It should be noted that the images used in this post are themed to their points, as such some might seem weird at first.
You Have Fourteen Buttons and Two Analogue Sticks. Use Them!: One of the biggest problems I have with Pokemon Let's Go is the controls. Excluding the Pokeball Plus, you are mainly limited to the number of buttons the original Game Boy had, to the point where it's better to play the "Pokemon game intended for console mode" in the Switch's handheld mode. Considering as Pokemon has been using more buttons in its control scheme since technically the Game Boy Advance and most certainly since the DS, it felt awkward regressing for the sake of motion controls. While I am currently unsure if Sword and Shield will have full camera control, at the very least it looks to use the same amount of buttons as the 3DS games, due to it looking more like a traditional Pokemon game. On the subject of Motion controls though...
"Motion Controls?": I am not someone who objectively hates Motion Controls the moment they are included in a game. What I am, however, is someone who does hate them when they get implemented badly and Let's Go's were implemented badly. While I personally didn't have too many issues with catching Pokemon, there were enough people that did to raise concerns. Do I think motion controls shouldn't be used in Pokemon? No, as there are ways to make it interesting. I think using the Go catching mechanics alongside traditional battles would work well, especially if you can't knock out a Pokemon before trying to catch it like in the traditional games. I also think it could be cool to use the Motion controls to release your Pokemon into battle (if you so choose), along with sub sections like Pokemon Amie/ Pokemon Refresh. If Contests were brought back, I could see you needing to use split Joycons to perform in contests a la Just Dance, and even using them to control the position of a camera for another Pokemon Snap like mini-game. There are ways to make it work that don't require handicaps. With the two of them combined, do I think the Pokeball Plus is going to come back? I think its Pokewalker mode has the best chance at coming back, but being used as a controller itself? Probably, hopefully, not.
Traditional Difficulty Options: There are many people who don't know that Pokemon Black 2 and Pokemon White 2 have customizable difficulty options. The reason why is because of how awkward it is to use it. To unlock it, you have to know someone who beat the final boss in the version that has the difficulty that you actually want, because of course, easy and hard mode are version exclusives... for some reason. This is dumb. This is really, really, really dumb. This method should not come back! How should it be handled? The traditional method of picking a difficulty before starting the adventure. Let Normal mode be more like Gen 1-4, less handholding but there if it's needed, Easy mode could be like the more recent generations, and hard mode can be the "You've played a Pokemon game before, no handholding for you".
Skippable Cutscenes: While I am all for Pokemon games having more of a story to them, a story isn't as engaging when returning to it (this isn't a problem exclusive to Pokemon, or even games for that matter). As such, the ability to skip cutscenes would be appreciated for people wanting to replay the game, and know what to do, along with speedrunners and people who don't care about the story. One thing I want to have the option to genuinely skip, not just an "Oh, isn't the way to do it *x*" kind of a skip, is the tutorials. There are people who have been playing Pokemon games for longer then some of the members of staff at Game Freak have been working there. I wouldn't be surprised if people know how to code the tutorial now due to how often it is brought up. While I appreciate the need for tutorials, as they are a clean way to explain to new players how the works, the catching mechanics have not changed (with the exception of Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee), in 23 years. Don't believe me when I say it's been ingrained into players?
- Start a battle with a wild Pokemon
- Use one of your pokemon to battle the wild Pokemon until the health of the opposing Pokemon you want to catch is less than 50%, or preferably between 1% and 10%. If you are in a battle against more then one Pokemon, you have to knock out all but the one Pokemon you actually want to catch.
- Inflict a status condition like Sleep, Freeze or Paralysis. Paralysis is the preferred option to most trainers due to there not being many ways a wild Pokemon can naturally heal from the status condition.
- Use a Pokeball type that best fits your current situation, as a Pokeball that matches the situation, such as location, number of turns that have progressed, the type of Pokemon, or other factors can help with catching endeavours. Personal favourites of mine include the traditional Pokeball, Great Ball and Ultra Ball (each overall stronger then the last), the Master Ball (a, normally, once per game type that has a 100% capture rate), the Quick Ball (higher catch rate if used on the first turn), Timer Ball (higher catch rate depending on the number of turns in the battle), and the Dusk Ball (higher catch rate at night or in caves).
