POKEMON GEN 6 ANNOUNCED

[Mutsukki]

I don't get why people want to turn Pokémon into Skyrim or Zelda. Personalize each gamer's experience? As choosing your own team of monsters wasn't personalization enough. That would completely ruin the style of the game and it wouldn't work. How do you place trainers and enemies in a world where the player can go anywhere? Having them be dynamic in levels (example: the trainer's pokemon is always 10 lvls stronger than yours) would make it kinda bland honestly, and wouldn't help the overall design at all. Or if it were like old RPGs, where you could stumble in a high level area early on the game, well, that's basically the same thing as shutting off the area anyway (unless the player wants to grind and then just stomp over the other areas later)

[AuraLancer]

Does anyone know if you can catch a Swinub in X/Y?

[Koh]

I don't get why people want to turn Pokémon into Skyrim or Zelda. Personalize each gamer's experience? As choosing your own team of monsters wasn't personalization enough. That would completely ruin the style of the game and it wouldn't work. How do you place trainers and enemies in a world where the player can go anywhere? Having them be dynamic in levels (example: the trainer's pokemon is always 10 lvls stronger than yours) would make it kinda bland honestly, and wouldn't help the overall design at all. Or if it were like old RPGs, where you could stumble in a high level area early on the game, well, that's basically the same thing as shutting off the area anyway (unless the player wants to grind and then just stomp over the other areas later)

Dragon Quest Monsters can show you how they did this. After you finish the first Traveler's Gate, you almost always have two open at a time and can choose which one you want to do first. One is usually SLIGHTLY harder than the other, but you're able to take on both. Once you participate in the next class of the Starry Night Tournament, you open up another two Traveler's Gates, and can choose which one you want to do. The random Monster Masters you can encounter within these gates are scaled based on the gates, so they'll always be about the same strength of one another within the same gate, but weaker than others in later gates. Pokemon did the same thing TWICE with Red/Blue/Green/Yellow and Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal. For R/G/B/Y, after you get to Lavender Town from Rock Tunnel, you can do Celadon City, Saffron City, and Fuschia City in any order, before finally getting to Cinnabar Island and then Viridian Gym. As for G/S/C, after you finish Ecruteak City, you can go east to Mahogany Town and then Lake of Rage, or West to Olivine City and then Cianwood City. Either way, you're able to handle both, and can choose freely, before finally meeting up at Blackthorn City, after dealing with Radio Tower.

[Mutsukki]

That's not... terribly different from Pokémon's formula, nor does it evoke any sense of freedom, since you're bound to finish the two gates before getting 2 more next, you still don't have the whole world to explore.

[Koh]

Each gate has it's own home of monsters, some of which will be new to you and you can tame. But just being given an option like that is great, because there's no specific order you have to do them in; you can always mix and match them. Maybe as a challenge, you want to take on the tougher gate first, to see if you can strategize better or something. It'd have been great for them to do much of the same, but with 3 or so gates, with each having a slight difference in difficulty. Also, the monster breeding is much more fun on DQM, since it doesn't just give you one of the same (unless you breed the same), but rather a new monster altogether, that's stronger (even if you breed the same. Slime + Slime = Slime +1).

[Mutsukki]

That's still very linear and formulatic though. It's just a tad more ambiguous, which is fine for the game I guess, but I don't see it as an improvment.

[Koh]

But do you remember what I said before? AS long as the linearity doesn't get in the way of the player,it isn't a bad thing. Since you're given options on what do to next, but still have to do them both, that works just as good for me, since it's not "You MUST do this one, THEN that one," but rather "Do Both, and we'll talk later." The more options, the better~

[Mutsukki]

What's wrong with "DO THIS ONE THEN THAT OTHER ONE" that's how most RPGs and Platformers work. It leads to a neater design, with no loose ends., it's not worse.

[Kriven]

Nothing is wrong with an order-of-operations style of progression (I typically even prefer it), if you can keep the story interesting enough to justify it.

But Pokemon isn't doing that.

[Koh]

Because then you don't feel like you have a choice. See, it's like this, most of those RPGS that do that, like Final Fantasy or Secret of Mana, aren't advertised as games about exploration, but rather games that tell a story. Pokemon is always advertised as "explore a new world, meet new monsters," etc. The problem I have is, when games try to advertise exploration as their thing, but don't actually let you choose paths and explore, constantly locking you down and telling you where to go. There's no free will at that point, just going where the game tells you to go. Free will is part of exploration too, IMO. Without it, it just feels like riding a bumper car on rails.

[AuraLancer]

I don't care if it stays linear, I just want a story that doesn't follow the same formula.

Also some gyms based on strategies or themes other than Pokemon types.

[Marth]

Pokemon has plenty of freedom. However there is an organized design in which you need to complete linear events in order to progress. I see nothing wrong with that. The areas are big enough and full of pokemon to generally hold the interest of most. A bumper Car on rails was Final Fantasy XIII, that allowed literally no freedom. But when there was even a hint of a chance of exploration it was nothing but a giant empty field (literally an open field populated by a sparse number of monsters). Pokemon is nothing like that, again there are fields teeming with pokemon, caves to explore and waters to surf. Koh I honestly think you're expecting a tad too much out of Pokemon, yes it is formulaic and yes it has been done in a very similar manner generation after generation. But what you need to understand is the entire setup is built around enticing new players and offering them generally the same experience that veterans have had in the past.

Remember how magical Pokemon was the first time you played it as a kid? That's exactly the sort of feeling they want every new generation of players to feel. While some would like a more complex or differentiated style of gameplay most aren't looking/don't want that change to occur. Also there's the idea of profit to look at. If Pokemon were to make any sort of completely radical change to its formula it risks being a tanked game and a giant loss of money. The developers simply aren't willing to take that risk. I think they additions they've put into this game are a great progressive stride and I'm sure we'll see more in future generations.

[Mutsukki]

I find it funny that most complaints about the story come from older fans, it seems they forget what the actual target demographic for the games are. (and i'm not sure what there's to complain either)

[Koh]

@Not Koopaul: Fair enough, I suppose.

@Mutsukki: But it's that same mindset why we can't have nice things~ Are we to assume, from that statement, that a series should never change up its old and tired formula a bit, because it's targeted for younger viewers? Anything released for kids, should never, EVER, update the formula they start from the first release. Otherwise, it will no longer be for kids, and suddenly be for just the older people. I hope that's not what that line means.

[TomGuycott]

What's more, Black and White completely changed the ending format. After the Elite Four, you don't even get to fight a Champion right away, N's Castle surfaces and fucks everything up, and you have an actual battle against a character using a Legendary Pokemon against you.