Simplifying the games?

[pkmin3033]

A breeding minigame, similar to Pokemon Amie, would do wonders for the breeding mechanic, and allow them to keep in IVs as well if they didn't want to ditch them. How about some touch-screen based minigames that let you raise IVs, and dictate Nature and even Egg moves? Maybe a nursery-style thing, where you can customise the environment or something, or some crazy dream-based game that lets you raise IVs.

I still think ditching IVs altogether would be a better choice, but they're unlikely to cut out game mechanics altogether for the sake of simplicity, so making these things more accessible to players - and building on Pokemon Amie to make it a more integral and varied feature - seems like it'd be a better way to go. Two Pidgey with one stone.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

A breeding minigame, similar to Pokemon Amie, would do wonders for the breeding mechanic, and allow them to keep in IVs as well if they didn't want to ditch them. How about some touch-screen based minigames that let you raise IVs, and dictate Nature and even Egg moves? Maybe a nursery-style thing, where you can customise the environment or something, or some crazy dream-based game that lets you raise IVs.

I still think ditching IVs altogether would be a better choice, but they're unlikely to cut out game mechanics altogether for the sake of simplicity, so making these things more accessible to players - and building on Pokemon Amie to make it a more integral and varied feature - seems like it'd be a better way to go. Two Pidgey with one stone Geodude.

Maybe the nature can be impacted while it's still inside the egg. Like wrapping the egg in a warm or cold blanket, a flagrant blanket. It'll allow the egg to hatch faster, but also get the nature associated with that item.

 

[LilBueno]

Maybe the nature can be impacted while it's still inside the egg. Like wrapping the egg in a warm or cold blanket, a flagrant blanket. It'll allow the egg to hatch faster, but also get the nature associated with that item.

I like this idea. It could even affect the hatching rate a bit. You use certain items on the egg, attach certain items, and/or do certain activities with the egg and you get guaranteed results (Nature for sure, maybe IV yield and ability?)
That way, you know what you're getting and the endless breeding will be unnecessary but you still have to work for it a little bit.
I wouldn't mind something like wrapping the eggs in certain items gives it a certain nature, having the egg in your party for so many battle affects IV yield, and ability and egg moves can come from a minigame (one that actually takes a bit of effort, not just a thirty second berry catching game).
I'd also like to have the choice of what Pokeball to put the Pokemon in. Do Pokemon just hatch with a ball?

 

[pkmin3033]

Maybe the nature can be impacted while it's still inside the egg. Like wrapping the egg in a warm or cold blanket, a flagrant blanket. It'll allow the egg to hatch faster, but also get the nature associated with that item.

Something along those lines would be fantastic, especially if these were re-usable items. Held items, but for eggs. I'd actually love it if incense was modified to be like this, too - put incense around the egg (either in a nursery environment for a bottom-screen PDA thing or something) or as a hold item so it hatches into a baby Pokemon, rather than needing the parents to hold them whilst breeding. Or even making incense key items that you can activate or de-activate one at a time. You could even use them to attract/repel certain Pokemon in the wild, similar to Sweet Scent or Repels...which would eliminate the need for repels, too. God knows I'm sick of buying those things!

Pokemon has been pretty big on minigames like this recently, and the whole caring of pets things in general has been a thing since Nintendogs. It'd make much more sense if they simplified breeding and hatching eggs to fall in line with this style - it'd be easy for people to understand and get into, and streamline the whole experience.

 

[Rivvon]

Okay hold on. I was gonna quote [user]captainfez3[/user]'s post and reply to him but now I feel I just need to say this as a general thing...

Breeding for Nature is the easiest part. Literally the easiest part. You pick a parent with the Nature you want. Stick an Everstone on it. Now all of the Eggs will hatch with that Nature. 100% of them. No exceptions. Whatsoever. Making the obtaining of Nature into "you just pick it at some NPC's house" is like, way too easy (there needs to be some effort put into making your Pokémon...). Making it into some minigame would make it take way longer and feel more like a waste of time.

