Current state of pokemon

[Squirtkipfan01]

Recent events have started to make me kinda cynical to pokemon company.

The recent things about them wanting to do 2 gens a year and the BAFFLING stupid comment that they dont know how to maintain quality with their current schedule(obvious awnsers)

It just has me asking when is it going to change? WILL it ever change? And im not sure it is with there current model of continuing to make for the casuals. The ones who are fine just starting over in a new region with a new set of 6. And thats perfectly a fine way to play, but what happens when the quality becomes so bad that even the CASUALS start complaining? Will that be enough to wake up game freak to start doing quality control and actually giving proper amounts of dev time? Will we get to a point where they just say "forget it, the merch and anime will be enough". They dont even break up the monotony of it with spinoffs anymore. That magical era of the DS where they were trying so much stuff, gone. Only recent spinoffs being UNITE, mystery dungeon remake, and new SNAP.

It just seems like gamfreak have become content with mediocrity because they make bank regardless. Which is a real shame because i and many others want better for the world of pokemon. Heck, we have SEEN that quality before and even sparks of it now with just how fresh legends was! But even then it clearly lacks polish, when it couldve been a real AAA game. Instead it had its development shared with the gen 4 remakes and likely gen 9. A absolute shame

Now i sit fearing for current gamefreak making gen 5 remakes. At the end of the day though i really just try to enjoy the good of the modern games, even if i realize that they could(and should) be better

This is mostly rambling but what do you think of current pokemon?

 

[CoolKid575]

I agree with you, the quality of the games have clearly gone downhill; likely because they didn't properly adjust their staffing/schedule to cope with Switch development as opposed to DS/3DS development. It really sucks too because games like Legends and SV COULD have been great, but were brought down by an obviously rushed development cycle. I do believe it'll eventually get better though; GF can only tap into nostalgia so many times before people get sick of subpar quality. When GF's bottom line starts taking a hit and sales decline; that's when they'll pull it together.

 

[Devalue]

Forgot Sleep, Smile, and another Detective Pikachu on the list of recent spinoffs. Delved into mobile applications a lot in recent years (Cafe Remix, Magikarp Jump, Go, Masters EX, Rumble Rush, Quest...)

Could be better, certainly. Introduced new problems with new environments (stutters in certain places, short draw distance, 3 frame people, crashes for some people) and iffy things (clothing, no clear recommended route, removing gameplay options, poor Terastallizing AI) with Scarlet/Violet. Straight-up removed the usual Battle Facility without any replacement. Oh, and the single random seed for multiplayer battles. Has not really experienced any game ruining issues yet, though*. Remains fun to play**.

Remembers some bad things in the past too.

• Screwed up Dynamax Raids for solo players in Sword/Shield. (Fixed that going into Scarlet/Violet.)
• Recalls some big slowdown with doubles + weather in Sun/Moon on a normal 3DS.
• Balanced the Experience Share horribly in Generation 6, on top of missing moves on a lot of trainer Pokemon. Lost a lot of personality in the jump to 3D models.
• Forced Generation 1 redesigns on you in Generation 5. Sold the worst. (Could potentially argue that to be Generation 4's fault, though, and also not possibly an indication of quality.)
• Cannot forget Diamond's save file corrupting in the later half of the game. (Remains the worst Pokemon issue by far, personally.)
• Noticed a really terrible level curve upon replaying Generations 1-3 recently.

To be clear: Recognizes plenty of valid issues surrounding Scarlet/Violet. Agrees with many of them. Belittles no one for finding those issues unacceptable or game ruining. Dealt with problems every generation, however. Would not call this entirely a recent quality issue, but certainly an uptick.

*May have a different opinion after the upcoming DLC.
**Withholds some judgment on Scarlet until after replaying it once. Plans to do so in the next month or so.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

