Discussion Pokemon Sword/Shield Writeup

[Christi Junior]

In case most of my video game writeups strike you as generally positive, there’s a good reason for that – not actually being a professional game reviewer, I stick to writing about games that I’ve played to completion, and which I chose to buy because I expected them to be good and enjoyable in the first place. And usually there’s still plenty of things to criticize and pick apart even in really good games, so I don’t mind almost exclusively doing positive writeups since my critical thinking muscles still usually get a good workout, and I feel that I generally avoid slipping into shill territory (except in my Xenoblade series writeup, but I still stand by 100% of what I wrote because those games are just *that* good).

However, there is one purchase in recent years that burned me bad, a game I ended up finishing, yet still hate passionately. That game is of course Pokemon Sword/Shield (also referred to as Pokemon Generation 8, Gen 8 for short), and it’s about time I broke down just what made this game such a massive disappointment. Because I really did have high hopes for this one, having enjoyed every major mainline Pokemon game until this point (not counting “remakes” like Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee that I skipped), and SS being the game that FINALLY marked the series’ true 3D debut. I thought most of the pre-release info about the game was promising (except for Dynamaxing, which always struck me as nothing but a dumb gimmick), the new Galar region looked cool despite being based on Britbongistan, and I was even one of those idiots defending Dexit because hey, quality over quantity, 400+ Pokemon available is still plenty etc. What I didn’t properly consider was the sheer laziness and corner-cutting that Dexit represented.

Pokemon Sword/Shield truly is a lazy game. It’s also a rushed game, AND it’s made by genuinely incompetent developers. Additionally, it’s in various ways remarkably ill-conceived. It’s a game that’s only salvaged (and I use that word generously) by the core Pokemon formula, which is genuinely brilliant, the kind of genius gameplay loop that made Pokemon a monster hit and maintained its popularity despite only limited innovations and improvements over the course of 25 years.

The core Pokemon formula involves catching Pokemon, and training/battling with them, but to fans of the series it’s so much more. The rush of excitement when you discover a Pokemon you really like, the painstaking process of weakening it without knocking it out, the satisfaction of finally catching it, it all sets the stage for something truly special. The turn-based 1v1 battle system is on one level extremely basic and primitive, not to mention slow, but it allows you to fully focus on the Pokemon you’re raising, letting you get a great sense of what it’s capable of, and how it matches up against various types of opposing Pokemon. You learn through experience exactly how many hits you need to knock out any particular Pokemon with your primary attacking move, as well as how many hits you can survive, which makes each level up and accompanying power boost genuinely exciting, and whenever you learn a new move that lets you hit harder, or hit new types of Pokemon super effectively, or make use of new strategies, it’s a real game changer. And when all the training and battling finally leads to your Pokemon evolving, changing its appearance and becoming MUCH stronger than before, possibly even changing into a new type and gaining brand new moves, it feels like the culmination of all your hard work.

This process isn’t nearly as slow as it sounds either, since with a party that has room for 6 Pokemon, there’s pretty much always something interesting going on, especially given how many trainers there are to battle, with full teams of Pokemon that you can test your own Pokemon against. Sometimes a particular Pokemon will emerge as an absolute star due to matching up super well against trainers in a particular area (I still remember how my seemingly indestructible Pokemon Red Geodude utterly dominated Mt. Moon), or be rendered completely helpless by awful type matchups (I still remember how shocked I was when one of Misty’s flunkies one-shot said GigaChad Geodude with water gun). Sometimes a Pokemon will straight up lose its slot on your team because you end up catching a new Pokemon that you like even more. The Pokemon catching, the battling and the exploration just comes together so incredibly well, especially since the older games were somewhat open and non-linear, letting you beat various Gyms in the order of your choosing. And of course, the social aspect of trading and battling with friends adds an additional layer of fun and excitement.

This core Pokemon formula is what enables even a game as inadequate as SS to still be relatively enjoyable. Catching and raising new Pokemon will always be fun and satisfying on at least some level, and I did have a good time trying out both the new Galar Pokemon (a number of which I really liked) and some cool, older Pokemon that I’d never used before, like Durant and Golurk. SS even adds some nice quality of life improvements, like letting you quickly swap between Pokemon in your party and benched Pokemon in the PC, and (following in the footsteps of Pokemon Sun/Moon) not saddling you with mandatory HM moves for traversing and exploring the world. HMs have always been something of a pain, and in Gen 4 (Pokemon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum), the HM system actually got so bad that you pretty much HAD TO include a designated HM Slave in your team, with Bibarel generally being the field nigger of choice, so I’m all for removing HMs – any negative effects of this change is purely a problem with the execution, not the idea.

 

[Christi Junior]

However, Pokemon Sword/Shield also includes some genuinely retarded changes that on the whole severely undermine the core Pokemon experience. Worst of all is the Forced EXP Share. In the older Pokemon games, you at various points get the EXP Share item, which (when equipped by a Pokemon) splits the experience points from a battle 50-50 between the Pokemon holding the EXP Share item, and the Pokemon that did the actual battling. It was a great way for you to quickly level up underpowered Pokemon, at the cost of your core team members gaining less experience. Then Pokemon X/Y ruined the item by making it so that ALL non-participating Pokemon still gain 50% of the experience points, while the Pokemon that does the battling gains 100% of said experience. I guess this is kinda how communists figure that their economic system works? It’s not just unbalanced, it completely broke the difficulty curve, with your party now gaining experience and leveling up so quickly that battles became completely braindead. But, at least you always had the option of disabling the EXP Share.

Well, not in Pokemon Sword/Shield you don’t! Now you’re forced to play the entire game with this completely broken, difficulty-destroying mechanic, in a game that doesn’t at all feel designed with it in mind. Or, maybe it *was* designed around it, because SS sure seems to have a lot less Trainers available to battle than past games, though whether this was due to “balancing” or sheer laziness is hard to determine. If this was done for the sake of balancing, it’s a miserable failure, because you STILL end up severely overleveled just from playing the game normally, and the paucity of Trainers makes for a way less interesting Pokemon experience. It truly is insane that you no longer even get the option to turn off the EXP Share, it’s bad enough that this game doesn’t have multiple difficulty settings (the industry standard for JRPGs nowadays), but the Forced EXP Share means that you’re effectively forced to play the game on Game Journo Mode.

