Minor improvements Pokemon Z ABSOLUTELY needs.

[skyradiant]

X/Y definitely need major improvements, but since this thread is only for minor improvements, I'm only focusing on the following:
- Better movesets: Diantha's Gardevoir should know Hyper Voice, Psyshock, Focus Blast, and either Shadow Ball or Calm Mind instead of Moonblast, Psychic, Thunderbolt, and Shadow Ball. Likewise, Lysandre's Gyarados should know Dragon Dance, Waterfall, Crunch, and either Earthquake or Ice Fang. That would really help the difficulty.
- Shard Move Tutors: I'm really not a fan of having to get BP, and having shards return would make sense after Platinum and B2/W2.
- No roaming birds: Since Kalos has no minor resident legendary trio, I think the legendary birds should appear before the post-game, and all three of them should be available and stationary, the former since they're already in the Coastal 'Dex.
- Better customization for guys: Quite a few other people have already mentioned this, but I'm mentioning this just because I agree it should be implemented.
- Mega Evolution for the E4: After OR/AS, this should at least be implemented in the post-game rematches. Siebold has Gyarados, Malva has Houndoom, Drasna has Altaria, and Wilkstrom has Scizor, all of those Pokémon can Mega Evolve.

 

[Jersey Jimmy]

More character customization options. Maybe base them off different fashion styles - punk, formal, emo, beachwear, etc.

 

[Zeb]

EDIT: Also, not so many megas this time. Game Freak are being too careless with megas, and if they keep this rate up, they'll be out of potential good candidates in no time at all. I personally argue a lot of them weren't good candidates in the first place, but what do I know?

I think they can get away with adding another 20 or so, I think they just need to NOT focus on them so much pre-release like ORAS did. ORAS pre-release marketing was basically Megas and an odd feature or two, which made the Megas a prickly topic; everyone wanted to see other stuff but all it was every month was Megas Megas Megas. If they leave a bunch of them for us to find ourselves when we play (like XY did), rather than focusing Z's entire marketing around them, then I think that would be ok and people would be less burnt out with Megas. It's the fact they were so shoved in our face before ORAS I'd say.

 

[Winterdaze]

Larger teams and better movesets for the Gym Leaders/E4. Each Gym Leader should have at least three Pokemon, those after the fourth badge should have at least four, and Elite Four at least five.

Also they really need to fix the frame-rate drop that happens during horde battles and the split screen camera view.

 

[Mitchman]

-Custom gym themes. Custom buildings for everyone would be even better, could work like if after XY they brought it over from Unova.
-Cynthia Cameo. Not needed for battles, just continuity.
-Ponytail for the male PC.
-Proper glasses, and not just sunglasses on the hat. Oh and sandals.
-The bike races need to happen.

 

[Zeb]

-Custom gym themes. Custom buildings for everyone would be even better, could work like if after XY they brought it over from Unova.

Definitely one of the better things about BW/B2W2 was the gyms looking unique and having their own theme (in B2W2 only in the latter case). As usual, Game Freak scrap it come the next set of games.

 

[Boss1708]

How they will make Pokemon Z (or whatever they call it/them) will probably tell us what direction they have decided to take about the franchise.

My feeling is, they are trying to avoid making the ULTIMATE Pokemon Game. Since the Johto remakes, in every following game, they have been adding great new features, and taking great features out.

The Gen 2 remakes had almost everything a Pokemon Game needs: Two regions to explore, and a BF. And to top it all, your pokemon could follow you.

Then in B/W none of that was there. Instead they added the metropoli. Then in BW2 they added difficulty modes and the PWT, two awesome additions.

Then in Gen 6 they took those additions out, but added customization. Then in the Gen 3 remakes this was removed for some reason... but Pokemon Contests were added, and Soaring was introduced, and Secret Base return too. But differently from Emerald, Gym Leaders could not be rebattled. But the Elite Four team upgraded after the first time you defeat them.

It almost looks as if they were scared to make a product with ALL those great features together!

