Why Pokémon Doesn’t Care If Their Games Are Bad

[@GoingIndie]

What game do you think was the peak of Pokémon? 🟥 Grow your indie studio and support the channel! www.patreon.com/GoingIndie

[@TylerF]

Emerald 🥹

[@Nemecidle]

Black 2/White 2

[@haroldnecmann7040]

Hi great vid🎉

[@SERMareep2007]

Usum

[@Aktedya1-jt7vw]

Ultra Sun and Moon are the games I have the most hours on. Tons of content, actually pretty challenging at times, great characters, cozy region, and tons of new ideas introduced in this Gen.

[@lucasLSD]

Gen V was the last hoorah, they actually tried, they want all out animating all the sprites, they forced you to interact with an entire new gen of 150 pkmn and had a villain that made sense.

[@PikaPower131313]

and yet everyone criticized gen 5 on release and praised X and Y

[@ct2xperience749]

Yeah! That happened about 9 or 10 years after gen 5 release. You know! When people finally stopped being ignorant and open up to things they were trying too hard to avoid for dumb reasons.

[@BuizelCream]

The thing is, the unfortunate reality was that Gen 5 sales were declining. The sequels only performed as if it was just a third enhancement rather than a completely different title. It's funny cause Gen 5 came around during the final years of the DS era, and with plenty of DS users during that time it should've made more money compared to Gen 4 when there were fewer DS consumers in comparison, but it kind of didn't as a whole. When X & Y came out with the focus of worldwide release (and in order to skyrocket the sales of the newest 3DS), it finally ended that financial decline, but sadly that was when Pokemon had begun to shift their priority towards capitalizing on merchandise over making high quality mainline titles. Then thanks to Pokemon GO, Gen 7 oversaturated itself with Gen 1 pandering and it worked into its favor. When the Switch was released, they once again capitalized Gen 1 nostalgia with Let's Go (arguably the most quality remake for the Switch so far). Then thanks to their business strategy working too well, Gen 8 & Gen 9 didn't even sweat to suffer financial wise... but at the cost of their games. And with the newest Nintendo console confirmed to be coming next year, anyone can bet that Gen 10 will once again be rushed to release in order to help skyrocket its sales. After all, it won't make sense to start the console with an inevitable Gen 5 remake. How to break this toxic productive cycle indeed? 😬

[@CEDL0W]

@@BuizelCreamI don’t think Pokémon GO effected Gen 7. Sun and moon were already well into development before GO popped off. The Gen 1 stuff happened because Gen 7 were the 20 anniversary games.

[@BuizelCream]

@@CEDL0W Ah yeah, that's right! Sun & Moon released in 2016 which was the 20th anniversary, and it just happens that Niamco's Pokemon GO was released simultaneously that together they amplified the Gen 1 pandering that was happening in Gen 7, which in restrospect really was a deserving thing to have happened. On a sidenote, this made me realize that in every 10-year anniversary, 3 generations of Pokemon transpires. If 2026 is the 30th anniversary, it's very likely they'll aim the release of Gen 10 there. But with the next Nintendo console releasing next year, I truly wonder what might be the new mainline title that the Pokemon Company releases in order for Nintendo to help capitalize the console's eventual release. We are still 3 years in advance. The SV DLCs are concluding their releases this year, and with the clearly-hinted Gen 5 remakes possibly being the only content left to complete the Gen 9 library, might the Pokemon Company finally take advantage of at least one year hiatus with no mainline title? And might that timeframe be enough to completely polish the Gen 10 games? Hmmm... I guess we'll all see. 🤔

[@goalhornfanatic9449]

Pokemon is becoming the COD of Nintendo. Just releasing whatever they can annually despite bugs or other issues knowing full well they're in there but choosing not to fix or prevent them because they know it will sell well regardless.

[@naejimba]

Oof the EA Sportsball Current Year edition of Nintendo.

[@CT-ue4kg]

Its like FIFA. Fans will buy it anyway so why bother

[@mrconroy4672]

It’s honestly GF rather than Nintendo.

[@k3v1nkuu15]

At least cod fans complain and don’t try to defend every new title. Sure they still buy the games but Pokémon fans will defend each game like it’s their child.

[@CT-ue4kg]

@@k3v1nkuu15 most FIFA fans are like this. Im a massive football fan, but you try and convince a fifa fan whos brought the last 10 games, that FIFA is absolutely a 6/10 game at best. They will shout you down lol

[@JadeMythriil]

Combination of apathy and overworking. Pokemon keeps releasing games every year in order to maintain relevancy but the recent games have shown that there just isn't enough time to release these games on a yearly basis. And as games get bigger they keep rushing the games out in order to maintain a quota and i feel that's destroying the games.

[@lanceknightmare]

So Pokemon is basically Sonic.

[@willcooper8028]

Yeah I think this is the more accurate assessment of the situation. I don’t agree with this video claiming that the shift in quality was caused by the shift in focus from video games to merchandise. Merchandise has always sheen the main focus. The difference is 3D. Gamefreak can’t develop games this large in one year. Honestly most developers can’t keep up with that.

[@lasercraft32]

Plus, the sales are getting higher even with these shortcomings (Scarlet and Violet broke sales records), so there's no pressure to innovate.

[@orangeslash1667]

@@lanceknightmare The problem with Sonic is that ever since Sega was bought by Sammy, they both get revenue from pachinko machines. Causing games to slowly take a back seat. For Sonic, I think the decline started with Forces.

[@lanceknightmare]

@@orangeslash1667 I have never heard the line being placed at Forces. I am an OG from Sonic 1. Sonic 3D Blast seems to be the most common answer. Personally, I enjoyed that entry. It was also the last in the series I played.

[@hyperdreamsurfer9141]

I agree with the overall sentiment, but something that annoys me with the whole conversation about new Pokemon games is "it's not what adults want" as if we want the games to have a darker, more philosophical plot(though we had that in 5th and 6th gen). If anything, I just want something simpler, with more polish, and some new content. The technology doesn't have to be incredible, it just has to be enough to give the illusion and sensation of having an adventure with cute little monsters. And not have a bunch of confusing, counterintuitive design decisions.

[@Kulkogo]

I would like to say that the Pokémon games are lacking everything from the OG gens. I’ve played all the games in order, and it really shows

[@KimFromTheCrypt]

didnt even bother with any of the switch games, trusted reviews were more than enough for me. but theres amazing fan games, Temtem and Nexomon who are reigniting the magic

[@Tethloach1]

Like making money it is time sensitive, the passion and energy is not there anymore.

[@piranhalettuce]

Agreed, going from Black 2 and White 2 to X and Y felt like getting hit by a truck. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire picked up the pace but then we went back to mediocrity with Sun and Moon and then onto garbage with Sword and Shield. Now we just keep getting a streak of horrible pokemon games and I doubt that streak will ever be broken.

[@giganticmoon]

@@KimFromTheCryptOnly actual good games from the Switch era were Snap and PMD: RTDX, but good decision.

[@TheMetalOverlord]

Pokemon mainline games were always behind every other games in their generations. When Pokemon made Ruby and Sapphire, there was Golden Sun on the Gameboy Advance. When Pokemon made Diamond and Pearl, there was Dragon Quest Monsters Joker on DS. When Pokemon made Black and White, there was Dragon Quest IX on DS.