"But I don't have a parent with the right Nature," you say. Okay but catching Ditto is easy in XY--go catch a bunch until you get the right Nature. Or grab a Pokémon with the Nature you want that has Synchronize and catch a parent with the right Nature. Really, the Nature is the easiest part out of all aspects of breeding... And honestly, it's great to see so many people wanting to get into competitive play, and it could stand to be more accessible despite gen 6's improvements, but seriously. There needs to be some effort put into getting the Pokémon you want. Anything less and the game is just... way too watered-down.

And as for...hatching being a mini-game or something like that? I mean I know this may sound weird but I kind of like that I can just hatch my Pokémon while watching a video or something. If it was turned into a mini-game you'd have to actually pay attention. Like think of it this way:

IVs are gone. Praise Arceus! I want to hatch a Modest Pinsir. This will be good. I have my Modest Pinsir from my X playthrough, so she'll be the mom. Stick that Everstone on her and I'm good to go. IVs are gone so I have no need for the Destiny Knot but that's okay. But what I do need is a male Heracross, because Close Combat is an Egg move for Pinsir. I mean yeah it's gonna be Modest but I like to live life on the edge.

Anything else fancy about this Pinsir? Well, since I don't want to worry about IVs any more, I'll try to hatch it shiny! So I put the parents in the day care and grab 5 Eggs. Now it's time for hatching!

Mini-game Method: I have to have both hands at the system, paying attention to actually play the mini-game. Depending on how long the mini-game takes, it could take a while to hatch my batch of five, which might not even have the shiny.

Current Method: Flame Body Pokémon in front. Egg Hatching O-Power activated. I press right on my D-Pad. I can do whatever I want now--eat, watch TV, draw, whatever, as long as I pay slight attention to my screen. Which is actually fairly easy since it's easy to see when the on-screen movement has stopped (signalling the Egg is ready to hatch) out of the corner of your eye. Now I just wait to see if it's shiny; I can hatch many Eggs fairly quickly.

The only way the mini-game method would be better is if you could hatch like a box or two of Eggs at once through it. Otherwise it would best be like Super Training: optional for those who need an entry-way into the mechanics, but ultimately way too time-consuming compared to the "standard" methods. (And since this is a topic about removing unnecessary features... I mean, what it all comes down to is that hatching Eggs is easy. It's making the Egg that takes some effort but as I've said, we don't want to make these games thoughtless.)


I apologize if my posts are turning into "Competitive Breeding 101" but I feel as though the things people want gone or changed are things that they don't really realize how they work. Breeding is such a simple thing; it really doesn't need to be revamped all that much, if at all.

Personally I think the Pokemon games are already simple enough.

They're the kind of games that are easy to get into and understand but there's still some complexity if you want to go looking for it.

I have to say this is something that concerns me quite a bit. I won't mind if they're just doing some cleaning up, but if they decide to dumb everything down it's going to be kind of upsetting.

I could kind of see this as not being a case that the games are too complicated, but maybe too bloated with redundant moves and features. At least I'm hoping that's the angle they're coming from.

I agree completely; thank you.

 

[pkmin3033]

I apologize if my posts are turning into "Competitive Breeding 101" but I feel as though the things people want gone or changed are things that they don't really realize how they work. Breeding is such a simple thing; it really doesn't need to be revamped all that much, if at all.

Don't you think there is a problem in that - that people don't really realise how these things work?

What you describe is still a potentially time-consuming and irritating process people won't necessarily have time for, or even the desire to do. The whole idea of playing a game is to play the game. Just wandering around in circles waiting for eggs to hatch, obsessively catching Pokemon just for a specific attribute value, etc? It's not really a simple process at all, it's a multi-stage process you need to research beforehand and do a lot of prep work for.

