The year was 1998. The Spice Girls were blowing up radio stations, and Nintendo had every kid under the age of 15 glued to their Game Boys playing Pokémon Red and Blue. Many of those kids, including some of us here at Nintendo Life, are now in their thirties – and therefore not long for this world – and it feels like Pokémon hasn’t aged with us older players. In fact, many Pokémon games have decreased in both difficulty and complexity release after release. It’s gotten to the point where we Pokémon Veterans sincerely hope Game Freak adds or removes several features to both make the games more challenging and to streamline otherwise tedious mechanics.
We’ve put together a list of 6 things us ancient Pokémon players want to see almost as much as a bowl of Raisin Bran on a Sunday morning when Pokémon Scarlet and Violet usher in Generation IX later this year.
A Return of Challenge Mode
We want Pokémon games to be about as difficult as deciding what to eat for dinner a week in advance. January’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus took a step in the right direction by adding a layer of challenge back into a Game Freak developed Pokémon game, but we’d be lying if we said we weren’t worried Scarlet and Violet might regress into remedial levels of difficulty.
Pokémon Black and White 2 dabbled with a higher difficulty in the most Pokémon way possible: they locked it behind trading through a key through the Unova Link feature obtained at the end of Pokémon Black 2. Meaning to experience a higher degree of difficulty, you’d have to beat the game first and have a friend to trade with to unlock Challenge Mode.
We’re old, Game Freak. We don’t have friends anymore. Give us a Challenge Mode from the very beginning, or at least more trainers as daunting as Cynthia.
An Engaging End-Game
We’ll admit Generation I didn’t have the best end-game, but follow-up titles, particularly the Battle Frontiers in Pokémon Emerald and Pokémon Heartgold and Soulsilver, added an addictive experience after beating the Elite Four. Since then, however, end-game content has been severely lacking or non-existent, falling behind what a lot of non-Pokémon games offer. Part of this is because of a focus on story-driven content – the Delta Episode, Team Rainbow Rocket, Isle of Armor – and part because the rewards for post-game content are often lacking. Battle Points, which players use to buy in-game items, aren’t enough to keep us coming back.
We’d like a return of something as deep as the Battle Frontiers with meaningful rewards – perhaps shiny Pokémon, alternate forms, or an increasingly greater challenge akin to a roguelite mode – to help distract us from the crippling anxiety recent real-world events have instilled in us.
Accessible Team Building
Hatching 78 Bulbasaur to get six perfect Individual Values isn’t difficult. It’s as tedious as our pre-pandemic commutes to work. Where other competitive games focus on getting the player into a match as quickly as possible, where they can build their skills and test out new strategies as the meta-game evolves, Pokémon games are content with wasting our time hatching hundreds of eggs just to build a viable team. This can take hours, even with plenty of helpful items introduced in Sword and Shield and a Ditto with perfect stats to breed with.
And Arceus forbid if we want to make a minor adjustment to our team, such as lowering or raising a speed stat based on meta-changes, because that could zap away those precious few hours before our 9:30 bedtimes.
Individual Values and Effort Values need further streamlining to help both old players save daylight and new players to embrace the esoteric mechanics.
Competitive Incentive
Much like the rewards given in post-game content, the incentives to play Pokémon competitively are barebones; players receive awards at the end of each month of play, but they’re often negligible. Furthermore, the Ranked Battle system in Pokémon Sword and Shield feels undercooked. Advancement through each tier – from Pokéball to Master Ball – relies entirely on wins and losses, rather than a matchmaking system to place players against those of similar skill. A new player with a half-developed team might get matched with a professional player practising for the VGC World Championships, both negating any sense of progression for skill level and making online Pokémon needlessly daunting to get into.
Us senior Pokémon players require a constant drip-feed of affirmation for our abilities in lieu of receiving none from our day jobs and emotionally distant Boomer parents. As of Sword and Shield, we might as well – we don’t know – read a book or take a cooking class instead.
Another Eeveelution
Eevee will be in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. This isn’t confirmed, but with how popular and marketable the fox-like Pokémon is, second only to Pikachu, we’d be surprised if Game Freak skipped including Eevee.
Eevee predictions happen for every Pokémon release. We predicted it for Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and were off the mark, and recently a rumour and intriguing theory hinting at a new Eeveelution makes it seem more than likely to happen in Scarlet and Violet.
