was the villain. I think it would be cool if in a future game, it is revealed that the main villain turns out to be the Professor, who gave you your starter as part of his plan. After he is defeated, someone else (The champion maybe? idk) would rate your dex.

Of course, I actually quite like the "villainous team" formula; I think that the area that needs the most work is the gyms and E4.
 
I was also really disappointed at the low number of new Pokes in X/Y. My favorite part of playing through each new generation is usually running into something I've never seen before and trying it out on my team, and X/Y was severely disappointing in that regard. I'd rather they add another 50 Pokes with stupid designs as long as we get new type combinations and movepools.
I think that the lack of new mons is justified. Think about it, there were 649 pokemon in Gen V if they kept adding 100+ every generation we would be pushing 1000 pokemon bu Gen VIII or IX. The franchise (at least in the west) went back to the "Gotta catch em all" slogan and if they added 100+ pokemon each generation, well newbies will find it impossible to complete the pokedex (and let's note that this is still officially a kid's game).

Also (and I'm not bashing the concept) Sugimori and the designers have to also create Megas for certain pokemon thus taking time and resources from creating original pokemon.
 
Hulavuta: I wonder whether GameFreak introduced the easier breeding mechanics as an attempt to fight back against the rise of the simulators.

Ryolain: I couldn't agree more. I am ashamed to say I found myself furiously mashing the A button during the cutscenes on my first BW playthrough, so I missed most of it. It was only when I heard "holy shit, a plot!" from elsewhere on the internet that I went through the game again and paid attention to the text that I realised this. But I guess the fact I missed it first time round speaks volumes for how little I expected there to be anything worth reading.

Morningstar: In all honesty, even in the golden days of RBY very few kids managed to "Catch 'em All". If anything the fact that you don't need someone to be physically in the same room as you to trade with them nowadays makes it easier, not harder. (And by the way, that guy in Celadon Mansion who says he'll give you something good if you complete the Pokedex? It's really not worth it.)
 

Hulavuta

keeps the varmints on the run
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Hulavuta: I wonder whether GameFreak introduced the easier breeding mechanics as an attempt to fight back against the rise of the simulators.
I definitely think it is to make competitive play easier (I mean, what else could it be for?) but I'm not entirely certain it is targeted against simulators in particular. If I understand correctly, isn't Nintendo in a perfectly (American) legal position to take action against something like Pokemon Showdown but just chooses not to? I don't know the exact numbers, but I think it's safe to state that Showdown's user base is only a small percentage of the Pokemon fans so it isn't causing much, if any, monetary damages.

I think it's fair to say that the new breeding mechanics are Nintendo throwing us a bone because they recognize the value and fun of competitive play and want it to be able to be done more easily on the actual games themselves (and of course there is always the respectable VGC tournament to consider). I don't think it was directly provoked by the existence of simulators, by which I mean I don't think that it is seen as a threat to sales of the games, but it might have indirectly had an effect just because its easy accessibility created a lot of competitive players whom they thought would play on the 3DS if they made competitive battling on XY more accessible (which is what happened).

In short words, I think they did it because they care. :heart:
 
To piggyback on this, it seems to me that most people who play on simulators still buy the games anyway to play through the story and just do their competitive battling on PS!/PO. At least that's how it is for me, I don't have any kind of numbers to show this but I get the general sense that most people on Smogon aren't solely competitive players that don't touch the cartridge.
 
Simulators are a good way to test strategies, but the games themselves are a joy to play. In my opinion, simulators don't offer the full Pokémon experience.
 
Ryolain, Teru_XD, you misunderstand me. I never said simulators offer the full Pokemon experience. But I do believe they can offer more-or-less the full competitive Pokemon experience, which is why I don't care as much as some people do that "oh no I have to spend hours waiting for eggs to hatch" because such actions are, in my eyes at least, unnecessary anyway. I've only ever used the cartridges to play the actual games themselves, but I'd like to hear from Wi-Fi battlers the advantages Wi-Fi has over simulators because I genuinely can't think of any.
 
