Game Freak, the makers of a little series of games known as Pokémon, is currently focusing on original projects rather than its flagship brand, according to game programmer and director Masayuki Onoue. Speaking with our friends over at Video Games Chronicle, Onoue gave details about how the company uses original projects in order for its staff to gain experience and stay 'refreshed'.
Onoue, a veteran programmer on the Pokémon games and fresh from his directing debut with Giga Wrecker, explained the current set-up at the company:
There are two different production teams here, simply named Production Team 1 and Production Team 2. Team 1 is fully dedicated to Gear Project, while Team 2 is for the Pokémon operation.
What that means is that Game Freak as a company is prioritising Gear Project, which is production team number one, more than Pokémon in general. We are always trying to create something that is equally exciting, or more exciting than Pokémon.
Gear Project is the name of the company's initiative to get original pitches from employees. The fruits of this initiative include HarmoKnight and the incomparable Pocket Card Jockey, as well as the aforementioned Giga Wrecker. The upcoming Switch RPG known only as Town is also apparently related to Gear Project.
Onoue goes on to explain the reasoning behind this focus. Getting to work on different platforms and bring that experience back to Pokémon is one of them, with new ideas from other projects helping keep the franchise and the programmers behind it from getting stale:
When you’re a programmer working on Pokémon, you’re one of many programmers. However, as a director on Giga Wrecker the experience opened my eyes to the other aspects of game creation, all the way up to users playing the game.
I can now bring that knowhow back to the Pokémon team and try to create something different for Pokémon. It’s a good synergy between Gear Project and Pokémon creation.
Currently working on several Game Freak projects, he goes on to say how "2019 will be very exciting". With a full-fledged Pokémon game arriving in the form of Pokémon Sword & Shield later in the year, we're inclined agree. Be sure to check out the full story on Video Games Chronicle for more details and snippets from Onoue.
Variety is the spice of life, so it's good to see Game Freak employees stretching themselves and getting some fresh air outside the Pokémon universe. Do you think it's a good idea to take a break from Pocket Monsters and get some fresh blood coming in? Let us know with a comment.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 83
The Pokemon games have gotten a bit stale for me (mainly just buy them for VGC) so it's nice to see them trying to be a bit more creative and make something fresh and different. Hopefully Town turns out well as it does have potential from what we've seen so far.
More exciting? Yeah! More popular? ...never
Maybe just give us a Pokémon game where you can have more than 4 moves?
Or a rival that you want to punch because they are a jerk and not because they are just stupid?
Perhaps one with a villain that makes sense?
Decent story in general?
Or wait, just another mystery dungeon game :U
I still wonder what genre for TOWN ? 🤔
Turn based RPG like Pokemon ?
Or Action RPG like Dragon Quest Builders with fanciness like Animal Crossing ?
@Kalmaro
Gamefreaks can learn from Monster Rancher 4 PS2 by TECMO for battle system.
Good luck. While I'm excited play Town and to see what else they come up with, they're never going to capture lightning in a bottle the way they did with Pokemon. However, I have really enjoyed some of their more under-the-radar IPs, like Drill Dozer and HarmoKnight. Man, I'd kill for a sequel to Drill Dozer now that I think about it.
I think that it’s a good idea: I do not know how many employees work there over at Game Freak. It seems to be big enough to be at least split in two production teams.
It gives them experiences on different platforms as in what other genre gamers like. Also they will for sure level up their developer XP.
In the end they can learn from the other team of Game Freak and maybe report some intresting findings back to Nintendo like online structure for example.
Just imagine working on the same (type of) game for over 10 years. It will bother and annoy some employees if not all.
@Kalmaro fun fact: letting Pokémon have more then 4 moves was considered around the creation of gen 3.
They shouldn't expect to strike gold like that again. Pokemon found success in a very different time for gaming. The new games seem stale because they are stale by modern standards. The simplicity of Red/Blue could be blamed on the gameboy's hardware. Since then they've only added elements piece by piece that just seem like fluff. Even their mainstay franchise needs an overhaul.
@Kalmaro A villain that makes sense? I'm sorry what?
Not a single villain in the Pokemon franchise, not even Ghetsis, as exalted as Pokemon Black and White and it's sequels are, makes any sense.
They are literally negative flat arc characters who aren't meant to become better.
I'm no expert but it sounds to me like their passion is long gone. I don't think it's possible to create anything truly exceptional in such a state.