[@PikaPower131313]

yes.... and no. It's not just marketing. It's a loss of passion. People forget that everyone criticized B/W after release, and praised X and Y. Black and White were supposed to be the epitome of the franchise and has been stated as being the most effort that Gamefreak ever put into a single title. But Gamefreak heard the fans loud and clear. Black and White is a 6/10 and X and Y is a 9. Why try hard when your fans will eat up the slop you make?

[@Scarola]

100% Correct.

[@Chronocrossfangirl2002]

Honestly it's arguable what the last good mainline game was, because the most I hear is BW/2 and PLA I'm ruling out PLA because its a spinoff (and typically ppl shut me down immediately when i bring up XD) and BW/2 got so much hate from the same fans who suddenly love it now because they realize what we have now, at the end of the day there's no definitive best pokemon game because there's always gonna be a good chunk of people who collectively shit on a game we might claim to be "the best"

[@eragons1894]

Wait, people actually praised XY after release? Gee, i guess i must've been the only one who hated the transition to 3D from the very start. Seriously, the only good thing about those games were the mega evolutions.

[@jamesgiles4517]

XY wasn't that bad tbh

[@Chronocrossfangirl2002]

@@eragons1894 yeah people loved it and the hate later kinda just came out of nowhere, it's not that bad of a game it just feels unfinished in terms of plot but I wouldn't go as far to say it's SV level unfinished at all

[@gregomyeggo4639]

I just don’t see why games can’t have better stories and more challenging aspects and STILL be designed for younger players, the earlier gens sold great and had far more to offer.

[@ironman1458]

"the earlier gens sold great and had far more to offer." girl that was 30 years ago when people were still using floppy discs. what worked decades ago does not mean it is what would still work today. Maybe a more complex game would be received better by 11-13 year olds but people under 6 wouldnt be interested. "I just don't see why" Money. It comes down to them making as much money as possible

[@ironman1458]

Why don't they just use the same marketing tactics from 30 years ago to make people who aged out of their target demographic happy? Because they only care about money. 30 years ago the best way to make money was to make a good game to get a lot of sales. Today it is more profitable to sell merch, microtransactions, etc. I hate to break it to you but just cause something was successful literally 30 years ago does not mean it would be the same today. Kids today are growing up with ipads compared to 30 years ago, why would they market towards kids today with their lesser attention span and technology everywhere, with overly complex games? Please be real. That is not what kids want. My cousins never even played a pokemon game but are obsessed with the stuffed animals. I think its time for the man children to accept they are just not in the target demographic anymore

[@ironman1458]

"the earlier gens sold great and had far more to offer." oh yes back when people were renting vhs from blockbuster to watch the pokemon movies. Why dont they just copy and paste their business tactics from 30 years ago in 2023? 💀

[@Ratty524]

What always bugged me about Pokemon is literally every other Nintendo franchise, especially the Mario series, understands this aspect. Hell, I’m still stoked for a new Mario game because even though they are absolutely kiddy platformers, there is just enough mechanical depth and great level design for just about anyone to appreciate. Pokemon seems to struggle to accomplish this.

[@daniellap.stewart6839]

Gen 5 is pathetic and overrated

[@callmeshifu4114]

One thing: pokemon legends arceus was a fresh and innovative idea that was immediately beloved by most fans.

[@BillieHatesMillie]

but it was also rushed beyond belief. i'm guessing it had around 2 years of development time and literally everyone would've appreciated if it was 5 years similarly to BOTW (and BOTW was teased so much throughout its development and yet the vast majority of the community didn't hate on the game taking too long)

[@justaguywithgooglepfp]

Legends arcues was a innovative and great idea But they still somehow managed to fk it up with bad graphics

[@Twiddle_things]

Those graphics are so fucking shit dawg I bet with a bit of optimization it'll run on my 3DS

[@seandorama5932]

If I had a nickel for every PLA hater I would have 2 nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice

[@yamilesgaib9018]

And after a few hours hated again

[@hawkfeather6802]

I think the company can make good games again if they just spent more time on them. The reason the older games were better is because they had enough time to fully finish the story, design, everything. If they went back to having 3 years between new games I think they would be better.

[@aidenawe9359]

I feel 9-10 months is enough. Maybe they should double check for testing purposes.

[@thenerdbeast7375]

Scarlet and Violet had a lot of potential with how they shook up the formula with progression, story and world it just needed more time in the oven.

[@number3766]

@@aidenawe93599-10 months is enough to get an alpha out. It ain't enough to get a content complete game out. Speaking from experience, that's enough time to make a demo.

[@nullpoint3346]

Abandon 3D for mainline games, it was best in the side series.

[@charvisaur4184]

Shout out to all the great pokemon fan games out there. Rejuvenation, Reborn, Insergence, and all the other adult themed pokemon games with revamped difficulty curves. We've reached a point where fan games legitimately outclass mainstream titles.

[@naejimba]

Too bad RPGs are so content heavy (meaning larger teams/budget) or we would see more indie titles.

[@SERMareep2007]

Because they have a shit ton of time to make them.

[@haroldnecmann7040]

​@@SERMareep2007shit ton of passion also.

[@AlastairGames]

did Nintendo attack those fans for making them? I'd like to make a fan game too

[@naejimba]

@@AlastairGames , TLDR they will shut you down with a cease and desist once they know, but once it is out in the ether they can't stop people from sharing it. If you want to do a fan game, don't tell anyone or post anything about it until you are 100% finished. Honestly though, if it is a ROM hack working with hex code is a complete pain and you can find all sorts of bizarre limitations.... for instance, I wanted to do a hack of the original Super Mario Kart for the SNES, and it wasn't until I got my hands dirty that I found out from the neck down Mario and Luigi are the same sprite, only half of each sprite exists in the code and it just mirrors it (so what you replace it with has to be symmetrical), and that each character shares a palette with another (Mario and Toad, Luigi and Koopa, etc.). My advice: you would do better with your time learning a free game engine and trying to code. You are learning skills that will transfer over to other things. Plus, if you aren't making a Pokemon game, but instead your own IP, you can actually sell it, or at the very least will not get yourself in legal trouble.

[@Zack-bl2gg]

RIP Situru Iwata, I feel like he would be disappointed by Nintendo's stagnant mobility the last few years.

[@-lord1754]

Maybe he would about pokemon but if you ask me pretty much all of their other IPS have been doing amazingly and innovating on previous formulas in some way.

[@armandoventura9043]

I don't think so, Nintendo has done decently these years in terms of its own IPs

[@bigbossgaming9129]

Pokemon doesnt care if its games are bad because you keep buying them.

[@miquelr2353]

No I stopped after diamond lol

[@aregularfan7506]

I grew up with gen 4 and 5, with my first game being Diamond and my favorite being white 2. I’ve played at least one game or more from every generation multiple times, and even despite the fact that the gameboy games are much older than the DS loves I loved all of them almost equally. Everything after gen 5 really just does not capture the same feeling those old games bring, especially since the switch era. It is very sad to see one of my favorite series of all time decline so much, and will probably never go past its peak from the 2D era.

[@Jdudec367]

Eh...I dunno the 3DS games were pretty good too. Plus USUM is kinda peak too.

