Unpopular opinions

[The_Emperor]

The guy in the post above me is a genius! This is why even the bad pokemon games sell and it's why Game Freak never usually listen to what the people want instantly. I completely agree with everything that is being said!

I do think every pokemon game did have their flaws and their good sides though. Not sure about the anime.

 

[Preved Medved]

Certain game mechanics bring nothing but frustration, yet have to be endured or else the player is put at a disadvantage..

Can you list them?

 

[Kurona]

Can you list them?

HMs, Grinding; if you're into the competitive scene there's the pain that is IVs... I'm sure any fan who's into the series beyond "pikachu is a cute pokay-man" could relate their own frustrations.

 

[DHR-107]

Can you list them?

I'll point you to this thread: http://www.smogon.com/forums/thread...annoy-you-in-gen-6-now-contains-oras.3512924/

 

[Pikachu315111]

Codraroll:
Hmm, all this is true but there are some factors to consider. For instance a lot of times a franchis goes off the rails is because there's one visionary (be it one person or a group) and as they get successful there's no one to question them. Sonic is made by the Sonic Team within Sega, what they say goes. For a time George Lucas had the final call on anything Star Wars (and look at that, once out of his hands we get a new movie that's getting high praises). And you can name plenty of other things I'm sure. But Pokemon is primarily owned by 3 companies all who may have the same general interest but still different visions: Game Freak, The Pokemon Company, and Nintendo. I'd imagine any suggestion or idea one makes has to be negotiated and approved by the other. Now obviously all three are as successful as the franchise they partly own, but still when you have 3 groups making decisions instead of one decisions are often looked into more. Now that doesn't prevent bad decisions from happening, but with more people involved I'd think the likelihood of ideas being thought of and expanded upon would be often.

Also I think another problem is that they can't do everything (but probably want to) so that may have given them the thought of focusing on several things instead of the overall experience. Like yeah, the surfing in ORAS is boring, but should we spend some time brainstorming on how to make the travel a bit less boring or put more focus on the Pokemon Contests to make it worth doing. They may want to make IVs easier but that may affect Pokemon being brought up from older generations, and also they want a Pokemon to feel unique to the same member of its species (even if that idea doesn't quite fly fully in competitive play as they expect it would. Honestly I'd argue Natures and EVs did that enough). That said they have taken steps to make breeding easier and grinding EVs, so they know there's a problem just are afraid to change something. Also they want to constantly introduce and expand on new ideas but due to memory space they can't keep older attractions in at the same time.

And there's also that pesky problem of time. We complain about them "holding back" on certain content which the then put in the third version/sequel pairs but one could easily as argue that since they're working off the first paired games it just means they're actually building upon what they didn't have time to add in. The first paired games is the base with the third version/sequel game is the expansion. Now for a while this was a problem, why buy the paired versions when an improved third version is just going to come out? However I think Gen V fixed that problem by having the games be different stories so there's a reason to buy the first paired game aside you wouldn't be able to compete in battling competitions for a while. I imagine they want to do the same thing with XY2/Z, they don't want to just do a third version rehash anymore despite this model working perfectly fine in the past. Also its easier to make new ideas when you have something to work off of compared to thinking of new ideas while making the base. Like I feel the Battle Frontier was something thought up after Ruby & Sapphire when they thought "Is there a way we can expand the post game Battle Tower?".

GameFreak seem like a developer who wants to make a game as good as they can make it. However they seem to decide some parts are more worth focusing on over trying to smooth out the overall experience and I'd even say might get distracted/be more interested on working with the new stuff thus perfectly willing to throw out an old mechanic (lack or memory space furthering this decision to do so). And I think its time restraints more than anything that causes them to cut corners, sadly probably with the thought "what we can't do here we'll do in the third version".

And competition is healthy, mainly so there are other ideas they can take and adapt. I don't know about you but Pokemon-Amie seems eerily similar to Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance's playing with your Spirit Dream Eaters. And how many times have we joked Mega Evolution being a knock off of Digimon? :P With Yokai's Watch popularity on the rise and heading toward the west it might be a good idea to keep in mind mechanics from that game to see if something similar pops up in Pokemon later on.

 

[Darth Manaphy]

Codraroll, I have a bad feeling that what you said pretty much applies to nearly every single popular thing ever now. So many video games and many different movie series are in the exact same situation. They mainly sell because of the name we believe that they are good because we recognize the name. It's how Call of Duty can sell every year without much change. It's the reason why the latest Marvel movies aren't really as up-to-snuff to some of the original movies. Pokemon just feels like another part of the problems in that case. Some of it is great, but then you see things just getting the name slapped on and we're all like "really" at that point.

