Remember when everyone thought cutting half the roster of Pokemon was the worst thing to have ever happened and threaten to boycott the game? It almost seems silly to mention it in retrospect when we look at the worldwide earnings at the end of 2019 as see how Pokemon was not only the biggest game of 2019 but also sits at 5th, behind Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Smash Brothers Ultimate, Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild. Considering that additional content will come to the game in both June and towards the Second half of the year, there’s a good chance it could pass up the two Switch Launch titles and maybe even Smash Brothers. Not bad for a game that got so many people riled up so much to boycott it, huh?
Source: Wikipedia
Anyway, the point here isn’t to try and say “DEXIT HAS FAILED US!” but rather to raise a different point. It is easy to just point towards the giant list of almost 900 pokemon and say “we couldn’t you add all of them?!” The problem is that had we got the ability to put all 900 into the game, would that have made the game any better than it is now? No.
Are animations still most lacking for the pokemon? Yes! Is voice acting still absent? Of course! Are the only pokemon that actually sound like pokemon instead of digital beeps Pikachu and Eevee? You bet! Pokemon is running on a cycle that is over 20 years old now and the series needs more innovation than cooking curry and making your pokemon giant. What can Pokemon do in the future to improve the game in the future? Let’s explore a couple of options.
So this would mean that either Game Freak is so good at “recreating pokemon from scratch” that you can’t tell them apart, or we reach the conclusion that the internet did and question if they were actually lying to us or not. Who knows if Sword and Shield were likely meant to be the final Pokemon title on the 3DS, but saw itself pushed onto the Nintendo Switch or if that was the intention the entire time, but when we do go into the next generation, we definitely need that revamp in visuals. We don’t need it to reach “Detective Pikachu” levels of hyperrealism, but we need to ensure that we avoid this issue in the future.
Stick with One “Ultimate ability” instead of introducing a new one every generation
Back in Pokemon X & Y, we saw the introduction of a new key feature that would shake things up for the world of Pokemon called Mega Evolution. By using a Mega Stone that corresponds with a particular Pokemon, trainers can enable one of their Pokemon to gain higher stats for the fight and give them access to different types of abilities.
While the concept would be great to build on for future generations of titles, Pokemon would move away from it in Sun and Moon with the introduction of Z-Moves and then once more with Gigantamax. At this point, it didn’t feel like “empowering your team with your ace Pokemon” as much as it is now using these abilities to nuke your opponent; whether if by using one Z-Move or making your PokeMonsters Grow like Power Rangers. It is also especially ironic how Gigantamaxing makes the Z-moves feel slightly irrelevant considering it lets your giant pokemon use a super-powerful attack three times instead of once.
Source: Sword and Shield
In the current state of the competitive play, it is difficult to say where things stand with Gigantamax Pokemon. At first, they were banned outright while later on, a few were allowed in (but only because a few to some weren’t as dangerously overpowering when you grow them to Godzilla levels). When we look at the state of these super moves as a whole, we’re reaching that point where these gimmicks seem to cause more issues than help “shake things up.” This is probably meant for more casual than the competitive, but these mechanics don’t feel like they fix the long-standing issue with Pokemon that it faces going into the future. heavy hitters on something they may or may not take down in three turns?
Allow Players to become more than just Pokemon Masters
For the longest time, Battle Towers have ranged from a fun little side adventure for players to venture through to challenge themselves in a series of battles. There is nothing wrong with this, but it seems like for as long as it’s been around, it makes it feel like you can’t go any further beyond this. You just became a Pokemon Master! Congrats kiddo! You peaked! At least in Sun and Moon, we got something special in the form of the “Battle Tree,” where you not only got to enjoy participating in consecutive fights, against various trainers, but you also got the chance to fight special trainers, including Red and Blue.
Source: Pokemon Sun and Moon
There was one other thing we got in Sun in Moon that many couldn’t help but love the ending. It wasn’t necessarily that you “had to beat someone to become the champ,” but rather since you were the first one who got there in the newly established pokemon league in the region, you are deemed “Pokemon Champion” right then and there (after beating Kukui). So why would it seem so great to be the first Champion of a region without a champion? After you beat the game and wrap up the other post-game content, you can sit back down on your throne and you can enjoy having challengers come in and challenge you! The Champion! You are defending your title against not just people who you did have interactions with, but brand new people who will provide a much more difficult challenge than you realize.
So why not take these concepts and take them one step further? Instead of being a champ, you can do the next best thing?
To be your own Gym Leader
It seems funny to think of how of how many games are exploring this whole idea of “build your own” whatsit, but for Pokemon, it feels like it’s a concept that has not been fully explored yet. You can enjoy so many customization options for your trainer or things like that, but what about something where you are given a chance to have your own arena? Your own location you can call your own where you can have players come to your gym, explore it, challenge the random trainers in there, and then reach the end where they fight you and see if they can claim your badge?
Source: Sword and Shield
Just recently with Animal Crossing: New Horizons, we’ve seen how much you can customize your tent or home and the island itself. There is a concept in-place where if you wanted to, you can set it up where you can either set up multiple rooms or even one big room where players to explore. Make it where you can decorate the gym with various “themes” depending on if you want to make it of a particular type or go ham and put a toxic barrel next to a tree or something. Challenge friends or strangers and see if they can beat you. And then if they do, you can go to their gym and beat them.
Even if we were to say, “This would be a massive undertaking to make it happen,” this could be something that could add so much replay value to the game. If you can have Mario Maker generate so many challenges for players to run through, why not do the same with Pokemon? Please create a simple Gym Editor Gamefreak! Please!
Conclusion
If this list was to showcase anything, it isn’t to say “We need new mechanics!” or “Put in Sound-Types already!” Rather, having simple, small changes could help enhance the overall presentation of the next pokemon. Honestly, the more we look at Sword & Shield, the more you realize cutting half the roster was hardly its biggest issue. This latest games almost serves as a realization for many of how Pokemon has not evolved over the generations and how the formula it has been using for over two decades needs a tune-up. The game may look pretty, but the engine still runs the same.
Even the creators did highlight how “Balancing for new Pokemon with new abilities has become very hard” and why Game Freak found it to become too difficult to have all Pokemon to appear. A fair concern to have, but one that many wouldn’t hesitate to call nonsensical with what we got as “Improvements.” Even if we got all current pokemon which you can transfer into Sword & Shield right now, these are still glaring issues that would still need to be addressed at some point.
Source: Sword and Shield
If you enjoy Sword and Shield and found it to be the best Pokemon game yet, all the more power to you. In the end, if you wanted to finally enjoy that main title Pokemon game on a home console, you are finally able to do it. It’s not perfect, but it’s something many of us have been waiting for the longest time, and it did deliver what it was promising. Let’s just hope that as we move through the expansions, they look towards the next generation and look at the feedback to make the next game in the series the most speculator one yet.
Thank you for reading.
So what would you want to see for the next Pokemon title to make it better? Do you think adding features to the game would make it better? Or is the secret to a better pokemon game really found within its vast Pokedex? Be sure to leave a comment below and follow us here at Culture of Gaming for more articles covering Pokemon and all things in the gaming world.
And at the very least, there’s no denying the music is kicking. The soundtrack for Pokemon has always been pretty good, and Sword and Shield is no different. If you were to tell me that a Pokemon would be one of the six DLC fighters for Smash Ultimate, I would probably believe you since that would mean we would be getting some Gym Leader OSTs into the mix. ^__^
