6th Gen Masuda on why the Battle Frontier didn't return

You do bring up a good point, the greater accessibility of the online battling community can take the place of the Battle Frontier, in a way. Back in the Emerald days, the Frontier was our primary medium for competitive battling. So I'd suppose that's another factor that made adding the Frontier a low priority.

But at the same time, there were a lot of really fun formats in the Battle Frontier, like the Pyramid, the Palace, and the Factory, none of which we've yet seen in any of the modern generations. We do of course get to put all our EV training to use through Wi-Fi battling, thankfully. But still, the unique challenges the Frontier gave us would have been nice~

• The online function brings up more competitive battling than battling a CPU/AI all the time because there's battle mansion on ORAS already and the battle institute while those are challenging, but it's very bland for pro competitive players to battle because there's no real strategy while facing computer opponents than today's battling. Battling online can be mix into (competitive and casual) and your facing an actual opponent which isn't AI or computer. It was fun feature on past gens. Hey! Some people do it for fun and other do competitive and BF was directly for Pro/Elite Competitive players and it's not faintly for casual players

• even I disagree on Masuada, but he saying he wants to create balance game which gives them more fun also very small playerbase do enjoy and support it, but as of now people find it not much of a challenge with AI or computer opponent. They want actually battling a real human opponent

I could rant for days on this topic, but I'm going to keep it short: shucks. I mean, I get it, but given how the games have included so much content in order to bring back older fans, they use the opposite train to remove content. I'm thinking someone got fired or something happened behind the scenes in which they can't disclose the information, so they coat it over with this. I can see that happening. But anyway, as an active Battle Facility user, I found the AI a great change of pace. *Sigh* Here's hoping it's something to include in the Gen 4 remakes down the road, if we're to get them.

I'd have to disagree with his reasoning. The battle factory is one of the most wanted things for ORAS, which means that obviously a large portion of fans like and appreciate this feature. The BF offered many modes and challenges that made battling much more interesting, such as the Battle Factory or Battle Arcade. It really makes the monotonous battling a lot more fun.

The Battle Tower/Masion has always been hard as Golems. I only got to 50 wins in Platinum, even with competitive Mon. The facilities might have been nice, but there is one thing to consider...

The online play is much better now than in the past, making it easier to have challenging battles with friends across the globe. Fair trade, I suppose.

It seems ironic that they left out the Battle Frontier for "difficulty" reasons at a time that they're catering the games more and more towards competitive battling at the exclusion of everything else. XY literally have no postgame beyond competitive multiplayer, and it's painfully obvious that they were designed as a battle simulator with a story tacked on, rather than the other way around.

You'd think that GF would want to bring back the Battle Frontier for the sake of competitive players, but maybe they were afraid that it would overshadow multiplayer. Maybe, the Battle Frontier has simply become obsolete in the wi-fi era, who knows?

As for me, I have zero interest in battle facilities and would love to see more NON-competitive postgame content. :P

Looking at Betty's post, I think she's onto something here. The improved EV training and other stuff catering to competitive play was likely done with multiplayer competitive battles in mind and including a highly-loved facility like the Battle Frontier (which is basically competitive with AI opponents) could have overshadowed the multiplayer so I guess likely intentionally decided not to include it so that more people would be tempted into the multiplayer battles.

Hikamaru said:

Looking at Betty's post, I think she's onto something here. The improved EV training and other stuff catering to competitive play was likely done with multiplayer competitive battles in mind and including a highly-loved facility like the Battle Frontier (which is basically competitive with AI opponents) could have overshadowed the multiplayer so I guess likely intentionally decided not to include it so that more people would be tempted into the multiplayer battles.

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Think about it, when did the Battle Frontier first come around? The GBA era. Aka, the era of no wi-fi and link cables. The Battle Frontier was a great way for lonely people with an interest in "serious" battling to exercise their competitive skills (basically serving the same purpose for Gen 3 that Stadium served for Gens 1 and 2).

By Gen 4, wi-fi became a thing and you now no longer needed link cables and friends to challenge other people, so the Battle Frontier started to become overshadowed by multiplayer. By Gen 5, GF started catering more and more exclusively to the ever-growing competitive fanbase, and the Battle Frontier was history. With Gen 6, multiplayer has literally become a central part of GF's marketing strategy, and it shows.

Unfortunately, the Battle Frontier is probably gone for good. If GF didn't bring it back in the remakes of the Generation it first appeared in, then the odds of it ever returning are pretty slim. As a casual player, it doesn't impact me much, but I know a lot of other people are disappointed. :(

I haven't finished playing AS yet and I'm enjoying it so far, but I still feel like when I'm done, I'll miss the Battle Frontier :(. A lot of my post-game in Pokemon Emerald was attempting to complete the Pokedex, and competing poorly at the Battle Frontier. I really enjoyed the different settings of the arenas, my favourites were the Battle Factory, Battle Pike and the Battle Dome tournament <3. It'll be a shame that I can't play them again in the new generation, especially now that EV training is easy enough so that I'd have a decent chance at winning them. At times it would get frustrating but I would always return for the challenge and the fun that the different arenas brought with them.

But I've been enjoying the game so far and I think I'll continue to do so, and I still don't know what's in the postgame so maybe the Delta Episode and everything will make up for it! :)

I personally ignore the battle maison and battle institute in other games, and head to the battle fronteir for a couple hours :p

Personally, I always feel as though, even though changes must be made (otherwise, why bother remaking the game? Just stick with the original!), a key element of remakes of any kind is that they must retain the features of the originals. I don't want to have to go back and play the originals now that their gameplay is outdated; if I were to go back, it would be so that I may get a nostalgic glimpse at how the original games were. Not to play aspects that were cut from the remake.

So naturally, I do not agree with Masuda at all in his reasoning. At least the Battle Frontier added mechanics that were unique to its facilities; the Battle Maison is just the same Single-Double-Triple-Rotation formula we've been doing throughout the entire main story, but with AI that actually cheats. In that case, I would much rather face against an actual human opponent. Why waste my time with the Maison at all? And yet, I do not feel that the "improved online" is a worthwhile "substitute." Those battles are still the standard Single-Double-Triple-Rotation formula, lacking the genuine variety provided by the Frontier's facilities. The rumors going around that the Battle Spot Doubles rules will not be patched to allow for VGC 2016 online practice definitely doesn't help, either.

Not to mention, during gen 4, I did not IV breed or EV train, yet I was still able to get most certificates from the Sinnoh Frontier, so it definitely does not need to be something that is "hardcore-exclusive." In addition, EV training in and of itself is made extremely "casual-friendly" starting in gen 6, where, even if you don't do horde battles, the Super Training feature is built-in to your touch screen, ready to be accessed at any time. I'm sure with a bit of AI tweaking, the Battle Frontier could be made into something that is accessible to both "competitive" and "casual" audiences alike.

And if they truly feel as though they need to cater to the "casual" audience more, why not include more casual-oriented post-game content to fill the void of omitting the Battle Frontier, at the very least? I deeply apologize, but I cannot lie: no matter how I look at it, I think the omission of the Battle Frontier is just a poor choice, flat-out, and I feel as though the post-game and overall "longevity appeal" of the games suffered for it.