I believe the current state of Pokémon is at its best. While the new Pokémon games could use some improvements here and there, it is clearly the best state of Pokémon overall. Nowadays, we have the freedom to explore the open world instead of being bombarded with cutscenes every time we enter a new city. For players that are interested in playing competitively, preparing Pokémon for competitive play has become much more accessible than in the past. With the improved functionality of vitamins, the addition of Hyper Training, quicker breeding system, and the ability to have Pokémon teach each other Egg Moves, players can make competitive Pokémon in no time. Graphic wise, Pokémon has never looked better, and we can now explore the Pokémon world in 3D. Things that hinder gameplay such as HM moves and the requirement of such moves to advance in the game have been removed entirely. While some people, for some odd reason that I can never understand, complain about the Exp. Share, the truth is that it makes Pokémon much less of a boring grind game when compared to the games that existed without it. The truth is that Pokémon is the most popular media franchise in the world. As a result, the fanbase is huge, and Game Freak or The Pokémon Company can't be expected to please everyone within that fansbse. Of course, there would always be fans that bicker and complain about the game, including casuals. Yet, millions exist that love the current state of Pokémon as well. As a result, the developers should not make changes only in an attempt to please their bickering fans, which is impossible. For all we know, they could be a loud minority. Game sales and positive reviews overall represent the real world more so than, say, negative YouTube comments or Reddit posts. Instead, the developers should only make changes to improve the quality of their gameplay, which is something that most gamers in general can appreciate. Simply put, if Pokémon fans don't like the direction that Pokémon is headed in, they are always free to play older games, and let people that are able to accept change and keep with the times enjoy their fun.

 

[Squirtkipfan01]

I believe the current state of Pokémon is at its best. While the new Pokémon games could use some improvements here and there, it is clearly the best state of Pokémon overall. Nowadays, we have the freedom to explore the open world instead of being bombarded with cutscenes every time we enter a new city. For players that are interested in playing competitively, preparing Pokémon for competitive play has become much more accessible than in the past. With the improved functionality of vitamins, the addition of Hyper Training, quicker breeding system, and the ability to have Pokémon teach each other Egg Moves, players can make competitive Pokémon in no time. Graphic wise, Pokémon has never looked better, and we can now explore the Pokémon world in 3D. Things that hinder gameplay such as HM moves and the requirement of such moves to advance in the game have been removed entirely. While some people, for some odd reason that I can never understand, complain about the Exp. Share, the truth is that it makes Pokémon much less of a boring grind game when compared to the games that existed without it. The truth is that Pokémon is the most popular media franchise in the world. As a result, the fanbase is huge, and Game Freak or The Pokémon Company can't be expected to please everyone within that fansbse. Of course, there would always be fans that bicker and complain about the game, including casuals. Yet, millions exist that love the current state of Pokémon as well. As a result, the developers should not make changes only in an attempt to please their bickering fans, which is impossible. For all we know, they could be a loud minority. Game sales and positive reviews overall represent the real world more so than, say, negative YouTube comments or Reddit posts. Instead, the developers should only make changes to improve the quality of their gameplay, which is something that most gamers in general can appreciate. Simply put, if Pokémon fans don't like the direction that Pokémon is headed in, they are always free to play older games, and let people that are able to accept change and keep with the times enjoy their fun.

Alot of good points but…

A. Graphics have looked better? As in comparable to ps2?
B. Sales arent a good judge because alot of people dont care about intricacies or anything, they just like casually buying the new game for a new team and ALOT of people fit that bill
C. Not adhering to bickering fans is one thing, but constantly rushing games out without proper dev time will eventually get the CASUALS to notice. That interview that stated they want 2 gens a year still scares me
D. As for exp share, some people like working for that growth. They enjoy putting in the effort while bonding with their pokemon. I know a guy like that at work, he doesnt even spam exp candies either he like manually working for it

 

[GeraldineHamilton]

Thanks for the info, I will keep it in my mind.

 

[ReKoil]

The games themselves are still good. What they need to do is either hire more people so they can meet their development cycle, or just lengthen the development cycle so they don't have to put out games that lock polish and have a bunch of bugs.
I think that's more a industry wide problem than Pokemon specifically though. Pokemon is hardly the only game out there that needs a bunch of fixes right after launch to address bugs or polish things.
It's the reason why I tend to wait at least a month before playing a new game =P

 

[Curt_09]