- Throw Pokeballs until either caught, it flees, or it knocks either itself out, or your team out.
I speak for many when I say I do not need to see the tutorial on how to catch Pokemon again.
Better use of Patches: This is not something I thought of until recently when I saw a video by GameXplain, that inspired this post. Don't load the event exclusive Pokemon onto the cartridge at launch. It is frustrating to see the event Pokemon data-mined minutes after launch, let alone knowing you can't get that Pokemon because the event doesn't really happen here. "No I'm not bitter about not being able to get Zeaora, why do you ask?!". One thing I want to add on top of that though is adding the Pokemon released for later game updates to the data of previous games. You cannot use Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Mega Evolutions against a copy of X and Y. You can't use any of the new Ultra Beasts or the new Necrozma forms from Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon against a copy of Sun and Moon. Why? No idea, just cause. So on top of releasing the event Pokemon via free patches, if we need to get mid-gen updates, can the new Pokemon at least be added to the old game's data, to be able to fight against it? Like how Smash updates load the data to play against the DLC fighters onto every console, you just can't use them until you buy the DLC.
Exploration Linearity: I know I'm in the minority here, but I don't want Pokemon to go full Open World, at least in terms of the style of Open World I and many others think of first when we hear the term. Bland, at times lifeless world that's big for the sake of being big, full of nothing but fetch quests (oh sorry, that's Anthem). While I, like many others, don't want a series of straight lines connecting towns and cities, I do to explore, I don't think taking away all the structure and saying "go nuts" is the way to do it as, at least to me, the structure gives me a sense of power, I feel like I'm getting stronger, better as I go along a structured game, something that I don't really get in most open world games. I want Pokemon to learn more from more traditional 3D Zeldas, and this goes into my next two points.
"Do we live in a Pokemon world?": While many may think that the wandering wild pokemon made things too easy, it was very efficient. Though rarer spawns were frustrating to create (if it's not clear yet, a lot of these points bleed into each other, so more on that later), it did help make the world feel more alive, and especially with the footage we've seen so far from Detective Pikachu, I do hope this continues. I want to see wild pokemon wandering around the overworld, I want to see more Pokemon appear in cities and towns doing things, so that this can be a Pokemon world, not just a world with Pokemon in it. Sadly it would appear that random battles have returned, so I do hope that there is more life to the world in other ways, or even potentially have the option to flip between the two? There wouldn't be as much work to do as you might think, all the Pokemon up to Gen 7 (maybe the USUM Pokemon, not sure off the top of my head). have walking and running animations. All that would need to be made are the models and animations for the brand new Pokemon.
Ride Pokemon Plus: HM's do not need to return. Ever! HM's are limiting, tedious, a chore in every sense of the word. Ride Pokemon from Sun and Moon were a nice breath of fresh air by comparison. My only real complaint is that you weren't riding your Pokemon, but pokemon you were borrowing, Lapras for example I believe was Lana's Lapras. This was somewhat fixed in Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee, however, it didn't feel intuitive in terms of the HM replacements, more like a novelty thing for some specific Pokemon. I would like to see a fusion of the execution between the two, allowing for as many Pokemon as possible to be rideable, and each Pokemon could have a overworld ability to allow for wider exploration options. You could run on top of a rolling Electrode, have Blaziken give you a Piggy Back ride, soar around on Salamence (a la Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire), and in terms of the potential with exploration. Riding a Pidgeoto could let you glide over small gaps (like how you can use Cuccos in Legend of Zelda), but a Pidgeot could give you flying around routes like Let's Go (even potentially leading to hidden areas you can't get too on foot), fast travel between towns, or the afore mentioned return of Soaring, It could be an easy excuse to bring back several HM abilities like Cut, Surf, Strength, Rock Smash, Dive, Waterfall, even one-off ones like Defog and Whirlpool. Regular moves with overworld abilities like Dig and Teleport could get the same treatment, especially as the only requirements are having the right trainer gear (purchasable in towns), and a pokemon of a specific type to use. I can't help but feel that it would be a more expansive system then designated ride pokemon, and especially HM's. Will this and the deeper exploration be a thing in Sword and Shield? I don't know it is too early to tell right now. I have hopes for it though.
