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The Story of my Declining Interest In Pokémon

BluePikmin11

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This E3 was a decent hit for Nintendo. Some of us thought that Nintendo would have the worst E3 ever, but The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild managed to pull lots of viewers. The new Zelda was the most talked about game at E3. What we have been shown so far is completely different from recent Zelda games. It is an open world game that roots back to the original Zelda for the NES, allowing full freedom and having a multitude of ways of beating the game.

I believe that change in the Zelda formula is the reason why Breath of the Wild has gotten so much attention. After Nintendo showed the first Zelda Wii U/NX trailer, they transitioned to talk about the new Pokémon games, Sun and Moon. What they shown in the demonstration is not much. It is mostly just visual changes and a few new Pokémon, nothing of interest to me.

And I talked to myself, this feels mostly the same. Why am I thinking that? Why have I not been invested in Pokémon in a while, despite Pokémon having its 20th anniversary? Then it hit me. The reason it has gotten stale for me is because there has not been a big change to the formula with the main Pokémon games in a long time.

While the newest Zelda dramatically changed its formula, the goal for the Pokémon has always been the same. Players travel across a region to collect 8 badges and become the champion, very straight forward. But that is what Pokémon has always been for 6 generations, and it has never deviated from the formula since then. Why not change into something more interesting like collecting Shadow Pokémon in the Gamecube games? That would be a refreshingly new goal.

I notice the same patterns for the Pokémon themselves too, each one designed to fill in a niche. I see Pokémon designed to be first ones players meet in the first route, the trio legendaries, the powerful dragon type Pokémon, two main Legendaries, two fossil Pokémon that players can resurrect, a starting bird Pokémon used to help a player use the HM Fly to get other areas, etc. I can go on about it. That was only the start of my observation.

I used to be a huge Pokémon fan when I was young, do not get me wrong. I played all the main games from Ruby/Sapphire to X/Y. I collected many Pokémon toys in my youth and memorized every move, ability, and type Pokémon have. But there was something about Pokémon that was missing that made me question whether or not memorizing all of this stuff was worth it in the long run.

As I gradually got older, I began to play more games and finally pinpointed the reason I do not play Pokémon as much, particularly with games like Undertale and Yo-kai Watch. In Undertale, every monster a player encounter has an interesting personality that makes them likeable and memorable. In Yo-kai Watch, Yo-kai have a voice and personality. Yo-kai have the ability to inspirit people with various relatable problems that happen to people everyday like memory loss, having a cold, etc. What do Undertale and Yo-kai Watch have in common? They CONNECT to players in interesting ways.

I believe that connecting is the missing thing that prevents Pokémon from realizing its great potential.

While the Pokémon creatures do look cool, cute, and extremely polished in design, there is not much personality players can get from these Pokémon that make them likeable outside of design. When Pokémon tries to have personality, all that the Pokémon can really do is be epic or cute to their trainers. I consider that, in my opinion, to be a waste of character design and potential. There are lots of creatures in media who do not talk much like Snoopy or Stitch, but even they convey a better personality and connect more than the Pokémon themselves that make those characters particularly memorable.

And sure, we have huge steps for Pokémon like Mega-Evolutions and new Pokémon types like Fairy, but their personality still does not change to make them anymore interesting. Those are particular problems for me, because the Pokémon themselves are the biggest hype factors for the franchise. If all my Pokémon can do is act cute and look cool, I would rather stop playing the game.

The same can be said for the Pokémon anime for recent seasons. Through observation, people can see the same things. Pokémon that act cute/cool, Ash’s goal is to become the master, the same theme of believing in his Pokémon, filler episodes that do not contribute much to the story and Ash’s character, and him losing the Pokémon league. That is not something I would watch over 100 episodes over just to see Ash progress. I have not seen anything new that makes the recent Pokémon anime worth watching. Not even Ash finally getting a romantic partner like Serena in the X/Y anime interests me, because his overall character is pretty stale.

And I get it, Pokémon are suppose to be like animals players see in the wild. They are not suppose to have these fleshed out personalities. But considering Pokémon are the creatures players catch and battle with, they are the creatures players are suppose to connect with. And I do not feel any connection with my Pokémon as I play through more of the main game compared to other media that handle creatures well.

