The FALL of Pokemon

welcome to 2021 before I get into the vid I wanted to wish you guys a Happy New Year and to thank those of you who miss my community post the support over the course of 2020 was greatly appreciated so again thank you when it comes to Pokemon game design game freak has always played it extremely safe never really deviating from the main formula in any significant way every single Pokemon game for the past 20 plus years follows the exact same cookie cutter template and shows no sign of evolving anytime soon this is of course by Design and is still a highly profitable strategy don't fix what's not broken right the unfortunate consequence of this is a near lack of meaningful Innovation that could take the Pokemon franchise to new heights today we're going to look at where Pokemon was where Pokemon is and where Pokemon is going with regards to how the games are developed and why we shall start off with an interview I briefly addressed in my past two videos where Masuda one of the top dogs at gamefreak attempts to explain why the Battle Frontier did not make a return in gen 3 remakes despite being introduced in each gen 3 game to start off the interviewer asks two questions the first was why Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire had a noticeable decrease in difficulty the second was asking if the difficulty feature present in past titles will make a much needed return Masuda answers the first question by stating that people are very busy nowadays and don't have the time to dedicate to a single game if you want a challenge you must wait until after you beat the game to access the post game where more difficult trainers and challenges await this answer is inherently contradictory if people don't have time to play any single one game according to Masuda and making the game longer via post game and demanding more time and effort from the player is very odd after you just asserted that people don't have the time to play your game in the first place for the second question regarding a difficulty option mosuda just should have ignored it and didn't give an answer if people truly didn't have enough time it would make sense to add difficulty options to allow those with the alleged less time to select an even easier difficulty setting that allows them to complete the game faster and with less hassle this same question was brought up in a Game Informer interview in 2019 it features mosuda the guy we're currently discussing in the Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire interview and his Padawan omori according to omori the director of Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire sun and moon and sword and shield the reason difficulty options aren't considered in Pokemon games is because have you ever considered making multiple difficulties in a Pokemon game nice tonight why not players can choose the right play style in terms of difficulty for themselves this is incredibly ironic coming from the two men that go out of their way to choose the player's play style for them and is nothing more than a shallow excuse the real answer in my opinion is that they can't be asked to put in the required effort to help compliment said playstyles with varying difficulties including difficulty options does nothing to prevent people from choosing their own play Styles and in fact allows them to tailor the experience to their liking even further these two don't believe in player choice Masuda invented the 20 minute battle timer that essentially makes certain styles of play impossible he also made experience share permanent which completely eradicates styles of play for those that prefer not to use it the logic behind this decision they convinced themselves that the only reason people turned off experience share was to train a single Pokemon so now instead of leaving in the option for players to continue doing so by effortlessly toggling experience share on or off when necessary game freak now forces the player to box their entire team in order to circumvent restrictions put in place for no reason despite this not being an issue in past titles I guess they failed to consider that that's a horrible idea and completely disrupts the flow of the game this goes against the spirit of the franchise and is so unbelievably nonsensical that I struggle to find the words to properly convey how ludicrous their reasoning truly is oh you enjoyed traveling around in a team of six and only turned off experience share to avoid over leveling well too bad we've now made the decision for you how you will play our games despite stating otherwise forcing the player to jump through inconvenient and unnecessary Hoops is typically indicative of poor game design but Mori ended up incorporating both the battle timer and force experience share in sword and shield one minute before being asked about difficulty you can see omori squirming to answer a simple question regarding experience share can we turn off experience share in sword and shield the correct answer here is no you cannot turn off experience share in sword and shield the interviewer didn't ask if experience share existed as an item or not he simply asked if it could be disabled this is blatant deflection and ends up confusing the interviewer as he responds with so you have to train up each individually the interviewer based on a mortgage response is under the impression that there's no experience sheer mechanic within the game but more it has to then clarify that experience share is still in the game by default this response is