And the lack of challenge has all sorts of negative ripple effects throughout your adventure. As battling becomes so mindless, with so few meaningful decisions to make, you become acutely aware of just how slow, primitive and repetitive the standard Pokemon battle system is. Trying out new moves, switching to different Pokemon etc is often just a waste of effort, since your strongest Pokemon will be so overleveled and overpowered that it can probably knock out most opposing Pokemon with its strongest move, even when it’s resisted. And since EXP is forcibly redistributed anyway, so it’s hardly a priority to use multiple Pokemon in Trainer battles in order to distribute battle experience somewhat equally. All this makes for lots of EXTREMELY boring and uninteresting battles. Sword/Shield *tries* to spice up the battles with the new Dynamax mechanic, turning your Pokemon gigantic and overpowered for 3 turns, but this too is a miserable failure, a completely unbalanced gimmick that replaces vastly superior mechanics from past games (Mega Evolution and Z-Moves), and in singleplayer at least makes battles either even more one-sided (as you Dynamax against helpless opponents) or just wastes your time (often you and your opponent will Dynamax at the same time, meaning that you’re essentially left with the same matchup, that now just takes slightly longer to play out).

Maybe even worse than the battles being boring is the fact that your emotional investment in both them and your Pokemon is greatly reduced. One of the core aspects of Pokemon was building a connection with your Pokemon, but when your Pokemon keep leveling up, even evolving from battles they didn’t actually participate in, it doesn’t feel earned and therefore isn’t satisfying. And when your Pokemon is almost always facing underleveled opponents, you just don’t get the feeling that it overcame the odds and did something impressive when it wins. So you just end up autopiloting most of the game, and even when a rare difficulty spike inflicts a surprise defeat on you (like I suffered against Bea the Fighting-type Gym leader) it doesn’t matter much, because you’ll easily win the rematch given just how easy even the hardest parts of SS are.

You’d initially expect the exploration and open world aspect of Pokemon Sword/Shield to somewhat make up for the braindead, boring battles. After all, SS was the first mainline Pokemon to feature a big, open fully 3D world for you to explore, full of Pokemon to catch and secrets to find. You can even occasionally come across certain extremely overleveled Pokemon, adding a delicious element of unpredictability and danger to the exploration.

Sadly, SS’s 3D open world, the so-called Wild Area, is huge letdown. You can really tell that Game Freak has no real experience with crafting true 3D environments, because the Wild Area really does feel like Baby’s First Open World – small, ugly and hastily thrown together, a dire case of slapdash and uninspired design. It has no ambitions beyond doing the bare minimum to justify the Pokemon series’ move to the Switch by being a somewhat open 3D area where you can catch Pokemon. Oh, and I use the term “open world” extremely loosely here – on the whole SS is actually MORE linear than most prior Pokemon games.

It’s also an “open world” devoid of memorable landmarks and appealing sights, let alone jaw-dropping vistas. Despite being tiny by open world standards, the Wild Area feels remarkably incoherent (a fact Game Freak actually exploited in pre-release ads, by making it look like the game featured multiple Wild Areas) – there’s for example a random mini-desert in the middle of the Wild Area, but take just a few steps away from it and you’ll not only immediately encounter standard green vegetation, but chances are you’ll be soaked by rain. Weather in general is horribly handled, with arbitrary locations suddenly experiencing snow because hey, Game Freak needed a place to put the Ice-type Pokemon. In no way whatsoever does the Wild Area feel like an actual living, breathing, lived-in world, instead being about as authentic as a MtF tranny, and almost as hideous too.

 

[Christi Junior]

That’s as good a segue as any to final address Pokemon Sword/Shield’s graphics. Now, I'm very far from being a graphics whore, but full-price Switch game looking like this shouldn't be tolerated by ANYONE. At its absolute best, SS looks like a souped-up 3DS game in HD. To be fair, the Gen 6 and Gen 7 Pokemon games were actually quite good-looking by 3DS standards, and a lot of the less ambitious areas in SS, which are very small and don’t allow you camera control, generally look pretty nice – hell, one particular forest area filled with colorful glowing mushrooms looks downright pretty. The caves are also quite visually appealing. However, this game reminds me of something I recently said about Zelda: BotW’s soundtrack: It has a lot of good songs, but 90% of the time you won’t actually be hearing any of them playing. Pokemon Sword/Shield likewise has a number of nice-looking areas, but those are generally tiny, with very little to do (even the caves are extremely small compared to how they were in past Pokemon games). Most of your time will be spent in the bigger towns (which suffer from various visual issues, like nasty pop-in objects) and of course, the Wild Area.

Even on its best days, the Wild Area looks thoroughly drab, dull and basic, but it’s additionally plagued with a number of downright embarrassing graphical issues. Everyone has already made fun of its “N64 trees”, but it really is deserved, and it really is THAT bad. Seriously, the trees in Ocarina of Time unironically had better textures back in 1998, and it’s absolutely pathetic/outrageous that Game Freak and The Pokemon Company thought this actually looked passable. And somehow there’s even a completely different sets of trees in the Wild Area, the berry trees, that ALSO look absolutely terrible, but for different reasons. Sure, they look bad in their own right, but the bigger problem is that next to the standard N64 trees, they look like they’ve spawned in from a completely different game, and the effect is extremely unpleasant and immersion-breaking.

