Yamato-san
yandere=awesome
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2003
- Messages
- 1,414
- Reaction score
- 2
so, as we should all probably be able to assume by now, the roster of Pokemon, as well as their moves and abilities, are pretty much permanent for each and every future iteration of this series. However, does it seem to you like GameFreak has a tendency to incorporate some gimmick with several of these Pokemon that, regardless of how much usage said gimmick actually gets, they're now forced to use from now on due to the way it affects the Pokemon within the roster? Let's see what we have so far:
-Baby Pokemon. All those introduced past generation 2 have to be obtained with an incense item. While it's commendable that GameFreak apparently tries to stay consistent with previous generations by explaining why the evolved Pokemon were hatching from eggs in the first place, it seems a little unnecessary when they're being forced to make these items accessible in some way within every game. At least with generation 5, they've wizened up a little and just made them easily accessible from a shop, rather than littering them along the ground in various places.
-Forme changes and area-specific evolutions. As with Baby Pokemon, these require either an item or some kind of event to take place (like going up to a meteorite or appliance). Sure, in generation 3, they just had Deoxys with one form per game (form differences still being relatively new at this point), but once generation 4 hit, they've kinda gone out of their way to incorporate all of them within a single game, even in spite of the fact that they introduced new forms for Giratina, Shaymin, and Rotom MID-GENERATION. This kinda caused some trading issues, and Heart/Soul kinda needed to incorporate these form-changing methods as well due to coming out after Platinum (though, they didn't HAVE to include a way of changing Deoxys's form as well, since you could just as well trade one from DPPt, just like how certain Pokemon can't evolve in HGSS). With a new generation, all the trading issues should be resolved, but Shaymin Sky Forme is still locked to whatever games have a Gracidea Flower, and due to the items from the previous generation being cut off, they still need to somehow incorporate all the items within Black and White once again. Also, there's no telling whether they'll introduce mid-generation forms again (though common speculation is that they will do so for Kyurem). Location-specific evolutions are also tricky, as now every generation (though not necessarily every game) will have to incorporate an area that allows them somehow.
-Honey. I'm not sure if anyone's willing to argue otherwise, but a lot of us really didn't enjoy slathering this shit on the trees and waiting. Apparently, this concept was abandoned as early as HGSS, but there's a bit of a problem: one of the Pokemon's abilities revolves around randomly carrying honey after a battle (and now, yet another one via the Dream World). I guess they've kinda sidestepped the issue by just leaving Honey in the game as a slightly useless item (made all the more useless due to Mitsuhoney/Combee learning Sweet Scent, so even the effect of attracting wild Pokemon is lost) that could be sold for a very pisspoor amount of money. Poor Mitsuhoney, got stuck with an ability that's now pretty much completely useless.
-Hold items. Although I won't say there's a rule that items are unchanging between generations (we lost a few between generations 2 and 3, like Berserk Gene, and we also lost generation 3's E-reader berries, not to mention Key Items being restricted to their respective games), they nonetheless seem to have stayed consistent in keeping Pokemon-specific hold items (like Light Ball and Thick Club), not to mention items required for evolution. This probably isn't too much of a problem, just a few more bits of data in the game's listings, but if they decide to start off a new generation with the items cut off (like generation 5 did), they need to incorporate some method of finding these items once more. As of right now, Latias and Latios are missing their Soul Dew in generation 5, though we can bet they'll get it back in a future game release. At least Arceus has access to his Plates (though they're only one-per-game right now).
-Berries. While originally introduced in generation 2 as some shapeless objects that heal a status condition or whatever, they had a lot more flavor (no pun intended) inserted into them in generation 3. Not only that, but they introduced several berries solely for the purpose of being used for Contests. While in Emerald, they added an EV-reducing affect to some of these, a lot of them were still contest-exclusive.... and then generation 4 came and introduced Natural Gift, an attack where the typing and power solely relies on what berry's being held. Generation 5 seems to have complicated things by removing Contests and having berries grown in the Dream World. So far as I know, not all the berries are currently available after the item cut-off this gen, but they'll probably incorporate them eventually (especially if Ruby/Sapphire remakes actually do happen). On a similar note, I thought that Hinbass/Feebas's evolution relying on its Beauty stat would've ensured Contests remaining, but apparently, they got around this. In HGSS, they made haircuts increase the stat, and now in generation 5, they just introduced a completely new evolution item. Well, I guess GameFreak got their way out of one of these.
-Seasons. With Shikijika/Deerling, I really don't see how they're going to pull off NOT having these in future games. But then again, they apparently got rid of Day and Night in the 3rd generation, despite two of Eievui's evolutions depending on it. Still, they kinda resolved that issue with having RSE's in-game clock at least detect AM and PM (but not actually show off a nighttime environment). Seasons seem like they could be a bit more complicated, however.
-HMs. Yeah, you know how this goes. In-battle, the majority of these work as very shitty attacks, but apparently serve a purpose outside of battle. However, they only serve an out-of-battle purpose in certain games. In the 4th gen's case, it didn't even apply to every game made that generation (DPPt and HGSS have either De-Fog or Whirlpool, respectively). Some of these, like De-Fog, really seem like something we could've done without, and now, it looks like they're just a part of the attack list (which seems about as permanent as the Pokemon).
