Trainer Evan
Loses lots, but keeps trying!
- 34
- Posts
- 12
- Years
- New Jersey. =[
- Seen Dec 27, 2013
Let me start by saying I am generally a lurker, and don't like to involve myself too much, as it's easy to get lost in the shuffle around here. I am also unaware if there is a thread I should post this instead, rather than making one. If that is the case, then I apologize.
Allow me to start by saying yes, technically, Pokemon X&Y are the best games in the series. They are great, and I'm really enjoying playing X. However, something is just missing. something is off, and I think I've narrowed down the major flaws, if you can consider them flaws, and how they apply to the franchise as a whole.
1. Let's rewind back to Pokemon Red and Blue. Remember the sense of wonderment and adventure? Every moment of that game is iconic, from the old man who fell asleep on the road and won't let you pass until he shows you how to catch pokemon, to getting swarmed by Zubats in Moonstone Cave. There was a thrill a player got when they figured out how to wake up the Snorlax blocking your path with the flute you discovered, Or getting into battles on the deck of the S.S. Anne. And these little moments of magic, of your own discovery, really immersed you in the world despite the game's archaic presentation. Gold and silver had these moments too, such as watering the Sudowoodo, or fighting a Red Gyarados, or finding a Lapras in a cave on Fridays. These moments kind of faded by Gen III, but still the games kept trying to surprise players. Now, you are told to get a flute to wake a Snorlax, someone else plays it, but you still fight it. You are lead on a leash to finding fossils instead of coming across them in a cave and dueling the owner, or excavating them yourself(Nods to D/P/Pt). And they shove NPC's around you wherever you go to point out everything you need to do and where it is, constantly keeping you moving forward. It's lost it's magic.
2. Which brings me to my next point. I hate getting the 5th badge. I hate it so much. Because that immediately sends signals to me that I'm about, if not over, halfway through the game. Your badge box essentially becomes a countdown till the Elite Four, and after that, the adventure is over. I loved in Emerald how you could re-challenge gym leaders, or in Soul Silver, how you had a second region, or even in B/W, how the other half of the map was accessible. But now it seems like the game is trying to force you through the story as fast as possible to get to the metagame. The game is actually structured like this, from the aforementioned hand-holding, to the absurdly powerful Exp. Share, to the the high rate of catching powerful pokemon and how soon you get them, to how easy the game is, to making EV/IV training extremely easy and quick relatively speaking, and how the narrative has been dumbed down since B/W. Yes, a pokemon plot that's been dumbed down, as if that's even possible. The whole game just feels like it's "going through the motions", until your monsters are powerful enough to compete online. When I play pokemon, I dread the game ending. Yeah, playing online is cool, but I don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything anymore. This is a big problem I have with X&Y. By Gen IV, it seemed online potential and presentation kind of got in the way of the Adventure, as less time was devoted to the story and it's longevity, using the metagame as compensation, and I guess that's fine if your into that....but it lacks the adventure of it all. Favorite pokemon are made irrelevant by absurd stat imbalance, and Frontier Grinding is essential to get the best items. It's all about the competition. Hell, most o the game's actual plot dealt with Mega Evolution, which is only really necessary for online competition. It didn't seem like they wanted to actually write, which is a shame, seeing as the game's story did offer up a couple moments of niceness and show some potential.
3. Remember when I was reminiscing about the high adventure of Red and Blue? Well, this ties into some issues I have with X&Y. It seems like nostalgia is this game's selling point. And its a reason why I'm sure the next entry will be better as there is no reason to keep pushing tat after X&Y. X&Y re-used a lot of tropes from past games that made a lot of the experiences feel rather hollow. We've woken a Snorlax before with a flute, we've done the shifty spinny tiles thing in a Team's base before, we've investigated a defunct power plant before. And they keep shoving iconic nostalgia-graphy in our face all the time. Like the heavy emphasis on Kalos pokemon, such as the three original starters and Mewtwo, or the three birds. It seems like GF's main goal here was attract players of the original games that fell off the wagon. Which is why once the blow their Gen I load, I'm sure the next game will be better. But it's not just that.
4. The other huge problem with the narrative is something I touched on in point 2. The new features obnoxiously get in the way of the narrative. The game has to stop many times to explain things to you and make them apart of the story, despite it being infinitely more fun to discover on your own. Mega-Evolution is a pretty glaring example, but let's look at something else. Fairy Type(I would have preferred Sound or Cyber Type first, but whatevs). The NPC's will tell you what works and doesn't work up front. Boo. That's no fun. It takes away the adventure. I remember in Gold and Silver how much fun Dark and Steel type were, because the player had to learn what to do to cope with them. Outside of the guide book the answers were never given to you up front. It was a puzzle, and puzzle's are fun. This game streamlines it for you so much and the plot is essentially purely a slave to the new mechanics, and to me it feels fairly transparent and forced. However, once we get a new game, explaining all these features will be unnecessary, and therefore there is more roo for your own personal adventure.
