How can Nintendo improve Pokemon?

[Kid Icarus]

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...

[ThirdMarioBro]

I honestly don't know anymore. I gave up when I saw they were never going to add a worthwhile upgrade ever again thanks to the anime kids of america and japan slurping up anything they are given. But....

All they need is an MMO setup and they can milk it for a while longer. I don't know if the Nintendo Wii's Wi-Fi can handle that though without subscription fees.

[Mecha Cow]

Like you mentioned, the first thing they need to do is fire the current design team and put Sugimori on the job again. Call me shallow, but the biggest reason I found Ruby/Sapphire to be unplayable was because of the uninspired designs. On the other hand, I loved Fire Red/Leaf Green, even though it's basically the same game.

The third (And so far, the fourth) generation of Pokemon suck, and the Final Fantasy-wannabe crap (I'm looking at you, Colosseum and XD) is nowhere near as charming as the simplified real world of the earlier games.

I still say the grid needs to go too. This is pure laziness. Even Zelda on the NES had pixel movement.

Animation, for crying out loud. I understand that it would be way too much effort to animate 400+ sprites, but this is where 3D models come in. I am not a fan of this new 2.5D trend in DS games, but Pokemon is one series that would benefit from it.

No more random (Pr)evolutions. Especially if you're just ruining Pokemon that used to be cool (What have they done to you, Electabuzz?). This stuff adds nothing except another number on the Pokedex.

Oh, turn the HM's into items or whatever, something you'll always have with you. I don't want to teach my Pokemon a crappy move that I can't delete, or switch it for one that does know it just because there's a damn bush in my way. Being able to reuse TM's would be nice too, but I dunno if it'd mess with the balance too much.

This is all pretty superficial stuff, I'll think about the actual game mechanics later.

[Peanut]

The first game was fun because it was an original concept. The fighting system has never been overly entertaining. I really can't think of an RPG outside of Paper Mario and Knights of the Old Republic that has a truly entertaining turn-based fighting system. And this is where Pokemon shows what it truly was. A decent turn-based RPG with collecting elements that made the game.

Now that the novelty of "catchin' em' all" and leveling in the grass for hours to evolve your Pokemon has worn off; it has left us with very little to come back for.

I honestly don't think there's much they can do to bring Pokemon back from the level of gaming mediocrity where it now resides. Like all RPG's with a traditional turn-based battle system, the fun wears out pretty fast, and that's when people are playing for story. Would Final Fantasy be anywhere if the gameplay was the exact same, but the story was lackluster? Hardly. Pokemon has fallen into this trap, but doesn't have the story to fall back on.

Much like the Grand Theft Auto series, the 4th installment in the franchise is a big one. They have to try and prove to people that they can do more than flesh out some of the smallers ideas. They have to prove that we aren't playing the same game for the 4th time. I honestly don't think outside of putting the series into 3D and creating an open-ended world that Pokemon can improve. It almost seems like Nintendo is trying to get blood from a stone here.

[Drtooth]

Stop showing the bloody cartoon series! That's how to improve it

[Kid Icarus]

Stop watching the cartoon series, then you won't have to complain about it. :-O

[ThirdMarioBro]

Originally Posted by Peanut

The first game was fun because it was an original concept. The fighting system has never been overly entertaining. I really can't think of an RPG outside of Paper Mario and Knights of the Old Republic that has a truly entertaining turn-based fighting system. And this is where Pokemon shows what it truly was. A decent turn-based RPG with collecting elements that made the game.

Now that the novelty of "catchin' em' all" and leveling in the grass for hours to evolve your Pokemon has worn off; it has left us with very little to come back for.

I honestly don't think there's much they can do to bring Pokemon back from the level of gaming mediocrity where it now resides. Like all RPG's with a traditional turn-based battle system, the fun wears out pretty fast, and that's when people are playing for story. Would Final Fantasy be anywhere if the gameplay was the exact same, but the story was lackluster? Hardly. Pokemon has fallen into this trap, but doesn't have the story to fall back on.