Many newer Pokémon fans might not know that before the recording of modern history Eevee once had only three evolutions. It’s been 9 years since the last Eeveelution, Sylveon, debuted in Pokémon X and Y, and if we have to wait another Generation of games, arthritis might render us unable to enjoy the Ghost or Dragon-type Eeveelution of our dreams.
A Chonky Pikachu
Back when Pokémon games were in black-and-white and we had to hike uphill to school both ways in hail and without a pair of Safety Goggles, Pikachu was chonky. This, to us PokéVeterans, represents the ideal Pikachu form, and you may not like it, but this is what peak Pika performance looks like.
Chonky Pikachu made a return in Sword and Shield with a Gigantimax form, and while we’ve already seen Pikachu rubbing its cheeks in the Scarlet and Violet reveal trailer, if Game Freak harbours any love at all for its legacy fans, they’ll immediately swap out its thinner in-game model for one that better matches the Generation I sprite.
Yes – we’re aware this post sounds a lot like an old-man yelling at kids to get off his lawn. Because it is. Pokémon is no longer made for those of us who started playing in 1998, who struggled against Agatha’s Gengar and searched under the truck by the S.S. Anne for a Mew. Each subsequent Pokémon release has one audience in mind: children, not video game critics in their thirties. And that’s okay. Pokémon doesn’t have to be made for us; in fact, part of the charm might come from its childlike appeal, pulling us back into a simpler time without so much back pain.
Still, that doesn’t mean we can’t dream. If Pokémon Legends: Arceus’s shake-up of the formula and added complexity and difficulty are anything to go by, Game Freak is listening, and maybe when Scarlet and Violet release later this year, we’ll have a challenge worthy of our crotchety old souls.
What say you? Are there any features you’d like to see added or streamlined in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet? Young or old, comment below!
Comments 105
I thought vets stood for veterinaries
How about real innovation of the combat mechanics, finally moving away from the stale formula?
Say... an introduction of a stamina meter for Pokémon and swappable moves outside combat, keeping the idea of the four moves in combat but eliminating that overly restrictive four move hard limit?
Just a couple ideas from a nobody.
I want Pokemon to have 6 moves,
and for the party to be 8,
but it'll never happen.
Also would like an item that changes a Pokemon's actual nature, rather than keeping the 'same' nature while changing the stats.
Goodra is also essential.
I wouldn't mind a mix of legends features and traditional features. So the new catching and battling mechanics from legends but also some grassy areas with random encounters. I would also like to see the return of gyms but be able to go to whatever one I like to first.
They also need to add some hefty post game content and maybe a multiplayer activity to make people keep playing like the dynamax dens. Also bring back diving and under water exploration.
I think the way Legends Arceus did the "EV and IV thing" with the effort levels should be brought over to Scarlet and Violet. It is much better and makes any Pokémon you catch potentially viable whilst playing the main story. It also means that you don't have to battle only certain wild Pokémon in the case you get EV's you don't want. I get attached to my Pokémon during the story, so being able to make them great as they are instead of ditching them for another version of them makes me happy in Legends Arceus.
@Browny The existing PP system already resembles a Stamina system, but I think where it fails is allowing so many moves to have 20-40 PP. If they lowered the PP of most moves it could drastically change how the game is played, and act as a Pokemon's Stamina meter fairly well.
No interesting & rewarding exploration? Dungeons? Option to blast away the exp.share?
All right then.
Allowing Hyper training at level 50 and making Mints and Bottlecaps more common items would fix so much...
Also nerfing PP as I mentioned in an earlier post/response would do wonders since players would be forced to use more than just 1 Pokemon inbetween towns.
@Deege
While I agree with the abundance of moves with so much PP, in my theorized revamp of the combat would work better with a stamina meter (akin to MP in other RPGs), because outside combat you'd be able to freely swap any learned moves, while keeping the 4 move limit.
Another idea, following up on what @UltimateOkatu91 said, gyms in any order is cool, and can be balanced by forced level parity, similar to PvP. This would give more emphasis on strategy in combat rather than brute forcing your way through challenges.
I know it probably won't happen but I'd also love to be able to play the story in Multiplayer, even if it's only 2 player.
If the game is out this year. It’s too late for the wishlist
@sailornic True, but this is all stuff we've been wishing for since Gen 6.
@Browny so you mean like temtem?
That game has a stamina gauge where if you use a move and your out of stamina then your temtem takes damage.
Instead of 9 billion trainers everywhere I'd prefer groups of wild pokemon as some of the path gatekeepers. These battles wouldn't even have to be all that different; the trainers attacking you at every corner just makes no sense and mentally wears me down. Also, it would be neat if you could catch a pokemon or 2 during e.g. a 5-part trainer-like battle.