@BenAV personally it was an interesting insight in the company's way of doing things. It does make the headline a bit misleading though because it make it sound like Team 1 is there to create a "pokemon killer" but it's actually a bit the opposite.
Pokemon as an individual franchise(literally THE most valuable property in the entire world and i'm not even joking there's been lots of discussion on that subject) is so valuable they don't even need other IPs.
But it place them in an unique situation where any other IPs they make don't need to make money but can still fe incredibly useful to the studio as a skill and talent building opportunity that can then be fed back later into the pokemon team.
Such as allowing a "mere" in-studio programmer to develop experience in the role of director... and thus you get someone with director skill that ALSO has experience of working as a programmer in a very large team while still being able to work as a programmer that now have insights of what might didacte various director-level decisions.
It's pretty clever in a way since it's a perfect way to develop and culture talent "in- house" rather than having to to hunt outside the company for it, with the benefit of a "breadwinner" IP so big the experimental IPs of that "team 1" don't even need to make money so to speak thus allowing them to be even more wild in their experimentation.
And as a bonus that such opportunities exists in-house has got to be one heck of an incentive for employees to stick around rather than search outside the company for them which has got to help with employees(and thus talent) retention.
Strange that they’d be prioritizing their new project more over Pokémon (Gen 8).
I’d imagine a large factor into this possible burnout for them is Pokémon’s release schedule. Gamefreak isn’t that big of a company, and while Pokémon is incredibly popular, a yearly release schedule must be awfully demanding. Meaning that they’re constantly focusing on one project after another, after another and another. Probably serves to explain why they don’t change as much in between gens, that and Gamefreak isn’t the best when it comes to actual modernization and optimization.
It’s going to be very hard to outdo Pokémon. They also need something that really stand out and as much as I like Gamefreak, their game’s art direction just looks very generic except Giga Wrecker.
@Kalmaro I’d also like for Gamefreak to improve with their writing but I do question a few of your points. Jerk rivals for example are not inherently better than friendly or silly rivals, I’d argue. They can be just as lazy or poorly written, and it’s really the execution that matters most. Like Barry was a friendly yet good rival and Bianca was as well. Silver was a great example of a an antagonistic rival and developed well as the story went along.
@MegaVel91 Yeah, hard agree on the Ghetsis point. He basically ruined the attempt a lot of what I felt was building up with N.
Gamefreak prioritizing other games just makes me think the next games Sword & Shield will be a dud like the last 4 pairs of Pokemon games were. Obviously I hope the reverse is true, but the past 2 Generations were 'meh' at best, and now the B Team is working on them to boot. : /
@fiben1002 tbh, does it?
Need that massive an overhaul I mean. The games still feature solid sales iirc and even if there were some slowndowns(I dunno about them if there are though) the worth of the IP itself is astronomical enough they can afford temporary downturn.
Which when you read between the lines seem the point of Team 1. Pokemons as an IP is worth so much in term of values and earnings that whatever Team 1 produce could be an utter failure and it still wouldn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
Which is not to say team 1 is unimportant but rather the opposite; it has so little need to "succeed" that it can afford to go that much more experimental in ways that's not possible for the pokemon team itself because they don't need to "maintain" any "formula".
And it is a keyword here with pokemon that people shouldn't "under"estimate.
They're formulaic yes but to a degree it's their strenght; people know exactly what they're getting and the stuff to catter players at all skill levels from newcomers just wishing to challenge the next gym/trial and filling their pokedex; all the way to hardcore number crunchers reading about IVs and EVs and breeding mechanics trying to create the ultimate duel pokemon.
In a way the closest phenomenon I can think of is the popularity of dragon quest in japan, especially as an entry level jRPG... except that what Dragon Quest did in Japan, Pokemon achieved it worldwide whilst even doing so in a way that nabbed surprisingly hardcore crews of competitive players while remaining accessible to casual players.
In a way changing the formula may yield interesting stuff perhaps but could be just as much of a risk as well.
But the flipside of this is what this Teak1/2 structure implies; because the "formula" for pokemon is that familiar inhouse, games can be developped under "team 2" and still make enough money to asgore the existence of "team 1" getting all the opportunities to go experimental and then develop organizational/skillbuilding/etc experience that can later be trickled back into Team 2 project which eventually can produce employees given opportunities to work into new Team 1 project to complete that cycle and have heck of a lot of incentives for employees retention.