So what they make with Pokemon Z will probably show us the direction they have chosen for the franchise. Will they finally give us a complete product with all the great features, both minor and major (including difficulty modes, BF, Contests, Soaring, customization, rebattling gym leaders, etc) or will they continue with their current idea of making every game feel "unique" because it has features that the other Pokemon games don´t have.

PD And speaking of minor improvements, how about if your character finally gets to take his hat off ? I like hats sometimes... but usually would prefer no hat at all.

 

[GhostFingers]

- Shard Move Tutors: I'm really not a fan of having to get BP, and having shards return would make sense after Platinum and B2/W2.

NNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Shards are bad and here's why: In B2W2 the best moves were taught by the yellow shard guy. Meaning i have about 50 green shards, only 2 yellows and nothing to do with them but keep going around and around Unova for a month until i can buy more moves. In gen IV the moves cost 8 shards of various colours, meaning almost the same thing. I can't buy the moves i really want because they require 6 reds and i have only 2. So i have to dig underground for ages searching for shards and unearthing multiple hard stones in the process.

At least with BP the currency is the same. It's still bad, because you want to spend BP on the rare TMs and other items. (I'm a fan of the orbs myself - Toxic orb, Flame orb, Life orb etc.) Perhaps the MTs should just give you moves for free since that's how TMs work now - once you have access the learning of moves is reusable. It would make competitive battling easier too, but without compromising the overall difficulty of the game since you can't access the MTs until you complete it (i think).

 

[firepanda]

How they will make Pokemon Z (or whatever they call it/them) will probably tell us what direction they have decided to take about the franchise.

My feeling is, they are trying to avoid making the ULTIMATE Pokemon Game.

*snip*

It almost looks as if they were scared to make a product with ALL those great features together!

Making the best Pokemon game evah isn't financially viable. Nintendo, like all companies, exists to make money. Every feature needs to somehow generate more money than is lost through manhours, opportunity costs etc. So I get why not every feature gets included.

BUT that doesn't excuse the frequency of the chopping and changing. I get that they need new stuff to market each game, but it's extremely frustrating to see great features removed each and every iteration. I think the only side features that have been able to 'survive' a gen skip are contests which were eventually downgraded to musicals then scrapped. I think an extremely sexy game could be made just with secret bases and customisation as side content (those were the best received features). Alternatively, following Pokemon was also popular, so that could be there instead (but that's a lot of work in 3D). My point is, why do they constantly change things up, rather than keep the stuff that's popular and works?

 

[Floris]

Beginner, Normal and Challenge Mode selection from the start of the game. So that it can be less boringly easy when I want.

Player models with more reasonable proportions in the overworld when compared to the NPC's.

 

[EmpoleonProd]

Battle Frontier. I went through my "Pokemon isn't cool anymore" phase before Emerald came out, so I never got to play it. Would love to see what the fuss was about.

Also, I like the reverse-GTS idea. If I may, I'd tag an ammendment to changing the GTS: make it so people can't request event Pokemon. I want your Chimchar. I don't want to give you a Meloetta for it...

The Battle Frontier was the best man, if you were one of those people who could breed and train your Pokemon right to have a solid set of 5 or 6 competitive Pokemon, it felt like you were playing actual people like you, that's how tough the AI was, even in Platinum or HG/SS the Frontier was tough, but Emerald was what really got me because the anime around that time had Ash going through the same facilities and same battles. It wasn't for everybody, it took a long time, but it provided me with a lot of fun battles.

 

[Azusa Aizawa]

- Shard Move Tutors: I'm really not a fan of having to get BP, and having shards return would make sense after Platinum and B2/W2.

NNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Shards are bad and here's why: In B2W2 the best moves were taught by the yellow shard guy. Meaning i have about 50 green shards, only 2 yellows and nothing to do with them but keep going around and around Unova for a month until i can buy more moves. In gen IV the moves cost 8 shards of various colours, meaning almost the same thing. I can't buy the moves i really want because they require 6 reds and i have only 2. So i have to dig underground for ages searching for shards and unearthing multiple hard stones in the process.