How about a return to another region? Being that we are getting Poke-Iberia, we absolutely should see the return of Kalos (Poke-France).
I want optional places to explore, SwSh hat literally 0 of those. Once you had beaten the game you had seen every place Swsh had to offer and even the places the main game had we're often just hallways
I basically just want Arceus gameplay but with traditional battle mechanics. Move variety, -6 to +6 stat levels, abilities, held items, all that jazz. And shinies in the overworld!
I agree with everything except the Chonky Pikachu. I'm may be the only old person (39) who prefers the modern design but I will die on this hill.
The slim design looks and moves like a real animal. The chonky design is just an oval with hands and feet glued on.
A big thing I personally want is better animation quality, so not just have the model awkwardly turn or hop when performing a move while otherwise having no animation assigned to it.
Also NO STUPID GIMMICKS LIKE DYNAMAXING OR MEGA EVOLUTION. Let the Pokémon just be animals again and not tools of war you can change the shape of at your every whim.
And the biggest one: a delay. I don't want this game to come out this year. I may not even want it to come out NEXT year. I want them to take a note from Zelda, see the high quality those games receive after getting delayed, usually a bunch of times, and get the desire to deliver a similar product in terms of quality. Pokémon deserves time to shine and they're not giving it the opportunity by rushing yearly releases.
Just let me turn off the f***ing experience share.
I just want to be able to turn off the exp share
@Axecon I would absolutely love to revisit Kalos as end-game content, ala Gen 2. One of the reasons Gen 2 (and its remake) has remained my favorite is due to the unlocking of the entirety of Gen 1's region.
See, not sure you can shorten the word veteren with regards to Pokemon without being misconstrued as a veterinarian. I was relieved to see this article was not full of Pokemon with various illnesses and the writer wanting to stick his hand up their bum...aaaaanyway.
Actually, Pokemon Vet is a game waiting to happen! Someone tell Gamefreak WOuld make a change from being a trainer, travelling around healing Pokemon (in the wild or folk's pets.)
As a veteran who's been playing since day one EVs IVs and Competitive in general have ruined the game. I like battling but I can't even play the post game facilities without EV and IV trained Pokèmon. It's boring it's tedious and regardless of how accessible/easy it is now to before it needs to go IMHO
Honestly I'm not being funny here but I genuinely believe people who keep harping on about the exp share have too much free time on their hands. Absolutely baffling why you lot would want to waste time fighting boring wild Pokèmon over and over again.
Missed opportunity to use the Veteran trainer class in the article image.
No trade evolutions. Simple as that. Arceus doing it doesn't count since there was no trading to begin with.
While this list is fairly mundane, I am constantly reminded that it's better NOT to be a 'Pokémon veteran.' You seem to be the most unhappy fanbase on the internet, which is really impressive considering Smash diehards are a thing.
Just let us straight up select our team and their Ivs/Evs/Nature for online. Just give us a built in team builder(but let us use our own if we want)
I like raising critter's but I just don't have the time to grind out all the items and then get those IVs, nature's and EVs right. I can't spend several hundred hours breeding like I did a decade ago I got so much more responsibility in my life. The raising should be only required for official tournaments and single player content.
Also don't do anything like dynamax again. Megas were fine because it was limited and prevented other held items on that mon so it was fairly predictable and the power boost wasn't completely insane usually as no Choice Band or leftovers.
Agree with challenge mode and eeveelution big time.
I want a more robust selection of outfits. The variety is godawful it's like 6 things and a million color/pattern variants per thing.
Alola being focused on warm weather clothes was fine but it did have caverns and a mountain and even Hawaii gets chilly sometimes in the dead of winter. Coats/jackets not existing was wierd and fashion often does NOT care about practicality. Some people totally would sweat their tushies off for the sake of showing their wealth or simply to be stylish as heck.
Battle frontier and pokemon being as expressive as Stadium and pokemon Snap would be great.
Finally make the "Pokemon used tackle message) show DURING the animation and disappear immediately after the animation. Only show messages for the first and last turn off a multi turn effect like Hail damage instead of EVERY turn taking several seconds to do so.
Also make the linking cable item be in every game.
Is it really too much to ask to just get all the Pokemon back again?
I want a good post-game that isn't just a battle facility. Those really do nothing for me. I want new areas to explore and extra story.