Considering the "projects ends layoff" syndromes elsewhere it's actually refreshing to read about how they're setup in this company and how in large part they're doing so thanks to the success of that main IP in particular.
Explains why sword and shield look like 3ds games.
"More exciting than Pokémon"
Here's a thought - take extra care, hire talent, and get player feedback to make Pokémon exciting.
What a novel idea, eh? /s
Something more exciting than Pokemon? Make Pokemon for adults with lots of deep and long storys littered over the world. Wouldn't mind playing a Team Rocket member or founding my own rival organization.
@shoeses I'd say the "priorizing" part might be a misreading.
If you look closer you see the Team1/Team2 thing might actually be by design in general.
Pokemon is such a breadwinner they can play it safe(and perhaps even NEED to) when it comes to innovation...
... but if you pay attention you see that they KNOW no IPs can ever remain TOO unchanging at the risk of becoming truly stale which is where the opportunity of Team 1 is important: the priority aspect is more in how Team 1 has the opportunity for originality and in itself that's made possible BECAUSE pokemon sell so much.
Team 1 can make projects that could fail and financially it might not matter. But that means it has the unique opportunity to do stuff outside the pokemon mold and formula specifically as an opportunity to be even more experimental.
But if you read it closely, the idea is not for Team 1 to develop a pokemon- killing IP.
It's to develop in-studio experience and talent that can be then fed back throughout the entire company.
Which is to say that rather than Team 2 being "the ip that shall fade away" and team 1 being "the ip that shall replace it" it's a bit the opposite.
Team 1 is the "R&D lab" that get lots of opportunity for experimentation and going hog wild to develop new stuff in all kinds of way.
And Team 2 is instead the "factory" whose earnings make that R&D possible in the first place and can then apply, at a trickle and in more controlled fashion, the lessons learned from the mad science done in Team 1's offices to see how to use them in more "practical" applications.
After all even if the core formula remain the same in pokemon you can see throughout generations the ways they experimented with various side mechanics and structures that came and went or even stayed permanently in some cases and I wouldn't be surprised if part of it was either directly or indirectly due to the experimentations and experimences/ideas brought back by employees who did skill/talent building tours in Team 1.
Nothing wrong with new games, BUT you know...they could also make Pokemon more exciting.
@Kalmaro or rather , a Pokemon game that is kind like Black/White 1&2.
Those reached a peak of quality in the series in comparison to what came after.
How about a survival horror pocket monster game, like Silent Hill fused with Pokemon? You have to face your inner demons, beat them, catch them, befriend them, and make them face off with the inner demons of others. Find out who's scarred subconscious is the best there ever was!
@MegaVel91 While the argument can certainly be made that they're "flat," I think Team Rocket actually makes a fair amount of sense compared to any of the other villainous teams in the franchise. They're just a gang that wants to profit using Pokemon, and if Pokemon were real, I don't doubt that such people would exist.
@TheLightSpirit I think there's been a massive misreading from folks. Team 1 gets the "priority" but rather in a way that opportunity seem specifically to pertain in basically "being allowed to experiment a heck ton no matter if it succeeds or fail".
If you look closely, and especially at that comment, the whole goal of Team 1 seems not to be to "supplant" Pokemon but rather to supplement it as a skill/talent building opportunity and initiative for in-house employees:
"When you’re a programmer working on Pokémon, you’re one of many programmers. However, as a director on Giga Wrecker the experience opened my eyes to the other aspects of game creation, all the way up to users playing the game.
I can now bring that knowhow back to the Pokémon team and try to create something different for Pokémon. It’s a good synergy between Gear Project and Pokémon creation."
And if you read okay you can see how massive a misreading the headline "GameFreaks is trying to create something more exciting than Pokemon" is when rather it should be "GameFreaks has in-house initiatives and opportunities to cultivate and diversify the talents of their own employees and teams".
So if you check closely Team 1 isn't there to replace Team 2 but rather to serve as a (perhaps even sometimes rather wild) test lab for employees to acquire skills in new area(such as a "mere" cog-in-the-machine programmer getting a stab at director positions) that can then be fed back in the "production line" approach of Team 2 in more controlled fashion.
And honestly you see how the games have evolved, subtly but still evolved, a little every single titles with side-mechanics that came and went and a couple of times actually ended up staying up to to this day... and I wouldn't be surprised if these subtle tweaks weren't the indirect results of Team 1 employees coming back in Team 2 fresh of their experience.
