Glen-i Posted January 27, 2018 Posted January 27, 2018 (edited) With Pokemon Crystal recently coming out on the 3DS Virtual Console and the Pokemon Switch game looming on the horizon, @Dcubed and I started talking about how the mechanics of Pokemon have changed since way back in 1996. Because we're super cool like that. A criticism of the Pokemon games you see thrown around is that they're "just the same game over and over again" These people know nothing and you should discount their opinions immediately, while the basic gameplay follows the traditional "Catch loads of different monsters and battle them in Turn Based RPG battles" format. It's the underlying mechanics that distinguish each entry. And these mechanics have changed many times over the seven generations of Pokemon. So I'm gonna go look through them and see just how influential each gen was. Generation 1 - Red/Blue/Yellow While there's no denying that Red and Blue will probably forever be the most important game in the franchise (I mean, it started the craze). The mechanics and features that make up the game are almost entirely gone from more modern games. Gen 1 is a very different beast to what you can play these days. That said, Red and Blue introduced a few things that have managed to stick around. And to better understand how things have changed, it would be a good idea to acknowledge these. Version Exclusive Pokemon is a term that most players use to describe a Pokemon that can only be caught in one version of Pokemon. For example, Scyther could only be caught in Pokemon Red while Pokemon Blue had Pinsir instead. Be as cynical as you like, but this was designed to encourage players to trade Pokemon with another person who has the opposite version. (Not to encourage people to buy both versions, only nutjobs do that) It bloody well worked, I remember bringing my Game Boy to my Primary School and trading Pokemon with other kids. Which brings me nicely to... The Multiplayer features are the main selling point of the Pokemon series. Using the Game Boy Link Cable, there were two things that you could do with a friend. Trading and battling, it's pretty obvious what they do, so I won't go into too much detail here. Technical Machines (Commonly known as "TM's") are items that you could find in the game that can teach a specific move to one of your Pokemon. Some Pokemon could use these to learn moves that they would otherwise be unable to use. They were one-time usage, with many of them being unable to be obtained again without starting a new game. Making them very valuable items. Well, except Water Gun, no-one cares about Water Gun. There were 50 TM's in Gen 1. There were also 5 Hidden Machines (HM's) which taught Pokemon a move that could actually be used outside of battles. Most of them were needed to complete the game (Except Flash) and once a Pokemon learned a HM move, it could not be forgotten. Effort Values (Also known in Gen 1 as Stat Experience) are more of a hidden mechanic that has also stuck around in modern day Pokemon. (Well, sorta, more on that later) For example, say you have a Charizard that you've trained to Level 50. If you compared the stats of that Charizard to a different level 50 Charizard, chances are they'd be different. That's because of Stat Experience. In Gen 1, whenever you beat a Pokemon, the Pokemon you used would get Stat Experience. These were completely invisible to the player. As an example, beating a Blastoise would net you... 79 HP 83 Attack 100 Defense 85 Special 78 Speed After a calculation that I won't bother going into, your Stat Experience will be added to the base stats of your Pokemon, which makes for the fluctuations of stats between different Pokemon of the same species. Every single stat can effectively be "Maximized" using this making for an extra 64 points in each stat for a level 100 Pokemon. Event Pokemon also saw it's first implementation here with the Mythical Pokemon Mew. Way back then, players had to go to a special event organised by Nintendo with their copy of the game where staff would plug their cartridge into, effectively, a glorified Super Game Boy which would then put the Mew into their party. There's one more mechanic that has stuck around, but it's quite a bit different in how it's implemented. The Third Version is a term that most players use to refer to a Pokemon game that is similar to another set of Pokemon games. These games tend to be enhanced versions of another game. So let me ask you something, what was the first Third Version Game released? Spoiler If you got that right, you're a nerd. Yeah, weird, huh? Most people would have said Pokemon Yellow. However, the Japanese version of Pokemon Blue was the first game to offer an enhanced experience compared to the Japanese Pokemon Red and Green. It was mostly cosmetic, with Pokemon sprites being changed to look less hilariously weird (These are the sprites the rest of the world would get), a different palette for people playing on a Game Boy Colour, stuff like that. But there was a key gameplay difference and that was the Pokemon available to catch. You still couldn't get every Pokemon without trading with other players though. This practice would still carry on to this day, but not in every generation, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Pokemon Yellow, despite being the fourth version of the Gen 1 games, still falls into the Third Version category. Like Japanese Blue, it offered a different selection of Pokemon for you to catch. This version took a few inspirations from the animated series of Pokemon, giving the player a Pikachu as their starter Pokemon (Fully voiced to boot with incredibly scratchy voice samples) having a few extra fights with Jesse and James from Team Rocket, tweaking some of the Gym Leader fights and even having a new minigame that you could unlock if you had the N64 game "Pokemon Stadium" (Although the virtual console version has this unlocked from the start.) While the Third Version is still