If we're talking dream ideas, then I want them to go the nemesis system route with the rivals. Have some of them spring up randomly with a team designed to counter yours and keep track of your win/loss record against them, the one that beat you the most can be the final league battle. Personally I would love that even though it will not happen.
More grounded desires would a bigger focus on new Pokémon than old ones (probably not based on the trailer and recent games) and a decent endgame that isn't a legendary hunt (was cool the first few times).
Speaking of legendaries, I'd like them to feel more special this time, move them out of the main campaign and make it a bit of a quest to actually find them.
Unpopular opinion, but they should drop turn-based combat. Catching and evolving Pokémon is such a great experience that we already had Go, Let's Go and Legends Arceus dedicated to them over battles. Turn-based is great for strategy games, not so much for pretend-to-choose-actions-while-choosing-the-same-one-over-and-over-again mechanics. I'd rather throw different party Pokémon at different wild Pokémon at once and watch the battles unfold in real time, just choosing actions when the AI choices aren't good enough.
In summary, expand the real time exploration and catching mechanics of Legends Arceus to battles and I'll be really happy. Of course it won't happen, but one can dream.
A plot with proper baddies.
Id love to see them somehow embrace the lore evolution paths. Like how slowpoke becomes slowbro or slowking through a shelder biting them. So make it that to evolve them you needed to use them to fish or something and if they catch a shelder they evolve. Or incorporate the concept of Cubone either have it be a special evolution branch of Kangaskan where if the Kangaskan faints it has a chance to cause its baby to evolve into a Cubone…
Pokemon games need a lot of changes.
Storyline
1. No More 10 years old kids left from Mom's house to become Pokemon trainer then meet the Professor, meet the rival, meet the people's who have been waiting for you to battle, meet the team villain, meet the Legendaries. Give drastic changes for plot storyline such as an amnesiac teenager who saved Pokemon world and their own universe from evildoer or Stop the feud between two different clan of Pokemon like Yokai Watch 2 storyline style or The player was created from dream like FF X to save Pokemon world from being used as Machina weapons.
2. It has multiple endings depend on your choices.
3. Use voice acting. This is 2020's era, no more excuses to adapt with modern style games.
Gameplay
1. Use MP like standard RPG games instead of using PP that looks like FF 1 / FF 3 Magic style.
2. Keep ALL the abilities and we can use 6 different abilities in Battle.
3. Three Pokemons in your team to battle togerher while the other three are reserved Pokemons. No more 1 vs 1.
4. Every Pokemon abilities are divided into 6 different types if adopting FF XIII style: Commando (Attack only), Ravager (Using Elemental skill), Medic (Healing and curing ability), Sentinel (Defend to take very few damage, become Tanker), Synergist (Using supportive ability onto itself or party), Saboteur (Dismantle opponent attribute with bad status effect)
5. You can switch the Pokemon leader during battle anytime like FF XII.
6. NO Fainted. Every KOed Pokemon should be called Defeated.
7. Skill degree mapping like FF X or FF XII style. You can choose which skill you want to open first.
8. The world is full 3D environment to explore and you can jumping around while exploring.
9. Quest and something to do after storyline (Post game content, optional Boss to get legendary Pokemons).
10. Fusion Pokoms like Yokai Watch.
My main wishes are:
Sprigatito to stay on 4 legs
New Eeveelution or two (or ten haha)
Gyms and areas that level up alongside the player - so you can't be really overpowered or really underlevelled. Or maybe difficulty options so gyms etc are higher level etc
Post game content that isn't purely battle based. I've never done the frontier or tower. Never been interested
Secret bases!
And the possibility of another region and gyms after beating the Elite 4, like Gen 2
You kids being 15 and playing your first Pokémon game in 1998. Pff. Some of us grown ups were playing Pocket Monsters Green two years earlier in a language we couldn’t understand and with no online resource to help.
I think combat is fine, it has worked fine for 20+ years and it will work for 50+ more, however I think some tweaks are necessary. Incorporating more multi-turn moves like, Fly, Dig, Solarbeam and Hyper Beam are a must, maybe reintroduce Z moves or even the Strong/Agile style from PL:A.
@valharian The noun vet is short for either veteran (of the Armed Forces) or veterinarian (animal doctor). As a verb, vet means "to carefully examine beforehand." For example, your boss might ask you to vet people's applications before calling them for interviews, just to make sure they have the right experience for the job. Medically speaking, when a doctor vets you — or an animal — medical care is given.