Some of these things don't seem like they'd take much to incorporate into a game. With something like seasons though, I'll have to see how things go later down the line. And while most of the gimmicks haven't been completely done away with, you do get the feeling that GameFreak could've put a lot more thought into them before making them permanently involved with the games' cast of playable characters (namely the Honey). And with GameFreak having to keep up not only with their list of Pokemon, but also all these little things that are intertwined with their Pokemon as they program each new game, it makes me wonder if they're going to slip up at some point (if they haven't already).
-Baby Pokemon. All those introduced past generation 2 have to be obtained with an incense item. While it's commendable that GameFreak apparently tries to stay consistent with previous generations by explaining why the evolved Pokemon were hatching from eggs in the first place, it seems a little unnecessary when they're being forced to make these items accessible in some way within every game. At least with generation 5, they've wizened up a little and just made them easily accessible from a shop, rather than littering them along the ground in various places.
-Forme changes and area-specific evolutions. As with Baby Pokemon, these require either an item or some kind of event to take place (like going up to a meteorite or appliance). Sure, in generation 3, they just had Deoxys with one form per game (form differences still being relatively new at this point), but once generation 4 hit, they've kinda gone out of their way to incorporate all of them within a single game, even in spite of the fact that they introduced new forms for Giratina, Shaymin, and Rotom MID-GENERATION. This kinda caused some trading issues, and Heart/Soul kinda needed to incorporate these form-changing methods as well due to coming out after Platinum (though, they didn't HAVE to include a way of changing Deoxys's form as well, since you could just as well trade one from DPPt, just like how certain Pokemon can't evolve in HGSS). With a new generation, all the trading issues should be resolved, but Shaymin Sky Forme is still locked to whatever games have a Gracidea Flower, and due to the items from the previous generation being cut off, they still need to somehow incorporate all the items within Black and White once again. Also, there's no telling whether they'll introduce mid-generation forms again (though common speculation is that they will do so for Kyurem). Location-specific evolutions are also tricky, as now every generation (though not necessarily every game) will have to incorporate an area that allows them somehow.
-Honey. I'm not sure if anyone's willing to argue otherwise, but a lot of us really didn't enjoy slathering this shit on the trees and waiting. Apparently, this concept was abandoned as early as HGSS, but there's a bit of a problem: one of the Pokemon's abilities revolves around randomly carrying honey after a battle (and now, yet another one via the Dream World). I guess they've kinda sidestepped the issue by just leaving Honey in the game as a slightly useless item (made all the more useless due to Mitsuhoney/Combee learning Sweet Scent, so even the effect of attracting wild Pokemon is lost) that could be sold for a very pisspoor amount of money. Poor Mitsuhoney, got stuck with an ability that's now pretty much completely useless.
-Hold items. Although I won't say there's a rule that items are unchanging between generations (we lost a few between generations 2 and 3, like Berserk Gene, and we also lost generation 3's E-reader berries, not to mention Key Items being restricted to their respective games), they nonetheless seem to have stayed consistent in keeping Pokemon-specific hold items (like Light Ball and Thick Club), not to mention items required for evolution. This probably isn't too much of a problem, just a few more bits of data in the game's listings, but if they decide to start off a new generation with the items cut off (like generation 5 did), they need to incorporate some method of finding these items once more. As of right now, Latias and Latios are missing their Soul Dew in generation 5, though we can bet they'll get it back in a future game release. At least Arceus has access to his Plates (though they're only one-per-game right now).
-Berries. While originally introduced in generation 2 as some shapeless objects that heal a status condition or whatever, they had a lot more flavor (no pun intended) inserted into them in generation 3. Not only that, but they introduced several berries solely for the purpose of being used for Contests. While in Emerald, they added an EV-reducing affect to some of these, a lot of them were still contest-exclusive.... and then generation 4 came and introduced Natural Gift, an attack where the typing and power solely relies on what berry's being held. Generation 5 seems to have complicated things by removing Contests and having berries grown in the Dream World. So far as I know, not all the berries are currently available after the item cut-off this gen, but they'll probably incorporate them eventually (especially if Ruby/Sapphire remakes actually do happen). On a similar note, I thought that Hinbass/Feebas's evolution relying on its Beauty stat would've ensured Contests remaining, but apparently, they got around this. In HGSS, they made haircuts increase the stat, and now in generation 5, they just introduced a completely new evolution item. Well, I guess GameFreak got their way out of one of these.
-Seasons. With Shikijika/Deerling, I really don't see how they're going to pull off NOT having these in future games. But then again, they apparently got rid of Day and Night in the 3rd generation, despite two of Eievui's evolutions depending on it. Still, they kinda resolved that issue with having RSE's in-game clock at least detect AM and PM (but not actually show off a nighttime environment). Seasons seem like they could be a bit more complicated, however.
-HMs. Yeah, you know how this goes. In-battle, the majority of these work as very shitty attacks, but apparently serve a purpose outside of battle. However, they only serve an out-of-battle purpose in certain games. In the 4th gen's case, it didn't even apply to every game made that generation (DPPt and HGSS have either De-Fog or Whirlpool, respectively). Some of these, like De-Fog, really seem like something we could've done without, and now, it looks like they're just a part of the attack list (which seems about as permanent as the Pokemon).
Some of these things don't seem like they'd take much to incorporate into a game. With something like seasons though, I'll have to see how things go later down the line. And while most of the gimmicks haven't been completely done away with, you do get the feeling that GameFreak could've put a lot more thought into them before making them permanently involved with the games' cast of playable characters (namely the Honey). And with GameFreak having to keep up not only with their list of Pokemon, but also all these little things that are intertwined with their Pokemon as they program each new game, it makes me wonder if they're going to slip up at some point (if they haven't already).