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| Source can be found here |
"Biome Specific Pokemon": There aren't many people in the world who would get this without me providing some context. In an upcoming video, Marissa and I will go into a bit of a fun project we'd been working on behind the scenes. We were concept designing a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game, given the working title of Explorers of Legends. Well... that wasn't the only Pokemon game we were brainstorming, the other one was given the working title of Pokemon Genesis and Pokemon Terminus. While some ideas like what we call BSP's and the Ride Pokemon Plus have come from that, not all of these ideas have. So, what is a Biome Specific Pokemon? In short terms, it's what Marissa and I called Genesis and Terminus' version of Alolan forms. However, we didn't really limit it in any way. A BSP is like the Alolan forms in that they are extreme variations of existing Pokemon types, cause due to natural or man-made changes to their environment. Some personal favourites that I remember us brainstorming include
- Water/ Poison Vaporeon: Found in swamp areas, designed to be like a silent predator in the swamplands.
- Fighting/ Steel Lucario with an immunity to fire attacks: Found on tall mountains at high altitudes with longer, thicker fur, and is more defensively focused stat wise.
- Water/ Dark Primarina: Based more off of the more dangerous tales of the Mermaid and Siren.
- Pure Water Swamperts, one found in freshwater rivers and ponds, known for higher speeds due to fighting currents, and a saltwater variant with darker colours, longer tale, and more defensive due to higher stamina limits.
- Fire/ Fairy Weavile: Faster, physical fire and fairy attacker, designed to look more graceful than the more traditional Weavile, like a dancer.
We actually came up with a lot of these so if anyone's curious to see more of them, let us know. In the meantime though, back on track, I would like to see more regional variants of older Pokemon, as they did act as a refreshing change of pace, and many of the Alolan forms are very memorable, even to the point of being some of my favourite versions of those Kanto Pokemon, such as Alolan Raichu and Alolan Ninetails.
More Pokemon Varieties Other Then Shiny Pokemon: Without going to the extreme of BSP's, one thing that could be done is minor differences between Pokemon. Random chances of Pokemon having different hues of colour (like Pokemon Stadium), a visual representation of Pokemon sizes other then "It's Huge!" or "It's Tiny!" (ironically I can point to the now killed Minecraft mod Pixelmon for a good example of that one). Things like a Gyarados with darker blue scales, or a Klefki with randomized keys, expanding on the sizes of Pumpkaboo and the random spirals of Spinda, things that make a Pokemon feel more unique to the trainer that caught them. Plus it would have made things like catch combos in Let's go more interesting.
Bring Back the National Dex: The missing national Dex in Generation 7 felt wrong. There's no other way to really say it. The game felt incomplete without it because it's been a staple of the Postgame in core Pokemon RPGs since Generation 3 (or generation 2 if you count the Johto Pokedex). Maybe it's because of localization of all the new entries becoming too taxing on the localization teams? Or even the writers of the game? If that's true, why not have the entries be the same between games? They're normally very similar anyway, and in making the entries shared between games, all that would need to happen is editing them with new information when new information is created.
"Grind for competitive does not equal quality post game content": No Game Freak. It doesn't. I don't care what the excuse is, it comes off as lazy and while I was more tolerant of it for the 3DS, making the jump to the Switch brings with it new comparisons. Pokemon is no longer the default gold standard of RPG's on a Nintendo system as before Sword and Shield were even announced, Skyrim and Octopath Traveller were released, many iconic Final Fantasy games are being drip fed to the platform, Dragon Quest XI S is on the way, rumours are flying around about Persona 5 coming to the Switch. Heck, to go back to Square Enix, World of Final Fantasy Maxima is SE's take on a Pokemon game themed around Final Fantasy. Even in Nintendo's own wheelhouse, Fire Emblem Three Houses is on the way, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild launched with the system, and although it wasn't an RPG, Super Mario Odyssey has enough content to rival all of these RPG's, and these are only the games that are out, coming out soon or are heavily rumoured to be coming soon. While I don't think Sword and Shield are going to be breaking the mould when it comes to Pokemon staples, it is still going to need to raise its game in order to compete on a higher level then "It's a new Pokemon game", even though not doing so will still sell copies and consoles...