kicking with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, it's not in every generation. But I won't get into that yet. Pokemon Yellow is also notable for having the first instance of a Pokemon following you outside of battles. This only applied to Pikachu though, and it's not a feature that is around these days, one of many things that got dropped in future generations, but I'll cover that when I get to them. Anyway, time for me to take a break, next up, I'll be talking about Generation 2, where things start changing and getting interesting. But before I go, I'd like to give my personal thoughts on the mechanics of Gen 1. As a game, I enjoy Gen 1, truly, I do. But the mechanics behind it are incredibly dated, which make gong back to it these days a bit difficult. It was a huge, influential game that would help popularize the Turn Based RPG genre in the west. And I will forever acknowledge it for that. But everything about it has since been improved in future installments. Which is a good thing. But for the love of God, Game Freak. Stop advertising Pokemon games using nothing but stuff that was seen in this Gen. The majority of people who want this kind of stuff stopped playing Pokemon years ago! Edited January 27, 2018 by Glen-i 8 6
Blade Posted January 27, 2018 Posted January 27, 2018 I really enjoyed reading that @Glen-i. A good write up. 1
Julius Posted January 27, 2018 Posted January 27, 2018 That was an excellent read, @Glen-i! I’ve had Pokémon Switch on my mind a lot lately as I’ve been playing through SoulSilver and, interestingly, even Pokémon Ranger (I mean, it was on my mind anyways..), and looking back at those games really has given me a better idea of what I’d want from the next main series instalment (and, adversely, what I certainly don’t want). I have an idea that your thoughts in this thread will help me go through and re-analyse some of my own thoughts (dare I say, evolve them? :P) on the series’ past, and so I look forward to you talking about Gen II! 1 1
Glen-i Posted January 28, 2018 Author Posted January 28, 2018 (edited) Generation 2 - Gold/Silver/Crystal Generation 2 first hit Japan back in 1999, and with it, came a veritable smorgasbord of new mechanics and tweaks to existing ones. The game is set 3 years after Gen 1, making this one of the only Pokemon games that is effectively a sequel, story wise. It added 100 new Pokemon, bringing the total to 251. Apart from the new Pokemon and new moves, Gold and Silver introduced players to... 2 New Pokemon Types were added to the mix, Dark and Steel. Easily the biggest mechanic shift in Gen 2. Gen 1 had some serious balance issues due to the Psychic Type being incredibly overpowered. These two types both excelled against Psychic Pokemon and it changed a hell of a lot about battling. This type shakeup also had some smaller side effects, Magnemite and Magneton got the Steel type added to their typing, making them Steel/Electric. The move "Bite" also got it's typing changed from Normal to Dark. A real time clock was integrated into the game, allowing the game to have a day and night cycle. This mechanic was more than just cosmetic, certain Pokemon only appeared at certain times of the day, a number of special in-game events could be repeated once a day/week. A certain Pokemon even evolved depending on the time of day. Hold Items are special items that could be attached to a Pokemon to give different effects. While not as drastic a change as the 2 new types, this would have a lasting effect on battling, adding an extra layer of depth to building a team. Some hold items even evolved some Pokemon if you traded them while holding it. Mystery Gift made it's first appearance here. Although it's usage is completely different to modern-day Mystery Gift. Using the Game Boy Colour's Infared communicator, you and a friend could get a random item once a day. It also had a few other effects, such as being able to battle an AI controlled version of your friend's Pokemon team. I'll talk about how this changed in a future post. Backwards compatibility was a key feature that was also introduced here. Using the "Time Capsule", Players could trade with people who owned the Gen 1 games, there were some obvious rules when you were doing this, namely, no trading Pokemon that didn't exist in Gen 1 or Pokemon that had moves that didn't exist back then. Not every one of the Pokemon in Gen 1 is available in the Gen 2 games, which would have caused plenty of problems with cataloging some of the unevolved Pokemon. Thankfully, Game Freak thought of that and implemented... Pokemon Breeding is a mechanic that allowed a player to take two Pokemon of opposite genders (Another new mechanic) and have them breed to give players an Egg. If the player then walks a number of steps with the egg in their party, it would then hatch. What Pokemon you got depended on which Pokemon was the mother. For example, a female Charizard would produce an egg that would hatch into a Charmander. I would argue that this was the 2nd biggest mechanic that Gen 2 had. There were some nuances to breeding, clever pairing of Pokemon could give you a baby Pokemon that had special moves it could never possibly learn. For example, breeding a Male Tyranitar that knew Rock Slide with a female Feraligatr would produce a Totodile that knew Rock Slide. The Special Attack and Special Defense Stat was implemented here. These affected a Pokemon's ability to inflict damage with special attacks and it's defensive capabilities against said moves. You see, there are two main categories of attacks in Pokemon, Physical and Special. It was determined by the type of the move. Fire, Water, and Grass moves were classified as Special moves while Normal, Fighting and Steel moves were Physical ones, etc. In Gen 1, Special Attack and Special Defense was rolled into one stat, Special. Gen 2's new stats would change a lot about how each Pokemon would perform in battle. Pokemon with high Specials in Gen 1 were no longer