 

[Karxrida]

Which Marvel movies? Because most of them by Marvel Studios are good.

Winter Soldier in particular blew the first Captain America out of the water.

 

[Codraroll]

Darth Manaphy, that was one of the things I intended to clarify, but I didn't have the time. Pokémon is far from the only franchise with this problem, and there are plenty of examples of others where the "Winner's curse" has led to the people in charge wreaking havoc on its foundation because every move they make is guaranteed to give them money in the short term. Just look at the Star Trek reboot films, for instance. Those are generic sci-fi action movies with a Star Trek texture pack, with nothing in common with what made Star Trek popular in the first place. It's a prime examples of executives picking up a lucrative branding and using the popular name to print money. As you say, Call of Duty is another example. It has become far more famous for sequel spamming and screaming 14-year-old trolls in the voice chat than its gameplay. Other examples are too numerous to list. Anything EA Games touches, for instance.

Either way, it's sad to see Pokémon showing signs of heading down the same path. It no longer takes any effort for the franchise to make money, the cash cow has grown fat and now it can be milked all day. This breeds some laziness and maybe even decadence. Pikachu315111 makes the case that GameFreak still do their best, but I dare to disagree: There are too many examples of gutted postgames and cut features that it'd have taken a minimum amount of effort to put in. Take Elite Four rematches, for instance. The necessary code was written during Gen III. Cobbling together a rematch team for the entire Elite Four wouldn't have taken an afternoon. Yet in generations IV and VI, the effort wasn't made in the base games, and the post game suffered as a result. Likewise, putting a Battle Frontier in ORAS wouldn't have been any problem either. They had coded the entire Hoenn region basically from scratch. Making one new area wouldn't have made much difference in development time. Heck, Game Freak have shown multiple times that they can create a varied and engaging post game, yet evidently they won't bother to unless the game rounds off a generation. Features are evidently held back from early games so that they can be used as selling points in follow-up-games. Had there been a real need to made the base games as good as possible, these features wouldn't have been left out. The games wouldn't all have had the same story, either. "Beat the deranged boss of Team Whatever and catch the legendary Pokémon, otherwise they/it will destroy the world" felt dated as early as Gen IV. Now it has become the go-to plot for all new Pokémon games. At this point they're copying and pasting, because they evidently don't need to do more to earn piles of money.

What's worse is, if something goes downhill someday, they'll look back at the days of their best sales numbers and try to emulate those in an effort to get back on track. Essentially, copying the days when the cash cow was fat and could be milked all day, rather than feeding it the grass it needed to get there. "We just need to milk harder, dammit, like we did back then!" has ruined many franchises, and probably many cows too.

 

[thdhted]

It's kind of sad, honestly. Game Freak has pretty much proven, time and time again, that they're pretty much unwilling to listen to the fans. Yes they've added often requested features(see Heartgold/Soulsilver) before, but they immediately remove them for the next games. MOST other gaming companies do tend to listen to their fans, even if it's not very much(see several broken weapon fixes in games, adding in fan favorite mods, ect.). Game Freak however, seems to be very content to ignore whatever others may want in favor of a simple, cut-and-dry formula that takes much less effort to create and program than newer ideas. They probably have three-quarters of whichever game they have going done by the time they release their previous game. Once they finish, they proceed to slowly milk whatever hype out of the fanbase they can so they can boost sales over the next few months.

I'm still an avid Pokemon player, and always will be, but come ON Trollfreak, throw us Veterans a bone here, and not a "Gen One on Virtual Console" bone either. We're not brain-dead little kids anymore, we can put a bit of time and effort into our gameplay, we KNOW our type charts, and we most DEFINITELY know how to catch Pokemon. Give us a challenge worthy of the old Pokemon Colosseum games on Gamecube, or something at least a bit more challenging than D/P/P.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Codraroll:
I think you mean Gym Leaders and not the Elite Four. I think the problem with with ORAS is that they were way too focused on making it a "Ruby & Sapphire" remake. They could have added elements from Emerald (which they scarcely did here and there but not to anything big like the Battle Frontier) but those elements weren't in Ruby & Sapphire. And in doing that they were then able to add new stuff which they probably thought had they been making RSE nowadays this is what they would have added in. In short, I think the problem with ORAS is too much of the wrong kind of nostalgia glasses, there was no reason not to add in Emerald elements even though I see the reasoning behind it.