[@LeafyBreezes]

@@Jdudec367 I'm the opposite SM is where Pokemon went very downhill for me. Didn't enjoy the long cutscenes, linear routes, lack of dungeons and extremely hand holdy (something that continues in later games)

[@piranhalettuce]

@@Jdudec367 The only enjoyable pokemon game on the 3DS is ORAS, XY was more bland than a slice of bread and USUM was dialogue and tutorial hell. It also doesn't help that Kalos and Alola are lacking in the dungeon department and the route design is laughable. Also can pokemon fans stop going "This game is actually underrated and overhated"? just say you like the game instead of overhyping a mediocre game.

[@Jdudec367]

@@piranhalettuce Nah they are all enjoyable, not true at all and also not true USUM's tutorial and pacing was faster then SM's for the most part. Kalos wasn't by much and it's route design is fine and Alola's isn't that bad either. Either way every gen is flawed,what is your point? The fucking irony when you just said "um actually no these games are not enjoyable and are mediocre" so no I won't stop doing that especially after what you just did. I'm not overhyping a mediocre game.

[@Jdudec367]

@@LeafyBreezes Well I disagree, for me that was on the jump to the Switch. The cutscenes weren't that bad and at least it told a good story, the linear route complaint I get but it got worse later on, also true...although it does have some good dungeons and it does eventually stop being hand holdy and is more challenging then gen 6 at least.

[@PlatinumAltaria]

People give the 3DS games a lot of flak, but it really didn't go bad until after Pokémon GO came out.

[@Handles_be_dumb]

Its so strange comparimg modern Digimon to modern Pokémon. Digimon now has more polish for their games, and that's insane

[@nullpoint3346]

Digimon is actually improving, not as much as they should be, but that doesn't matter much when Pokémon is getting worse.

[@grahamnu1529]

Didn't address a big part of the issue. The last gen was the most sold ever. There is a core audience that will buy anything as long as is a new gen pkm game.

[@Nyzer_]

One of the craziest things to me is that they're so fixated on this annual release shit AND keeping their team small... yet they've stopped the "remake with the same engine" plan, barely do any outsourcing, and continue trying to be way too ambitious compared to what they can actually do. Sword and Shield, PLA, and S/V all suffer from being too ambitious for their own good, and PLA especially gets shit on a lot for its graphics (which sucks, considering its gameplay is the most polished of the entire set, and I'll take a graphical hit any day over the fucking slog of menu loading that is S/V's UI). Sword and Shield should not have released with a Wild Area. That should've been left for the DLC. And S/V should have followed up by just having fully 3D routes rather than being open world. PLA should have maybe taken another year to release so the graphics could be touched up and the game could look like S/V does. BDSP gets shit on a lot, but if they'd just incorporated the Platinum features I honestly think it would have been nonoffensive at worst, even with the shenanigans of saving money on cartridges by making players download the music and movies. It's otherwise a quite faithful remake that could have been the template for how to handle remakes and ports by outsourcing them to different companies and releasing them during years that new games won't be coming out.

[@zachariahsmith9130]

Main games dont come out yearly and their development time starts well into the release of previous gens. Its not even close to yearly

[@EMDANAL]

Take out the Wild Area but have a loose free camera in the rest of the world and I would be satisfied with how sword and shield looks. The cartoon looking graphics are way better than scarlet and violet.

[@vyor8837]

The bigger problem for BDSP is that there are gamebreaking crashes and bugs in it.

[@netherworldfiend]

Honestly... playing a platinum mod on bdsp, and you're so right about that. it definitely feels far more complete than the actual releases

[@thesupertoffeebros]

personally, those who say Scarlet and Violet are the worst, clearly aren't accounting for BDSP, which were just a mess, sure Scarlet and Violet have their drawbacks, but they have the best story for a new generation, since Black and White, at least in my opinion.

[@energyzer_bunny1913]

BDSP weren't the worst games, they were just the laziest.

[@BuffPomsky]

Such a shame. A good story, awesome music, but such poor quality and performance. If they did what totk did and took a year just to polish the game, it couldve been one of the best pokemon games ever.

[@flyawayq5115]

The story was ehh. Nice twist at the end though.

[@night1952]

I disagree about kids not caring about end game content or a game being too easy. Pokemon was too easy when I was a kid, it was babies first RPG already, to dumb it even further down is stupid. If kids nowadays don't care about that stuff is because they aren't getting quality games so their standards are lower than mine when I was a kid.

[@seandorama5932]

They care more about the fun then the flaws which is a kind of both good and bad perspective to have, I wonder if there’s a truly flawless perspective

[@8bitdiedie]

0:50 and yet ironically here we are with the Digimon franchise putting more effort and passion into the series than Pokemon lately and releasing things that the fans actually like.

[@ExtremeAce]

For every small portion of the community that criticizes the games, there's always a crowd double of that which will defend the games to death. They need to understand that it's not shameful to acknowledge that you spent money on a bad product. If you like it, that's fine, more power to you, but you can't defend what's objectively bad. The downgrade in quality is absolutely noticeable and you shouldn't defend that. It will just make GameFreak even more comfortable with how they are handling the games, as they'll see people supporting their trash.

[@TyshaggyGaming]

Pokemon fans when told their game is buggy and bad: reeeee. Skate fans when told their game is a buggy mess: i know

[@Jack-kx5rf]

It reminds me of those people who were adamant that Star Wars Episode 7 made so much money because it was a movie starring a female and a black lead when the reason it made so much money was because it was a STAR WARS MOVIE!

[@ratedr7845]

​@bad_atgames it's not hard to understand, you're part of the problem

[@ratedr7845]

@@bad_atgames bro, you're not too bright are you?

[@ratedr7845]

@@bad_atgames uh, get help

[@Soooooooooooonicable]

Pokémon should have never gone open-world. They should have stuck with crafting thoughtful, tightly designed closed areas

[@aidenawe9359]

Well I think they tried though.

[@iguess2739]

Their formula of open world failed because it wasn't a world worth playing in. EVERY player wishes they could experience a real-life pokemon world, even if cartoony. What would that be like? Adventure, fun, and role-playing, something the newer games lack, regardless of open-world. I would say that it is difficult to flesh out a world on a near annual basis with releases. Seriously ask the question what would you do in a pokemon world? Are some of those things in these games. I like sight-seeing, wonders, and relaxing (petting my dog).

[@danielbarnes1241]

That shouldn't be the take away. Especially when SwSh was a straight line with a shit story

[@flyawayq5115]

They should’ve stayed 2D with the sprite work from Gen 5. The move to 3D fucked everything up. Every game since has been mid or shit with PLA being the only good one.

[@WanderingMendicant-qd7mv]

Palworld enters the chat.

[@CGJUGO80]

Palworld is more likeable to like...Ark or Valheim. It's open world survival craft not a story progressing RPG. It just has the monsters. Still enough to make Gamefreak and Nintendo wince a bit so it’s a win haha

[@chopper3875]

Wow you're absolutely right. I remember thinking that Pokemon on switch would be the turning point, I thought it was going to look like yokai watch 4 or better.

[@itranscendencei7964]

Sometimes I wonder if Pokemon would be in this state if Iwata was still around. He had first hand experience with the development of some of the games, and I know that he was very proud of them. I can't imagine a world where he would have ever let Scarlet and Violet be released in the state that it was and still is to this day.

[@joychowdhury9270]

Iwata is the reason we have the Gen 2 of today. He was brought in because the bums at GF had filled the cartridges with so much junk that they couldn't fit the pokemon league in. Iwata cleared so much space that they could add all of Kanto. Goes to show how bad GF are as developers and this was in 1999

[@itranscendencei7964]

Big facts. Rip Iwata the goat.

[@comyuse9103]

@@joychowdhury9270 yep. people constantly look for reasons to forgive gamefreak, but the truth is that they are just bad developers on top of everything else.while i don't think any game should be developed like this; fallout new vegas had around a year amd a half of development time, less people than game freak (about 60 iirc), and it was made with a suit of tools that the studio never worked with before. now compare NV with your favorite pokemon game.

[@MaxFung]

@@joychowdhury9270 I actually read that Iwata's contribution was optimizing data read speeds, not storage. Still, anecdotally, it's clear he had a hand in the games' success technically and an attachment to their overall quality, even later in his career.

[@expERiMENTik_gaming]

I still can't believe they thought they needed to create a motorcycle pokemon before remembering they have all kinds of assets to choose from Colosseum. We could have had the hover-bikes!! 🤦‍♀

[@VestedUTuber]

"...Dumbing things down and never innovating" The irony is that you said that over footage of Legends: Arceus, which is one of the few Pokemon titles that actually tried to innovate and thus is an exception to that statement.

[@VestedUTuber]

@BringBackMegaEvolution Yes, but you're kinda reading into things where there isn't anything to read into. I'm simply pointing out that it's interesting he said that Pokemon games don't innovate while showing off the only Pokemon game in recent times that's the exception.

[@everynameistaken567]

Finally someone that admits the games started to suck on the 3DS. I understand why younger people like the new games, but I'm so tired of old school fans like myself pretending anything after Gen 5 was good.

[@ma_junia]

HGSS ruined Pokémon by virtue of being the greatest games in the franchise and no game has ever come close

[@sonicmaster206]

BW2 and the Gen 3 remakes were on the same level as HGSS imo

[@zackjack83]

went downhill after oras. could tell by how bad sun moon anime style was people just brushed it off as cute and quirky (it wasnt) but the game sun moon was good still but then after that both game and anime became so crap

[@Prodigial]

The problem is that, if you continue spurning the fanbase and releasing junk, the franchise starts to stagnate and then the merchandise sales will also falter. Look at Disney and how they've fucked up Star Wars. You can only coast by on nostalgia for so long. Eventually, you have to make more content that is actually high quality. How can you make the new generation "fall in love with Pokemon" if the games suck?

[@Spazza42]

The real problem is that the games aren’t the priority when they were the reason the franchise took off. The TCG, Merchandise and Anime lining up for a consecutive release is more important than delaying because the game isn’t ready. Sad really.

[@NullVoid-rm7jm]

Pokémon is my favorite video game franchise of all time. It makes me so sad how bad the new games are. I can't even play them anymore

[@thegamingfool524]

here because pal world i really hope that game shook them up nintendo is going ham tweeting about pokemon ever since its launch which is strange because nintendo never does this timing is just too weird

[@thegamingfool524]

fantastic video btw this aged really well

[@DZC-bc2ol]

​@@thegamingfool524you can edit the reply just press the 3 buttons

[@dispencer17]

Hello from Palworld

[@chaosXP3RT]

Well now Palworld might be the competition to Pokemon that the Pokemon Company needs

[@antro788]

It's a different type of game and really would be hard to sell merch on

[@FluffZillaNZ]

Introducing easy, medium, hard options to the game would help.

[@zachariahsmith9130]

Thats what the pokemon themselves are. For people criticing rhe game its funny you dont understand. Thats why the pokemon you find get progressively more powerful and you cant cat legendaries off the bat.

[@roukerasati9611]

Pokemon B2 and W2 have an option to do this (a hard mode). Unfortunately, unless you have a way to connect games, you'll need an Action Replay to activate it.

[@rez7437]

If only we had that, we would have got the battle tower back in ORAS

[@oscarcamey8]

I think gen 7 was the last good Pokemon gen, I dropped off after emerald when I was a kid. When I started college, gen 7 started coming around, same with Pokemon go, and it got me back into pokemon. I think it's my fav Pokemon gen. I was a bit sad when it was coming to an end lol

[@Camelsack87]

Thank you! People in the comments saying “gen 5 was the last real good generation” has me tripping like a mf. Gens 6 and 7 were solid as hell imo and had some really fun and cool new additions *cough cough* megas *cough cough* regional forms, which made the experience WAY better imo. Yes, X and Y had a very short post game, but getting the first ever 3D mainline game with some really cool new additions was exactly what the franchise needed back then. Then ORAS came out and gave us one of the most expansive post games but FAR. Idk maybe I’m biased, but I think it’s criminal to say the last good gen was 5.

[@kr1me2000]

Pokemon sun and moon are my favorite of all time but sword/shield my least favorite....sad to see.

[@jessiescholten9119]

Not you calling gen 7 good 💀

[@kr1me2000]

gen 7 was amazing (sun and moon)@@jessiescholten9119

[@A2daM2daZ]

I hard agree. I started at Gen 2. Fell off after Gen 3. Bought my first console with my own money around Gen 6 and got back in on Pokemon X. I have such fond memories of that game, even if I can accept that it wasn't as good as some of the older titles, or even SuMo. But the Switch era is what really threw me off. XY were good games if only because they were the first to do 3D. The fact that they used the same models for switch games fucking threw me. And the thing is... simplicity isn't a bad thing. Gens 4 and esp 5 ran really fucking slow for all the features they tried to cram in there. I don't blame them for trying, but if they gave up on adding cool features in Gen 9 bc of some complaints they got back in the 2010s while working with limited hardware it's like... grow up? the company's vision overall just shifted. they started sticking with a formula of new battle gimmick every gen - limit pokedex to create less work for rendering 3d models. and obviously just a big fuck you to depth or difficulty. if they have anything meaningful planned for the series, they know they can just put it behind an additional 60$ paywall with DLC. @@Camelsack87

[@astralguardian5930]

Honestly, with how S/V is the funny part is some Pokemon fans are just turning to other sources of Pokemon-esc content. Be it fan made pokemon titles, or even indie game alternatives. I know one Indie Monster Capture game I found and enjoyed was Cassette Beasts. Basically while Pokemon isn't bleeding fans yet, this lull in game quality is having some finding alternatives to help sate their monster catching needs.

[@ampersan3]

Shoutout to the developers of Pokémon romhcks and fangames that fill the void on what Nintendo can't. Games like Unbound and Prism are one of the few ones out there that really suprised me on how amazing the romhcking has evolved and continue to grow. Also games like Cassette Beasts that try to innovate a lot more with the monster capturing genre really excites me to the future of indie games that try to fill the void of what Nintendo can't do.

[@Wowowowowowowowowowowowow]

Recent pokémon games are also selling the most they ever have. Switch Pokémon games have sold 95million copies, the most on any platform. The switch is also the only system to have multiple releases in the top 5 best selling (#2: Sword/Shield (26.3M) & #3: Scarlet/Violet (24.9M)) The is no reason to change what they are doing just because some super fans are disappointed. They are still making revenue gains, including from those people who are complaining about the games.

