Five Things You Think Could Improve Pokemon

[Palamon]

Pokemon could use improvements. What are five things you'd like to see improved in future games?

 

[Arylett Charnoa]

Number 1: HMs. The bane of pretty much everyone's existence. How can you improve these? First off, make it so that they can actually be removed at will rather than having to go to the Move Deleter. It would not only alleviate the problem of having to remove an important move or waste a slot on an HM slave, but also the whole intergenerational transfer system needing you to delete HMs. Second, give Pokemon additional move slots. But these moves can't be used in battle at all; they're only for field moves. This simple solution would alleviate so much rage everywhere.

Number 2: This one bugs the hell out of me, at least. I'm very into nicknaming, and I absolutely hate when I get a Pokemon from another trainer and can't change its name. Why? Why is this a thing? If I can't nickname a Pokemon period, then I don't want to use it because it just feels like a generic drone to me. Make it so that we can change nicknames whenever we like regardless of OT.

Number 3: Customization, oh my God. Another common one. Not just to bring it back, but to add some depth to it. More hairstyles, and the ability to REMOVE THE HAT and put some other head things on instead. What if I want to wear glasses instead?

Number 4: Give us a more fleshed out story. I liked the direction they were going with BW, and kind of feel like they dropped the ball for X & Y. For those of us who are more interested in just single player rather than battling other people, it would be a nice addition. It doesn't need to be super deep. I know Pokemon isn't a story-focused series. Just something that tries to take a few risks like BW did. Explore odd concepts. Like having a rival who is your sibling or something like that. Maybe mixing up the evil team formula. Just spice it up! (Note: I do feel like ORAS went in the right direction with its character development, so I hope they escalate that as well.)

Number 5: More Type balancing/attention to lesser used or weaker types. Whilst they did a good job with the additions in Gen 6, (not just Fairy-type, but things like making Steel neutral to Dark and Ghost) I feel there is one type in particular that gets the short end of the stick. Grass-type. As a type that is part of the primary starter triangle, it could use some buffing! Sure, they got immunity to powder moves, but I mean... mostly other Grass-types use that, which doesn't increase their viability against other types too much. Maybe make them resistant to Fairy? Also, give us more powerful Bug-types, speaking of types that aren't really all that great. More Bug-type Legendaries would be much welcomed. And give people a reason to use Ice-types instead of just giving a Water-type Ice Beam too! I can't really think of much they could do with Ice-types, but I'm sure something could be added to them to give them an edge.

 

[Sopheria]

1. HMs are the obvious one. Arylett touched on that really well. But my solution of choice would be simply de-couple overworld actions from moves. A Lapras should be able to swim without needing to be taught how, right? That'd save a lot of effort and it'd totally solve the HM problem.

2. Give us more sidequests. I know this falls under post-game which isn't exactly anything new, but specifically, I'm talking about giving us reasons to explore. Have random NPCs who send us on quests to bring them an item, or deliver a package, or explore a cave. In Pokemon games, the world always feels a bit flat and uninteresting once you've beaten the game--you pass through a certain area or dungeon as part of the story and basically never return (at least I don't haha). These kinds of random NPC quests would give us more reasons to explore and would make the world seem a bit more alive and interesting.

3. More sequels. It would be nice to revisit a region, for once, chronologically speaking. It'd be great, for example, to see how Hoenn develops after the story of R/S/E/OR/AS...has Wally become the new champion? What became of Team Magma/Team Aqua after they disbanded? We've seen from Black & White 2 how many changes a region can undergo in just a few years. I think this would make each region feel a lot more dynamic and interesting, rather than us having one adventure in it and that's all we see of it.

These last two aren't necessary and maybe even a bit outlandish, but they'd be nice nonetheless.

4. Mini-games, perhaps? Pokemon Amie did a good job of this, as did the Pokeathlon in HG/SS, but I'd like to see a bit more variety. Sorta like what Pokemon Stadium had, but in the main-series.