Speaking of immersion-breaking, having Pokemon freely roam the Wild Area rather than be confined to random battles in tall grass or caves SHOULD have been a game changer and a long-overdue upgrade for the franchise (especially since SS still features various patches of grass were the people who crave the old random battles can still get their fix, proving retro fans with a great compromise), and Pokemon Legends Arceus did later on show just how well this can work. However, in Pokemon Sword/Shield you really don't get feeling of the Wild Area is a place where wild Pokemon actually live their lives, as the buggers just pop in and out of existence as you approach any given location – and you have to be pretty damn close for them to spawn in too! Being able to see beforehand what Pokemon you’re about to enter battle with is still very convenient, but the battle transition is the same as it was in the original Game Boy games, and sometimes the battle backgrounds you’re transitioned to don’t remotely match the place the battle was actually initiated. Again, it’s badly immersion-breaking, and a far cry from the seamless battle transitions of something like 2010’s Xenoblade Chronicles, or for that matter, Pokemon Legends Arceus.

And just to dwell on the actual battles for a bit, do you remember why Pokemon Sword/Shield upon its launch only included like half of the total Pokemon roster? According to Game Freak, the reason was to ensure that the Pokemon who actually made it into the game looked as good as possible, with high quality animations. Obviously that was NOT the actual reason, because they’ve straight up recycled (and this has been proven, time and time again) the old 3DS Pokemon models, which while quite good by 3DS standards, aren’t anything special on the Switch. However, the “high quality animations” are a much, much bigger problem still. Just how bad are they? So bad that video compilations making fun of them have repeatedly gone viral. Just watch:

Again, I’m very far from a graphics whore – if I was, I wouldn’t be a fan of post-GameCube Nintendo. But most first party Nintendo games still manage to look good, even on underpowered hardware, due to great art styles and lots of love and polish being put into the presentation. Pokemon Sword/Shield not only frequently looks like absolute dogshit, but its garbage graphics are reflective of general laziness, incompetence and even dishonesty. It’s already shameful to hit us with animations far worse than what we saw in the N64’s first Pokemon Stadium game, but to do so after using “high quality animations” as your official excuse for cutting massive amounts of content is beyond scummy. Plenty of previous Pokemon games have been graphically underwhelming – the first images of the GBA’s Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire barely looked like an upgrade over the GBC’s Gold/Silver/Crystal, and the first DS games were also graphical underachievers. However, Pokemon Sword/Shield was the first mainline Pokemon game to deliver graphics that were genuinely laughable, and the fact that we somehow got an even worse-looking Pokemon game two years later (that Gen 4 rehash was absolutely wretched) doesn’t make it any less of a disgrace.

And the crappy presentation isn’t limited to just the graphics, because a lot of the Pokemon noises and general sound effects are still borderline Game Boy quality. If it’s supposed to be nostalgic, well, plenty of long-running franchises, from Mario and Sonic to Zelda and Dragon Quest, manage preserve various nostalgic little noises and sound effects, without the entire games sounding hopelessly dated. In my own (way too positive) first impressions post about Sword/Shield on Fedi, I actually specifically called out the sound effects, NOT the graphics (as I’ve said, a number of non-Wild Area locations actually look fine):

https://bae.st/notice/9ozl0nEPh385opKsyG

That said, while the actual soundtrack is hardly mindblowing, this aspect of the game is at the very least quite good. A number of songs don’t really click with me (even the Gym leader battle theme is just OK), but the game does feature a number of legitimate bangers. Marnie’s battle theme? Wonderful! Oleana’s battle theme? Even better! These are the kinds of songs I still listen to on JewTube from time to time, and along with the hentai, they represent most positive contributions Pokemon Sword/Shield have made to the world (on that note, female character designs are actually excellent, except Melony, who’s too fat for my taste. Most of the male character designs are meh at best tho).

 

[Christi Junior]

On the note of characters, I really do need to bitch a bit about them, and especially about the story as a whole (Spoilers will follow, but let’s be real here, if you’re seriously thinking about buying Pokemon Sword/Shield in Current Year, what the hell’s wrong with you?). Now, Pokemon stories used to be very basic, all the way up ‘til Pokemon Black and White (Generation 5), which placed a significantly bigger emphasis on story, characters and even cutscenes. However, due to some pretty economic, efficient storytelling, its story didn’t actually overwhelm or compromise the core Pokemon experience. Gen 6 had a comparatively simple, crappy story overall, but with some very worthwhile elements (like a really cool backstory about a massive Pokemon War, and a genuinely beautiful and powerful flashback sequence). Meanwhile, Gen 7’s Sun/Moon almost tried to become a “proper” JRPG in terms of its story focus, devoting way more time to the story than even the original Gen 5 games. The result was quite a neat story with a number of really cool moments, good twists and several nice “Firsts” for the series, as well as some good character drama. However, a lot of people felt that the story was now taking up way too space, and that it negatively affected the Pokemon experience that they were playing the game for.

So of course in Pokemon Sword/Shield you get the worst of both worlds: A really dumb and uninteresting story that takes up a whole lot of your time! The backstory about Two Heroes, with Two Pokemon, who saved the world from some unspecified threat a long time ago, is as bland and generic as it gets, but a shocking amount of time is devoted to exploring it (Sonia deserves a spanking not just for being hot, but for wasting so much of my time with such snoozeworthy lore). This comes on top of the already excessive amounts of forced handholding and exposition that the game hits you with, seriously, fuck you Hop!

Ah yes, Hop, one of my most hated video game characters in recent memory. He combines two things I've long hated in Pokemon games: Forced tutorials and Friendly Rivals. The first one shouldn’t need an explanation, but as for the Friendly Rival thing…well, the first couple of Pokemon games used to have your Rival be, well, a proper rival; a jerk who’s desperate to beat and humiliate you, and who seems to always be one step ahead of you. Both these aspects (the rival being a jerk and always seeming to outpace you) are key, because they help make the Rival a formidable foe that you desperately WANT to knock down a peg. However, apparently modern kids can’t handle even a single character not giving them the Chosen One Protagonist treatment, and so your Rival character has increasingly just become a blasted buddy character, who encourages you all the way.