[@Spectrum0122]

Because gamers are weak willed and every gaming boycott is one cinematic away from being over

[@mechajay3358]

I think it comes down to the fact that the Pokemon brand has grown so big that they either the developers aren't given enough room to improve the mainline games or they're lacking tge passion they once hand for making them.

[@nullpoint3346]

The games make up so little of the IP that they probably won't notice if nobody buys them.

[@RoninCatholic]

I thought Digimon and Pokemon were both cool, and brushed off accusations that Digimon was some sort of ripoff of Pokemon just because both involved raising monsters that fight each other on your behalf. One of my friends (few as I had) even said that the fact Ogremon uses a bone club like Cubone/Marowak was a ripoff, LOL.

[@happyhunting7002]

I want to see newer Pokemon games have a reasonable level of difficulty. Pokemon is really not that hard to play for kids once they learn the ropes. The developers could always have NPCs carry bigger teams of stronger Pokemon.

[@AmityvilleFan]

you miss one thing: the company realised they don't have to make good games. They only have to make games to create new pokemons. Digital collectible competetive "card game".

[@guymor910]

But if they targeted kids by making good games, how does that explain the fact that they're now targeting kids by making bad games? I didn't need or want a dumbed down difficulty when I was 8 years old. Why would today's kids?

[@wolfgangfegelein2450]

There is no other video game franchise with as much untapped potential. As a kid, I imagined a game that worked like the anime. Dodging attacks leading into counterattacks, the ability to use the environment to your advantage in creative ways, all the good stuff Ash did. Full blown single elimination tournaments like the Pokemon league in the anime. Multiple optional gyms, some with creative rules that applied only to them. Alternate "career" paths like contests, racing, etc. Pokemon games should be GOTY contenders. Pokemon should have at least 1 game that is genuinely considered a top 5 game of all time.

[@vivid8979]

The fact that S/V sold millions of copies with that amount of effort put into it and mind you they barely shipped any patches and fix for the problems the game has... I doubt the Pokemon as a game franchise will ever evolve...

[@ryuknightofflame]

Funny thing is that if the games keep being so frustratingly broken then kids won't want to play them and won't have a chance to fall in love with the next cash cows... I mean pokemon and the merch will stop making as much money. It's just like any ecosystem. If a disease decimated the prey animals' food and the prey animals starve and stop reproducing then the predatory animals starve. It's not a hard concept yet these company boards and CEOs can't comprehend universal natural law anymore. My daughter loves the old pokemon games but she had ZERO interest in SV. Oof. They lost her and now she couldn't care less about pokemon because she has other animes and games that are actually enjoyable to her. Every kid in her friend group is the same way. Even to the point that pokemon content doesn't show up in thier YT or social feeds anymore. TPC and Nintendo needs to wake up soon or they won't be able to claw their way back without paying a pound of flesh.

[@afurhat4726]

Good to see pokemon fans getting the sonic treatment

[@animeartist888]

I'm one of the rare millenials that actually really liked X/Y. Let's be honest, the Pokemon story has never been anything revolutionary, and they all follow the same basic story beats. Even Sun/Moon, that proclaimed to be doing something different and fresh, still had 8 challenges with occassional rival battles, a chance to capture a legendary creature of mythology, a showdown with a big bad evil, and then an elite four gauntlet rounded out by a champion battle. It's never been any different and likely never will be. Who honestly picks up a Pokemon game going "Boy, I can't wait to experience this new story and all its twists!"? I mean, come on. And I could give them a pass on the limited animations for X/Y since it was their first handheld 3D game, and the first mainline 3D game. The battles still looked okay, with some honestly pretty nice effects. But it's gotten worse from there. They haven't learned how to do better, only rushed things more and more and let the quality slide right down the drain. And the lies are what really did it- telling us they were remaking models that they already said were futureproofed for X/Y, and telling us they were making new animations- only for some very basic surface-level looks to make it very obvious that they reused everything they possibly could. As they get bigger, the worlds get emptier and uglier and the games themselves get blander and buggier. Something really big is gonna need to happen for them to change, and I mean monumental, like sales numbers so low they actually lose money. But if that happens, I foresee them just... not making games anymore, leaning on the merch, the shows, the cards, and just riding on their wave of popularity and success. It's a real shame, but I don't actually expect anything good to come from the mainline series ever again.

[@comyuse9103]

x/y is a weird one imo. you can clearly see passion at the edges of it. they actually _tried_ to make a good game there, but for some reason development just stopped half way through. if you looked you could see so much of what was _meant_ to be there, that never materialized.

[@Twiddle_things]

X/Y is beautiful visually but fucking trash writing wise. I absolutely adore the manga and writing for the older games. From what I've heard it peaked with gen 5, but I've yet to play it (for so long I've wanted to play it via a real cartridge, but the prices here are disgustingly high. I'm not paying 300€ for that) Just because other parts of Pokemon are mediocre doesn't mean you should settle for less. Fight for more. If you let trash slip then they'll see what else they can slip, and look at how much trash they've slipped.

[@Twiddle_things]

​​@@comyuse9103 it hurts even more because you can see the passion and potential. So often I wish they gave the story just a few more minutes in the oven... :(

[@nullpoint3346]

Look at Yokai Watch and compare Sun and Moon to it. _Nearly_ everything I dislike about S&M is from this. The 40 minutes of railroaded reading aside, I blame the forgotten one for this mess.

[@TheStickCollector]

Every one of these seems to confirm the same thing. I wonder if we are a noticeable chunk of people enough to get GF or the general audience to care about this or not

[@akiraasmr3002]

Obv not when you see all these ppl praising the new DLC. Ive seen ppl going crazy for that I was surprised the thing was only 3 hrs but when you have youtubers like Ttartube who hype it up makes GF continue.

[@vincenzosama]