5. However, some of these new ideas maybe cool, GF sees to leave a lot of better ones in the dust. The Battle Subway, to me, conceptually, was one of the coolest things ever. I also loved the battle clubs that start your battles off with random pro's, con's, or status effects. I loved being able to re-challenge Gym Leaders, or conquer a different region. ****, I even miss gambling, which I believe is absent from X&Y. GF should give some of these ideas a second shot.
6. This is my final point, and it's an important one in that it's more long reaching. Pokemon needs to change. I can admit it's getting stale. And this is sad to me because it has a universe begging to be fleshed out properly and explored and possibly has the greatest potential of any video game world. One only needs to stop and think about how actually living in the Pokemon universe would work to realize it's awesomeness. It's begging for depth. What are politics like? How does crime work? Are street battles illegal? Are there regulations for trying to catch specific pokemon or protected species? Do Airlines factor in Rayquaza's position via satellite to make sure their trajectory doesn't interfere with his? What's it like living in a world where the entire self sustaining economy and resources revolve around Pokemon? What's the education system like in a world where pokemon mean everything? Does Regigigas ever wake up and destroy a city? Is th ePokemon League sanctioned and regulated tightly? Are there sponsors? What is it like in a Pokeball or PC Box? For real. What are people really scared of and how do real people act in this world? Not oblivious, happy go-lucky, NPC's who aren't aware the "City" they live in doesn't have enough housing for all of them and a severe imbalance in coffee shop volume. A pokemon game needs to be made where beating the Elite 4 ISN'T the primary objective. It needs to be a real, quest based, RPG, that's focus is on adventure and exploring. Make the world bigger, keep the combat system. It can easily be done. I can easily see it cel-shaded, and structured similarly to a Tales game. And if you want to do it on home console(like everyone wants), you can keep all your fancy online options. Nintendo keeps compensating for repetition by adding new pokemon. We're at over 700 now, and that's actually awesome in my opinion, but right now there doesn't need to be anymore. The pokedex is filled with potential stories and adventures that can make for dynamic quests and dungeons. Make catching a specific pokemon have a story and adventure behind it based on their lore, rather then always running in circles in grass with your fingers crossed. There is limitless potential for a 200 hour plus RPG, that could be an instant classic that makes all other Pokemon Games look really pointless, but no one is going to let that happen. So if nothing changes 5 years from now, I'm not too sure there's a reason to stay invested. Pokemon is a wonderful dream, maybe i'll try and invent a TBTRPG for it....
Allow me to start by saying yes, technically, Pokemon X&Y are the best games in the series. They are great, and I'm really enjoying playing X. However, something is just missing. something is off, and I think I've narrowed down the major flaws, if you can consider them flaws, and how they apply to the franchise as a whole.
1. Let's rewind back to Pokemon Red and Blue. Remember the sense of wonderment and adventure? Every moment of that game is iconic, from the old man who fell asleep on the road and won't let you pass until he shows you how to catch pokemon, to getting swarmed by Zubats in Moonstone Cave. There was a thrill a player got when they figured out how to wake up the Snorlax blocking your path with the flute you discovered, Or getting into battles on the deck of the S.S. Anne. And these little moments of magic, of your own discovery, really immersed you in the world despite the game's archaic presentation. Gold and silver had these moments too, such as watering the Sudowoodo, or fighting a Red Gyarados, or finding a Lapras in a cave on Fridays. These moments kind of faded by Gen III, but still the games kept trying to surprise players. Now, you are told to get a flute to wake a Snorlax, someone else plays it, but you still fight it. You are lead on a leash to finding fossils instead of coming across them in a cave and dueling the owner, or excavating them yourself(Nods to D/P/Pt). And they shove NPC's around you wherever you go to point out everything you need to do and where it is, constantly keeping you moving forward. It's lost it's magic.
2. Which brings me to my next point. I hate getting the 5th badge. I hate it so much. Because that immediately sends signals to me that I'm about, if not over, halfway through the game. Your badge box essentially becomes a countdown till the Elite Four, and after that, the adventure is over. I loved in Emerald how you could re-challenge gym leaders, or in Soul Silver, how you had a second region, or even in B/W, how the other half of the map was accessible. But now it seems like the game is trying to force you through the story as fast as possible to get to the metagame. The game is actually structured like this, from the aforementioned hand-holding, to the absurdly powerful Exp. Share, to the the high rate of catching powerful pokemon and how soon you get them, to how easy the game is, to making EV/IV training extremely easy and quick relatively speaking, and how the narrative has been dumbed down since B/W. Yes, a pokemon plot that's been dumbed down, as if that's even possible. The whole game just feels like it's "going through the motions", until your monsters are powerful enough to compete online. When I play pokemon, I dread the game ending. Yeah, playing online is cool, but I don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything anymore. This is a big problem I have with X&Y. By Gen IV, it seemed online potential and presentation kind of got in the way of the Adventure, as less time was devoted to the story and it's longevity, using the metagame as compensation, and I guess that's fine if your into that....but it lacks the adventure of it all. Favorite pokemon are made irrelevant by absurd stat imbalance, and Frontier Grinding is essential to get the best items. It's all about the competition. Hell, most o the game's actual plot dealt with Mega Evolution, which is only really necessary for online competition. It didn't seem like they wanted to actually write, which is a shame, seeing as the game's story did offer up a couple moments of niceness and show some potential.
