Version Exclusives

[Evening]

What are your thoughts on this? Would you prefer the tradition to be continued in future installments?

Let's hear it.

 

[MechaGladiator]

Well, I would have to say no on that. I'd rather have a single game includes all the Pokémon native to the region without having to trade between versions to get certain ones. The only reason the different versions appealed to me was because of the respective legendary and some of the exclusives in the copy. But, now with the advances made in trading for Pokémon on both local and global levels, I just feel there's no need for it anymore. Unless there's more games where the legendary Pokémon play a central part in plot differences like they did for R/S and OR/AS. Otherwise, if they're just going to be like X/Y where the only real difference plot wise was whether Xernas or Yvetal were being used to power a machine of mass destruction, they should make one game.

 

[DraconianWing]

Back then version exclusives were there to encourage trading and finding people irl to connect with. However, I don't think they're really needed anymore with the exception of legendaries, since trading will always be active with competitive battling anyway. Rare Pokemon are now more accessible than ever thanks to where Wi-Fi connectivity has made it with the games. Like Mech said, it would be kind of redundant now to make two separate versions unless the legendary is heavily connected to the story.

 

[Aquacorde]

I'm gonna agree that version exclusives have kind of done their time. Honestly I even think separate versions should be done away with when there's not a significant difference between storylines. Like, it's pretty much universally accepted that the best game is always the third one in a region, which combines the best aspects of previous versions. So I feel like... two games, with different stories in the same region or one game only? Because without any version exlusives, what's the point? Besides money, obviously.

 

[KetsuekiR]

Of course not! I hate having to pick between games because of the Pokemon you can catch >~< Sometimes the choice is easy but most of the time, it's so, so difficult. Sure it encourages trading and differentiates the games but I believe the differences in version mascots are enough! I mean, if you look at OR/AS, the stories are different and it's awesome and that's all because of the simple difference in the mascot.

 

[Drayton]

Way back during Gen1 till Gen3, where everything need link cable just to get version exclusives mons can be bit harder since there's no such thing as GTS on that era and finding people on different version is bit hard and a friend who owned link cable and the console to do version elusive trade. Gen4 might be difficult of such needing friend code and yet GTS is open to anyone who looking for version exclusives also gen5 share the problem. Up till XY and ORAS, Friend code is no longer needed and GTS is up so people can find a trusty partner who looking for version mons to trade/offer.

I'm against version exclusive because the need of trading version exclusive can be a painful process, which you willing to sacrifice some good mons to trade and in-game events that will trigger if a player have both version mons on their party just to get the last piece of the puzzle; Like I only get Reshiram on OR and I want to get kyurem that means I need to find someone who have AS with Zekrom. It's like you need buy both games just to trigger the third trio to appear or just use poketransporter to moves your BW/BW2 mascots to the Pokebank and thus version exclusive is no longer necessary

 

[Laguna]

It's not that much of a problem with the GTS since you can just catch a version exclusive and ask for its counterpart. You'll get what you want pretty quickly. The only issue is in OR/AS where you have to have both pokémon in a duo for the third one (Kyurem for example) and you can only catch one in a given game but as long as you have a friend with the other version that's not really a problem.

 

[Hikamaru]

^ A reminder that the other legendary doesn't have to specifically be from either OR/AS, but imports from previous games are acceptable as well.

Anyways, version exclusives are my usual deciding factor into what Pokemon game I'd consider as my main version. It usually comes down to which game has the exclusives I like better, but if you're more of a collector there's always trade sections here to help you even if you don't have the other version.

 

[Otamajakushi]

Yes, I think future games should have version exclusives. It's part of the core game and should never change. The original intention for version exclusives was so that one person buys one game, and the other buys the other. At that point, the two friends play and trade with each other.

With GTS, Bank, and casual trading, it gets even easier. You can buy a single game these days and with a little effort, can easily build a living dex regardless of exclusives. Removing version exclusives just gives players another reason not to interact with one another, and that's counterproductive.

 

[AkameTheBulbasaur]

Back then it really made sense to have version exclusives when the series was getting off the ground. It gave people a reason to either A. Find more people who bought the second version or B. buy the other version and another GameBoy and trade with yourself and give Nintendo more money. It was a pretty clever way to promote a feature that was very new to RPGs and is still pretty unique to Pokemon.

I can see why they'd still want to have version exclusives, but from the player's (aka my own) standpoint I just find it annoying. That's part of the reason why I got into hacking because I just wanted a game where I could get all the Pokemon by myself. Especially with the older games where people don't actively play anymore.