Yes, one could argue the growing character connection is through its RPG levelling up system and through Pokémon Amie, but most people care more about the growing stats that make their Pokémon more powerful than the actual character/personality the Pokémon has. Thus, it results to not having the feeling of an actual bond between their Pokémon. Thus, making the Pokémon themselves not being very memorable. Without a real growing connection being made to the player and Pokémon, they feel like robots designed to obey a player’s every command, making the overall experience feel stale.

Sometimes, I feel like Game Freak has been trying to focus too much the younger audience for each new Pokémon generation. I feel they ignore suggestions from older fans on what can be done to appeal to older demographic. There is a reason some fans decide to stop playing Pokémon and move on to other things years later. There is a reason why X/Y was not as well-received by Pokémon fans because of it being too easy and being too helpful with level grinding. It is that lack of real connection between the player and his/her Pokémon.

That is just how I feel about main Pokémon games currently. I have not completely abandoned Pokémon though, I am still interested in the side stuff like playing Pokémon Go because it is a new way to play Pokémon. I appreciate what the main Pokémon games have done to my life, but I think it is time for me to let it go to explore something new that provides more substance. But what are your thoughts? Do you disagree? I am very interested in your opinion! I would love to hear it!

I made this to confess my honest feelings about Pokemon, and I feel it needs to be shared.
 
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BluePikmin11

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Well that's not really a contradiction, I explain in that part how the spinoff games have new goals of playing Pokemon, and I bring up the Shadow Pokemon from the Gamecube games to show an example.

But whatever, I'll change it to "something more interesting"
 
D

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It happens to a lot of people believe me your not the only one. There's nothing wrong with moving on from the series. It's your choice and I hope you enjoy all that you play from here on out.
 
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LancerStaff

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Honestly I hate the new Zelda because of the changes. I've waited five years only to get another bland and empty Skyrim rip-off instead of what I loved.

Pokemon could be doing more to make each entry unique but I don't want it to pull a Zelda U and change genres... The GC games I hated but not because they were different. It's that you only had access to maybe fifty Pokemon and that's it. It's like gen V where it was all gen V Pokemon and you couldn't use any of your old favorites until the post-game. They had better balanced gameplay and some interesting story elements but that's it.
 

Tino

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Eh, I'm the same way. I've lost interest in the Pokemon series after Gen 3 so I know how that goes.
 

DeKoibs☆

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That the same way I felt about Pokemon games, they just don't bring much new to the table. I had only played the Diamond version and when I got the Heartgold version, I didn't even bother to finish the game. Another reason I just stopped playing it is because it just isn't challenging enough, and it felt too simplistic. For me, I prefer more of strategy based RPGs like Persona, FF, the Mother series, and Yo-Kai Watch which I recently got hooked by. I can tell that they're running out of ideas for Pokemon. I mean seriously, a pile of TRASH?! And an ice cream cone?! And let's not forget about that one Pokemon that is just a pair of keys!
 

Aetheri

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It isn't so much that each pokemon game doesn't bring something new to the table...it's that progression is a tiny bit slower than other games that try to bring something fresh...but I can still recognize that GameFreak is making an attempt to bring the series forward even though the changes aren't quite as drastic as what we've seen in Zelda BotW...The games have come a long way from the original R/B(G)/Y and I think it can only get better from here on out...

Many people play Pokemon for different reasons, some are in it for the competitive side, while others are more casual and just want their hourdes of cute pink monsters and feed them poffins all the time...While others simply move on to other things...

Of course no one is forced to play these games and if interest wains, really the best thing is to take a break...who knows? if you decide to come back to it later you may find it refreshing once again...almost all pokemon fans have been there done that afterall, such as myself around Gen IV...until Gen VI brought me back into the series...
 
D

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I think maybe GameFreak could benefit from slowing down a little bit in terms of making new entries in the core Pokemon series and instead dedicate time to some of the spin-offs like aforementioned Shadow Pokemon games or Pokemon Ranger.
 
D

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I do understand your appeal for a personality connection with Pokemon, but perhaps the games never required it so much because they are considered animals and well, animals have characteristics, but they aren't going to be able to communicate with us that well. They could flesh out the animal aspect like how the anime does and the Pokemon in the anime DO have personalities albeit still being animalistic in mannerisms, but with the amount of Pokemon and the content that tends to be in the game, it'll be difficult to do.

I definitely do enjoy Pokemon Colosseum and XD far more than X&Y. They are really good games and have a far better story and progression than X&Y, and I love the third personish view (which I'm glad Sun & Moon is taking a step further finally, no more square walking). However, I think for Pokemon to take the next step we'll have to wait till next-gen, and at that I hope they consider a console version at some point which may help but that's besides the point.