both great in attack and defense. The new Pokégear would start a trend of convenient Gadgets designed to provide the player with important features to assist them in their journey. Gen 2's Pokégear provided a map (Originally an item in Gen 1), a clock, an in-game phone, and an in-game radio. While the gadget form and name would change in future games, they all have the same basic idea. The bag in Gen 2 had separate pockets which helped the player better keep track of their items. General Items, Poke Balls, Key Items and TM's were all separated from each other, making it easier to find what you're looking for. Gen 2 was the crowning example of the Post-Game Quest. While Gen 1 technically had this with Cerulean Cave, Gen 2 went fully in with this. After completing the game, players were able to travel to the Kanto region (The place where Gen 1 took place). This added a tremendous amount of content to the game. The Move Deleter is a person who allows you to force a Pokemon to forget one of the moves it knows. While this sounds pretty useless, this is the only way you can have a Pokemon forget HM's. Which is much appreciated by everyone really. Roaming Pokemon are special Pokemon that aren't confined to one area of the game. They effectively roam around the world. In this game, Raikou, Entei and Suicune are 3 legendary Pokemon that never stay in one place. Every time the player went to a new area, they would also move to a new area themselves. The player would have to try and intercept them. If successful, the player would be able to battle them... for one turn, before they bolt and start the whole process again. Thankfully, they didn't recover health in between encounters, so sooner or later, perseverance should win out. This feature didn't show up in Gen 7, so who knows what the future of this is? Happiness of Pokémon was also introduced, while there was a very simple of version of this with the Pikachu in Yellow, Gen 2 applied this to every Pokémon in the way modern games do. Treating your Pokémon well would cause them to become more affectionate. This doesn't have much of an effect on gameplay, except for the moves Return and Frustration, which got more powerful the more the Pokémon liked you/disliked you. There were also some Pokemon that evolved once they became happy. As you can see, a lot of new mechanics already, but Gen 2's Third Version, Pokemon Crystal also introduced us to a handful of new features. The one feature most people would remember is the option to play as a girl, seems like such a simple option in hindsight, but this helped female players to feel like the game was more their adventure, and considering that the idea is that the playable character is meant to be you, that's kinda important. Another biggie was animated Pokemon. Rather than explain it, I'll just show what happens when you encounter a Pokemon in the two games. Gold/Silver on the left, Crystal on the right Purely cosmetic, of course. But it helps add a bit of life to the many Pokemon you encounter. Strangely enough, this wouldn't be implemented in every game after this. For the next 2 generations, it generally only appeared in the Third versions of games. Move Tutors are people that could teach your Pokemon certain moves, kinda like TM's, but for a price. In Crystal, there's a person in Goldenrod City that offered to teach Pokemon either Flamethrower, Ice Beam or Thunderbolt for you. Effectively providing an infinite supply of these moves. The Battle Tower also made it's debut here. This was a facility that let players fight AI opponents to see if they can string together 7 wins in a row. Certain restrictions were placed, namely, only 3 Pokemon on a team which must be different species and have different items. Pull off 7 wins and you are rewarded with hard to get items. By the way, in the Japanese version of Crystal, the Battle Tower made use of the Japan-Only peripheral, Mobile Game Boy Adapter, which makes Crystal the first Pokemon game that had a real life accessory implementation. It provided a sort of psuedo online capability to the game allowing people to trade and battle with other people in Japan. This no longer works, by the way, the service ended a long time ago. And that wraps up Gen 2, just like any good sequel, it refines the mechanics of the original game with new features, Quality of Life improvements and general rebalancing. Gen 2 has a lot more presence in modern day Pokemon than Gen 1 does, which is quite remarkable really. For me, this makes Gen 2 a lot easier to replay, thanks to it's general polish and cool new features. I highly recommend Crystal if you haven't played an old-school Pokemon. It still holds up well. I won't be around until Thursday now, so you'll have to wait until then for Generation 3. Edited January 28, 2018 by Glen-i 8 3
bob Posted January 28, 2018 Posted January 28, 2018 Roaming Pokemon are special Pokemon that aren't confined to one area of the game. They effectively roam around the world. In this game, Raikou, Entei and Suicune are 3 legendary Pokemon that never stay in one place. Every time the player went to a new area, they would also move to a new area themselves. The player would have to try and intercept them. If successful, the player would be able to battle them... for one turn, before they bolt and start the whole process again. Thankfully, they didn't recover health in between encounters, so sooner or later, perseverance should win out. This feature didn't show up in Gen 7, so who knows what the future of this is?It never occurred to me to try and intercept them. I always assumed their movement was random. What I did (and I think I only ever managed to catch Suicune) was to check on the map which area they were in, and then cycle to it. Flying to an area made them flee, but if you walked or cycled there, they stayed put. It meant sometimes flying around until it would appear to an area close enough for me to think it worth cycling there, but I think it worked most times.