At least with BP the currency is the same. It's still bad, because you want to spend BP on the rare TMs and other items. (I'm a fan of the orbs myself - Toxic orb, Flame orb, Life orb etc.) Perhaps the MTs should just give you moves for free since that's how TMs work now - once you have access the learning of moves is reusable. It would make competitive battling easier too, but without compromising the overall difficulty of the game since you can't access the MTs until you complete it (i think).

Actually you could have forfeited PWT matches as many times as you wanted to and received Shards as consolation prizes. Granted it is still random but it is definitely better than running around in caves trying to find one, at least in my opinion.

Anyway one minor improvement I would like to see in the next Kalos game(s) would be to have the E4 having full teams with higher leveled Pokemon instead of the same ones during the main game. Another improvement I would like to see would be giving the Furisode Girls in the Battle Chateau full teams with Audino for easier exp grinding.

 

[Osprey]

PD And speaking of minor improvements, how about if your character finally gets to take his hat off ? I like hats sometimes... but usually would prefer no hat at all.

I would want this too, but the guys in charge have already stated in interviews that they will never give up the hat thing, so I have no hope for that. They claimed that it defines who the PC is or something. Why they need a hat to point out the main character, I don't know, but I guess it's better than the usual alternative of absurdly spiky hair... :sweat:

OH! So THAT'S what they could do to "do something unexpected!" Never mind whether they make a third version or whatever; they could release a game where the player characters don't wear hats. Would that blow everyone's minds or what?!

 

[skyradiant]

NNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Shards are bad and here's why: In B2W2 the best moves were taught by the yellow shard guy. Meaning i have about 50 green shards, only 2 yellows and nothing to do with them but keep going around and around Unova for a month until i can buy more moves. In gen IV the moves cost 8 shards of various colours, meaning almost the same thing. I can't buy the moves i really want because they require 6 reds and i have only 2. So i have to dig underground for ages searching for shards and unearthing multiple hard stones in the process.

At least with BP the currency is the same. It's still bad, because you want to spend BP on the rare TMs and other items. (I'm a fan of the orbs myself - Toxic orb, Flame orb, Life orb etc.) Perhaps the MTs should just give you moves for free since that's how TMs work now - once you have access the learning of moves is reusable. It would make competitive battling easier too, but without compromising the overall difficulty of the game since you can't access the MTs until you complete it (i think).

They can just make the shards easier to obtain, problem solved. With all the streamlining going on this gen, I wouldn't put it past them to make getting the shards easier.

 

[Boss1708]

How they will make Pokemon Z (or whatever they call it/them) will probably tell us what direction they have decided to take about the franchise.

My feeling is, they are trying to avoid making the ULTIMATE Pokemon Game.

*snip*

It almost looks as if they were scared to make a product with ALL those great features together!

Making the best Pokemon game evah isn't financially viable. Nintendo, like all companies, exists to make money. Every feature needs to somehow generate more money than is lost through manhours, opportunity costs etc. So I get why not every feature gets included.

BUT that doesn't excuse the frequency of the chopping and changing. I get that they need new stuff to market each game, but it's extremely frustrating to see great features removed each and every iteration. I think the only side features that have been able to 'survive' a gen skip are contests which were eventually downgraded to musicals then scrapped. I think an extremely sexy game could be made just with secret bases and customisation as side content (those were the best received features). Alternatively, following Pokemon was also popular, so that could be there instead (but that's a lot of work in 3D). My point is, why do they constantly change things up, rather than keep the stuff that's popular and works?

Exactly what I mean.

Personally, I don´t care too much about customisation and rebattling Gym Leaders (I do like them, don´t get me wrong) but Secret Bases, Soaring, and especially the BF are features which should never leave a Pokemon game. They are all too good to not be permanent.