For a while I actually grew disinterested in Pokemon, which is crazy for me because I was there right when it first started here in USA in 1998 and was a humongous Pokemon fan up until Gen V where things tapered off for me. I still bought the games but they lacked the charm and entertaining world that the older games use to have. It was only until Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire that my love for the series revived again due to how good the remakes are.

Personally, I feel Gen 2 and Gen 1 are the truest of Pokemon experiences and the most entertaining. I'd reccomend playing a full playthrough (not just a hour) of either game if you ever decide to play a Pokemon game again only because you will get truest nature of Pokemon by the original devs before Pokemon had a billion and half sequels that ended up robbing a lot of the charm they use to have. I do not mean the remakes either, the original Game Boy ones. :)
 

Starlight Liger

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Sometimes, I feel like Game Freak has been trying to focus too much the younger audience for each new Pokémon generation. I feel they ignore suggestions from older fans on what can be done to appeal to older demographic. There is a reason some fans decide to stop playing Pokémon and move on to other things years later. There is a reason why X/Y was not as well-received by Pokémon fans because of it being too easy and being too helpful with level grinding. It is that lack of real connection between the player and his/her Pokémon.

That is just how I feel about main Pokémon games currently. I have not completely abandoned Pokémon though, I am still interested in the side stuff like playing Pokémon Go because it is a new way to play Pokémon. I appreciate what the main Pokémon games have done to my life, but I think it is time for me to let it go to explore something new that provides more substance. But what are your thoughts? Do you disagree? I am very interested in your opinion! I would love to hear it!

I made this to confess my honest feelings about Pokemon, and I feel it needs to be shared.
Looks like you were right on the money the whole time.
 

Etheus Rook

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Pokemon is Nintendo's laziest, most stagnant franchise. It's not just that they don't change the formula in substantial ways (which, IMO, franchises generally shouldn't do in the first place).

It's more that Pokemon has gaping flaws that they don't bother fixing.

EVs and IVs are terrible, unintuitive, and unfun background progression mechanics.

The story is weak.

The characters are one note.

The presentation is bland.

The dialogue is boring and repetitive.

The game lacks difficulty settings.

It lacks multiple save slots.

Combat still generally just revolves around one or two shotting foes with super effective damage with very little nuance.


And yes, it gets away with an anti-consumer multi-version business model, now at full price with season passes.
 

R O F L

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Pokemon is Nintendo's laziest, most stagnant franchise. It's not just that they don't change the formula in substantial ways (which, IMO, franchises generally shouldn't do in the first place).

It's more that Pokemon has gaping flaws that they don't bother fixing.

EVs and IVs are terrible, unintuitive, and unfun background progression mechanics.

The story is weak.

The characters are one note.

The presentation is bland.

The dialogue is boring and repetitive.

The game lacks difficulty settings.

It lacks multiple save slots.

Combat still generally just revolves around one or two shotting foes with super effective damage with very little nuance.


And yes, it gets away with an anti-consumer multi-version business model, now at full price with season passes.
I'd actually argue the opposite. Pokemon SWSH is the most innovation Gamefreak has ever put into a Pokemon game, especially with the DLC, which is essentially half-open world and incredibly non-linear. They are turning in a new direction for the general gameplay and structure of main series Pokemon, it's currently not different enough to sell it as a new experience, but they are doing innovation, more than Kirby at least.
While there is a ton of laziness in the franchise as a whole, I don't see much laziness put into SWSH. The actual developers of the game had about two years to make the first ever home console new generation Pokemon game while they also had a large portion of employees working on Let's Go, I think what they accomplished was amazing for the time they were given.
The non-DLC for SWSH is crap, but I doubt this is due to laziness and more due to time constraints put on the executives and Nintendo. Pokemon could easily become good again if they decided to spend another two years on the next generation. They seriously need to stop pumping out two Pokemon games a year and need to spend more time to make more refined and polished games. With the money they earn from these games, I doubt any Gamefreak or TPC executives would have any interest in extending development time for mainline games, but at least the Crown Tundra was a breath of fresh air for the franchise.

Though, I do agree with "gaping flaws" you mentioned. They have been slowly improving on the combat and EVs/IVs, however, but yeah those are big problems that have been plaguing Pokemon recently.
 
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