A little bit off the current topic, I find myself wishing they'd done something crazier with their big outing on Switch, like putting Pokemon on the overworld in actual size and eschewing battle transitions entirely by letting you immediately send out a 'mon and battle a thing then and there. Something like that. I never expect any changes to the battle system to happen, but I think the world would feel a lot more alive and fun to explore if they made it more open and... dare I say, less traditionally videogamey?
Dunno. After watching the new trailer, I can't shake the feeling that Pokemon is still stuck in the era before most RPGs shed their hardware-limited conventions and started to experiment. I also realize that what I'm saying can't be anything new, but I know for a fact that a lot of people were hoping for a game-changer with the series coming to a new home console, and what we got was decidedly... normal.
You've hit on the exact reason why there are so many people that played Gen 1 and never played another Pokemon game, and why Pokemon Go got so many people back into the series. When Pokemon was released in Japan in 1996 it was already well behind the times for an RPG. It was released far into the era of game mechanics like party battles, active time battles, overworld encounter management, advanced equipment interactions, and various character growth and customization systems.
Gen 1 succeeded because of its groundbreaking social aspects and the core focus on collectability, not because of its battle system or general mechanics.
I was a freshman in high school when Gen 2 came out in the US and the disappointment, even among the younger kids, was palpable. We all assumed that Pokemon would be like many of the other RPG series of the time where core mechanics would be overhauled, tweaked, and revisited. Instead we got a middling expansion pack.
People love the social and collectability aspects of Pokemon; the game absolutely shines when it succeeds in getting people together in the same room. Pokemon Go was a phenomena because someone was finally brave enough to do something (heck, anything) different with a major Pokemon game, and simultaneously revisited the IRL social aspect that made Gen 1 so unique. It's why my home town of 20,000 can get 50+ Pokemon Go players gathered in a park on a Tuesday afternoon for a raid, despite the declarations from Pokemon purists that the game has been dead for years.
SnS will sell a boatload of copies thanks to nostalgia, but they risk losing a bunch of people who are finally interested in the series again in the hope that the developers might finally do something beyond clinging to early 90's Game Boy RPG tropes.
Poll
8 (15.4%)
Author
Topic: A Thread about the Pokemans: POKEMANS ON MOTORCYCLES (Read 684578 times)