How can Nintendo improve Pokemon?

*Kid Icarus* · 08-06-2006, 02:16 PM

I typed this up at work, so excuse any typos and stuff. The point of this isn't to debate if Pokemon is a viable franchise anymore... it is. The sales speak volumes. This is about how Nintendo and Gamefreaks can IMPROVE the game to make it as fresh as it was when it came out.

There's been a lot of talk on here about what changes need to be made to the Pokemon games in order for the to be more interesting... Instead of defending the new games based on sales numbers I'm going to try to figure out just what made the original generation so much fun to play, and what they need to change in the new games in order to cause another slap in the tide.

The first thing I've noticed in my replay of Pokemon Red (never caught all 151 on there, just Blue) is the art design. The levels and NPC's are bland, simple, and strangely easy on the eys. The graphics scream early Gameboy. They are though, and that's half of the charm. With Ruby and Sapphire they went for a more pastel, soft, cartoon look. It looks childish, and boring. There arn't bright colors, there's hardly any detail, and the level design is sloppy and gets tiring after a few minutes of play.

And the new Pokemon. They look generic, and the names are uninventive. What happend to chain names like Abra, Kadabra, Alakazam to link evolutions together? What happend to making the evolutions look like bigger and stronger versions of their weaker counter parts? How does a Lidco logicaly turn into a Ludicolo? It doesn't, and I think that's one of the reasons that the new characters arn't anywhere near as popular as the original 151.

The character art was also much.... well, cooler. Sandshrew looked like a shrew, not like some weird rat made out of bricks. Pidgey looked like a bird, and Rattata looked like a Rat. And the mean Pokemon like Gyrados looked like they could do some damage if they wanted to. They didn't look like you'd want to run up and glomp them.

They need to go back to that art direction. The audiance for Pokemon has been shown to be male gamers in the 15-25 age range. They need to make the graphics appeal to those gamers. Obviously the original games didn't turn kids away from them with the graphics. More reason to go back to a psuedo realistic approach.

Next is the evolution and leveling system. If I have to catch a half thousand monsters, I don't have to have to level 80% of them to 75 to get their second stage evolutions. In Red I just beat Misty and I'm now getting ready to kick the **** out of Surge with a Diglet (more on that later), but most of my Pokemon are at their stage one or stage two forms... the ones that arn't were just caught before Misty. They need to make sure that by level 40 every Pokemon is in their second stage. Save their strongest attacks for the higher levels to give people that actually want to use them a reason to keep leveling. They need to keep the trade experiance bonus though. It encourages people to swap Pokemon and keeps the trading aspects of the game kicking. They just need to increase the experiance you get with traded Pokemon to really push this concept.

I remember back in the day how weird it was to battle someone that I'd never met before and see a Pokemon I traded to someone show up on their side.
Now that the game is online there should be more of this. Maybe they can include a way to tell when a monster shows up in battle if it's one you originally caught.

The battle system needs an overhaul. It's become TOO simple in the new games. There arn't moveset combos that are easily accessable. In Red my Zubat learned a confusion stat effect at lvl 10, and came with Leech Life. You confuse, let them smack themselves, and then sap their life away from them. They need more things like this, but for each monster. Even in RBYG there were only a handful of Pokemon that were really good at this. Mewtwo is the prime example with the Amnesia, Recover, Psychic combo to boost your special to 999 and cause 1HKO with each Psychic . Golbat, Zubats evolution, keeps the same status effect attacks, and also can act as a status clearer with Haze.

As far as the acutal system goes I'm not sure where I'd change it. I think a lot of the blandness would fix itself if you were actually forced to use your Pokemon as a team though, instead of single fighters with no linked abilities. They tried this with Gold and Silvers Batton Toss attack but failed. Have things that give each Pokemon status changes, little ones though. +5 Spc. Attack, things like that. Or ones that make crit. hits more likely. The only problem woudl be that everyone would use the same attacks to start a battle off... but then hazers (see Golbat above) would come more heavily into play.

Stat boost/reduce attacks should have a stronger effect. The way the game is now, it's pointless to keep those attacks on your monsters after level 10... it's just more efficent to use direct damage then it is to try to lower their defense. Status conditions like Poison should also have an effect on how well they preform in battle, making it harder to land attacks, reducing speed, and the like. Make these things actually DO something instead of sitting there for a few turns.

