Simplifying the games?

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

Most thread here are focusing on what new features and types they could add. This is the opposite. In an interview shortly after XY came out Sugimori said that they were thinking of going back to their roots for future games.

In the magazine "We Love Pokémon", Game Freak's Ken Sugimori commented on the seventh generation of Pokémon.

When asked what the next generation of Pokémon games will be like if such a plan exists, Sugimori commented that they will not add more layers of complexity, but rather revert back to simplicity, in part by using elements found in Pokémon Red and Green. Therefore, there is now speculation that Game Freak may opt for this route in developing Generation VII.

As a side note, not only the number of games, but also the number of Pokémon, moves, abilities, items, etc. increase as each new generation is introduced, to such a degree that is difficult to remember all of them. It is impossible to decrease the amount of Pokémon, and such a move is assumed to be uncalled for, but some fans have claimed that it might be better to significantly organize/trim the moves, abilities, items, etc.

Also, Sugimori thought that other than the content of the game, Pokémon designs could probably be simplified, as well. As an extra, he stated in the same magazine that his favorite Pokémon of all times, even now as of the Pokémon XY series, is still Gengar as in the past.

Do you think that they'll get rid of anything? Could we see types be merged into one? Like say Ground and Rock are fused with the resulting type being something like "Earth" which would be weak against the common weaknesses of the two along with fighting (which rock is currently weak to), but strong against Flying, Steel, and Electric, and resistant against Electric moves?
What other types could you see being merged? Which designs do you see them fixing to make them more simple?

 

[pkmin3033]

I really, REALLY hope they simplify the plot. I think a large part of my ire with later Pokemon titles (Gen III onwards) is because of the Legendary-centric plots: by any RPG standards, they're unbearably half-arsed. Having two versions means that you only get half the story; this was especially prominent in Gen III when one of the teams was left out of the running entirely. Playing Emerald was really jarring, because with both teams out and about the story suddenly had a whole new dimension added to it and highlighted just how incomplete Ruby and Sapphire really were...and you can imagine how displeased I was with ORAS for ignoring the improvements Emerald made.

But even the third versions of the games, which incorporated both mascots, didn't have a stellar, memorable plot. Giving the villains reasons and motive is great, sure, but when they barely appear except for one or two moments in the game, it's a total waste, and they're no more memorable than Team Rocket, who were just evil because they were evil.

I'd love it if Sun and Moon just made the mascot Legendary a matter of personal preference, like Lugia and Ho-Oh were, and had the same plot that DIDN'T involve the Legendary. You CAN tell a compelling story without using a Legendary Pokemon to take over the world, you know. Having a team that is just evil and out to rule just because, like Team Rocket, would be great. Bring back Team Flare under Malva or something and depict their struggle to keep it together. Have another Team Rocket esque criminal organization. Whatever. I don't care. Just don't give me another unnecessarily complex, incomplete and half-arsed story with a plot that could go somewhere if it was ever allowed to go somewhere. Strip it right back down. You're a Pokemon Trainer. You have a rival. There are some guys out there who are evil. You fight them on the way to becoming the League Champion. You accomplish your goals. The end. It sounds boring on paper, but I don't remember anyone seriously complaining about Team Rocket's utter lack of depth, and who REALLY plays Pokemon for its plot? It's wholly unnecessary. Keep it simple and fun. OK? OK.

I wouldn't want them to change the core mechanics of the game by eliminating types and what have you, to be honest. As it stands, gameplay is at a good place in that it's as simple or complex as you want it to be. If you don't want to indulge in EV training or IV breeding or whatever else, you don't NEED to in order to play the game. But you can if you want to. I've said this in other threads, but I'll say it again here: you are free to play Pokemon however you like. It allows for that. You don't even need to pay attention to type matchups if you don't want to; just overlevel and plough through it. Or don't. Whatever. Use your favourites. Do whatever you like. You could argue that additional types have made it more complex, but it's not really all THAT complex, even to newer players. I don't think they should tamper with the gameplay for the sake of simplicity; it's not broken, so don't try and fix it.

If they ARE going to tamper with things like abilities and what have you, I really hope they give us the option to enable or disable that. Let us ignore abilities if we want to, or combine types if we want to, or whatever else, but let us choose. Hell, this could even tie in with the idea of a difficulty mode. They already do this with Fire Emblem with classic mode and whatever, so doing it for Pokemon wouldn't be a huge stretch.

