Link the Versions/ Regions.
- Thread starter Faerun
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Pokémon games are only balanced for a single game's worth of playing. At most, HG/SS was just about able to keep the difficulty curve going through to a much smaller second region and even that started to run into issues with the levels of wild and trainer Pokémon.
By the time you've exhausted the playable content of one game your Pokémon are already reaching the upper limit of their levels. No amount of increasing the level cap will offset the ridiculousness of fighting trainers with level 127 Pokémon or something else.
Technically, that's also a nightmare to program for. Every Pokémon game so far has taken the opportunity to improve upon the previous engine by adding new features, fixing bugs and like. Not only would you need to ensure that your can keep compatibility with an ever-increasing amount of older games when you come to release a new "area pack" with a modified engine, unless there was a linear progression of games the player had to follow, a lot of thought would have to be put into ensuring that each game can work when the player has only played through one, two or none of the previous games.
Honestly, your post is confusing and very hard to actually understand. I think you're talking about being able to hold more data if we used cartridges that were physically as large as old Game Boy games? That kind of idea is contrary to every design trend in portable electronics. People want things that are smaller and easier to carry around - being able to hold a dozen or some DS game cards in a small carry case, as opposed to walking around with big clunky Game Boy cartridges in your pockets. It also doesn't take into account that memory capacity is increasing at such a rapid rate that it allows each system to have smaller and smaller game cartridges until they get to the point where they're small but still easy enough to insert in and out of the DS.
By the time you've exhausted the playable content of one game your Pokémon are already reaching the upper limit of their levels. No amount of increasing the level cap will offset the ridiculousness of fighting trainers with level 127 Pokémon or something else.
Technically, that's also a nightmare to program for. Every Pokémon game so far has taken the opportunity to improve upon the previous engine by adding new features, fixing bugs and like. Not only would you need to ensure that your can keep compatibility with an ever-increasing amount of older games when you come to release a new "area pack" with a modified engine, unless there was a linear progression of games the player had to follow, a lot of thought would have to be put into ensuring that each game can work when the player has only played through one, two or none of the previous games.
Honestly, your post is confusing and very hard to actually understand. I think you're talking about being able to hold more data if we used cartridges that were physically as large as old Game Boy games? That kind of idea is contrary to every design trend in portable electronics. People want things that are smaller and easier to carry around - being able to hold a dozen or some DS game cards in a small carry case, as opposed to walking around with big clunky Game Boy cartridges in your pockets. It also doesn't take into account that memory capacity is increasing at such a rapid rate that it allows each system to have smaller and smaller game cartridges until they get to the point where they're small but still easy enough to insert in and out of the DS.
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Well, it's a good idea overall, but it has two major set-backs that make it impossible:
Profit: Nintendo wouldn't ever let this happen. It's similar to how the 1 Game = 5 Regions would never happen. They would never be able to capitalize on remakes and stuff alike. I mean, remember RSE? You would never be able to use pokémon older than Gen 3 there, you wouldn't have the physical/special split, some moves mechanics are different, the game mechanics are different in general, and it would make remakes seem pointless, except for graphic and maybe plot changes. It would also make "catching 'em all" and trading for evos (with yourself) waaay easier. I caught all pokémon you are able to in every game I had (no trades) in only one, so I would've caught em all by know, if I had friends with other games to trade with/get other starters from and it would also take away that part of the games.
Game: Like I said before, you wouldn't be able to use newer pokémons, even 4Gen ones, in the old games. Reasons for that are pokédex limit/size, like said, evolutions would need to apply there (you can now trade Feebas with specific item to get Milotic, but before you only could max out its Beauty status). Also, what about newer items (be it pokéballs, key items)? What about stuff you got in the older games, how would you be able to transfer it to the newer ones? What about sprite editing so you could see the newer pokémon with 3Gen and 4Gen battle screen? And the HGSS overworld sprites? And your sprite? It's waay too hard to do, and that's what they have remakes for, like I said.
Profit: Nintendo wouldn't ever let this happen. It's similar to how the 1 Game = 5 Regions would never happen. They would never be able to capitalize on remakes and stuff alike. I mean, remember RSE? You would never be able to use pokémon older than Gen 3 there, you wouldn't have the physical/special split, some moves mechanics are different, the game mechanics are different in general, and it would make remakes seem pointless, except for graphic and maybe plot changes. It would also make "catching 'em all" and trading for evos (with yourself) waaay easier. I caught all pokémon you are able to in every game I had (no trades) in only one, so I would've caught em all by know, if I had friends with other games to trade with/get other starters from and it would also take away that part of the games.
Game: Like I said before, you wouldn't be able to use newer pokémons, even 4Gen ones, in the old games. Reasons for that are pokédex limit/size, like said, evolutions would need to apply there (you can now trade Feebas with specific item to get Milotic, but before you only could max out its Beauty status). Also, what about newer items (be it pokéballs, key items)? What about stuff you got in the older games, how would you be able to transfer it to the newer ones? What about sprite editing so you could see the newer pokémon with 3Gen and 4Gen battle screen? And the HGSS overworld sprites? And your sprite? It's waay too hard to do, and that's what they have remakes for, like I said.
