I skimmed through the thread Codraroll linked to, and it made me think a bit about the sustainability of Pokémon. Or to be specific, about content in the games. There is one thing I have been thinking about regarding content in the Pokémon games for a long time. This might not be the best place to post it, but since it is partly related to this topic, I decided to post it here.
I think that content in the Pokémon games can be separated in two different categories. Tools and activities, as I want to call them. There might be better terms for them, but I am going to use these two words here.
What does each category contain?
Tools are the things the player can
use in the games. Pokémon, moves, items, types and Abilities. Maybe more, but I think those are the main ones.
Activities are the things that the player can
do in the games. Some examples are training Pokémon, completing the Pokédex, rebattling trainers, exploring areas, battling in Battle Facilities and Battle Challenges, doing minigames, battling other real-life people and trading Pokémon… plus a lot more.
Those are the categories. Next, I want to take a look at how they have been handled in the series throughout the years.
From Gen 1 to Gen 5, the number of tools and the number of activities both increased with each generation. All games had more or just as many tools as the previous game(s), while the number of activities increased with each new generation. The number of activities would often increase from one game to the next within a generation as well. While some tools and activities were exclusive to certain games or generations, the following games/generations always had enough new stuff to make up for it. Regarding activities, they reach a culmination with B2/W2 which has the highest number of activities in the series to date.
During Gen 6-7, the number of tools kept increasing just like in the previous generations. While Gen 6-7 introduced fewer new Pokémon compared to the previous generations, they still kept all the old Pokémon, which meant that the total number increased. Those generations also went a bit further with the tools as they both introduced a super mechanic or “gimmick”, with Megas and Z-moves. The number of tools culminated with US/UM which are the games with the largest number of tools in the main series so far.
But at the same time, things changed when it comes to activities. During Gen 6-7, the number of activities started to decrease. While I think the games are still pretty good in terms of activities, they are not on the same level as Gen 5, or even Gen 4 to an extent. There is just less to do, and there’s not always a proper replacement for features that were removed from the previous game/generation. One very notable thing that happened in Gen 7 was that the National Dex was completely removed from the main games. It had previously been a staple feature in the series, but as of now, it is no longer. The last time we saw it in the actual games were in OR/AS.
Don’t say that it exists in Bank and Home, they are not the main series, and I think both of them handled it terribly. Since the National Dex has yet to come back, I guess that we will never see it again at this point. In retrospect, I feel that the removal of the National Dex should have been seen as a big warning sign that things were about to get even worse in the next generation. But foolish as I was, I didn’t see it that way.
LGP/E were technically the first games for which the number of tools decreased, but I’m skipping them since they are so different from everything else in the series.
Instead, let’s move on to Gen 8, where things changed even more. For the first time in a new generation, the number of tools available in the games decreased. Everyone knows about dexit. When S/S were released, roughly half of the existing Pokémon were completely unavailable. In addition to that, they removed several moves as well as both Megas and Z-moves. While it could be argued that DMax/GMax is supposed to be a replacement as it is the new super mechanic of Gen 8, that doesn’t change the fact that the previous two were completely removed. And in terms of activities, the base game of S/S was a further step down from Gen 6-7.
The DLC improved upon it though. It added more tools in the forms of many more old Pokémon becoming available in the games, as well as new Pokémon, new moves, new items, and some old moves were brought back too. Still, around 25% of all currently existing Pokémon are missing from the games at the time of writing this. The DLC added more activities as well, but it is still far from the epic levels of B2/W2.
So that’s how it has been throughout the generations. One notable thing is that the lower number of activities started at the same time as the games went full 3D. I am not a game developer, but I believe it is much harder and more time-consuming to develop a game in full 3D compared to in 2D. It likely takes much more time and effort to make a 3D game compared to a 2D game. Which means that in order to make games where the number of tools and activities keep on increasing with each release, more development time is needed. This, together with the yearly releases, is not a good combination. Personally, I have never been very fond of the yearly releases. I understand that they need to do them in order to make money, but it can be annoying for us players.
Back during my hardcore days, I always found the yearly releases to be very stressful because it felt like they forced me to complete everything I could in the current games before the next ones were released. This was especially bad for games with a lot of activities. It wasn’t that bad for games with lower amounts of content, or for games I wasn’t as interested in. It was also acceptable when the games shifted system as that meant I could just keep playing the older games on the older system alongside the newer games on the newer system. Namely Emerald (GBA) to D/P (DS), B2/W2 (DS) to X/Y (3DS), and US/UM (3DS) to
not LGP/E since I skipped them Sword (Switch). Still, I am not a big fan of the yearly releases. While I dearly miss a follow-up game to X/Y, I am actually quite happy nowadays that they had a break in 2015. I also like what they did in 2020, when they released the DLC for S/S instead of a completely new game.
The yearly releases definitely feel like a contributing factor when it comes to the decrease of activities in the games (as well as the decrease of tools as of Gen 8). It can’t be easy to be forced to create functional games with lots of content in such short amounts of time. At least that’s what I believe.