Sure the games haven't moved that much in decades but... to a degree I would argue it's by design and purpose.
People know what they're getting from a pokemon games. Be them the casual players just looking to complete the next gym while adding to their pokedex at a leasurely pace. Or the hardcore players devouring entire blog posts about base stats, IVs and EVs and obscure side-mechanics and breeding powerguides in the attempts to create the ultimate duel pokemon.
With the bonus of that hardcore competitive appeal(something lacking in the example I'm about to cite, I would daresay that what Pokemon achieved was basically doing worldwide what SquareEnix achieved with Dragon Quest in Japan.
And to many degrees... it IS because they've kept so close to a formula and at the same time exactly why they have to be careful with it. Because it's what brings enough money as an IP to make Team 1 and so many other things possible.
As to be blunt?
It is THE premier highest grossing franchise on the planet right now. And I mean, it's crazy how much it is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media_franchises
The entire Marvel Cinematic Universe? Worth less than pokemon.
Mario? Worth less than pokemon and yet that's despite being worth more than the MCU.
Marvel as an entity might be technically bigger but only because technically it operates through owning multiple properties and most of the biggest ones are still individually worth less than Pokemon itself is to Games Freak. Even a crossover IP like Avengers remains worth less(and in many ways, it's the fact all these IPs are so fragmented rather than consolidated that made it such that you could have such a thing as the IP split between the MCU movies and the Sony Marvel Movies for so long).
Which is what makes Team 1 possible. Pokemons is so big of an IP that Games Freaks can afford to create multitude of experimental IPs without even needing any of them to "succeed" because it still remains a perfect incentive to retain employees and allow them to develop new skillsets, talents and experiences that can be fed back throughout the company rather than kept exclusively within the halls of Team 1.
Man, I sure do hope they make something more exciting than Pokemon, that franchise is hella stale for me. Though I feel they have been stuck on Pokemon for such a long time, I dunno if they can make an exciting game =/ I wish them much luck.
"Do you think it's a good idea to take a break from Pocket Monsters and get some fresh blood coming in? Let us know with a comment."
Yes, %100.
"More exciting than Pokemon?" Well, that explains some things about Pokemon then.
"Gear Project" I for one welcome Klinklang's solo adventure!
Gotta say what ever Town is, I am looking forward to hearing more. It is nice to branch out creatively. I know folks need their bread and butter to keep the lights on but that gets very stifling after a point.
This isn't what people want to hear. In general, I think its a good idea that the company keeps fresh with various projects and tries to keep from burning out or losing their passion.. But if they expect to find success by prioritizing a brand new IP when Pokemon is at another peak in popularity, its just going to disappoint themselves and their existing fans. I am sure after 20+ years there is some burnout, but Pokemon as a brand is reaching an enormous audience between GO and the theatrical release, they shouldn't squander this opportunity. Plus the main series games are the height of the franchise, if the quality dips there, there isn't much left for a satisfying game experience..
Just give us a few new gams already.
@Kalmaro Game Freak isn't the developer of the Mystery Dungeon series
Pokemon is not exciting.
Nooooooooo! The moment you start to put Pokemon second - thats the moment everyone else starts to do the same! Pokemon is the current number 1 IP in the world! It'll be years before something else Gamefreak makes can even get half as much attention! They should be shoving as many ideas into Pokemon as possible! Not withholding the best ones and putting them elsewhere! I swear if this is the reason we haven't gotten true co-op in Pokemon all these years, I'm gonna be pissed. Like... really!?
Pocket Card Jockey 2. Make it happen Game Freak!
This is interesting, hopefully this means that we are going to finally see some triple A games from them rather than those indie style titles.
I just hope they aren't lazy with Sword and Shield.
Can we get Blastiose to shoot water out of his connon this time?
Lack of new ideas isn’t the problem, Pokémon has been very experimental the last few gens, maybe even too much so. The problem is that they’re not changing the things people want changed like the content, design, and difficulty and not putting enough effort/resources into making it a high quality experience. This strategy is counterproductive to what fans actually want, what they should be doing is hiring more staff, paying more attention to fan demand and actually taking action against complaints, and paying attention to what other developers are doing with their IPs and take those lessons back to Pokémon.
Well, if they want to focus on new projects...they should let nintendo take over pokemon.
What's wrong with making the same games for 20 years? I've been playing the same games for 20 years...
