Top 10 features that you want in Gen 8

Though SM and USUM were improvements, they could use a little polishing up to be even better. What are your opinions on the best possible improvements?
My list-
1. Improved battle dynamics (turn by turn should remain, but should be more interesting)
2. A more complex storyline and more mature characters (A more serious storyline like Platinum would be nice, and also characters who matter more in the game. Lillie doesn't count because I hate her, and I would like characters like Cyrus)
3. Sidequests (They are there in every single freaking game except Pokemon. It would be nice to take a breather from the story or face a challenge that is fun and also nets reards that help you on your journey. I would really like a reward that is hidden behind a colossal challenge that would take several attempts to overcome. What you would receive would be something like a 3x lucky egg, or an experience share that would help you a lot, but isn't something you need to progress).
4. Hard mode and easy mode (Features that are again, in other games, but were non-existent in most. It would be nice to have an option to make the games harder, or enjoy an easy mode).
5. Multiple save files
6. Quick and easily accessible internet access (Something like the PSS, but something that will stay on during sleep mode. I hate the FP, and I'm sure more than 90% of you were annoyed, if not furious about the horrible change).
7. Soulsilver and Heartgold's pokemon follow feature
8. Losing a battle actually matters (Maybe it should be a feature that appears only in hard mode -which is another one of my wishes [see #4]- . It should be something like if you lose a battle, the pokemon lose the experience they should have gained if they won, etc. )
9. Innovative side features (Like allowing you to check Iv's upon cature or hatch, in game cash that can be used to buy instant hatching mechanisms, etc. Also, make NPC's give less money. I am literally a millionaire in Sun, having 18 million poke dollars.)
10. Making legendaries much, much stronger, but also harder to obtain. Box legendaries often have fantastical lore behind them, but often faint after one hit. For example, by Yveltal died to Lysandre's pokemon so easily.

(I didn't include this in the list, but pls, pls, pls make the games harder, because normal mode is becoming easy, and hard mode isn;t normal mode, but insanely hard. Like BW2. That was really annoying. Normal mode should be easy mode, mildy difficult mode should be normal mode, and insanely stupid hard mode should be hard mode)

All of the aforementioned being my, and my opinions only. But I would be very glad if anyone agreed, or offered friendly or constructive criticism. Even if u r a little POS (jk jk), I still wont care because I respect ur opinion :)

I don't think #5 will ever be a thing. That's just not how GF and Pokemon operate. They need as many reasons as possible to sell the same game 3+ times. They're not giving up one of them.

Enpatsu Shakugan said:

I don't think #5 will ever be a thing. That's just not how GF and Pokemon operate. They need as many reasons as possible to sell the same game 3+ times. They're not giving up one of them.

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You're probably right, but a guy's gotta hope, right? It may still be a possibility, but yeah, ur arguement is sound as heck. They'll try milking the customers dry, the scammers :laugh-squinted:

Top 10 features? Easy peasy:

1.- Following Pokémon to be brought back
2.- Following Pokémon to be brought back
3.- Following Pokémon to be brought back
4.- Following Pokémon to be brought back
5.- Following Pokémon to be brought back
6.- Following Pokémon to be brought back
6.- Following Pokémon to be brought back
8.- Following Pokémon to be brought back
9.- Following Pokémon to be brought back
10.- Less or no handholding

...Okay, no, yeah, only somewhat kidding. Let's try to be a bit more specific.

1.- Grid-based combat like in Final Fantasy Tactics, where combatants have an X,Y position in the map and an altitude, or for a smaller grid that still works Golden Sun's or Battle of Giants' flat minimalistic "front+back row" grids.

2.- Evolving targetting options: for beam or projectile attacks you should be able to choose any target and have effects going on during that turn effect the targetting of the move, for example aiming a beam attack at a far away Pokémon could result in a closer opponent's Protect blocking or bouncing the shot.