Ryolain, Teru_XD, you misunderstand me. I never said simulators offer the full Pokemon experience. But I do believe they can offer more-or-less the full competitive Pokemon experience, which is why I don't care as much as some people do that "oh no I have to spend hours waiting for eggs to hatch" because such actions are, in my eyes at least, unnecessary anyway. I've only ever used the cartridges to play the actual games themselves, but I'd like to hear from Wi-Fi battlers the advantages Wi-Fi has over simulators because I genuinely can't think of any.
My point was just that I don't think GameFreak does anything with simulators in mind, or at least not with the intention of fighting against simulators. Short of making a Pokemon creation option exactly like a simulator, I don't think they could reasonably ever kill simulators completely, so while they might do stuff to make WiFi battlers have an easier time building teams, I doubt that they view PS! as "competition" in some way that they need to offer advantages over. If they really cared or thought PS! was taking away market share, I'm sure it's well within their legal means to shut it down.
 
Ryolain, Teru_XD, you misunderstand me. I never said simulators offer the full Pokemon experience. But I do believe they can offer more-or-less the full competitive Pokemon experience, which is why I don't care as much as some people do that "oh no I have to spend hours waiting for eggs to hatch" because such actions are, in my eyes at least, unnecessary anyway. I've only ever used the cartridges to play the actual games themselves, but I'd like to hear from Wi-Fi battlers the advantages Wi-Fi has over simulators because I genuinely can't think of any.
The only advantage is the size of the 3ds. I prefer to play on it than sitting on my computer. Other than that...I can't think of any. Lol

Besides what has already been mentioned, here are some changes I would love to see.

First and foremost
- multiple save files. I would love to replay my y, but all the hard work I've done for breeding, there is no way I'm going to lose all my pokemon. Lol
- battle "buffs". My first time playing on ps! I was simply blown away by them showing me my +2 to attack, or the rocks and spikes sitting on the field.
- numerics. I HATE going to the judge and seeing my pokemon has outstanding ivs, but is missing one of the ivs I would like to see, only because it's 30 and not 31. Even evs. The visual graph it has now is a step in the right direction, but I can't tell if my Mon has 140 evs or 200.
- choices! I don't mind the linearity as much as some, but I would like to make a few choices of my own. Even though gf has said the reason your character never talks is so the player can visualize the hero in their own minds, but that doesn't mean crap when it's only the npc telling you some stuff or you saying yes or no to a question that doesn't matter.
- dlc. GF has suckled off the original formula for too long and need to realise the gaming industry is about content they can be given and occupied with. Not nostalgia for the most part. Pay for pokemon bank every year, or release small dlc every few months to reintroduce older pokemon, balance out moves, pokemon they didn't foresee having such a negative impact on the metagame, etc. This is one reason CoD, WoW, BF, even borderlands have been so successful. The ds games I could understand, but note on the 3ds with sd cards and expandable memory and the e shop, it is WAY too easy.
 
The only advantage [of Wi-Fi over simulators] is the size of the 3ds. I prefer to play on it than sitting on my computer. Other than that...I can't think of any.
I would love to replay my y, but all the hard work I've done for breeding, there is no way I'm going to lose all my pokemon.
Which begs the question, if you don't have any good reasons for playing competitively on your cartridge, WHY HAVE YOU SPENT ALL THOSE HOURS BREEDING?
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
Which begs the question, if you don't have any good reasons for playing competitively on your cartridge, WHY HAVE YOU SPENT ALL THOSE HOURS BREEDING?
Do you have any idea how satisfying it is to get a guy with a team full of Ubers to rage quit on your ingame OU team? Pretty fucking sweet.
 
Last edited:
Which begs the question, if you don't have any good reasons for playing competitively on your cartridge, WHY HAVE YOU SPENT ALL THOSE HOURS BREEDING?
I'm in the military and don't always have access to ps! And I prefer vgc format, so going into the special rating battles abd seeing what the Japanese are cracking out is sometimes fun.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top