You're not really playing it either in the situation you describe; it's something you're just doing so that you CAN play. It's delay on top of delay on top of delay towards getting what you want - a specific Pokemon with specific values - and simplifying that process through streamlining it is not a bad thing. Catch this until you get that, breed this and hatch until you get what you want. Reset, reset, reset if you don't get what you want. It's easier now than it was before, but you still need to get there: you still need the necessary prerequisites like Pokemon with the right nature.

Alternatively, you could play a minigame about the same length as the ones in Super Training to accomplish the same thing. Sure, it simplifies the process to the point of ridiculousness, perhaps. But it makes it quicker and easier to understand for everyone, and you're actually playing the game, rather than just having it on. You have to pay attention to what you're doing, and isn't that why people buy the game in the first place - so they can play it? Personally, I think people should have the option of doing that, rather than having to go through this annoying multi-stage process to achieve the results they want.

This is the thing about options, too. You don't HAVE to use them. Just as nobody was forcing you or anyone else to use the Exp. Share in the Gen VI titles, nobody would be forcing you to use a minigame to hatch your eggs or select your natures or whatever else. You want to do it the other way? Do it the other way. If you've got that choice, then what's the problem? Simplification isn't about the removal of features, it's about making them more accessible for other players.

You shouldn't have to put a huge amount of effort into playing and enjoying a game. Maybe it's not that difficult to understand if you do a little bit of research...but why should you have to? Why shouldn't you be able to just take a quick, easy route to get the same results? Why should you have to put in so much effort just to be able to play with everyone else and stand a chance of winning? You can argue that this is the whole point of a competitive scene, but that's a bit exclusionary in my opinion.

As long as the original method of doing these things is available, what's the problem? You can play how you want. Others can play how they want. You can both attain the same results and get the same satisfaction out of it. It's not as time-consuming to get competitive-ready Pokemon. You still have to put effort into it - you have to pick the right Pokemon, the right moves, build a strategy, etc. The process of getting there isn't quite as time-consuming as it was previously; you can dive in, actually play the game, and enjoy yourself that much faster. Why is this a bad thing?

I have to point this out, too - other people thought that EV training was simple before Super Training came along. Yet that change has been met with overall positive reception. I don't see why a similar mechanic for breeding would be a bad thing. Breeding has received improvements...but EV training received improvements before Super Training too. There is no reason why further improvements can't be made.


I have to admit that it really bothers me sometimes that people are so against options for less experienced players that in no way affect them. If anything, this sort of thing is beneficial: more people can play on the same playing field, and it puts more of an emphasis on your understanding of strategy and tactics, rather than secondary gameplay mechanics which are never really explained in the game - or even required to finish the story - yet ARE required if you want to play with others. I really can't get behind the idea that only some people should be allowed to access certain elements of a game - the metagame, in this case.

 

[Sun]

Btw, simplified can also mean ditching the Ability or even blocking the access of Gen III - VI Pokemon to Gen 7. :/

 

[Hikamaru]

Btw, simplified can also mean ditching the Ability or even blocking the access of Gen III - VI Pokemon to Gen 7. :/

That would be a huge step backwards that would be unlikely, since I remember that the Direct mentioned that Pokemon in 6th Gen games can be moved forward through Pokemon Bank.

 

[pkmin3033]

Nothing is gained by the removal of features, other than the ire of fans who already understand them. The word itself means "make (something) simpler or easier to do or understand." and that does not imply, to me at least, that something needs to be removed in order to make that something simpler or easier to understand.

To me, simplifying something implies either further explanation through in-game tutorials - which is not implied in this context really, although I think they might appear in some form - or through additional gameplay features that make things more accessible and easier to do. Maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see a bit, but I honestly don't think anything will be removed in the same of simplifying the titles: it's not really simplifying the game in this instance as it is stripping it of gameplay mechanics. It sounds like they're making it more complex this way, but...well, again, refer to Super Training. That was an addition to the mechanic, but it made it far easier to do and understand than it was previously.

 

[Sabrewulf238]

To be honest the whole introduction of a mini-game for training your Pokemon was a neat little gimmick, but I couldn't be bothered with it while playing ORAS. It lost it's appeal pretty quick.

