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SwSh Is Pokemon losing steam?

The reason people think Gen 1-2 were the best is purely due to nostalgia. If you really look at it, the stories were meh and the pokemon could be really boring and unoriginal. They were mediocre. Gens 3-5 were where Pokemon starting stepping up their game, having better graphics, cooler pokemon, better story lines, etc. But the reason everyone hates Gen 5 is how they "have unoriginal pokemon". This sentiment makes me so mad. Are pokemon like Chandelure, Golurk, Victini, Leavanny, Volcarona, and Heatmor "unoriginal"?! Gens 6-8 are actually doing really well. The graphics look great, the Pokemon are amazing, the stories are awesome, and yet people hate Galar because it won't have pokemon that fit into the feel of the region. Is it really that big of a deal that Tropius won't be in Galar? NO! That's like being upset of a 24 pack of crayons when you wanted 48. That's not the amount it will have. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
If you wanted a pack of 48 and all you're being offered is 24, of course you'd be upset. That isn't the pack you wanted and it is missing a lot of important crayons.
 
The franchise itself isn't losing steam as Go is somewhat proof of that.
The problem is that the franchise is way too big. When Pokémon was little else than just the games, because these were what mattered, there could be more focus and less strings attached to the games but nowadays and as a veteran player, I feel tired of it, tired of GF not caring for older players and thinking all of these are purely Gen. I fans. At the moment I see the games as Assassin's Creed, where everyone asks and speculates on what's going to be the next region (me included), the skeleton is rotten and with little to no flesh and it lost that Japanese vibe that I liked in the games as well as the "monsters" part of the name and being more like creatures.
 
Does anyone think the anime and movies however, went on a pretty downward trend? Hence a live-action Detective Pikachu movie to change some of that.
I emphatically disagree. The XY anime was the finest I have seen in a v long time and I highly recommend it (especially XYZ). The Alola anime is admittedly nowhere near as good, but it’s also rather underrated; people judge it harshly simply due to its animation style. There are great episodes such as the ones with Stoutland, Mallow’s mother, Lillie and Gladion’s father, etc.
 
Tbh, yes. The decline has been noticeable to me as far back as when Generation 6 began, but it's gotten even more blatant now that Shield and Sword are on the horizon since Gamefreak obviously doesn't care about what the majority of fans want; Gamefreak just wants to fill their wallets. Their greed was more refined and not as exposed before (you could even pretend that they had some semblance of honor in the past), but lately their mask has slipped and they've revealed themselves to be just another corporate monster.

RIP Pokemon 1996-2013.

Image result for mariah grave gif
 
Also, a creative design is not necessarily a good one.

While this is true, I’d say the majority of gen V designs aren’t awful and the ones that are bad are generally so bizarre, ugly, or silly (think Seismitoad) that it kinda redeems them.
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Tbh, yes. The decline has been noticeable to me as far back as when Generation 6 began, but it's gotten even more blatant now that Shield and Sword are on the horizon since Gamefreak obviously doesn't care about what the majority of fans want; Gamefreak just wants to fill their wallets. Their greed was more refined and not as exposed before (you could even pretend that they had some semblance of honor in the past), but lately their mask has slipped and they've revealed themselves to be just another corporate monster.

RIP Pokemon 1996-2013.
I find this kind of sentiment outrageous, honestly.

Is it obvious that GameFreak doesn't care? What do a majority of fans want, exactly? Besides a complete dex, which it has been obvious from their statements regarding Dexit that they do care, but unfortunately the number of pokemon has reached a level of upkeep that some sacrifice has to be made now or later. They didn't make this decision lightly, they didn't look at all of the pokemon and go "Eh, who cares if we cut a few hundred?" They're not looking at the backlash and shrugging their shoulders. They're in a difficult position there.

What have they been doing exactly that is so greedy? The worst thing that I've seen to date was just putting Mew in a $50 pokeball.
 
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I don't think Pokemon is losing steam. Rather, it is that the fanbase's expectations for the mainline games has increased quite a lot through age, while Game Freak has yet increase their game's standards from what's been revealed - Other than perhaps character and Pokemon designs.