And I hate to be the buzzkill, but I'm going to ask the big question which often ends points like this: what are we going to do about it? You're spreading a lot of doom and gloom, which I partly agree with, but then what? Like whenever I'm being critical of something and people around me are confused why since what I'm criticizing is okay/good, I tell them that while I agree it's okay/good that doesn't mean its perfect and there are not faults. I give credit where credit is due but I will point out flaws and problems as I feel that's my responsibility as a consumer and fan. But that's also all I can do. I'm not at the board meetings where they're making the decisions (which is also a reason I can't really say whether they're being lazy or the apparent "laziness" is actually the result of restricted time), I'm in no position where my word has any authority. All I can do is join in with Pokemon communities like Smogon and Serebii and combine our complaints into one giant mass. And if GF, TPC, and Nintendo don't want to listen, well I guess that's it. Eventually that'll lead to Pokemon going downhill as GF, TPC, and Nintendo try to figure out what to do yet ignoring the fans (preferably communities) who are telling them what they can do.

 

[Kurona]

Codraroll:
I think you mean Gym Leaders and not the Elite Four. I think the problem with with ORAS is that they were way too focused on making it a "Ruby & Sapphire" remake. They could have added elements from Emerald (which they scarcely did here and there but not to anything big like the Battle Frontier) but those elements weren't in Ruby & Sapphire. And in doing that they were then able to add new stuff which they probably thought had they been making RSE nowadays this is what they would have added in. In short, I think the problem with ORAS is too much of the wrong kind of nostalgia glasses, there was no reason not to add in Emerald elements even though I see the reasoning behind it.

And I hate to be the buzzkill, but I'm going to ask the big question which often ends points like this: what are we going to do about it? You're spreading a lot of doom and gloom, which I partly agree with, but then what? Like whenever I'm being critical of something and people around me are confused why since what I'm criticizing is okay/good, I tell them that while I agree it's okay/good that doesn't mean its perfect and there are not faults. I give credit where credit is due but I will point out flaws and problems as I feel that's my responsibility as a consumer and fan. But that's also all I can do. I'm not at the board meetings where they're making the decisions (which is also a reason I can't really say whether they're being lazy or the apparent "laziness" is actually the result of restricted time), I'm in no position where my word has any authority. All I can do is join in with Pokemon communities like Smogon and Serebii and combine our complaints into one giant mass. And if GF, TPC, and Nintendo don't want to listen, well I guess that's it. Eventually that'll lead to Pokemon going downhill as GF, TPC, and Nintendo try to figure out what to do yet ignoring the fans (preferably communities) who are telling them what they can do.

For one thing we could realize these faults are so much of a detriment to the series we as individuals can decide it's not what we want to buy anymore whether the company puts them out or not. I mean I dunno about you guys but I'm pretty content to play Colosseum, Leafgreen and Platinum and nothing else.

 

[Pikachu315111]

For one thing we could realize these faults are so much of a detriment to the series we as individuals can decide it's not what we want to buy anymore whether the company puts them out or not. I mean I dunno about you guys but I'm pretty content to play Colosseum, Leafgreen and Platinum and nothing else.

So basically don't buy the games? Okay, we stop buying the games... so they stop making the games. Now if you honestly don't like the game then fine, don't buy it. But don't think that if a massive amount of consumers also do the same thing that means GF will change. If anything they'll try to pander hard and if they do listen to the fans than who's to say it'll last? Once successful again they'll start doing their own thing again and so what are we suppose to do? Go through a cycle of not buying a game, they make a game to pander us so we buy again, they do their own thing once successful and we then don't buy from them again? That doesn't really solve anything but make Pokemon look like an unstable model and make Nintendo question whether its worth keeping Pokemon or deciding to shelf it. GF is assigned to make other games instead and the Pokemon Company is either phased out or is absorbed into the Nintendo Store.

 

[Kurona]

So basically don't buy the games? Okay, we stop buying the games... so they stop making the games. Now if you honestly don't like the game then fine, don't buy it. But don't think that if a massive amount of consumers also do the same thing that means GF will change. If anything they'll try to pander hard and if they do listen to the fans than who's to say it'll last? Once successful again they'll start doing their own thing again and so what are we suppose to do? Go through a cycle of not buying a game, they make a game to pander us so we buy again, they do their own thing once successful and we then don't buy from them again? That doesn't really solve anything but make Pokemon look like an unstable model and make Nintendo question whether its worth keeping Pokemon or deciding to shelf it. GF is assigned to make other games instead and the Pokemon Company is either phased out or is absorbed into the Nintendo Store.