Now, let’s look at the sustainability of the Pokémon model. Maybe the model they used for Pokémon in the past was just not sustainable in the end. Maybe adding more tools and activities in every new generation would not have worked for all eternity forward. In the past, I often saw the statement that “Pokémon will one day crumble under its own weight”. It could be argued that we have reached that situation now with Gen 8 and dexit, or that it already happened back in Gen 6 when the number of activities started to decline. One thing this statement always made me think about was how the games have handled tools and activities throughout the generations. It just took me ages to figure out how to put it down it words properly, but now, I finally got it done. In the end, I guess we will never see another game with the number of tools in US/UM, nor another game with the number of activities in B2/W2. Or a game with both. Or a game with even more content in both categories.
That said, while the number of activities (and even tools as of Gen 8) have been decreasing lately, I still enjoy the newer games as said in my previous post. I have said in the past that I have thought about quitting Pokémon and that S/S were the beginning of the end when it comes to my interest in the series. But now, despite the decline of the series, I am unsure. Am I even able to quit Pokémon at this point? I don’t know. The future will tell…
At the moment, I have not decided whether to get either SP or L:A (or both), but I am looking forward to Gen 9 because it is guaranteed to have one thing I am always very interested in and looking forward to when it comes to Pokémon: new Pokémon.
And just because I said that, Gen 9 ends up being the first new generation to not introduce any new Pokémon at all.
…
This was something I have wanted to say for a while, and I’m very happy to finally get it out of my head. Parts of what I have said here is subjective, so if anyone disagrees with me about something, that’s okay.
-snip-
TLDR; if the younger fans enjoy the stuff we have now, let them. If we can only let ourselves see the natural changes of adolescence in a more positive light, our view towards not just the newer titles, but also the ones we grew up with, will increase exponentially.
Excellent point. It is easy to forget that the target demographic for Pokémon is (and has always been) children. Personally, I think that if the children of today can get the same feeling of amazement and fun from the modern Pokémon games that I got from playing the older games when I was a kid, that is a very good thing. Children are important and when it comes to franchises created for them, they should never be ignored in favor of adults. If the children of today can have fun with Pokémon, then that’s honestly enough for me.
That said, it is obvious that Game Freak still cares about us older fans to some degree (and I am surprised that they do, since we always complain about everything). Nowadays, remakes only happen due to fan demand. HG/SS, OR/AS, BD/SP (and even LGP/E to an extent). There has also been lots of fan pandering to Gen 1 in various recent games. It started in X/Y, then it continued in Gen 7 where it got even worse. It feels like there is less of it in Gen 8 though, which is great.
I kind of realized this as time went on, but I came to the conclusion that ultimately, flaws with Sword and Shield aside, the modern Pokemon games aren't "bad" or "worse" than the older Pokemon games, but they simply weren't quite what I wanted. And I think the same really goes for you too. As all of us get older, we're more set in our ways and we have more rigid values and expectations, and this applies just as much with media/entertainment series that are formative in our childhood years. From that, because I in particular grew up with the likes of Platinum and HGSS, as well as BW1/2 there were certain things that I liked and valued about Gen 4 and 5 that created my idea of what a Pokemon game is. And yet, the newer games in the present day are trying to do other things and taking the series in a new direction. In other words, the focus of the games is different. And that's fine in the end of the day, but for many, they may like those games less, because those other things the newer games focus on are not what several older fans want to pick up and play a Pokemon game for.
It's an inevitable cycle and it will go on for as long as the Pokemon franchise lasts. It's not as apparent and noticeable in the present day because the bulk of the "older fans" in the current fanbase are people from the GBA and DS days. Most of the people who grew up with Gens 1 and 2 don't play Pokemon anymore, so we don't see much of them now. But we did see many of them talking about how much they thought Ruby and Sapphire and Black and White were so much worse than the likes of Gen 1 and Gen 2 long ago. And now we're seeing people who grew up with Gens 3 and 4 talking about how they don't like the newer 3D games as much. The kids who grew up with Gens 6 and 7 likely not only genuinely find those games great, but those games were formative for them and so from the things those games did, create for them a very different perception of what they want to pick up a Pokemon game for. And one day, when we're in Gen 9 or so, and the franchise likely reinvents the wheel yet again, those kids who grew up in the 3DS days will be talking about how newer games are less exciting for them or worse than X and Y or ORAS or SM or whatever. It's the nature of a long running series: as generations come and go, the series must change with it. And sometimes, that means reinventing itself and replacing what one may find interesting with what they do not. It sucks sometimes, but that's how it is. Especially with a series like this that has lived for years and years.
This is also a good point. From what I have seen in the online Pokémon fandom, many fans seem to prefer the generation(s) they played first or grew up with, but dislike or not care as much for the generations after, as well as the current generation. However, there are exceptions. For instance, I am an older fan as I started playing during Gen 1, it and Gen 2 (as well as the beginning of Gen 3) were Pokémon for me during my childhood. But nowadays, I prefer the newer generations. While I think Gen 1 and 2 were good for their time and I had lots of fun with them back in the day, I don’t care much for them anymore. I prefer the newer generations, my favorites being Gen 5, 6 and 7. On the whole, I would say that I have enjoyed Pokémon more as a teenager and an adult compared to as a kid.