5. Difficulty selection. Some people like it easier, some people like it harder. I think it'd make everybody happy if they just made it optional. Almost all other RPGs have this for that very reason, and it's nice to have the option.

 

[Palamon]

I'm probably going to make five really generic points, as the thread maker, but...

1. Either getting rid of HMs or changing it so they're nothing more than a field move. Twenty years of Pokemon, and HMs are still ridiculous, especially since they're "too important to be forgotten (lol). I watched a video on improvements to Pokemon, and someone brought up a very good point--maybe make HMs instead Key Items, where the player can remove obstacles rather than having to waste a moveslot on a move like Cut. I feel like soaring was a good direction at this, since you didn't even need Latias/Latios in your party, and they didn't even need to know Fly. This was a good direction, and I hope the next Pokemon games do the same thing, honestly. Keep the soaring mechanic in favor of the Fly HM. Maybe summoning Pokemon, rather than teaching them HMs would be an interesting idea, that's kind of what Pokemon Ranger did, but with field moves. Maybe I'm just thinking way too outside of the box... hmm.

2. MAKE TRAINER CUSTOMIZATION LESS GENDER BASED AND MORE FREE RANGE. This is more of a rant from me, rather than something I actually want, but okay. This isn't "exactly" something I feel like could improve Pokemon, but I just want trainer customization to be less gender segregated. It's always annoyed me how I can't wear boy's clothes if I'm playing as a girl, and have set hair colors, set eye colors, set everything. I want a more fleshed out trainer customization with more of everything: clothes, hair, eyes, and I'm with Arylett on removing the hat. I hate how the hat isn't optional... I always felt like the hat was very ugly. I had wanted trainer customization as early as generation V, and I was happy when we finally got in and X/Y, but please, just make it feel more customized than preset... maybe I won't get this, but I can dream.

3. Fixing the catching mechanic. The fact you can't catch Pokemon that are fainted is really stupid. I don't know why we've never been able to, I'd think Pokemon that faint would be more vulnerable, and easier to catch. I mean, Pokemon faint, and then ~fade into ether~ (I'm just going to roll with this, okay). I'm bringing this up because I was watching a video on how there should be an option to capture fainted Pokemon, and I don't disagree. This would be interesting, and I'd like to see this eventually, but it probably won't happen...

4. Bringing back the ability to select a difficulty. I like how B2/W2 gave you the option to play the game on easy, normal or hard, and removing that was an annoying and aggravating move. From what I remember, the difficulty setting was completely optional, maybe let the player select what difficultly they want from the beginning, since the way they implemented it in B2/W2 wasn't that great. Also, the key thing was. :| If they bring back difficulty in the future, just make it available as soon as you play the game, and set it any way you want. Also, why limit it to easy, normal and hard? Why not, easy, normal, hard, and competitive/super hard? Basically, I want this mode fleshed out a bit more than it was when they had it in generation V... if they ever bring it back.

5. More Primal Reversion, maybe? I'm on the fence about this--since Primal Reversion is connected to Mega Evolution (everyone knows I hate that), but I'd like the idea to maybe be more expanded upon, and giving more Pokemon Primal Reversion, possibly, I'm going to stick with legendary Pokemon right now, for one, maybe Primal Arceus (please no Mega for Arceus, please, this is me begging and pleading), I'd also like to see Primal forms for all the Regis, and Primal forms for the Sinnoh trio, too. I really like the idea of Pokemon being different back then. Why limit it to just legendaries? I'd love to see non legendaries also get Primal Reversion, too, because there is just so much that can be done with this new idea, so why not?

I think I made good points.

 

[pkmin3033]

Oh boy, here we go.