"We get it, Kanto came first": You can travel to the Kanto region in five out of seven generations (Gen 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7). You can travel to Kanto on almost every single Nintendo portable system (the exceptions being the Game and Watch, and the Virtual Boy). The only generation to not have any direct ties to Kanto, is Unova, the soft reboot of Pokemon. I am sick, and tired, of blatant Kanto copy and pastes, the preferential treatment, and what feels like forcing Gen 1 into games because it's Gen 1. Do I think it can't be used tastefully? No, I don't, as one great example of it being done tastefully is the Pokemon World Tournament in Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, where yes, you could fight all the Kanto gym leaders, Blue and Red, but you could also fight all the Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova Gym Leaders and Champions too, making it feel like more of a natural fit, at least when compared to Santalune Forest in Kalos being a one for one remake of Viridian Forest, being given both a Kalos and Kanto starter, most XY Mega evolutions being Kanto Pokemon, all Alolan forms being Kanto Pokemon, Pokemon Go only launching with Kanto Pokemon, Let's go being an almost one for one remake of Yellow, Samson Oak's existence, all the gen 7 Pokemon movies, have I made the point of the Kanto references and retreads being excessive yet?
"Could we go across the channel?": Due to the fact that Galar is based heavily on the United Kingdom, I can't help but wonder if the geography of Pokemon World is at least similar to the real world, mainly if there is a "Galaish [It's the best I could come up with] Channel". To those who aren't familiar with global geography, the English Channel is a 560 km body of water, with varying widths, that separate Southern England and Northern France, with ferry services and an underground train service being used to connect them. Due to this, it honestly wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities to allow players to access the Pokemon equivalent of France, the Kalos region, in Sword and Shield, especially as the two countries have a close history with each other. Is it likely? No, it's really not, though having access to Kalos does help fix the Postgame problem. It would depend on how easily the Kalos assets are too upscale.
More NPC variety: Individual looks for all? No, that's absurd. However, I do think there's more that could be done, like having a small handful of model types for trainer classes, and characters tied closely to main characters, they should have their own models too. Sun and Moon was a pretty bad example of this, with characters like the main teacher of the Pokemon School, and Lana's sisters coming to mind. It feels kind of lazy, and even doing it for some minor characters adds more to the variety of the game, especially when you can go through routes fighting the same two character designs over, and over, and over, and over again.
"I want to see me in the mirror!": This is another case of Ï could understand it when it was on the 3DS, but I do expect more now, that being Trainer customization, particularly at the start of the game, as with the exception of prices that make you really question of bad this universe's economy is, I don't have any issues with customization during the game. Seriously, free health care, lemonade costs 300 bucks and a shirt costs over a thousand? (Yes I know it's based off yen, that's nowhere near as funny though, just let me have my joke!). Anyway, the biggest problem with the system is the set of predetermined designs you get when you first start the game. I'm not saying to go full customization like you can in some games, seriously the day Pokemon adds two particular customization areas will be the day I leave the franchise because these are still supposed to be children, but allowing players to freely pick their starting hairstyle, their hair colour, their eye colour and skin colour, all on sliders to get the colours just right would be enough for me.
"I am not a plank of wood! I am a human being!": While Let's Go did somewhat help solve this problem, the biggest problem of both the regular and ultra versions of Sun and Moon, was the protagonist's animations, or rather, the lack thereof when it came to the face. Even in the most serious of moments, unless it was a rendered cutscene like when Nihilego is appearing in the Aether Paradise, all the player would do is smile. "I am finally standing up to my mother and forcing her to confront her ideas and beliefs when it comes to concepts of beauty and how she views both myself and my older brother! Why are you smiling? This is not a happy moment!" While the Let's Go protagonists did have the emotional capacity of Link from Twilight Princess, a step up because Sun and Moon have the emotional capacity of Link from Ocarina of Time, there are still further places they can go. Voice acting in major cutscenes would be a nice way to start. More emotions and animations in general day to day activities, rather than just preloaded cutscenes would help. Something I doubt they'd do, but something that would be great to see is a Bioware inspired dialogue tree system to allow the player more active control over story events.
