Vanguard

[Damon-013]

We are here because we love Pokémon. We are here because we are gamers. We are here because, conciously or not, we want Game Freak and their world-renowned franchise to face many more years of success. However, as time progresses, Game Freak will run out of ideas, eventually being forced to either abandon the series or release yearly installations as generic and lifeless as Call of Duty: Give Us Your Money.

So what is the best solution? In light of these facts, I assume we all have our ideas. But as a new member in your forum, I ask that you permit me to prevent mine.

We all know that the biggest competing platforms in the gaming industry are the XBox, the PlayStation, the Wii family, and PC (we'll ignore the PC on account of their dispicably rude community). The progress made in the past decades have led to insanely powerful consoles, considerably moreso than the DS line. This needs to be taken advantage of. As opposed to simply releasing DS and occasional console games, Game Freak must expand, sign a deal with Microsoft and Sony, and release the absolute greatest Pokémon experience the world has ever seen. Starting in Kanto (with the option to port a Lvl 5 non-Legendary Pokémon by linking your XBox Live/PlayStation Network/whatever Nintendo currently uses to an account on the official Pokémon website), you will create your character with Dragon's Dogma-grade options and set forth on one of the greatest adventures of your gaming career, exploring the aftermath of Team Rocket's/Aqua's/Magma's/Galactic's/Plasma's/Flare's respective downfalls, with more regions becoming available for download as time progresses. 3D, open-world, 1080p/60fps goodness, ever-expanding through the glory of DLC; this project, which I'm dubbing "Pokémon: Vanguard," will bring back elements from older games, such as Contests, mini-casinos, and Pokémon that follow their Trainer outside their Pokéball (optional), while introducing new elements such as public, MMO-type servers (Destiny, for once, is a good example), friendly servers (only you and your friends, if you've all selected the option) and private sessions (only you and your friends, if you invite them). Through Vanguard, the need to invent new regions and new Pokémon to hold on to fans is nearly eliminated; now, with a much broader fanbase to reach out to, the challenge is updating the storyline and revamping old regions.

Though likely little more a dream, this is my proposal to prevent Game Freak from becoming another Sega or Infinity Ward. While extreme, I believe the future of Pokémon lies in the realm of all consoles. And, of course, I'd be delighted to hear ideas.

 

[mew_nani]

There's a problem with that though: Nintendo would never let that happen. Pokemon is one of Nintendo's cash cows, and they'd never even dream of letting Sony or Microsoft get ahold of it. As for Pokemon becoming like Call of Duty, I'm already seeing this begin to happen with Pokemon X and Y and ORAS. Notice how they came out one year apart, and how ORAS has already replaced Pokemon X and Y? Sure the previous games had small differences, but Pokemon Diamond could still be in a Pokemon tournament, and Black and Black 2 interacted fine. X and Y are obsolete because they don't have a lot of the mega evolutions ORAS has, forcing you to buy the newer games. It's getting similar to Call of Duty, which comes out almost yearly and makes the older game obsolete with new maps and weapons. A bigger problem is that one year is not nearly enough time to iron out all the bugs and fully take advantage of the hardware the game runs on, and Pokemon X and Y runs into this wall immediately. It should have had an extra year of development time. ORAS to my knowledge still has some of the issues X and Y has, and everyone is so busy making a new game they have no time to iron out the bugs before they have to ship the game out. Sound like Call of Duty yet?

Personally I would like game where they brought the most loved features back and allowed the player to travel to other regions, and even go to places that might have changed over time. But that would never happen. :P

 

[CoffeeDrink]

Nintendo will not give it up to them and I'm not sure you'd want them to either. All the 'magic' would probably get neglected under the watchful eye of Microsoft. No trading cards, no websites, no nothing. It's best the way things are for now. until we see that Microsoft is mature enough to handle a steady title for more than 20 years. . . (holy cow.) I have little faith that they could handle the scope of the series. Anime, manga, etc.

 

[Damon-013]

Nintendo will not give it up to them and I'm not sure you'd want them to either. All the 'magic' would probably get neglected under the watchful eye of Microsoft. No trading cards, no websites, no nothing. It's best the way things are for now. until we see that Microsoft is mature enough to handle a steady title for more than 20 years. . . (holy cow.) I have little faith that they could handle the scope of the series. Anime, manga, etc.

Not sure how much influence Microsoft has over non-gaming media like trading cards. But I would like to turn some attention towards 343 Industries, the current caretaker of the Halo franchise, which isn't far from its 14th anniversary. No cards in sight (which I'm not too hung up over, to be honest, but there's several fanbases in which I would be a minority in that regard), but they've released two live-action miniseries/films, Forward Unto Dawn and Nightfall, as well as a collection of anime shorts whose name I can't immediately remember, a number of comic series such as the current Escalation, about a dozen books, and one graphic novel that I can immediately remember. What I'm suggesting, however wishful, is that Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo provide the means with which to play the game, which I believe is the case with multiplatform games such as Fallout, while Game Freak handles the game itself. As far as expanded media, I'm sure there'd be some way to keep the trading cards and the manga going, and as far as the anime goes... I think we all have varying opinions about Ash Ketchum and his unending-and-somehow-only-a-year-long journey. Me, I think they should just quit coming up with new Pokémon for a number of reasons, one of them being so Ash can realize this dream and simply become a legendary figure in the anime, like Red is to the games, then come up with a new series entirely.

 

[CoffeeDrink]

Me, I think they should just quit coming up with new Pokémon for a number of reasons, one of them being so Ash can realize this dream and simply become a legendary figure in the anime, like Red is to the games, then come up with a new series entirely.

That doesn't make much sense. The anime is loosely inspired by the games, not the other way around. The games should not specifically cater to the anime in order to keep tha game fair and balanced i.e. Pikachu using Thunderbolt on everything. They can siomply change out Ash if needed. Have him fall in love with someone somewhere in time: The End; and start a new one using a female as the main protagonist to remain impartial I suppose.

And even if Microsoft has handled some animated shorts, their science fiction universe is dwarfed by others. What I mean to say is that Microsoft has very little experience in cultural diversity when it comes to their games. The Xbox is not a system that is typically cared for in Japan, nor will it ever be if Microsoft maintains it's formula. So crafting a series, manga, trading cards, merchandise, and all that fun stuff for the entire planet, well. . . Microsoft doesn't have that level of experience; they sell their systems and software, sure, but what Pokemon is is a whole other ball game than just simply software.

 

[moon]

Moved to Pokémon Gaming Central.

 

[lilycovecave3]

I am completely on board with this idea. I even made a thread about it myself, if you'd like to check it out. But I think as everyone else has said, it can't and won't partner up with Sony or Microsoft. Let it stand alone still, be it's own. It'll be the best that way and still make money. One giant Pokemon game is a must, and eventually they're going to have to give in to change in the series in order for it to happen.