Ok, watching the video and gathering my insights, I came to a conclusion like this, no matter how painful it is, but: Pokemon and Game Freak no longer need and do NOT want to care, not because necessarily of their own initiative, but because the fanbase itself has proven to be easily vulnerable and manipulable. You see, Pokemon games, from the beginning, already had problems and had a simple concept, well done but still little developed and explored. Pokemon Red and Blue are very dated games that haven't aged well. The GBA remakes are clearly better for anyone experiencing Kanto for the first time. But does that mean Pokemon was "bad"?, "purposeless"?, "stupid"? No! From the first to the fourth generation Pokemon actually had a progression, at least in the gaming media. The issue is that the games were still stuck in a pre-made formula, as GF was obviously afraid of trying to innovate too much. Pokemon was a huge success and grossed millions in and out of Japan. The pressure in the 90s was real on Nintendo. And then we arrived at the watershed, Unova. Everyone knows that today many recognize that it was one of the best Pokemon games, as paradoxically, they feel dissatisfied with the return made by GF in terms of game themes and graphic and gameplay quality. After YEARS, Masuda finally seemed ready to take the franchise to another level, mature it, without losing its essence, but the fans, immature and still blinded by the feeling of nostalgia, dropped one of the biggest balls i ever seen, which was to reject and be hostile to the boldest project the development team made. There were IRATED people on the internet just because the game covered more serious themes and didn't have standard pokemons. This is not an argument in my view, so much so that this is what I and other people like about Unova, it is a generation that CHALLENGES, that IMPLEMENTS but without losing itself in essence, just like RE7 was for Resident Evil, which ironically received a certain unfounded reprisal. What was done in the fifth generation should have been seen and it is indeed something very good. In fact, Pokemon BW and BW 2 are the only games where I feel like the DEVS didn't want to hold my hand and treat me like an incapable child. It's finally a RPG. But no, instead of stopping living off old formulas, the "fans" chose to stay stuck in that eternal past, in an ancient but now unattainable childhood. Everything could have changed for the better there in my opinion, but no one paid any attention, they choose to hate it. And seeing this, Nintendo finally understood. Pokemon games consumers don't know what they want, they don't take action, they are easily convinced with easy tactics that appeal to a cheap feeling of nostalgia. Why try to be better? There is no need, from an economic point of view. The 3DS era of Pokemon wasn't really amazing. In fact, it went from incredible in Unova, to increasingly mediocre games. Pokemon XY is a terrible DOWNGRADE. I think it's funny how I loved this game when I was 9 years old and replaying it a while ago I just hated the game for being "empty" practitioner. the 3D is poorly implemented, the characters are not memorable, the map is also not memorable, the league of four is too easy and the post-game does not exist. A huge rushed game, sadly. I really need there to be other companies ready to take on Pokemon on the market. Pokemon needs competitors so that Nintendo wakes up and stops making fools of fans. Pokemon is just a huge "product" and no longer an "art". There is a lot of quantity and very little quality.

[@TheOrian34]

Well said.

[@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8]

One does not simply “replace” or “compete” with Pokémon. That’s like trying to replace Disney but if Disney still had mass amounts of viciously rabid customer loyalty. Its media power is too large and it had already eclipsed Digimon and left it as the Sonic to Pokémon’s Mario. Welcome to Free Market hell, population you.

[@JDReC100]

@@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8 there the thing with sonic: he always comes back. he has high years and low years. but he's always there. Digimon has always been by Pokemon. It will never reach Pokémon’s popularity (and honestly I don't think it would have been a good thing if it did back in the day) mainly due to the demographic difference and subject matter the franchise primarily has. But if life has shown me anything, its that you don’t necessarily need to be better than your competitor to “win”. You just have to outlast them, or let them fumble enough to where their original customers/fanbase are ticked off enough to go elsewhere. If Pokémon doesn’t straighten up, things will only get worse for them, especially in the gaming department. And considering how their fumbles within the past 5 years have caused a bit of a monster tamer/collector resurgence in the gaming space, old monster franchises (Digimon, Shin Megami Tensei, DragonQuest spinoffs) and new franchises and games (Yokai Watch and the absolute plethora of indies including Temtem, Coromon, Monster Sanctuary, and Cassette Beasts) will absolutely capitalize on Pokemon’s hubris/indifference. Pokemon will never go away at this point, but if blizzard is anything to go by, if you poison the well long enough you will "eff around and find out". edit: forgot to add the recent success that is Cassette Beasts

[@yet0another0account]

And palworld@@JDReC100

[@chrismorales7516]

watching this video after palworld is so funny, because it's just true

[@cliffordkun2844]

Digimon, Monster Rancher, Neopets or, Monsuno should make a comeback.

[@popsickle_]

Heres a really big explanation for why their games are bad. It is for marketing, they release the anime, merch, and games around the same time as eachother. Its that the team is being rushed on deadlines even though they could delay the publishong of merch and anime to make the games better. I liked sun and moon and it was my first pokemon game, i then bought sword and shield and i was like: this game is NOT it And havent played any of the newer gens since. I like the anime, designs, merch, im happy pokemon was an idea in the first place, but really its just the games that are down right bad I think the method they use to make games for kids is something even kids wouldnt really play, and wouldnt grow up on pokemon

[@JammoYT]

X and Y hold up to all the games that came before it and I won't ever see how people don't like it

[@frale_2392]

Because they sell millions of copies even when the game is bad. As long as the games sell and it keeps feeding the rest of the Pokémon products with new Pokémons, there is no need to increase the quality

[@frale_2392]

And it works even outside of the Pokémon brand, look at Palworld, it's a half baked alpha version of a game with some creatures literally stolen from Pokémon and it still sold like crazy

[@ProjectMemeverse]

​@@frale_2392 they didn't steal they were inspired and of course it's gonna be a bit buggy in pre alpha but it is leagues above scarlet and violet that shit sucked

[@QueenEspeon96]

Pokemon Legends Arceus had a sh!t ton of potential to be the next big grab since the sprite era. I absolutely love the game and it's my favorite modern Pokemon game. The ability to manually chuck Pokeballs at Pokemon; that's something a lot of us wanted to do for so long.

[@vixxcelacea2778]

Any franchise that becomes really big becomes crap, because the motivation is not making content, quality, product and making a profit, it's simply keeping the brand aware in peoples consciousness with enough of a hook to keep bottom lines rising and rising. Everything becomes profit driven solely and all quality goes down as a result. Companies routinely see what they can get away with and it takes a long time for people to actually control the market with their dollar, because there are too many of us and whales exist. Success is great up to a point for a consumer. Honestly, same for the company. Often they get bolder, riskier and toe the legal line the more they feel they're too big to fail. A lot of scandals happen in what were once small/indie/private owned darlings that get really big. Also, pokemon has rarely been innovative. The game play loop and overall feel is generally the same game to game. And MANY games are guilty of this. That said, it would be fine with better graphics, or new little additions to add to that journey, but they rarely do. I remember playing pokemon blue as a kid and then playing moon later as an adult and realized the main game was exactly the same. Just new pokemon to catch, but very little innovation. A few new mini games, IE the hub and the beans, but not really new. Also, the whole "Buy the same game twice! so you can get some pokemon we arbitrarily locked behind this wall" thing is and always has been ridiculous. Most games don't follow this model. It's fine to have different varieties that have different starter pokemon and maybe if there is a specific one that you want, it's in a different region or something in different versions, but locking it out entirely specifically to target collectors or target people who like both new ones in different versions is BS. Didn't like it when other games do that type of paywall either, especially because they charge full AAA price for games that are generally at least 4 years behind graphically. I love pokemon. I've always wanted a really good game that actually makes me feel like a trainer and I interact with and form bonds with my team that have consequence, just like the show. No game has ever really offered that. Most of them feel souless on that front and on top of that, no they're releasing busted unfinished garbage. The fact that people have created nuzlock runs just to feel like there are any stakes and attachment to their pokemon shows how lifeless the loop really is. It was fine for the 90's because it was as far as I know, a totally new thing, but it's stagnated and stagnation is a slow death. I'm glad die hard fans are actually calling it out, even if many others are taking massive amounts of copium. I WANT Pokemon to be good. I don't like putting it down, but nothing is going to change unless people actually realize that being fed crap, even if you get used to it or even fond of it due to familiarity, doesn't mean that it's not still crap. And this goes for a LOT of game franchises, but Pokemon is extra egregious due to size, notoriety and blatantness in how little they care about their games or the fan base.

[@MatthewSaurusJP3]

Legends Arceus Is The Best Modern Game than any other

[@theintern7054]

Great vid. Glad to be an earlier sub to you, im sure youre gonna grow big someday

[@Mrbiuldsks]

Agreed

[@sparkxii.]

The fact that it only took a year and some to create the story of what is argued to be the peak of pokemon storytelling speaks volumes of the way TPC + GF handle pokemon. To be honest, it shows the BW games were written in a year and some time, and I consider Unova my home generation. I've seen other people state that GF can no longer handle pokemon because its become so massive, and I have to agree. I skipped out on scvi because the entire game feels slimy and an offense to play. Gen 10 better stay away for the next 4 years or so.

[@hollowedboi5937]

Problem is, why can’t they make their money and merchandise AND a good game?

[@Jayz._.2479]

A another reason gamefreak doesn’t care is that they know people are gonna buy it despite the bugs and glitches Pokémon scarlet and violet made 22 million units and that number will increase further in the game’s lifetime just goes to show gamefreak can just do quantity over quality and people will still buy it

[@MicahStroud-nz1ih]

Nintendo: "who cares if our games suck? You'll still buy them anyway💀"

[@Arqadeshadow]

It's so sad that one of the best beloved franchises in the world has come to this😢😮

[@eduuklee9453]

pokemon was allways bad in many ways. as people loseing interest in catching mosters they are literarelly losing the only thing that made the show running. now it becomes more challanging to make actual games that have more to offer than just collecting weird AF monsters. but i think people eventually will not care anymore and move on to the next big thing

[@kamarrroxs4176]

I actually will not buy them anymore. They aren't what they used to be. Now it's all about that paycheck they will release a broken game to meet metrics. It's just disgusting.

[@KitsuneFaroe]

Pokemon is the franchize with the biggest potential in the world. There is thousands of unique amazing ideas that can be experimented with it in all kind of ways. It gets enough money to make them real and have warranted success. And still is an absolute shame and makes me MAD how they waste it all and do worse and pure shit with the most uninspiring ideas they could ever have.

[@haisaimache]

I’ve owned pretty much every Pokémon game from firered and leaf green all the way thru black and white 2. My favorite out of the series has to be platinum, Hgold and Ssilver. I used to collect handbooks, cards, merch you name it. It’s sad asf to see where the franchise has fallen. Imo they should’ve stopped at X and Y.

[@belldrop7365]

7:24 You are overestimating the average gamer. Most of them are still the impressionable 6 year olds at heart that wants to buy newest shiny pokemon games. The only difference is that they have their own jobs so they buy everything with impunity, multiple times, because they also have kids. These are their core audience.

[@jaimemunoz7135]

They should go back to 2d with a great art direction

[@GreatRaijin]

2.5D, gen 5 did it best

[@TBoneTony]

Just like that Spaceballs scene. "Merchandising Merchandising, Merchandising. See you again in the sequel Spaceballs 2: Quest for more money."

[@inkchariot6147]

The more people who realize Pokemon games are shit, the more Digimon fans there are. Keep it up!

[@nocaptcha8110]

This will stop in ten years when the first generation won't let their kids consume this garbage anymore.

[@Link-rz2ve]

You forgot another main problem these online zombie army defending every single move of Pokemon

[@mithos789]

what about the other zombie army that buys the games anyway. but will complain non stop.

[@Link-rz2ve]

@@mithos789 hmm I don't think many people purchase and complain last Pokemon game I bought was USUM and remember feeling so scammed that I never purchased another Pokemon game after that as per the people who purchase and complain I think those are mainly content creators

[@3clisp315]

@@Link-rz2ve everyone complained about sv

[@Link-rz2ve]

@@3clisp315 there were freaks on Twitter and twitch defending it and shitting on TOTK for not looking good

[@nicholasapodaca9886]

X and Y were great! You could sit on stools. They had a whole looker quest. It was the gen with detective pikachu! It screamed passion. The comp scene was legendary. Targeting x and y as the downfal is dumb. Black and white were derivative and sun and moon were garbage.

[@drasnaescastle]

We need more videos like this! we need more people with platforms discussing the issues with the pokemon company. We are consumers! we have the right to complain about a product that is not up to the standard that we paid for.

[@mithos789]

stop paying for it then. give another company your money.

[@drasnaescastle]

@@mithos789 that's obviously the best solution. Money talks more than anything. But I hate that I'm gonna have to wait for them to release a game, not buy it, wait for enough other people to also not buy it, wait for them to realise they are losing money with their current release strategy, and then wait for the next game for them to fix it? Like bruh, let's just complain on twitter and see what happens😂

[@mariustan9275]

@@drasnaescastle Yeah

[@nullpoint3346]

@@mithos789 Have you tried looking for those companies? SMT isn't getting enough release to even have attention outside of the mastery crowd. Nexomon and other creature collector games are so small that they make Gamefreak look like what it _should_ be.

[@unironicallydel7527]

Its true the creation of Pokemon isnt directly up to Nintendo, but they do sign off on it. They let these games come out, and as a result, they let their own reputation tank.

[@AsherTheModder]

"Or you played Digimon and had no friends" Damn bro you didn't have to do me like that .

[@AprilZN-DokutahSuzuki]

bruh look at Digimon games now. They're still going strong.

[@ViewportPlaythrough]

@@AprilZN-DokutahSuzuki specially compared to modern pokemon games. sure, pokemon fans could brag all day about how big their franchise is but at the least digimon didnt get its head too big and forgot about what makes their fans happy

[@patrik3482]

If you want a good "pokemon" game on switch then you have Monster hunter stories 2 or SMT V.

[@ZxCv134-n3b]

Monster Hunter is more fun than pokemon 𝗨𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝘆 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱

[@Marlankas]

Amazing video essay, couldn't agree more! Been a fan since Ruby & Sapphire, I can only hope they can give the new Pokemon games the quality, time and innovation they require.

[@General_Ward]

And therefore they created a gap in the market so large that an indie early access game could take it's customer base so easily.

[@joltx9909]

It amazes me that the same company made a masterpiece like heartgold and games such as scarlet and violet

[@galvsparks6295]

HGSS are far from masterpieces, they are comparetively much better than SV yes, but any 6/10 game is too so nothing to write home about

[@OBB004]

hgss were ass, story was mid, and the level curve was atrocious and was not even adressed in the remake, visually and muscially it was great, but id rather play sw/sh or s/v over those games any day

[@fumegamer8345]

I feel like the only good modern Pokémon game is Pokémon legends arceus

[@KetschkerRBLX]

I agree that part of it is just business, but another part of it is just that the game developers are not given reasonable enough deadlines to release good games. A 2D pixel art game is easily finishable in a year, a 3D game generally takes many years. I've noticed they try to put out a game at least every 2 years, and they're also often working on multiple game projects at the same time. I can't imagine how frustrating this is for the game devs at Gamefreak who truly love games and love making them.

