Pokemon officially jumps the shark; now with DLC!

commanderkai

Establishing Battlefield Control...Standby
Moderator
Staff Member
So how do they balance nine hundred Pokemon, and keep most of them relevant?

Balance in the sense of making all Pokemon viable? You don't. It's basically impossible. Honestly...that's a good thing. A Pidgey should not be viable against a Mewtwo.

Previous Pokemon games have had weather, seasons, and day/night cycles affecting Pokemon spawns, so there's many ways to have a variety of Pokemon spawn in various ways in the game.

Plus, a good chunk of those Pokemon would need to be traded. If you wanted, you could have traded a Pokemon from the Gameboy Advance era (released in 2002) and brought it to the Sun and Moon games (released in 2016). Sword and Shield removes the data of a huge number of Pokemon, who might not have been balanced, but might have been people's favorites
 

Laskar

Would you kindly?
Founder
Balance in the sense of making all Pokemon viable? You don't. It's basically impossible. Honestly...that's a good thing. A Pidgey should not be viable against a Mewtwo.
No, but in theory a...
What do you call the collection of Pokemon you carry with you? A squad? A hand? A lance?

In theory, a hand with a Pidgeot in it ought to be balanced with a hand that has Electrode in it. Pokemon uses Rock-Paper-Scissors style balancing, so some sort of broad-strokes level of balance should be possible to achieve, without everyone defaulting to the four or five most powerful Pokemon.
 

Hlaalu Agent

Nerevar going to let you down
Founder
No, but in theory a...
What do you call the collection of Pokemon you carry with you? A squad? A hand? A lance?

In theory, a hand with a Pidgeot in it ought to be balanced with a hand that has Electrode in it. Pokemon uses Rock-Paper-Scissors style balancing, so some sort of broad-strokes level of balance should be possible to achieve, without everyone defaulting to the four or five most powerful Pokemon.

I believe the correct term is "team", but I am not entirely sure have not played pokemon in years and do not follow the community. And I think you make a good point, not so much pokemon being balanced against each other, but some form of internal balance that would keep people from gaming the system.
 

commanderkai

Establishing Battlefield Control...Standby
Moderator
Staff Member
No, but in theory a...
What do you call the collection of Pokemon you carry with you? A squad? A hand? A lance?

In theory, a hand with a Pidgeot in it ought to be balanced with a hand that has Electrode in it. Pokemon uses Rock-Paper-Scissors style balancing, so some sort of broad-strokes level of balance should be possible to achieve, without everyone defaulting to the four or five most powerful Pokemon.

You're right. That's why leaving out so many Pokemon from the game that could be added is so controversial. There are 18 Pokemon types (ghost, electric, water, fire, etc), with many Pokemon having two types (Like Gyarados being water and flying type). When I was a more avid player, I would generally have the three starter pokemon to cover fire, grass, and water, a flying type, a utility type (aka one with all the HMs for traveling around), and an additional one, usually one I'm either training or something else.

Am I playing with the best combination? Probably not. But I enjoy it. So, the 400 or so Pokemon not able to be traded in might be a part of people's favorite combos. That's part of the annoyance of people right now.
 

Terthna

Professional Lurker
So; Pokemon Sword and Shield has come out, and people have had enough time to collect their thoughts on the finished product. There are those who would have claimed these are the best games ever, and those who would have claimed that they're the worst, regardless of the final result; but the general opinion from those who were not invested in either outcome long ago, seems to be that the games are average at worst, but definitely nowhere near as good as they should have been for the franchise's first outing on an actual console, and presents several issues that do not bode well for its future.




All in all, about what I expected; and it seems that the record-breaking high sales figures have proven yet again that objective quality is irrelevant, when it comes to how well a product sells. I look forward to watching this franchise continue its downward spiral into becoming the Madden of JRPGs. Never bad enough to totally alienate its audience, but never good enough to be worth the recognition it receives either.
 

Shipmaster Sane

You have been weighed
Call me old, but isnt "Jumping the shark" the point where, later, you say the decline begins?

Pokemon was in decline for a long time before this.
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
When did Pokémon start to decline as a brand? And in what sense? Like popularity or financially or just creatively?
 

Terthna

Professional Lurker
When did Pokémon start to decline as a brand? And in what sense? Like popularity or financially or just creatively?
There's a couple of points where one could argue the games in this franchise jumped the shark; with the main ones being the release of Pokemon X and Y, and Pokemon GO. The former has to do with the lackluster reception Pokemon Black and White, as well as their sequels, had received; as they represent the last time GameFreak put significant effort into the plot of the games and the gameplay. With X and Y, they decided to instead focus on the shift from sprites to 3D as a selling point, and were rewarded with slightly higher sales figures, and significantly better critical reception.

As for Pokemon GO; so little effort went into developing that game, that it's rumored The Pokemon Company began to question GameFreak's role in the franchise, once the utterly insane sales figures for Niantic's product started coming in. After all; why keep having them make mainline Pokemon games, when a low-effort and cheap-to-produce mobile game manage to eclipse the profits of every single game ever developed by GameFreak to this day, combined. This has likely led to GameFreak cutting corners wherever possible; either because they feel like they're about to be displaced from their position in producing games the franchise they created (and are thus putting the majority of their effort into attempting to rebuild their reputation as a games developer, as opposed to a Pokemon games developer), or because they've taken the lessons learned from Pokemon GO to heart, and simply no longer feel the need to try anymore.

Pokemon hasn't really been hurting in the popularity department, but there's just no incentive to create games that have anywhere close to the quality this franchise was once know for; not when the customer is clearly willing to settle for far, far less. There's also an argument to be made that GameFreak never had much skill as a developer to begin with; and as they keep having to make games for more advanced hardware, their incompetence as programmers and designers becomes more obvious.
 
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Hlaalu Agent

Nerevar going to let you down
Founder
Alas they can't be greedy fucks in a useful way.

Pokemon is perfect for an MMO and it would be fairly trivial to make; but Nintendo has been adamantly opposed for some idiotic reason that makes zero sense.

Yes, that too. Greed would be acceptable if it had positive outcomes, that is encouraged them to do make money through hard work and perseverance and of course creating a product that people actually want.

I am pretty sure Nintendo has their reasons, and that being they are afraid of killing the goose who is laying their golden eggs. Probably far too afraid to take any tepid steps towards diversifying the franchise.
 

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