Otherwise...well, they could cut back on the little things. Cut down on the number of different types of Pokeball. Remove some of the healing items hardly anyone uses. You just know some people would cry havoc at things being removed for the sake of simplicity, because someone always does, but we got on alright without these things before, and we would again, I think.

 

[Pinkie-Dawn]

I don't think going back to simplicity may be such a good idea, especially when this guy despised how dumbed down Street Fighter 5's gameplay mechanics were compared to previous entries he's played by changing most of the fighters' input combos. We would expect the same reaction from the competitive aspect of the Pokemon community.

 

[Desert Stream~]

I hope they don't make it too simple...
honestly things aren't looking good for me right now :(

 

[Hikamaru]

I probably wouldn't enjoy the removal of entire moves or even types, since it would be taking a huge step backwards. Pinkie said that with Street Fighter V's mechanics, it caused a bit of fan outrage and if we were to remove core features of Pokemon I'd react in the same way.

 

[Arylett Charnoa]

I would absolutely be all for simplification. Some moves/abilities/items are wholly unnecessary, being made redundant by something else, and it would just be less confusing to cull this.

Fusing redundant types together like Ground/Rock and Water/Ice is also something I've wanted since the beginning - since even the games themselves seem confused about the differences between them. (Playing Pokemon Yellow, I saw that Brock's gym trainers had GROUND types and no Rock types. Lorelei has Water-types as well.) I doubt this will happen though. We're in too deep and people would just complain.

I would also like if they added a simplicity mode (as Meloetta said) that removes natures/abilities/EVs/whatever to make those of us who aren't really too fond of them happy. It'd be the best way for everyone to benefit. Yes, I know they're a choice, but I like my game to be as efficient as possible and knowing that I have to go out of my way for said efficiency is really bothersome to me and nags at me in the back of my mind.

But I don't really know what to think about Sugimori's statement here. He could just be expressing his desire for this to happen, and nothing might be made of it. It also could just be in reference to this being the series anniversary special rather than actually relevant to anything. So I'll have to wait and see if they actually act on it. Though I honestly doubt they'll actually remove anything. Pokemon is based on continuity, and for better or worse, they'll keep most of the things they've added in from the past.

 

[Rivvon]

People may not agree with me on this but please understand I'm coming at this from the point-of-view of someone who plays this game competitively.

I think this is very silly and unnecessary. What would you gain by removing attacks and items? Some Pokémon are viable only because they have access to certain moves or Abilities. Every so often I go back to play Crystal and one of the things I really don't like is how absurdly limited each Pokémon's movepool is. It takes forever for them to even learn a new attack, and even then they have maybe one or two STAB moves--one or both of which are really awful to use, even outside of competitive play. One of the things I enjoy about the newer games is finding out what cool attacks the Pokémon learn as they level up--and the more moves available, the more you're able to imbue a sense of your own creativity with each Pokémon. Maybe you like to play defensively so you give your team a lot of set-up moves. Or perhaps you just go for an all-out attacker. But how can you get that kind of individualism when there's only 150 total moves? Just take a quick look on Smogon and you'll see that there are lots of Pokémon with a wide variety of ways to use them--that's only possible because of the number of moves available to them now.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think they should make 100 new moves each gen--but that doesn't mean they should remove, for example, Aqua Jet and Extreme Speed to keep Quick Attack.

The only thing I think they should "simplify," or rather, attempt to streamline, is the IV system. Just make it so that all Pokémon's stats act as if they're all 31IVs. That would significantly reduce the time needed for breeding/resetting for the Pokémon you want, so the player can focus on other things, like getting the right Nature, Ability, Egg moves, or even shininess. This will make it easier for competitive players, while also making competitive-level play even more accessible to new players.

 

[Esper]

This sounds more like Sugimori expressing his preferences over what the actual direction of the games will be.

That said, I do think there is a heap of unnecessary and redundant features and elements to the games. EVs and IVs in particular don't really seem essential (to me anyway) since the people who care about them are the competitive players who will have done the work to max them out anyway. The games could just cut that part out and save everyone time and maybe even make it easier for more people to dip their toe into the waters of competitive play. There are plenty of movies and abilities and items which could be removed or combined without really changing anything. Generally, I think a lot of things could be cut out without making the games any less fun.

