Topic: Is Pokémon Coming To An End?

Well, really the only reason Pokemon uses all those advanced techs is because it's their in-universe way to explain online, trading, etc.

Main Pokemon games need those elements.

There are other ways of making those elements necessary. Say they take a bit more of a "spiritual" route instead. Not religious. example, To trade pokemon to another person there is a universal pokemon that "opens" up a dimension that will allow the pokemon to make it to another person. Unown, dusknoir, dialga, Palkia, giratina. Take your pick they all open up dimensions and since this would take place in a time where the conflict caused by the teams, there could be a precursor to them or even an evil pokemon that would be the center ofthe plot. potions would be replaced outright with the old school herbs and roots or powders etc that are optional in the current ones. just a thought.

That's probably another problem right there: replacing items would mean that the games wouldn't be compatible with older "modern" games.

You could find ways to work around it all, but this is game freak we are talking about.

It would end up being a severely limited spinoff at best.

For the sake of compatibility they could be labelled as "experimental elixers" or something along those lines.

I'd actually be very interested in seeing that kinda thing happen. After all, we hear about all these legends from the past all the time in the Pokémon games, so it would be awesome to actually experience them! And, of course, that kind of taking a series back in time thing has happened well before! If it works for Ace Attorney, it works for Pokémon, right? ...I don't think that's a sentence that's been used before.

yep. Pokemon are revered in legends and myths. I don't see why Gamefreak can't take you to a time when one of those said legends was created maybe even let you create that said legend.

I understand where you're coming from, and it's brillient.

However, I don't know if it's something GF or any company to work on. If we created a game about the great battle of groudon, kyogre, and rayquaza, we wouldn't have anything to theorize or build off of.. we got primals now, and those primals ARE the events that took place in the past. Any experience in the past was simply death until rayquaza showed up. Unless you're playing some kind of mystery dungeon aspect of the pokemon, I don't think anything could really fit in the gameplay+storyline category of this.

The other possible "past" game could revolve around the war that broke out in kalos, but it's not just some casual game of catching pokemon or battling with toys like rumble.. it's a full blown graphical war of death which wouldn't be a good installment for the franchise. They can make a game leading up to the war, but then what's the point if we know what those events were? They could discribe what caused the war.. but actually, instead they can use that missing link to improve a future installment (kalos remake in gen 12, "Z" verison,).

Any other legends/myths were simply theories of creation.. how can you make a game of dialga, palkia, and giratina creating the universe with no other life in existence? I'd be curious to see the innovation in that, but it wouldn't be a title of interest when it's simple just a simulation of things we already know.

Unless you want a pokemon dating simulator based off that theory of people used to marry pokemon back in gen 4............

I was going to post this into the main ORAS thread, however I found the whole discussion of "artist block" to be off topic and interesting.

This is news posted on pokebeach.com:

I'm glad they are still acknowledging mega flygon.. but the idea of gamefreak going through an "artist block" is surprising.

Well this IS 700+ designs later. I think the idea well would probably get a little dry after that long

When you look at the likes of Spiritomb, the notion of Game Freak going through artist block doesn't seem so astounding.

I feel Pokemon will only last a couple more generations. The Artists Block could apply to how little new pokemon were introduced in Kalos Tho.

Spiritomb isn't even that weird. Just look at that ice cream pokemon....and Klefki, literally a ring of keys...ugh

I think the reduction in kalos mons was more of the result of mega evolution taking over. I do agree there should've been more gen 6 pokemon introduced, but if GF is considering the 50 mega evolutions so far as new pokemon (which theoretically they are with all but movepool changes given to them), then in addition with however many "Z" introduces, we're still capping over the adverage number of pokemon introduced in a generation.

The artist block could apply to flygon specifically, they didn't know what to do with it (we see bug buzz and boomburst randomly added to vibrava's level up movepool in oras, alongside gyara getting crunch) or the artist block could apply to pokemon as a whole, that they simply are struggling with redesigning already cool looking pokemon rather than starting new ones from scratch.

EDIT: and by 50 megas I mean 48 megas and 2 primals.

Another possibility is that they don't want to introduce too many pokemon too quickly, I've always wondered what's going to happen when we hit 1000 pokemon.. perhaps they're trying to delay whatever species cap they're going for by making fewer mons.

Once it hits around 1000 or even before that, it might come to an end after so many years.

1. Stop looking at surface elements. The core aesthetics of the single player campaign have completely shifted since gen 1; IMO for the worst.

Compare R/B/Y to X/Y. The latter is filled with scripted moments where you are told exactly where to go and what to do. Very rarely do you ever encounter a moment where you have to look around and figure out where to go next. The former had moments where you had to figure out a way around an obstacle. The world was non-linear, so you could also choose to go somewhere else until you did figure out a way around.

And let's talk about the story. The story of R/B/Y and G/S/C was simple; something you could easily insert yourself into. More recent games have put a greater emphasis on a scripted story. You have scripted moments with your "friends", there is some legend the game tells you, and you are some special character that can hear it. Earlier games had scripted moments like rival encounters, but the rivals made you hate them, so you could stick yourself into the character. Other story elements weren't told in cutscenes, but in interactions with the character and the world.

2. They will stop making Pokemon games when it stops bringing in money. Pokemon is like CoD. It has a yearly entry that sells like crazy. They only difference is that the fanbase idolizes GF and Masuda and doesn't notice how much the series is selling out.

EDIT: For the record, I'm not saying R/B/Y are the best games in the series; they aren't. But the series has dramatically changed directions in 20 years.

You could say that, but there are certainly many scenarios were a fanchise may stop developing new content, or sell off to another company.

Take for example, nonnintendo related, the halo franchise which printed money, but bungie gave up on it and sold it off to another company. The reasoning: Bungie just got sick of it and lacked new ideas (not that 343 did better.)

Realistically, the owner of the pokemon franchise can easily say, "we're done, I'm rich enough as it is" and retire the series or sell it off.. or like I said, there may be a cap point where they introduce so many pokemon they cannot keep up with it. Even with the introduction of mega evolution, they're struggling to resign pokemon like flygon to have a mega, and this is one out of 721 they have to also give attention to, and we're not done with new introductions each generation. There may become a point were the new hardware/software nintendo produces cannot keep up with all the data installation pokemon may need down the road.

Then there's the other reason certain companies may leave, the failure in being able to figure out how to produce games for new generation consoles. Say pokemon has an issue producing a new game for the new mobile device nintendo is working with.. we may see a massive delay in games until they figure out it's coding or a downfall in the game that does come out due to rushed development time. Similarly how x/y lacked a ton of content due to the massive shift in coding and learning involved alongside the ideas and designs of new and previously unfamilar things like story, new pokemon, and the new mechanic of mega evolution.

^That's a fair point, and technically, it has already happened once. Tajiri left the helm of the series and gave it to Masuda in gen 3.

But I don't think that would stop the franchise so much as move it to new hands.

I just want the exact same team that created the amazing Pokemon Platinum to come back and work on a Pokemon game. I want the same exact people with same mentality they had for Pokemon Platinum to come back! Yes, I know its Gamefreak but they need to rethink their priorities in a Pokemon game.

Exponentially higher production costs, lower sales especially in Japan, less opportunity for conventions and tournaments, and loss of social aspect.

Nintendo doesn't want a million grown men sitting at home playing Pokemon by themselves. They want 10 million kids playing it in classrooms. The key to the series remaining relevant is visibility.

Home console would work if there were crossplay elements and you could play it in either a home console or mobile setting, so it should be viable next gen.