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Why don't Gamefreak care about the fans anymore?

pokepal_123

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As of the last two generations, it seems that Gamefreak really doesn't care much about what the fans want at all, with the recent USUM interview all but confirming that for me.

They seem to ignore that most fans care more about actual content rather than just the story, which is what made Platinum so fun with the vast region to explore with many hidden areas and actual post-game content with the Battle Frontier which is what makes you want pour your energy into the game for hours, the same of which can't be said about the recent where you would put down the game once the main story is over.

In addition to areas, we got actually cool areas such as Distortion World which had a really unique puzzle, and wasn't just a pretty looking corridor or hallway which looks to be the case with USUM.

It shows how much effort and thought they put into the games back then, thinking about what fans would enjoy about the games first, rather the their " let's make everything pretty and casualised" approach they have adopted approach, with USUM looking to be a 40- hour movie rather then a game with the excessive cutscenes and areas which have no uniqueness or substance to them.
 
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I'm talking about in general of the past two gens, I'm just using USUM as an example based on what I've seen so far.

That's my point- the arguments should be from some released game's perspective since we really don’t know anything about USUM. We really cannot say anything for sure regarding it.

I think things will change for the Switch since It's a home console, unlike 3DS, so the mobile competition philosophy may take a backseat. And the games are likely to be costlier ($50 per version is my guess) and since GF will never remove the two version concept to make one unified version (remember, Pokemon's entire philosophy revolves around social experiences and trading between two versions), they'll have to up the quality of their games to please console players.

GameFreak will have gradually increase their standards since they're now on the same platform as games like Super Mario Odyssey and Zelda:Breath of the Wild, among many other great games.
 
they pretend to dont care, but dont want to overdoo something too much.

Little steps...

what Fans wanted and got:
-they gave us 3D pokemon games,
-a very fast water starter(Greninja),
-now we have more dual typed staters(drem come true)
-mega evolution--> charizard X fire/dragon
-Z-moves
-more interesting abilities using priority
-terrains(hope for more interractions with abilities, types and moves.
Magnetism-electric terrain, steel types??? hello, magnet pull could immobilize a steel type the first turn)

Hope Gale Wings works by 50% of HP and not 100%.

- Gengar got nerfed
 
They really don't seem to care about fans unless they're casuals or to a lesser degree competitive fans. Everyone else just doesn't exist to them. They designed the 3DS games under the impression that mobile was dominant and that everything would eventually go mobile so they had to design the games like mobile games. Clearly, they were wrong about that. I do feel this is going to change with the Switch, console gamers want pretty much the opposite of mobile philosophy so they're going to have to start paying attention to complaints about things like linearity and lack of content to really appeal to the new console audience they're gaining on the Switch.
 
they pretend to dont care, but dont want to overdoo something too much.

Little steps...

what Fans wanted and got:
-they gave us 3D pokemon games,
-a very fast water starter(Greninja),
-now we have more dual typed staters(drem come true)
-mega evolution--> charizard X fire/dragon
-Z-moves
-more interesting abilities using priority
-terrains(hope for more interractions with abilities, types and moves.
Magnetism-electric terrain, steel types??? hello, magnet pull could immobilize a steel type the first turn)

Hope Gale Wings works by 50% of HP and not 100%.

- Gengar got nerfed
All we need now is a dolphin pokemon.
 
It's not that they don't care, it's just... well, you know how every Christmas (and I recognize that this analogy is culturally exclusive af but bear with me) you have that relative who means well but gets you a present that you don't have any use for or that pertains to something you grew out of a while back?

It's kind of like that, but

also

Keep in mind that you're not seven years old and so a lot of what they're doing isn't meant to appeal to you as much. And there's the question of, are you the minority? People often use the term "casuals" in a degrading way but most of the time the "casuals" are... a lot of people, probably quite a lot more than the number of people who care enough to go onto a Pokémon-themed forum to complain about things and make "Why have you forsaken me?" threads.

That being said, I do think that Bolt's post is relevant. They really did think that mobile was going to be the next big competitor and that the Switch wouldn't garner much interest, and that likely influenced their way of designing the games. Although again, a lot of that was probably determined with children in mind ("Do they want to lug a Switch around on the playground?") rather than the playerbase of Bulbagarden forums.

In addition to areas, we got actually cool areas such as Distortion World which had a really unique puzzle, the and wasn't just a pretty looking corroded or hallway looks to be the case with USUM.

I think that's more just the price that has to be paid in order to have the full-scale overworld graphics. It's unsatisfying in terms of exploration, but that goes for the whole region. It sure does look pretty, though...
 
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Well, I for one never gave a single flying fuck about the Battle Frontier (and don’t really understand people’s obsession with it.) I also play Pokémon for the story, just like I play every game. So your specific complaints don’t represent me in the slightest.

I do wish there were more things to do post-game, and I do wish we could see some lesser loved features (like Gym Leader/Captain rematches) come back. But eh.
 
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To be honest, I don't think Pokemon fans are very united in terms of what they want.
Pokemon fans are a diverse group of people from different cultural backgrounds, and they all want different stuff.