I want Pokemon Amie/refresh back, camping is fun, but there's something soothing about petting a pokemon.
In a perfect world, i'd want all pokemon back (Sad Delphox fan here, no sign of it for the entire generation), but that's a passed station by now, but at least now the models actually look better.
Endgame that isn't battle-focused, i'm a wuss, i keep pokemon i like whether or not their nature and IVs are perfect, and postgame battles assume both to be maxed out, give big postgame areas with pokemon and other things to collect.
Leave the battle style as it was in SwSh (Shorten the pre- and post-battle sequences though), people buy Pokemon to collect monsters and do turn-based battles, have done for 25 years.
Finally: Put Cinderace in there, the Spanish love football, it belongs in the game! (Leave out Charizard for once, instead.)
Add Voice acting as well, and let us play as adults
The trend of adding new features like it's exclusive to the region/generation isn't fun or quirky.
-Especially when you ignore common features that have become standard in the genre as a whole.
Non-linearity in how you explore the region would be cool. Doing the (potential) gyms in any order, being able to go many different places from the get-go and having the cities feel massive and expansive would be awesome.
Other than that, new Pokemon/regional variants along with more widespread move distribution/tutors for competitive is all I'm really looking for. I'm a simple man to please when it comes to Pokemon: give me something that looks interesting and I'm all about it.
@ArcanineLink This. ELs already provide the accessibility the author is looking for. The only thing that's irritating about them is grinding for Grit items. They could probably tweak things a bit to make raising ELs more accessible, but other than that they've already solved this issue.
@Deege Ehh, low PP is just annoying because it forces you to go back to a Pokemon Center really quickly. I think it'd be better to have a stamina meter that functions like a cooldown, after the stamina meter is used up, it either takes a certain amount of turns to refill or only refills so much each turn.
@Axecon @azblue Unfortunately I think we're done seeing multiple regions per game aside from further GSC remakes. There's a lot of issues with how they implement multiple region games that just make it not worth doing, and basically instead of the fantasy of getting double the content as you normally would, you essentially just get two half-regions. You really can't make a two region game without each region having half the number of areas or half the level pacing, and there were a lot of complaints about the latter in regards to GSCHGSS to the point where they're probably just going to stick to one region games if they can help it.
I hate to admit it, but I'm officially no longer interested in new Pokemon games... I've reached an age where the older ones have regained so much replay value, and the nostalgia attached to them puts me in a happy place that inspires me. the new games just can't do that for me. even Arceus was a letdown imo... they made so many good moves, but in my opinion failed to follow through on most of them.
For 1, 2, & 3, GameFreak doesn't care about making the games better because casuals won't use those modes or features. Or at least that's the excuse you'll hear from people here who excuse them removing content like the Battle Frontiers. It doesn't matter that they weren't intended for them in the first place, but they remove them because less people play them.
4: No reason to change 4 when they don't care about 3.
5: It's been so long since we got an Eeveelution I'd hope we'd see at least 2, maybe even 3. Maybe a pure Flying-Type one that has a cloud for a tail and lays on it.
6: They won't change the base Pikachu back to the chonky one at this point. Best you'd get at this point would be a Regional Form that is.
Ghost or Dragon? How about a flying Eeveelution. I have always wanted an Eevee that is themed after a cloud design. It would be so fluffy and cute.
Also as for what I want to see:
-The ability to complete gyms in any order
-ELs retained from Legends Arceus
-The ability to throw Poke Balls and items as in Legends Arceus
-The ability to ride your own party Pokemon instead of random NPC Pokemon
-Agreed on Challenge Mode. This is something that should've been done way back in XY.
-Regional stones that allow you to evolve/breed whichever regional variant you want. I shouldn't be forced to evolve my Pikachu into Kantonian Raichu because we happen to be in a region other than Alola, and I've got shiny Pikachus in SwSh so I can't just transfer them to SM/USUM and evolve them.
-Expanded Co-Op system from LGPE with the ability to use your own team from your own copy of the game.
Yeah, I'd like to see some tweaking to getting perfect IV Pokemon and gaining EVs. They made it alot streamlined in S/M and S/S, but I'd like to see some more QoL in that area. Being able to change moves without a tutor in Arceus was a nice addition.
Can't wait for these new games regardless.