"Going from Go and Let's Go?": Do I think there will be compatibility between Go and Sword and Shield? Probably not, it's something that feels like it would be a Let's Go exclusive. As for coming from Let's Go? Maybe? They could always add Bank support for Let's Go, but at the same time, I don't know if it's such a good idea to bring Pokemon from Let's Go into Sword and Shield, especially when most of the Pokemon have heavily compromised move pool potential, and the only two really worth bringing over to most people are the two most overpowered Pokemon in the game, the Partner Pikachu and Partner Eevee. It would be a good way to get the Kanto Pokemon in the game for the sake of the Pokedex, but I'm willing to bet a large chunk of Kanto Pokemon are going to be found in Galar anyway. Who knows, they may just ban Partner Pikachu and Partner Eevee from being on the Bank, wouldn't be the first time they've done that. Isn't that right Spiky Ear Pichu? Isn't that right Black and/or White Kyurem
"Bring the band in, and get the recording booth ready": Mario gets a live band. Zelda gets a live band, Smash had a live band back on the Gamecube, Why doesn't Pokemon? While the music is still great, I know these aren't being performed by real people, and I want to hear what that could be like. Imagine what some of the best Pokemon songs would sound like if they were performed with real instruments over computers. Unfortunately, based on the announcement trailer, we're not getting that here, which is unfortunate. Maybe Gen 9?
"Do we really need another Ultra Sun/ Ultra Moon? Or another Crystal, Emerald and Platinum?": As controversial as this might sound, I don't think we do anymore. Don't get me wrong, they have their place, but most of what was done in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon could have been paid DLC for Sun and Moon. Pulling back on the Ït's this game with some more content" versions would leave more room for more games like Black 2 and White 2, along with room for Spin-offs again, such as a new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Ranger, to even one shot like a Pokenn Tournament 2, along with new spin-off ideas. Aside from a new Mystery Dungeon, I'd easily be up for a budget title based on Pokemon Pinball, or even better yet...
"So... I heard you liked the Game Corner": The traditional form of the Game Corner will not return, ever, thanks to law changes in, I believe it's the UK, either the UK or Europe. However, there is one thing that can be used in those places instead. Turn the Game Corner from a Casino like area, to an Arcade-like area, and populate it with mini-games based on Pokemon, such as the Mini games from the Stadium Games, Pokemon Pinball, the minigames from the Wi-Fi Plaza in Platinum, there's a lot of potential there, especially if the Generation 4 remakes are indeed going to happen, because there will be riots if the Veilstone Game Corner music isn't somewhere in the game.
Streamlining the Evolutions: I like the stones, I like the magnetism location, heck, I can get a laugh out of joke evolutions like Inkay. But there are some that I don't see the point in, and I would like to see more of a streamlining in the evolutions. We don't need the Moss Rock and Ice Rock anymore, we shouldn't have one use only items for Pokemon where the item is only needed for one Pokemon. Feebas has had several Evolution changes made to it since Ruby and Sapphire, why can't all these other Pokemon have that, or at the very least have more Pokemon that need it to evolve, because that makes the method feel like a gimmick, especially when, in the case of Leafeon and Glaceon, we now have perfectly valid ways to evolve both of them, the Leaf Stone and the new Ice Stone from Sun and Moon.
"I'll stand here while the seasons fly by": I really enjoyed the weather changes from Gen 5, like the day/ night cycle, it helps make the world feel more alive, like it's a living, breathing place. It never felt like a burden in the official games (rom hacks on the other hand...) and helped bring new information to existing Pokemon by seeing when they're the most active, and when they're not. As evident by a lot of these, more life in the world is what I want the most in Pokemon games going forward. I want to be immersed in these worlds, without needing to resort to tired tropes like hunger meters, and other realistic, yet frustrating mechanics.
What do you think of these concepts, these ideas? Did you enjoy the fact that I posted the draft to Twitter earlier in the week? Did it work? What would you like to see in Generation 8 and beyond? This was one of two ideas I had, the other being how an Australia themed region would work. Let me know if that interests you. I am aiming to get the review of Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon out for Next Wednesday. Whether that happens or not is another story entirely. The Tracer vs Widdowmaker review should still come out on Sunday on the Toy Box.
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