I wasn't saying it'd change anything. I was saying that the realization of these facts is important to us as individuals rather than giving a toss about what a company does. I mean, I'm not sure why you're talking about the possibility of us changing anything when we're like 20 at most people on an obscure part of a very controversial website?

 

[Pikachu315111]

I wasn't saying it'd change anything. I was saying that the realization of these facts is important to us as individuals rather than giving a toss about what a company does. I mean, I'm not sure why you're talking about the possibility of us changing anything when we're like 20 at most people on an obscure part of a very controversial website?

Okay. Anyway even if that wasn't what you meant I did see it a good leaping point to discuss the "money talks" thought. And I'm being figuratively; when I say "us" I mean many of the Pokemon communities (to name a few us, Serebii, Bulbagarden, Marriland's website, PokeBeach, Pokemon Subreddit, etc.).

 

[Redmayo]

Look, a company has to appeal to the lowest common denominator when selling something. Luckily, Game Freak has started out with the whole Mon-RPG thing, so we aren't going to see Pokemon: Black Ops, or World of Pokecraft. However, such an extensive root dug into one genre leaves them in an awkward position when changing it. They aren't going to change Generation 7 that much from Generation 6, because everyone knows Gen 6 and the majority of people enjoy it. They've followed that same business strategy from Generation 4 onwards, only giving nuanced changes so that nobody freaks out akin to waking up to see their left arm missing.

And if you're wondering why the postgames haven't been very good lately, you might want to ask yourself why they've made changes to make transition into the metagame easier.

 

[Lady Vader]

Codraroll:
I think you mean Gym Leaders and not the Elite Four. I think the problem with with ORAS is that they were way too focused on making it a "Ruby & Sapphire" remake.

I think this sums up a major flaw in ORAS and honestly the other remakes, though it has gotten a lot better (we went from "ONLY ORIGINAL 151 UNTIL POST GAME!" to "Eh...we'll add movebased evos...and you can trade" to "Screw it, if you want it, you can have it. We'll even add ANY new evos to the old dex").

There's not much we can do about the winner's curse except be vocal about the problems. Either the franchise will eventually die cause of a refusal to put extra effort or it will continue. Maybe it will be up to the next generation of Game Freak and Nintendo employees. Again, look at Star Wars. Lucas had WAY too much power, far more than he had during the production of the original trilogy due to both his reputation and the abilities of technology, and as such, we got the prequels, which were terrible, but made quite a bit of money (The Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith were the highest grossing films of their year and that's not even looking at the money made from merchandise). The Force Awakens was made by people who grew up with the films and was directed by a fan of the films. People who understood what made the original trilogy magical. Thus, we got a kickass film that I plan on seeing at least two more times this week cause awesomeness.
Also, I've said this before and I'll say it again, we don't need to reinvent the wheel. To me, the basic battle system as it is great. I'm perfectly happy with how it is. Would I like a challenge? Yeah, but at the same time, it is nice to have a series of RPGs that are simple and fun to quickly playthrough. I highly doubt the same experience I had playing through Platinum will ever be truly recaptured in the Pokémon series*. But that's not why I play. Hell, I don't even play it for the main story. It was never my favorite part, even when I started. My favorite part is training Pokémon and battling other people, using that as a way to connect to others. That is where the magic of Pokémon truly lies.

I tend to end with that note, don't I? Though I do want a better postgame than "go catch whatever legends are left and go through the new Battle Tower replacement."

*I have been wrong before. I mean, watching The Force Awakens made me feel like the four-year-old version of me again, watching my VHS copies of the original trilogy and gasping at the revelation that Darth Vader is Luke's father.
Seriously, if you are one of the five people who haven't seen The Force Awakens, go do so. It's awesome.

 

[Redmayo]

Also, I've said this before and I'll say it again, we don't need to reinvent the wheel. To me, the basic battle system as it is great. I'm perfectly happy with how it is. Would I like a challenge? Yeah, but at the same time, it is nice to have a series of RPGs that are simple and fun to quickly playthrough. I highly doubt the same experience I had playing through Platinum will ever be truly recaptured in the Pokémon series*. But that's not why I play. Hell, I don't even play it for the main story. It was never my favorite part, even when I started. My favorite part is training Pokémon and battling other people, using that as a way to connect to others. That is where the magic of Pokémon truly lies.