Oh, and Rivals are incompetent now, almost as incompetent as Game Freak, to the point of actively choosing the Starter Pokemon that’s *weak* against your Starter. So instead of being this delightful jerk that pushes you to be better, your Rival is now a loser that you’re meant to feel bad for. Now, you *could* argue that Hop as a character has some merits; him being the little brother of the Pokemon Champion is something new after all, and makes his failures sting way more than they otherwise would have. However, in a video game gameplay is part of the storytelling, and Pokemon Sword/Shield’s gameplay makes me hate Hop for wasting my time with forced tutorials and boring exposition, as well as feel contempt for him for sucking *that much* at Pokemon battles.

Some people will excuse Hop’s sad showings by arguing that SS actually does have a proper Jerk Rival, in the form of Bede. And true, Bede is a jerk – but he’s almost as incompetent as Hop! Remember what I just said about storytelling through gameplay? Bede’s weak mono-type teams and the game’s pathetic difficulty level kills any chance Bede had of actually being a worthy Rival, he’s more of a trash-talking punching bag. And his story arc is ALSO all about failure, and the one moment where he seems to resemble a threat immediately leads to his Pokemon Trainer career being unceremoniously ended.

That’s a huge problem with Pokemon Sword/Shield’s story right there – the moment something legitimately interesting seems about to happen, it’s immediately solved in the least interesting way possible. Giant Pokemon attack? It gets taken care of off-screen (you expected a cutscene at least? Tough titties!). A powerful character goes to meet a suspected villain and doesn’t return? Turns out the meeting just dragged on a really long time (no, really). And when things finally DO get “interesting”, it’s in the worst possible way.

This game has one of the dumbest villains ever. The Chairman Rose villain twist itself *might* have been a decent one if it wasn’t for the fact that it basically copies a similar, but far superior twist from the Pokemon generation that came right before SS. Like, it’s such a blatant rip-off that you almost wonder if Game Freak entirely forgot that they released Sun/Moon not that many years ago. But even if the twist itself had worked, Rose is just a disastrously retarded villain. Because Pokemon apparently has to be for babies now, Rose isn’t allowed to have an evil or even selfish motivation for his bad actions, so instead, he did what he did to solve an energy crisis…..that MAY happen like 1000 years into the future. Nani dafuq? No, seriously, just have the nigger commit evil acts because he’s greedy, or ambitious, or just mad at the world. This villainous motivation wouldn’t pass the smell test even if you had your nose cut off.

 

[Christi Junior]

The villain not actually being allowed to be evil reflects an even bigger problem with Pokemon Sword/Shield. As a whole it just feels like a thoroughly childish game (yes, even by Pokemon standards), in the worst sense of the word – nobody’s really evil, nothing truly bad ever happens, the world is ultimately a happy and harmless place where all your dreams come true. Contrast this with Pokemon Black/White (which featured a truly twisted villain who brainwashed and manipulated his own adoptive son, and blatantly tries to murder the main character of the sequel), Y/X (whose backstory is literally a massive War that leads to countless dead Pokemon, including the Pokemon of a notable character) or Pokemon Legend Arceus (both Pokemon dying and Pokemon killing people is part of various storylines, and the main character is in no uncertain terms told that her choice is between making herself useful in her new village, or dying in the wilderness). I guess that is largely why I don’t connect with or care about a single character in SS, beyond appreciating the likes of Sonia and Nessa for being pure sex.

I guess the best thing I can say about Pokemon Sword/Shield’s story is that it’s not SJW propaganda or otherwise “Woke” in any notable way. My Based Morality Score for this game is firmly Neutral. The girls are cute, but there’s not enough fanservice to warrant a +1. The game doesn’t dare repeat the classic “Are you a boy or a girl?” question from the old games, but neither does it operate with “Body types 1 and 2” bullshit, it just asks you to pick 1 out of 8 avatar characters, four male, four female. There’s Diversity, but nothing excessive or unreasonable for a game set in a failed state like the UK. In the end, the story is shit because of shit writing, shit characterization and shit storytelling, not leftist agenda-pushing. Hop is a shit character because he plain sucks, not because he’s a Paki. This game quite frankly is too dumb and lazy to even have any interest in lecturing you on any given issue, or to promote anything other than Pokemon merchandize. It’s really sad that this on the whole is a point in the game’s favor.

Apart from my Based Morality Score, I generally don’t give games review scores in my writeups, but I actually have THREE scores for this game: 6/10, 3/10 and 1/10.

The 6/10 is my “objective” review score. At the end of the day, I did have a decent amount of fun with the game, and spent around 30 hours on it, so technically I’d say I got my money’s worth. The Wild Area graphics are shit, but plenty of other locations look fairly nice, and the soundtrack is pretty strong, so a 6/10 seems like a reasonable overall score.

3/10 is my score when judging Sword/Shield up against what it *should* be as a Pokemon game on the Switch. Here we have a game that’s only salvaged by the core Pokemon formula, and even that it manages to partially ruin. It’s lazy, rushed and incompetently made, the Wild Area graphics are absolutely pathetic and the story is almost impressively bad. Overall, this game compares unfavorably to every single mainline Pokemon entry that preceded it, including the notoriously broken and glitchy Gen 1 Game Boy titles. Compared to the top Nintendo first party games on the Switch it’s a joke, and even the flawed Pokemon Legends Arceus completely outclasses it in every aspect except music.

1/10 is how I *actually* feel about the game. I’m disgusted by its wasted potential, by how half-assed it is, by how downright embarrassing it is in so many ways. Most of all, I’m disgusted by the lying sacks of shit over at Game Freak, and the mindless drones who not only swallow this piece of Pokeshit uncritically, but aggressively white knight Game Freak whenever anyone criticizes any of their wrongdoings. Paypigs like that are the reason why we got an abortion of a Gen 4 “remake”, and Generation 9 games in the form of Scarlet/Violet that bordered on unplayable. Pokemon Legends Arceus showed that there must still be *some* people working at Game Freak who have a sense of shame, because that game was practically an apology for SS in general, and the shitty Wild Area in particular, but if the fanbase keeps buying and defending garbage products, there’s no reason to believe that the mainline Pokemon entries will ever improve, let alone become the amazing and unforgettable adventures that they have the potential to be.

