charlycicero
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Well. Since there is no other thread I can talk about this in, plus I want to have my own space to dwell in, I'll start this little blog. I'm not much of a blog writer, but I'll try my best at least for a little while.
Since Pokemon is one of my all time favorite franchises, and it is still going strong today, I have high hopes for it to be even better in the future. It is already amazing with all its rich lore and wide variety of Pocket Monsters, but there are always things to be improved. I'll list a few aspects that could be improved or included in the franchise. All are IMHO.
1. A LOT MORE VARIETY IN THE MAIN GAMES
I'll explain myself. The main games have at least two main components that have not varied since the franchise started:
A) You have no option but to play the game with a child avatar (the oldest ones seem to be in Unova but they still look in their early teens)
B) You always aim to become the champion TRAINER of the region
This is by now pretty much a tradition for any Pokemon player and fan, all is good and dandy and should not go away. But how about a different approach? Maybe G.F. should not replace these components but give us as players more choices, such as having an adult for an avatar, or even having a different "type" of person/ profession/ aspiration. Not everyone in the Pokemon Universe is a TRAINER, and it has been established over many main installments that there are many professions that can and do benefit from a partnership with Pokemon. I.e. there are doctors, there are detectives/ police forces, there are even artists.
How about a side series or spin-offs where the main focus is other than being a child trainer? Maybe have more games like Detective Pikachu, where a detective and his Pokemon are investigating a series of heists that may eventually lead to a threat of war? I mean, there has been mentions of wars in the Pokemon World (the AZ plotline...), so why not having criminal organizations or governments with more realistic or mature intentions? Just a thought.
2. MORE FLESHED OUT CHARACTERS
I know, I know. Pokemon is meant for children it seems... but at the same time, it is not. Or it shouldn't be. All Pokemon fans are NOT children, plenty of us grew with the franchise and now are adults. So it is fair to say that we deserve more mature plotlines at this point. And more mature and fleshed out characters. N is a good example of a Pokemon character done right. But he is about the only example I can think of. Maybe Sonia is a good character too, since you watch her grow and become a Professor, taking the mantle of the current one, which is very cool. Or maybe have side quests that dwell deeper in the lives of certain side characters, such as Opal. What's her whole story? What was like to be a trainer or a Gym Leader when Opal was young? How different was it, and how different was the relationship of humans with the Pokemon?
Better written characters are not absent in the franchise, but they are certainly not the norm. Most criminal masterminds are a joke, and most rivals, Gym Trainers and Champions are almost carbon copies of earlier ones. Unova is again a good example of how the plot can involve side characters more, and this could be exploited in future installments. Galar, on the other hand, didn't really explore the Gym Leaders (for instance), aside of the card they gave us in the games. Rose as a villain was very rushed, I feel, and could have been an interesting one if they gave him more time in the plot... and a more realistic goal, or at least better explained. It kind of came out of nowhere.
3. PLENTY OF INCONSISTENCIES IN THE UNIVERSE ITSELF (THAT SHOULD BE RECTIFIED OR EVEN AVOIDED)
We all know how the Pokedexes of the world actually seem to troll us players and even NPCs. Don't Pokedex entries sound a lot more like hearsay / vox populli and a lot less like actual knowledge of the Pokemon species? What are exactly the Pokemon Professors doing, just relying on 11-year-olds to "gather" the information for them? That's why it is kind of hilarious when we as fans and players discover just how much the entries contradict each other, or how blown out some "facts" are. I know Pokemon are meant to be powerful, for the most part, but some entries are just ridiculous. They sound like the 11-year-olds wrote them, actually.
Maybe all this is deliberate from G.F., but I find the inconsistencies and exaggerations to be rather funny, and not in the best of ways. How about having a Pokedex system for researchers and Professors, and the normal Pokedexes are just tools for the 11-year-old avatars to go about their journey collecting the Pokemon. It's true they don't need full essays for each species, but there should be a knowledge system that has deeper and more accurate info about Pokemon, only accessible to certain people. Maybe we could have access to these "Pro Pokedexes" once we become champions of the region, as a side quest or something.
That, or just say out loud that children can casually have weapons of mass destruction at their disposal and can use them as they see fit. It makes us wonder... how is the Pokemon world still existing then? Shouldn't it have obliterated itself long ago, as it seems to have basically gods roaming around instead of animals like in our world?
Anyways... that's it for now. Maybe I'm overthinking this, but since I care a lot about Pokemon, I don't mind taking time thinking about the franchise, and how it could be improved, at least on a personal level. It's fun, at the very least. And I'm certainly not the only crazy one who does it.