@Bolt_Strike If there was ever a time to do it, this might be the final shot. It would really cement this generation as a Switch showcase and silence Pokemon cries of lazy games. Geographically the regions are next to each other. It could be implemented in as DLC and have some sort of level curve which is long overdue (Gym leaders highest Pokemon would match your highest Pokemon and scale accordingly). Plus it would give Kalos the much needed 3rd installment it never received. But I do agree, sadly we will likely never see a regional revisit
I used to like Pokemon but the battles are just too boring for me after all these similar games. I'd play it if they had some kind of arpg thing going for it instead of turn based battles but I just don't feel like the series has evolved enough over the years for me to consider picking another one up.
@RubyCarbuncle What's baffling is why it can't just be an option like it was in Gen VI and VII. It's just bad game design to be forced.
In Shield, I felt punished for taking my time to enjoy the game and spending a lot of time in the Wild Area. Because the more time I spent in Wild Area, the more my Pokemon leveled up, beyond my control. This messed me up at the end of the story when I steamrolled over the rival and champion. It just felt...wrong.
I know that Sw/Sh allow you to switch out Pokemon easily, but before anyone says that... I tried to do that to the best of my ability. However, even when I was trying my best, I kept one strong Pokemon in my team to keep me from blacking out. That Pokemon became massively overleveled and pretty much handled the champion all by itself.
It's one thing when you have an old style Pokemon game like BD/SP, but when you have a game with open areas that you want to explore, Exp Share can really mess with the balancing. I don't want to be punished for exploring and enjoying the game.
Pokemon stealing. I remember throwing a pokeball at a trainers Pokemon in battle in earlier games and it not allowing me to catch it. Let that be a new mechanic!
@Harmonie so you want to spend more time doing the same boring thing over and over but for it to take longer because according to people whinging it makes the game more "challenging" correct?
I want to be able to eat pokemon
You only need to read this comment section to understand that Pokémon has lost its magic and is in desperate need of a really big change. Everyone on this forum is right, there is so much that doesn’t work anymore.
@Yorumi Sorry my friend I just can't agree with anything you said there. Pokèmon was never about difficulty it's about catching them all and IMHO that's where the challenge comes in. You want challenge you have post game for that. Pretty much all I have to say because there is nothing more to say.
We could both argue until we're blue in the face and it would just result in us going back and forth until the end of time so I think it's for the best to just leave it here.
@RubyCarbuncle I never said "challenging". I mean when I said I steamrolled it's not that I really wanted difficulty persay, it's that I didn't want to one-shot the champion's signature Pokemon as that takes away from the experience.
In all truth, I don't play games to be stressed out, so I don't like difficulty. But there is still a base level, which isn't really challenging at all but at least feels "involved" and yet because of the balancing issues created by Exp Share being forced on me and me wanting to explore the Wild Area, it went below that.
Steamrolling over the rival and champion was a mockery of the very story. The rival was at least supposed to put up at least a little bit of a fight after his character development. It all made me feel like my trainer was just a terrible person that curbstomped his dreams that we saw were so important to him like nothing.
I’ll take the new eeveelution, but the rest I don’t really care about. I’ve played Blue, Yellow, Silver, Sapphire, Diamond, Black, Black 2, Y, Moon, Sword and Arceus Lengends and what I want is:
The rest is great for those that want it. But this vet wants to meet a bunch of new monsters, battle em up for a while and be done with it.
@Kyloctopus Done! Sword and Shield let’s you make Slowpoke tail curry and then eat it and feed it to your team.
@Yorumi @RubyCarbuncle @Harmonie the exp share should be able to be toggled on/off its a simple addition that game freak could add in no time, and for those that what the exp share but lower rates there could be options to turn down the amount of exp the rest of the party recieves so you still level up the party but only the one battling gets 100% exp whilst the rest get 25%. Then when you're grinding levels on Pokémon you're not interested in using but need to fill the pokedex you can turn the exp share back up to 100% for the whole party.
One thing I will say about sword/shield though is that even without exp share it could of been an easy game, I did loads of dynamax dens online and after a few days I had hundreds of exp candies, so game freak could get rid of the exp share from future games but in return add in an activity that rewards exp candies for those that want a less grindy experience.
Funny, Arceus was really my first serious time playing a Pokemon game. It's exactly what I thought they were all like. Can't wait to play more.
@Lowell Oh, knock it off already! I am sick and tired of people in their thirties hamming it up about being "old". You're not old. Get over it.
Either make the rival and team of bad guys interesting or just get rid of them all together. The 'rival' in SwSh was cheering me on the whole game, he didn't feel like a rival at all but he kept telling me he was... And I had no clue what was going on with team yell.