So I don't think tacking mini-games on to everything is a very good idea. Unless they're prepared to add a lot of variety. At least if a feature doesn't have a mini game it's not pretending to be a fun process. Having to play a mini-game just to hatch an egg is going to get annoying after a while. That stupid catching mini-game was the reason I didn't like transferring Pokemon from the 4th to the 5th generation games.

That's the problem with mini-games. At first they're a fun diversion, but eventually they'll just become as cumbersome as the complications they're supposed to replace. Except they'll be pretending to be fun long after they've lost their appeal.

 

[Rivvon]

Don't you think there is a problem in that - that people don't really realise how these things work?

I get where you're coming from with this point. But in truth, there has to be some sort of understanding before you can get into it. Like, I don't know how American Football works, so I don't think it would be fair for me to say it should be simplified so I can play it at a competitive level.

The reason why I said these mini-games and extra Items would probably be better off not being implemented isn't because I want to keep competitive battling as this exclusive elite thing. That's silly; I was never a fan of people who tried to keep things exclusionary. But isn't this topic about not the simplification of the game, but rather the streamlining of it? People are saying, "Get rid of Natures!" "No more Abilities!" "Make it so Tackle and Scratch are the same move--it doesn't matter that they don't have the same base power!" I've even seen someone suggest combining Types.

So what I'm saying is, why make all these new blanket items and such when there already exists an Item for determining your Egg's Nature? I'd say this thread can generally agree that we don't want them to make another version of False Swipe, so why make more Items that do what another single Item can do to an even more efficient extent?

And I get that by turning hatching into a mini-game, you're "playing more," but trust me, it will be old, fast. Sometimes efficiency is best, even if it's coupled with some time of not actively playing. The reason why I want IVs gone is because it makes breeding take less time so you can play more. And by play I don't mean breed more Eggs. I mean actually play battles. If hatching Eggs takes anywhere from 15-20 minutes per batch, yeah you're playing--you're playing a mini-game. That's a lot of missed time to actually play in battles, which is, I would assume, the thing you want to do if you're getting into competitive play.

Now, if this mini-game system were to remain optional then I would certainly have no problem with it. But it would be a foolish choice to make playing a mini-game the only method of hatching Eggs unless it was a 5-second mini-game. Like, I don't want people thinking Super Training should act as the only way to EV train, either, for the sake of "streamlining." Especially when standard EV training has been made so fast and efficient.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

They made it clear that they wanted the games to become easier so that they could compete with Mobil Games. I don't see them removing anything massive. I would say that they would remove some small things here and there, to make the games simpler to get through,

What I think they meant was, they would reduce the time it takes to breed pokemon. Or things in that nature. I just don't see them destroying the meta game with taking types out.

Another thing would be the design of pokemon. Making pokemon simple looking and no overly complicated.

Anything that is removed will probably be to reduce the time to do things. I don't think IV's or EV's would be removed, but I will be over joyed if they are. I wouldn't have to spend hours on end trying to understand how to IV and EV train. Although I hope they don't remove stats.

I myself just learned about how the stats works. I was always clueless about Attack, Def, Spec. Att and Spec. Def. For some reason I couldn't understand it, but now I do. And stats play a massive role in Megas.

 

[pkmin3033]

I get where you're coming from with this point. But in truth, there has to be some sort of understanding before you can get into it. Like, I don't know how American Football works, so I don't think it would be fair for me to say it should be simplified so I can play it at a competitive level.

I can see your point, but then just because you can understand something doesn't guarantee that you'll be any good at it. You could pre-load competitive Pokemon onto the cartridge as an extreme example, but you wouldn't affect competitive play in the slightest: you need to know how to use the Pokemon properly, after all. But if you can't get them at all because the methods of obtaining them are either too time consuming or too obscure, you'll never have the chance or even the desire to learn. I guess that's what I'm driving at.