Jonnas Posted January 28, 2018 Posted January 28, 2018 Wow, this is a great retrospective I'm seeing here. Cool stuff, I always appreciate seeing how much a series evolves throughout the ages. And yeah, Gold/Silver were awesome. I'd argue that the Day/Night cycle was the most important feature added in Gen 2. Then again, the amazing amount of post-game content ensured that me and my friends would keep playing these games, searching for every nook and cranny of what it had to offer. This was also the first game that I kept checking online on information for, I pretty much spoiled myself on every major story beat before it was ever translated to English (definitely something I avoid these days). 25 minutes ago, bob said: It never occurred to me to try and intercept them. I always assumed their movement was random. What I did (and I think I only ever managed to catch Suicune) was to check on the map which area they were in, and then cycle to it. Flying to an area made them flee, but if you walked or cycled there, they stayed put. It meant sometimes flying around until it would appear to an area close enough for me to think it worth cycling there, but I think it worked most times. You're right, sometimes the dogs would stay put if you cycled there, but reset their position if you flew. But there was also a pattern if you walked/cycled, as they would often follow a logical path instead of teleporting throughout Johto. Which is why I kept searching for them near Ecruteak city, since that place was such a crossroad. 1
Glen-i Posted January 28, 2018 Author Posted January 28, 2018 (edited) 4 hours ago, Jonnas said: I'd argue that the Day/Night cycle was the most important feature added in Gen 2. As far as the exploration aspect of the game goes, absolutely. It's also the feature I like the most in Gen 2. But it wasn't integral to the main game. But sooner or later, you're gonna have to adapt to Dark and Steel Types or you're gonna make the game hard for yourself. I'm playing through Crystal again, and I'm floored that anyone can claim that Gen 1 was a better game than Gen 2. Everything about it is better and more polished. Sure, it has it's flaws, but they pale in comparison to the sheer improvements. I'm looking forward to writing up about Gen 3. That's when stuff starts to get removed, it also has one of the most subtle changes that would end up defining the competitive scene we see today. EDIT: Bugger! I forgot about the happiness mechanic. I've edited it in a short synopsis to the Gen 2 post. Edited January 28, 2018 by Glen-i
Glen-i Posted January 28, 2018 Author Posted January 28, 2018 OK, I couldn't wait, 8 player Smash Bros. gets me all hyped up. Generation 3 - Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/FireRed/LeafGreen Gen 3 started in 2002 on the Game Boy Advance with Ruby and Sapphire. Set in Hoenn, the game featured 135 new Pokemon, bringing the grand total to 386. The enhanced version, Emerald came out in Japan 2 years later. Something to note is the beginning of the Pokemon remakes. FireRed and LeafGreen are remakes of the original Gen 1 games, Red and Blue. It was first released in 2004 and bought the original games up to date with the more modern mechanics that Gen 3 sported. As well as having some extra post game content in the form of the Sevii Islands. We'll start with the main meat of the new mechanics introduced in this generation, introduced in Ruby and Sapphire. But before that, we have to acknowledge the bad news. This generation marked the beginning of the trend of old mechanics being dropped. Sometimes necessarily, sometimes... not so much. A long running series is bound to ditch some mechanics as it develops and sometimes, it's for the better. I'm not gonna get too hung up on the stuff I miss in these write-ups, we can save that for the in-between posts and my personal feelings at the end of this post. The most noticeable omission is the lack of backwards compatibility. You could not trade with any of the Game Boy/Game Boy Colour games in Gen 3. This was most likely dropped because it was technically unfeasible, not to mention a change in an old mechanic made it next to impossible to implement Pokemon from the Gen 1 and 2 games. More on that later. A more questionable missing feature is the removal of the day and night mechanic. Instead, Ruby and Sapphire had a simplified real time clock that only kept track of the current time, (Not the day of the week). Perhaps they just couldn't utilise it on the GBA for some reason? There's no way to know. Despite this, Ruby and Sapphire is one of the most influential games in the Pokemon franchise. Some of the features would become mainstays of the series, especially when it comes to the competitive aspect of Pokemon. So, apart from new Pokemon and moves, Ruby and Sapphire gave us... Double Battles are the biggest new feature Gen 3 introduced. The concept is simple. Each player sends out two Pokemon at once to battle. It's a simple change that would eventually end up shaping the competitive aspect of Pokemon. These days, it's the format used in the official Pokemon Championships as well as many of the online Tourneys that take place in the 3DS