I have a feeling, though, that if Sword Shield fail badly in real reviews, it could fall to 'Sonic' popularity, but with more toys: People may still love the 'concept' and 'design' of Pokemon, and the fan art and physical merchandise will stay healthy. But the main games themselves may never be placed at the the same level - and even be treated like 'spinoffs' that just happen to intoduce the new designs to fuel the merchandise and fan headcanons.
 
Pokemon's not losing steam, it's more like it's stagnated over the past several years. GF keeps adding new features and novelties to drive up sales but the new additions are bleak compared to the older stuff from the first four or five generations. So there's no real progress other than graphics.
 
But the reason everyone hates Gen 5 is how they "have unoriginal pokemon". This sentiment makes me so mad. Are pokemon like Chandelure, Golurk, Victini, Leavanny, Volcarona, and Heatmor "unoriginal"?!

The problem is that for every original design you've got an unoriginal design too. Yes, not every 5th gen Pokemon was unoriginal but there are so many 5th gen Pokemon that are either blatant ripoffs of older Pokemon (Watchog, Unfezant, Swoobat, Gigalith, Conkeldurr, Jellicent) or share enough similarities to another Pokemon that they're pretty close (Zoroark, Swanna, Ferrothorn, Alomomola, Seismitoad).

Anyway, more to the topic, I'm not sure "losing steam" is the right way to put it, but Pokemon's definitely not what it used to be in a very negative way. The games have become far too casual and lacking in content, and Game Freak is lightyears behind the curve in terms of gameplay and design, doubly so now that they're on the same hardware as utter masterpieces as BotW and Mario Odyssey. They do seem to be taking some baby steps forward with the Wild Area, but it's blatantly obvious that they're completely clueless to the level of expectations people have for a $60 console game.
 
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So, a few things. I apologise if this is strongly worded, but these are my honest thoughts. Also apologies if these seem a bit jumbled up.

I suppose if you're the kind of person that longs for Pokemon to be how it once was in the past, then it might appear as if the games are losing steam. I mean, for better or worse, Pokemon games aren't how they were in the past; they've "grown up" in a way, but not in a way that satisfies older fans. A lot of people praise Gen 5 and put it on such a high pedestal for having memorable characters, good plot, etc, although I don't know about anyone else, but plot was the last thing I really cared about when I played my Pokemon games as a kid. Sure, it was enthralling, but it wasn't at the forefront of my mind when playing through games like Gen 5.

I think somewhere along the line, a lot of the fans' expectations for games just... skyrocketed. This is probably because they played other games and when you go back to playing Pokemon, it does feel somewhat dated technologically/graphically speaking compared to other (J)RPGs/Adventure-style games in pretty much every factor imaginable. I've even asked myself why Game Freak seems so stubborn on changing their ways and not pulling a Breath of the Wild and truly deliver something amazing for the fans to enjoy. While other Switch games -- heck, other 3DS games even -- manage to deliver such a memorable and deep experience, why does Pokemon feel so... same-y each and every generation?

But then, I realized that it's pretty much the point of Pokemon, in a sense. Not that Pokemon games can't grow up, as it were, but that the point is that it's supposed to be timeless. Call shenanigans if you'd like, but as "different" as Alola tried to be with Trial Captains and Totem Pokemon, Game Freak made sure not to stray away from their fundamental roots. However, going for the same formula each and every generation does have its consequences. Older fans are... just that, older. They'd have likely played far more games than just Pokemon compared to their childhood days. The strategy of appealing to their inner child can only work for so long before fans become weary of not having a different experience.

The only "problem" I see is that, well... as far as Game Freak is concerned, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Enough people are satisfied with Pokemon being as it is that they don't really see a need to drastically change direction from what they've been doing for 20+ years. Pokemon is just one of those games that's bigger than the plot, or the individual NPCs. It's what you, as a trainer, make it out to be. You can be a collector, a trader, a battler, or someone who speedruns or does challenges and Pokemon games have usually been flexible enough to accommodate all sorts of different playstyles, which is a large factor to why they seem to be doing so well to this day.

All of this is to say that... TLDR: Pokemon isn't necessarily losing steam yet. Especially with how popular Pokemon GO and LGPE has been, I'd say it's going full speed. That might be to the chagrin of many fans who want the good ol' days back, but that's just how things are, and it'll continue to be the case for the next generation, and the generation after that. That said, I do see where people are coming from when they want more out of their Pokemon games, because I do too, but I tamper my expectations and enjoy Pokemon gaming for what they are.