I tend to end with that note, don't I? Though I do want a better postgame than "go catch whatever legends are left and go through the new Battle Tower replacement."

I'd say it's guys like you that keep us from getting engaging stories or postgames wait, I think I already did but that throws me in the wrong. I don't think I ever picked up a Pokemon game when my friends were still involved, so this metagame stuff isn't what I play the games for. Really, I'm not in any position to comment on how this affects the community, nor am I able to affect in any way how Game Freak handles making new games, since I don't enter tournaments or have any authority on this stuff in general.

 

[Pikachu315111]

I'd say it's guys like you that keep us from getting engaging stories or postgames wait, I think I already did but that throws me in the wrong. I don't think I ever picked up a Pokemon game when my friends were still involved, so this metagame stuff isn't what I play the games for. Really, I'm not in any position to comment on how this affects the community, nor am I able to affect in any way how Game Freak handles making new games, since I don't enter tournaments or have any authority on this stuff in general.

What, how? By pointing out your worries and flaws that you see to a company/business, even if its just to a group of people on a forum, it provides some form of feedback and ways a company/business can improve themselves (if they're willing to listen which is the problem we're pretty much discussing here).

And this isn't just about metagame stuff. We want them to expand post game content, delve deeper into stories, and make the overall experience feel enjoyable instead of focusing strictly on the selling points. Like in XY's story, I'd say they've been the most boring and confusing team in years as it doesn't feel the team's concept meshes well with the leader's vision. Speaking of XY, post game content was bare at best. And finally the surfing/diving sections of ORAS didn't provide us much until reaching the next landmass (and don't get me started on searching for the Plates...).

 

[Darth Manaphy]

I also have to wonder: What is Gamefreak's main goal when making Pokemon games?

This is an interesting question that I think everyone should wonder before they take sides on this argument. This would tell us where the priorities are and how they release games. For me, it seems that, with the exception of the 5th and 6th generation (which I'll get to in a bit) they were focused entirely on the Pokemon themselves. It felt like the world around them were developed as an afterthought.

It seemed that way especially with the 3rd generation. Ruby and Sapphire weren't compatible with the previous games so you couldn't catch them all. So, we had Colosseum and XD come out to help fill the gaps. Then FireRed and LeafGreen came out to both celebrate the 10th anniversary of Pokemon, but, for me and many others, it existed to give us a chance to catch the missing Pokemon. Finally, Emerald came out. Emerald was the polished version of Ruby and Sapphire. Now that they had more time for development, they had more time to actually develop both the world (giving us the expanded story) and add extras to satisfy the loyal fans (e.g. the Battle Frontier)

In the 4th generation, they were experimenting with trying to bring the Pokemon as part of the internal story and structure of the region. You have to admit in the 3rd gen, the legendaries just seemed to exist in those areas and, for the most part, they didn't really NEED to exist in the region when other made-up areas would suit it just well. You can't say the same about the LAKE trio or how PokeGods wouldn't prefer to live on top of a giant magnetic mountain. Of course, they made the game have a lot of bonuses to those that had previous versions (like all the new evolutions). Platinum was similar to Emerald. They already built the games and now they had time to polish them, add back the features they removed because they didn't have time to make them perfect (With the changing mechanics it would have been disastrous just to port all of the Battle Frontier from Emerald to Diamond and Pearl without changing anything) as well as fix common complaints (like not enough Pokemon in the dex for Gym Leaders and Elite Four members to even use!). HeartGold and SoulSilver felt like a step forward because they changed a few more things, but it honestly felt more like an updated nostalgia game than FireRed and LeafGreen. They changed things that made use of the new features they added as opposed to those two. Plus they fixed and extended the sparse Kanto (though they didn't add a lot of new content there). I KNOW many of us bitched at the copy and paste Battle Frontier but, hey, it's something! They could have made new leaders though...