entries. The strategies utilised in Double Battles were much more complex than what you would see in the usual Single Battles. Some moves, like Earthquake, would hit everyone on the battlefield, including your own teammate. There were even some moves that only worked in Doubles, like Helping Hand. Another big change to the battling mechanics are Abilities. Each Pokemon now had a special ability, a sort of passive skill that activates in certain conditions. Some of the new Pokemon were defined by their ability, such as Kecleon's "Colour Change" which altered it's typing to whatever move it was hit by. This helped to make Pokemon more distinct from each other, and just like Hold Items in Gen 2, added yet another layer to the depths of strategy battles had. Along with these new battle mechanics, we saw Natures make it's first appearance. Each Pokemon could now have 1 of 25 different natures. 5 of these have no effect on the Pokemon, but the rest add modifiers to the stats a Pokemon has. Each of these natures adds 10% to one stat while subtracting 10% from another. (HP is never affected by this) This had the effect of making different Pokemon of the same species even more unique, but these days, competitive players use natures to help a Pokemon specialise a certain stat. Speaking of competitive, it's time to take another look at Effort Values (EV's). You should remember me talking about them in Gen 1. Well, Gen 3 completely redone this. This bit is gonna get quite technical, but I'll try to explain it as best as I can. The new system (Which is basically still around these days) allows one Pokemon to gain a grand total of 510 EV's. You gain EV's by defeating other Pokemon. There's one type of EV for each stat. (HP, Atk, Def, etc.) The Pokemon you defeat determines which type of EV you get. For example, defeating a Zigzagoon will net you 1 Speed EV. For every 4 EV's a Pokemon gets, the corresponding base stat goes up by 1. A maximum of 255 EV's can be put into a single stat, meaning you can increase one stat by a total of 63 points (255 divided by 4, which is then rounded down to a whole number, a.k.a 63) Because a total of 510 EV's can be given to one Pokemon, you could only ever max out two stats at most. Back in Gen 3, people didn't really fully utilise this new system, but these days, it's widely accepted that you need to carefully utilise this system in order to get the most out of the Pokemon you use (Charizard's best stats are Sp. Atk and Speed, so you wouldn't put EV's in Defense) if you want to play Pokemon competitively. Thankfully, if you just want to play through the single player content, you won't ever need to worry about this. But it's the foundation of competitive battling these days. By the way, this redone Effort Value is the most likely reason why Backwards Compatibility was dropped in Gen 3. Moving on, Mystery Gift was tweaked as well, getting renamed "Mystery Event". Instead of the Gen 2 method of getting you items for connecting with a friend, Mystery Event allowed the player to use special e-Reader cards (Remember those?) to unlock a room in a certain house and allowed players to fight special trainers. This didn't really see much usage outside of Japan though, due to the general failure of the e-Reader. Gen 3 had the first case of a Pokemon having different Formes. Some Pokemon would able to change formes under certain conditions. The poster child of this was Castform, who changed it's appearance and type depending on the weather that was in effect. If it was raining, it would become Water Type and so on. A number of other Pokemon would get alternate formes as the generations rolled on. Speaking of weather, Gen 3 had the first instance of external weather conditions. This helped to add some flavour to the Hoenn region, as well as affecting the weather in battles. Ruby and Sapphire also had Pokemon Contests, a minigame that utilised your Pokemon in a different style of Pokemon competition. Players entered one Pokemon into one of 5 categories (Beauty, Coolness, Cuteness, Smartness and Toughness) and compete to see which Pokemon is the best in that category. This would start a trend of similar minigames where players would utilise Pokemon and their moves in different ways to usual battles. Secret Bases also made it's debut here. Players could find many secret bases and commandeer it for themselves. They could then decorate it with various items you could find throughout the game. By utilising a feature called "Record Mix", you could even visit your friends Secret Bases. The Battle Tower also got a cool new feature. As well as double battle format. You were now able to team up with another player to take on the Battle Tower in a double battle format. Effectively, a co-op mode in Pokemon. Now, it's time to move on to Emerald, the Third Version of Ruby and Sapphire... There's one major feature that Emerald introduced which would become my favourite feature to date. The Battle Frontier was an absolutely humongous expansion to the Battle Tower, multiplying it sevenfold. They follow the same basic structure as the Battle Tower but have a number of twists that shake up the formula in interesting ways, from