intentionally ambiguous and fails to address the original question omori was clearly hesitant in this interview to reveal that he had carried over masuda's unpopular player restriction from let's go this sheds a light on the relationship between omori and Masuda that we will explore in more detail later on back to the Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire interview the interviewer then questions why the Battle Frontier was absent in the remakes Masuda asserts that as for the same reason Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire was made easier people don't have time to play the interviewer then adds a note for additional clarification that states few people would actually use the feature which is why it was excluded he then adds players get bored and frustrated more easily and aren't interested in intellectually demanding slash challenging elements in video games despite Masuda mentioning prior that more challenging elements are reserved in the post game for players seeking such things another contradiction quite a bit to unpack here how exactly was it established that a vast majority of consumers would never touch the battlefrontier was there some kind of player survey the battlefrontier was relevant enough to Warrant being brought up in the interview so there is definitely some kind of demand there even if it's true that not a lot of people would use the Battle Frontier which therefore justifies its exclusion you could apply the same logic to other features in Pokemon games that had no problem being included despite their lack of popularity and slash ore requiring a additional player time which they supposedly lack nowadays Pokemon contests make a return in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire one of the main reasons people buy Pokemon games in the first place is to battle with them not dress them up so I think it's safe to say that the battlefrontier is significantly more revered and desirable than Pokemon contests this is certainly the case from my own anecdotal experience perhaps this elusive Pokemon feature survey said otherwise even if it did aren't people too busy playing their mobile games to fully appreciate this feature if so then why was it included Pokemon Ami was shoved into Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire while it's a direct Port from X and Y it still goes against the idea that people have less time to fully appreciate it the Battle Mason was ported over from X and Y as well if the battlefrontier wasn't attractive enough to Warrant its inclusion and be used by the masses allegedly then the Battle Mason sure as hell wouldn't be either and yet here it is if no one is going to use it then why include it at all the Battle Mason is more demanding of the player and often ends win streaks based solely on bad luck which can lead to player frustration something the interviewer note claimed the game freak wants to avoid like the plague my point being that the inclusion of these features directly opposes the logic behind excluding others which leads me to believe that the excuses being invoked are bogus even if absolutely no one would use the battlefrontier which would never be the case at the very least they should have included it simply to uphold the legacy of past titles and to maintain Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire's Integrity as a remake game freak loved to make really poor excuses as opposed to being transparent and honest which may or may not be within their control instead of saying it was too much effort to include the battlefrontier or we didn't have enough time to include the battlefrontier they instead opt to rely on flimsy excuses that failed to hold up to scrutiny we saw the exact same thing with the sword and shield controversy when explaining why the National dex was removed they claimed it was due to more expressive Pokemon animations and battle balance these are honestly Fair compromises and makes sense instead of including every type of monster they could just focus on a handful while fleshing them out while also giving them the opportunity to balance the monsters accordingly but this is not the case all old Pokemon Rios their seven-year-old 3DS animations and Dynamax is arguably the most broken mechanic ever introduced to the series while Maury said they were making models from scratch citing that as another reason for the lack of a National dex this too turned out to be untrue surprise surprise prompting social media backlash in the form of the hashtag gamefreeglide the real reason the National dex was deleted I surmise was to incentivize home subscriptions for those that transfer up all of their Pokemon by actively preventing them from storing their Pokemon in the games instead it also requires significantly less work and effort less developmental cost and allows them to pump out console titles even faster than usual all the while charging the full console price tag which is around 20 more per switch cart compared to 3DS cards there's now no limit to their complacency knowing full well that people will buy their games regardless of the level of care put into it if removing the Pokemon themselves wasn't enough to sway the masses then nothing will you guys remember heart gold soul silver arguably one of the best Pokemon games ever created did you know that it took less than three years and only 20 people to make yeah 20 as in 2-0 sword and shield back comparison took around the same amount of time and had over 1 000 people if we refer to strictly game freak employees than