No I speak just for you! No one else is allowed to read this. So please read carefully because you did not understand the first time.
You know I'm ok if this game has only vast openworld-like spaces, and then routes combining those spaces, just like the originals! It matters what's inside these spaces and if the game's still atmospheric and big enough. It worked great for Poképark, Zelda, Mario, and for every game that has big worlds that are not openworld.
If Pokémon Switch RPG is completely openworld like BotW, then that's fine, and it should be a bombastic suprising Pokémon game in 2021! However, to bring the series forward it's enough to get rid of some old boring mechanics, especially those that only worked with Game Boy graphics or limits that have been kept since the Game Boy era and have never been enhanced in all these years.
You say you don't care about more interactions with Pokémon but I do because it makes the game more explorable and that is just what you wish for. Your open world is meaningless and boring if you can't do anything in it, if you as the player character has no actions over anything other than opening up a menu to select an item (and other lame 1985 RPG mechanics).
It sounds like your idea of exploration is running in circles for a 1:100 chance a rare Pokémon appears in a certain spot or getting through dull maze caves to find a Pokéball in a dead end. My idea of exploration is a bit different: For me Pokémon never focused too much on real exploration, so that's the wrong game to begin that topic with anyway, but we all want more or better exploration in Pokémon games for sure. In general all areas in Pokémon games are pretty confined (just like in any Zelda game before BotW), but most importantly Pokémon games never had an agile main character that was designed for action-packed openworld gameplay. And that's where I feel the game needs to be modernized to be more enjoyable. It needs a main characters whose controls feel well and who can do something other than running and opening menus.
The main character needs to get better first. You can't put old Game Boy Ash (or any of his successors) in an open world! Look at other open world games, look what the characters can do in BotW, GTA, Assassin's Creed, and now put Game Boy Ash/Red in there. Without more interactions he would be quite useless in an open world.
This brings me to the other point I have, Pokémon main games were rather light on puzzle and adventure elements and they were missing real-time actions almost entirely in favour of context sensitive simple button presses. Good exploration games have some action, Pokémon is lacking on that front. If you don't care about interaction you won't get a better exploration experience. Pokémon should be a game with better exploration, you and me want it to be a good explorable game, but openworld doesn't make it a good explorable game. Let me shoot thunder with my Pikachu anytime, let me throw Smoke Balls in suspicious trees, let me ride my Aquana through the ocean, and let me do all the Pokémon attacks OUTSIDE OF BATTLES so I can solve puzzles and quests on my journey. And lest not forget, let me move the camera freely around my character. That is interaction that makes exploration better.
Other than that, for me Pokémon has perfected its battle mechanics and I would keep them as they're what makes a main Pokémon RPG - however, the rest around it got stale and big chunks of the main games still feel like 1995.
No I speak just for you! No one else is allowed to read this. So please read carefully because you did not understand the first time.
You know I'm ok if this game has only vast openworld-like spaces, and then routes combining those spaces, just like the originals! It matters what's inside these spaces and if the game's still atmospheric and big enough. It worked great for Poképark, Zelda, Mario, and for every game that has big worlds that are not openworld.
If Pokémon Switch RPG is completely openworld like BotW, then that's fine, and it should be a bombastic suprising Pokémon game in 2021! However, to bring the series forward it's enough to get rid of some old boring mechanics, especially those that only worked with Game Boy graphics or limits that have been kept since the Game Boy era and have never been enhanced in all these years.
You say you don't care about more interactions with Pokémon but I do because it makes the game more explorable and that is just what you wish for. Your open world is meaningless and boring if you can't do anything in it, if you as the player character has no actions over anything other than opening up a menu to select an item (and other lame 1985 RPG mechanics).
It sounds like your idea of exploration is running in circles for a 1:100 chance a rare Pokémon appears in a certain spot or getting through dull maze caves to find a Pokéball in a dead end. My idea of exploration is a bit different: For me Pokémon never focused too much on real exploration, so that's the wrong game to begin that topic with anyway, but we all want more or better exploration in Pokémon games for sure. In general all areas in Pokémon games are pretty confined (just like in any Zelda game before BotW), but most importantly Pokémon games never had an agile main character that was designed for action-packed openworld gameplay. And that's where I feel the game needs to be modernized to be more enjoyable. It needs a main characters whose controls feel well and who can do something other than running and opening menus.
The main character needs to get better first. You can't put old Game Boy Ash (or any of his successors) in an open world! Look at other open world games, look what the characters can do in BotW, GTA, Assassin's Creed, and now put Game Boy Ash/Red in there. Without more interactions he would be quite useless in an open world.