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There's a reason Game Freak made high-level traded Pokémon disobey the player before they reached a certain point in the game. It would ruin the balance and sense of progression either way if the player could import all their old, higher-levelled than usual Pokémon at the start and breeze through the game. Even if you try to scale the levels of opponents to match the player's imported party (Which would be almost impossible to scale correctly if the player can take their entire Pokémon storage along with them), you'd get to point where they can't level up any higher because the Pokémon you took with you in your party were already a high level when they begun.
What you're trying to do is describe conventional DLC and digital distribution for games, examples of which have been in place for a long time on PCs and consoles not manufactured by Nintendo.
Whichever way they sold games, Game Freak would still design them around being balanced for players starting from scratch like pretty much every other RPG game out there - and playing as characters in a story that was made for that game alone. Allowing players to transfer their old content is a reward given for completing the game and is what the post-story content is designed towards.
For better or worse, Nintendo has come out in the past to say they're not big fans of selling DLC for games, but then again Nintendo offer the worst quality of online services in current-gen consoles and handhelds.
Also, oh, but people do dislike Game Boy-sized cartridges.
Handheld games consoles, storage devices, portable music players. They've all gotten progressively smaller and more popular. New models of Game Boy, GBA, DS, PSP were all sold as being more compact as their predecessor. Mobile phones followed the same track - everything became smaller, with the exception of things like the purposely larger DSi XL. The iPod became smaller and smaller with each new model, and several offshoots like the iPod Mini, Nano and Shuffle were sold purely on their form factor and ease of carry.
DS cartridges, PS Vita game cards, SD and MicroSD memory cards, they're all smaller than the storage solutions that came before them.
They're better from a hardware design point as well - removing that big chunky GBA slot from the DSi likely freed up a fair amount of space inside the case to fit more components into it. Don't forget that Game Boy cartridges had to jut out of the GBA's cart slot, and GBA cartridges had to stick out of the DS Lite's second slot too - there's not enough space to fit these big cartridges into small and tightly packed electronics. It's easier to design around smaller storage memory that can be placed inside your device without much thought as to what can be placed around it.
What you're trying to do is describe conventional DLC and digital distribution for games, examples of which have been in place for a long time on PCs and consoles not manufactured by Nintendo.
Whichever way they sold games, Game Freak would still design them around being balanced for players starting from scratch like pretty much every other RPG game out there - and playing as characters in a story that was made for that game alone. Allowing players to transfer their old content is a reward given for completing the game and is what the post-story content is designed towards.
For better or worse, Nintendo has come out in the past to say they're not big fans of selling DLC for games, but then again Nintendo offer the worst quality of online services in current-gen consoles and handhelds.
Also, oh, but people do dislike Game Boy-sized cartridges.
Handheld games consoles, storage devices, portable music players. They've all gotten progressively smaller and more popular. New models of Game Boy, GBA, DS, PSP were all sold as being more compact as their predecessor. Mobile phones followed the same track - everything became smaller, with the exception of things like the purposely larger DSi XL. The iPod became smaller and smaller with each new model, and several offshoots like the iPod Mini, Nano and Shuffle were sold purely on their form factor and ease of carry.
DS cartridges, PS Vita game cards, SD and MicroSD memory cards, they're all smaller than the storage solutions that came before them.
They're better from a hardware design point as well - removing that big chunky GBA slot from the DSi likely freed up a fair amount of space inside the case to fit more components into it. Don't forget that Game Boy cartridges had to jut out of the GBA's cart slot, and GBA cartridges had to stick out of the DS Lite's second slot too - there's not enough space to fit these big cartridges into small and tightly packed electronics. It's easier to design around smaller storage memory that can be placed inside your device without much thought as to what can be placed around it.
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They could work around it though, connecting the big cartridge to a cable that would then link to the DS - almost as the link cable before.
Nonetheless, it's an idea that, like I said in my first post, has as many chance of happening as the 5 regions in 1 game idea that has been thrown around since we even only had 3 regions. It's not real, and it won't ever if the nintendo/gamefreak bosses don't lose their mind - cause be it from both a technological and marketing point of view, it's purely a waste.
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So did Faerun type an actual post here, or are you guys just going off of a bunch of xxs to rant about?
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I had an idea about something like this back in '06..
[link]
In my opinion it could be done with first gen to second gen (or vice versa) since both series of games were connected to each other, both by location and by storyline. Maybe the common two game split could have one game for starting out in Kanto, and going to Johto after the E4 battle, with the other for starting out in Johto and going to Kanto after the E4 battle.
[link]
In my opinion it could be done with first gen to second gen (or vice versa) since both series of games were connected to each other, both by location and by storyline. Maybe the common two game split could have one game for starting out in Kanto, and going to Johto after the E4 battle, with the other for starting out in Johto and going to Kanto after the E4 battle.
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I don't think the OP wants this discussed anymore? I think I'll just lock it since that seems to be the case. If you're reading this Faerun, just know if you ever want your thread closed, you can ask me or a higher staff to lock it.
Locked.
Locked.
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