People who think they represent "Pokemon fans" really need to read more of what OTHER Pokemon fans want.

To be honest, Black and White was very well received by Japanese fans because of the story content, and honestly, many Pokemon fans do care about the in-game story.
 
It is funny how people expect Game Freak to magically change their current approach when developing a Pokemon game when moving on the Switch. There is a reason why Masuda and Ohmori asked fans to not have unreasonable expectations regarding the Switch game. It´s because not much is gonna change aside of 1) playing on a TV screen for the first time, 2) having slightly better graphics and 3) a slightly less linear region.

If you consider Pokemon to be "casual" now in Gen VI and VII, you are likely to see the same approach in Gen VIII on the Switch.

I mean, the games have gradually became more linear and less puzzle heavy over time, despite the hardware becoming more powerful: Unova is more linear than Sinnoh, Kalos is more linear than Unova, and Alola is more linear than Kalos. So it´s not a matter of what hardaware the game is made on: the 3DS has more processing power than the DS, so, after AAAAAAALL the "hardcore fans" rants regarding how linear Unova and Kalos were, if GF actually took those fans´ opinions in account, they would´ve made Alola a lot less linear than the former 2.

Instead, they actually made Alola even more starightforward and linear. Why? Because the actual target audience probably appreciates it, and the hardocres aren´t that target audience. And GF are not gonna suddenly decide to change their target audience for a more mature one just because they moved on a new hardware. Going on the Switch will not make them change their approach.
 
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Seeing people’s complaints, that alone will be great for the ‘fanbase’.
This is exactly my point: I think it wont be enough, because it will not be drastic at all.

That is why I fear the fans that are expecting significant changes in region design for the Switch era of Pokemon will once again be disappointed and claim that the developers, once again, "betrayed them".
 
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I don't mind the linearity of the in-game story so much as the railroading you through it. If you absolutely have to gate off the player's progress, I would prefer it to be a natural feature that is a passive obstacle which you need some kind of as-yet-unknown ability (HM/Ride Pokemon) to progress past. DON'T just stick an NPC there telling you you're not allowed to go there yet. I get that for some places having an NPC roadblock makes perfect sense (Victory Road's badge check being a perfect example) but as a general rule, the design team needs to re-think whether the player should really be prohibited from accessing an area yet, why and how.
 
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Also, I will make a confession: I don´t mind the current linearity of Pokemon regions. I actually like being told where to go in a game. I like the game telling you where you should go (from point A to point B to point X). Because I actually would rather postpone exploration and extra areas to explore as a postgame activity. I don´t like a complicated puzzle during the main game that actually hinders my game progression, since I like to finish the main game ASAP, because the postgame is where I aim at in a Pokemon game.

There, I said it.

And I am as hardcore as it gets regarding Pokemon games, especially about having a lot of optional content like Battle Frontier, PWT, Contests, Secret Bases, etc. so this comes to show you different hardcore fans have different tastes. Not all want the same stuff.
 
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They explained way back in an Iwata Asks that the linearity of Unova was a reaction to reports they'd gotten that Sinnoh was proving too difficult for younger players to navigate and that they were giving up before even beating the game. Clearly GF took that to heart. I wouldn't expect the degree of linearity to change very much, especially since linear paths probably also make their own lives easier by offering an automatically steady plot progression and level curve to build the game around.
 
Well, I can relate to that a lot. I had never tried to finish a Sinnoh game before and so in June I decided to finally play Platinum, from start to finish. I actually had to look for help on youtube like 2 or 3 times. And this has never happened to me in any other Pokemon game. And I can´t say I liked it. I had problems in Solaceon Ruins, and especially in Distortion World.

I also couldnt find the way to that long snowy route because apparantly I had forgotten to talk to this Plasma administrative in Veilstone, so the wall in Mt. Coronet wouldn´t open. Now I am at the BF in Platinum and I can easily say that I much prefer the design of BW2 Unova, for example, despite people claiming Unova is linear (as if that was a factually bad thing).
 
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I can’t really remember how I fared on my first run through Sinnoh (I got Platinum, HG, and White at the same time once I finally got a DS and was waaaaaaaay too excited to play White to care much about the other two), but I do know that I dislike all of the back-and-forth in it. Can’t go north or west of Jubilife so go east to Oreburgh. Oh but you can’t go north of Oreburgh so go back to Jubilife so you can go north this time. Can’t go north of Solaceon because Psyducks (!?!?) so go to Veilstone and then head down to Pastoria. Now you’re gonna’ go all the way back up to Solaceon so you can get past the Psyduck so you can go to Celestic. Now you’re done with Celestic so go all the way back to Jubilife so you can finally go west. For one city and a cave. Then go back to Veilstone and then go up the mountain you’ve crossed through twice now. Then you go north of the Wall mountain and trudge through deep snow (confession: the masochist in me likes it though) so you can go to... one city. Then go back to the Veilstone/Pastoria area again so you can finally go to Sunyshore. I’m cross-eyed now. :confused:
 
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