1. Make everything available. I get that Pokemon is supposed to be a social thing, but it's a single-player experience, first and foremost. Not all of us have friends to play with, have access to local stores, or even a stable internet connection. We might live in an advanced communication age compared to the 90s, but still, not everyone has these things. Distribution of event Pokemon is frustrating and the timed aspects make the games irrelevant in the future, and I don't see why these things can't just be available in the game. Similarly, version exclusivity is a cheap and irritating game mechanic with no practical purpose other than to generate sales. The game would still sell millions without two versions. Let's see the Mystery Dungeon habit of including everything put into the mothership titles.

2. PROPER gameplay customisation. Challenge Mode in B2W2 was a pathetic joke, and showed that Game Freak clearly have no idea how to make their games more challenging for experienced players. Its unlock conditions were also ridiculous. I would like to see Pokemon step up its gameplay a notch in terms of what it can offer players. Bravely Default had some wonderful options with the ability to adjust random encounters, EXP gain, etc. Pokemon has had the redundant idea of Repels for years, but why should I have to use in-game currency to switch off random encounters, and constantly have to re-apply it? I'd like to have some in-game options so I can customise the experience to suit my play style. I want Pokemon to acknowledge that, whilst its target audience hasn't changed, the individuals who originally fit that target audience HAVE changed, and that maybe, just maybe, we need something a bit more difficult to keep us interested. I see so much whining that Pokemon games are too easy. They're the same as they've always been though; we've just gotten better at playing them. Why can't they provide us some options in response to this? Options. Things you can choose, so the target audience isn't compromised and the game isn't then deemed as too difficult for newcomers.

Actually make it difficult. Give Gym Leaders held items and strategic movesets as in Challenge Mode, yes, but cap a player's ability to grind (or what Pokemon they can take with them, I should say; capped levelling was infuriating in FFXIII and I'd hate to see that imposed on Pokemon) so that their strategy has to be more than just "if at first you don't succeed, grind, grind again" which is what Pokemon has been ever since it was first introduced. A lot of JRPGs share this flaw: any challenge can be overcome by levelling up. Fix this. Or give players the option to fix this beyond self-imposed restrictions, and reward them for it. Those Challenge Medals were a nice idea too; they were like in-game trophies. How about some of those tied in with difficulty?

Pokemon has a lot of frustrating, redundant game mechanics that could be made so much better with a few small tweaks. They've already taken a huge step in the right direction with Super Training, an optional minigame that made EV training so much easier to do. Why can we not have similar things in relation to difficulty, and other small things that would streamline the experience - adjusting random encounters and EXP gain, an internal clock to adjust the time of day, and so on? They don't affect the core gameplay and give experienced players the option of adjusting it to suit their own tastes. Let's go the other way, too - give us a slider that lets us adjust trainer Pokemon levels. Don't want to grind, just want to enjoy the story? Put the slider to 10 levels below your own and demolish them. Want a challenge? Crank it up 10 levels, put a cap on your own levels, switch on the Challenge Mode so Gym Leaders pose a real threat and trainers are experienced enough to make you want to throw your 3DS out the window. Enable things like Sleep Clauses, no held items, a cap on healing items; whatever. How about a FE-inspired permadeath mode? Let us make it as easy or as difficult as we want it to be WITHOUT having to resort to self-imposed restrictions. Give us a ton of crazy difficulty options - that make the game both easier and more difficult - and let us go wild. Realise that a game with a levelling-up system needs more than just marginally increased opponent levels in order to actually make it difficult for experienced players.

I could go on, and on, and on. There are so many things they could do to improve the experience here.

3. Story content. Pokemon has never had what I would deem as a proper story. The sixth generation more or less closed the gap between the games and anime as far as story goes, offering a crapton of side characters and whatnot, but the anime has never had much of a story anyway. Let's go full on JRPG with this shit. How about some character development? You can still have the "lone trainer topples evil organisation and becomes Pokemon Master" story, but let's acknowledge that there are other people out there in the world, shall we? I don't care what people say about B/W or X/Y, in my opinion, Pokemon has never delivered on this. I'd like to see a little more interaction from the world at large. DP introduced travelling with NPCs for a while, like Cheryl in Eterna Forest. How about doing that with your rivals? Getting the chance to talk to them, to watch them battle and grow, maybe even seeing them side with the evil team for a bit and undergoing their own metamorphosis. How about some branching story options that affect who you battle and why? Maybe you could join the organisation yourself to try and topple it from within...or just go in all guns blazing and not make a pretense. Let our actions be relevant, have different consequences, and make the story mean something. Nobody really plays Pokemon for story. Maybe it's about time that changed, hm?