3.- Discard HMs and instead offer a multitude of moves to interact with the environment in the style of eg.: Golden Sun. Growth to raise vines and plants from the ground to climb up, Ember or Incinerate to light up torches, Vine Whip to cross chasms, Icy Wind or Ice Beam to freeze shallow water surfaces to walk across, etc.

4.- Variety of secondary events like Pokéathlon, Pokéringer, etc.

5.- Legendaries should be fought in the style of Final Fantasy superbosses, in particular the Important Ones like the Trio masters or the Lake / Creation trios - half or your entire team versus one, they should have multiple HP bars, adapting movelists, scripted special moves, ability to ignore damage protections and ability to perform multiple attacks or select multiple targets a turn and of course the stats improved to make the battles last and be memorable.

6.- Rivals should actually be useful for something. And if possible they should adapt to your changes in team and strategy as the story goes on. Where possible your Rival should always be better than you up until near the end, that's what they're there for.

7.- Sidequest-oriented gameplay. There should be a minimalistic main objective such as "defeat the evil team" and everything besides that, including eg.: collecting the Gym Badges, should be optional or at least not required; instead, there should be recurring minor sidequests and events that your Pokémon can be signed into at almost any time and that provide rewards in the form of unlocking new Pokémon or providing items, for example a sidequest could involve sending your Quilava into a Fire-type colony to solve an issue (such as combating a predator Boss for example?) and the reward for that could be an evolutionary stone or a TM.

8.- A feature similar to FRLG's journal where players can track their progress, choose their current adventure or sidequest goals, and if possible recount the progress and rewards from previous endeavours.

9.- Larger-scale overworld. Even the simplest town should have in the order of 10-15 houses and spawn across three or four screens, cities should measure to at least 30 buildings and facilities various, and routes between towns should take several tens of screens to cross and feature a number of landmarks.

10.- Difficulty options, accesibility options (such as the ability to play with only one hand, or a speech-only mode) and team management options such as the ability to re-teach a Pokémon any of their natural moves at any point in time with no or lesser cost than requiring a special item.

Palamon said:

Game freak said multiple save files are never happening.

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I didn't even know that was actually said, but yep, see. That's less of a way to market the same game multiple times.
Pretty inexcusable feature of any game past 1989.

You want to play again but keep your progress? Gotta buy it again. It's stuff like that that makes me really dislike GF as a company.

They're really greedy but I guess that was inevitable ever since the first games came out and was a big hit. And they still get away with the crap they pull with because it's Pokemon.

Gen 8 better be good. I know GF couldn't care less about story but please make a decent plot and characters that aren't bland.

Have skippable tutorials and cutscenes, don't drag out the beginning longer than neccessary. SM was a chore with that essentially giant island tutorial sequence

Make breeding less tedious. Some obsessed fans may disagree but I'm not gonna spend hours and hours breeding for some dumb perfect IV, perfect nature, right egg moves pokemon. Not to mention the time finding the right pokemon to breed.

Make the actual pokemon appear in the overworld and you have to go look for them in their habitat. This would eliminate the annoying rng finding the right wild pokemon. It's the Switch so step up your game GF.

Palamon said:

Game freak said multiple save files are never happening.

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It is sad that even with the era where Pokemon goes to Switch, save files as a single entity will still be a thing. It's like Game Freak really wants people to buy more copies so that Pokemon can print money.

I feel that I'm growing a disdain towards them in the same vein as other greedy anti-consumer companies like Disney, Universal, Mattel and EA have when it comes to their franchises, shoving stuff solely for cash grabs. That's pretty much what I view the Let's Go duo as, just a stupid excuse of a nostalgia-pandering cash grab.

If I had a top 10 request list it'd be the following:

1) Go back to the old days of little or no tutorials. If someone is completely new to the Franchise, have a Tutorial area in your starting town where a player is plopped into various scenarios where they get to learn the various aspects of the game. That way if you're not new to the game, you can skip all the tutorial/handholding crap.