 

[PhantomXero1x]

Thsi is the game i think, really exposed to alot of people how dogshit pokemon has becoming over teh years long with so many other nintendo franchises due to subtly stripping away features and make everything feel super cheap yet at the same time, so many fags with fucking stockholm syndrome defending and simping for nintendo especially more recently with the palworld lolsuit too.

So yeah, pokemon is just fucking dogshit these days if it isn't only the games or the anime, its also the fucking fanbase nintendo has too.

 

[Christi Junior]

Even the most low-effort Nintendo franchises (which I'd say are the Mario sports games) are markedly superior to modern Pokemon in terms of polish and presentation, and the top Nintendo franchises quality-wise (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Xenoblade etc) are lightyears ahead in every conceivable way. If anything, the godawful quality of modern Pokemon is due to Game Freak and The Pokemon Company being *less* subservient to Nintendo than their other developers (Game Freak has put out multiple games on the PS4 and Xbox One) and being able to defend their bad products by citing their 20 million+ sales. Just this generation, Nintendo restarted Metroid Prime 4's development (effectively delaying the game by 3-4 years) because of quality concerns, while Game Freak released Scarlet and Violet in a blatantly unfinished state, these are not comparable game design philosophies. Nintendo is an Enabler of modern Pokemon's crappiness, not the Cause of it.

 

[PhantomXero1x]

Even the most low-effort Nintendo franchises (which I'd say are the Mario sports games) are markedly superior to modern Pokemon in terms of polish and presentation, and the top Nintendo franchises quality-wise (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Xenoblade etc) are lightyears ahead in every conceivable way. If anything, the godawful quality of modern Pokemon is due to Game Freak and The Pokemon Company being *less* subservient to Nintendo than their other developers (Game Freak has put out multiple games on the PS4 and Xbox One) and being able to defend their bad products by citing their 20 million+ sales. Just this generation, Nintendo restarted Metroid Prime 4's development (effectively delaying the game by 3-4 years) because of quality concerns, while Game Freak released Scarlet and Violet in a blatantly unfinished state, these are not comparable game design philosophies. Nintendo is an Enabler of modern Pokemon's crappiness, not the Cause of it.

I honestly liked Another Code Recollection one of the very very few 2024 games i bought that came out on this year and i'm still waiting for the hotel dusk remake, i mean sure famicom detective club is back is great and all but hotel dusk room 215 deserves it.

Zelda's genderswap game is going to be another tourist magnet like that new princess peach game honestly, Xenoblade is also a tourist magnet too as well and Mario fans are idiots too so yeah all nintendo fandoms (or any fandom in general) are as i always say nothing but total dogshit.

 

[BushidoJP]

As a person who had a cursory interest to the Pokémon series, I always wondered why is it that some people (like my little brother) still find enjoyment with the series nowadays despite the modern games deterioration in quality, and are forgiving of the blatant laziness of Game Freak. After thinking about it, I had the idea that maybe the people who still find enjoyment with these games are the people who enjoys playing Pokémon competitively. If the gameplay loop of the Pokémon series is one of the main aspects that made the series a monster hit, then the player base that can derive pleasure through playing the games competitively, are going to keep this series alive.

In fact, if you look at the direction that the 8th and 9th generation went with their games, there seems to be drop in overall single-player content (especially post-game) in favor of augmenting the multiplayer experience. For example, the Raid battles that were introduced in the Wild Areas are a waste of time for people playing through the single-player mode. but they are a necessary mechanic for competitive players to build their teams.

In a twisted sense, Game Freak doesn't need to care about making good quality RPG experiences as long as they preserve the gameplay loop of Pokémon for the competitive player. I find that to be sad to think about, especially when previous generations put care in making the game fun for the single-player with its wealth of post-game content that actually push you to get good in the game (ie. Emerald's Battle Frontier).

 

[Narmy]

Hm, SwSh is the first Pokemon game since Red that I liked enough to finish, mainly because I hate handheld gaming and prefer playing on the TV. It's probably going to be the last Pokemon game with top tier pokegirls, which is the main reason to play these games anyway.

 

[PhantomXero1x]

Hm, SwSh is the first Pokemon game since Red that I liked enough to finish, mainly because I hate handheld gaming and prefer playing on the TV. It's probably going to be the last Pokemon game with top tier pokegirls, which is the main reason to play these games anyway.

You of all people are really the last, to like something like sw/sh you're really more so the type, to lean onto the genius sonority pokemon games if anything as they were really the best console pokemon games even to this day.

 

[JX475]

I feel like i am going to date myself but the last real Pokemon Mainline game I have ever truly finished was Pokemon Silver and Gold, along with the Remasters that came out in that timeframe with SoulSilver, HeartGold, and even Pokemon Red and Blue Remakes even though I finished Blue and Red original and Yellow. I have never been able to gain interest like everyone else does with the Pokemon franchise of playing every single one of them since then because I do find it too repetitive and sometimes a tiny bit grinding for my liking and kind of have dipped out. I did try Sword and Shield, I do like the new things they put in, and it looks like they have evolved the EXP system to be easier on the grind and things are much faster, but it's just not really enough to keep my interest in the series or to wish to buy them. If they remade the series to be like Pokemon Arceus where the gameplay feels like an evolution I would definitely find the series worthwhile to even finish again, although I do still keep up with the Fanart community due to loving these deisgns. Sadly so far Violet and Scarlet is an illusion of Arceus and the designs of the Pokegirls have went downhill since Sugomori has went somewhere else apparently. This is made me kind of swore off the franchise and making me only wish to see the Anime instead.