@fagocito This. Nintendo is more likely to take chances and expand the world. If Game Freak really is so bored with Pokemon that they'll let it suffer (not gonna lie: S&S ain't looking so hot with what we've seen so far), then they should give it up.
@Tulio517 I know, but I still wouldn't mind having another one.
@-Green- The point of the rivals is to give you someone you want to beat.
Lately, the rivals aren't even rivals. They are so friendly and passive that you end up not caring when they show up. To the point where you just wish they'd go away
@MegaVel91 That was exactly my point.
@AxeltheBuizel It was one of the reasons I like dragon warrior monsters a bit more when I was a kid.
@Anti-Matter How so? I never got to play that game.
@Yorumi There's been so many fan versions of the Pokémon games that would be great if they ever got to be officially recognized.
@Kalmaro
From my experience with Monster Rancher 4 PS2, every monsters can use All their abilities and it divided into 3 different range (Near attack, Mid range attack and Long range attack). The monsters can use specific abilities depend on the guts cost (like using MP) and combined by Speed + Accuracy from the monster. The abilities can be used successfully or missed miserably depend on their Speed + Accuracy. All monsters in Monster Rancher 4 have proper animation to do their attacks (Hit or Miss). The monster can be injured during battle and cannot attend for next battles. The monster can be died too if they got injured seriously. That was the reality if two monsters did a Battle and we still have no idea how did all the dying Pokemons ended up in tombstone, something that i saw from Alpha Sapphire / Omega Ruby.
@Anti-Matter Yeah it was kinda silly how your Pokémon can get hit by world ending lasers and only pass out.
Not that I want them to die but still...
@aznable That already exists in a way, and it's called Persona.
@Kalmaro
Gamefreaks still haven't updated the animation attacks for each Pokemons, i mean the way of Pokemons doing their abilities was limited by 1 vs 1 Turn based battle.
I felt funny to see Swampert diving into the ground to do their Dive attack with no water surrounding, Double Kick from Combusken but literally i saw nothing but blinking stars landed on my opponent, Water Gun from Water Pokemons but some of them blasted from wrong body position. Can we get at least Blastoise blast its Water Gun from its back, not from its mouth ?
@Xaessya Then, i could die in peace.
Its hard to say this because i appreciate the work of Game Freak, but if Nintendo instead of Game Freak create a Pokemon game i have no doubt it will be a master piece and a Game of the year.
@Yorumi I know right like the Pokemon Uranium people, that game was epic and probably is better than what most of Game Freak recent Pokemon had become as of late.
Looking forward to know more about Town!!
@TheLightSpirit plus? The IP still sells like hotcakes.
Also the Dragon Quest team themselves found there can be detriment to more complex animations sometimes. For example Dragon Quest 8 battles would often be longer than previous games even when they took the same amount of turns simply because the more advanced fully visible character animations would take more time to complete just because they were trying to display more "action" than just a sword slash effect and so on.
You'll notice this is a resulting common thread in many of the more "casual" rpg trying to keep simpler animations just so they don't slow down the battles themselves too much.
Plus we're talking about hundred of moves to be used by hundreds of different pokemons with utterly different anatomies even when they share the same moves.
For example how do you render the fury attack(and specifically render it such that you know how much damage every hits dealt separately) of a scyther's blade vs the fury attack of Fearow's jabbing beak vs the Fury Attack of a massive Nidoking's horn?
Or even code it? Are the "if/then" statement meant to load the "proper" animation file to be entered in the code governing the individual pokemon models to check what move you're accessing to see which animation of the model you're using or are they kept in the programming of the move itself checking what's the current model using the move to know which animation set up you're using.
And having to keep that many for every separate pokemons for every permutation of moves they could use would definitely have to lead to a fair deal of files sizes bloat at some point.
Right now instead every models need a few animations that can be recycled whereas the attack/particle effect can thus be produced by any pokemons without having to be restricted by model which saves up a lot of coding and storage space.
If animations had to be customized for EVERY pokemons you'd see many pokemons being unable to use a majority of the move they currently can and the concept of egg moves as a result likely would have to receive a massive downgrade because all of them would ALSO need to be customized for every single pokemons supposed to theoretically support these moves.
Sure the individual files might be small but at this scope it would be a nightmare unless you can somehow massively recycle a lot of mesh and rigs to use the same moves and even that further increase the chances of clipping/etc when a mesh is just not quite properly set up for the movement it tries to make.