This brings me to the other point I have, Pokémon main games were rather light on puzzle and adventure elements and they were missing real-time actions almost entirely in favour of context sensitive simple button presses. Good exploration games have some action, Pokémon is lacking on that front. If you don't care about interaction you won't get a better exploration experience. Pokémon should be a game with better exploration, you and me want it to be a good explorable game, but openworld doesn't make it a good explorable game. Let me shoot thunder with my Pikachu anytime, let me throw Smoke Balls in suspicious trees, let me ride my Aquana through the ocean, and let me do all the Pokémon attacks OUTSIDE OF BATTLES so I can solve puzzles and quests on my journey. And lest not forget, let me move the camera freely around my character. That is interaction that makes exploration better.
Other than that, for me Pokémon has perfected its battle mechanics and I would keep them as they're what makes a main Pokémon RPG - however, the rest around it got stale and big chunks of the main games still feel like 1995.
I'm in favor of more puzzle elements and more actions in the overworld, but I don't think you're going to get something as extreme as interactions with hundreds of Pokemon in the overworld or abolition of turn based battles. The best way they can go about improving that aspect of the exploration is expanding on Poke Ride. Poke Ride is what helps make the character more nimble and adds more diverse actions, so adding more Ride Pokemon and expanding what they can do is a good compromise.
Anything that adds to the immersion of the game would be welcomed by me, but I think that it's far more likely that Game Freak will continue doing what they've been doing for the past couple of decades - churning out a new game every year or two with incremental tweaks and improvements in each instalment...who knows, in time we might see these Poké-worlds become more 'living and breathing' - but, for the first Pokémon Switch, I'd expect something very similar to Sun/Moon/X/Y, with shinier graphics and maybe a couple of neat additions here-and-there...
The leap from 3DS to Switch is pretty significant though - and should open up a lot of possibilities for the franchise going forward...but I wouldn't expect big, sweeping changes all in one go - maybe a few in Pokémon Switch 1, then a few more in Pokémon Switch 2 (which will probably come hot on the heels of 1), a few more in Pokémon Switch 3 etc. ..it's the Game Freak way! If they wanted to give it the full 'Breath of the Wild' treatment, they'd need to dedicate many years of development to the game - which goes against their established 'churn 'em out' business model...maybe that's the longer-term vision for the franchise, but I reckon that each game will act as something of a stepping stone to reach that point given their history.
@Octane Your idea of choose your 4th, 5th etc gym happened in Gen 2.
You could do gyms 5, 6 and 7 in any order.
That had a problem. Wild Pokemon stayed in the low 20s at their highest for the duration, and the game has to compensate for that, so you can go to the 7th Gym, battle the Lv30 Gyarados in the lake, and then fight mid teen levelled Rocket goons before a mid 30s gym.
That kind of design but with the way levelling works...not again thanks
Now Playing: Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Crash Bandicoot 4
@Bolt_Strike I understand that, but I wouldn't want Nintendo to make everything an open-world game, it is fun to have a few of them, but if something gets done all the time, the fun part is gone and it will become a hassle instead. I think I like pokémon more as it is now, however that does not mean that I would mind an open-world pokémon game, as long as it adds new fun aspects that make you feel like it is a pokémon advanture and is not like other open-world games. And as kids we all wished for a pokémon mmorpg right I could see how that could work, but it will never come.
@BLP_Software I'm not saying it's a good idea, but since some people here want complete freedom for the entire order of gyms, I thought this would be a simple compromise.
The choice between three gyms is also a bit too much IMO, two is feasible I think. You're a bit underleveled for one gym and a bit overleveled for the other, or you're just underleveled for one gym. I remember you could also do gyms 5, 6 and 7 in Red and Blue in any order, and that wasn't as big of a problem. You were underleveled anyway, and the gyms were pretty difficult. I'm fine either way, but I liked the fact that you could do them out of sequence, even though it was heavily implied that there was an order.
The issue with Johto is that Steelix wasn't much of a threat and neither are Ice types, so the difficulty level stalled around that part and it spiked again for the eighth gym. Even coming off the fourth gym, level 16-20 Rocket Grunts are way too weak. The strongest Pokemon in the entire Rocket HQ was a level 25 Murkrow with Peck and Pursuit...
I don't mind the sequence breaking, as long as they don't go out of their way to make the later areas weaker in case you decided to do those first.
@Bolt_Strike It sounds like he wants more interactions similar to the headbutt trees in the Johto games or the honey trees in the Sinnoh games, but done in real time rather than through a pop up menu.