they had around only 200 but that's still 10 times the amount required to make hard gold so silver despite all of this sword and shield are the most rushed Pokemon titles to ever be conceived X and Y were extremely rushed as well but at least they had a good reason they needed to create over 700 3D Pokemon models from scratch with thousands of new animations as well as converting the entirety of the series into 3D and doing all of this on a brand new console sword and shield suffered some kind of catastrophic developmental issues behind the scenes the likes of which we will probably never know and can only assume I believe that sword and shield were intended to be 3DS titles initially due to the CEO of the Pokemon company sune Kazu ishihara having doubts towards switch his doubts stemmed from placing far too much faith in the mobile gaming industry and far too little in traditional games a sentiment Masuda mirrored in his Omega Ruby of a sapphire interview ishihara would later admit to being wrong and had this to say quote I came to realize the key to a successful game console was quite simple software with absolute quality leads sales of Hardware end quote ironic after seeing the success of the switch gamefreak were given the green light to basically Port sword and shield to the switch part way through development which would explain the Myriad of cut corners and lack of overall polish hargold Soul Silver was very clearly crafted with overwhelming passion and Care Pokemon games back in the day were created with heart and soul as Morimoto put it nowadays the games are made with disclaimers warning fans ahead of time not to expect the games to be good I know [Laughter] sword and shield despite having significantly more resources at its disposal or a soulless husk by comparison which is a great opportunity for us to dive into game design Pokemon was always typically Sprite based this delivered a peculiar level of charm that is sorely missed in recent titles ever since the transition from 2D to 3D especially with regards to the Pokemon themselves all Pokemon and past titles always felt new and exciting due to receiving brand new Sprites this changed in XY with the Advent of 3D models because these assets are reused from game to game the new coat of paint that was associated with the new generation is completely lost as all old Pokemon look exactly like they did back in 2013 in X and Y this is one of the main reasons why gamefreak avoided 3D models in the first place according to Masuda one of the reasons for sticking with the 2D Pokemon Sprites is with the 2D it really depends on who draws it there's a lot of personality that's drawn from the 2D Sprites whereas with 3D it's the same model used for everything so the personality doesn't really come out one of the the reasons we've stuck with 2D is to get a more individual feel with It gamefreak ultimately decided to go full 3d once they felt the models could reflect the official 2D artwork more accurately this unfortunately resulted in the Pokemon appearing more washed out which has been heavily criticized followed by attempts to breathe more life into the models using the more vibrant color palette of their old Sprites there's nothing inherently wrong with going 3D but it requires some effort to properly maintain and adjust the models over the years to avoid getting stale and lacking the very personality Masood of feared would be lost sword and shield are the third generation now to reuse the same assets and I'm certain gen 9 will follow suit gamebreak primarily developed Pokemon as 2D games this can still be seen in their current games despite shifting to 3D over 7 years ago a YouTuber by the name of girium made a video that goes over the awkward amalgamation of both 2D and 3D elements that has led to the games looking as dated as they do this might be a hot take but I actually think Pokemon should have never gone 3D they should have just kept all the battles in 2D and maybe have the Overworld in 3D such as games like octopath traveler I think that games are still will be perfect for a Pokemon game but alas the Pokemon games chose to go false 3D and the world started to feel so cold so empty what do I mean by that well do you know the term The Uncanny Valley effect it means that when an object tries to look completely human the nearer it gets the creepier unnatural it becomes while there is a similar effect going in Pokemon that the world feels to start more fake as it tries to become more realistic in 3D let me elaborate here is a map of Pewter City from Pokemon fire red and leaf green we know that in real life a city will not have those five buildings and will have roads and cars we also know that a house in real life is not as small as 18 Reds however we ignore this because we know that what we're looking through the screen is an abstract version of the Pokemon world that is supposed to represent the world that could be real we let our imagination fill in that gap between the screen and our brain is through our imagination the world feels more alive conversely in the mirror games gamefreak decided to make a fully 3D red in the world and questions began to arise why do all the houses look the same why do all houses have the same exact furniture why are there cars on the street when there aren't any roads that cars can drive on but in a city with no cars why are there crosswalks and sidewalks why are there like only five people walking down the street that looks like the real life city of London do you see what I mean if you're still not understanding