At the end of the day you'd have to eithet downgrade what's supported(and thus lose the ability to import old pokemons from previous gen) or literally spend all your time doing the need customization and probably being unable to add any new moves whatsoever in the upcoming gen.
"Title that is completely self-funded, self-developed, and self-published by Gamefreak takes priority over title that is funded by TPC/Nintendo/Creatures Inc, developed by Gamefreak/Creatures Inc, and published by TPC/Nintendo"
News at 9
@-Green- Honestly only Gen 6 and Gen 7 rivals were meh, the rest were all good imo.
@TheLightSpirit Of course they don't, but you do expect games to continue to advance.
I still play Goldeneye and Perfect Dark regularly. I would be absolutely shocked if Battlefield 1 looked like those games however
@Kalmaro I’d say that’s largely due to poor and/or uninteresting writing. Your friends in Gen 6 for example were basically characterless for the most part, except slightly Shauna and your Rival, and even then they had no real drive. Hau from Gen 7 was better in USUM, since they made him more driven near the end but was a very slow boil. I think a lot of the issue comes from how boring some of them are and how they really lack any competitive drive.
It’s like you said, they’re so passive. Kind of my issue largely with Cheren from Gen 5 in BW. Blue from Gen 1 was just a jerk but tbh I found him to be boring all the same, he’s just a lazy archetype put there to be a rival. Similar to the friends from Gen 6.
I hate to say it, but Nintendo needs to take a hard look at Game Freak's clear burnout. Sword and Shield will properly succeed financially thanks to contextual factors, but if it struggles critically, Nintendo surely must understand that the consistent downward trend in quality is unsustainable for the success of the franchise.
A pokemon game where you can choose real time or turned based combat with the quality of life enhancements from go. It would be cool to have the option to control your pokemon directly during battles like pokken tournament.
@Ludovsky seems most have read this article as Gamefreak don’t care about Pokémon. But I agree with you that if you ignore the fact that this franchise is MASSIVE and literally prints money you are ignoring how lucky they are as a company. They are in a unique position of playing it safe with Pokémon and experimental on other projects which both In-house trains staff keeps moral up and feeds back into their main IP.
Also your point on their games formulaic setup, well despite many in here complaining, if they were to change up too much some might be happy whereas the literally millions of others may switch off. See Pokémon Go as an example of if you build it they will come.
This latest Pokémon I reckon will stick to script and a minority will moan but with Detective Pikachu getting attention I think this one is gonna sell very very well.
Out of curiosity, does anyone here know how much of Pokemon does nintendo own? I know the shares are split between nintendo, game freak and creatures inc, but can nintendo make actual decisions about the franchise?
That's a good strategy for those involved in the game dev process. Working on something different vs. the same old thing time and time again can be quite a palate cleanser. It allows you to experiment with different ideas and to take your mind in a fresh direction if allowed.
I can't speak for the others, but I quite enjoyed the Harmoknight demo and still need to get the full game at some point.
@Filth_Element pretty much my entire point.
Really it's actually putting Sword and Shield in the perfect position to actually go further BACK toward traditional gameplay(even with polish) because the context is uniquely poised to bring a lot of new players to the franchise.
A case example is Monster Hunter World which, quality of life set aside, still remained a very "traditional" monster hunter which even scaled back on more advanced mechanics of previous titles(mostly removing hunters arts even if elements of updated weapons move sets were inspired by some of the styles and arts, streamlining palicos again, etc) which successfully helped it further become a great game for newcomers.
Which is how I envision gen8 in being a clear update but a lot of focus to ease in new players possibly while still catering to the core experience loop. It's for that reason I predict a return of gyms rather than full on expansion of Alola's trials-style approach.
This said we could still be surprised and these might be gyms and yet still feature an updated approach.
We've seen stadiums hinted in some form and a trainer in an uniform while we know the game is based on the UK this time.
A place known for its attachment to sports like Rugby and Football.
So for all we know they might surprise us with making the Galar pokemon league an actual sport league and this time around the "sword" and "shield" might be nothing less than the "teams" of that league.
Sun and Moon introduced for the first time the possibility to defend your title as a champion instead of fighting the elite four all over like never had the first time.
What if for some reason we had to take part in similar match as part of a team based league all over the Galar region? Or even be affiliated directly with a singular gym or stadium that we might have to defend in home matches ?
There's a lot of potential there that could mix both tradition and new.
Even then, a more direct return to traditions without such complexities might still prove enjoyable since it was a formula that worked and could still work for the many four whom it might be the first time.