 

[Jacrad]

I would sure as heck love for them to simplify some of the evolution methods for some Pokemon. Like really, would it be such a big deal to make Leafeon attainable with a Leaf Stone? Or getting baby Pokemon without the need for some incense?

 

[Ho-Oh]

In regards to the IVs comment, I think it's important that they stay as they are. Yeah, getting 31 IVs is a pain, but they've made it a lot easier now in regards to breeding etc - do we really want the easy route for everything?

Even though we have more content now than we did years ago, they've compensated for it. The games are incredibly easier. All these shortcuts, items, ability to run sooner than you would in the early days, easier ways to avoid Pokemon... they don't really make it much of a challenge. We were challenged in our early days, and that might be what he means. No items doing all the work for us, just a good old classic item finder, your own intuition and a whole lotta luck. Simple doesn't necessarily mean easier, and I think they could benefit from removing some of the things we've gotten accustomed to, other than the core parts of what makes each Pokemon unique.

 

[Altius]

Simplify =/= less difficulty. I hope Game Freak would simplify some aspects of the series in Gen VII, yet increase the difficulty compared to the previous gen.

 

[pkmin3033]

Another thing simplification can mean is ease of access, and I think that is probably what they're driving at...or what they should be driving at with these games. EV Training was simplified substantially in the sixth generation with the introduction of Super Training, and with multi-use TMs it's made it a lot easier to get the moves you want on your Pokemon, too. Those have both simplified what was a rather tiresome process before then. Hell you could argue that the EXP Share of Gen VI that everyone seems to hate simplified the need to train all of your Pokemon by letting you do it all at once. Sure, it made the games feel easier for some because training wasn't as time-consuming as it used to be, but it DID simplify matters.

A couple of things they could do to make the games a little simpler is to introduce similar things for IV breeding, special evolutions, move tutors, etc. A minigame for IV breeding, or a special Daycare service that would guarantee you the IVs or egg moves you wanted, would be pretty nice. Rather than tracking down the items you need for special evolution and whatnot, you could pay using in-game currency for them instead, and Move Tutors could accept money for payment.

I don't think it's necessarily about cutting things out, or making them easier, or whatever. Just making them less time-consuming and awkward unless you know exactly what you're doing - or are prepared to go item hunting - would simplify the games significantly, and make them more enjoyable for people who "don't have time" to invest in the "proper" way to do things, or whatever.

 

[Hikamaru]

As Meloetta said, the Super Training and (massively hated) Exp. Share in 6th Gen felt like simplifications of their own, making EV training and grinding noticeably less time-consuming. Heck, even ORAS's DexNav was also an improvement at finding maxed IVs and hidden abilities.

If another mechanic needed to be simplified in 7th Gen, I'd say IV breeding and Move Tutors. I find it annoying to always look for shards or grind for BP just to learn a good move, and breeding perfect IVs are currently very time-consuming so I'd like for those to be improved as well.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

That to me sounds like making the game easier rather than simple. I wouldn't mind just one move tutor or a bunch of them who teach the same moves spread out across the region.

 

[Hikamaru]

But wouldn't the planned "return to simplicity" that Game Freak are teasing us also mean that it'll still be extremely easy? That would outrage the veteran players who seem to love the word "challenge" and would not be happy if there's little-to-no hard parts of the game again.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

But wouldn't the planned "return to simplicity" that Game Freak are teasing us also mean that it'll still be extremely easy? That would outrage the veteran players who seem to love the word "challenge" and would not be happy if there's little-to-no hard parts of the game again.

Gen I fans claim that the originals were the hardest and the newest ones have gotten easier so...

 

[MarinoKadame]

Just look how hard is Gen 1 to newcomers.

Spoiler:

 

[Abby]

I really
Really hope they don't go with this...

About the pokemon thing, weren't we meant to be UPSET with the number introduced in X/Y

 

[Shiny]

I sincerely hope they don't simplify the mechanics of battling as it's perfect the way it is currently in my eyes.

The plot however, go for it and make it more concise and better executed.

 

[KillerTyphlosion]

This might be the reason why the VC pokémon are compatible with gen 6. They might even remove the whole IV/DV/EV thing. But I hope they actually won't. Because it will be a major kick in the nuts to everyone who breeded thousands and thousands to get the perfect shiny they wanted.