Also, the story doesn't end just because the main villain is defeated. Platinum had this wonderful little aftermath for Team Galactic. Let's see some postgame story as well. Saving the world is easy; it's rebuilding the world and keeping it safe that's the real battle. Let's see a bit of this in Pokemon.

4. Variety. I suppose this could fall under the category of sidequests, because anything they did here would have to be optional, but I'd like to see something a bit more substantial here. Pokemon musicals and contests are both crap; let's give those a bit more depth and turn them into a perfectly viable adventure all by themselves. Let me go out and explore as a Pokemon Ranger if I want to. Hell, let me go into an arcade and play a variation of Pokemon Conquest, or abandon my trainer entirely in some areas and walk about as my favourite Pokemon. Different gameplay modes is nothing new, and neither is minigames. Pokemon has had a massive amount of crappy little minigames over the years in an effort to inject some variety - Super Training is only the most recent one. Let's make these a bit more substantial, a bit more relevant.

Also, I said it before, but I'll say it again here: reward us for pursuing these. Challenge Medals, event Pokemon you can't get any other way; I don't care. I want more than a crappy little ribbon to acknowledge my success. Make me WANT to do these things.

5. Cross-region exploration. After the second generation, one region has never felt like enough, and this could open up the gameplay even more. Let me pick which region I start from, and have this affect how the game's story unravels. Let me challenge every Gym and so on. Combine this with my earlier suggestion of gameplay customisation and you've got something akin to the anime's structure if you choose, leaving your old Pokemon behind as you depart for parts unknown. Or not; take your old Pokemon with you and smash through everything in other regions. A level slider to keep Pokemon levels to your satisfaction so you're not battling low-level Pokemon at every turn and getting bored...or a toggle to turn random encounters off entirely. This makes putting every Pokemon in the game even more feasible, as well; you've got two or more regions to explore.

 

[Drayton]

#1: Get rid of non-essential HM, it just become a filler for such things
#2: Traveling between region is always enjoyable and I like bit of adventuring outside
#3: Add difficulty mode like BW2, more challenge, more fun
#4: Give certain pokemon a mega evolution, because they do deserve it and some love
#5: Customization and Secret base

 

[GiovanniViridian]

1. Improve the GTS (or in general, trading): Make trade evolutions easier by requesting what are the held items your preferred Pokemon wants. (e.g. I want Swirlix with Whipped Dream, or I want Spritzee with Sachet) Also, there should probably be some ways to minimise unrealistic GTS trades since I'm tired of seeing huge amounts of "I want an Arceus for this random Pokemon you can find in the wild" and all it does is just filling in more useless space. Oh yeah, and have an option to have abilities to rename your nicknamed Pokemon you get in a trade unless you like seeing Snorlaxes with a "URMOM" nickname or completely no nicknames at all.
2. Bring back almost or all new features from the previous games: I know it's really unrealistic, but I would like it if the next games will have new features from the previous games: Following Pokemon, Pokeathlon etc. from HG/SS, DexNav, Pokemon World Tournament, Challenge Mode etc. from B2/W2, Battle Frontier, Poketch etc. from Platinum and so on. I think GF wants to add or remove features just to probably make their games unique, but to me it would be better if GF puts in almost or all the previous features to make the next games more fun. On another note, even though I don't have OR/AS, I really liked the soaring feature since I've actually always hoped for that feature since I was a kid (and at that time, I never thought that they will actually put that feature) and I really hope that the next game will have soaring.
3. Difficulty Options: A bit like my point #2 (which is bringing back Challenge Mode from B2/W2), but to me GF could explore some more options with it, such as limitations of items used. Even if that would mean that GF would have a Nuzlocke Mode for it I don't mind. Anyway, above posters pretty much make better options about this than me.
4. Mini-Games: Still almost the same as my point #2, but I'd prefer adding some more of them and bring back a few ones from the previous games and I don't mind having the Slot Machine back even though I don't really miss it much.
5. A Better Story: Enough said.

