Talking Point: After 30 Years, Is It Time To Reset The Pokédex?

But then how would they make money from cranking out a million pieces of Pikachu merch aimed at millennials trying to recreate the lack of responsibility they/we had when the anime was first on!?

I hope they never do this. It's like making a Mario game without Mario or a Zelda game without Zelda and Link.

Added; I do als not think they should do it like in Gen 5. But I think they should rotate the Pokémon that is in a certain games' dex a lot more. So, do not put Charizard in every game. Sure Pikachu should stay. But also put more focus on Pokémon from later generations or even regional forms. They should also keep the Dexit and only limit a game to certain Pokémon.

They’ve been doing this for two generations now. The national dex has been dead for a while.

Now in terms of attempting a full on dex reboot that fully ignores previous mons, then that’s just a futile endeavor that would simply introduce the need to create even more Pokemon to fit the same niches as old ones. All that gives us, is even more redundant Pokemon.

I think I would be fine with the occasional generation here and there that saves all returning Pokémon for the post game (probably not likely to happen at this point though, because of the Black and White controversy and each new game now having 400+ Pokémon), though I would rather not experience a completely reset Pokédex. That would just confuse me, a long time Pokémon fan who has, like, all the Pokémon memorized, just not in exact order for a lot of them.

Personally I'm fine with the 400 that's pretty much been the standard since USUM, having too small of a lineup makes things way too repetitive going through the game and is one of the bigger reasons why I think BW2 is much better than BW1.

That said I do kind of wish there was a way to fix the Nidoran issue, but given how that would upend basically the entire Pokedex's numbering I see why they don't. Right off the top of my head that'd force a redesign of Zarude and would render Gholdengo's gimmick pointless.

I think every 10 years is a good opportunity to offer a game with all-new Pokemon, at least until the post game. But at this point, they probably won't have a game without Pikachu since he's become so important (and Charizard perhaps?).

But in a more general sense, new Pokemon feel special to whoever is playing their very first Pokemon game. You just can't recreate the strong nostalgic impressions that you experience as a kid, and the beauty of Pokemon's cycle of ever-growing creatures is that the experience of being a Pokemon fan comes full circle as you age. Gen 4 now feels nostalgic and special to the people who grew up with them as their very first game, and even Gen 5 for younger people who will eventually catch up to our Genwunner ages. So it's only natural for older gamers to experience Paldea, Galar, and Unova Pokemon differently than how they remember their very first region(s) (for me it was Gen1-3 that I experienced at that impressionable age range).

Therefore, it's only natural for you the article writer to feel like you fall into a mundane pattern with each game. Certain Pokemon have such a strong impression on you that you can't help but fall into a similar routine. As others have said, my advice to you is to go out of your way to shake up which Pokemon you use. Having your favorite Pokemon available makes it easy to use them as comfort food, but proactively using different Pokemon will help create newfound appreciation for underrated or neglected ones.

The beauty of the Pokemon franchise is that the strong nostalgic preference for different Pokemon is unique for so many people, who experienced different games at different ages under varying circumstances and sensibilities. And as time goes on, the cycle comes full circle and those young gamers grow up feeling nostalgic for their first regions and Pokemon. It's the perfect money-making media machine to be honest. It's like the generation who grew up in parallel to Harry Potter, but repeated perpetually with each generation and new region.

Xerneas is top of the meta in ZA a PM that is usually never used. Azumarill is insanely popular in S&V for Raids despite it never seeing much play in previous gens.

As always its your choice as to what PM you pick. Me i tend to avoid repeating myself outside of keeping my favs on my team.

I liked Black and Whites approach and have always had a soft spot for those games (roll on the remakes). So my vote goes there.

@Kiz3000 To me Black and White really didn't feel like Pokémon games at all. Where I did like Black 2 and White 2 a lot more.

I just think it'd be neat to rearrange the dex entirely so that evolution families are grouped together instead of by region.

@Lizuka Why would upending the Pokédex numbering require a redesign of Zarude? What about it's Dex number is related to the design? Gholdengo I get that

i feel completely restarting the pokedex would be a really bad idea since it makes it much harder to figure out what game a pokemon may have come from since they are organized by game.

Well, I've never played a Pokemon game, so they'd all be new to me — but if I do end up playing Pokemon Winds, you had better believe I'll be ignoring any monsters that don't look cool. Who cares if this guy's strong, he's ugly — and why should I ignore this cutie just cuz he's weak? That's my perspective lol

You guys really need to make an The Onion-style website if you're going to write articles as nonsensical as this.

I think the problem right now is how easy it is to acquire Pokémon. It used to be extremely rare to get legendaries/mythical Pokémon. Now every new game release its like, oh zygarde? I have him like 5 times. I would like to have Pokémon that no one hardly has. Once you complete the whole Pokédex there's not much point in returning. Shines are the only reason to go back, but even then I've kinda lost interest at the point.

I'm currently replacing FireRed and I am enjoying it more than any of the latest releases

@ShadLink But why?

It was essentially Gen 1 with different monsters to catch.

Though there are quite a few exceptions, the designs have generally gotten worse each generation, imo. I don’t mind new Pokémon, but when I play new games it’s typically for new lands and stories more than for new Pokémon. I personally don’t mind a limited selection in-game with the option to bring over other Pokémon via Home. I’d rather rebalance than add new Pokémon. Resetting would be the worst option, imo.