using rental Pokemon to enduring a randomly generated dungeon. Anyway, despite FireRed and LeafGreen being remakes, there was a new mechanic that Pokemon hadn't done before. Continuing from Gen 2, FireRed and LeafGreen (And later on, Emerald) would carry on the real life accessory implementation with the bundled Wireless Adapter. It functioned similarly to the Link Cable, except it did so wirelessly. Meaning that this was the first instance of wireless communication between two nearby consoles. And that's the main mechanics Gen 3 gave to us. Personally, I find this generation conflicting. The actual game is not one I rate that highly, but some of the mechanics it introduced were so damn cool, I can't help but give it credit for that. The amount of hours I burned with the Battle Frontier was immense! And Double Battles are cool. Anyway, this time, my next write up will be on Thursday with Generation 4. 2 5
Jonnas Posted January 28, 2018 Posted January 28, 2018 The lack of backwards compatibility (coupled with it being on a new console) is exactly why me and my friends dropped the series at this point. I eventually played this generation anyway, but the appeal was short-lived. And I do think the removal of the Day&Night system was a massive step back.
Glen-i Posted February 2, 2018 Author Posted February 2, 2018 (edited) Yeah, yeah. I said it'd be up Thursday, I suck with deadlines. Generation 4 - Diamond/Pearl/Platinum/HeartGold/SoulSilver Gen 4 kicked off with the DS games Diamond and Pearl. They came out in 2006 over in Japan and utilised the dual screens (One of course being touch controlled) of the hit console to streamline the Pokemon experience. The games were set in Sinnoh and introduced 107 new Pokemon (493 total), 29 of which are either prevolutions or evolutions of old Pokemon and 1 that looks like a penis. The third version, Platinum, came out in 2008. This generation also saw the remakes of the Gen 2 games. HeartGold and SoulSilver came out after Platinum did in 2009. It bought the classic Game Boy Colour games up to date, added new areas and included the extra content from Crystal. Diamond and Pearl bought back a few mechanics that were dropped in Gen 3. Backwards Compatibility returned, allowing players to transfer Pokemon from the Gen 3 games using the GBA slot the DS sported. This meant that you didn't need anything extra to do so. Well, you did need to finish the game and get access to the in game "Pal Park" This was a one way trip though, so you couldn't transfer Pokemon to the GBA games. The Day and Night cycle came back, making use of the DS' in-built clock. It was very similar to how it worked in Gen 2. What Diamond and Pearl introduced were... Well, the big new feature was worldwide online capabilities. Using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, friends could battle and trade with each other over the internet. It even featured Voice Chat using the DS' built in Microphone. There was also the option to trade pokemon with strangers online. You could search for a Pokemon you're looking for or put one of your own up for offer and state what you want in return. Cue thousands of totally reasonable people offering a Magikarp and wanting a Mewtwo in return. Over in the battling side of the game, there was a big massive change known as the Physical/Special Split. You may remember me talking about Physical and Special attacks back in the Gen 2 post. Up until now, it was determined by the type of the move. Fire, Water, and Grass moves were classified as Special moves while Normal, Fighting and Steel moves were Physical ones, etc. Gen 4 changes this so that it no longer mattered what type a move was. Whether a move was Physical or Special was determined by the move itself. For example, Thunderbolt and Thunder Punch are both electric moves. However, Thunderbolt is classified as a Special Attack while Thunder Punch is a Physical Attack. To date, this is the single most important thing to happen to the battling mechanics in Pokemon. Hundreds of new possibilities opened up to trainers. You could teach Physically based Pokemon like Feraligatr Ice Punch and it'd be able to pull it off well. The sheer scope of what every Pokemon could realistically use blew wide open. There was also a new multiplayer mode called the underground. Building upon the Secret Bases of Gen 3, the Underground allows players to use local wireless connections to simultaneously run around a sprawling underground cavern underneath the majority of the Sinnoh region. Players could build Secret Bases in the walls and decorate them with furniture and stuff. Players could also visit other people's bases and effectively jack their flag and leg it back to their base, before they're caught by anyone else. You could also set various traps to try and stop anyone nicking flags. Collecting flags would net you rewards. As well as petty theft, players could also perform excavations to find valuable items and jewels. That about does it for Diamond/Pearl, but Platinum tweaked the online capabilities a tad as well as bring back something from Emerald and introduce a new feature that only the most hardcore would really use. The online capabilities