3. Remember when I was reminiscing about the high adventure of Red and Blue? Well, this ties into some issues I have with X&Y. It seems like nostalgia is this game's selling point. And its a reason why I'm sure the next entry will be better as there is no reason to keep pushing tat after X&Y. X&Y re-used a lot of tropes from past games that made a lot of the experiences feel rather hollow. We've woken a Snorlax before with a flute, we've done the shifty spinny tiles thing in a Team's base before, we've investigated a defunct power plant before. And they keep shoving iconic nostalgia-graphy in our face all the time. Like the heavy emphasis on Kalos pokemon, such as the three original starters and Mewtwo, or the three birds. It seems like GF's main goal here was attract players of the original games that fell off the wagon. Which is why once the blow their Gen I load, I'm sure the next game will be better. But it's not just that.
4. The other huge problem with the narrative is something I touched on in point 2. The new features obnoxiously get in the way of the narrative. The game has to stop many times to explain things to you and make them apart of the story, despite it being infinitely more fun to discover on your own. Mega-Evolution is a pretty glaring example, but let's look at something else. Fairy Type(I would have preferred Sound or Cyber Type first, but whatevs). The NPC's will tell you what works and doesn't work up front. Boo. That's no fun. It takes away the adventure. I remember in Gold and Silver how much fun Dark and Steel type were, because the player had to learn what to do to cope with them. Outside of the guide book the answers were never given to you up front. It was a puzzle, and puzzle's are fun. This game streamlines it for you so much and the plot is essentially purely a slave to the new mechanics, and to me it feels fairly transparent and forced. However, once we get a new game, explaining all these features will be unnecessary, and therefore there is more roo for your own personal adventure.
5. However, some of these new ideas maybe cool, GF sees to leave a lot of better ones in the dust. The Battle Subway, to me, conceptually, was one of the coolest things ever. I also loved the battle clubs that start your battles off with random pro's, con's, or status effects. I loved being able to re-challenge Gym Leaders, or conquer a different region. ****, I even miss gambling, which I believe is absent from X&Y. GF should give some of these ideas a second shot.
6. This is my final point, and it's an important one in that it's more long reaching. Pokemon needs to change. I can admit it's getting stale. And this is sad to me because it has a universe begging to be fleshed out properly and explored and possibly has the greatest potential of any video game world. One only needs to stop and think about how actually living in the Pokemon universe would work to realize it's awesomeness. It's begging for depth. What are politics like? How does crime work? Are street battles illegal? Are there regulations for trying to catch specific pokemon or protected species? Do Airlines factor in Rayquaza's position via satellite to make sure their trajectory doesn't interfere with his? What's it like living in a world where the entire self sustaining economy and resources revolve around Pokemon? What's the education system like in a world where pokemon mean everything? Does Regigigas ever wake up and destroy a city? Is th ePokemon League sanctioned and regulated tightly? Are there sponsors? What is it like in a Pokeball or PC Box? For real. What are people really scared of and how do real people act in this world? Not oblivious, happy go-lucky, NPC's who aren't aware the "City" they live in doesn't have enough housing for all of them and a severe imbalance in coffee shop volume. A pokemon game needs to be made where beating the Elite 4 ISN'T the primary objective. It needs to be a real, quest based, RPG, that's focus is on adventure and exploring. Make the world bigger, keep the combat system. It can easily be done. I can easily see it cel-shaded, and structured similarly to a Tales game. And if you want to do it on home console(like everyone wants), you can keep all your fancy online options. Nintendo keeps compensating for repetition by adding new pokemon. We're at over 700 now, and that's actually awesome in my opinion, but right now there doesn't need to be anymore. The pokedex is filled with potential stories and adventures that can make for dynamic quests and dungeons. Make catching a specific pokemon have a story and adventure behind it based on their lore, rather then always running in circles in grass with your fingers crossed. There is limitless potential for a 200 hour plus RPG, that could be an instant classic that makes all other Pokemon Games look really pointless, but no one is going to let that happen. So if nothing changes 5 years from now, I'm not too sure there's a reason to stay invested. Pokemon is a wonderful dream, maybe i'll try and invent a TBTRPG for it....