The old Pokémon formula is really stale and doesn't fit the newer style of games Gamefreak is producing. I hope they can change things up a bit.
Also more exploration, less handholding and a gamemode that removes exo share and brings back HMs.
@IronMan30 lol your not wrong. We love the game but it has the same problem as Smash. The developers actively work against us. They want the game to be fun and simple and downplay the meta game as much as possible without completely alienating the old-school fans. Pokemon doesn't want to be associated with eSports levels of difficulty where things should be balanced and a higher level of detail is required.
That being said there are also opposite levels of fans who prefer the Nintendo mindset and want more interactions outside of battle like the pokemon mini games and competition halls. The amount of fans is so split that there's no way gamefreak could truly make a perfect game. So they stick to somewhere I. Between favoring simpler and accessible gameplay that generally annoys all fans because of the lack of options that gamefreak uses to ride the fence between creating two fanbases. One a hand holding hell and hey mom look what I can do!
1. To not stare at it and ask myself why it looks so bad.
2. A decent story.
3. Please don't reverse the evolutionary changes that Arceus made for the series. I loved Arceus' catching and battling stuff.
@Deviheart13 I mean, yeah. That's it, they straddle the line and end up making a lot of people upset. I'm sure they don't really care at the end of the day, since they still make tons of money. Which does suck for fans, tbh.
Fat Pikachu will always be my favorite, is the Pikachu that represents us 90's kids! 😎
I’d like for the fans to stop complaining about things that aren’t worth complaining about.
I.e. trees and eyes
Hello fellow ancient Pokémon Trainer! Your Humor is delightful!! Awesome article.
@CodyMKW Haha lol xD
Seconded fat pikachu
i have a few things i want Pokémon Scarlet e Pokémon Violet to have:
have a engaging story like gen 5
let us visit a previous region(Kalos perharps?)
keep the improvements Pokémon Legend Arceus added
have a actual good post game
have a good rival like gen 1/2
have voice acting on the game
add a signicant amount of new pokémon
they wont have time to add any of this with the development time they chose to dedicate to the game
I was still on gold and silver difficulty when I played ORAS. And was really surprised when I basically 1 hit the 8th gym master and didn't need a revive for the elite 4!
We were children when the first ones came out, there's guides and internet to help people now. Make them challenging, the kids can handle it!
@RubyCarbuncle If battling is boring why play the game in the first place? Many people want to spend the time training each member of their team in a way that doesn't feel majorly handheld. It doesn't matter if that strikes you personally as boring, much as that might seem offensive to you - it's about giving players choice. Choice is never a bad thing.
I want better story, more dificult that Sword (Arceus was an improvement) and trainer battles with 6 pokemon, so annoying that mid/late game you still find trainers with just 2 or 3 pokemon
They don't need to dumb down the Iv/Ev's more than already have done!!!
Removed - disrespecting others
@Bret
I mean that was my suggestion ideas.
Why did you feel upset with my new ideas for Pokemon games?
Fusion Pokemon sounds interesting for me, like imagine if Pikachu mashed up with Charmender and what will looks like.
Btw, I played Pokemon games on 3DS (X, Y, Alpha Sapphire, Omega, Ruby, Sun, Ultra Moon), Switch (Let's Go Pikachu, Sword) & NDS (Black 2, White 2) and I like to play Yokai Watch games on 3DS too.
@Anti-Matter Because that's not how fusion in monster RPGs goes. It's either everything can fuse but they lead essentially to random other monsters in the game (e.g. Shin Megami Tensei) or the amount of available fusions would be extremely limited (Yokai Watch), because there's no way they're programming fusions of every possible combination. Not even Yokai Watch lets you fuse everyone, not even close. That would be an impossible amount of effort, especially for a company that recently finally broke under the sheer amount of available monsters in the game and threw their arms up and said they can't put 'em all in any more.
@Maximumbeans It makes no difference having an item that saves time doing a mundane task and it's clear to me people making an issue out of the exp share have too much free time. I never said battles are boring I said EV and IV training are and as a 43 year old adult who has a job and other responsibilities I no longer have the luxury of being able to sit down for hours on end doing the same thing.
@Bret
Once again, that was my suggestion of new Pokemon games. Gamefreak will take their decision by their own. I was having fun to share my suggestion ideas and nothing wrong for Pokemon games get influenced from other games, if Gamefreak want to use that idea.
If Pokemons can be fused, I would like to see certain Pokemons (not all) can be fused based on their looking so it will create completely new looking of Pokemon, not just mashed up Pokemon A with skin color of Pokemon B (Monster Rancher).