I know these opinions may represent those of many others, but one of the problems Gamefreak must run into is that many fans play for vastly different reasons. I’ve never been super into “catching ‘em all,” though I like to catch many. Definitely don’t care about shiny hunting or perfecting EV/IVs. But then if you ignored those features you’d have an uprising among the most vocal minority. Can’t please everyone all the time. 🤷‍♂️

I think Gen 5's approach was best. The reason it failed was 2 things imo.

1) it was too soon. People didn't feel the need to wipe the slate clean and the desire to always have every Pokemon available was still an absolute trait of the series too that point.

2) Gen 5 was overall disappointing. See if they wanted to really sell the idea of starting from scratch they needed to assemble the best designs they could so people would favor them over the old ones. I'm talking rivals to all of the favorites, like regional or divergent forms now. Charizard, Pikachu, Gardevoir, Dragonite. All of them. The gen 5 we got wasn't awful but some designs did feel lack luster. Like the third dragon ... Wtf was that?

So pulling a gen 5 again could work. Especially with all the fatigue the franchise is suffering from now.

We can't outright abandon the classics but the flagships of the generation really should be the focus. I say this as someone who also just ends up using old favorites anyway.

As far as I'm concerned, nothing exists after gen 1. There have always been, and always will be 151 pokemon. I couldn't name a single pokemon beyond the original 151. As soon as they started adding hundreds more I was out.

Why not? Let’s reset the rosters of Smash Bros. and Mario Kart, while we’re at it.

There's flexibility to do whatever you want, it's an RPG end of the day. Be a senior or a newb, that's what I like Pokemon. I do wish they changed up battles to fight with total random sets of new Pokemon capped at 50 with RNG on move pool. Would help avoid the sweats online

@westmeadow will it be goodbye dexit?

I always try to make an effort to use a team of Pokemon I’ve never used before whenever I play a new title in the franchise. This doesn’t necessarily mean only new ones introduced in that game, but I will still try to include them.

When Sword and Shield was announced as not having the full roster, I was on Team Upset. However, now I’m beginning to agree that the dex has become fairly bloated and something needs to be done. I’m going to take the all or nothing stance here and say that they should start fresh with an all new roster. My reason behind that is that when they start trimming Pokemon out, they’ll inevitably upset some players because that was their favorite ‘mon. By starting fresh, nobody will feel targeted and expectations will be reset.

When I play a new game, I try to use ONLY new Pokemon. I agree it is tiresome to keep catching the same ones all over again. I know that's what Pokemon Home etc is supposed to be for, but it's never available at the start for obvious reasons.

I'd like to see them completely rethink pattern to which to encounter Pokemon though. Everyone knows the very first route, or wild area are filled with bug types, birds and whatever new rodent they've come up with. It's predictable, it's boring. They should also think about mixing up the types of the starter pokemon. Why has it always got to be fire, grass or water? Just because it was in the beginning and always has been? They always gain another type when evolving, but why not have them start off entirely different types and then gain the basic element in the final evolution? Why have they got to make the starters adhere to the same weakness/strength triangle? There are so many types, so many moves, so many Pokemon, that the notion your starter is weak to your rivals pick to make things challenging or whatever is now redundant. I say just have 3 completely unrelated types. Hey, the Let's Go games had Pikachu and Eevee, so it's not an impossible thing to hope for.

I think if pokemon are essentially the same, gameplay wise, they should not exist.
And it might be an unpopular opinion but pokemon was better with just 300 of them.
so let's reboot the series

I always try to use new pokemons. The gen V model works best for someone like me. Plus they can have older mons using regionals or convergent forms instead

Fear this simply reads as "I am quite a boring person and game design needs to change to accommodate me" rather than a fundamental critique of where the Pokémon franchise is...

@ShadLink Counterpoint: They made a Mario game without Mario. Wario Land. It was great.

@PushMyGran86 Even shinies used to be a once in a lifetime event. Now they hand them out like candy.

@MysteriousMudkip you would have a hard time figuring out which game all new Pokemon would be from? This doesn’t make any sense to me.

Nah. It's 100% on you if your teambuilding is repetitive. As others have mentioned, you can easily limit yourself to only new designs (as I plan to do in WiWa), and even if you don't there's still a massive roster of returning Pokemon in modern dexes, so there's no reason to return to the same ol'.

The dex isn't stale, you just aren't giving hundreds of Pokemon a chance. Swap that Gyarados for a Wishiwashi; that Lucario for a Perrserker, that Gardevoir for a Meowstic.

I don't think new Region Dex with mix of old/region-variant-old scattered in is unreasonable but Black and White's PokéDex was an unsubtle redo of the first wunfifty.

I'd argue more for a change to the formula like not having three starters, or have one version 's player begin on one side of the map and the other version on the opposite. Or do Opelucid City across a whole generation - one game Pokemon Past, the other Pokemon Future.

But wheel ain't broke etc.

I guess I just don't resonate with the author's reasoning, personally. I don't gravitate to a same team structure, or same Pokémon used, quite the opposite. Every new game I play or every new play through, I make an entirely different team of Pokémon that I've never used before. So I guess I just don't find myself in that same space of familiarity or repetition.

But then, with that in mind, I also wouldn't argue with an all-new Pokédex with no returning ones, as the results will still be the same, I'll end up with a new team! I like a good mix of old and new though, it's still fun to see Pokémon I know and adding them, even if they're not part of the main six.