A stamina stat would be cool too. I'm thinking along the lines of getting a slight XP boost depending on how long they stay resting in their Pokeballs, like in World of Warcraft. The games use the system clock now so this really shouldn't be a big deal for them to do.

As far as the story goes I'm remembering just what made Red and Blue so cool. Sure, your main goal was to become a Pokemon Master... but you also had to complete the Pokedex for Professer Oak, and along the way you got tied into Team Rockets crap. One story element that really stood out was at the Pokemon Tower where you had to kill the ghost of a Marowak that, get this, a Team Rocket member had killed. Then there was the quest to get the SS Ticket from Bill, who fudged up and got himself trapped in a Pokemons body. They need to get more side stories in there, and make them worthwhile. Want to get that Upgrade to get Porygon 2? You need to go find a scientests lost notes so he can make the program for you. They could even reward you by giving you some Pokemon. In Red and Blue that was one of the cool things... trading with NPC's for uncatchable monsters. They could send you on missions now though to catch certain Pokemon for them, and give you items or money for doing that.

Another thing missing is NEEDING to catch a certain ammount to progress though the game. Again, in Red and Blue you had to clear check points to get items you needed to get to the next town. They need to bring this back. The game is "gotta catch 'em all", and it's time Nintendo and Game Freak remember this concept that made the first games so damn addictive.

They need more enviromental puzzles now too. Some simple, some complex. If I could figure out how to clear Gannons Castle in Link to the Past when I was young, I'm sure kids now could figure out something along those lines too. I want to have to actually put work into getting farther into the game aside from leveling my monsters up. Like catching a Pikachu in Vermillion Forest to breeze through Misty's gym, or getting a Diglett to shut down Lt. Surge. There was the really cool rock dropping puzzle in the caves where you catch Articuno... things like that. It'd make the games feel like you've accomplished something.

The Rock-Paper-Scissors match ups need to be worth something too. Have more types that won't do antying to other types (electric to ground like above), and the ones that arn't total shut downs need to be boosted. If they're a bird, and I electrocute them, they should take a lot more damage then say if I hit them with a Bubblebeam. If I hit a Psychic Pokemon with a Psychic attack, it should to a LOT less damage then if I hit a Fighting Pokemon with the same attack.

Anyway, feel free to tell me I'm being dumb... and add your own ideas too...

