Action commands in Pokémon?

First post! Hurray! (Technically second but whatever.)

The first Pokémon game i tried out was Ruby on an emulator. And because i played a lot of Mario RPGs, I thought you could do extra damage or make multi hit attacks last longer if you pressed the button at the right time.
Too bad Pokémon doesn't have Action commands/timed button presses, but wouldn't it be great if it did? That'd make things a lot more interesting if you ask me.

I know, it might interfere with the battle mechanics Pokémon has now. But if i was in the director's chair, i'd find out a way to make it still work decently somehow.

So things similar to quicktime events, right? I have that in other games I play and don't think I'd mind it in Pokémon! But I feel like it may make grinding a bit tedious/take longer if you actually have to pay more attention sometimes...though I suppose if you're grinding you're probably comfortable enough with the base damage you can do even if you ignored those actions.

I can see something like, "Breloom is super pumped up! Tap the buttons quickly before time runs out and Mach Punch will have 10% more power!" Maybe it can work for accuracy too?

That is one way to put it as i suppose you never actually played a Mario RPG. But im happy someone here agrees with me. 😄

I suppose it could be a fun way to deal with damage variation, substituting the current RNG system.

I very much disagree, I don't like things when needs to do timing. Let alone in different nitnedo game and left pokemon kinda have its own system than trying to copy M&L system.

Not everyone have internal time system in their body and some aren't good at it

I hated that mechanic in Paper Mario, so I would hate it in Pokémon. I think the current system works well, even though it's not used up that well by GF.

that would kinda ruin the whole competitive part tho. not like the competitive part is perfect, because many things are still determined by pure luck, but this kind of mechanics would make it even worse imo

_confused_piplup_ said:

that would kinda ruin the whole competitive part tho. not like the competitive part is perfect, because many things are still determined by pure luck, but this kind of mechanics would make it even worse imo

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Ehhh, I don't know. I mean, while I don't think every aspect should be replaced by action commands, I do think that replacing some of the smaller ones (say, damage variation) could have interesting ramifications for competitive.

It'd make things more consistent depending on your (and the other player's) skill, instead of luck, which is generally welcomed in competitive circles. Assuming of course we have decent netcode which ... is a whole other can of worms.

And of course there's always the option of making it a playthrough only mechanic, and shutting that down over wireless battles. We have precedent of that happening before with Affection / Friendship.

I do admit that the battles could be made more interesting. These one off gimmicks that get introduced in a generation only to get axed when the new one comes around don't really move the formula forward. I don't know if adding action commands/quick time events really do a good job. For one I'm really bad at them and for another: they remove more immersion that they try to add because you're busy waiting for a flashing button to show up and then focus on destroying your controller instead of taking in what's on the screen.

Of course, you could argue that there isn't anything to watch, anyway. Adding these types of mechanics wouldn't technically rip you out of your immersion if it doesn't exist in the first place. Maybe if they ever allowed Pokemon to move in battle that'd change (kind of like in DQ11).

Haha, you had almost the same idea as me! Ever since first playing Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga about 10 years ago, I had wanted a Pokémon spinoff with a battle system like that. My go-to fantasy there was imagining Minun and Plusle in the roles of Mario and Luigi.