hear me out in a 2d world this makes sense for a person to look at only four directions and turn around instantly when talked to because there are only four directions of the d-pad that a character can move but in a 3D World with analog sticks it looks jarring when characters move and turn around like they're still stuck in 2D and it's absurd to see people standing around in the middle of nowhere not doing anything don't these guys have to go take a dumb Berry now and then let's talk about Team Villain grunts 2. in the old games what we ever saw of villainous team grunts were overall Sprites and battle Sprites every team rocket or plasma grow look exactly the same but we didn't care because we know these Sprites are supposed to be representation of these people and we imagine in our brain these individuals look different from one another so they're like how they do in the anime or mangas but in a 3D game it's jarring when there's only one male and one female model for team flare skull yell and they all exactly look the same are these guys Jango fat clones do they all have plastic surgery to look the same it makes zero sense in a 3D World however it is still possible to create a convincing 3D World from a 2d world and I think the best example of a game that successfully does this is 2019 is the Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening the Link's Awakening is a remake of a 2d overhead view game and even though the world was in glorious high definition 3D the gameplay was still in 2D the game is not jarring unlike Pokemon because the Remake went for a plastic miniature kind of vibe as an art style it's not weird seeing a toy looking links getting stuck in a 2d environment to sum up my point the main problem of these games is that the characters still act like they're in 2D even though it's a 3D World and that's why there are so much backlash and outrage over the graphics of sword and shield in my opinion it requires effort and time to create a realistic 3D World and this is what I mean when I say Pokemon should have stayed in 2D because the Pokemon company isn't willing to invest that much time and effort into these games the key word that gear am used was abstract 2D games utilized a great degree of abstraction 3D games don't really have that luxury they can still utilize abstraction of course but nowhere to the degree as seen in 2D games due to being more realistic you have to be creative about it as seen in Link's Awakening to avoid The Uncanny Valley Field art style contributes a great deal to that effect this is why let's go with its more chibi and cel-shaded approach to Art Direction looks League's more appealing compared to sword and shield with its more realistic and washed out aesthetic game freak are still obsessed with their Game Boy angle which is the over the shoulder view in battle this works great in 2D but it doesn't translate well in 3D at all game freak despite having access to 3D models and a dynamic camera treat their model as if though it's a back Sprite with a static camera this is where abstraction comes into play most 2D Sprites were around the same size but through the power of abstraction and their own imagination we envisioned them as larger than they appeared the 3D models cannot achieve the same effect if if the monster is too large it obscures the opposing Pokemon so in order to fit both Pokemon into the frame to achieve the Game Boy angle game free compensates by deliberately shrinking down the larger Pokemon game Freak 4 goes character integrity in favor of their Nostalgia boner which creates a whole host of other issues but I will address that in a separate video dedicated to this topic that goes more in depth in the future so stay tuned for that the 2D games never felt cold and empty but that's because they weren't they were filled with many different elements that all contributed to bringing the world within the game to life a huge contributor to this was hidden machines or HMS for short this created organic progression barriers with the added benefit of rewarding the player with a sense of earned progression almost every single barrier obstructing the player around every corner in sword and shield can be attributed to team yell which comes across as artificial and forced HMS also added layers of complexity to routes that encouraged return trips once the respective hm was obtained that could overcome the barrier typically giving the player access to useful items this entire system is completely abandoned in sword and shield leaving behind a shallow boring Corridor for the player to run through the only exploration tool passed down to the player is the ability to surf on the bike one of the single best parts of sword and shield I kid you not was when I accidentally stumbled across a surfable section in Route 2 opening up a new area this evoked the magical sense of Discovery I've grown familiar with and fond of when playing a Pokemon game a neat little Easter egg can also be found on this route a wild obstagoon will obstruct the player which is what its signature attack is called this is a rare instance of Soul found within sword and shield and is a fantastic attention to detail that is sorely lacking but greatly appreciated while also utilizing the Overworld mechanic in an interesting way well done all of the other routes are fitted with dead ends whereas in past titles those dead ends would have been walled off by some type of barrier be it rocks or trees that made it worthwhile to revisit the route later on in the playthrough another example