Lost Interest

Here's something I've wanted to ask for a little while now but have been unable to find the right words to do so.

First, a little background. I've struggled a lot with this franchise since my copy of X corrupted in 2014 (I think it ws 2014? Might even have been 2013) and I lost literally everything I'd hoarded from Gen III onwards. Starting afresh with my little collection is not as easy or as fun as it ought to be. It seems as though the newer games have given me very little reason to play them with their minimalistic and highly intrusive "plot" and characters, and the older games have lost their luster somewhat and feel rather dated by comparison due to the updated mechanics of the newer ones. It's interesting how the little things they do to make the games run smoother and more conveniently add up.

I've said it a few times before in other threads, and I know nobody cares, but the point of it is this: somewhere along the way, I have completely lost interest in the main series of Pokemon games. This is something that annoys me, because the gameplay is still fundamentally the same (and I will overlook far worse than what Sun gave me for good gameplay) and with all the little improvements they've made it should be just as fun as ever. But it isn't. I'd like to get back into the franchise, but I'm not entirely sure if that's possible, as it seems that the focus is now on NPCs I cannot stand and the same basic story I saw in the third generation games and didn't much care for then either, just with different mascot Legendaries each time. As a player I feel alienated by the games and I'm not sure how to work around that.

But enough about me.

So, this is my question: what advice would you give to a Pokemon fan who has lost interest in the games and wants to get back into them? Have you ever lost interest this way before? If so, how did you get back into the games...or are you still struggling with the franchise now as well? Based on your own experiences, if you had to start afresh - imagine you lose all your save files and stored Pokemon Bank data if you have any - how would you go about that? How do you have fun with Pokemon games these days, and stay invested?

...I realise that is several questions, and I'm sorry if this is an inappropriate topic or place for it, but I'd be curious to hear people's thoughts. I know I'm not the only person to suffer from this fatigue with the games at least, and I wonder what advice others would give.

This hasn't really happened to me before with Pokemon, but I guess you could try taking a break from it? Sometimes that works. And if you still can't get into it after you come back, then maybe you've just moved on. Sometimes people genuinely lose interest in something because what they want has changed, or what they were interested in changed, or both.

I don't transfer over Pokemon because I don't have the ability to. I used to have the ability in Gen 4 when you could put your GBA games into the bottom part of the DS and transfer them through Pal Park, but over the gens transferring Pokemon has gotten more complicated, and now you need a paid online service to do it. I don't know how to pay for things online. I only know how to give people money in person. And to me it's not really worth it to pay to transfer Pokemon over. It's something that shouldn't cost money to begin with. That said if I were doing it and I lost everything since Gen 3, I'd probably throw a tantrum that'd end with a couple hundred planets destroyed.

I basically find myself in the opposite situation as you, where I acknowledge that Pokemon has for the most part had the same basic formula since the beginning, but I still enjoy it. I'd gladly accept change (as long as I liked the change), but I'm also okay with it staying the same.

All I can say is its ok for interests to come and go. I have gone years between picking up a Pokemon game.

The same thing happened to me, except in my case it was Black 2 Version that got corrupted. It definitely caused me to drift away from the franchise and the fandom for awhile. I was already disappointed with the changes to the WiFi battling system in the transition from 4th to 5th Gen, and the loss of all my older Pokémon(most notably an Articuno that I managed to catch with a Poké Ball back in FireRed, and also the event Genesect that I had only got a few weeks earlier) was the straw that broke the camel's back.

As for my advice, I would suggest focusing on the aspects of Pokémon that you do enjoy, while mentally discarding the rest. I love breeding and training Pokémon for example, but looking for perfect IV's is much too tedious for my liking(even since it became easier to do), so I don't bother with it. I also only attempt Pokémon Amie when I want to evolve my Eevee into Sylveon.

Another thing I could suggest if you're more interested in battling is to add challenges to the game, such as keeping a monotype, unevolved, and/or my personal favourite, a severely underleveled team.

And last but not least is embracing the community. Pokémon can be a lot more fun if you have people to chat, trade, and/or battle with. Battling real people definitely makes up for those lackluster NPC's who wouldn't know proper strategy if it KO'd their entire team with a Magikarp. xD

To be honest, I can't give you any advice that I can guarantee would work, but I too lost interest in the series for a number of reasons after I finished White for the first time. I eventually found my way back into the games a few years later with X and Y, where for some reason, my interest had rekindled. I can only really put it down to having not played Pokemon for a few years, and then having a completely new adventure in Kalos, what I'm trying to say is, sometimes you have to stop doing something to find interest in it again.

I imagine myself in your position and I understand why you feel this way. I would probably feel like that too.
So I asked myself: what would I do in this situation? Maybe this won't help you, but won't lose anything to try!

1. trying hacks and maybe fakemon. If you want some new stories and originality, I feel like this is the right place. I am not a player of hacks usually, but I think in this situation I would try them.
2. Showdown. For me it's just not the same and I prefer to breed my own pokemon and be proud when I use them. But if I lost them all... I will go to Showdown probably since it's easier and I would be discouraged by the task I have to do all over again.
3. I would play emulators of old games like gen 1 and 2. I love those games and the option to go quicker in the emulator.
4. Maybe watch the anime or read the manga, if you don't already do this?

Those are the options I would probably do in your situation. Maybe they can help you? I try to place myself in your place and it's a situation I don't want to live. A friend of mine kinda lived it since he lost his cartridge. He kinda lost interest I think.... He still tried Moon (and hated it). He's still interested by Pokénews, Iam sure if there's a new generation he will be curious about the Pokemon and stuff. So maybe you can take a break but keep your eyes open?


This is a long post for Mawa...

I'd suggest taking a break from the franchise as a whole. Forcing yourself to regain interest will just result in burning out - it'll be even more difficult for you to return. Try branching out to other franchises. There are some fantastic games out there that you could take a look at. Also, consider checking out some fangames or romhacks if you still want to play a Pokémon game.

I've lost interest lots of times in the past. My interest was usually rekindled after playing through one of the older gens or another game series, though at the moment I'd say it's starting to wear out. And honestly, I'd ultimately give up if all of my save files were deleted. My oldest (dating back to gen 3) and rarest Pokémon (Liberty Garden Victini, Zorua Celebi, etc) are currently on White and X. Their loss would mean several hundred hours worth of effort down the drain.

It is like anyhting else in life interestes come and go. Who knows something may happen to catch your interest and bring you back one day!

Try a Pokemon challenge to make the game more interesting! It's also more fun to do it with a friend from personal experience. Pokemon challenges are great because they allow you to try new playstyles and it allows you to keep changing playthroughs up so that it doesn't feel stale. It has also allowed me to use all kinds of different Pokemon rather than always planning what Pokemon I'm going to use or sticking to a few favourites, which has definitely made the games more interesting. It doesn't work for everyone but it helped rekindle my interest at the least.