Pokémon

And I know a lot of people kept trying to blame the switch hardware

And then TotK comes out and blows that excuse back to Kanto. Pokemon Company just doesn't care to try.

I skipped sword and shield. Pokemon scarlet and violet ran terribly. Yet even though I went into it expecting to have a bad time, I still enjoyed the gameplay loop?

I'm extremely conflicted because I know that if it wasn't for it being pokemon I would have likely dropped S&V like a hot potato. And with the lie about reduced pokemon in each game due to having to recreate the models from scratch (and then people finding out Sw&Sh models were just 3ds models) it just rubbed me the wrong way.

All in all I can't help but think of what the games could be if they took the time to do it right.

Thank you for putting my feelings to words. I haven’t even actually played a Pokémon game for more than 5 minutes since sun and moon as they were just so boring, the tutorials were so long, and the z move mechanic basically didn’t impact the game at all as the game isn’t ever hard enough where you have to use a Z move.

I still play the older games but it’s because I find the experience more balanced and enjoyable.

people blaming the Switch

when the S&V devs decided that for some reason the game has to render a skybox for outer space that's ~1400 times the size of the world-skybox that you already use for sky daylight and it's already ~80 times too large for that

Come on!

They don't even have to do anything new, they just have to look at Cassette Beasts to see how to pull off an open world Pokemon-like game.

And you'll have a certain group of diehard fans who believe it "isn't a real pokémon game" because of the changes lol.

That was Legends: Arceus. But it still didn't sell nearly as well as Sword+Shield or Scarlet+Violet did.

tbh the Pokemon Company could probably not change a thing and keep churning out the same slop for fifty more years and still be the largest franchise on the planet.

Black2/White2 used to be so missunderstood. People would absolutely kill each other for that right now

It's why all the side games made by other groups are often so much better than the mainline games, despite having a far smaller budget to work with. Because they actually try to do new and innovating things with the franchise.

God mega evolutions we're such a great addition in X/Y. Z moves were lame and I haven't played a new Pokemon game since alpha Sapphire. Like yeah it's Pokemon but it just feels like a product at this point. I know the point is to make money but maybe they should take a break. Pokemon games almost died in black and white because they haven't changed.

yeah i have enjoyed the new games but none of them have really been able to capture the magic of the old ones. dexit also didnt help.

somehow collecting all the pokemon felt more fun in the old games? i mean it was always a chore to do, but i remember being much more excited finding a rare pokemon in the older games than the new ones haha

I would argue Pokemon has "evolved" too much, to the point where the game is bloated with way too many mechanics and is trying to be too many things.

You mentioned Z-mkves and Gigantamax. I would add in Mega Evolution, the Fairy type, Dynamax, Raid Battles, open areas. There's a ridiculous amount of unique and dumb evolutions. There's about 3x as many items as there should be. They keep on writing epic "kid saves the world" stories instead of "kid pushes back against the inconveniences imposed by small-time criminal" stories.

A lot of Nintendo's franchises have had BOTH transformative new games AND new games in the older styles. Mario has consistently had both 3D and 2D releases, on top of all of the sports games and other spin-offs. Metroid had the Prime series and then Dread. Donkey Kong had 64 and then went back to 2D. Zelda has had 3D games for sure, but they have also had 2D games like Link's Awakening on the Switch and previous handheld games.

I think GameFreak needs to grow and split into 2 teams: one to focus on 3D open-world Pokemon (like the Legends series) and one to focus on more traditional, 2.5D. Each team could take 2 years/game and they alternate releases. The 2D studio could add in re-makes as well: I am hopeful we get a Gen 5 re-make soon, but we are also getting to the point whete slme of the first re-makes are starting to need re-makes, like FRLG and HGSS.

For most people the Pokémon IP is a much bigger draw than a potentially better game though. Game Freak are in a position where due to the Pokémon IP they can release a game riddled with issues and still sell well.

creatures with machineguns

If I wanted that I'd just play Digimon. Not that the idea is bad, it just... feels to me more like an attempt at a replacement for Digimon than for Pokémon. Equipping everyone with machineguns and joining in into the slaughter feels like it absurdily misses the point of Pokémon for me.

(That said, I'm not con adapting some of the Palcreatures minus machineguns as fakémon if I find out I do like them)

Kindred Fates looks more interesting.

Normally I give a side eye to any game that looks like they specifically hired a lawyer to make sure their bootleg is legal, but the legit franchise is practically bootleg at this point so if this can out-Pokemon Nintendo then I'm all for it.

There's also Coromon, which even has a similar style.

I haven't checked in on it for a long time but I remember kindred fates also looking promising.

Blame for that lies mostly with Niantic. They do the development and pay for the rights to use The Pokemon Company's intellectual property

One would think the rational response from a development perspective is to make fewer releases but just as regular (ie.: change the release freq from "one per year" to "one per three years").

It's perfectly possible: they just need to reduce the frequency of that "regular" to eg.: regularly once every three years.

How does scarlet/violet compare to legends arceus?

I read a lot of criticism of PLA at launch as well, and I don’t know if patches fixed the game or if the criticism was overblown, but I’m currently playing PLA and I really love it.