A lot of these terms do cross-purposes, or are mistaken for one another: it's the same thing as people thinking that something more time consuming is automatically harder. Personally, I don't agree with the concept of streamlining in that sense either, it doesn't really do anything for the games in any significant fashion. There are other concerns that need to be addressed in my opinion to make the games more accessible for newer players, and existing players are going to be just as confused as newer players by the changes...perhaps even more so, since it'd require a serious adjustment in thinking. Screwing with core gameplay mechanics on any level is not simplifying things.

Well, it was just a hypothetical example, but I suppose in that case it's more about the description of the item and it's primary purpose. The primary point of the Everstone has never been to pass over natures; it's a secondary effect, and not one everyone is going to know about. To have another separate item, clearly labelled with that effect, would make the process far less obscure to newer players who want to get into competitive battling. It would also circumvent the need for a Pokemon of the nature you want in the first place, simplifying the entire process. It's all about ease of access, and something like that facilitates the process.

Well, I'm not a game designer; I don't know how they'd actually incorporate these things to prevent them from getting too stale. My suggestion of a minigame was based solely off how Super Training made EV training a lot more accessible and simpler to understand, even if it wasn't necessarily the best or fastest way to go about it. If there is a better way to do it, I'd be open to hearing it. It just seemed to tie in with the minigames they've been adding as a way of doing things with recent generations. It's not the only way they could go about it. I think that kind of thing comes down to personal preference and play style - some people want to play their game when they play their game (haha), others would prefer not to have to focus on such a monotonous task. Since the option of cutting out the process entirely isn't really feasible, I think we need more options of going about it, rather than just one set way.

I don't think these things would be seen as the only way of doing things either; at least, not in the long term. They'd serve as an excellent way to lower the obscenely high entry barriers to competitive battling, though. As I said earlier, having the Pokemon is only half of it: you need to know how to use them properly. If these things aren't as time consuming or intimidating as they were previously, people are going to want to know more: what's the best way to build a good team? What nature/ability/EV spread etc should this Pokemon have? If you pique their curiosity with readily available, clear visible, simplified means of doing things, they're going to want to learn more. THEN they'll do the research, and then they'd learn about the other ways to do things.

That might sound optimistic, but I'd say it's part of the learning process: you learn about a better way to do things the more you play. But you need to be inspired to play first, and you need to know how to go about it and, right now, there is no real in-game information or even motive for competitive breeding, and it's a very time-consuming business even with the improvements made. It's easier to do things, yes, but in my opinion it's not quite simple enough for newer players looking to get into competitive battling, at least not just yet.

 

[GMeister]

Some might like the games due to their secondary mechanics. If I were to be selfish, I would love the game to be as hard as Soul series but that is just impossible. Adding mini-game for breeding will take too much time. I would prefer the old-fashioned hatching; pressing D-pad while doing other stuffs (mostly watching TV). Remove IVs, keep natures/ EVs and at least give the player to discover and learn the game and not to spoon feed everything for all the game mechanic.

 

[Masterge77]

The word "simplicity" can mean virtually anything depending on the context, but most people have been behaving as if they're going to return to the clunky, archaic system of Gen 1, where there were no genders or breeding, no Abilities, no hold items, no EV's or IV's, and all types were strictly Physical or Special. Now I will admit that in more recent years, the battle system has gotten far too convoluted and has become a strategic nightmare (at least to me it has) though I don't think the system should be completely stripped back to how it was in Gen 1. I will agree that they could make breeding and EV/IV training far more simple since those are anymore a chore to do. In fact, the inclusion of Amie and Super Training in Gen 6 has actually made EV/IV training

What they could also do is fix the problems that older generations had rather than simply adding new features and leaving the older features left the way they are. The Physical/Special Split was a huge benefit for the franchise. What they could do is that they could make the grinding and team building more simple. I really like how in Gen 6 the EXP Share now applies to the whole team since you can easily level up all the Pokemon equally, plus there's the addition of Amie and Super Training to help with the process. Breeding is also a chore anymore since it's not easy

My biggest fear, however, is that they'll make it more like a mobile game and have virtually no story, no memorable characters, and extremely linear gameplay. In order to have a good game, you need to have a balance of story and gameplay. One wrong move, and they could lose a large portion of their customers.

