The thing that annoys me is that they rake in ridiculous amounts of money but they're too cheap to make a good game because they know that people will buy it up even if it's dogs*** because it's Pokemon.
I admit I've played all the main games except Violet and Scarlet, but black and white were probably the last games I really enjoyed.
Here's to hoping the next games on switch 2 are great
Dude, I completely agree with you. I was so angry when Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon came out. I felt like Game Freak was just using me as a beta tester for Sun and Moon. I refused to by Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon out of spite.
i believe it’s been revealed at some point in the last year or so that the budget for either Legends Z-A or Legends Arceus was like ~$20 million, which is not a whole lot for game development budgets. they make bank off the games because the budgets are relatively low and it’s very obvious.
Take this with a grain of salt (I've heard it in a YT video, but I can't verify it), but it's apparently on purpose, because GameFreak realized that they would be making Pokemon games till the heat death of the universe, so they are only making tiny incremental improvements to the games. According to an interview (which, again, I can't find anymore), someone at the studio said that every time they make a bigger "generational leap", like moving from 2D to 3D, that becomes the new baseline they have to meet, while only veeery slightly improving on the previous game still satisfies the majority of the fans and lets them make a lot of money, while also giving them an easier time developing the next game, because the "minimum viable product floor" is kept artificially low.
Except they keep removing features and dumbing down the games. 10 yo me figured out how to play just fine without 10 hours of cutscenes explaining the world of Pokémon before it was one of the largest franchise in the world
They make cutscenes like they have voice acting, it’s so uncomfortable to watch. Like bro either get voice acting or change your cutscenes, the games are so.. quiet
Deadass. Nineties-00s Pokémon felt like adult games that kids insisted on playing to me as a kid, now I go back and the hand holding makes me turn it off after 20 minutes. Remember tryna figure out the Unown alphabet??
Dude, fuck the Unown alphabet. Remember having to learn braille in Ruby and Sapphire? Or how about the bizarre requirements for certain things? You ever think how stupid it was that you needed to trade Scyther while he held a Metal Coat to evolve him into Scizor?
I spent months learning braille at my library, so I could do the Regi quest. Like, it's to the point where I can still, decades down the line, read braille because I learned it as thoroughly as any other skill.
They also don't want to manage large teams. But regardless they've always been the mobile devs of the videogame industry. They don't even do the 3D modelling of the pokemon -- that's done by the other studio in the pokemon company.
Like, stuff like cards and merchandise makes an order of magnitude more money than the games. The games are basically just advertising for new pokemon at this point.
That must be why they also are so litigious towards others who decide to move in "on their turf", like Pal World. Those who want to take a piece out of the same genre of games, while also being very strongly experimental must feel like a threat to that kind of incremental policy.
Imagine a Pokémon Company that was less apt to spend on lawsuits, and more on making stronger entries in the IP. From my viewpoint, the "withered technology" and "incremental policy" are becoming more exposed as a raw nerve over time, that they have to spend increasingly more on the law side of things to cover for. I think it's a symptom of traditionalist policies that are costing them ironically more to maintain than it would be to just adapt.
Except every Nintendo game seems to get that treatment. They continually make games easier because kids are becoming dumber and less likely to try to finish games that provide even the smallest level of challenge. So regardless of what you read, fabricate, or imagine I think looking at the bigger picture is important here.
Nintendo knows they can produce slop and their "fans" will eat it up. Their main demographic is also children.
I've heard great things about both legends games but I haven't had the opportunity to play them. But yeah, oh my GOD has the series been in a massive decline, specially in the switch.
I admit that the 3ds games aren't as good as the DS games but I'd still argue that better than the first few gens, but God damn is SWSH not worth even buying.
Not yet. I saw the poor performance of SV and it kinda put me off pokémon again. The prices of the games is also a deterrence. I might buy a Switch 2 for Christmas. (Like I didn't say that last year. '>_>)
I’ve played part of it (ADHD, can only focus on a game for about 10-20 hours before another game gets my attention) and it was really good. Maybe not as good as arceus, but solidly good.
I've heard great things about both legends games but I haven't had the opportunity to play them
The benefit of lowered expectations.
Legends Arceus is just discount Monster Hunter. Hell, MH Tri on the Wii has better landscapes and texturing ffs. (Helps that most Pokemon players never play any other games)
It doesn't actually play like monster hunter at all, and Tri definitely has muddier textures. That's not to say PLA doesn't have its share of poor textures, they're definitely there.
The game itself doesn't play like Monster Hunter at all. Having a hub world doesn't a monster hunter game make, might as well say it's budget Super Mario 64. Even the quest structures are completely different, Monster Hunter's quests are pretty much invariably have you fighting the monsters while you can get through a lot of PLA without having to really fight any monsters.
You sound like someone that's really only ever played Monster Hunter Tri, and think every game is like it going off these comments. You couldn't even pick facial expressions in Tri, part of that is that Monster Hunter as a series has never been a story driven game.
I'm not saying Mario 64 invented the hub world, simply saying games using certain elements doesn't really make them similar. In terms of actually gameplay the roll is pretty much all they have in common. The game are fundamentally different.
Yeah monster hunter isn't a story driven game, the newer games simply added voice acting to what is essentially the same story the series has had since the beginning. Wilds is pretty much that you could say is sort orientated.
simply saying games using certain elements doesn't really make them similar.
So what if they copy those elements nearly 1:1?
In terms of actually gameplay the roll is pretty much all they have in common.