The fifth generation was the one generation I felt they slacked off on the mon-building. Instead they focused on telling a story in a region way different than the previous ones and that's why it was located far away without any of the old Pokemon in it. Of course, whether you like the story or not is not my concern right now, but you have to admit there WAS a whole "Story is top priority" feel for Gen V. In fact even the main legendaries (Reshiram and Zekrom) felt like they were in a supporting role to the story. They didn't NEED to be Reshiram or Zekrom for the story to make sense unlike Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Dialga, Palkia, or Giratina controlling their forces. In fact the whole Truth vs. Ideals things didn't make much sense considering the alternate version was Ideals vs. Truth and that it was just N grabbing one orb and giving you the other. B2W2 again had more time to change stuff. Unlike the others, a radical change was made to like make a whole new Unova filled with old Pokemon (thanks Poke Transfer Lab). Since most of the work was already done again, they had time for world building and polishing giving us the whole PWT and PokeStar Studios.

Gen VI was the oddball to me and I seem to get Codraroll's complaints here the most compared to other generations, but I'm going to try to play Giratina's advocate here. It seems like they decided to go right back to the basics. It felt that they wanted to invoke a sense of nostalgia to the first generation without re-releasing it. It also felt like they also wanted to world-build in terms of making a world where Mega Evolution actually makes sense. I can see them running out of time and not having enough time to make new content much more beyond what they had. They released the games pretty quickly after B2W2 and they had to make the entire game make sense in 7 languages simultaneous to have a single world release compared to all the previous games. This generation felt like this was the one generation MADE for competitive battle (though it felt like they failed with the whole existence of Mega Kangaskhan). ORAS was released on even less time. It honestly felt like all they really had time for was updating graphics and making a Mega-Evolution capable remake while keeping the rest constant. This was one of the quickest turn arounds for a game that I ever really saw. I was barely done with getting tired of XY when ORAS came out. I don't think they HAD time for redoing the Battle Frontier. To be honest, just copying and pasting the XY Battle Maison to ORAS was the point that I know EVERYONE hated. Ok, I could have dealt with the Battle Maison (I would have preferred a Battle Tower like in the original RS but I could live), but the main problem is having the EXACT SAME leaders as before. It would have been interesting to say that they built a temporary thing based off of what Kalos had and they staffed it with a bunch of random people while the Battle Frontier plans came together, but this is just lazy. The only excuse I can allow is just how quickly they went from XY to ORAS. Maybe they had plans for new Megas they didn't have time to flesh out in XY so they remade RS and put those Megas in and finished up the rest of the RS starters and legends? idk. Maybe hearing the fan's disappointment in the features of ORAS cause Gamefreak to postpone Pokemon Z until they finally added all the features we were clamoring for? If they do, I'm certain it'll restore MY faith in Pokemon... I guess we won't know for sure until it comes out!

 

[Redmayo]

Hmm... Not sure whether we went off-topic or not...

I liked the 3D models used in Pokemon Rumble and My Pokemon Ranch, and I like them more than the Gen 6 3D models.
I can't give an in-depth explanation as to why, I just have this opinion.

 

[The_Emperor]

I also have to wonder: What is Gamefreak's main goal when making Pokemon games?

This is an interesting question that I think everyone should wonder before they take sides on this argument. This would tell us where the priorities are and how they release games. For me, it seems that, with the exception of the 5th and 6th generation (which I'll get to in a bit) they were focused entirely on the Pokemon themselves. It felt like the world around them were developed as an afterthought.

It seemed that way especially with the 3rd generation. Ruby and Sapphire weren't compatible with the previous games so you couldn't catch them all. So, we had Colosseum and XD come out to help fill the gaps. Then FireRed and LeafGreen came out to both celebrate the 10th anniversary of Pokemon, but, for me and many others, it existed to give us a chance to catch the missing Pokemon. Finally, Emerald came out. Emerald was the polished version of Ruby and Sapphire. Now that they had more time for development, they had more time to actually develop both the world (giving us the expanded story) and add extras to satisfy the loyal fans (e.g. the Battle Frontier)

In the 4th generation, they were experimenting with trying to bring the Pokemon as part of the internal story and structure of the region. You have to admit in the 3rd gen, the legendaries just seemed to exist in those areas and, for the most part, they didn't really NEED to exist in the region when other made-up areas would suit it just well. You can't say the same about the LAKE trio or how PokeGods wouldn't prefer to live on top of a giant magnetic mountain. Of course, they made the game have a lot of bonuses to those that had previous versions (like all the new evolutions). Platinum was similar to Emerald. They already built the games and now they had time to polish them, add back the features they removed because they didn't have time to make them perfect (With the changing mechanics it would have been disastrous just to port all of the Battle Frontier from Emerald to Diamond and Pearl without changing anything) as well as fix common complaints (like not enough Pokemon in the dex for Gym Leaders and Elite Four members to even use!). HeartGold and SoulSilver felt like a step forward because they changed a few more things, but it honestly felt more like an updated nostalgia game than FireRed and LeafGreen. They changed things that made use of the new features they added as opposed to those two. Plus they fixed and extended the sparse Kanto (though they didn't add a lot of new content there). I KNOW many of us bitched at the copy and paste Battle Frontier but, hey, it's something! They could have made new leaders though!