 

[~ Blazing White Yang]

Shards are bad and here's why: In B2W2 the best moves were taught by the yellow shard guy. Meaning i have about 50 green shards, only 2 yellows and nothing to do with them but keep going around and around Unova for a month until i can buy more moves. In gen IV the moves cost 8 shards of various colours, meaning almost the same thing. I can't buy the moves i really want because they require 6 reds and i have only 2. So i have to dig underground for ages searching for shards and unearthing multiple hard stones in the process.

At least with BP the currency is the same. It's still bad, because you want to spend BP on the rare TMs and other items. (I'm a fan of the orbs myself - Toxic orb, Flame orb, Life orb etc.) Perhaps the MTs should just give you moves for free since that's how TMs work now - once you have access the learning of moves is reusable. It would make competitive battling easier too, but without compromising the overall difficulty of the game since you can't access the MTs until you complete it (i think).

Actually you could have forfeited PWT matches as many times as you wanted to and received Shards as consolation prizes. Granted it is still random but it is definitely better than running around in caves trying to find one, at least in my opinion.

They can just make the shards easier to obtain, problem solved. With all the streamlining going on this gen, I wouldn't put it past them to make getting the shards easier.

Eh, what about the shard collecting mini-game? That Funfest Mission that places a ton of shards all over Unova's map, and you have 3 minutes to collect as many as you can. You can do it as many times as you want, and basically replenish your stock infinitely. Which colors you get is randomized, but its still a reliable way of collecting Shards quickly.


At the same time, I do think BP is a-lot easier. At least in Gen 6 right now. Using the Battle Institute, I average around 13 points per game for just 5 battles. That stacks up really quickly, and Tutors are cheaper so I can pay for a-lot of different moves after just a few runs.

 

[Muur]

More than three Pokemon for people...

 

[Stratelier]

OH! So THAT'S what they could do to "do something unexpected!" Never mind whether they make a third version or whatever; they could release a game where the player characters don't wear hats. Would that blow everyone's minds or what?!

Like in the Orre games?

Or remember back in the day where we all thought Brendan had white hair....

 

[Hidden Mew]

Having a Battle Frontier would be great. I'm still disappointed that it wasn't included in OR/AS and I'd still like to see it returning at some point.

The Elite 4/Diantha really need upgraded teams and Mega Evolutions after you beat them. The Kalos Elite 4 were pretty much the weakest Elite 4 we've had in a long time since their teams don't change even after you beat them. It eliminated one way to level grind, which was so annoying and a huge waste of opportunity to give them different teams.

Having ways to level grind that doesn't involve spending in-game money would be good. I really hated that the only way I could get opponents with good levels was by spending money. It made level grinding more tedious and annoying. Not to mention limiting when that made players stay primarily in Lumiosie City and the Battle Chateau after beating the storyline. I'd love the return of something like Black Tower/White Treehallow. Those were the best places for level grinding, although Secret Bases are useful for that too.

They definitely need to upgrade trainer customization in general. The clothes options are pretty limited for both male and female players, although I think more so for the male trainers. Having a bit more variety would be nice. I don't mind that we can't take off our hats. I kind of like that as a way to identify the trainer characters, but they just need more variety.

Including the Dex Navi or something with the same function would be fantastic. It's one of those new features that I hope will stick around, along with Pokemon Amie and Super Training, and seeing it being used in the next Kalos game would be great in terms of finding Pokemon for your teams.

 

[Almonds]

More 3D battle models for important NPCs. I was appalled when Diantha, OF ALL PEOPLE, did not have a 3D battle entry model :/ Meanwhile, Steven got a 3D battle entry model, a 3D defeat model, AND a 3D tag team model. I get that Steven is more popular, more involved in the game, and more marketable, but Diantha is also a Champion - she should have special 3D battle models if there's ever another game set in Kalos. Her lack of 3D models make her look more worse especially after ORAS was released. It's as if they didn't really care about her when they created her. The Flare grunts even got 3D models D: