Pokemon's Problematic Pacing

[@FUNKe]

5:18

[@sidekic1109]

You what now

[@pandequeso]

Indeed

[@tile_guy]

Funke knows his password?

[@zuppas9185]

yes

[@twood5367]

You spoke it into existence

[@aspol12]

My favourite road block is B2/W2’s “We’re dancing here for no reason”.

[@literallygrass1328]

I genuinly laughed when it returned in drayano's renegade platinum hack, which I'm currently playingy through

[@arz563]

@@literallygrass1328 renegade platinum? that wouldn't happen to be a gen 4 remake would it?

[@messageman4562]

@@arz563 fan made

[@blubbfisch98]

@@arz563 You should play it, seriously.

[@NameNick-ro6oz]

when u cant let the child see the town bc ur dancing in a perfect east west line

[@TheSinisterkelly]

I love the pointless questions; "Can you help me stop team rocket" Yes or no *Clicks no* "Can you help me stop team rocket" yes or no

[@shavedhomersimpson742]

It's a rhetorical question

[@TheSinisterkelly]

@@shavedhomersimpson742 then why give you a choice?

[@PlaystationMasterPS3]

I like how in super paper mario if you answer no a couple of times to those types of questions you get a game over.

[@mushymcmushington7176]

"...but thou must!"

[@BingQilin]

It's like that one guy in Black and White who tries to sell you Fresh Water at a jacked up price and when you say no he asks you AGAIN

[@ZoruaHunter]

Sun & Moon feels more like a field trip with your classmates and teacher than an adventure with how Lillie, Hau, and Kukui never leave you alone for more than five steps

[@aidan4529]

Me: Hop off my nuts Lily, GOD A WILD HAU APPEARED: Me: FUCKK

[@DwynTwo]

At least they didnt show up after literally every single badge like Bianca and Cheren...

[@The_Vible]

Name someone understands

[@zaxon4765]

@@DwynTwo You're right, they didn't show up after every badge, they showed up after every Z crystal.

[@DwynTwo]

@@zaxon4765 There was a lot more distance between the trials though. In gen five, there were Gyms in EVERY goddamn city. Also, Hau and Lilly didnt always want to fight you.

[@cursedhfy3558]

Honestly I feel like being able to run into the wrong place underleveled is an inherently positive quality.

[@someguy496]

Peninsula of power is honestly fun, it makes it difficult, and gives the pokemon the power they should have

[@NO122221]

I feel like levels are annoying to deal with when it comes to exploration. I had so much more fun with Witcher 3 with Enhanced Edition mod, which reworked all of game's balance and mechanics to remove levels from the game. It was a blast to play, I only completed it once in original version, while with the mod I 100% it twice.

[@KingExalted]

Xenoblade be like “oh pay no mind to the LEVEL 80 MONSTER IN THE STARTING AREA”

[@acetrigger1337]

it is the most basic feature of any RPG. ...which is why it angers me when people call Pokemon an "RPG". yeah, and Call of Duty is a "immersive war simulator"...

[@natesamadhi33]

And also, if Gamefreak is so worried about people becoming so overleveled that people could steamroll through gym leaders, then Gamefreak should add a feature where gym leaders adjust their team & strategy based on the level of your pokemon. it'd make the game much more interesting and dynamic.

[@DarkAngel-jo8ix]

“You want to flood the earth, YOU LIVE ON THE EARTH” has got to be the funniest thing I’ve heard for a WHILE

[@lucasmiller8286]

The Black & White cutscenes really didn't bother me, in fact, I really liked how the game unfolded, as they all seem to flow more or less naturally. You walk, a sprite appears, spits out a few lines, BOOM, cutscene done, you may continue playing. In SM however every cutscene felt so loooong with all the loading and the camera angle switching; they always interrupted gameplay instead of being a part of it and that's what bothered me personally.

[@Matanumi]

Really Pokemon needs to go back to being sprite based....cause its so much easier and it can look great.... Doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon

[@KevinLeroyGrant]

Black and White shows that linear progression systems can still be fun and compelling if done right. Sun and Moon shows that focusing too much on a story can be monotonous as hell

[@QuikVidGuy]

I played black and it was the slowest game i'd played up to gen 6, especially the hours of grinding needed to advance past the grass the cutscenes also moved slower than in gen 3

[@afarensis9720]

Because Black and White cutscenes felt like part of the game. They didn't cut to different areas or random camera angles, most of them just showed what was happening around the player. Meanwhile the S&M cutscenes felt rather cinematic, which I didn't like at all

[@dtothee8730]

I think that has to do with the story being "GOOD". All the other Pokemon games, I really don't give two flying Fs about the story. BW was good but I'm not sure Gamefreak can pull another one off.

[@FUNKe]

There is a Romhack named Crystal Clear which is virtually everything I discuss here (more open of a world, scaling levels). Initially my script included mention of this, but I cut it out. Nintendo is DMCA happy on fan-projects and I don't want to expedite that process by making it too public. Feel free to search it out yourself if you're curious, it's pretty cool.

[@appleinsanity4733]

Should I play this if i haven't played any other pokemon games before?

[@ElickFlash]

I was actually about to bring up Crystal Clear.

[@WeirdoStrange]

@@appleinsanity4733 probably not but only cuz you should learn more about what team you want before hand. Or you can just go full exploration. In that case go right ahead!

[@yaseenkhan8408]

If any of you want to look further into Crystal Clear, you should watch Pikasprey Yellow's video about it. He goes into great detail about all the different features of the game, and makes a lot of other great videos too. Go check him out!

[@magicant6482]

@@appleinsanity4733 You probably could but it has significantly less story elements [which usually isn't a strong suit for pokemon games anyway]. There are some non-canon characters too, but the base gameplay is fairly accurate to the official games. If you are interested in getting into the series I'd recommend the official gen 2 games [Gold/Silver/Crystal, but not Clear Crystal which is the fan game] because they do a really good job at guiding players on where to go. If you've never played the game before you won't know which areas will be too tough for you. tl;dr Start with the officials. If you try the official games and find it it's too slow for you I'd try it out.

[@esteban8471]

The cutscenes in BW were fine because they didn't take an eternity. I love gen 7, but I want to play a game. Not watch a damn movie.

[@josephdarvish7868]

Yeah, some exposition on the main villain and their beliefs (Team Plasma)? 30 seconds to a minute. Learning about how Lillie doesn't choose her own clothes (Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon)? 5 minutes minimum. AND SHE DOES IT TWICE (as far as I remember)

[@Lanoman123]

Esteban Maysonet better not play MGS4 then

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

kojima intensifies

[@GoldenRose116]

Atleast it has a good story.. more then i can say from sword and shield, who maybe got even more cutscenes

[@Jdudec367]

Joseph Darvish it isn't really twice...but I don't think it's quite 5 minutes. but that's what happens when the gqme gets more cinematic.

[@nebuluna78]

"if you want a grass team you can reconsider your life choices" Me, with my 10 billion petilils: shut up

[@impmadness]

Brightear Nobody shit talks my Chikorita

[@DeltaDaspleto]

PetiLUL

[@violetberry4995]

him: me, holding my carnivine and roselia: What did you say about my sons?!

[@NachoCheeseDorito-Kun]

Me: *laughs in gen III* Seriously, if you have so much as one Grass type in Hoenn you can cheese the entire game XD

[@australiananarchist480]

I fucking love Lilligant so much though, one of my favourite Pokemon thanks to the one you trade for in Black 2. One of the MVP's on my team. So amazing. I loved that whole team. Lucario (my ace), Lilligant, Arcanine, Magnezone, Flygon, and Gigalith (also traded in Mistralton)

[@ItRudeToStare]

Imagine being that one Zekrom that was just absolutely destroyed by a pokeball.

[@azalkathegunpowderdragon9439]

ive had it happen myself. oh yes. lets just throw this pokeball for giggles. *catches lugia* o.o….

[@trainershade1937]

Not too abnormal for me, I rarely use anything better than an Ultra Ball these days. Hell if I do, it's just because the ball matches the Pokemon.

[@NinjaGamer820]

@@trainershade1937 what a mood

[@thomasnicholls6584]

PureLSD well Zekrom and Reshiram has low catch rates so it isn’t that hard to achieve

[@TheLegless101]

@@trainershade1937 I've always just used ultra balls. I also have a very bad habit of never using the master ball. Except in Crystal.

[@Kirbychu1]

In my opinion the best storytelling in the Pokemon games are probably N's Castle, Ultra Ruin, and Pokemon Mansion. It really evokes a feeling of discovery and mystery when you uncover the lore for yourself instead of having exposition dumped on you.

[@rubeng9092]

Also don't forget the abandoned ship. That was such a cool location.

[@TheAbsol7448]

@@rubeng9092 That's easily one of my favorite locations in Pokemon period. Emerald had a lot of really awesome places to explore.

[@Druid-T]

I agree on all but N's Castle. The fact that it literally appears from nowhere, and is required to progress since it's part of the story, makes it almost a perfect example that the problem does exist. The player doesn't go through N's castle because they want to stop Team Plasma, or because they want to get some goons out of the way so they can continue their Adventure, they go through it because the story says they go through N's castle. N's castle isn't a side quest you take up because you want to, it's just the next set of rails

[@Alias_Anybody]

@Druid T I think you are misrepresenting N's Castle. If you want, you can just run straight to the final boss - the thing you definetely signed up for when challenging the Elite 4. The rooms are all optional elements for the story, there's no fetchquest to check every item so you can get a key to the boss door or something like that.

[@nootaboot7042]

you're forgetting sea mauville

[@centurosproductions8827]

Not just a story game, gen 8 is a handholding game. Hop almost *literally* holds your hand with how much he talks to you.

[@dizzyheads]

It's just one giant tutorial

[@bleachbleachBLEACHER]

I've just barely managed to contain the feeling of being handheld in Sword by taking the progression as slow as humanly possible. Been playing fairly consistently since it came out and just passed the fifth gym. It helps that I'm straight up enjoying the story presented in Sword much more than I ever did Sun&Moon. That was a snorefest and the protagonist had NO FACIAL EXPRESSIONS!!! Sword&Shield are definitely an improvement overall from Sun&Moon, but they REALLY need to stop handholding us.

[@ten0fclubs70]

@@bleachbleachBLEACHER at least you can skip pokecatching tutorial

[@kikir.5194]

atleast Hop is actually a likeable rival. It's been awhile since we had one of those.

[@Paars_irura]

@@kikir.5194 i wish he was more original tho. He kida just felt like a reskin of Hau (who I prefer over Hop any day lol)

[@kartikeyadubey9211]

i got impatient just listening to you talk about the sun and moon cutscenes

[@ammyowl473]

I had to go through the Pokémon sun final cutscene 4 TIMES because you can’t save through it and my DS would just die before the end

[@devinarato69420]

HANNIBALLL!!!!!!

[@Jdudec367]

@@ammyowl473 but why the other 2 times?

[@UncleDane]

Breath of the Wild proved to me that Nintendo isn't afraid to ditch the linear gameplay while still retaining the core elements of a massively loved series. I'm praying to Arceus that they make the same choice with Pokemon Sword & Shield onward. I would love a truly open world Pokemon game where the progression is still there, but the order in which you do things is completely up to you. Anyway great video, smell ya later.

[@FUNKe]

agree 100%

[@vanilla8956]

Thing is Dane that Pokemon isn't a Nintendo developed game. The design philosophies and innovation floating around EAD at the moment are in a completely different place than Game Freak, who is the ultimate example of "playing it extremely safe" Game Freak wont ever take any risks like what caused the success of Breath of the Wild or the failure Metroid Prime 4 would have been. That's why were getting HD 3DS games forever

[@SuperFreez1]

Breath of the Wild was in development way longer than the span between Ultra SM and Sword and Shield. Doubt they'll try anything new but boy do I pray. Also thanks for getting me into Engie.

[@freshlymemed5680]

Well the thing is Nintendo isnt really behind Pokemon they just publish it. Pokemon is by Game Freak and they wont drop a money making formula till the sales drop.

[@BotanistJeff]

Mostly just personal preference, but I think I prefer the more story oriented focus of the newer pokemon games. A similar thing applies to breath of the wild; it's a great game, but it felt really lacking in story and after a while I started to get bored of it because wandering aimlessly looking for things to do just doesn't really appeal to me. I like to have a clear goal and motivation which is why I prefer more story oriented games. Long story cutscenes almost never bother me and I actually enjoyed the pacing of the ultra sun and moon games. I think the appeal of open world games and more story driven games is really about which aspect of the game you prefer and enjoy the most, and think a more story driven approach appeals more to a lot of newer pokemon players like myself, who maybe aren't as familiar with the mechanics and play pokemon more casually.

[@magicant6482]

Have you heard of the Clear Crystal fan game? It's exactly what you're talking about. You can do the gyms in any order and everything [except wild pokemon] scale to you.

[@FUNKe]

I have. I mentioned it in my first script draft, but cut it out to keep the project low profile. If it gets too much attention Nintendo will probably shut it down, and I don't want to cause that.

[@beautifulsauce]

that sounds fun

[@deathtbh6261]

@@FUNKe Maybe if they take it down they'll port its features to sword and shield *eyes emoji*

[@mng3302]

Having played crystal many many times, i still found crystal clear boring, despite what it offered

[@figurativefluff]

Tfw you need to keep a fan project on the down low so the nintendo overlords don’t come down to smite it for “protection of their brand”. God nintendo’s like a super dangerous to flip coin where heads gets you an amazing game/system and tails gets you a company decision so out of touch with the community its in outer fucking space.

[@NameNick-ro6oz]

“pokemon games are too linear” next game: wHaT iF wE mAdE tHe PlAyEr PrOgEsS nOrTh?

[@octolockg5059]

Lmao.

[@blipparipa5661]

Sun and Moon basically broke Everly single rule of show don’t tell

[@amyalcorn2032]

Blipparipa At least it didn’t have voice acting 😂😂

[@zad_rasera]

it did?

[@dantemustdie00]

@@zad_rasera Yep, they made it blantely obvious who the evil team REALLY was, (it wasn't team Skull, tho they were a extension of said evil Team). they also showed nearly every single Pokemon in the region, which a lot of people hated they done done that cause if left barely no surprises. It was the reason they barely showed any pokemon in trailers for SwSh....tho this still ended up negative regardless.

[@Jdudec367]

@@dantemustdie00 have the villians ever not been obvious to be fair

[@MythoFoxical]

Jayden C I think the criticism with the Sun and Moon villains is that they tried to pretend they were good for moment until the Ultra Beast showed up and Lusamine made that smile. The other games straight up tell or show you they’re bad.

[@lgglc9274]

This dude put the video on 9.59 what a legend

[@1un4cy]

it's 9.58 here

[@soggypineconefalloutlorema397]

I mean it wouldn't get monetized anyways so he might as well.

[@BlumiTheGhost]

@@soggypineconefalloutlorema397 Why not? Didn't Nintendo finally allow the use of their games' footage?

[@soggypineconefalloutlorema397]

@@BlumiTheGhost Yeah but KZbin hates monetization FUNKe it seems.

[@grievetan]

@@1un4cy youtube always add +1 second to video

[@g.holmes9930]

Finally, somebody who recognizes the problematic nature of Team Aqua's goals

[@sci_pain3409]

*every other team in pokémon games

[@dominickperez2952]

Everyone knows it has a problem, but the problem with saying there's a problem is that no one tries to think of a solution to the problem which makes a smaller problem a much bigger problem, which is very problematic

[@perkypears]

I love how it’s like, they went for a parallel to Magma which is fair. Magma’s plan is to make the planet have more land so people just have more room to be. that makes sense but most of the entire planet is water and if you flood it everyone like immediately fucking dies. what the fuck Archie

[@yonatanbeer3475]

@@perkypears they just really like fish ok

[@Kiki-gs6ml]

They want more tuna sandwiches for lunch

[@zuko1569]

Team Rocket: _Randomly attacks the player_ Player: Oh great another waste of ti- *Team Rocket sends out Rayquaza* Player: Oh.

[@ALNYTheGreatScientist]

Randomizer runs in a nutshell.

[@richardgibson8403]

Zuzu player: *OOOHHHHHHH*

[@Shaymin0]

Go level 4 rattata!

[@Box-O-Soldier]

*This is the part where you realize how fucked you are.*

[@jeromealday614]

Player : **surprised pikachu**

[@PhriekshoTV]

Sun & Moon was abysmal in its pacing, for me. Couldn't finish it because I was absolutely bored. Also, if Iwata (rest his soul) could single-handedly reduce Gold/Silver and add Kanto, then I'm sure it's possible on today's systems with whole teams

[@PhriekshoTV]

@@rastas_4221 S&M is also painfully slow because of all of its handholding and extra dialogue. I like Pokemon for being LESS of a traditional JRPG. I don't mind a bit of change, but S&M was... Meh

[@deltarock47]

Don't give Game Freak that sort of credit. They've never been good with storage management and efficient coding despite being a billion dollar company.