Comparing Pokemon to other games is the quickest way to demotivate one's self and demolish whatever hype or drive for the games you have. Pokemon games have never been graphically the best, or even the most feature packed, or even super deep compared to other games out there on the same system. But that's because, from my interpretation, that has never really been the goal. The goal was to appease as many people as possible by using an essentially future-proof formula: you start as a trainer, defeating Gym Leaders and eventually becoming Champion. It has worked 20 years ago, and it has continued to work 20 years later.
 
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The only "problem" I see is that, well... as far as Game Freak is concerned, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Enough people are satisfied with Pokemon being as it is that they don't really see a need to drastically change direction from what they've been doing for 20+ years. Pokemon is just one if those games that's bigger than the plot, or the individual NPCs. It's what you, as a trainer, make it out to be. You can be a collector, a trader, a battler, or someone who speedruns or does challenges and Pokemon games have usually been flexible enough to accommodate all sorts of different playstyles, which is a large factor to why they seem to be doing so well to this day.

Comparing Pokemon to other games is the quickest way to demotivate one's self and demolish whatever hype or drive for the games you have. Pokemon games have never been graphically the best, or even the most feature packed, or even super deep compared to other games out there on the same system. But that's because, from my interpretation, that has never really been the goal. The goal was to appease as many people as possible by using an essentially future-proof formula: you start as a trainer, defeating Gym Leaders and eventually becoming Champion. It has worked 20 years ago, and it has continued to work 20 years later.

I felt like my love for Animal Crossing came from these particular reasons why I liked Pokemon: It is very accessible, you get to choose how you wish to play it, and the formula is fairly intuitive. Yet Animal Crossing outdid Pokemon for me in the end, because there was much more depth to what you can do in comparison. Even though Animal Crossing is an acquired taste compared to other games, I felt like New Leaf was better as a Pokemon game than Pokemon gens VI/VII - And perhaps that's why my hype has dwindled so much for Gen. VIII.
 
I emphatically disagree. The XY anime was the finest I have seen in a v long time and I highly recommend it (especially XYZ). The Alola anime is admittedly nowhere near as good, but it’s also rather underrated; people judge it harshly simply due to its animation style. There are great episodes such as the ones with Stoutland, Mallow’s mother, Lillie and Gladion’s father, etc.
Sorry I meant the popularity of the anime, not whether the quality of them went down. This would be if less % of people watch them now then from early 2000s. I don't know if anyone knows though.
 
The anime ratings are definitely not what they used to be even in Japan relative to kids' shows. You don't even need to go as far back as the early 2000s to see a big difference; the early 2010s also work.

In terms of the movies, the nostalgic approach (not so much last year) in this generation has rectified the 2012-2016 decline. I don't think they can sustain that, though.
 
Sorry I meant the popularity of the anime, not whether the quality of them went down. This would be if less % of people watch them now then from early 2000s. I don't know if anyone knows though.
Ah okay, yeah unfortunately after the dumpster fire that was [most of] the BW anime, ratings really went down. Which is a huge shame bc of how great XY was.
 
...since Gamefreak obviously doesn't care about what the majority of fans want; Gamefreak just wants to fill their wallets.
Technicality: you do not speak for "the majority", as we do not have reliable statistics on the actual size of the fanbase (a majority being 50% of). Of course, that latter line is more than obvious (as in, there's more to it than how obvious it is that commercial entities just want to make money). If enough people are willing to buy the end result (the next canon-defining Pokemon game) regardless of quality or concerns, then Game Freak has an (almost) consequence-free environment. For much the same reason that anti-consumer practices plague a lot of AAA-published titles (e.g: microtransactions) -- the people criticizing it DO NOT outweigh the larger audience who (in one form or another) endorses said companies' products with their wallets despite said criticisms.
 
Yeah the franchise is slowly dying and what makes it frustrating is that Game Freak are the ones who have crashed the ship into the iceberg themselves by focusing on temporary gimmicks that they ditch after a generation or two rather than on long lasting quality. They're also condescending to alot of fans as seen with Masuda's recent passive aggressive apology message and refusal to do something about the Dexit thing.
 
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