[@simeon9506]

Among other works, Masahiro Sakurai created the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. video game series and directed Kid Icarus: Uprising. From the Wikipedia article on him: Sakurai left HAL on August 5, 2003, after growing tired of the sequelization passively forced by HAL, ending his work on the Kirby series. "It was tough for me to see that every time I made a new game, people automatically assumed that a sequel was coming," Sakurai commented, in an interview with Nintendo Dream, two weeks after he resigned from HAL. He explained that, "even if it's a sequel, lots of people have to give their all to make a game, but some people think the sequel process happens naturally". I admit to being one such person he speaks of here. I can imagine his frustrations, passionately creating something only for the consumer and investors to ask for more when little time has passed since the latest release. The game developer spends years creating a game that a consumer like me will complete in less than a month, not often playing beyond that. After the effort of many to create Starfield, the demand for The Elder Scrolls VI and Fallout 5 only increase on its heels. But while there are passionate fans of these franchises eager for these games to come to fruition, is this truly what the developers at Bethesda want to create anymore? When does a franchise end? And does it ever end? It’s possible that Pokémon has already concluded in a spiritual sense, even if games continue to come out. While I enjoyed Pokémon Legends: Arceus quite a bit, it certainly had its problems and any hope I have of the games getting even better moving forward has been nearly squashed with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. It’s easy as fans, especially speaking from my own experience, to want more and more of what we love and to grab a hold of anything with any resemblance. But sometimes we need to cherish what we’ve got and appreciate that it didn’t come automatically. Edit: I originally typed "any hope I have of games getting even better" but had meant to type "any hope I have of the games getting even better", speaking of Pokémon games specifically.

[@king_of_rats_Monfernep]

Yeah. But RBY would have been subject to criticism much more than Scarlet if the Internet had been in 1996. In each series of games, you can find a huge number of flaws, what can we say, such a holy game as Pokémon Black was badly beaten by fans at its release

[@unironicallydel7527]

all pokemon would need to do to 'innovate' is change up the formula even a little bit. catching pokemon just to battle is stale and old and boring. sure they can add playcamps were you can.. somewhat.. interact with them, but its minimal and hardly any fun.

[@mateengler7602]

Excellent video. Just two things I would like to add: 1: even if the games are considered mediocre, most of us like mediocre stuff. 2: every time a new Pokemon game comes out, it sells well. Even Sword&Shield and Scarlet&Violet. So there is no reason for Game Freak to innovate because a, it is going to sell well and b, what you said: even if it flops, the other merchs will make it profitable.

[@freedomgaming9987]

Palworld taps shoulder, we will take that money you left on the table.

[@Trash_Cat21]

Digimon slander? What did Digimon do to you? That's my early 2000s childhood.

[@killscreen7519]

When the 3DS launched Nintendo was printing money. The DS and Wii had done gangbusters. But in 2011 the 3DS launch was bad and a price cut followed mere months later. Wii U launched for the holiday 2012 season and it was a disaster. A price cut would come the following summer. GF was moving to the new handheld and creating an all 3D game, a first for the mainline series. ALSO GF was launching the NA and European versions simultaneously as the Japanese release, usually this caused a 4-6 month delay for NA and about 9 months for Europe. GF has had a near annual release cycle for the mainline games but previously GF had taken longer to switch development to next-gen platforms. The Japanese release of Crystal was in Dec 1999 and Ruby/Sapphire Nov 2002. Emerald on GBA in Sep 2004 and Diamond/Pearl on DS in Sep 2006. But the leap from B/W2 Jun 2012 to X/Y Oct 2013 was only 16 months. The challenges of creating a 3D game on a new console AND have the localization all completed day and date, AND the likely pressure from Nintendo to push it out the door on time because of their console and handheld businesses faltering was likely a recipe for a poor product compared to previous entries. Is it any wonder this was the beginning of the generation gimmick?

[@nettowaku1252]

One aspect that most people often overlook is that the mainline games were originally came from Gameboy-DS line, then move to home console line in a short time span. As a developer myself, it takes time and effort whenever you move and adapt from one tech to another (either be it engine or framework). I’m still surprised noticing the recent Switch releases still maintain its 3 years cycle generation in which left me thinking how GF be able to suppress time and resources with a relatively small team upon moving to a completely different console when their most of spin-off home console games were outsourced to a different company. I don’t understand why GF, if not, TPC, needs to deliver in such fixated time when the fans expect more time for more bigger and different game. If the game isn’t the focus from profit standpoint, they would delay the game more often than not, yet they didn’t. It recalls back at the time when Ubisoft wanted to release Assassin’s Creed annually until they got a backlash on Odyssey for being too similar with its previous game. P.s.: While I do notice GF developed couple home console games, they are leaning more to Indie game level than AAA level of Pokemon.

[@Jdudec367]

XY wasn't that bad at all. A simpler story for the first 3D Pokemon game was fine at the time, it didn't have to be the focus. The animation wasn't stripped down either. And the handholding? It wasn't that bad, it was worse in gen 7 and just as bad as in gen 5. It had less content but that usually applies to every first game of a generation, BW1 has less content then Platinum for example, also you compare XY to DP in terms of time but that doesn't mean much since the time in DP is increased due to how slow those games are. It says Platinum takes less time but clearly it has more content. Nah long term fans mostly did like XY back then. They didn't get worse overall yet. Gen 7 was a slog at times but it mostly was great, better story, more content, higher difficulty, and at least the slowness is not as bad as gen 4 and actually had an excuse being the story. Eh...is gen 9 the worst ones? Gen 8 seems pretty bad too. After gen 5 there were still some good and great games. Like the series is stagnant...but not for 10 years, gens 6 and 7 still have made more changes then gen 5 did and Legends Arceus was a big shake up too.

[@Cousinbiddy1]

Ur wrong

[@Jdudec367]

@@Cousinbiddy1 how?

[@Cousinbiddy1]

@@Jdudec367 because u just said gen 5 started to have problems , in which was the peak instead

[@Jdudec367]

@@Cousinbiddy1 I mean....every gen has problems, excuse me for not jumping on the gen 5 bandwagon hivemind.

[@Cousinbiddy1]

@@Jdudec367 but there was no hand holding in gen 5

[@purrplekitten4895]

I don't understand why new Pokémon games don't have a difficulty setting. Even if it takes more time and money for development - Nintendo makes enough money with this franchise. Easy: For children. Catching Pokémon is easier, battles are easier, the game takes you by the hand and tells you where to go. And you can see what weaknesses each Pokémon has. So basically everything the current games offer. Normal: For teens and average players. For instance, Pokémon weaknesses only become known once you have used an attack of that type against that Pokémon. Hard: For adults / experienced players. No more sharing of XP, battles are more difficult, money is limited, you have to pay attention during conversations. Very hard: For professionals. Perhaps various Nutzlocke challenges, integrated directly into the game.

[@michaelballack3051]

This is all a consequence from the fanbase ignoring and shitting on Generation 5 back in 2011/12. They dug this hole for themselves. Now we all pay the consequences for it. When Gamefreak and the franchise wanted to grow alongside the audience, the fans immediately jumped on their throats and boycotted the games (the lowest sales for a mainline game EVER)

[@ironman1458]

I think it came in a weird time when a lot of people were moving on from pokemon or seeing it as a kids franchise. The crazy part is despite how much people complain about modern games they are making way more money. From game freak perspective it must be obvious. The fans literally pay them more when the game is babified lol

[@nicholashutter1865]

Some random dude streamed your shit so I clicked off his video which was pushed to my recommended and searched for yours. Great video. Liked and subbed.