[@Hetsu..]

@@PhriekshoTV Pokemon is a JRPG so thats literally your fault

[@PhriekshoTV]

@@Hetsu.. If I enjoyed all previous entries, including 4 with its lack of direction and 5 with its slower pacing, then it is the change in the formula's fault, not mine. I know it's a JRPG.

[@Hetsu..]

@@PhriekshoTV Thats because the previous entries were barely JRPG

[@JakeBolt]

In sun and moon, my biggest complaint was the cut scenes. I jokes with my friends saying "there needs to be a button that says 'I'm 23 years old, i know how to play pokemon.' "

[@campkira]

I had not play pokemon for very long time due to it endless gameplay.

[@strionic770]

Only problem with that is some little kid could be too arrogant to watch the tutorial and never learn how to catch Pokemon.

[@jamesalexander5559]

@@strionic770 Sure but what about a kid that gets so goddamn bored of the excessive dialogue that they drop the game? Besides, who's to say that the kid doesn't just mash A through the text and doesn't learn the tutorial anyway?

[@strionic770]

James Alexander That's not a problem because literally everyone knows that the tutorial comes before the bulk of the game. Bold of you to assume a little kid would drop a new video game simply because of dialogue they don't care about. Also, even if they just mash A through the tutorial, they can still _visually_ see and understand the process of catching Pokemon. Little kid me was a complete A-masher, but I learned to catch Pokemon through the visual cues the tutorial provided simply.

[@jamesalexander5559]

@@strionic770 Bold of you to assume everyone, especially children are like you. And if the tutorials are anything like in Sun and Moon, is it really that much of a stretch that a kid will get bored and drop the game outright? I'm not even talking about the catch a Pokemon tutorial anymore either, you and I both know Pokemon can go over board with the stuff it thinks it needs to teach you when you could really just figure it out with little to know consequence. Minecraft and Fortnite don't have any tutorials and kids loved those games. I don't even know why you're against the idea of allowing someone to skip a tutorial, almost ever modern game let's you skip it's tutorial because they know people like to replay their games.

[@himboghost629]

No one: Team yell: we going to be your road blocks for this this game because we like cheering and then leaving after you go defeat the gym etc.

[@howaboutnow1895]

Logical

[@galfinsp7216]

That feels like a road block that makes sense, even if connected to gyms.

[@superbro6413]

Reminder that: 1. The Pokemon Company owns the Pokemon IP, not Nintendo 2. Game freak are the (possibly sole) developer of the mainline Pokemon titles, not Nintendo Game Freak and "ambition" (or "innovation") aren't really 2 things that mix well. Yes, I know Town is a thing that exists, but I also see no reason (or incentive) for Gamefreak to go beyond playing it safe, making a game that's essentially a new map with new pokemon, adding a new mechanic and taking one away, and not once again, netting 10 million or more sales Sword and shield, sans whatever camera stuff they have going on, seems to be more of the same That's just me Feel free to correct me on any inaccuracies Good stuff as usual

[@FUNKe]

You're right, I referred to nintendo as a blanket statement but the points definitely refer specifically to gamefreak and TPC more than just that.

[@superbro6413]

@@FUNKe That's perfectly fine. Let's also keep in mind that BOTW was made with the help of Monolith Soft (they did the environments, level design, etc.), and there really isn't anything stoping TPC or Gamefreak from contracting out folks to make a more ambitious title. The verdict isn't also out yet on S&S, we literally have one trailer as of now So yeah, here's hoping, but the pessimist in me thinks otherwise Thank you again Enjoyed the video

[@OnEiNsAnEmOtHeRfUcKa]

It's all pretty ironic, given how _insanely_ ambitious and creative the original Pokémon games were.

[@evilmarc]

Look into who owns the Pokemon company. If you want a suggestion I'd say read Toucharcade's "Who Owns Pokemon, Anyway? It’s Complicated". The tldr is that Nintendo does not own Pokemon but most likely is the biggest single shareholder of the franchise.

[@MM-mx2zt]

@@superbro6413 TPC and Gamefrak only care about money, more people involved=less profit

[@FUNKe]

Aggron is objectively the best pokemon design

[@personshmerson]

owo aggwon

[@TalkNchat284]

owo aggwon

[@crodor_]

fucking loser actually uploads on his main channel? wow

[@SquirtleSquady]

I respect your decision

[@marnsdnfois7006]

Counter: Mawile

[@ashenone3883]

Its a great franchise but I mean alot of it is FURIOUS A MASHING !

[@thomaschristensen2941]

Hi! Welcome to the poke- SHUT THE F*CK UP JOY, ALL I WANT ITS TO CURE MY POKEMONS, EVERYONE KNOWS THAT, JUST SHUT UP, GRAB MY POKEMONS, AND CURE THEM.

[@che1r]

Literally every game is.

[@ellog100]

​@@che1r They're really not

[@giratina5644]

@@thomaschristensen2941 GRAB MY POKEBALLS

[@doragon_central]

@@ellog100 no really all of them are like that

[@breakingnewsflash]

5:19 I’m glad they took his advice and made the image into a game

[@Bluestpikmin]

its even more real with gen 9 being open world

[@butterh2]

the unfortunate thing is that it looks and runs like fucking garbage

[@stealthlock6634]

The story isn’t even what bothers me! I love story cutscenes! What I DON’T love is a five minute cutscene about the PICKING BATTLE ROYALE PLACE ON, what, the THIRD ISLAND literally I was playing the game going, “Ok, at which island will the game finally leave me alone? GOOD GOSH IM 3/4 THROUGH!?”

[@stealthlock6634]

Witty Name Barely, in my case

[@stealthlock6634]

Reese Labbe This hurts to read because I want this but Idk if it’ll happen

[@stealthlock6634]

Reese Labbe I just take whatever story is there, and in my head, Cerberus Syndrome it. Here, watch. “Brendan could barely breathe. He began to feel nauseous and the temperature around him swung violently between frigid cold with nigh suffocating rain, and scorching, dry heat. As other humans collapsed around him, he stumbled atop Swampert and rasped, “S-surf!!” With all speed, fighting violent waves and struggling to help Brendan hang on, Swampert surged forward. It sought out the source of the rain-drought commotion, and found it-two titans clashing in the middle of the sea. No, mountains! No, floods! No!! Mountains again! Colossal continents and tsunami-like waves of equal height crashed against each other.... With Groudon and Kyogre thundering at their center. Swampert plunges bravely forward, with Brendan barely conscious on its back. Even Swampert began to shudder from the freezing-boiling-rocky sea. Brendan summoned all his strength, with rain falling on his skin and evaporating off of it at two second intervals. “STOP!! PLEASE! STOP FI-“ All at once, a surge of mountain collided with Swampert and Brendan. Brendan, knocked unconscious by the blow, sunk helplessly toward the ocean depths. Just as he saw a bright light gleaming above the surface, his vision went black...”

[@stealthlock6634]

Reese Labbe Dude, thanks! XD but until then, a little imagination will always help these games be amazing for me. ....E-except USUM. The real story started at the very end and was over just as fast. I felt a little numb after that one. “Fainting Necrozma = everything suddenly ok now”

[@abbiepancakeeater52]

Yeah it's like Nintendo is worried kids are too stupid to understand a basic plot without having it spoon fed to them. As a writer, it's obnoxious. As an autistic writer that sometimes struggles with trying not to over-explain things, it's even MORE obnoxious.

[@EtnaBoy666]

"You wanna start a grass team? Start by considering your horrible life choices." FIGHT ME, BRO. (Yeah, Grass is my favorite type.)

[@waffles6280]

gress

[@phylippezimmermannpaquin2062]

he says after suggesting a rock team. smh

[@Estra_Estra]

Ice team?? Mono ice??? How?

[@Bedhead13]

Mines ice, ya wanna watch like 7 types kick my ass?

[@Bedhead13]

Seriously though, what the fuck would I even do? There's almost nothing it resists and it's so weak to the most common moves.

[@Iuri100]

Uhuh, so you make fun of us grass type fans but ice types are ok? Alright

[@kikir.5194]

LOL idk why this comment made me laugh. As a Fire-type user, both of you guys suck in my eyes. (jk!! lol)

[@notgray88]

@@kikir.5194 oh yeah, pulls out my Ludicolo pokeball, get a load of this

[@rubiconprime1429]

Ice types are just so much cooler

[@metalgearzwei]

as a water type fan, i share your pain

[@BIGGIANTSGUY]

Dragon type master race

[@Grapevin]

It's really cool how many of these points were directly addressed in Scarlet/Violet. Would love to see a followup video covering how you feel about the new approach!

[@hmmm713]

​@@scandalouspanda7489couldn't handle? Switch runs Zelda totk and though that game has its frame rate drops here and there too, it's not as bad

[@tme3305]

​@@scandalouspanda7489 it's not that the switch can't handle it -- it demonstrably can. the problem is that gamefreak is terrible at optimizing their games for the hardware they're working with. this was less noticeable in the handheld days (with a few exceptions like the astonishing slowness of the original diamond/pearl) because the hardware they were working with was never that great anyway, but they're on console hardware now, and that's making the gap between pokemon and other nintendo powerhouses like mario and zelda especially pronounced. unfortunately, while these issues have caused controversy online, most people don't seem to care enough to stop buying the games, so gamefreak never has to get any better at it.

[@machina5]

4 months later and I wish pacing was still our biggest issue.

[@itsomega7724]

trees.

[@pokaay3163]

@@itsomega7724 p o o r l y r e n d e r e d s t i c k s o f s h i t

[@byronlyons3548]

I certainly don't, as that's what makes Red and Blue, along with Sun and Moon pretty terrible.

[@machina5]

@@byronlyons3548 Are you implying the pacing in Sword and Shield isn't terrible?

[@Jdudec367]

@@byronlyons3548 sun and moon wasn't really terrible and did gen 1 really have bad pacing? Also gen 1 weren't objectively bad games either.

[@jackhudner3804]

Is nobody going to talk about that SFM work?

[@jacobshirley3457]

Yes.

[@zedmercury2605]

No

[@erlendvageskar3356]

It was pretty cool :)

[@Slenderguy56]

Is no one gonna talk about that commercial of that bus driver crushing those pokemon?

[@Blue__Oni]

What's it called

[@CanaldoZenny]

To be fair, Pokemon was never a exploration game. You have scripted adventure and road blocks since Gen 1. Its just more noticable now because of online communities and better storyline.

[@Potassiumkloride]

I feel that they're mostly more noticeable and less fun now is because they've taken all of the challenge out of them. The earlier games typically didn't tell you fuckall about what you were supposed to do, you had to wander around and explore or talk to npcs to piece it together, and the whole thing in itself was a bit of a puzzle you had to put together. By comparison road blocks in the newer games feel like there's a time quota they need you to hit before you're allowed into the next section, and the things you have to do to progress are just busywork to keep you occupied. They were never good, but they've definitely gotten worse as what fun they did have was stripped out of them.

[@Boltscrap]

Gen 1 had fairly open layout, especially for the last few gyms before giovanni. In fact, you could skip some sea travel by flying back to pallet town and going straight down to cinnabar island, in newer games they would probably have some dumb roadblock there because screw player ingenuity, right?

[@CanaldoZenny]

@@CanOpenerSmoothDream Yes. At least Sun& Moon's roadblocks feel more "natural" than some random NPCs dancing and blocking the gate. In Alola the roadblocks are actual road blocks and are tied to the Trial Challenge. The whole region feels conected and prepared to lead the new trainer through the Island Challenge. Its the best solution? Hell no, but its better than a police guard asking for water.

[@petrnovak7235]

@@CanaldoZenny Actually, the most stupid roadblock in Pokémon games was that girl on Stoutland in Heahea City. Seriously, what right that girl had to block the road just to find hidden items? IRL I would call a police on her for blocking the road. Sadly, you can't do that in Pokémon game :(

[@MerkhVision]

@@Potassiumkloride You're exactly right about the obscure difficulty in the roadblocks being one memorable and redeeming trait about them in the older games. I thought of that too while watching this video and I tried to remember when was the last time that something like the Sudowoodo situation, or the thirsty guard ever stumped me since then. I appreciated those parts because it taught me to be more thorough about how I explored the game and it encouraged me to talk to my friends to figure it out. I've been playing Platinum and White versions sporadically lately and while I do really enjoy them, there's been none of those moments. Everything is a lot more obvious now. Its just about beating each gym to progress. Which some may like, but I argue some charm is lost there.

[@rashrasha921]

“You want to flood the earth....you live on the earth”

[@-Gax-]

Eh, I agree the SM/USUM have to much cut scenes but it's not story that is the problem. BW/B2W2 have the best and most indepth story. Yet tells it much much better. The story isn't the problem. The fancy cut scenes are.

[@Foggovor]

You’re right. The story content itself of SM is fine (until usum took a big shit on it and removed the allegory for parental addiction and how it affects a family... Good job, game freak. You fucked over a complex allegory for child abuse. Thanks.)

[@silvesta5027]

I couldn’t agree more. The fancy cutscene disrupt the flow of the game. I miss when Pokemon was sprite based, cutscenes were quick and didn’t waste your time.

[@Kirbychu1]

Why do people lump BW2 in with BW? BW2 has hardly any plot.

[@vonnerseite]

Sun and Moon are the Problems ..have u seen the Abominations they call Pokemon ? i bet with Sword and Shield we get a Toothbrush as the Water Starter a Firelighter as the Fire Starter and a Stick with a Leaf as the Gras Starter and in 2022 we get Pokemon Bathroom and Pokemon Kitchen....

[@Home-body]

Big agree

[@ThenThereThe]

Now re-speak this in japanese so gamefreak could understand.

[@diode_wow]

GF understands in currency, not verbal language.

[@MYG]

Funke's patreon shoutout song is the only one of those I actually sit through out of enjoyment.

[@panlat7931]

It is really well made I enjoy it alot

[@lrgogo1517]

I dunno, IMO the melody and backup singers and high scale Justyn chose to sing on are a bit hard on my ears.

[@Kitty_kisses97]

@@lrgogo1517 Your face is hard on my ears

[@zaarongaming8174]

@@Kitty_kisses97 It's down boys

[@Mermi]

Yeah good Weezer cover

[@TheMrParagon]

Pokemon companies response to your ideal pokemon game "Hmm How about instead we cut 50% of the pokedex hows that sound?"

[@alessandrolira4035]

1 year late to the part, but I pray that the gen 4 remakes are more competently made...

[@lamihadamshareef5270]

And make you pay foR the rest of the pokemon

[@victorquadros1428]

Now that I think about it, that's probably why I liked Heartgold and Soulsilver. There were many features that they had on the side that were optional that you could explore. An example of this would be the various radio stations on the poke gear and their functionalities. I didn't even know that swarms, hoenn/sinnoh pokemon, and eventually gym leaders could be accessed through the poke gear until I went out of my way out of boredom to find that out. There were so many other features (pokeatholon, voltorb flip, battle frontier, safari zone, pal park, bug catching contest, and the entire post game story including post red additions) that you could go and find yourself without being told to by the game, which of course made the experience a lot more satisfying. There were periods of time where very little deviation from plot and roadblocks were issues, but I feel Kanto circumvented most of that (minus the poke gear card to get the flute to wake up snorlax through this weird series of events that was all needed just to go through diglett cave and all of that just to find out you need cut to get to the other half of Kanto). Either way, I like the idea of exploration and team building, but then again there are story elements that I really do like about pokemon (Black and White 2 made this clear) and it would be odd if there was still nothing stopping you from going to some places. To me, it's like something to work up to. The grind makes it rewarding at times (like in Soulsilver they fixed the issue of getting larvitar with the peak area in the safari zone such that you could get larvitar possibly around the 6th or 7th gym badge). The only thing I do not like about grinding is when its mandatory (like rushing through uninteresting poritions of text or game like the trainer school in sun and moon).

[@theresastarmanwaitinginthe5149]

You really have to appreciate the effort FUNKe puts into these videos. Why he doesn't have one million subscribers yet is weird.

[@JasonGodwin69]

It's up to us fans to promote underrated youtubers on other sites.

[@Somersalsa]

HE'S REALLY FUCKING S L O W

[@jacobshirley3457]

High quality is why.

[@Somersalsa]

@@jacobshirley3457 it was a joke tho

[@jacobshirley3457]

How was it a joke? It's a legitimate question. What *I* said was the joke (albeit, a low-effort one).

[@unregisteredhypercam2355]

Sword and Shield they're gonna teach you your letters and numbers Edit: Wow I did not expect 1.2K likes. Most I've probably ever gotten

[@iliketoast724]

What's 6

[@conjonsilver9424]

And if you wait until Pokemon Bow/Arrow, you'll get a look at the all new walking tutorial!

[@nakano281]

Honest

[@Japanlover79]

I hope they learned there lesson with the tutorial at least. I don’t care about the story I liked black and whites story a lot I just hope they don’t do a two hour long tutorial again because I have sun sitting there and I just don’t want to play it after my experience with moon

[@pokaay3163]

Honestly, so far it's looked really open-world to me. It may be just in comparison to LGPE, and the much better graphics, but nonetheless I'm hopeful. I've heard rumors that gyms will be completable in any order so that's a good sign as well.

[@michaelbowman6684]

5:19 *Looks at Sword and Shield, which is reusing almost all of it's assets and animations, is practically a 3DS game but on the Switch, which is also cutting a large portion of Pokemon from the game for no justifiable reason.* "Make that _really_ slow."

[@kikir.5194]

there's rumors about DLC coming soon, and how much you wanna bet they're gonna make people pay for DLC for more dex pokemon. I'm calling it now.

[@cosmicmouse2]

They are adding a DLC. They're adding 200 Pokemon for what I hear is the price of $30

[@brrguitarist]

Junebug2 no. They are releasing two new areas and with have 200 Pokémon become available to all players regardless of whether or not they purchase the DLC

[@cosmicmouse2]

@@brrguitarist Are you sure? I heard it was only part of the DLC. You can get slowpoke but can only evolve it if you have the DLC so I'm not sure about that

[@brrguitarist]

@@cosmicmouse2 when each part of the pass is released, 100 pokemon will also be released as part of that regions pokedex. all players, whether or not they purchase the pass, will have to ability to trade for or transfer the released pokemon into their games.

[@thats4thebirds]

Omg that stoutland road block in SM is the most frustrating in 20 years. Like... gtfo my way little child. I will battle your stoutland into a crater.

[@fredmendez61]

Oh... So that's what happened to him in the Sun and Moon Anime..

[@Cyber_Akuma]

You should see how bad they are in Ultra Sun and Moon, there are 10 times the roadbloacks and for such asinine reasons that they make the stoutland one seem reasonable...... Sword and Shield too.

[@Jdudec367]

@@Cyber_Akuma how is USUM any different?

[@ikeanduha5715]

Gen 5 did this amazingly and should have more recognition for being a good game

[@joshwatts5869]

Ike Anduha it was a shit game but I’m not gonna lie black and white 2 had the best storyline in to date in my opinion

[@joshwatts5869]

Cosmic Cloud yeah the designs were absolute shit! The worst batch of starters ever! I took emboar off my team 🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️. Black and white one you could only catch gen 5 Pokémon. Ugh it was a tough time to be a Pokémon fan.

[@antonhillblom9528]

@@Seraserastria Like much of what you said is still opinion. The forces of nature are not even close to the legendary birds. Where'd you even get that from? Emboar is my favourite fire starter, and Serperior is my favourite grass starter. Kyurem is a really good looking legendary, all three of the forms. And you are kinda stretching some of those comparisons, especially the Zoroark one. I Don't agree with the Victini and Mew one either. You might as well say that Manaphy, Meloetta and Magearna also are copies of it. since all of them look vaguely like Mew. Did you have problems with noibat? That's basically Zubat 3. Stufful and Bewear is Teddiursa and Ursaring 3. I just don't see a balanced view here; you didn't like the pokemon in gen 5, that's ok. Then you say that very many of the gen 5 pokemon are copies of older pokemon, but ignores that every gen has had some kind of copies. Also, why don't we critique the very uninspired pokemons from gen one? What about Muk? or Electrode? The only kinda bad Dragon pokemon from this gen was Druddigon, but saying that both Haxorus and Hydreigon are ugly? what are you? A monster? Why are the pokemon you said horrible? i really liked their designs(excluding Stunfisk), especially Gothitelle's. Now, i know most of this is also opinion, but holy shit man i got upset at your comment.

[@shiennohajime1495]

It was a horrible game with a good plot, barred by DLC. Not really something appreciable to the fullest.

[@Kirbychu1]

Hell no, I'm playing BW2 right now and every 5 minutes control is ripped from me and I'm forced to follow some dipshit to a place I don't wanna go. Gen 5 is where the unskippable cutscenes got out of hand.

I think the Gym progression could be really easy to follow if you simply gave the gym leaders certain conditions: -Badges 1-2 Gym leader's teams range from 15-20 and have 2 Pokemon -Badges 3-4 Gym leader's teams range from 25-30 and have 3 Pokemon -Badges 5-6 Gym leader's teams range from 35-40 and have 4 Pokemon -Badges 7-8 Gym leader's teams range from 45-50 and have 5 Pokemon -Every Gym leader's rematch team is level 55-60 and have 5 Pokemon -Elite 4's team ranges from 55-60 (65-70 in the rematch) and have 5 Pokemon -Champion's team ranges from 60-65 (75 in the rematch) and has 6 Pokemon And every city has a specific area (mountain, forest, river, volcano, graveyard) where you can find specific type Pokemon and you can explore deeper the more badges you have or the more powerful your Pokemon are so you can find rare items (Z-Crystals, or Plates) or Pokemon (even Legendaries or Ultra Wormholes) in the postgame. These aren't hard to implement and would give the players a great variety of Pokemon and resources to choose from.

[@lizardlegend42]

Ever since playing fire red I've been fixated on the idea of having the option to join team rocket or whatever villainous team is in the game. All I want is a little bit of proper fundamental choice in a pokemon game Edit: spelling

[@johannesseyfried7933]

Team Rocket: Maybe Team Skull: Yeah, why not? Team Yell: Sure. They are about as threatening as a Wooloo. But the rest of the Teams? Would you want to work for Team Flare?

[@Xx_Oleander_xX]

@@johannesseyfried7933 or team peta?

[@flyingscout3205]

@Death Team Rocket is objectively the best PokeMon team, its simplicities compliment its attitude, its simply a cooperation that abuses Pokemon for wealth.

[@yourdoom187]

@@matrixyst bruh there are tons of fan games like these for example rocket rising on pc

[@arkaeussystem437]

Your Doom it would just be nice if there was an official Pokémon game that allowed you to join the evil team. I’ve also wanted a Main series game game we’re you could join the evil team. An hd quality game with that feature would be awesome.

[@zuupower3503]

I agree with everything besides the “Switch isn’t powerful enough for a open world game” •cough• Skyrim, •cough• BOTW •cough•.

[@trapsarentgay4195]

Zuu Power wait until this dude hears about the Witcher

[@greatestcrow2514]

Bruh, Skyrim can run on everything, I don’t think that counts lmao.

[@lonestarr1490]

@@greatestcrow2514 It does count, because it's an open world game. That's the point here, after all.

[@hescoming4697]

Assassin's Creed, Minecraft, Terraria, AC:NH.. these are all open world games for the switch. b r u h

[@Cyber_Akuma]

I believe he meant one that looked like the mock-screenshot he showed, not just any open world game. We have had open world games on consoles decades old before.

[@jUppers]

FUNKE videos: 50% point 50% metaphor comparing to IRL situations

[@giga9955]

Don’t care about pacing as such. There NEEDS to be good endgame content and the game needs to go back to its challenging roots. The game is baby easy.. No fun in that

[@SenorEscaso]

Bring back the Battle Frontier pls

[@gameman3981]

EASY! 🤨 What? I have one thing to say about that which is: Try to beat Ultra Necrozma without having any Pokémon with a Dark type move, while not giving it any status conditions, not using any kind of healing or reviving item, not using a Z-Move and not PP stalling it.

[@carlosgonzalez2706]

@@gameman3981 So fight Ultra Necrozma without fighting it?

[@gameman3981]

@@carlosgonzalez2706 No. To say it as simply as possible (It will probably be the same): Use any move unless it's a Dark type move or a move that lowers it's stats/gives it status conditions and don't use healing items while fighting. I should've said that to begin with, sorry.

[@MeEncantaMoss]

@@gameman3981 so you're saying the game is hard if you play like an absolute idiot and make wrong decision constantly? shocker. Pokemon is for kids and casual gamers, us millenials just have to accept it. Sword and Shield show no signs of fixing any of the problems like hand holding and mind numbing easy gameplay.

[@tkardaishou]

This is actually one of the things I liked about Let's Go: after Cerulean, I can more or less beat the gyms in any order. Yeah it's the same G1 gameplay we've had for decades, but at least I can progress in whatever order I want.