 

[LilyGardy]

1. Ditch HMs. - As others above have said just make them field moves. I do not want to have to waste a spot on Bibarel just so I can get through Victory Road.

2. Spotlight all types - Grass Type which despite being a Starter type has only 3 Legendaries, two of them being event Pokémon which a lot of players will never get to use and has never had an Elite Four Member.

Compare to Dragon which has numerous Legendaries, A Dragon Type Champion (Lance and to an extent Iris) and even in Gen 6 with the Fairy nerf has Zinnia who is a Dragon Specialist.

These are two extremes but more types need spotlight.

3. Customisation - Why can I not have Red hair? Why can I not wear glasses? Why must I always wear a hat?

4. More character development of Side Characters - This applies particularly to Gym Leaders and even some Champions. Wulfric is an eighth Gym Leader yet does nothing in the story. Nobody in Kalos seems to know or care that Diantha is Champion. Valerie is the first Fairy Type Leader yet does next to nothing. Why should we be excited about facing these people if they do nothing in the story?

5. More Post-game content - Whilst the ORAS Delta Episode was a baby step in the right direction there needs to be more post-game content outside chasing Legendaries that you may never use and a Battle facility which for Non-competitive players may be short lived.

 

[Master of Memes]

1. More complex Plots and add more twists/darker tone. I love surprises, and the plots are too predictable. Make the antagonist our dad, or the champion a Zoroark, I don't care. And make the plot more serious (not necessarily profanity and blood, just make the environment a bit darker). Just give us good villains and allow a bit more character deaths.

2. If they were brave enough, then GF would bring civics into the game. Not necessarily satire, but each character should have different political views, and maybe the player could suffer consequences for vigilance (that they commit all the time)

3. Better sound affects. I am not impressed with most of the Pokémon cries and attack animations.

 

[Palamon]

1. More complex Plots and add more twists/darker tone

Could you expand upon this idea, please? I feel your answer is kind of lacking substance... like, what kind of twists, exactly, would you add to improve Pokemon?

Also, I'm all for spotlighting all types, especially brining in more pure Flying type Pokemon... it baffles me we only have one. I'd like to see Pure Flying types explored a bit more.

 

[ptisnjunk95]

1. I think Pokémon shouldn't be so focused in children. Most of pokémon players have at average 15 (here is a link concerning this: Pokémon's Audience Is Growing Older). There are some features, like Pokémon Amie, that are targeted to children.

2. GTS should be improved and moderated. When I was filling my Pokédex I used GTS constantly to look for some pokémon. It was outraing when I was looking for a Spritzee with a Sachet and I was asked for legendaries under level 9. I know that mod when thousands of users uses the GTS should difficult, but not impossible. Also it could include an options for searching/asking for shinies.

3. More postgame content. Like said above, the Delta Episode is a great start, but they could include new regions and stories as downloadable content.

4. Events. There areas in the world that rarely have events. Japan have tons of them for japanese celebrations, and some other countries started to have those too. For example, here in Portugal the serial code for Diancie was only given as gift for those who preordered the ORAS (and the code should be used in XY). Before that, there was a problem with the Gengar Serial Code too, but I can't remember the detail, so I won't talk about it.