Even the most low-effort Nintendo franchises (which I'd say are the Mario sports games) are markedly superior to modern Pokemon in terms of polish and presentation, and the top Nintendo franchises quality-wise (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Xenoblade etc) are lightyears ahead in every conceivable way. If anything, the godawful quality of modern Pokemon is due to Game Freak and The Pokemon Company being *less* subservient to Nintendo than their other developers (Game Freak has put out multiple games on the PS4 and Xbox One) and being able to defend their bad products by citing their 20 million+ sales. Just this generation, Nintendo restarted Metroid Prime 4's development (effectively delaying the game by 3-4 years) because of quality concerns, while Game Freak released Scarlet and Violet in a blatantly unfinished state, these are not comparable game design philosophies. Nintendo is an Enabler of modern Pokemon's crappiness, not the Cause of it.

The main issue is it's not Nintendo that controls Pokemon it's like with Square Enix and Dragon's Quest, it's sort of a split venture and revenue. But I do get what you mean, the reality for Pokemon is that it needs to be higher. Although I will defend recycled animations and recycled Assets due to the fact without them we would get 5 to 10 year development cycles. I do think Gamefreak faces a dilemma to either scale the Pokemon game to become Chibi or to go all in on the Arceus style games(which I would be all for it). It's not an envious position because fans will be upset if they scaled down but you would have higher quality models, more animations and various other things as a whole, or if they went all in with Arceus, people will be mad that the world is bland but the models and animations would be better. The Dev cycle of 3 pokemon games and 3 expansions really is hurting Gamefreak in a Console cycle and they need to figure out how to make the transition better.

As a person who had a cursory interest to the Pokémon series, I always wondered why is it that some people (like my little brother) still find enjoyment with the series nowadays despite the modern games deterioration in quality, and are forgiving of the blatant laziness of Game Freak. After thinking about it, I had the idea that maybe the people who still find enjoyment with these games are the people who enjoys playing Pokémon competitively. If the gameplay loop of the Pokémon series is one of the main aspects that made the series a monster hit, then the player base that can derive pleasure through playing the games competitively, are going to keep this series alive.

In fact, if you look at the direction that the 8th and 9th generation went with their games, there seems to be drop in overall single-player content (especially post-game) in favor of augmenting the multiplayer experience. For example, the Raid battles that were introduced in the Wild Areas are a waste of time for people playing through the single-player mode. but they are a necessary mechanic for competitive players to build their teams.

In a twisted sense, Game Freak doesn't need to care about making good quality RPG experiences as long as they preserve the gameplay loop of Pokémon for the competitive player. I find that to be sad to think about, especially when previous generations put care in making the game fun for the single-player with its wealth of post-game content that actually push you to get good in the game (ie. Emerald's Battle Frontier).

This is what puzzles me ultimately. How can people maintain interest to go back to these games? Has the storylines in the series become better? Is there more PokeGirl fanservice elements? Is the combat smoother? The EXP scaling better to complete Single Player? Granted I do not know, it's been a long time since I have finished a Mainline Pokemon game, I did finish spinoffs like SNAP and Arceus, keep up with fanart, but with the Mainline I wonder if there has been massive enough differences to go back and finish them like B/W II and Sun And Moon. If someone can explain that would be great, but I also see your point that Game Freak seems to not care about Single Player and just makes it a quick cakewalk to then make everyone go to Multiplayer instead.

 

[Christi Junior]

I think it's as simple as a lot of Pokemon fans having insanely low standards, to the point where The Pokemon Company can get away with charging 60 dollars for shit like THIS:

I know a lot of people are into competitive battling, but considering how the current Pokemon userbase is 20-30 million people, I still can't imagine hardcore competitive players justifying their purchase by citing changes making it easier to optimize your Pokemon being anything close to the majority of buyers. I believe most of the people buying modern Pokemon games are mindless paypigs buying unworthy products entirely due to blind brand loyalty, same reason a No Games joke console like the PS5 has somehow sold more than 60 million.

 

[BushidoJP]

I will say @JX475 that in regards to Generation 1-5, even though I've never played these games formerly, I have seen videos of people discussing their love in exploring the regions themselves. There is a playlist of great videos made by a YouTuber named Aleczandxr who showed me how much environmental storytelling the Pokémon series use to have back then. Even if the surface-level storyline seems repetitive and dull, the unique stories that each region tells are (according to some people) what gave each generation a unique identity. That is one underrated aspect of the older generations that isn't talk about much I feel.

 

[PhantomXero1x]

I think it's as simple as a lot of Pokemon fans having insanely low standards, to the point where The Pokemon Company can get away with charging 60 dollars for shit like THIS:

View attachment 21180

I know a lot of people are into competitive battling, but considering how the current Pokemon userbase is 20-30 million people, I still can't imagine hardcore competitive players justifying their purchase by citing changes making it easier to optimize your Pokemon being anything close to the majority of buyers. I believe most of the people buying modern Pokemon games are mindless paypigs buying unworthy products entirely due to blind brand loyalty, same reason a No Games joke console like the PS5 has somehow sold more than 60 million.

I feel like i am going to date myself but the last real Pokemon Mainline game I have ever truly finished was Pokemon Silver and Gold, along with the Remasters that came out in that timeframe with SoulSilver, HeartGold, and even Pokemon Red and Blue Remakes even though I finished Blue and Red original and Yellow. I have never been able to gain interest like everyone else does with the Pokemon franchise of playing every single one of them since then because I do find it too repetitive and sometimes a tiny bit grinding for my liking and kind of have dipped out. I did try Sword and Shield, I do like the new things they put in, and it looks like they have evolved the EXP system to be easier on the grind and things are much faster, but it's just not really enough to keep my interest in the series or to wish to buy them. If they remade the series to be like Pokemon Arceus where the gameplay feels like an evolution I would definitely find the series worthwhile to even finish again, although I do still keep up with the Fanart community due to loving these deisgns. Sadly so far Violet and Scarlet is an illusion of Arceus and the designs of the Pokegirls have went downhill since Sugomori has went somewhere else apparently. This is made me kind of swore off the franchise and making me only wish to see the Anime instead.