of Gaming freak poorly implementing 2D based elements into their 3D based games are The Ledges Ledges in Pokemon games of old served two main functions one to break up the linearity of the rows by forcing the player to go around them and two allowing the player to backtrack through the same rows with ease Ledges were also sometimes used in unique and interesting ways to create multiple roads within a row as seen in Jagged pass in Ruby Sapphire emerald and Route 45 in gold silver Crystal an excellent example of how to not use Ledges can be found in sword and shields route 3. this ledge right here serves absolutely no purpose it doesn't Force the player to go around it and it doesn't act as a shortcut to make backtracking easier it doesn't add anything unique interesting or of any value to the route they place a ledge here just for the sake of it despite being completely unnecessary some more examples can be found on Route 2 it has two ledges that serve no real purpose and are there just cause routes have also grown increasingly linear with the greatest offenders being in Sun and Moon and sword and shield a reason for this may be to make the game games easier and less demanding coincidentally both of these games came out after the infamous Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire interview we went over the roads are far more narrow and restrictive and not open and immersive like they used to be cake wrote 119 from gen 3 for instance it's a rather expansive row with several layers of complexity you can't just hold forward on the control stick to get through it and you wouldn't want to even if you could because there's plenty of incentive to explore from Secret items hidden behind bike related obstacles which is a collaborate extension of the HM system to being home to the rare and Elusive Feebas to secret bases it's broken up into many different sections one of which requires the player to scale a waterfall which is impossible the first time the player goes through this road encouraging return visits like what route 2 managed to accomplish in sword and shield for contrast let's compare Route 119 to the aforementioned Row 3 in sword and shield it's just a narrow strip of land that feels like the walls are closing in around the player inducing a sense of claustrophobia here's an example of this slumbering wheel where you can see the exact same restrictive of map design despite being a forest which typically grants players plenty of breathing room game free felt it necessary to restrict the player by boxing them into these corridors here's another force that is unnaturally restrictive Glenwood tangle Route 7 yet another example no matter where you go you always find yourself enclosed in tight spaces with few exceptions this is what people are referring to whenever they mention that recent Pokemon games suffer from Corridor syndrome or play like a hallway simulator this makes the game feel less like a living breathing occupied world within the Pokemon Universe and more like well a game an unconvincing World leads to shattered immersion immersion is one of the main goals a role-playing game aims to achieve the RPG isn't doing a very good job if immersion is compromised at every turn the town suffered a similar fate sure at first glance they may appear to be grand Larger than Life locations but they are nothing more than a pretentious Hollow illusion it's all show and no substance once you get your hands on the wheel the illusion is shattered nearly instantaneous geniusly you see this large imposing Castle it quite literally consists of a single small hallway it's Ultra Megapolis all over again the entirety of hammerlock is nothing more than a nicely dressed up Corridor and doesn't hold a candle to places like castelia City and black and white or even lumio City in X and Y which while a nightmare to navigate was impressive in its ability to feel like a real City in the Pokemon Universe and manage to do so on a Nintendo 3DS Spike mooth captures a neat aesthetic but underneath the surface level appeal lies yet another hallway a great example of all show no substance dungeons are even worse than either roads or towns considering the fact that sword and shield doesn't even have a single one even if it did it would be hampered by the total lack of a progression system if we take a look at both gallerma and 1 and 2 the only cave-like areas in the game we will immediately recognize the same Trend as witness in both the routes and towns small restrictive one-dimensional corridors that demand nothing of the player zero thought is required to Traverse these locations juxtapose this with the very first cave introducing the series Mount Moon and Kanto Mount moon was an incredibly daunting Endeavor for many new Pokemon trainers just starting out on their Adventure it's relatively large and consists of varying floors adding a layer of verticality that shakes things up there are several different ladders Each of which leads you to a different location it's your goal as the player to figure out the correct path in order to reach the exit all the while being bombarded by an endless stream of Relentless blood sucking zubats should you fail to properly prepare ahead of time these elements require and demand some semblance of effort and planning on the player's part to make it through successfully they don't box the player into a straight line that essentially completes itself regardless of the player's actions insulting the player's intelligence in turn Mount Moon also serves as a great stepping stone