I don't think Game Freak have much in mind when they make a pokemon game. I don't think they think competitively most of the time which is why they don't really have a tiring system for pokemon like pokemon showdown does. I think that they probably have reasons to believe some pokemon they make are powerful/good and these pokemon aren't always considered 'good' by showdown. Also, the battle frontier is in pokemon Emerald, so they are probably just saving it for when they do a remake of Emerald in the near future.

 

[Pikachu315111]

I don't think Game Freak have much in mind when they make a pokemon game. I don't think they think competitively most of the time which is why they don't really have a tiring system for pokemon like pokemon showdown does. I think that they probably have reasons to believe some pokemon they make are powerful/good and these pokemon aren't always considered 'good' by showdown. Also, the battle frontier is in pokemon Emerald, so they are probably just saving it for when they do a remake of Emerald in the near future.

... What?

1. GF plans Pokemon games YEARS in advance before they even start making it! They're probably well on their way through Gen VII's planning plus started making ideas for Gen VIII and maybe even IX. Not to mention they probably have a vault filled with ideas from Pokemon designs to mechanics. When they start making a game they have a very clear vision and plan to follow (of course that doesn't mean they may have to make cuts due to time constraints, but that's a completely different thing). They even go on vacation to the places the next region is going to be based on to get a better idea of how to make that region feel like that place.

2. What GF thinks competitively is different from what Showdown think is competitively. The Battle Competitions are generally what think GF think is competitively, many which are Double Battles while Showdown prefers single battles.
They're constantly tweaking Moves and Abilities balancing them with the ever changing metagame (such as them decreasing the Power of most Special-type moves).
The existence of Dark, Steel, and Fairy were due to them trying to balance the type chart just as much as them wanting to introduce a new type (Dark & Steel were Psychic-type counters who were OP in Gen I; Fairy a Dragon-type counter since they began dominating as well as giving Poison and Steel more offensive roles); not to mention all the adjustments they gave to the Types (Grass immune to powder/spore moves, Ghosts can't be trapped, Steel losing immunity to Ghost & Dark were mostly done for balancing reasons).
What they do with Held Items as well is heavily thought upon not only with new items but them banning Soul Dew from many tournaments or them not wanting to re-introduce the Gems (even after de-powering them).

3. HOWEVER they also have to think about the story in the game. Weak Pokemon and moves are more for the game's story and other mechanics in the games then for the metagame battling. Heck some are their even to teach lessons like originally the Farfetch'd trade in Gen I was suppose to be a lesson just because something is rare doesn't mean its good (though in recent years that sort had fall to the waist side and its not just an early game fodder Pokemon). Some Pokemon exist to serve the story or even to build upon the Pokemon world just as much as GF thought of a cool design damn whether it'll be competitive or not.

4. If you're waiting for an Emerald remake I think you'll be sadly disappointed. If anything they'll add the Gen III Battle Frontier into XY2/Z.

 

[Karxrida]

I think saying they constantly tweak is an overstatement. Most of those changes you mentioned came with Gen VI, which was one package, and it's the first time in years that any big changes were even made for balance reasons.

They're also still pretty shit at it because they just unbanned all the big Game Breakers while leaving the harmless Mythicals behind bars (also blanket-banning them is dumb). Arceus and Darkrai are probably the only ones that are issues in the Doubles format.

 

[The_Emperor]

... What?

1. GF plans Pokemon games YEARS in advance before they even start making it?

4. If you're waiting for an Emerald remake I think you'll be sadly disappointed. If anything they'll add the Gen III Battle Frontier into XY2/Z.

1. Er...I know!
4. Why would they make a pokemon ruby and saphire remake but not a pokemon emerald remake?

 

[Karxrida]

They didn't remake Yellow or Crystal (though elements of Crystal were included in HeartGold and SoulSilver), so why would they remake Emerald?