Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums > General > General Gaming Discussion > Pokemon Platinum revealed

[Yar]

They still make Pokémon? I haven't touched one since Red/Blue...

[Behold the Void]

Originally Posted by Moon Rabbits ^

Originally Posted by Behold the Void ^

I sincerely hope Nintendo eventually makes an iteration of this game that doesn't play almost exactly like the original + extra attacks + more Pokemon + slightly better graphics. I love the Pokemon concept a lot but even that doesn't excuse the fact that the general game design is lazy and dated to hell.

If it ain't broke don't fix it. Nintendo is obviously making money and has a ridiculous fanbase for Pokemon. Tampering with a franchise like Pokemon could either pay off huge or totally blow up in their faces. So they play it safe!

Look to indie games for innovation

If innovation is for indie games only why the hell are we still buying games from big corporations. If they can't get their crap together and come out with something genuinely interesting why keep throwing money at them so they'll keep making mediocre and formulaic games?

There's sticking with a style and then there's just sheer bad game design. Do pokemon games absolutely require a rehash of the same asinine plot every iteration? Do they need to innundate you with slow-moving text while in battle? Instead of, for example, saying "rain continued to fall," couldn't they, you know, make it look like it's raining?

The game plays like an extraordinarily dated RPG. They've barely done anything to improve or streamline the process, and in most cases it feels like a chore. The story is boring, repetitive and cliche, and after that you're left with one of two things: leveling up your pokemon or catching them all. The second, I'll grant, can have a certain element of entertainment to it (like with legendaries, for example), but the first is as tedious as it is in any other RPG.

Pokemon is a stale and stodgy franchise. They've done little to improve on the formula, and the fact that they still make disturbing amounts of money off it simply encourages this behavior. Does nobody else see the problem with the fact that they can make mounds of cash off remaking a 90's RPG without any significant improvement not just once, but three times?

To paraphrase Yahtzee, Nintendo really is the only company we let get away with this crap (although in all honesty, there are a few others too. 'sup EA). It's not just pokemon either, but pokemon is perhaps one of the most atrocious offenders since at least most of the other franchises receive large graphical overhauls and even in some cases gameplay overhauls. Pokemon is just the same bland RPG remade countless times, which is a damn shame because there's so much potential in the concept.

[Roto13]

I think the problem here is you expect Pokemon to be like Final Fantasy when that's not what it is. Pokemon is designed with competition in mind. It's almost like a fighting game that way. New games are added basically to expand the number of moves and monsters available. That's why they all interact like each other. If they made any radical changes to Tekken, you can be sure it would piss off Tekken tournament players. I do agree with you about the rain thing, though. That's stupid. I turn off battle animations when I'm in a rainy place.

As for the story, I'm going to say the same thing I say whenever anyone complains about the story in any other game. If you want a story, go read a book. Complaining about the story in a video game is like complaining about the story in Monopoly.

[Kentarou]

But Pokemon is an RPG. If you're not into the competition side of things, there could at least be a nice story to help you go along.

[Roto13]

If you're not into the competition side of things, don't play it because it's not for you.

[Karellen]

If you want a Pokemon-esk game with deep gameplay and a decent story, play SMT: Nocturne. Pokemon has only ever been a simplistic entry level game aimed at introducing children into the RPG genre (or at least Japan's gimped version of the RPG genre). It could probably use some streamlining (as noted, battles do tend to move along at a somewhat lethargic pace) but add too much depth and Nintendo runs the risk of alienating their target audience.

[JKTrix]

Indeed. The Pokemon franchise is aimed at children. Besides whatever probable laziness there is in adding some story depth or whatever, it's kept simple for the kids an. Which kind of sucks for those of us who have grown up in the 10 years since the game started and come to expect more. Unlike some of Nintendo's other franchises which are 'kid-friendly' but palatable for more mature folks, the Pokemon folks don't seem to be concerned with broadening their target age. Some of us have just outgrown Pokemon.

My Pearl gamesave is still stuck on the doorstep of the Elite 4, because I really don't feel like going back and grinding to an appropriate level to take them on. I did enjoy it up until that point though, so I can't say I've completely graduated from Pokemon myself.

As for 'making something different', they do have some spin-off games. The downside to that is that they are still aimed at kids and probably won't attract any Pokemon Graduates.

[Behold the Void]

Originally Posted by Roto13 ^

I think the problem here is you expect Pokemon to be like Final Fantasy when that's not what it is. Pokemon is designed with competition in mind. It's almost like a fighting game that way. New games are added basically to expand the number of moves and monsters available. That's why they all interact like each other. If they made any radical changes to Tekken, you can be sure it would piss off Tekken tournament players. I do agree with you about the rain thing, though. That's stupid. I turn off battle animations when I'm in a rainy place.

As for the story, I'm going to say the same thing I say whenever anyone complains about the story in any other game. If you want a story, go read a book. Complaining about the story in a video game is like complaining about the story in Monopoly.

The thing is I don't expect it to be like Final Fantasy. If a game has any kind of pretenses at a story, they can not repeat the same damn thing almost verbatim three times over. Mix it up a little.

Pokemon has this bizarre dichotomy, it's "for kids" and yet it has EV training, complex breeding systems, and all kinds of other things that are clearly designed for an older audience. So obviously there is some effort to target a wider range of people.

And the multiplayer thing is a bit weak of a defense. A lot of people who would or do want to play Pokemon don't have access to/don't care about multiplayer. The game is centrally based off a basic interaction with others in the need to find others who have the game as well and trade for the pokemon you want. Of course, I've been saying for years that pokemon should be an MMORPG where a) the inane "storyline" is gone, b) the huge world aspect that's always been an aspect of the anime is brought to the foreground and c) it's not a remake of the same game with minimal graphical improvement and a few extra gimmicks.

And as far as the Spin-Off games, I tend to find them uninteresting. The major aspect of the games, i.e. the ability to assemble a team of trained pokemon, to breed, and to collect is the aspect I find most appealing about it. The problem is they can't give you that without just rehashing the game again and again and again. I played R/B/Y, I don't need to play it three more times. At least G/S had the decency to let you go back to the original setting, which I thought was awesome and cannot believe they haven't done since.