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tetsuro_hoshino999A new generation of Pokemon games is just on the horizon as Pokemon Sun and Moon have been officially announced. This game implies that the 6th generation is coming to an end soon, as the Pokemon twitter account states that this is going to be a new era of Pokemon. If this is true, this suggests that the 6th generation of Pokemon is ending sooner than most of the generations. Although there's no official reason why 6th gen is ending so soon (I doubt we're going to have an explanation), Pokemon's 6th gen wasn't as successful as its predecessors. Pokemon X & Y are currently the lowest selling mainline games in the franchise. Also, Pokemon X & Y's anime ratings are at an all time low, and fans generally have mixed feelings on the games (myself included). Despite X&Y's shortcomings, I think GameFreak can learn some from these shortcomings to make Pokemon Sun & Moon an improvement over X & Y. So I`m going to discuss what Pokemon X & Y did wrong and how GameFreak can learn from it.
1. Don`t try to make Pokemon something it isn't.
The biggest flaw of Pokemon X&Y is that the game design choices that were made often conflicted with each other. Pokemon X&Y followed a traditional, turn-based RPG formula but implemented game design decisions to make the game go by quicker to compete with iPhone games. This is because iPhone games are gaining popularity with the masses (since a lot of people have iPhones and, in some cases, they are too busy to spend time with more complex games) so GameFreak was worried that iPhone games would become more popular than Handheld games, which will lower the sales of the Pokemon games. But designing Pokemon X & Y to compete with iPhone games was a big mistake because Pokemon X and Y turned out to be way too short and easy for it's own good. So much that it feels like the game doesn't believe that players can beat the game, so the game comes off as condescending to its audience. This decision is the reason why the exp share became a broken tool that made your Pokemon way overpowered. It's also probably the reason why you get introduced to Mega Evolution after getting the 3rd badge. It is true that you can turn off the exp share and not use mega evolution to make the game more challenging. But having the option not to use them still doesn't mean that the game design isn't unbalanced by nature.
This goal of being like a iPhone game didn't just cause the broken level up system or the early introduction to mega evolution, but it caused problems throughout the entire game's design. It's the reason why Pokemon X & Y feels like a controlled and linear experience. Most, if not all, the caves and forests are simple and small in scope. Not only are they easy to navigate, there's always some NPC that heals your Pokemon for you, so none of these areas feel like an endurance test that tries to teach the players how to prepare wisely. Not only that, there's a lot of roadblocks in the majority of the towns you visit so you don't have a choice of which sidequest you have to solve.
It's not to say that Pokemon didn't have linear elements. Previous titles did have roadblocks, and the forest and caves weren't necessarily the most difficult dungeons to navigate either (ex. the Pokemon Tower and Sliph Co. in Red and Blue have NPCs that heal your Pokemon). But these things should be done in moderation, and Pokemon X and Y provides these conveniences way too often. For example, in most towns, you have to defeat the gym leader first before you fight Team Flare, but in Pokemon Red and Blue, in some towns you are given the option whether you want to fight the gym, do the Team Rocket related quest or do a side quest to help out a NPC first.
The linearity of the game makes Pokemon X & Y a very on-rails experience, which is a problem, because Pokemon is a RPG, not an iPhone games. RPG are supposed to make you feel like you traveling this vast world. They are immersive in nature, so players are expected to take their time playing them and to also have some freedom on how to approach a certain situation. But and iPhone games are easy to learn and play. Most people play them when they are waiting for the bus or as a time waster. iPhone games are not meant to take up a lot of people's free time. Since iPhone games and RPGs are so different from one another, combining the traits of both types of games make Pokemon X and Y a confused game. It fails as a RPG because of how linear and easy the game is, but it fails as an iPhone game because it has RPG mechanics that take time to understand on a deeper level. In the end, Pokemon X and Y struggle to satisfy both RPG and iPhone players.
Hopefully, Pokemon Sun and Moon will avoid this issue because Pokemon Go! seems to be a game that was developed for iPhone users. Therefore, GameFreak and the Pokemon Company don't have to worry about competing with the iPhone when developing for Pokemon Sun and Moon.
2. Stop making so many references to gen 1 in order to win the original fans back.
This maybe seem like a small issue, but it does affect the game in a negative way. A lot of the gen 1 references feel insincere because the references are just there in a shallow attempt to win older fans over and don't benefit the game's design. For example, early on in the game, you find a Snorlax blocking the route and you need the Pokeflute to wake it up. Some guy will you the Pokeflute if you and Shuana manage to catch this stubborn Furfrou (a reference to the stubborn Farfetch'D from gen 2). You get the Pokeflute, wake up Snorlax, catch (or faint) it and give the Pokeflute back.