[@Mswordx23]

"I want innovation." Game Freak: "What was that? You want to play the same game yet AGAIN? hErE yOu gO!"

[@johnnyboi331]

"we want a game like heartgold again" Game Freak: "What was that? You want to play the same game yet AGAIN? hErE yOu gO!"

[@Bedhead13]

If you jinxed the gen 4 remake I'm gonna be so upset man

[@KingAgniKai]

"We want gen 4 remakes" Game Freak: "what's that you want another KANTO game" "NOOOOOOOOOO" GF: "hEre YoU gO"

[@Dreq458]

pokemon is a JRPG, so of course story is going to be important. even so, unskippable cutscenes hurt subsequent playthroughs.

[@campkira]

They put it there so you can not just start a new save all the time.

[@TheFoochy]

Even the 3DS FE games are more linear and story heavy than any pokemon game, but you can skip almost any dialogue or cutscene you want, and tutorials are just text popups you can quickly hide to read later if you want. Similarly, recruitable characters are always at specific chapters, but you can do a lot of customization with your army, so it still feels different each time. When I replay a Pokemon game, I find that I usually end up with a similar team. in FE, even if I stick with the same units, I can do different things with them to spice things up. If they don't want to take a page from the open world format, perhaps simply taking a page from FE could do some good.

[@PomuLeafEveryday]

Casey Wright I agree with you on the cutscenes, Pokemon cutscenes are simply monotonous. But for the switching things up, what’s stopping you trying some challenges like nuzlocke? Treat any fainted Pokémon as dead. Change up the moves of Pokémon, or completely replace your team after every gym?

[@CloverChats]

Thankfully Pokémon Let’s Go added the ability to skip cutscenes in the options menu.

[@Dreq458]

@@TheFoochy well yeah. map-based turn-based combat is more dynamic than 1v1 turn-based combat. the persona series retains interest by having you control 4 characters against X amount of buffed opponents. sadly, pokemon would alienate its audience if it steered toward either option.

[@cykablyat4277]

If the switch can handle BOTW and Dark Souls, it can handle an open world Pokemon game, especially since they got rid of the National Dex. ( 5:27 )

[@pokaay3163]

they cut the dex to make room for improvement and Im so glad, beause now we have *giant grookey* and *thicc cake* in return, not to mention all the *old and reused* character animations! *and the shit stick tree*

[@jeffboy4231]

i think for a game like that to really work they should actually wait for a switch pro or the next console that is more powerful imo

[@uglybad4]

@@jeffboy4231 Or do what any competent studio does and hire talent capable of making or utilizing a game engine that isn't brought to its knees by models reused from the 3DS. They certainly have the money and resources to do so.

[@dyssil249]

@@jeffboy4231 It's not completely open world but have you played any xenoblade game? The problem isn't the switch, it's gamefreak not knowing how to make games well

[@jeffboy4231]

@@dyssil249 well the thing is, for the pokemon open world to be good it would also need to have pokemon be seeable for big distances and like in the air and stuff for it to actually feel full of life and like a pokemon world

[@wyattmanning404]

so about that whole “no open world pokemon any time soon”

[@robertosinger5727]

You wanna flood the *Earth*?! ***YOU LIVE ON THE EARTH*** Me: Dying xD

[@plcinto4042]

You wanna dry the *waters*?! ***YOU NEED THE WATERS***

[@tomfoolery7797]

"Me: Dying xD" Because of the flood?

[@DarkDrai]

Personally, I would love a game about pokemon pirates.

[@poodoodrilldick7757]

Holy shit you saw the video too?

[@plcinto4042]

@SNES SMWF-0 You wanna darken the *sky*?! ***YOU USE THE SKY***

[@bobograndman]

2:29 I can think of several things wrong with that

[@infection6728]

I dont know what are you talking about its just a nice toy you put in your ass

[@StickMaster500]

Hopefully with the introduction to Pokemon Sword and Shield, they probably do this as the Galar map seems like you can take different paths to get to the next area/gym and also with GameFreak saying that they want to try new things while keeping what makes Pokemon special. Although, they didn't do this with X and Y as the Kalos map looked like you could choose what path you can take and possibly take on different gyms but that unfortunately never happened. A man can dream.

[@thatoneguy9983]

1- YOU AGAIN 2- i don’t really care at this point anything’s better than Pokémon let’s go

[@otsu3011]

you need a job dude, get out of your house

[@eighteen-naked-cowboys]

Galar is literally a straight line upwards so dont count on it.

[@supremeleader1304]

@@eighteen-naked-cowboys its Canada, plain and simple

[@Dripgiwrgos]

Pokemon too

[@globin3477]

You know, if you replaced most routes with smaller wild areas, with a few larger ones to capture the wild area feel, combined with a free camera throughout the entire game, you could get pretty close to an open world pokemon.

[@maskofthedragon]

The problem with sun/moon is that the entire game is Unskippable poorly paced cutscenes -> barebones route -> Unskippable poorly paced cutscenes for 4 goddamn Islands And you can mash through the text but you can't mash through the 3 stock animations everyone use all the time

[@MimoAnimations]

I hope they fix the barebones route problem at least, the region seems pretty vibrant as of right now.

[@Ozhar1]

'Xans from Undertale' made me forget the entire video up to that point.

[@arlaghdoth4434]

Relatable.

[@JayceCH.]

Probably because this video was just one big shitpost.

[@sumandark8600]

There might be 40,320 badge orders, but that doesn't mean needing to design 40,320 separate gym experiences. Each gym can be 1st, 2nd, ..., 7th, or 8th. That's 8 variations on teams for each gym, totalling 64 teams. Not that hard tbh.

[@fakku7253]

doesn't work like that tho. u have to consider that if u beat 2 gyms, the remaining 6 gyms are programmed with different teams compared to when you have no badge or 1 badge etc. It's more like 8 raised to 8.

[@Dartitis-26]

@@fakku7253 What do you mean?

[@Alpha-kt4yl]

@@fakku7253 you made absolutely no sense

[@adityamanthri9167]

@@fakku7253 You dumb

[@C.M_]

​@@fakku7253 He did consider that, idiot. Every gym can only be number 1-8, meaning 8 variations for each gym. 8*8=64.

[@toxic_shr00m]

7:12 Why are those badges not fully shined, Justyn? Hmm? Inadequate work shall not be tolerated.

[@Dumpsterhuggies]

Pokemon fans: "Come on game freak quit giving us the same old story and do something interesting." SuMo comes out Pokemon fans: "No not like that"

[@suprememenace2947]

Except nobody said that...?

[@RayOfTruth]

@@suprememenace2947 I saw a ton of people who did.

[@jaernihiltheus7817]

We wanted them to do something new, but we wanted the new thing to be of higher quality.

[@newmono7341]

Hopefully the Pokémon series will have a rebirth sometime in the near future like Zelda did

[@Tubuxis]

Not gonna happen, game freak knows that they've got a winning formula and won't budge until sales start to drop

[@connorball3209]

Tubuxis totally agree. The series needs to be reimagined but until the main line bombs it will remain the same. We know that can’t and won’t happen though

[@saucypepperoni]

Tubuxis just wait on Sword and Shield

[@LucisLou]

@@saucypepperoni Have you seen the trailer? It's just the same thing all over again. I stopped having high hopes for Pokémon long ago. *Prays to the almighty gaming gods that SMT5 and Yo-Kai Watch 4 will be good*

[@connorball3209]

rylek i agree with mystic. Sword and shield proves that the series doesnt plan on changing in the slightest

[@AaronTsuii]

I'm split on this. I _really enjoy_ the plot driven story many of the modern games have (including the start of every Pokemon journey and everything you complained about), but what you speak of is really interesting too. Maybe there's a possibility of two separate games, if they'll ever come.

[@SigandGibbs]

You like 5 hour tutorials and poorly written anime plot?

[@AaronTsuii]

@@SigandGibbs yup.