08-06-2006, 02:16 PM	#1
Kid Icarus Foot Elite Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Angel Land Posts: 4,150	How can Nintendo improve Pokemon? I typed this up at work, so excuse any typos and stuff. The point of this isn't to debate if Pokemon is a viable franchise anymore... it is. The sales speak volumes. This is about how Nintendo and Gamefreaks can IMPROVE the game to make it as fresh as it was when it came out. There's been a lot of talk on here about what changes need to be made to the Pokemon games in order for the to be more interesting... Instead of defending the new games based on sales numbers I'm going to try to figure out just what made the original generation so much fun to play, and what they need to change in the new games in order to cause another slap in the tide. The first thing I've noticed in my replay of Pokemon Red (never caught all 151 on there, just Blue) is the art design. The levels and NPC's are bland, simple, and strangely easy on the eys. The graphics scream early Gameboy. They are though, and that's half of the charm. With Ruby and Sapphire they went for a more pastel, soft, cartoon look. It looks childish, and boring. There arn't bright colors, there's hardly any detail, and the level design is sloppy and gets tiring after a few minutes of play. And the new Pokemon. They look generic, and the names are uninventive. What happend to chain names like Abra, Kadabra, Alakazam to link evolutions together? What happend to making the evolutions look like bigger and stronger versions of their weaker counter parts? How does a Lidco logicaly turn into a Ludicolo? It doesn't, and I think that's one of the reasons that the new characters arn't anywhere near as popular as the original 151. The character art was also much.... well, cooler. Sandshrew looked like a shrew, not like some weird rat made out of bricks. Pidgey looked like a bird, and Rattata looked like a Rat. And the mean Pokemon like Gyrados looked like they could do some damage if they wanted to. They didn't look like you'd want to run up and glomp them. They need to go back to that art direction. The audiance for Pokemon has been shown to be male gamers in the 15-25 age range. They need to make the graphics appeal to those gamers. Obviously the original games didn't turn kids away from them with the graphics. More reason to go back to a psuedo realistic approach. Next is the evolution and leveling system. If I have to catch a half thousand monsters, I don't have to have to level 80% of them to 75 to get their second stage evolutions. In Red I just beat Misty and I'm now getting ready to kick the **** out of Surge with a Diglet (more on that later), but most of my Pokemon are at their stage one or stage two forms... the ones that arn't were just caught before Misty. They need to make sure that by level 40 every Pokemon is in their second stage. Save their strongest attacks for the higher levels to give people that actually want to use them a reason to keep leveling. They need to keep the trade experiance bonus though. It encourages people to swap Pokemon and keeps the trading aspects of the game kicking. They just need to increase the experiance you get with traded Pokemon to really push this concept. I remember back in the day how weird it was to battle someone that I'd never met before and see a Pokemon I traded to someone show up on their side. Now that the game is online there should be more of this. Maybe they can include a way to tell when a monster shows up in battle if it's one you originally caught. The battle system needs an overhaul. It's become TOO simple in the new games. There arn't moveset combos that are easily accessable. In Red my Zubat learned a confusion stat effect at lvl 10, and came with Leech Life. You confuse, let them smack themselves, and then sap their life away from them. They need more things like this, but for each monster. Even in RBYG there were only a handful of Pokemon that were really good at this. Mewtwo is the prime example with the Amnesia, Recover, Psychic combo to boost your special to 999 and cause 1HKO with each Psychic . Golbat, Zubats evolution, keeps the same status effect attacks, and also can act as a status clearer with Haze. As far as the acutal system goes I'm not sure where I'd change it. I think a lot of the blandness would fix itself if you were actually forced to use your Pokemon as a team though, instead of single fighters with no linked abilities. They tried this with Gold and Silvers Batton Toss attack but failed. Have things that give each Pokemon status changes, little ones though. +5 Spc. Attack, things like that. Or ones that make crit. hits more likely. The only problem woudl be that everyone would use the same attacks to start a battle off... but then hazers (see Golbat above) would come more heavily into play. Stat boost/reduce attacks should have a stronger effect. The way the game is now, it's pointless to keep those attacks on your monsters after level 10... it's just more efficent to use direct damage then it is to try to lower their defense. Status conditions like Poison should also have an effect on how well they preform in battle, making it harder to land attacks, reducing speed, and the like. Make these things actually DO something instead of sitting there for a few turns. A stamina stat would be cool too. I'm thinking along the lines of getting a slight XP boost depending on how long they stay resting in their Pokeballs, like in World of Warcraft. The games use the system clock now so this really shouldn't be a big deal for them to do. As far as the story goes I'm remembering just what made Red and Blue so cool. Sure, your main goal was to become a Pokemon Master... but you also had to complete the Pokedex for Professer Oak, and along the way you got tied into Team Rockets crap. One story element that really stood out was at the Pokemon Tower where you had to kill the ghost of a Marowak that, get this, a Team Rocket member had killed. Then there was the quest to get the SS Ticket from Bill, who fudged up and got himself trapped in a Pokemons body. They need to get more side stories in there, and make them worthwhile. Want to get that Upgrade to get Porygon 2? You need to go find a scientests lost notes so he can make the program for you. They could even reward you by giving you some Pokemon. In Red and Blue that was one of the cool things... trading with NPC's for uncatchable monsters. They could send you on missions now though to catch certain Pokemon for them, and give you items or money for doing that. Another thing missing is NEEDING to catch a certain ammount to progress though the game. Again, in Red and Blue you had to clear check points to get items you needed to get to the next town. They need to bring this back. The game is "gotta catch 'em all", and it's time Nintendo and Game Freak remember this concept that made the first games so damn addictive. They need more enviromental puzzles now too. Some simple, some complex. If I could figure out how to clear Gannons Castle in Link to the Past when I was young, I'm sure kids now could figure out something along those lines too. I want to have to actually put work into getting farther into the game aside from leveling my monsters up. Like catching a Pikachu in Vermillion Forest to breeze through Misty's gym, or getting a Diglett to shut down Lt. Surge. There was the really cool rock dropping puzzle in the caves where you catch Articuno... things like that. It'd make the games feel like you've accomplished something. The Rock-Paper-Scissors match ups need to be worth something too. Have more types that won't do antying to other types (electric to ground like above), and the ones that arn't total shut downs need to be boosted. If they're a bird, and I electrocute them, they should take a lot more damage then say if I hit them with a Bubblebeam. If I hit a Psychic Pokemon with a Psychic attack, it should to a LOT less damage then if I hit a Fighting Pokemon with the same attack. Anyway, feel free to tell me I'm being dumb... and add your own ideas too...