This doesn't sound like a bad plot device on paper, but the way it plays out in the game feels like it was just put in there to appeal to gen 1 fans. You solve the Snorlax problem fairly quickly and early into the game, so it doesn't really stand out as a big roadblock in your journey. In the 1st generation games, you didn't solve the Snorlax sidequest as soon as it's introduced to the player. The purpose of Snorlax is to force the player to take the long way to Lavender Town. Even when you reach Lavender Town, you still have to fight the Rockets in the Game Corner and Pokemon Tower so you can get the Pokeflute to wake it up. So in the gen 1, Snorlax is set up as this big roadblock that changed the path to take on your journey and catching it (or fainting) symbolized that you finished a new section of the game, especially since Snorlax is a pretty strong Pokemon and giving the player a Snorlax early would be unbalanced game design.
I think what Pokemon Sun and Moon should do is to not make references for the sake of winning over the older fans. These fans will be won over as long as you create a fun Pokemon game. That not to say that GameFreak shouldn't look back to the past when creating the new games. There are good things about the past titles that can be used to improve the game. But instead of putting in soulless references, maybe GameFreak should revisit the good things about the past games' design and why those design choices were so effective. Try to understand the philosophy behind the game design, don't take those ideas and implement them on a superficial level.
3. Don't be afraid to change things up.
Even though I think it's important for GameFreak to look back at the past games to see what they did right, I think GameFreak should make some changes to the formula. This isn't necessarily a problem with Pokemon X & Y. The formula in general is getting tried at this point. Gym leaders and Elite Four members are becoming more and more forgettable and we already have several gym leaders and elite four members that specialize in certain types and evil teams that want to destroy the world in order to create a new one. It's getting old. Back in the early days of Pokemon, Gyms were kind a necessary to teach players about elemental types because that was the game mechanic that might have scared new players away from playing Pokemon since they were so many types and type combos. Now there's so many strategies in Pokemon that just understanding type alone isn't going make you good at Pokemon. The Pokemon games don't really do a good job teaching players about these new mechanics, that's why there's such a big gap between causal and competitive Pokemon players.
I think GameFreak should feel free to change up the formula as long as the game does a good job teaching it's players how the play the game. You really don't need a Gym set up to teach someone about a certain game mechanic or to fight an evil team's boss to get an item. Pokemon Sun and Moon can accomplish these things without the Gyms or Evil Teams. It just takes some out-of-the-box thinking. Pokemon Sun & Moon would be more memorable if it's done well.
4. Don't remove features that people like.
Pokemon X & Y doesn't have the endgame features of previous gens that people liked such as PWT and Battle Frontier, which made the fans have mixed reactions to 6th gen. This was why I barely played X & Y when I finished the main game. This is kind of tied to their goal of competing with iPhones, but by removing the features that people enjoyed, it makes the series look like it's not moving forward. If the majority of fans like a certain feature, then it's a good sign that it should be carried into the next game. Pokemon X & Y aren't the only game that skipped out on some popular features, but it should be the last.
Anyways, those are the four things that Pokemon should learn from X & Y's shortcomings. I'm trying to not get my hopes up too high because I doubt that GameFreak is going to retire the Gyms or the Evil Team plot lines, but I really hope Pokemon Sun and Moon will fix the problems that X & Y had. Hopefully Gen 7 will be a step forward instead a step back, but at the same time, I'm not holding my breath.
1. Don`t try to make Pokemon something it isn't.
The biggest flaw of Pokemon X&Y is that the game design choices that were made often conflicted with each other. Pokemon X&Y followed a traditional, turn-based RPG formula but implemented game design decisions to make the game go by quicker to compete with iPhone games. This is because iPhone games are gaining popularity with the masses (since a lot of people have iPhones and, in some cases, they are too busy to spend time with more complex games) so GameFreak was worried that iPhone games would become more popular than Handheld games, which will lower the sales of the Pokemon games. But designing Pokemon X & Y to compete with iPhone games was a big mistake because Pokemon X and Y turned out to be way too short and easy for it's own good. So much that it feels like the game doesn't believe that players can beat the game, so the game comes off as condescending to its audience. This decision is the reason why the exp share became a broken tool that made your Pokemon way overpowered. It's also probably the reason why you get introduced to Mega Evolution after getting the 3rd badge. It is true that you can turn off the exp share and not use mega evolution to make the game more challenging. But having the option not to use them still doesn't mean that the game design isn't unbalanced by nature.
This goal of being like a iPhone game didn't just cause the broken level up system or the early introduction to mega evolution, but it caused problems throughout the entire game's design. It's the reason why Pokemon X & Y feels like a controlled and linear experience. Most, if not all, the caves and forests are simple and small in scope. Not only are they easy to navigate, there's always some NPC that heals your Pokemon for you, so none of these areas feel like an endurance test that tries to teach the players how to prepare wisely. Not only that, there's a lot of roadblocks in the majority of the towns you visit so you don't have a choice of which sidequest you have to solve.
It's not to say that Pokemon didn't have linear elements. Previous titles did have roadblocks, and the forest and caves weren't necessarily the most difficult dungeons to navigate either (ex. the Pokemon Tower and Sliph Co. in Red and Blue have NPCs that heal your Pokemon). But these things should be done in moderation, and Pokemon X and Y provides these conveniences way too often. For example, in most towns, you have to defeat the gym leader first before you fight Team Flare, but in Pokemon Red and Blue, in some towns you are given the option whether you want to fight the gym, do the Team Rocket related quest or do a side quest to help out a NPC first.