Much like the Grand Theft Auto series, the 4th installment in the franchise is a big one. They have to try and prove to people that they can do more than flesh out some of the smallers ideas. They have to prove that we aren't playing the same game for the 4th time. I honestly don't think outside of putting the series into 3D and creating an open-ended world that Pokemon can improve. It almost seems like Nintendo is trying to get blood from a stone here.

I agree with that whole statement 100%.

[IceFlash78]

Personally, they need to get rid of the complex stats system...

Red and Blue, and even Gold and Silver had it right... stats were determined by a pokemon's IVs, and with max IVs, you could get a pokemon's max stats (if you really wanted to...)

But in Ruby and Sapphire, they decided to throw in DVs and effort points, so that your stats are even more limited...

I'm sorry but I don't want to have to breed a new septitle to replace the one I chose at the beginning of the game and fought with all the way to the Elite four sipmly because I didn't monitor it's EV growth and now it has bad stats, even though it had the potential to have great stats...

I think it would be much better if all pokemon of the same specics (i.e., all bulbasaurs, all sandshrew, etc etc..) had the same stat potential. This would help me enjoy the game more as I wouldn't have to micromanage SO MUCH...

oh.. and bring back that 128-item glitch from Red and Blue! Having only one of each TM is worthless, and I don't want to have to play through 3/4 of a new game just to get a TM to teach a second pokemon after I used up the first tm.


I prefer Dragon Warrior Monsters's "catch them all" system. I mean, true, the graphics and battle system was bland, but at least the skills system and breeding system were unique...

[Drtooth]

Originally Posted by Kid Icarus

Stop watching the cartoon series, then you won't have to complain about it. :-O

I never really liked the show. I'm just saying get rid of the damn thing. It's a dead fish stinkin' up the network. Put REAL kid's animes on TV! Not those toy commercials.

[Kid Icarus]

It's still among the top ranked kids shows on television... hardly a dead fish. Infact, it's viewing numbers are higher then Yugioh... and I'd think even TMNT... imagine that.

[ThirdMarioBro]

Yeah, pathetic.

[Zachatello00]

What's really fantastic about Pokemon are the characters you get to know, and that depends on you, and which characters you go after. Problem is, with so many different characters, it's hard to choose the few you're really going to love. I don't want to suggest that they cut some pokemon from the lineup, but I would certianly not add any more to the roster at this point.

Maybe they could make some games that focus on certian pokemon, or even certian pokemon types. I'm not sure exactly how that might work, but it's a thought.

[Kid Icarus]

Hm... that'd be interesting...

Maybe have one of the two versions focus on all out physical attacks, and the other focus mainly on special attacks.

Oh, and they could also talk about the 'types' of Pokemon in the game. Give demonstrations as to what a tank or status Pokemon is. That alone would pry help to increase the ammount of strategic thinking involved.

[Peanut]

But who, beyond the hardcore Pokemon fans, would really give a damn about those games?

[Kid Icarus]

The few million people that keep buying the games...

[Peanut]

And there you go justifying this franchise with sales numbers again. We're trying to talk about improving Pokemon here. I don't think limiting the Pokemon involved or some other ridiculous thing like that is going to improve the games in any way, shape, form or fashion.

[Toonami Tom]

I'm starting to become a Pokemon fan again. The last Pokemon game I bought was Pokemon Staduim 2 for N64.

I suggest a full fledged, 're-make' of the Gameboy games from Pokemon red, blue, gold, and silver. They would all be combined into one game for the Nintendo Wii. It would use the classic style controller. It would have 3d, good graphics and have 251 Pokemon. It would also be online enabled for battle. An MMO like ThirdMarioBro said.

I would like that alot.

Oh, and some elements from Pokemon Snap in this game. You could have a camera with you. Also, instead of walking and a pokemon just appearing, you would actually see the Pokemon in the wild. Sometimes they would hide in tall grass, but most of the time you see them if you pay attention. What a great game that would be, I think so anyways.

[Kaneda]

OR......they could make you a Pokemon and make the game a dungeon crawler. *cough* *cough*Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon.I know it's not the traditional Pokemon game but it adds something new to the series.