Why did you felt upset with my ideas when I was having fun to share my ideas?
I remember now why I avoided Pokèmon Articles when I was a user here before therefore I will be avoiding them again from now on.
@Anti-Matter You said "Pokemon games need a lot of changes", not "here are some suggestions for fun", then you listed a bunch of ways to make Pokemon more like other games instead of letting it be its own thing. I play Pokemon because it's Pokemon. No other RPG series attracts my attention like this. I don't want it to be like Yokai Watch.
@RubyCarbuncle I don't see why that would suggest too much free time, as if they're not doing anything worthwhile with their lives - certainly takes no more time to criticise the state of exp distribution than it does to defend it like you're doing.
And as a fellow adult with a job and other responsibilities, I would still take the choice because your personal convenience doesn't negate the convenience of choice for other players. You seem to be getting frustrated that anybody would want the choice because you're indifferent to it. There are more than enough good reasons to want the old system back, and none of them revolve around people having too much time that they need to burn.
Oh, and: "Absolutely baffling why you lot would want to waste time fighting boring wild Pokèmon over and over again."
You did say boring. Just to be fair.
@RubyCarbuncle I will never understand people who think it's better to have the Exp. Share be permanent than to have it be a toggleable option. Ever. Having the option is better. There is no argument against.
@Bret Because apparently 'saving time' is concern #1 for people playing Pokemon. And we're the ones being obtuse.
@Maximumbeans I'm getting in arguments on a Pokemon article on a Nintendo fan site and apparently getting heated enough to have my comment deleted. I've got time, hahahaha
@Maximumbeans Frustrated? not at all I just find it bizarre but apparently that is being disrespectful so I won't say anymore
@Bret I don't have an issue with that I'm just saying I find it strange why people want to spend more time doing a task instead of using an item that cuts the time of that task in half but whatever floats your boat I suppose.
People are getting the wrong idea of what I originally said here hence the reaction.
@Yorumi Rude? why do you think I'm being rude? you have the wrong end of the stick I think. You're looking into something that isn't even there.
@RubyCarbuncle I don't like the Exp. Share because it overlevels your team, simple as that. In Shining Pearl my team was level 57 upon entering the 8th gym. Volkner's ace is level 49. For some reason, they don't bother adjusting the difficulty curve to account for the extra experience the Exp. Share gives, so I play with it off. The simple solution was to have it be a toggle, and that worked for two and a half generations, then all of a sudden they decided to force it.
Here's a suggestion that I would love to see and haven't seen any one mention: They should implement a "fail forward" system in the game. For example, you can actually lose to your rival, but if you do instead of replaying until you do beat him/her, they just say something like "get stronger and face me again!" and it opens up another encounter a little later but it doesn't soft lock you at all or prevents you from actually moving forward in the game. Now I dont think this could be applied to every battle in the game but at least for the rival
@Browny Coromon does both of those things. The Switch release got delayed but there's a demo for it on Steam.
I don't agree with most of the items on this list, but Accessible Team Building? Yes. Definitely. Absolutely. I've said it before on other websites and discussion forums. If the process of putting together a team is more difficult than it is on Pokémon Showdown, then it's too difficult for me.
@Anti-Matter sounds like you should just go play a FF game
@ChandlerKeith19
Had a feeling some Indie would capitalize on these ideas. Will look into this game some day.
no experience share
Cool dungeons
That's what I want
@Mando44646
I really need Exp share.
I don't like to play Pokemon games in hardcore level.
@Anti-Matter it should be a toggle. Very simple way to please everyone
Regardless, I played the old games as a child without it. Pokémon isn't very hardcore
All good with the article.
I'd love Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, and Giantmaxing to all be cut. No silly gimicks bogging the game down.
I'd also love to see Ride Pokemon Cut. Bring back HMs make them a field move aka a 5th move for out of battle. Make me have to consider team choices for exploring without compromising moves or needing to get some silly pokemon in a harness.
Raisins? Commutes? It's seriously been harder for me to read these articles with this kind of language I can't even describe with a noun. That. is. so unfamiliar.
But let's talk about the 6 things described here. Just for everyone to know, the third and fourth options were already refined in SS/SH, but I agree that the competitive scene in Pokémon needs a huge touch up.
It's not flawed, but it's not on the same level as Pokémon UNITE's matchmaking. Maybe Game Freak can learn a lot from Tencent's online infrastructure and why it works so good in all their online games!
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