[@electrocast]

it would be interesting to see them try to approach this with two different games, i like that idea

[@emblemblade9245]

Gen 5 was definitely a good step

[@Kohchu]

I prefer a game to have deep lore, and a story that is driving; but the majority of that should be in the background for you to learn or discover in the environment via things like character dialogue, or books that tell you more of the lore. It helps you flesh out the world; and allows you to continue enjoying the world. But the key thing; is that the storyline should be integral to the plot progression. If the story is centered around confronting say; Team Rocket, and stopping them from taking over, that should be the center focus of the game, but instead Pokemon's progression is completely insane and silly. The opening of the game gives you the lofty goal of catching all the Pokemon for research, then this gets dumped when you decide to take the 8 gym challenge so you can enter the Pokemon league; and while you are going after this goal; Team Rocket gets involved and you thwart them in the span of 10 minutes. Basically, what I'm saying is; Pokemon's progression would be more interesting if they got rid of the 8 gyms/league system. This way, the game could start out with the focus on the Pokemon world; and build up the villain team that is threatening the decisions of the Pokemon and people; and then the emphasis is on stopping the evil team. The closest game to this was Gen V, Black and White; where the main storyline was centered around Team Plasma and N. However, the 8 Gym Badges and league were still required in order to progress; so the storyline was halted because of pointless tradition that seems completely redundant at this point. N is going to capture a legendary Dragon and is planning to begin his ascent to becoming the new King of the land? Using his dragon to assert his dominance? Sorry; you can't stop him until you have the next badge, because some dumb shit will block the road until you prove your worth... what kind of sense does that make?

[@geoxys4243]

This is a good video to come back to now.

[@JamesPlaysGames95]

Pokemon XY had awful pacing. It went from awful tutorials to awful rivals and their characters suck. Then all a sudden you gotta learn about evs and ivs outta nowhere

[@putridmoldyman306]

It doesnt have rivals Blue/gary was the only actual rival

[@BlubiDefault]

@@putridmoldyman306 Silver?

[@giraffe3718]

X and Y are my favourite since gen 2 and 3, sun and moon are the worst pokemon games ive played

[@absolutew33b]

It's weird that even though XY had awful pacing, I enjoyed it more than Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. But, I just don't understand why.

[@giraffe3718]

@@absolutew33b because its just overall a more superior game in every way?

[@sowietdoge6259]

Pokémon definitely needs to shift to a Breath of the Wild type of game. They broke the linearity of BOTW and it did wonders and made it a great experience (although I did enjoy previous entries BOTW was just far more enjoyable). Pokémon arguably lends itself to a open-world playstyle more than Legend of Zelda, because the rewards for exploration can be a new Pokémon or than just a sword, plus it makes more sense. Legend of Zelda’s linearity made sense and complimented world-building more so than Pokémon because you realised you required something from a temple, so you went there. Repeat. However, that doesn’t happen in Pokémon. I’m blocked because you don’t want to move for x reason? Really?

[@centurosproductions8827]

All you'd need for flexible badge order is for every leader to have 8 teams. No permutation math required.

[@4HotCocoa]

I agree with most of your problems, excluding the less forced story on the player. I wouldn't say the story pacing of gen 7 or 6, but the progression of gen 5 or 4 is the story progression i'd like. Then again i'm an idiot who things Pokemon should be a story focused game so ignore me.

[@emblemblade9245]

Yes No Nah, you’re with me brother!

[@mcgoldenblade4765]

As much as I love gen 4, I'm pretty sure that gen 4's pacing is the slowest in the series and comparing it to gen 5 in terms of that is laughable.

[@Druid-T]

@@mcgoldenblade4765 But there's a reason for 4 to be slow, it's entire design philosophy is "stop and smell the roses"

[@zaxon4765]

Gen 4 & 5 were the last games to take it's fanbase seriously. Sure gen 4 is slow but the gameplay is still there and if you're really that inpatient to the point you can't wait for an attack animation you could always turn the animations off.

[@agonyguy96]

Excuse me good sir, but why do you have a level 37 bayleef after second gym?

[@DrawciaGleam02]

Grinding!! I had a Lv 70 electric type Pokemon by the time I fought the 8th gym in Emerald. :)

[@alec6092]

And more importantly, why in God's name haven't you evolved it

[@Matanumi]

@@alec6092 because some believe that bayleef was a better design then megainum

[@MGX93dot]

@@Matanumi Also most Pokemon learn good moves quite a bit earlier than their evolved forms, with some like Arcanine that outright didn't learn ANY moves after evolving. Or maybe that was Exeggutor. Or both.

[@poisonedyoyo]

People upset about overleverrs, lol, I don't get this, A) no one else's playthrough affects your own, and B) I went through Kalos' Elite four with a level 98 Sandslash because I couldn't use Houndoom per my original plan, and I don't care about Overlevel Screamers, especially since a lot of them think that the games are too easy anyway and thus overleveling doesn't really change anything.

[@originalneverknown]

That was the best patreon shoutout/outro ever. Thank you flunke

[@mrkrabz5981]

6:16 this is the best analogy of anything I’ve ever heard in my whole life

[@ryanvann2459]

“You wanna flood the earth, you live on the earth” I died

[@lukaza1261]

Then maybe dont flood the earth

[@Cyber_Akuma]

Team Aqua really didn't make sense to me. I mean, Team Magma while heavily misguided at least KINDA made sense, they want more land in a world where (assuming it's anything like Earth) is 71% water so there is more room for people to live on it.... but why the hell would Team Aqua want to reduce the amount of land on a planet that is already 71% water? What would having more water even achieve?

[@KingFlameHawk]

I always assumed they would live on boats or something like that.

[@byronlyons3548]

@@Cyber_Akuma The problem here is that they wanted more land to save Pokemon, while killing water Pokemon. So no, they're both equally dumb, for pretty much the same reason. They both say life depends on the land/sea, depending on the version you're playing. When you know, life depends on both and not one or the other.

[@Jon_Cyber]

Pretty much you want Pokemon: Breath of the Wild. I want that too.

[@NonJohns]

Why is everyone telling me to buy breath of the wild this is the 10th time I've seen botw mentioned??

[@AndroidHarris]

I don't necessarily want specifically a botw Pokemon but they definitely need to change something. Botw Pokemon would be cool if done right but other ways to spice things up, I would be down with too. The 3ds era was bad for Pokemon. I hope switch will be better but it ain't looking so good with let's go so far...

[@bissan-pi2bg]

@@NonJohns Because Botw is one of the greatest games of all time.

[@watermelon330]

Try the Pokemon Crystal Clear rom hack

[@milddiffuse]

BotW is one of the only Games I've played that really makes the beauty of nature it's focus. That part of BotW could really work for a Pokemon Game. With that said, bissan0909 I'd really disagree with you here. If the future of gaming holds games inspired or similar to BotW in store for us, you will probably start to realize the problems that many of us people had with it and how much better the Game actually could be.

[@fernz_z_z903]

This man does not sound like someone who plays jrpgs

[@discountchocolate4577]

Old 8-bit and 16-bit JRPGs benefit greatly from their minimalism imposed by technical limitations. In the absence of those limitations, most newer ones have become bloated and overly indulgent with lengthy animations that worsen the pace of a game and makes grinding even more of a chore if the game's difficulty curve is poorly designed (this is _especially_ bad for certain modernized remakes of old school RPGs with godawful difficulty spikes that make grinding practically mandatory).

[@fernz_z_z903]

@@discountchocolate4577 I know that it's bad to be hand holdy, but complaining that the game feels sluggish because of the events which are there because of story feels off. I know pokemon was never known for the story but they tried even though the outcome did feel slow. It's just why complain about a slow start to an rpg when other rpgs have a MUCH longer tutorial and have slow starts

[@discountchocolate4577]

@@fernz_z_z903 I'm not even just talking about the hand-holding and story though. I'm also talking about slow animations (and sometimes even text!) that can't be sped up or turned off, which will always aggravate the tedium of grinding and mandatory bits of story and tutorial. Issues like this can kill a game's replayability if the parts you can't skip aren't relatively short and mildly humorous (TTYD and Superstar Saga are excellent examples that more subsequent JRPGs should have followed in this regard). I might not have made it obvious but I don't play many modern JRPGs precisely because this issue plagues the genre. Any RPG which doesn't allow me to skip cinematic cutscenes and tutorials, turn lengthy attack animations off, and speed up text is equivalent to the designers telling the player that they don't fully respect their leisure time.

[@fernz_z_z903]

Discount Chocolate I completely agree with that

[@dana9796]

He sounds like a walmart munching orange

[@cherryb0ng]

"I didn't even buy this game and I'm upset" Killed me

[@sirtic6880]

Personally one of my favorite games in the series is White & black 2 (I haven’t played through 1 yet). Mostly driven by Team Plasma, (a team I actually felt had legitimate points to their mission and so felt conflicted beating them. If you’re making a antagonist Organization conflicting to deal with and relatable you’re doing some proper storytelling. ) anyhow a game with a somewhat interesting storyline with a lot of exploration and post game goodness that kept to going well after beating the elite 4. Not to mention Cynthia my favorite trainer in the series.