5. Pokémon Global Link improvement. I think more features there would be better.

 

[Smooth4lyfe]

Hmmm good question...maybe more types of pokeballs and better battle animations for the games

 

[alexbobspoons]

1. Make everything available. I get that Pokemon is supposed to be a social thing, but it's a single-player experience, first and foremost. Not all of us have friends to play with, have access to local stores, or even a stable internet connection. We might live in an advanced communication age compared to the 90s, but still, not everyone has these things. Distribution of event Pokemon is frustrating and the timed aspects make the games irrelevant in the future, and I don't see why these things can't just be available in the game. Similarly, version exclusivity is a cheap and irritating game mechanic with no practical purpose other than to generate sales. The game would still sell millions without two versions. Let's see the Mystery Dungeon habit of including everything put into the mothership titles.

This this this.
I agree with your other points, especially cross realm, but this point is really key.
All pokemon catchable after national dex opens.

 

[Pyrax]

1. Hard mode available from the beginning - While I welcome GameFreak deciding to add Challenge Mode in BW2, the way it was handled was definitely not okay. I would very much rather just boot up a new Pokémon game and select Challenge mode than go through all that key trading nonsense.
2. Modify HMs - Give every Pokémon HM slots depending on which ones they can learn. These HM Slots are separate from the move slots and are accessible on the field. When teaching an HM, the player can still decide whether to assign it to that Pokémon's moves slots or HM Slots. In this manner, using an HM slave won't mean sacrificing a party slot.
3. Harder boss fights - Honestly, Gen IV was the last generation in which every Gym Leader was actually difficult imo. I want to suffer because this Leader's team has this mon, or those moves, or this ability, etc. Speaking of which, return to the Elite Four having 5 (or even a full 6) Pokémon before the end credits; not counting the Champion, they're the last trainers the player faces in the storyline - they shouldn't be easily swept. Same goes for said Champion.
4. Better story - Despite Black/White's flaws, I still firmly believe it has the best plot and character development out of the main series. BW2 were alright, but its plotline could've been tweaked a bit, but XY were pretty much a step backwards despite the darker tone.
5. Bigger postgame - Something to the scale of GSCHGSS Kanto or FRLG's Sevii Islands. Add in another couple of dungeons, some bonus boss trainers (think Red and Johto games and Steven in Emerald), a postgame plot, and you've got yourself another several hours worth of gameplay alongside the Battle Frontier.

 

[Ammako]

1. Bigger postgame - Something to the scale of GSCHGSS Kanto or FRLG's Sevii Islands. Add in another couple of dungeons, some bonus boss trainers (think Red and Johto games and Steven in Emerald), a postgame plot, and you've got yourself another several hours worth of gameplay alongside the Battle Frontier.

I think the games could benefit from randomly-generated areas in post-game.

Kinda like mystery dungeons, randomly-generated areas with different scenery every time, different wild Pokémon maybe? and different trainers, so you always have something new and unpredictable to do.

It'd be so much more fun to train and level up Pokémon in the post game if there was such a thing, and you could just go there and run through randomly-generated routes with randomly-generated trainers every time. They could even have it scale in level to whatever Pokémon are in your team, so you can go there with a full team of Lv. 5s and it's like starting a new save file, new team, and you level them.
Then once you're done you just leave and go back and do it again, and it'd be a different area with different trainers.

Could have randomly-spawning items every time, could sometimes have caves showing up with different things in them, could have bodies of water you'd have to cross and find stuff hidden on the other side, etc.

Maybe even randomly have some interactable Pokémon show up on the overworld. Nothing fancy like rare legendaries, only like, the same kind of Pokémon you'd find anywhere, except they show up on the overworld and you can save in front of them, they could have special moves that the wild ones don't have, you'd be able to SR for a shiny one, etc.

I don't know how difficult it would be to make an algorithm for generating random areas like this and still have it be good, Like, Mystery Dungeons in PMD are pretty bland tbh, but I'm sure there are better algorithms for random generation no?
Doesn't necessarily has to be as good or better than the actual routes they created for the world map, but something that would change every time you go where you could train and find wild Pokémon would be really nice imo.