The main issue is it's not Nintendo that controls Pokemon it's like with Square Enix and Dragon's Quest, it's sort of a split venture and revenue. But I do get what you mean, the reality for Pokemon is that it needs to be higher. Although I will defend recycled animations and recycled Assets due to the fact without them we would get 5 to 10 year development cycles. I do think Gamefreak faces a dilemma to either scale the Pokemon game to become Chibi or to go all in on the Arceus style games(which I would be all for it). It's not an envious position because fans will be upset if they scaled down but you would have higher quality models, more animations and various other things as a whole, or if they went all in with Arceus, people will be mad that the world is bland but the models and animations would be better. The Dev cycle of 3 pokemon games and 3 expansions really is hurting Gamefreak in a Console cycle and they need to figure out how to make the transition better.


This is what puzzles me ultimately. How can people maintain interest to go back to these games? Has the storylines in the series become better? Is there more PokeGirl fanservice elements? Is the combat smoother? The EXP scaling better to complete Single Player? Granted I do not know, it's been a long time since I have finished a Mainline Pokemon game, I did finish spinoffs like SNAP and Arceus, keep up with fanart, but with the Mainline I wonder if there has been massive enough differences to go back and finish them like B/W II and Sun And Moon. If someone can explain that would be great, but I also see your point that Game Freak seems to not care about Single Player and just makes it a quick cakewalk to then make everyone go to Multiplayer instead.

(Multi reply to 2 users moment rofl)

1) The last pokemon game i ironically finished was violet but im not going to hide my own age here, you guys already know by my posts im from the 2000s era and im old enough to be someones onisama-onesan by now rofl. It was a fucking disaster from start to finish and to tell you the truth, i got it when it was on sale only just after a few days it came out in my area rofl and it was really cause one of my ex friends b4 they transitioned into a 41 percenter on one of the old forums i used to be on b4 well the psycho you see today that i am these days but at least im honest that im not really stable in the head and not deluding myself over some sexual kink that always leads to suicide and other diseases and weird degenerate shit rofl.

I only really played just soul sapphire black brilliant diamond,pearl and mystery dungeon for the switch and battle revolution and rubmle blast too thats really just about it lol every pokemon game i got over the years if i can afford it that is because for a franchise thats worht billions its ironically the most overly priced games that are not worth the same value as the average ps1 jrpg that isn't ff or especially if its from atlus or working designs like no fucking game that sold that much should be worth way way more than 100 fucking bucks especially when so many repros of it ironically exists like fucking dq does this shit too for their ds games. :/

What new features? its really just streamlined missing shit from previous games that nintendo does and recycles it all the fucking time. Even the 3ds smt games before sword/shield had expsharing in it iirc. And recycling is just lazy as hell, i woulda built a diamond/peral remake in the octopath style since the hd-2d style woulda been perfect for it.

The Japanese art side sure its always great, but the western gaijin polikore baizuo shit yeah its ugly as shit as expected from westerners honestly. :/ Even still i would never interact with fans at all period i just cannot at all whatsoever im too fucking sick and tired as shit seeing faggots and faggots hence why i just don't even fucking bother at all and just avoid them like the total plague.

I remember some people saying give other develoeprs a go like i've in the past wanted to see more genius sonirty developed pokemon games but im too old as shit and it should fucking die altogether sicne its more than run its course so its better off dead if you ask me im not in any mood at all seeing milking or fucking lolcow bootlickers in the cancerdom and other wokies too especially as well.

No the stories aren't any better its all just the same, we did had a pokemon phantom thief manga story in the past and even a pokemon shojo but you not going to see either of these unique stories anyways today, it was in the 2000s now honestly its just you seen one you seen it all today. Keeping up with the fanart is a futile endevour it just isn't worth it as theres always going to be some anti lurking around to start xenophobic to the artists. And its not just gamefreak but nintendo and the fans that enable this fuckery so yeah to end part one's reply it deserves to fucking die period.

2) Low standards? literally todays generation of fucking gamers has no standards at all its always many such cases of supporting the current thing cause its trendy and popular and the faggotry known as fomo exists too literal fucking narc cult behavior. :/

The people into competitive battling too are also big lolcows i mean you remember what happened to the fgc back in the early 2020s? ofc everyone does this is varis, we're the encylopedia of stupidity in lolcows and lolcowlization since its very inception. Again with the i support the current thing its always been this way for so many fucking years and pretty much another reason why i noped out of fandoms a long time ago, is because if you dare critcize the cult/circlejerk/echochamber you're going to get dogplled and clipped by the shills there. :/

Yeah i'll just stick to my 100 buck purchase of ar tonelico 3 than the next pokemon game.

 

[JX475]

I will say @JX475 that in regards to Generation 1-5, even though I've never played these games formerly, I have seen videos of people discussing their love in exploring the regions themselves. There is a playlist of great videos made by a YouTuber named Aleczandxr who showed me how much environmental storytelling the Pokémon series use to have back then. Even if the surface-level storyline seems repetitive and dull, the unique stories that each region tells are (according to some people) what gave each generation a unique identity. That is one underrated aspect of the older generations that isn't talk about much I feel.

Honestly I am watching one of his videos right now and it's funny you mention that because that is true for older Pokemon Games. I have been through it since 2nd gen. But sometimes it is good to have Videos to remind me why Pokemon is great in the first place. I will not forget even the films I kept watching like Destiny Deoxy's or Spell Of The Unown with Entei. Anime still is strong lol. Also Tell me does the newer ones have similar environmental storytelling or do the later entries branch off into something more?