properly preparing the player for future challenges to come like the Silph Co building in Saffron and Victory Road a vast majority of these problems could be addressed by opening up the roads to give the player room to breathe and by reintroducing a progression system similar to what HMS offered the wild area addresses the farmer but still suffers from the latter small pieces of the wild area open up after gaining access to Surf but are largely inconsequential instead of running around in a line the wild area has the player run around in Giant Circles a marginal Improvement that wasn't fully realized until the DLC which we will get to a bit later the narrow hallways have the effect of making the game feel like it's on Rails from start to finish another element I will quickly address that achieves a similar effect is an increase in the prevalence of obnoxious hand holding radical soda shares an excellent example of the aggressiveness of the hand-holding scene in sword and shield even if I skipped every takes box and didn't read a word of the story it wouldn't matter they railroad you down each segment like you're playing Pokemon Snap a good example of this hand holding is back in Modesto when we were first checking out the fire gym for the opening ceremony once she exit the building an employee is there waiting for you to tell you to follow him to the end then you walk for like five seconds to the left and it puts you in an automatic cutscene to show you exactly where made the yen is which is directly left to the gym anyway and then when the cutscene ends up puts you right in front of the doors just to make sure you know exactly where to go it's insulting kids don't need this much Direction let alone me as Pokemon is developed for more powerful Hardware it has compelled the game freak to seek more Grand narratives while that may seem like an intriguing thought at first it has the unintended side effect of smothering the player with overbearing unskippable dialogue boxes whilst restraining them from strength too far off the beaten path past titles were more open-ended and less Bound By An overarching narrative this granted huge amounts of agency to the player opening the world up to them to tackle in their own way at their own pace game freak I feel has yet to find an appropriate balance between gameplay and narrative when narrative is given more Focus Pokemon over the years has had many different people take up the mantle of a director for a Pokemon title but the two I want to focus on are the guys we saw at the beginning januchi Masuda and Shigeru omori let's start off with the man behind the Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire interview Masuda has been a part of game free since the very beginning and has a slew of Pokemon titles under his belt Pokemon let's go directed by Masuda is the personification of his new designed philosophy that he put on full display in the Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire interview going so far as the straight up adopt elements from a mobile Pokemon game Pokemon go Masuda was obviously influenced by Pokemon go which can be attributed to the fact that he helped develop that game let's go will most likely be the last time asuta directs a core RPG Pokemon title which means he needs a successor and domori is exactly what he was looking for just as an aside on November 21st of 2012 it was the 10th anniversary release in Japan and I took Shigeru here out to drink and at the time he had no idea but while we were drinking I said I said hey I want you to be the director for the remakes and that's how the Remake got started Masuda sought out Amore in order to pass down the torch to him while Mori would seek masuda's guidance in directing the games adopting masuda's philosophy in the process which is reflected in the games he directs Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire omari's directorial debut lacked a battle frontier and was overall less challenging sun and moon omori's very first full-blown directorial experience from the ground up introduced a lot of the current fundamental flaws the Pokemon series such as being more story focused that leads to excessive hand-holding alongside insufferably short narrow restrictive hallways sword and shield also directed by omori adopted these same exact design flaws let's go introduce the 20 minute battle timer in permanent experience share sword and shield ended up including both of these terrible additions all of these can be seen as attempts to dumb down the games to make them easier in order to appeal to a hypothetical group of hyper casual mobile Gamers that don't have time to play games sword and shield is also eerily reminiscent to X and Y in terms of lack of content feelings of incompleteness and an overall sense of the game being rushed XY was coincidentally directed by omori's Mentor Masuda there are many parallels that can be drawn between these two men that they are essentially one in the same if amori is given the go to direct yet another generation then I truly fear for what we can expect in generation 9. with omori taking masuda's place while under the influence of masuda's Highly Questionable philosophy things are not looking too great for future Pokemon titles but it's not all doom Gloom per se the DLC expansion pass which was not directed by omori and was instead directed by a Hiro Yuki Tani is definitely the best part about sword and shield and shows genuine promise for what can be expected in future titles Isle of armor expanded on the core concept of the wild