Thanks for reading.
Since Pokemon is one of my all time favorite franchises, and it is still going strong today, I have high hopes for it to be even better in the future. It is already amazing with all its rich lore and wide variety of Pocket Monsters, but there are always things to be improved. I'll list a few aspects that could be improved or included in the franchise. All are IMHO.
1. A LOT MORE VARIETY IN THE MAIN GAMES
I'll explain myself. The main games have at least two main components that have not varied since the franchise started:
A) You have no option but to play the game with a child avatar (the oldest ones seem to be in Unova but they still look in their early teens)
B) You always aim to become the champion TRAINER of the region
This is by now pretty much a tradition for any Pokemon player and fan, all is good and dandy and should not go away. But how about a different approach? Maybe G.F. should not replace these components but give us as players more choices, such as having an adult for an avatar, or even having a different "type" of person/ profession/ aspiration. Not everyone in the Pokemon Universe is a TRAINER, and it has been established over many main installments that there are many professions that can and do benefit from a partnership with Pokemon. I.e. there are doctors, there are detectives/ police forces, there are even artists.
How about a side series or spin-offs where the main focus is other than being a child trainer? Maybe have more games like Detective Pikachu, where a detective and his Pokemon are investigating a series of heists that may eventually lead to a threat of war? I mean, there has been mentions of wars in the Pokemon World (the AZ plotline...), so why not having criminal organizations or governments with more realistic or mature intentions? Just a thought.
2. MORE FLESHED OUT CHARACTERS
I know, I know. Pokemon is meant for children it seems... but at the same time, it is not. Or it shouldn't be. All Pokemon fans are NOT children, plenty of us grew with the franchise and now are adults. So it is fair to say that we deserve more mature plotlines at this point. And more mature and fleshed out characters. N is a good example of a Pokemon character done right. But he is about the only example I can think of. Maybe Sonia is a good character too, since you watch her grow and become a Professor, taking the mantle of the current one, which is very cool. Or maybe have side quests that dwell deeper in the lives of certain side characters, such as Opal. What's her whole story? What was like to be a trainer or a Gym Leader when Opal was young? How different was it, and how different was the relationship of humans with the Pokemon?
Better written characters are not absent in the franchise, but they are certainly not the norm. Most criminal masterminds are a joke, and most rivals, Gym Trainers and Champions are almost carbon copies of earlier ones. Unova is again a good example of how the plot can involve side characters more, and this could be exploited in future installments. Galar, on the other hand, didn't really explore the Gym Leaders (for instance), aside of the card they gave us in the games. Rose as a villain was very rushed, I feel, and could have been an interesting one if they gave him more time in the plot... and a more realistic goal, or at least better explained. It kind of came out of nowhere.
3. PLENTY OF INCONSISTENCIES IN THE UNIVERSE ITSELF (THAT SHOULD BE RECTIFIED OR EVEN AVOIDED)
We all know how the Pokedexes of the world actually seem to troll us players and even NPCs. Don't Pokedex entries sound a lot more like hearsay / vox populli and a lot less like actual knowledge of the Pokemon species? What are exactly the Pokemon Professors doing, just relying on 11-year-olds to "gather" the information for them? That's why it is kind of hilarious when we as fans and players discover just how much the entries contradict each other, or how blown out some "facts" are. I know Pokemon are meant to be powerful, for the most part, but some entries are just ridiculous. They sound like the 11-year-olds wrote them, actually.
Maybe all this is deliberate from G.F., but I find the inconsistencies and exaggerations to be rather funny, and not in the best of ways. How about having a Pokedex system for researchers and Professors, and the normal Pokedexes are just tools for the 11-year-old avatars to go about their journey collecting the Pokemon. It's true they don't need full essays for each species, but there should be a knowledge system that has deeper and more accurate info about Pokemon, only accessible to certain people. Maybe we could have access to these "Pro Pokedexes" once we become champions of the region, as a side quest or something.
That, or just say out loud that children can casually have weapons of mass destruction at their disposal and can use them as they see fit. It makes us wonder... how is the Pokemon world still existing then? Shouldn't it have obliterated itself long ago, as it seems to have basically gods roaming around instead of animals like in our world?
Anyways... that's it for now. Maybe I'm overthinking this, but since I care a lot about Pokemon, I don't mind taking time thinking about the franchise, and how it could be improved, at least on a personal level. It's fun, at the very least. And I'm certainly not the only crazy one who does it.
Thanks for reading.
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