There's still a lot we might be surprised by, I feel.
I know just being able to play from my TV once in a while when i just want to chill out will be pretty fun.
@fagocito technically they do own the trademark to it but really the whole "pokemon company" deal sound like a joint ownership between nintendo, game freaks and a third company I forgot so it's managed by all those people rather than a lone entity
Not gonna happen. But kudos for doing something else.
Interesting. I'll keep an eye on it.
@Kalmaro
And more than 6 Pokemon in a party.
My wet dream is that Gamefreak lets Monolith Soft take a stab at an openworld Pokemon rpg.
I felt Xenoblade 2's combat system would lend itself really good to Pokemon.
It'll never ever happen but that's my dream game.
They could throw some of that creativity into Pokemon and they could do so without breaking any of the core mechanics die-hard fans like myself love.
They could put more effort into an interesting story or give us a different scenario than "young new trainer setting out"
They could make a Pokemon game where the gyms and elite 4 are just a sub-plot and dealing with the bad guys is actually the main focus. They could revive the idea of the bad guys actually being criminals or terrorists or something, rather than one sociopath and an army of mindless grunts.
They could vary up the Pokemon games by having mini-game modes like Pokemon stadium, and ones where if you have the needed Pokemon, you could use your own in the game!
They could make an open world Pokemon game where you can challenge the gyms in any order and the leaders use different teams depending on how many you have already beaten.
All that said, I understand why they need to give their team a chance to do original projects too. Even die hard fans take breaks and do something else from time to time.
@Zimon A partnership between Monolith and GF would be amazing! Though honestly I would not want to see to core battle mechanics changed, imagining an open world and story done by Monolith for Pokemon has me almost drooling!
@Heavyarms55 I never thought I'd say this in my life but I'm kind of tired of pokemon's combat mechanic. Or rather I don't have the patience. If it has to be turn-based then fine but at least give me som QoL features like auto-battle and fast forward button so it isn't so slow!
@Zimon Well we have always had the ability to turn off animations, which speeds up battles quite a lot if you are in a hurry. And I do agree that it would be nice to be able to speed up battles somewhat in general. But the battle is the core of what makes Pokemon for me. Take that core away and you just have... Pokemon Go with a simple story.
I'd like to see the gameplay mixed up though. That tiny section in Pokemon Let's Go where you have Pikachu or Eevee climb on the rafter to unlock a door was a great idea that deserves further exploration in games. Rather than HM moves, I think just having your Pokemon able to interact with the environment to solve puzzles in different ways would be really cool. Send a small Pokemon through an air duct to unlock a door, or have your fire Pokemon help you cook food, etc... In addition to battles having more creative puzzles and even times where you can control the Pokemon themselves would be really cool.
@-Green- I think the best rivals for me were Silver (because I swear he'd pick the worst times to show up and he was such a pain haha)
And... I think the kid's name was Walley? I can't remember. He's was the sickly one that gets progressively better as the game goes one and was just kinda fun to see him grow.
@Anti-Matter Whoa there, not sure if the world is ready for semi-accurate battle animations!
But yeah, I agree. Some attacks just look plain silly because they just don't seem to match with what they are doing.
Well it better be better than the last game they released.
I've always liked Game Freak's non-Pokemon ventures. When they're not making Pocket Monsters fight each other, all of their titles feel really weird and experimental. Nothing will reach Pokemon levels of popularity, but it's nice to see the company trying to push new titles more to branch out.
Also, I wonder if anyone wants to revisit any older titles. I mean, I'm not going to demand a Drill Dozer 2 or anything... but I certainly would drop a good chunk of cash the moment I could buy it
If Gamefreak needed something “refreshing” they could’ve focused on bringing pokemon into an open world rpg style.🤔I’d get bored too rehashing the same thing over and over. Don’t get me wrong, I play all of them — but you feel me right?
I truly am so happy to hear this. Personally speaking I've thought that for the last 7 years or so that the original titles gamefreak have been putting out have been far more interesting that their pokemon titles. Games like Harmoknight, Pocket Card Jockey, as well as Tembo the Badass Elephant and Giga Wrecker are far more unique and creative than gens 6&7 of pokemon.
Cannot wait for Town!
@Andrew5678 Ooh I love drill dozer! Underrated gba classic!
How sad... they want to make this "more exciting" than pokemon by making the next pokemon game suck on purpose.
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