area in interesting ways the area was much larger with more elaborate biomes that all come together homogeneously Crown Tundra accomplishes the same thing but on an even greater scale as for a potential Gen 4 remakes if omori is busy with Gen 9 then that is very good news because he won't be able to force Dynamax into the games and perhaps the Battle Frontier will not be left behind this time among other things while most Studios and games have to go above and beyond to retain and grow Their audience through an assortment of clever Innovation breathtaking visuals and engaging gameplay Pokemon always seems to be the exception it's privileged in that respect part of this has to do with a lack of proper competition Pokemon is so dominant that they essentially have a monopoly on the monster catching genre so much so that any Studio that develops a game that even slightly resembles Pokemon has people accusing them of copyright infringement with threats of being taken down by Nintendo via lawsuits go on any temtem related videos and you will see these types of ridiculous comments anitons a monster catching Kickstarter literally has in their FAQ a disclaimer reminding people that Nintendo doesn't own the monster catching genre temtem had the exact same thing in their FAQ section as well Pokemon wasn't even the first to do it that title goes to Shin magami tensei should Atlas Sue Nintendo whenever a new Pokemon game drops of course not it would be like going to any FPS game and claiming Activision will sue them due to being a Call of Duty rip-off this is of course absurd on his face and highlights the extent of people's ignorance but it certainly speaks volumes to the amount of influence Pokemon has to the point where people attribute an entire genre to the series not only does Pokemon lack proper competition but any new blood that dares challenge them is vilified and met with attacks and threats for simply existing could you imagine Nintendo is a company refusing to grow and challenge themselves pumping out mediocrity game after game Nintendo can't get away with that due to having Sony and Microsoft constantly breathing down their neck looking for the slightest glimpse of weakness to siphon from Nintendo's consumer base ishihara wasn't wrong when he said that software with absolute quality leads sales of Hardware this is absolutely the case and the switch is a testament to that the Wii U failed does miserably as it did for this exact reason it lacked noteworthy software alongside other things but software was a huge component to be fair Nintendo is doing both Sony and Microsoft a huge favor with all of their recent PR disasters but at least their games are still great which definitely stops the bleeding no matter how nasty of a wound they inflict upon themselves this is why Pokemon is able to get away with making essentially the same exact game over two decades later while still relishing in resounding success this doesn't stop fans old and new from both wanting and deserving better I'll have Arlo share his thoughts on this matter that I'm sure many of us can get behind it's already bad enough that they only want to incrementally improve upon these games because they know that will make them easier to release every year and everyone will buy them anyway so it doesn't really matter what they do but can't they at least hire some more people to help with the world design and flesh things out a little I don't know what game freaks development team looks like but I do know that other annualized Series in the industry have multiple separate large Studios working on multiple games at once that way even if their games are kind of samey and have to meet those deadlines they're at least full content Rich AAA experiences issues of over monetization aside even if they want to keep pumping out Pokemon after Pokemon iterating at a snail's pace can't they at least put in More Than A hurried slap Dash effort can't they at least make it a full game because I went into Pokemon sword and shield excited to get back into the series but honestly if this game accurately represents what Pokemon is now I don't think I like Pokemon anymore I don't think I want to play any more of them if I could put down the series for eight years and skip two whole Generations then come back and still feel this been there done that kind of feeling I can't imagine that feeling is gonna go away in the next entry or the next or the next how many years do I need to wait before it feels fresh again 12 years 15 was the jump from 2 to 8-3 D not enough now I need to wait until Pokemon goes full VR or something and even familiarity aside if future titles feel like they were designed and written over the course of a weekend and churned out in a year and a half then I'm definitely not interested in the series anymore if you made it this far I want to say thank you for watching this will be my first video of many to come over the years so if you enjoyed yourself and want to see more consider subscribing to the Channel with all that being said I'll see you guys on the next one [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: DistantKingdom

Views: 718,934

Keywords: pokemon, pokemon sword, pokemon shield, pokemon sword and shield, pokemon swsh, gamefreak, game development, game design, design philosophy, gen 4 remakes, game freak, pikachu, video essay, analysis, distantkingdom, distant kingdom, gamefreak x pokemon, the fall of pokemon, 2d, 3d

Id: ZXUSGgqlur4

Length: 34min 38sec (2078 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 08 2021