I think the state of the Pokemon video game franchise is lukewarm.
As someone who has only recently binged Sword, Legends:Arceus, and Violet, there is clearly some goal they are slowly progressing toward. I could foresee a future where they have mainline "battle" games where the game shepherds you toward the post-game where the focus is on online play and an accompanying series of adventure/exploration based sideline games like L:A. I could be misreading things and they might just be going through an identity crisis.
There are a lot of quality of life changes that make it feel easier to enjoy which I initially scoffed at, such as constant access to the PC boxes. After playing with it for a while I realize how nice it is that I can explore and battle trainers with my main team while still being able to grab a False Swipe Breloom from storage when I see a Pokemon I want to catch. The auto-heal button is super amazing and makes my journey so much more enjoyable. The abundance items you find while exploring means that you rarely have to buy healing items. I used the think that I would like the opportunity to turn off the Exp Share so that I could individually train my Pokemon and build bonds with them, but now I realize that this is yet another time-saving measure that I have learned to appreciate. All of this drastically cuts down on the amount of time you spend grinding and running back to heal in town and allows you to spend more time exploring the game's massive map.
On the flip side, some things that I thought would be positives have turned out to be negatives. While the games have always had pacing issues, the new ones have really fumbled by giving players too many choices early on. You could spend hours in the early game trying to build your team of 6 before even challenging the first gym, while in older titles it usually took 3 or 4 badges to get to all of the areas you want for assembling your squad. I'm sure some people love front-loading their grind, assembling their squads, and blitzing through the entire game with the aid of the Exp Share, but I'm not really one of them. It's like once you pick up momentum you're rushed to the end of the game where a lot of the QoL improvements have a chance to shine.
Fixing natures and improving IVs is an amazing change that I hope never goes away. Raid battles are pretty neat and entertaining in their own right, but all of it is a build-up to lower the barrier to entry for competitive battling. This is a mixed blessing as I think it will be great for those who like to battle on console, but I think it's going to continue to detract from the playthrough experience of the games more and more as time goes on. This could be remedied by offering the exploration/journey as a separate side series of games, but part of the beauty of Pokemon is that both elements have always co-existed within the same game. Some would call it a necessary split as the divide grows between the competitive and non-competitive sections of the fanbase, and others would call it a greedy bid to sell even more games. Call it what you will, but it just feels like something is being lost.
This is definitely an interesting topic that's overly saturated with negative opinions on sites such as YouTube which tend to trickle into all of the other social media feeds. I think I've rambled on enough and I'd love to hear others' opinions on the things I've written about here.

 

[Devalue]

As someone who has only recently binged Sword, Legends:Arceus, and Violet, there is clearly some goal they are slowly progressing toward. I could foresee a future where they have mainline "battle" games where the game shepherds you toward the post-game where the focus is on online play and an accompanying series of adventure/exploration based sideline games like L:A. I could be misreading things and they might just be going through an identity crisis.

Disagrees. Focused on exploration more and more in Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet. Expects the player to do so midway through, even. Look at the levels for Sword/Shield's gym #3 and #4:

• Kabu's levels: 25, 25, 27
• Bea/Allister's levels: 34, 34, 35, 36

A gap of 9 levels. Battles only Team Yell and the trainers on one route before reaching Stow-on-Side. Comes right after pointing you to the bridge to Hammerlocke. Clearly expected you to look at the new Pokemon. Could not have easily done so beforehand, either. Crushes your catch rate when using a Pokemon lower level than the wild Pokemon.

Example: A level 35 Bulbasaur at full health. With a level 34 Pokemon: 2.13% capture chance. With a level 35 Pokemon: 11.95% capture chance.

Prevents similar over-exploration in two ways in Scarlet/Violet:

1. Obedience. Devised a much different formula than past games. Looks at the level met and your badge count. Disobeys at a level met of 21+ with no badges. Only increases by 5 levels per badge. Means a Pokemon caught at level 41+ will disobey with 4 badges. Set that mark at level 51 minimum for all the other generations.
2. Catch chance. Penalizes your catch rate when attempting to catch too high level of Pokemon. Multiplies it by 0.8 for every 5 levels above. Begins at level 26 for 0 badges.
   So, for catching a level 33 with no badges: normal catch rate * 0.8 * 0.8 = 64% of the normal catch rate.

Basically encourages a cycle of battling and exploration (to a point, anyways).

On the flip side, some things that I thought would be positives have turned out to be negatives. While the games have always had pacing issues, the new ones have really fumbled by giving players too many choices early on. You could spend hours in the early game trying to build your team of 6 before even challenging the first gym, while in older titles it usually took 3 or 4 badges to get to all of the areas you want for assembling your squad. I'm sure some people love front-loading their grind, assembling their squads, and blitzing through the entire game with the aid of the Exp Share, but I'm not really one of them. It's like once you pick up momentum you're rushed to the end of the game where a lot of the QoL improvements have a chance to shine.

Agrees on the pacing issues, particularly in Sword/Shield. Hopped from gym to gym so quickly. Turns into a slog as soon as Macro Cosmos rears its head. Also followed the level curve of enemy trainers pretty well in the first half. Outleveled trainers so badly in the second half (until Rose). Requires actively avoiding trainers to stay even, level-wise.

