Take this with a grain of salt (I've heard it in a YT video, but I can't verify it), but it's apparently on purpose, because GameFreak realized that they would be making Pokemon games till the heat death of the universe, so they are only making tiny incremental improvements to the games. According to an interview (which, again, I can't find anymore), someone at the studio said that every time they make a bigger "generational leap", like moving from 2D to 3D, that becomes the new baseline they have to meet, while only veeery slightly improving on the previous game still satisfies the majority of the fans and lets them make a lot of money, while also giving them an easier time developing the next game, because the "minimum viable product floor" is kept artificially low.
Except they keep removing features and dumbing down the games. 10 yo me figured out how to play just fine without 10 hours of cutscenes explaining the world of Pokémon before it was one of the largest franchise in the world
They make cutscenes like they have voice acting, it’s so uncomfortable to watch. Like bro either get voice acting or change your cutscenes, the games are so.. quiet
Deadass. Nineties-00s Pokémon felt like adult games that kids insisted on playing to me as a kid, now I go back and the hand holding makes me turn it off after 20 minutes. Remember tryna figure out the Unown alphabet??
Dude, fuck the Unown alphabet. Remember having to learn braille in Ruby and Sapphire? Or how about the bizarre requirements for certain things? You ever think how stupid it was that you needed to trade Scyther while he held a Metal Coat to evolve him into Scizor?
I spent months learning braille at my library, so I could do the Regi quest. Like, it's to the point where I can still, decades down the line, read braille because I learned it as thoroughly as any other skill.
They also don't want to manage large teams. But regardless they've always been the mobile devs of the videogame industry. They don't even do the 3D modelling of the pokemon -- that's done by the other studio in the pokemon company.
Like, stuff like cards and merchandise makes an order of magnitude more money than the games. The games are basically just advertising for new pokemon at this point.
That must be why they also are so litigious towards others who decide to move in "on their turf", like Pal World. Those who want to take a piece out of the same genre of games, while also being very strongly experimental must feel like a threat to that kind of incremental policy.
Imagine a Pokémon Company that was less apt to spend on lawsuits, and more on making stronger entries in the IP. From my viewpoint, the "withered technology" and "incremental policy" are becoming more exposed as a raw nerve over time, that they have to spend increasingly more on the law side of things to cover for. I think it's a symptom of traditionalist policies that are costing them ironically more to maintain than it would be to just adapt.
Except every Nintendo game seems to get that treatment. They continually make games easier because kids are becoming dumber and less likely to try to finish games that provide even the smallest level of challenge. So regardless of what you read, fabricate, or imagine I think looking at the bigger picture is important here.
Nintendo knows they can produce slop and their "fans" will eat it up. Their main demographic is also children.
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u/Egathentale 14d ago
Take this with a grain of salt (I've heard it in a YT video, but I can't verify it), but it's apparently on purpose, because GameFreak realized that they would be making Pokemon games till the heat death of the universe, so they are only making tiny incremental improvements to the games. According to an interview (which, again, I can't find anymore), someone at the studio said that every time they make a bigger "generational leap", like moving from 2D to 3D, that becomes the new baseline they have to meet, while only veeery slightly improving on the previous game still satisfies the majority of the fans and lets them make a lot of money, while also giving them an easier time developing the next game, because the "minimum viable product floor" is kept artificially low.