2) Wild Pokemon encounters aren't so random. Ironically, if there is one thing LGP/LGE have done is implement something like this. Nothing worse than trying to find a particular Pokemon but having to fight numerous Zubats or other Pokemon you already have or don't want. Also makes training(which I still want mind you), a whole lot easier as you can pick and choose what Pokemon to fight.

3) Customizing Pokeballs. It's an aesthetic thing I know but it's be nice to be able to alter or change what type of Pokeball our Pokemon reside in. Furthermore, perhaps we could personalize them in such a way to make them unique or have our Pokemon enter battle similar to Pokemon Coordinators.

4) Make Pokemon Contests/Showcases actually meaningful to do. You go to the trouble of making them a big deal in the Anime but with respect to the games, you can all but avoid them. Perhaps have them yield unique items or buffs such as 50% more Experience for a limited time(which with the built in clock on the Switch isn't that hard to implement).

5) Make catching Pokemon similar to LGP/LGE method. Being that Nintendo has had motion technology for awhile now, I'm surprised Pokemon hasn't adopted the technology to catch Pokemon until now. Do I like the Pokemon GO method of simply lobbing Pokeballs? Eh no I don't as I'd prefer we battle and weaken them first(makes catching Pokemon a bit more strategic).

6) Remove XP Share. The old days of grinding Pokemon were tough but fair as I see it. If your Pokemon fought and was victorious, it grew stronger. The introduction of XP share made it to where an entire team gained XP simply by being present but not necessarily battling. That drastically reduces the grind and consequently difficulty of raising Pokemon.

7) Bad-Ass rival's. Trace and recent "rivals" don't cut it. Furthermore... why not a Female rival regardless of whether we are Male or Female protagonist?

8) Elite Four and Champions that actually test us. Will admit that SM didn't do a bad job in this department but they weren't the best either.

9) Free Online services. Current plan for the Switch is not surprising but clearly a cash grab that will only cause people to stop using the platform. There are other ways of subsidizing the online service than to charge people for it. We're already plopping down $300 for the system, $60 per game and more for peripherals. What more do they need?

10) Experimentation with Real Time Battling. Basically taking the traditional turn based battling mechanism and turning it on its head by introducing a RTS format where you issue commands on the fly to your Pokemon. Something to consider to give that Anime Type feel where Fire Types can indeed be Super Effective to Water(sorry Brock).

strangerhypno said:

Make the actual pokemon appear in the overworld and you have to go look for them in their habitat. This would eliminate the annoying rng finding the right wild pokemon. It's the Switch so step up your game GF.

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Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee are having this feature.. So, it's honestly possible to happen in Gen 8, too.

1. Return of Mega Evolution
There are many Pokémon that could do with a significant buff, especially given the awkward stat distribution of numerous Alolan Pokémon.

I know it's a divisive mechanic, but it really helped breathe new life into many Pokémon. Mega Latios got even better this time around, surprisingly enough.

2. More stat changes
Generation VII shows that it's totally possible to buff the stat distribution of numerous old Pokémon.

This would be ideal for many Alolan Pokémon that isn't a Starter, Legendary, Mythical, or Ultra Beast.

3. New movepool
Definitely a given, but seriously, Kyurem needs a better physical movepool.

Move Tutors could do with more variety, since some moves deserve better distribution, like Slack Off, First Impression, Icicle Crash, and Flare Blitz.

4. Walking Pokémon
A very neat feature that will thankfully be put to great use in LGPE.

This would also have a lot of potential on how you can interact with your Pokémon outside Refresh or Amie.

5. A motivating rival
Blue and Silver, as always, are my examples of a jerky rival that motivates the player into training their Pokémon to be the very best to put them in their place.

6. The option to skip tutorials
If Mario & Luigi can do it, why not Pokémon?

Nobody likes to sit through hours of tutorials. Many of us know how to interact and throw balls at rodents. We've done this since day one!

