January 12, 1968 gave us a video game legend. Today we celebrate the birth of one of the most dedicated members of Game Freak, Junichi Masuda.
Brandon Johnson for SUPERJUMP writes: "Despite recent attempts, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet feature a shell of the world Game Freak once created"
They're better off making another gba game, selling it with a gba or something. It's like they are not even aware their recent games are like 3 generations behind others in terms of every aspect.
I’ve honestly stopped following this series after Sinnoh League.
Still love Pokémon just can’t follow the new games and anime after that.
Johto League will forever be my favorite.
The game is very empty and lifeless. I'm not really having much fun with it and I'm almost done the game. Mechanically, its great. So many quality of life improvements. Technically, it's an embarrassment. The further you progress into the game, the worse the frame rate gets. The giant Lake and the Snowy Mountains are awful. There no part of the story I find interesting. Just the usual 'collect 8 badges and go to the Pokemon league.' I hope the criticism is a wake up call for their next entry. But I'm certain it won't be. It sold well, and that's all that matters to them.
It didn't just sell well. It's one of the top selling games of all time for the switch. So yeah, I wouldn't expect much to change next iteration.
On one hand, the Pokemon franchise is doing exactly what every Nintendo franchise does: roughly the same thing every game. It's why Nintendo IPs have such strong public awareness. You know Mario is the jumpy one, Metroid is the spooky maze one, and Pokemon is the dog fighting one.
Pokemon unfortunately is the one that has the weakest mechanics and most outdated presentation. It's like a challenge GF takes on every development cycle to see if they can make their next game only marginally different than the last with no big innovations. Pokemon fans still line up in droves to buy the latest. Chalk it up to kids being inexperienced and wanting a colorful game with friendly looking creatures. Adults on the other hand, at this point, if you're complaining about Pokemon games feeling empty and lifeless, it's because they are. Play a real JRPG.
@sadraiden
I'm quite partial to the team building and management mechanics as well as evolution of the creatures captured.
Can you recommend some JRPG titles that have a similar vibe? Other than Shin Megami Tensai?
Lol a world building problem? At this point the Pokemon franchise is all but transparently creatively bankrupt. It's only ever been about separating children from their parents cash. Gotta catch em all being one of the greatest marketing slogans of all time.
The development time Game Freak currently has to make Pokemon games is unsustainable, and one major change needs to be made to fix the issue.
I'd rather they give it to a new developer who can actually give us what we want and more without relying on as many silly little gimmicks as they can for marketing purposes.
Let's be honest, nothing is going to change because they know they can get away with it.
They clearly already have - they've sold 10m+ at full price (faster than Arceus) and in spite of all the issues, it still has decent reviews (76%). They'll probably gross $1b+ off this game, on top of all the money they made from Arceus.
People have been complaining about the handling of this franchise for years but it's a cash cow (they made billions off Pokemon Go as well). To them, this is very much sustainable, unfortunately.
Trash series. The combat in these games is extremely boring too, Custom Robo Arena is far better, and for turn based the Worms games on PC.
Every new gen comes out every 3 years and with more ambitious ideas it just isn’t sustainable
Pokémon demonstrates how being so merchandise driven is proving detrimental to the main product, and despite that it still sells well
Game Freak was used to smaller platforms and from Sword & Shield onwards were expected to scale up in the midst of a pandemic. That’s when it all started to go wrong, but it isn’t until now that fans are finally starting to smell the pixelated roses.
While the games began to lag behind and make their shortcomings ever so clear, the wider Pokemon community and other pieces of media kept on trucking.
I only ever got up to Pokemon Yellow. I still go back every handful of years for some nostalgia.
I'd like to try Pokémon someday. I was probably just a hair older and missed the og Pokémon craze back in the day. My issue with Pokémon is the 2 games thing. Stop selling them like that. Put it all into one. I feel that's a giant rip-off. Say what you want
I never had any interest to play Pokémon video games,never watched the cartoons as well. Guessing because when it all started I was way into my adulthood.
I tried one via an emulator once. Did not like it. IMO Custom Robo Arena had far better gameplay that had full real time combat control. Turn based games that i actually liked are very few and far between, like Worms 2 & Armageddon with their online play.
it started to go wrong when the shift to 3d happened, decades after everyone else.
imo, GF spent way too long in the 2D development world and just couldnt do it. what we got was bugs, lack of polish and experience.
but that will never change since the games sell like crazy.