Having a post-game like what's been mentioned there, Kanto and Sevii Islands, that's nice and all, but then you run into the same problem once you finish said post-game content. You have nothing else to do. I'm personally not too sure why people like that kind of post-game so much, because the same content could have been available prior to the E4, there would have been the same amount of content in the game, except it wouldn't be named "post-game" anymore. And it would be the same thing.
That and I'm pretty sure Kanto is supposed to be part of the main storyline anyway. Johto is really small and short, the true end-game is when you fight Red at Mt. Silver.

Good post-game content, to me, needs to be something that has a good replayability value. And we need to have several different activites.
X/Y sucked in that department.
Battle Frontier is great, and you can continue playing it even after you got all the medals/all the prints, but is only really fun if you are really into battling. So there should be more.
Pokémon Contests can be fun, but once you've won all the ribbons, you can continue doing contests with more Pokémon too, but to me it's only more of the same and gets stale quickly. That being said, someone who really likes contests could probably spend months playing around with them, training up Pokémon specifically for contests, getting them good movesets for contests, etc. and never get bored.
Breeding is also a thing, but again, more of the same. It gets super boring to just bike back and forth again and again to just make eggs and hatch them... and if breeding is the only post-game like in X/Y, that's no good. Needs more. I'm pretty sure there's people who enjoy breeding a lot but we need more diversity.

Needs more fun ways to level up Pokémon, more incentive to level them up to 100 too. If they can find good incentive for it then it suddenly adds so much more stuff to do, as long as there are fun ways to level, otherwise it'll just be a pain, a grind, a chore.

 

[fenyx4]

1 - All Pokémon available in one game:

Oh boy, here we go.

1. Make everything available. I get that Pokemon is supposed to be a social thing, but it's a single-player experience, first and foremost. Not all of us have friends to play with, have access to local stores, or even a stable internet connection. We might live in an advanced communication age compared to the 90s, but still, not everyone has these things. Distribution of event Pokemon is frustrating and the timed aspects make the games irrelevant in the future, and I don't see why these things can't just be available in the game. Similarly, version exclusivity is a cheap and irritating game mechanic with no practical purpose other than to generate sales. The game would still sell millions without two versions. Let's see the Mystery Dungeon habit of including everything put into the mothership titles.

This, so much. One game should be all it takes to "catch them all"; it's irritating to have a videogame in which you can never "truly" beat the game unless you undergo unfeasible maneuvers (999 hours and 59 minutes of playtime in Pokemon Emerald and I was fortunate to have access to Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire to complete the Hoenn Pokedex; it would have been very disheartening otherwise to invest all of that time for no Pokedex completion), like tracking down videogames and accessories that have long since gone out of print... Event Pokemon are even worse, particularly being available on the whim of external sources, and being unobtainable in-game should one's save file happen to become corrupted (such as accidental cartridge jostling during a saving process, or other freak scenarios). I would rather have all Pokemon available at once instead of building up "marketing/release hype" for a Pokemon that I likely will be unable to see other than those promotional pamphlets in Pokemon videogame packaging long after the pertinent event itself has passed.. Also, one shouldn't be deprived of accessing certain Pokemon simply because of when they were born and/or when they became a Pokemon game player.

I'm even willing to compromise to an extent for the principle version-exclusiveness. For example, in Pokemon Sapphire, instead of just making Solrock completely unavailable in the wild, one could give Solrock a Chimecho-esque rarity (or, preferably, something like Minun-esque rarity in Pokemon Sapphire) to simulate "version-exclusivity" while still maintaining access, or make the player go through a series of tough Pokemon battles/feats in order to unlock a secret area that includes "version-exclusive Pokemon" such as Solrock (including the version mascot Pokemon, especially since Pokemon Gold and Silver allowed both paired mascots to be obtainable in one game without qualms).