were expanded to include a new facility called the Wi-Fi Plaza which allowed you to play a number of mini games with random people online. Although you still couldn't battle them. The Battle Frontier made a return with 3 new facilities and 2 returning ones. The coolest thing about this was that you could team up with a friend through a Wi-Fi connection and tackle it together online. The Vs. Recorder made it's debut in Platinum. This allowed you to save recordings of battles you had in the Battle Frontier or against friends. You could even share these online so others could watch them. Some of you might remember me posting some of the battles I had online in the Sun and Moon thread. You've got Platinum to thank (or blame). Mystery Gift got another redesign, returning to it's original name. It finally settled into the usage it sees these days, allowing people to download Event Pokemon through an online connection, making them much more accessible to everyone. HeartGold and SoulSilver than went and gave us... The return of Pokemon following you. But instead of just Pikachu, any Pokemon could walk behind you. While it was mostly cosmetic, it added a lot of charm to the game, with different Pokemon reacting to different situations. Ground Pokemon get freaked out by standing in water, etc. There were even special interactions when you bought a specific Pokemon to a certain place. (Try bringing an Electrode to the Rocket Hideout) By the way, this would be the last time this feature showed up. No other game has done it, much to many fans disappointment. This game also came bundled with the Pokewalker. A real life accessory that let the player effectively take their Pokemon for a walk. (So no, Pokemon GO did not do it first) It had a pedometer that counted the number of steps you took, and connected with the DS game to help you train your Pokemon, get items and even catch new Pokemon. You could even connect to another person's Pokewalker and do an old school Mystery Gift connection, Gen 2 style. So that's Gen 4, while there weren't as many new mechanics as previous gens, what it did introduce was huge. Online capabilities allowed many more people to trade and battle with other players, and the battle mechanics were blown wide open. Gen 4 was quite the exciting time for long time fans, me being one of them. Next up is Gen 5, my personal favourite, but would it's mechanics have a lasting effect on the series? Edited February 3, 2018 by Glen-i 2 5
Julius Posted February 2, 2018 Posted February 2, 2018 I kicked off my love of Pokémon games with Ruby, but Diamond & Pearl (released the summer I returned to England) was the version pairing which swept across my primary school like nothing I'd ever seen, and this was the point where many of my friends jumped in and were probably the most engaged that they would be with Pokémon. Ironically, I had already been privy to the designs of many of Sinnoh's Pokémon earlier in the year, and thought for a while that many of the Pokémon designs were fake, etc. (with good reason, given the timing of my observations of early Gen IV promotion). Gen IV - Diamond, Pearl and Platinum in particular - holds a very special place in my heart. It was a time in my childhood when I couldn't just enjoy something I loved; it was one of the first times I could share it with almost any one of my friends. The world design, story structure and sprite art were greatly evolved from Gen III with the jump from GBA to DS, and were further evolved in Gen V - I think that Gen IV was a necessary step for Game Freak to take before Gen V, which I would argue is one of the strongest Pokémon generations (in terms of story, world design, etc.). It was also the one and only time for me, personally, where a Pokémon that wasn't my starter - a lowly, Lv. 2 Starly - became the star of my team. Whilst I loved Omega Ruby for all of the great things that it did in remaking Hoenn, I cannot wait to see - and hear - what Game Freak will do when we return to Sinnoh. Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention: the vibes given off in the soundtracks for these games are something to marvel at, and I think that a very, very strong argument could be made for Gen IV having the best music of any generation of Pokémon, period. It feels the freshest in terms of new sounds and types of music, ranging from sombre pieces to a techno jazz, and yet still feels almost innately familiar. In particular, I would like to highlight the high tempo jazz associated with both Team Galactic - in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum - and Team Rocket - in HeartGold and SoulSilver. I'll also list off a few more, because there's a lot of great stuff to be heard! I guess I should probably stop there...and go over to the best gaming music thread to upload even more! Thanks once again for the in-depth glance back at the mechanical evolution of the main series games, @Glen-i; I look forward to reading your write-up on Gen V! And I hope you don't forget to include what is/are probably my favourite quality of life improvement/s that any generation introduced, even if they aren't central to the mechanics of the games 1