I like how you ignore all the other aspects of game design like quest design, level design, ui aspects, movement design to hyper focus on only 1 point because you know you're wrong but don't wanna admit it.
You can just admit you're wrong, nothing bad about that.
The game itself doesn't play like Monster Hunter at all.
Repeating yourself 10 more times is not going to convince me bb
You sound like someone that's really only ever played Monster Hunter Tri, and think every game is like it going off these comments
"Y'know Pokemon LA isn't that original"
"yOu OnLy pLaY MH!!!11!!1!"
There are not enough hours in the day to describe how batshit stupid this argument is.
Let me guess, you think Breath of the Wild and Xenoblade have nothing in common? (Despite Monolith Soft helping develop it) Oh let me also guess, you probably think Xenoblade was also Monolith's first ever game? I mean, who's heard of Xenogears or Xenosaga?
That is to say, you are deeply ignorant to gaming history and evolution.
Though, as an aside you realize nothing in the world is original, right? LotR is just Tolkien's retelling of German epics (Would you believe me if I told you that there's a German fairy tale about a ring that corrupts its owners and can only be destroyed by the fires that created it? Probably won't), Star Wars is just The Hidden Fortress and Dune mashed together, Terminator was just James Cameron creating a theatrical version of Black's Sabath's Iron Man, etc...
The key is to either obfuscate things as much as possible or be better than what you're taking from, something that Pokemon didn't do. (Only given grace by the fact that most Pokemon fans don't play any other games)
might as well say it's budget Super Mario 64
Mario 64 didn't invent the hub world, but your knowledge is strikingly limited best.
part of that is that Monster Hunter as a series has never been a story driven game.
It doesn't actually play like monster hunter at all
No, you just have a main town with biome maps that are sequestered into their own unique areas and you take on missions from a guild to complete in said areas, while also needing to avoid alpha level Mons in the biomes
Totally and completely different, no similarities there
That's not to say PLA doesn't have its share of poor textures, they're definitely there.
Honestly.... just look into romhacks. Hard-core fans turn the game with good bones but awful-balancing into actually pretty good balancing. You've usually got thr option between being challenging or absolutely brutal.
Scarlet and Violet were improvements over Sword and Shield, but then they had an actual interesting game with Legends Arceus only to tank it with Legends ZA
Its so sad, honestly. The core gameplay and replayability is so good in pokemon (hence why it became popular in the first place). Imagine the games that could have been, if some passion and talent had been put into these games.
I never really thought any of their games was good per se, not even the old ones. But they were still fun, because of that core concept. I always saw a lot of missed potential in everything. But at least the early games was new, made on hardware that was very limiting etc. And they kept improving and building upwards for each game (well, sort of anyways). After gen 5 they started tearing down instead. Building downwards if you will.
My only hope for a decent new pokemon game is that palworld has had huge success. That game is better than anything pokemon has ever released. Although not the same type of gameplay loop at all, they have a lot of similarities (obviously). Maybe they are scared of that success, their lawyers certainly seems to be, lol. Heres hoping, only to be let down, probably. Its gamefreak after all.
It's more complicated than that, the scope creep with Pokémon is extremely daunting with the new mechanics, updated movesets, textures, models, animations, etc. They reuse Pokémon models and animations, but there's only so much they can do in the 2-3 years they have to develop the games.
It’s hilarious because GameFreak actually just put out a pretty decent 3D game in Beast of Reincarnation. So you know they’re capable of doing better - they just don’t.
If 100 hundred people will buy your product if you don’t try too hard but 101 people will buy your game if you try really hard, what’s the point? Nintendo doesn’t view players as forever players, they view kids maybe hanging around 2 gens but will buy peripherals, like cards and stuffed animals, longer. Once they age out new kids have come in who don’t remember the old but everyone talks about Pokémon. Rinse and repeat.
Oh I completely agree with you. There are a lot of GameFreak apologists out there, though, who will argue that GF is a small team and can’t be expected to deliver the “outrageous quality” that some players expect.
Considering the game director for every mainline game since Sun/Moon got reassigned and the director behind the SW/SH and S/V DLCs took their place, starting with Winds/Waves, we may be getting a drastically different, significantly better Pokemon experience moving forward.
Considering the shitty hardware the last ones were made for I don't think they were bad. They definitely under delivered but I don't think they are bad.
I didn't buy scarlet or violet and I won't buy the next ones if the reviews aren't great. The truth is that the last two gens were gifted to me by people who knew I liked the games. I'm not sure if I would've bought them on my own or not, but maybe.
I've got such a backlog of games these days anyway that my usual strategy is to wish list something and then buy it when it goes on sale, but Pokemon games don't really seem to go on sale
i enjoyed scarlet and violet but only because the switch 2 release evened it into more of a "spider-man 2" rushed story. gameplay wise i quite enjoyed it but do not ask me the plotlines 😭😭😭
As someone who still plays modern pokemon I absolutely agree with you. I’m really hoping they’re taking their time with this new one but you never know. I mainly play pokemon because it’s comforting not because it’s super amazing lol
I don't even think it's exclusively the lack of effort in polish either.
The route restrictions really helped the flow of gameplay in Pokémon imo and made it more difficult to get through routes because of the trainer traps and puzzles. That's all gone now.
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u/WhatShouldTheHeartDo Aug 19 '26
3D Pokemon (Except the Gamecube games, basically Pokemon after the 5th gen)