2 - Accessibility, nullification, or elimination of the Individual Values (IVs):

It's bad enough having to go through hoops just to catch certain Pokemon, but being at a disadvantage just for not having favorable (pseudo-)random-number-generation ((P)RNG) in a metagame where 31 individual values (IV) are generally preferred is just un-fun - Pokemon has enough luck-based/random elements during battle as it is. I get that the system mimics the "genetics" of real-life, but given the liberties that Pokemon already takes with reality, simulating genetics could easily be eschewed or replaced with something that doesn't affect gameplay (such as flavor text heights and weights). Aside from "maxing at 31 IVs", IVs seem to only be used for optimizing Trick Room teams (low Speed), letting Special Attacking Pokemon reduce suffered self-inflicted-confusion damage, and adjusting what Hidden Power type is utilized.

The IV system should be improved in one of a number of ways:
-make all Pokemon capable of changing their inherent IVs, likely through a reasonably-obtainable permanent Key Item or some random non-playable character (NPC). You don't even have to explicitly reference IVs; just make them alterable in an easy, straightforward, subtle manner. If we can fuse Pokemon with "DNA Splicers", why can't biotechnology be developed to modify the statistical capabilities of Pokemon? With this system, Hidden Power and Trick Room usages of IVs can still be maintained.

-make breeding for individual values easier (such as providing a Desert-Underpass-esque area that is full of Ditto that have 31 IVs in all statistics, instead of players constantly having to rely on favorable RNG and/or hacked "Breeding Ditto" - this way, people can still invest reasonable/decent effort towards achieving a target Pokemon)

-completely nullify IVs in purely-competitive settings (in Battle Frontier-esque facilities and within local and Wi-Fi multiplayer settings), but maintain them in general gameplay.

-just remove IVs completely and make Hidden Power reliant on something else (such as an NPC's talents).

3 - Revamping of the Hidden Machine (HM) system.
The only way to fully resolve the problem is to make all HMs usable without forcing players to have certain Pokemon on their respective teams. As a result, either make all of the HMs (except maybe Fly, which might still require a party Pokemon) attributed to some type of Key Item, or (my preferred choice) go the Pokemon Ranger route and allow the player to temporarily call upon a (either nearby or emerging-from-Hammerspace) Pokemon for Hidden Machine assistance (we've suspended disbelief for a lot more than Pokemon simply popping out of nowhere...if Charizard can survive underwater with no ill effects, we should have no problem with this implementation).

4 - Challenge Mode and Gym Leader rematches.
There is no excuse not to re-trigger Gym Leader battles in the post-game; even Pokemon Emerald manages to do it with enhanced Pokemon levels. Also, Challenge Mode needs to be usable before starting a new game. Also, I feel that more Gym Leaders, Elite Four members, villainous team leaders, and Champions should use more viable moves as well as items for their party Pokemon.

5 - Battle Tower and Battle Factory (or Battle Frontier)
A Battle Frontier is preferred (especially in Hoenn), but if that can't be achieved, at least provide a decent post-game battling facility for some challenge - the Battle Tower for standard tough battles, and the Battle Factory for party Pokemon randomization.

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6 - Convert/supplant the core series to a Massively-Multiplayer-Online Role-Playing-Game (MMORPG)
Mostly, I am envisioning this set-up from a RuneScape perspective; supplanting handheld series releases would help to keep the series on Nintendo handhelds as well as provide a secondary option for individuals without reliable Internet access. I feel like this change would fix a lot of the problems that Pokemon has - mainly, the nonsensical removal of features, as Game Freak wouldn't fall prey to "time constraints" so much due to having to redo lots of videogame elements from scratch. Additionally, this change could help with the "accessing more than 1 region" issue - to help in leveling issues, either scale over-leveled party Pokemon from other regions to a pre-designated level limit (possibly with Badge stages/limits/checkpoints), or prevent extra-region Pokemon from being accessible in a given region until the main storyline of a given region is completed..