 

[Rivvon]

I can see your point, but then just because you can understand something doesn't guarantee that you'll be any good at it. You could pre-load competitive Pokemon onto the cartridge as an extreme example, but you wouldn't affect competitive play in the slightest: you need to know how to use the Pokemon properly, after all. But if you can't get them at all because the methods of obtaining them are either too time consuming or too obscure, you'll never have the chance or even the desire to learn. I guess that's what I'm driving at.

Competitive battling is almost in essence a community effort. You're going to want to read what people are doing, what kinds of teams they're making and why, and what they've found to be effective methods of dealing with other threats to inspire your own teambuilding and play style. As such, I don't see why looking up a breeding guide, one that was made by a member of the community for the sole purpose of helping newer players get their footing, is such a bad thing. "I want to do X, but the game doesn't spell it out for me how to do it. Maybe I should do some research...someone has to know, after all." That's the logic I think of in regards to these matters.

And if that's not quite acceptable for some people, there's always the option of just having the game spell out what already exists, instead of making new things. In the Item menu, add an extra option to each Item: Use, Give, Discard, and maybe something like "Info." That could switch the generic description to something more comprehensive. For example, it would rotate the Everstone description between its standard text and something like, "Held Item. Prevents Pokémon from evolving. Passes down Nature when in the Day-Care," perhaps. It would make things clearer than crystal without the need for making tons of extra Items. Because making more Items that essentially do the same thing would just be bloating the game, not streamlining it.

And yes, I'm very aware that practice is the most important part of competitive battling. That's exactly why I don't think turning hatching into a mini-game is a particularly good idea. How can you be practicing if you're spending all your time playing a mini-game? At least with the current method, I can hatch my Eggs while playing on Showdown, essentially practicing while I hatch my Eggs. If the reason why you feel the act of hatching Eggs is such a big hurdle for the non-competitive player is because there's ways to streamline it that aren't made completely obvious within the game itself, wouldn't it just be better for some NPC in the Day-Care to explain it all to the player, and add "expanded" descriptions to Items and Abilities that detail their secondary effects? As opposed to Game Freak putting time and resources into making a feature that ultimately serves to spend more of your time instead of speeding things up?

Although I'll be honest, if this hatching mini-game had a screen that just showed the Pokémon that's in the Egg and maybe its Ability I can imagine that would be helpful in the way that you can still use Super Training to visually see the EVs your Pokémon has (although they really do need to add the option to see the numerical value someday...). But in the most extreme case, I wouldn't want a hatching mini-game to be like the big new selling point of a game because of how unnecessary in practice it would be, when there's so many other features they should be focused on improving, revamping, or bringing back.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

The word "simplicity" can mean virtually anything depending on the context, but most people have been behaving as if they're going to return to the clunky, archaic system of Gen 1, where there were no genders or breeding, no Abilities, no hold items, no EV's or IV's, and all types were strictly Physical or Special. Now I will admit that in more recent years, the battle system has gotten far too convoluted and has become a strategic nightmare (at least to me it has) though I don't think the system should be completely stripped back to how it was in Gen 1. I will agree that they could make breeding and EV/IV training far more simple since those are anymore a chore to do. In fact, the inclusion of Amie and Super Training in Gen 6 has actually made EV/IV training

What they could also do is fix the problems that older generations had rather than simply adding new features and leaving the older features left the way they are. The Physical/Special Split was a huge benefit for the franchise. What they could do is that they could make the grinding and team building more simple. I really like how in Gen 6 the EXP Share now applies to the whole team since you can easily level up all the Pokemon equally, plus there's the addition of Amie and Super Training to help with the process. Breeding is also a chore anymore since it's not easy

My biggest fear, however, is that they'll make it more like a mobile game and have virtually no story, no memorable characters, and extremely linear gameplay. In order to have a good game, you need to have a balance of story and gameplay. One wrong move, and they could lose a large portion of their customers.