[@koolkrafter5]

8:20 Gold! Look out for the magnet train! Oh my god, he can't hear us, he has airpods in!

[@Dukstless]

3:38 - Joke's on you, Beldum is locked behind League.

[@dogonit1936]

meanwhile in Pokémon sword and shield, in order to not to force a story on to you, they removed any semblance of a story.

[@MagruBlue]

I don't even really play Pokémon but I was able to understand many of the points you made, solid vid man! Also love the outro, can't get enough of your Good Life covers.

[@aidan8473]

more pinkerton covers Good Life is the best song

[@slycat9449]

It sounds like he really wants to stream Pokémon Crystal Clear, it's everything he described in a Pokémon game he wants.

[@lunasa4856]

I agree with your points 1, 3 and 4. However, it's most likely personal preference but the story of Pokemon games is what I enjoy the most out of them (Complete opposite of when I was younger lol) If story was not _mandatory_ I can almost guarantee you that Game Freak would not put as much effort into the story, and so it would suck. Plus, for newer players who don't know what they're doing, they could miss out on the story if they accidentally pass by it without knowing.

[@emblemblade9245]

SushiMudkip Yeah I don’t give a hoothoot for competitive battling or the ridiculous levels collecting them all has gotten to so I actually enjoy the stories quite a bit (when done well). Gen 5 obviously being the best but SM had some good moments for sure! I agree that it’d be a nightmare to replay though now that you’ve seen it once. Even the games with weaker stories have some really good or intriguing side moments or comments in game. What makes me mad is GF clearly shows they can do a good job on that front if they try but it often feels like they’re teasing something just out of reach

[@lordwhoopi9132]

@@emblemblade9245 Damn, I don't like story or competitive, I just like making my team and beating the gyms. Which is probably why gen 1 is my fav, I prefer to make my own story, free of A mashing and forced exposition.

[@A.Froster]

It's ok if you enjoy the story , but you don't have to ditch it out on order to keep things fresh and non linear. After gen 4 i got really bored of linearity i couldn't even play Gen 5 properly , i hated it so much , i got bored to death. Gen 6 was even worse I just played it for 30 minutes because i got bored extremely fast. Omega Sapphire was really good but I'm not playing it another time through that story. I just skipped Sun and Moon because it felt even worse compared to before. It's garbage , i resorted to rom hacks in order to get more entertained. I want to play Pokemon but it has become dogshit with the pacing

[@southsidegamer5611]

The only pokemon stories that got me interested where the mini arcs of giovanni in the original games, and the whole story of black and white, every other story just seemed over simpistic, and would have had me entranced had I not see hundreds of movies and TV shows and have a vast knowledge of decent writing and characterisation.

[@sitstanding4200]

5:30 well that aged well

[@oddgaun5790]

9:24 That's a REALLY creative way to give shoutouts to your patrons.

[@ditom86pl66]

True

[@astrangeone]

The older games were kind of good because they allowed the player to search for extra lore. Add a good endgame, some quality of life things (let me fight teams that are designed to teach me a mechanic - like in Kanto with Koga and things), add easy ways to train up your pokemon (EV training)...and I'd be fine with the franchise. Also, reduce the tutorials. I get it, it's better to drag players into the game, but with the ridiculous tutorials, it is impossible for old players to be engaged because we know all of this shit already.

[@diode_wow]

That's why I love Gen2. The lore was lost until you searched for it, the legendaries were legendary. People never mention Lugia or Ho-oh, just the legendary birds that live somewhere im the region. After Gen3, every legendary is found halfway through the game, you NEED to catch them to progress the story and they all want to be your friend because...reasons? There's no sense of discovery anymore.

[@GayLoveKicksAss]

@@diode_wow THIS!!! Gen2 is also my favorite. They need to go back to that formula.

[@yourdoom187]

@@GayLoveKicksAss sadly they won't

[@Jdudec367]

@@diode_wow eh....gen 3 to...as you encounter groudon and kyogre to no matter what

[@Jdudec367]

eh....for me it's not impossible to get engaged (as a veteran now) with like the gen 7 games. It had a good endgame, quality of life stuff, and easy ways to train up your pokemon too. searching for extra lore? that could be done better now....but in general there is like more lore related to the legendaries then there was before

[@Jo-ew7lw]

having my name screamed to a parody of the good life and the feeling of giving funke money could be enough to make me go get a job.

[@WolvericCatkin]

Honestly, this is one of those rare Patreon reads that I LOVE listening through, seeing as a really cool bit of effort goes into it, and also considering one of FUNKe's supporters is just straight up *LazyPurple* 👏😆

[@MoonyB]

hey, funke have you heard of crystal clear? It's a rom hack that lets you have not only more starter pokemon to pick from, It also allows you to fight gyms in either region at any point. gym battle also scale based on how many badges you have, but I'm not sure if trainers do

[@ashenone3883]

Shhh dont let nintendo find out

[@archer4451]

He acknowledged that on another comment.

[@tuneinordie]

This

[@aaronborok8398]

I think part of the issue stems from how Pokemon is despite popular belief, not exactly designed for replay value in terms of its storyline. Because there's only one savefile, (another frustrating thing btw) there isn't nearly as much room for error, as it can only be more open as part of the secondary function of catching all the pokemon. Having more leeway over how the story progresses would be cool, but way lesser so if that meant you'd have to restart and lose all your pokedex progress and pokemon just to even try.

[@Dennis-sv2de]

Sword / Shield should effectively fix this thanks to profiles on the Switch having their own save data. Play the game, make a new profile, you can play it again while keeping your old data intact.

[@aaronborok8398]

@@Dennis-sv2de oh snap that's true! Though at the same time I dunno how much Nintendo considers it exactly as a multi-save-file system

[@victorsandeen2694]

I'm concerned about losing data because there is no local backup.

[@LEZGU6]

People seem to forget about Pokémon Colosseum, the 3D "open world" ultra-mega-edgy Pokémon title for the gamecube, now that's a really "different" kind of Pokémon game, with the trapped Pokémon mechanics and the ability to steal other trainers Pokémons, etc.

[@slyseal2091]

Isnt that the game where Lugia kills some scientists on a ship

[@zencyn4682]

Wait... did people actually call Colosseum an open world game?

[@carlosx8603]

I mean Colloseum and XD are great, but open world, he nah, they're even more linear, its pretty much: Go to X place Beat all trainers to proceed Repeat

[@StartouchArts]

And then you realize the Shadow Pokemon games weren't made by Game Freak at all, and GF is a bunch of petty fucks and refuse to acknowledge their existence.

[@TheGoldenDragonDev]

“Open world pokemon is a pipe dream” comment aged like milk and I can be happier about that

[@Memorywholed]

I love how you say there's no way the switch could handle such a resource intensive open world pokemon game... while showing proof that it can.

[@theo2669]

You're one of the only "tf2" youtubers that I like just as much when they make alternate content

[@Alikaakui808]

So you're telling me I have to role play in an RPG?

[@Alovatololo]

Arguably the point of a role playing game is letting the player do what they want while curating the experience. When your experience is chosen for you it's not so much a role playing game and more like a movie that insists you press the play button every 5 minutes.

[@elijahdavila3684]

A poorly done role, yes. A D&D style rpg experience would be better for Pokémon rather than a cut and dry jrpg one.

[@SigandGibbs]

Where in rpg is watching unskippable bad cutscenes?

[@poodoodrilldick7757]

A role playing game where your role is fight gyms, gangs, elites, and gods because you gotta with not much playing and more just doing what the game wants you to do in a speffic order.

[@scummymilk4622]

you don’t seem to understand what RPG means. in an RPG, you’re in a specific role and proceed however you want in that role. an RPG doesn’t assign to specific things

[@brandonhohn245]

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is attempting to solve the gym progression

[@Zectifin]

This is the problem with jrpgs in general. The limitations on older games made them more fun. Now it's all about forcing you where to go and here's a shitload of cutscenes filled with baaaaaad Japanese melodrama.

[@Lee-wr2ts]

ive been playing the second Trail of Heroes game for about 2 years now.... still at my 1st playtrough , you get to have fun and then you finish the "quest" and go back to the story location where youre forced to basically go trough every room to talk to everyone so you can see the shitty cutsenes and progress .... ive spent more time trying to find that one npc i missed so i can get back to the game ... but its still more fun then pokemon today

[@jeromealday614]

An RPG story done right can propel the game to the highest.