I think it's as simple as a lot of Pokemon fans having insanely low standards, to the point where The Pokemon Company can get away with charging 60 dollars for shit like THIS:

View attachment 21180

I know a lot of people are into competitive battling, but considering how the current Pokemon userbase is 20-30 million people, I still can't imagine hardcore competitive players justifying their purchase by citing changes making it easier to optimize your Pokemon being anything close to the majority of buyers. I believe most of the people buying modern Pokemon games are mindless paypigs buying unworthy products entirely due to blind brand loyalty, same reason a No Games joke console like the PS5 has somehow sold more than 60 million.

I think a lot of it is due to not just brand loyalty, but just the fact that as long as the gameplay core exists to capture Pokemon, Train them, and use them to beat other Pokemon exists, including the PokeGirls people will buy it like @Narmy mentions. It can be the worst looking Mobile Game and people will buy it because it's just that good enough to get by. But I do feel like the worst game that should be reviewed is Scarlet and Violet. That feels like a last straw for more people because not only was it broken on launch, not only did it kind of perform a bait and switch with Arceus mechanics on the trailer that fooled everyone, but it also took away beautiful PokeGirls, there is WAY less in the roster than there used to be.

Like sure you had these two.

Which is barely even serviceable, but then these poor looking designs that felt way tilted heavily in favor of the whole "Nonbinary we are DEI crowd" granted, I understand this is a common part of Japanese culture dating back thousands of years ago with ambiguity and females dressing like men and men dressing like women that goes back to Kabuki Theatre, but it just looks very rigid, ugly and forced and uninspired sort of like, it's forced by "Global Standards" were reigning it in and preventing Japanese expression, Let me give examples

Tall Ambiguous character that looks male/female but obvious MUST be darker skinned and be covered up. Which covering up is the thread of this thing especially Bland and Boring.

Boring Angled Eyes, Male Characters dressed in Female-ish clothes, or Females looking "Just like me" outcast type.

Or like this design above which for obvious reasons is just ugly. Granted there have been trainers like this, but I do not think I have seen the designs fall over to be this boring and this bad at all. I am reminded so much of what Dimitri Monroe mentioned about the issues with Pokemon and the redeemable factor was always the designs even if the Pokemon Games were not always the best in one generation, it is the thing you could always count on always being there, and the customization of characters. As the games have taken it away, I also have noticed Fanart is not as much because nobody cares for Violet and Scarlett as much as they did for Sun and Moon or even Sword & Shield(even despite it being very poor) they still liked characters like Nessa, Sonia, Gloria, Marine, Eevee Loli Cosplay NPC, , Bea, Lillie etc. It's just something I feel Pokemon games need to get back again. Because I hate to say this, yes Gameplay should be much better and models should as well, but without good design the world and the characters will suffer for it.

 

[PhantomXero1x]

Honestly I am watching one of his videos right now and it's funny you mention that because that is true for older Pokemon Games. I have been through it since 2nd gen. But sometimes it is good to have Videos to remind me why Pokemon is great in the first place. I will not forget even the films I kept watching like Destiny Deoxy's or Spell Of The Unown with Entei. Anime still is strong lol. Also Tell me does the newer ones have similar environmental storytelling or do the later entries branch off into something more?


I think a lot of it is due to not just brand loyalty, but just the fact that as long as the gameplay core exists to capture Pokemon, Train them, and use them to beat other Pokemon exists, including the PokeGirls people will buy it like @Narmy mentions. It can be the worst looking Mobile Game and people will buy it because it's just that good enough to get by. But I do feel like the worst game that should be reviewed is Scarlet and Violet. That feels like a last straw for more people because not only was it broken on launch, not only did it kind of perform a bait and switch with Arceus mechanics on the trailer that fooled everyone, but it also took away beautiful PokeGirls, there is WAY less in the roster than there used to be.

Like sure you had these two.





Which is barely even serviceable, but then these poor looking designs that felt way tilted heavily in favor of the whole "Nonbinary we are DEI crowd" granted, I understand this is a common part of Japanese culture dating back thousands of years ago with ambiguity and females dressing like men and men dressing like women that goes back to Kabuki Theatre, but it just looks very rigid, ugly and forced and uninspired sort of like, it's forced by "Global Standards" were reigning it in and preventing Japanese expression, Let me give examples

Tall Ambiguous character that looks male/female but obvious MUST be darker skinned and be covered up. Which covering up is the thread of this thing especially Bland and Boring.



Boring Angled Eyes, Male Characters dressed in Female-ish clothes, or Females looking "Just like me" outcast type.




Or like this design above which for obvious reasons is just ugly. Granted there have been trainers like this, but I do not think I have seen the designs fall over to be this boring and this bad at all. I am reminded so much of what Dimitri Monroe mentioned about the issues with Pokemon and the redeemable factor was always the designs even if the Pokemon Games were not always the best in one generation, it is the thing you could always count on always being there, and the customization of characters. As the games have taken it away, I also have noticed Fanart is not as much because nobody cares for Violet and Scarlett as much as they did for Sun and Moon or even Sword & Shield(even despite it being very poor) they still liked characters like Nessa, Sonia, Gloria, Marine, Eevee Loli Cosplay NPC, , Bea, Lillie etc. It's just something I feel Pokemon games need to get back again. Because I hate to say this, yes Gameplay should be much better and models should as well, but without good design the world and the characters will suffer for it.

1) Was great today, its not great at all what so fucking ever, and brand loyality is always fucking stupid if you ask me, like thats why you see so many braindead fucking idiots like chris chan.

2)Iono was the only good character design in the game and that penguinz0 design in the gameme is pretty much for normies who think he's the savior of humanity but is really another fucking centrist grifter is just there to pander to them.

3)The anime as far as i know is still as procedual as ever no really different to the original one from the 90s.

4)Otonoko is a thing but troons knowing them tomboy/femboy= as suicidal as they are. :/

5)Theres actually still a huge shit ton of fanart of the newer pokemons on places like zerochan or pixiv case in point. I stopped giving a shit bout the games a long time now as well as being checked out of the fandom like every other fandom i used to be on but just noped out altogether from keeping to myself all alone to now really keeping to myself all alone armed to the teeth just to be left alone.