Topic: Are you a fan of more story and character development in Pokemon games?

Hi everyone,

I've seen many people's opinions on this scattered in various articles on this site and other sites, so I thought it'd be interesting to discuss this in this thread. Do you like a greater focus on story and character development in Pokemon games? Or do you prefer to not have any story?

Personally, I would like to have more story in Pokemon games. I'm a fan of story in general, and I feel Pokemon could really benefit from enhanced story and character development (as we've seen in games like Sun/Moon and Black/White). It makes the games better, and doesn't impede the other aspects of Pokemon (like the experience) that people enjoy. That being said, they should definitely include an option to skip any cutscene (like in any other modern game) so that those who dislike story can avoid it most of the time.

What do you think?

I don't trust GameFreak with stories, so no. I prefer the old formula.

@Octane Idk you and I are some of the few people on this site that haven't owned a Pokemon game since Gen 4 (but still are Pokemon fans), but from what I've seen I'm impressed with the S/M and B/W storylines and think GF has the talent to make decent stories with the right writers.

I think S/M were done quite well, and I've heard a lot of people impressed with B/W as well, so I think they can do a well written story.

Yes, I really would enjoy a good story from a mainline pokemon game. The story from Pokemon Black and White was really engaging and got me back into the pokemon series.

As long as I can skip the cut scenes, yeah I'd be up for a better story in Pokemon games. Although I really don't see that happening in the near future, well anything that exceeds S/M anyway. (I haven't seen anything about US/UM) But as stated above they really need a skip option. I enjoy S/M a lot, but it's my least played Pokemon on the 3DS because of the story becoming tedious after the second, or even the first, play through.

GameFreak ... Well, they are well known to take two steps forward and then one step back. I really liked SM‘s story and liked the characters of Lillie, Hau and Gladion (wished I could say the same for my own character, but that‘ll prob never change lol). At the end of the game, I realized how many of the supporting characters I liked, too. From what I‘ve heard SM‘s story and emotional centre (that being the relationship of Lillie and Gladion to Lusamine) was utterly shattered by USUM, which is sad but not surprising.

With SM, they have proven they CAN make a good story within a Pokémon game work. But with USUM, they showed me they don‘t understand or don‘t care for what made that story work in the first place.

I‘ve always been someone who can overlook mediocre gameplay as long as the story is good and I care for the characters (unless it‘s a strategy game lol). In many ways, I value a good story and likable characters (because these two go hand in hand) quite a lot in my rpgs. Now, with Pokemon, I just like going around and collecting and training my little critters. I‘m a collector, it‘s in my blood. But I wouldn’t say no to a well written and interesting story in a Pokémon game.

It has to be one of the other. In SM/USUM they tried to do both and the result is that you are not the main character in your own story. I am frankly sick of the silent protagonist cliche because it feels lazy. They don't have to write a person.

They don't need to give us a literary masterpiece in a kids game. But give the main character enough of a soul that they are smiling oblivious to the world ending around them!

I'm a fan of more of just about anything in Pokemon games. Except old Pokemon, less of those would be healthy. Sun and Moon were a big improvement, but the whole plot should have been there on launch. They could have been longer, but the islands seemed to taper down to nothing as the story progressed.

I would love it if they changed something about the core story in general. For example, from the very beginning you a part of a an evil team. While becoming champion may not be the main goal, the option is still there. Considering how much it would change the "adventure" I know how unlikely all this is, but if they continue with a bigger story in the games, then I think (for me) they're going to have to change something.

Gen 5 is my favorite but, after playing Moon and the opening hours of Ultra Sun, I don't think Game Freak can write a story worth the constant interruptions. S/M's narrative didn't grab me (the writing is miles better than X/Y's, but it's still pretty bad), so at this point I'd rather have a game with little to no story that I can explore at my leisure.

And bring back caves and dungeons, for the love of god

I don't mind them improving upon the story aspects. I just feel like it should be secondary to the quality of the game/gameplay. The problem is with Sun/Moon, I feel like the actual games are mediocre, limiting, and frustrating (the difficulty is all over the place, for example). Sun/Moon is not an example of how Gamefreak should proceed with games from this point on.

Black/White were very solid Pokemon games gameplay-wise, though. So I think it's just a problem with Generation VII. I hope, anyway.

I'd rather see them either
A: Drop the story back down to where it was circa RSE
B: Bring it back up to where it was in BW/B2W2

I mean, SM had a decent if unexceptional story to be honest, with a little push it could have been really memorable. Just... so long as we don't go down XYs story path ever again, I think it'll be fine. As much fun as XY were mechanically, and as good as the pokemon designs and the memorable locations, I can't remember a single NPC from those games other than Looker, Lysandre, Sycamore and Emma, and the story still doesn't make sense to this day. Then again... it still makes more sense than DPs plot. There's a reason I'll only play Platinum now... or a lot of reasons.

How about a game that isn't about an evil team chasing the legendary box Pokemon for once?

The main character doesn't really need character development. The villian teams could use some work though as of late. I'm not sure what skull was all about but flare was just downright dumb! Then you had great teams like Rocket and Plasma, one a straight up Pokemon mafia the other a peta terrorist group.

I agree that the silent protagonist is just boring. When X and Y was announced, I was so happy that there was customization in your character. e.g cut hair, change clothes and etc. but after awhile, I just realized how much your characters doesn't stand out compared to the previous games before X and Y. As for story it'll be hard to juggle gameplay/story unless it'll be a very long game. Most people (mostly kids) don't really care about story and just the core gameplay. If they announced that their Switch Pokémon game is gonna be more story focused and is completely different than the cliches the previous games has to offer, I wouldn't mind

Short Answer: Yes. Things can definitely improve. As someone mentioned above, Game Freak takes almost as many steps back as they do forward.

Long Answer: While I play these games primarily for the exploration and monster-catching, the story and characters are a huge part of it for me.

Gen V (particularly Black/White) contained my favorite story in the whole series. I felt that Sun/Moon's story was decent overall (haven't played US/UM yet), but it definitely wouldn't have won any awards for plot when compared to other recent releases. I felt that Gen VII was a huge step forward when compared to Gen VI in many ways, be it Pokemon available, plot, character development, etc. I will say that Lillie more or less seemed like the main character at times, though.

I found Team Skull refreshing as the game didn't take them seriously at all. The Aether Foundation was a twist that I didn't completely see coming (though I suspected something was off with Lusamine as soon as the player gets to meet her), but we've seen the "polarized organization" twist in Gen V. In any case, they were legions better than the shallow Team Flare.

I'm a big Pokemon fan and while I never considered plot to be an important factor, I do think they can do more with it.

Black/White and Sun/Moon had pretty good stories for my money, while X/Y was bland, Diamond/Pearl was nonsensical, and the rest were too simple to really riff on.

At the end of the day though, if I wanted a good story, I'd make my own or talk with other Pokemon fans. Yes, the Pokemon world allows for an amazing official story, but I can make my own.

Game Freak can write good stories, but they need to do it right. They're not Monolith Soft though, and the story can be very hit or miss.