7. Regional Variants
Mainly because Kanto should not hog up all the glorious potential to either improve or expand upon many Pokémon that could adapt to new environments in order to cover even more myths and real-life creatures.

8. New Evolutions
While the Eviolite might pose a problem, it would not rule out alternative evolutions, as shown with Sylveon.

I would love to see an alternative evolution to Remoraid to become this swift barracuda that can be an effective special sweeper.

9. DexNav
It's an immersive feature that would be welcomed back at any time.

It would be an easier way to obtain Pokémon with Hidden Abilities and/or some good IVs.

10. Various Environmental Battles
X & Y had Sky Battles, while ORAS had Dive Battles.

I'm interested to see what can be accomplished when Gen VIII comes around.

Since I didn't play gen 7, was the ability to Mega Evolve really cut?

Does that mean the most up to date version for it is OR/AS?

Mega Evolutions were possible in Gen 7 °~°

There are two things I'd like to see in Gen 8: bicycles and owning a villa (see Pokémon Platinum).

Ride Pokémon. Well, they were a huge improvement in gameplay but GF dumped bicycles and I really really miss them! Especially when you could decide between different bicycles!

And then there's the villa. I know that it was an expensive thing in DPPT... and this is what I missed in Gen 7! Yes, there were those very expensive dresses but I've only bought one (because I was content with it) and I had enough money left to buy non-existent furniture for a non-existent villa! See, we all need a villa! ^-^

Enpatsu Shakugan said:

Since I didn't play gen 7, was the ability to Mega Evolve really cut?

Does that mean the most up to date version for it is OR/AS?

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Mega Evolution was still included in SM/USUM, but just locked to the postgame.

Hikamaru said:

Mega Evolution was still included in SM/USUM, but just locked to the postgame.

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I was worried they'd only be a gen 6 thing. Thought I'd have to keep my Pokemon on Y rather than the Switch.

Don't care about new ones stopping, so long as the old ones remain available.

Enpatsu Shakugan said:

I was worried they'd only be a gen 6 thing. Thought I'd have to keep my Pokemon on Y rather than the Switch.

Don't care about new ones stopping, so long as the old ones remain available.

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The problem is, 7th Gen didn't introduce any new Megas. My guess is because of the focus on Z-Moves, but I feel that mechanic had sloppy execution.

Then again, I heard GF don't like suffering artist's block when it comes to designing a Mega. It was pretty much confirmed as the reason why Mega Flygon never became a thing.

Hikamaru said:

The problem is, 7th Gen didn't introduce any new Megas. My guess is because of the focus on Z-Moves, but I feel that mechanic had sloppy execution.

Then again, I heard GF don't like suffering artist's block when it comes to designing a Mega. It was pretty much confirmed as the reason why Mega Flygon never became a thing.

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It's not a bad thing stopping. If they do too many Megas (which I already feel they did, Mega Garchomp should not have been a thing), then every Pokemon will have to get one, otherwise the metagame is thrown off balance.

Follow me feature, please. Also like. Just. at the very least, an option to skip tutorials and the hand holding. I know Pokemon is aimed at a younger audience but surely they know it has a vast fanbase over the age of 10 that doesn't enjoy that shit. At the very least, give an option to skip it. Also, choosing a difficulty level.

...And alolan dugtrio.

I just hope the story at the beginning is not as slow as it was in Sund and Moon.

Enpatsu Shakugan said:

It's not a bad thing stopping. If they do too many Megas (which I already feel they did, Mega Garchomp should not have been a thing), then every Pokemon will have to get one, otherwise the metagame is thrown off balance.

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I'd be fine with more mega evolutions as long as it's to weak and overlooked pokemon like Dunsparce and Corsola.

I also wish for free online services but they will probably charge us at every chance they get with their cash grabbing hands, no doubt.