A while back, I made a article where I wrote down things I would change in Pokémon games to make them more enjoyable. However, there was a lot of discussion about my suggestions not being very good, although not a single valid reason was presented to me as to why.
At the time this generated a lot of discussion between myself, Zach and Bitten. Even Jimmy made his own post with his own thoughts on the matter.
So now I'm going to make a revised version of those suggestions.
The Fixes
The Pokecenter
Then
This was something I thought everyone would agree, Because it's truly annoying as fuck.
My suggestion was to entirely cut out the animation where the nurse slowly places the pokeballs on the machine and heals your pokemon, and to cut down partially or entirely on the dialogue with the nurse. Optionally, have the scene play out normally only the first time you interact with her.
Another idea was that IF the current system was to stay, implementing the regen system from pokemon mystery dungeon would balance the need to use a pokecenter often.
The reasoning was that the cutscene serves no purposes other than to waste time and it's an action that has to be performed serveral times in the game and tends to get on people's nerves due to how long it takes. Also you'll encounter NPCs in the world that will perform the same services as the pokecenter nurse, except they only say 1 line of dialogue and it's done.
Now
My new suggestion is have an option menu where the player can set how they want the pokecenter to act: "default, short, instant".
- Default is the way it's always worked
- Short acts like the NPCs that give you 1 line of dialogue and you're done.
- Instant means you activate the nurse, and done, no dialogue whatsoever. A sound effect would play to confirm you used her.
The reasoning behind instant is that 99.9% of the time you talk to a nurse, it's to heal your pokemon. Asking you if you want to heal them or not just wastes everyone's time.
Someone's PC
Then
This was an issue mostly because of the HM system, having to backtrack to get a pokemon with a specific HM to advance. I actually have no problem with the PC system beyond that personally because I tend to stick with the same team the entire game.
So for this issue you have to consider the HM system works like it normally does.
Bascially, there's no reason you can't acess Bill's PC from anywhere with a wireless device. You keep getting calls all the time, meaning you do have a wireless device. So is it so out of line to make it so that you can switch pokemons from anywhere?
Originally, I was pointed out that this would fuck up events like the elite 4. No it wouldn't, just put this on the top right corner of the screen in those areas:
Another thing i was told is that it had something to do with strategy, Although saving time does not factor into strategy at all, so I dunno what was meant by that.
Now
Like I said, if the issue of HMs was solved, I wouldn't care about this one at all.
But when you capture a pokemon in the middle of a cave or forest, it ends up in Bill's PC somehow, and that's how it worked since the first game. I really can't see a problem with switching pokemon wirelessly.
If you want areas to be harder and feel like a gauntlet of battles, Just find a reason to not have signal there. But then explain to me why you can send them to Bill's PC.
A lot of my suggestions were rejected because it didn't make "enough sense" in the game world, yet, Bill's PC getting your excess pokemons, which never made sense, is fine.
HMs
Then
That's a big one. This system forces you to backtrack a lot or have a pokemon slot wasted to carry around an HM whore or even waste 1 skill slot on your normal party's pokemon for a skill you don't really want.
I had a few suggestions back then:
- Allow use of the HM as long as you had 1 pokemon with the HM learned either in storage or in party.
- Allow player to carry extra pokemon that wouldn't be used in battle only for ability use.
- Allow pokemon to each learn 2 extra moves that are non battle.
The 2nd one would be hard to figure how it'd work. But, from what I read, the creators have considered some of these right from the first game. Even for later games, they considered giving all pokemon 6 moves instead of 4, or increasing the size of the teams.
If I had to guess, the main reason they don't do it is because there's always fans that will bitch and moan if they change anything in the core game.
Now
Me and Zach discussed this many times, basically coming up with dozens of solutions that would be better than the current system in every way. However, Zach came up with one I thought was perfect.
HMs are meant to act as keys that you get as you progress through the game. Well here's another thing you get as you progress through the game: Badges.
HMs are always very basic abilities a pokemon has, like flying and swimming, which there's no way the pokemon wouldn't know how to do these things. It never made sense you had to teach them those skills in the first place.
Instead of making it so that the pokemon has to learn something it clearly already knows, make it so that it depends on the trainer. The requirement could be that the trainer needs a certain amount of experience to either have the pokemon perform certain tasks or to be able to ride on it safely.
Some of those abilities could be unlocked as the trainer gets more badges, or key NPCs could teach the trainer how to do them (like how running is taught currently).
The irony is, this is extremely close to what the creators were originally going to do in the first pokemon game, but for some reason, went with the current system.
Movement speed/Transportation
Then
Why can't we fucking run from the start? What kind of 10 year old are we meant to be playing? Why don't we have a bike from the start for that matter?
It strikes me as a lil strange, but, literally every single person I know had a bike by the age of 10. I'm willing to believe that's not the case for everyone, but come on.
The fact that you lack all these options to move at a decent pace and are forced to crawl your way to the first city does not help the games.
Now
No change really.
This really was a minor point on the bike, and even on running I don't care that much, but really, at least running should be an option from the start.
I will never believe we play as a 10 year old that has never ran in his life. Simply does not compute.
I do feel however that the game does explaining backwards: Instead of explaining to me why i can suddenly run, explain to me why the hell i couldn't up until that point.
More than 1 save slot
Then
There's really no limitation to add more save slots, a lot of people enjoy restarting the game but don't wanna lose all their past progress.
Now
I suggested this as a minor point originally, but lately I've been watching a lot of videos where it's mentioned people really like starting a new game. This seems to be a much bigger thing that I originally thought.
If they're concerned with the online features, they could make it so that only save slot 1 can use those.
Some people just like playing through the game. Once you complete the story, their interest is gone, but they won't start a new game to avoid losing their game.
Improvements
Choices and Paths
Then
Basically, I suggested more of a focus on the player character itself where he/she would be able to choose a "class" that would give very minor perks. This is, after all, an RPG game.
The player could choose a class with perks that focus on breeding pokemon, catching pokemon, more attack in battle, more defensive, improved stats effects, etc.
This would be used in conjunction with the plot and path the player takes.
Depending on what the player chose, he would take a different path on the map and do gyms in a different order, possibly having a slightly different story.
Would add a lot of replay value.
Now
I got good feedback on that, and I stand by it.
Especially when I mentioned you would be able to play a team rocket type character.
Jimmy's Suggestions
There's 1 in particular that caught my attention.
The Pokedex
As Jimmy pointed out, why is the damn pokedex always empty? Why does it ALWAYS start empty?
Canon wise, did all the kids the other professors sent in the past gens get killed in a cave?
We can't be the only ones that think there should at least be some data on the pokemons from the past gens.
Closing thoughts
I'd like to state that the changes I suggest are rather minor and mostly aimed at making the games more enjoyable without changing much, although I do think the games should change and try new things.
I'm a fan of egoraptor's sequelitis videos, there's something he said that kinda describes what I'm thinking about when I write something like this.
A preceding title should act as an inspiration for a sequel, a launch pad aiming the production towards greater things.
A sequel shouldn't be weighed down by irrelevant tradition for the sake of consistency.
I think the pokemon games suffer from a lack of evolution, ironically. I've played pokemon red, soul silver and black. I can't say the game added much since the first version.
It's gotten to a point where both the company and the fans are comfortable with the series and don't want to change it. Not even the interface which is really not that efficient.
These suggestions aren't groundbreaking and are aimed towards the series as they are right now.
I personally prefer the mystery dungeon series a lot more because the gameplay is more interesting, the story is better, and lasts way longer than any other pokemon game in the main series.
For better or for worse, it's trying something new. Which is more than can be said about the main series.