@NaviAndMii
I 100% agree with you. I hate to be a Debbie Downer with all of the hopeful wishes tossed around in this thread but I HIGHLY doubt the next game will be open-world or change too much. GameFreak will think the jump to HD graphics will be enough innovation for one game. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the graphics for the next game are similar to PS3 or at most Wii U graphics even though the Switch is far more capable, simply because they'll have something to then improve on for the next gen of games.
GameFreak's like Apple in a way by having a "tick-tock" cycle; they have a gen with major graphical upgrades but not too much gameplay improvements or story/post-game content, and then a gen with minor upgrades in graphics but major upgrades to gameplay/story and post-game content to compensate. I wouldn't be surprised if gen 8 has the same linearity as previous games, as well as a forgettable story and barely any post-game content. They'll save an open-world, better story, and more post-game content for the Gen 9 games.
I wouldn't mind Pokemon games having a larger/more immersive world, but I think going full-on open-world would be taking things a bit too far. Besides, this is Game Freak that we're talking about. They're all for adding in a few new/changed ideas here and there, but I don't see a full-on overhaul happening for a long time (if at all).
On a personal level, I'd prefer if the games didn't go full-on open world, to be honest.
Currently playing: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)
I don't know if Pokémon would work with an open world - part of the series, that makes it so accesible (specially to kids) it's that the linear system allows for a natural progression in levels, unless you decide to go hardcore on grinding.
That way, both casual and hardcore players can enjoy. I don't think a kid would be happy to just accidentally stumble in a high level area and get wrecked. In Gold/ Silver, people who immediately headed to face Price and Clair faced that problem and there were a lot of complains about it.
@Bolt_Strike I understand that, but I wouldn't want Nintendo to make everything an open-world game, it is fun to have a few of them, but if something gets done all the time, the fun part is gone and it will become a hassle instead. I think I like pokémon more as it is now, however that does not mean that I would mind an open-world pokémon game, as long as it adds new fun aspects that make you feel like it is a pokémon advanture and is not like other open-world games. And as kids we all wished for a pokémon mmorpg right I could see how that could work, but it will never come.
They've had a whopping 3 IPs that have gone open world out of the dozens that they still have. Pokemon going open world wouldn't kill the genre diversity in the slightest.
I don't see how an open world would work for a core series Pokemon game. You find Pokemon in random encounters in grass or "dungeons" such as caves, and trainers looking to battle typically stick to roads leading to settlements. An open world Pokemon game would be very empty, at most thinly spread. I can't see it working.
I don't see how an open world would work for a core series Pokemon game. You find Pokemon in random encounters in grass or "dungeons" such as caves, and trainers looking to battle typically stick to roads leading to settlements. An open world Pokemon game would be very empty, at most thinly spread. I can't see it working.
Okay, well first of all, there's 800 Pokemon and some of the recent games have been utterly crammed with Pokemon. Some areas have over a dozen species of Pokemon in them. They can definitely spread that out without it feeling too thinly spread, no question. They can have different encounter methods, and different rosters based on the environment (remember in SM that different patches of grass in the same area can have different Pokemon now). The only thing they would have trouble with is trainers, because too many of those could easily make you overleveled.
@Reginald
Unless if Pokemon Switch looks similar with Final Fantasy XII / Xenoblade, where you can encounter with Pokemons directly, No Random Battle anymore. FF XII / Xenoblade itself already felt like Open World RPG, so don't worry about the world. I think it will not so Empty as you concern about. Beside, who don't want to see a Beautiful worlds fulfilled with beautiful environments and Pokemons swarming around the world.
@Luna_110
Oh, about encounter with strong Pokemons before the time, I think Gamefreaks can lock some areas where you are not yet to access certain world due to underlevel or story progress. Imagine Fantasy Life 3DS, just like that when you encounter with Wild Pokemons.
@essiw
In my opinion, latest Pokemons on 3DS were good enough, but it still felt too linear. I wanna see the beautiful world with Full Dynamic Camera angle like Final Fantasy XII, not Fixed Camera Angle like older Pokemon games. Random Battles all the time is kinda tedious. Instead, if I can encounter the Wild Pokemons directly, it will be more efficient. Imagine Fantasy Life 3DS, I think it's not too hard to avoid some strong Pokemons if you don't want to fight against them. Just run and ignore them. Also, the same experiences when you play Portal Knights. You can see the enemies directly, you can attack them immediately if you want and you can avoid them if you want.
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