I think that they'll keep most of the stuff we have now, just cut down on the areas that are redundant. I can see them getting rid of the elemental boosting items like charcoal, and mystic water, leaving only the plates.
Also, since Sugimori is an artist, I take his remarks to mean that he'll want them to tone down the designs.

 

[pkmin3033]

-snip-

Hmm...I suppose we're looking at different thinking styles, then. I think the game should sell itself, rather than rely on the community to sell it - competitive battling has stupidly high entry barriers for newer players, and the game should take active steps to lower those and draw the player into it, rather than leaving it to outside factors. It's not a bad thing that these guides exist, it's a bad thing that the game does nothing to inspire you to look for them, because they describe processes that are obscure and time-consuming.

That'd be a nice addition regardless, but in the context of the Everstone it doesn't eliminate the need to have a Pokemon with the nature you want, which is a potentially irritating delay in getting a battle-ready Pokemon, as you'll have to go out and find one. It clarifies, but it doesn't really simplify - easier to understand, yes. Easier to do? No. You shouldn't have to go out and find a Pokemon with the right nature, in my opinion. I don't think you should get rid of natures entirely, but having a way to affect them in eggs is a must if competitive breeding is going to be simplified. It doesn't necessarily have to be through items (although those would be the easiest way of doing it; I don't think they'll bloat the game at all) but it really should be included in some format.

Again, some people actually want to play the game, rather than waste their time idlng around on it because there is literally nothing else for them to do on it whilst they hatch those eggs. I think they should have the option of playing the game to hatch the eggs, rather than messing about with it one-handed to walk in circles or whatever. That isn't playing. The whole point of a game is to play it. As it is right now our time is being wasted with egg hatching; it's efficient, but it's not particularly interactive and extremely tedious...and who is to say it'll be faster or slower to have a minigame to do the process anyway? Options are never a waste of time, and there is nothing to say Game Freak can't or shouldn't do both things and speed up existing processes whilst adding in new options. Why do the two things have to be mutually exclusive?

A nice compromise feature, I suppose, could be an in-game timer, which goes down in real time as well as when you take a step. That would allow you to do other things - like battling online against random players to get practice in, or whatever else - whilst you hatched the eggs. Just leaving the game on or in sleep mode would be a much better way of going about it, perhaps. It doesn't solve the problem of what comes out the egg, but it gets things out of the egg faster.

I don't think it should be a major selling point either, if they ever did incorporate something like that. I'd have it as an extension of Pokemon Amie/Super Training and leave it at that, and build up a different feature.

 

[LilBueno]

Again, some people actually want to play the game, rather than waste their time idlng around on it because there is literally nothing else for them to do on it whilst they hatch those eggs. I think they should have the option of playing the game to hatch the eggs, rather than messing about with it one-handed to walk in circles or whatever. That isn't playing. The whole point of a game is to play it. As it is right now our time is being wasted with egg hatching; it's efficient, but it's not particularly interactive and extremely tedious...and who is to say it'll be faster or slower to have a minigame to do the process anyway? Options are never a waste of time, and there is nothing to say Game Freak can't or shouldn't do both things and speed up existing processes whilst adding in new options. Why do the two things have to be mutually exclusive?

To me, this is the main issue. I'm one of those who hasn't been able to get into competitive battling (though it's more lack of time to do the research and planning than anything else), but I was excited when I heard about ORAS's hatching route near the Daycare. Breeding for Dex completion, I didn't mind it. Breeding for specific Pokemon, it was just...not fun. I wasn't playing the game, I was just running in circles.

 

[Hikamaru]

Also, since Sugimori is an artist, I take his remarks to mean that he'll want them to tone down the designs.

Tone down the designs? I remember 5th and 6th Gen were hated for "overdesigned" Pokemon so maybe 7th Gen may end up getting good designs again.