Sidenote: Was pretty underleveled for the end of the first path in Scarlet/Violet. Maybe low 50s against level 60s? Caught a lot more Pokemon than usual, but also ignored more trainers. Reversed that level difference by the end of the third path, however.

Welcomes the choices early on, though. Dislikes the older generations on repeat playthroughs. Starts really boring. Noticed it while watching Nuzlockes too. Always sees the same suspects: the mammal, the bird, Zubat, the rock, the bug, and Magikarp. Practically forces you into these encounters due to 2-3 Pokemon in the grass. (Branches out after...the first gym? Maybe the second.)

Results from a wider regional Pokedex, also. Sees games like Black/White at 156, including mythicals. Crammed 400 into base game Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet. Must put them somewhere.

Also agrees on nature/IV fixing being nice. Definitely encourages players to go online more than in past generations with these items and strong Pokemon from raids.

Cut out some bits of your post due to lacking a strong opinion or interesting comment about it. Actually only posted because you requested opinions. Feels like a waste of space to just post "Yep" or "Maybe" sometimes. Padded it out a smidge. Suspects a stronger negative vibe from internet topics like this (and plenty more) because of similar views.

 

[Zeostar]

Feels like substance with no soul.

What's the fun of seeing a new town if there's nothing to do in it? This was how I felt during the majority of exploration in Generation 9. While I think the formula remains fun as ever, exploration has been downward since generation 6. With a pick up in Ultra Sun/Moon due to the heavy amount of NPC side quests.

 

[Drayton]

From what I've seen on the vidoes, Gamefreak have another project besides pokemon and the reason the current condition of pokemon games right now on the limbo as they focus heavily on their so-called project and give small attention to pokemon. The company delves giving small changes in the main series games and a lot on what their project going on and do.

 

[MVs.C Fan]

Definitely, giving some time to the development of new Pokémon games and DLC's it's the best future for Gamefreak. Gamefreak should gaves us refreshing ideas, new products never seen before. I wish someday they revive Drill Doozer (a freaking masterpiece)

 

[Curt_09]

Disagrees. Focused on exploration more and more in Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet. Expects the player to do so midway through, even. Look at the levels for Sword/Shield's gym #3 and #4:

• Kabu's levels: 25, 25, 27
• Bea/Allister's levels: 34, 34, 35, 36

A gap of 9 levels. Battles only Team Yell and the trainers on one route before reaching Stow-on-Side. Comes right after pointing you to the bridge to Hammerlocke. Clearly expected you to look at the new Pokemon. Could not have easily done so beforehand, either. Crushes your catch rate when using a Pokemon lower level than the wild Pokemon.
...
Basically encourages a cycle of battling and exploration (to a point, anyways).

This is a great point! In hindsight you're absolutely right that the game was pushing you to explore. I had invested my early game time in catching everything I could find and exploring as much as possible so I was overleveled for the first part and normal leveled for the next part, so I totally forgot about this. Maybe it's more fair to say that the games are book-ended with an interesting early game and late game? That could also just be a "me" problem.

Results from a wider regional Pokedex, also. Sees games like Black/White at 156, including mythicals. Crammed 400 into base game Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet. Must put them somewhere.

Another great point! It's definitely better that you get access to most of them right away instead of being forced to wait for post-game like G/S/C (and they had way less Pokemon to fit back then).

Actually only posted because you requested opinions.

Thank you for the response, I appreciate your contribution to the continued discussion!

To the other two posts, I definitely can feel the "substance with no soul" sometimes. Perhaps it's hard for them to put any love into their work with short production schedules and multiple games (and some other new IP?) on the burner at once.

 

[CoolKid575]

Feels like substance with no soul.

What's the fun of seeing a new town if there's nothing to do in it? This was how I felt during the majority of exploration in Generation 9. While I think the formula remains fun as ever, exploration has been downward since generation 6. With a pick up in Ultra Sun/Moon due to the heavy amount of NPC side quests.

I fully agree; in the older games, coming across a town felt like a big deal. They were the only places you could heal without items/swap out team members and they acted as a sort of checkpoint. They also usually had at least one thing that made them stand out (eg: a department store, move tutor, trainer school) or at least had story significance (eg: Celestic town doesn't really have anything unique gameplay wise but you hear the Sinnoh legend there). In comparison, SV towns all feel the same with nothing but window dressing separating them. They almost all have a gym, the exact same shops and you can't even talk to 80% of the NPCs. They don't even serve as checkpoints because you can heal and buy items at any of the gas-station Pokecenters dotted around the world.