The linearity of the game makes Pokemon X & Y a very on-rails experience, which is a problem, because Pokemon is a RPG, not an iPhone games. RPG are supposed to make you feel like you traveling this vast world. They are immersive in nature, so players are expected to take their time playing them and to also have some freedom on how to approach a certain situation. But and iPhone games are easy to learn and play. Most people play them when they are waiting for the bus or as a time waster. iPhone games are not meant to take up a lot of people's free time. Since iPhone games and RPGs are so different from one another, combining the traits of both types of games make Pokemon X and Y a confused game. It fails as a RPG because of how linear and easy the game is, but it fails as an iPhone game because it has RPG mechanics that take time to understand on a deeper level. In the end, Pokemon X and Y struggle to satisfy both RPG and iPhone players.
Hopefully, Pokemon Sun and Moon will avoid this issue because Pokemon Go! seems to be a game that was developed for iPhone users. Therefore, GameFreak and the Pokemon Company don't have to worry about competing with the iPhone when developing for Pokemon Sun and Moon.
2. Stop making so many references to gen 1 in order to win the original fans back.
This maybe seem like a small issue, but it does affect the game in a negative way. A lot of the gen 1 references feel insincere because the references are just there in a shallow attempt to win older fans over and don't benefit the game's design. For example, early on in the game, you find a Snorlax blocking the route and you need the Pokeflute to wake it up. Some guy will you the Pokeflute if you and Shuana manage to catch this stubborn Furfrou (a reference to the stubborn Farfetch'D from gen 2). You get the Pokeflute, wake up Snorlax, catch (or faint) it and give the Pokeflute back.
This doesn't sound like a bad plot device on paper, but the way it plays out in the game feels like it was just put in there to appeal to gen 1 fans. You solve the Snorlax problem fairly quickly and early into the game, so it doesn't really stand out as a big roadblock in your journey. In the 1st generation games, you didn't solve the Snorlax sidequest as soon as it's introduced to the player. The purpose of Snorlax is to force the player to take the long way to Lavender Town. Even when you reach Lavender Town, you still have to fight the Rockets in the Game Corner and Pokemon Tower so you can get the Pokeflute to wake it up. So in the gen 1, Snorlax is set up as this big roadblock that changed the path to take on your journey and catching it (or fainting) symbolized that you finished a new section of the game, especially since Snorlax is a pretty strong Pokemon and giving the player a Snorlax early would be unbalanced game design.
I think what Pokemon Sun and Moon should do is to not make references for the sake of winning over the older fans. These fans will be won over as long as you create a fun Pokemon game. That not to say that GameFreak shouldn't look back to the past when creating the new games. There are good things about the past titles that can be used to improve the game. But instead of putting in soulless references, maybe GameFreak should revisit the good things about the past games' design and why those design choices were so effective. Try to understand the philosophy behind the game design, don't take those ideas and implement them on a superficial level.
3. Don't be afraid to change things up.
Even though I think it's important for GameFreak to look back at the past games to see what they did right, I think GameFreak should make some changes to the formula. This isn't necessarily a problem with Pokemon X & Y. The formula in general is getting tried at this point. Gym leaders and Elite Four members are becoming more and more forgettable and we already have several gym leaders and elite four members that specialize in certain types and evil teams that want to destroy the world in order to create a new one. It's getting old. Back in the early days of Pokemon, Gyms were kind a necessary to teach players about elemental types because that was the game mechanic that might have scared new players away from playing Pokemon since they were so many types and type combos. Now there's so many strategies in Pokemon that just understanding type alone isn't going make you good at Pokemon. The Pokemon games don't really do a good job teaching players about these new mechanics, that's why there's such a big gap between causal and competitive Pokemon players.
I think GameFreak should feel free to change up the formula as long as the game does a good job teaching it's players how the play the game. You really don't need a Gym set up to teach someone about a certain game mechanic or to fight an evil team's boss to get an item. Pokemon Sun and Moon can accomplish these things without the Gyms or Evil Teams. It just takes some out-of-the-box thinking. Pokemon Sun & Moon would be more memorable if it's done well.
4. Don't remove features that people like.
Pokemon X & Y doesn't have the endgame features of previous gens that people liked such as PWT and Battle Frontier, which made the fans have mixed reactions to 6th gen. This was why I barely played X & Y when I finished the main game. This is kind of tied to their goal of competing with iPhones, but by removing the features that people enjoyed, it makes the series look like it's not moving forward. If the majority of fans like a certain feature, then it's a good sign that it should be carried into the next game. Pokemon X & Y aren't the only game that skipped out on some popular features, but it should be the last.
Anyways, those are the four things that Pokemon should learn from X & Y's shortcomings. I'm trying to not get my hopes up too high because I doubt that GameFreak is going to retire the Gyms or the Evil Team plot lines, but I really hope Pokemon Sun and Moon will fix the problems that X & Y had. Hopefully Gen 7 will be a step forward instead a step back, but at the same time, I'm not holding my breath.