Aneres11 Posted February 3, 2018 Posted February 3, 2018 This has been a fantastic read so far. You can tell I'm not a competitive battler as I'm reading about all of these stat changes and I'm all :O. I'm looking forward to you getting onto Black / White as those games were where the series returned to form for me. I still maintain that B/W (and no, not B/W 2) are the best in the series by a long way. I always said that was Gen 1, but a lot of that is just nostalgia. You've made me want to play Pokemon again now anyway haha. If I didn't hate Moon so much when I played it I'd try again with Ultra Moon but just don't think it's worth it. 1
Dcubed Posted February 3, 2018 Posted February 3, 2018 Surprised that you didn’t mention the Underground @Glen-i. It did kind of pave the way for the Entralink in Gen 5, as it had the same kind of live persistence gameplay (just in a more confined space and on a smaller scale). It was also loads of fun! 1
Glen-i Posted February 3, 2018 Author Posted February 3, 2018 1 hour ago, Dcubed said: Surprised that you didn’t mention the Underground @Glen-i. It did kind of pave the way for the Entralink in Gen 5, as it had the same kind of live persistence gameplay (just in a more confined space and on a smaller scale). It was also loads of fun! Ah, bugger! Thanks for that. I've added it to the post. 5 hours ago, Julius Caesar said: I guess I should probably stop there...and go over to the best gaming music thread to upload even more! Thanks once again for the in-depth glance back at the mechanical evolution of the main series games, @Glen-i; I look forward to reading your write-up on Gen V! And I hope you don't forget to include what is/are probably my favourite quality of life improvement/s that any generation introduced, even if they aren't central to the mechanics of the games No pressure then, watch me overlook it now. Diamond and Pearl had some serious teething problems, much like every Pokémon game on a new console. But I still consider it one of the most important games for modern Pokémon, even if it's not my favourite. It would be wise to expect similar teething problems with the Switch game. But something tells me Zelda is indirectly raising people's expectations way too high. I tell you what though, I'm going to miss dual screen functionality. 1
Glen-i Posted February 4, 2018 Author Posted February 4, 2018 Generation 5 - Black/White/Black 2/White 2 Gen 5 released in 2010 in Japan with Black and White. Set in the Unova region, which was loosely based on America, the start of a trend of non-Japanese inspired locales. These games marked a number of departures of usual Pokemon tropes. The protaganists were older, there was more of an attempt at a plotline and there were quite a few dynamic camera angles, becoming the Pokemon League Champion was even entirely optional! 156 Pokemon were added to the roster (649 total), but what was remarkable was that not a single Pokemon from a previous generation was obtainable until you saw the credits, not even Pikachu. It was the closest the series had ever got to a "reboot" I already mentioned in the previous post that Pokemon following you was dropped after HG/SS. So I won't go over that any further. This generation also went against expectations and dropped the Third Version. Instead, Black 2 and White 2 were full fledged sequels set in the same region, a few years after the events of Black and White. It came out in Japan in 2012, more than a year after the 3DS came out. Anyway, Gen 5 gave us... Black and White introduced 2 new battle formats. The first were Triple Battles. As the name implies, trainers sent out 3 Pokemon at once to battle. While it may sound a bit redundant, there were a few nuances that helped differentiate it from Doubles. Positioning played a larger part in strategy, Pokemon on the left hand side of the team could not target Pokemon on the right hand side (Some moves weren't affected by this though). Pokemon in the middle could attack anyone, but in turn, was able to be attacked by anyone. Pokemon on the sides could use their turn to swap position with the Pokemon in the middle and Pokemon in the middle did more damage with moves that hit multiple targets. The second new format was Rotation Battles. Like Triple Battles, trainers sent out 3 Pokemon at once, but with a twist. To paint a better picture of how this works, I'm gonna use a... well, a picture. You probably noticed the funky floor underneath the Pokemon. This is the crux of Rotation Battles. Even though 3 Pokemon are sent out, battles follow the Single Battle format, with one Pokemon in the front fighting the other. However, before you take your turn, you have the option of rotating the floor, changing which Pokemon is in the front. This didn't take up your turn. So you could rotate your Pokemon and still attack. The rotation didn't happen until each player had chosen their action. This results in the biggest bunch of mind games the series had ever seen. Both players could see all three Pokemon that could potentially attack, and a well timed rotation could easily turn the tide in your favour. As well as those two, this game also introduced the Wonder Launcher. An option that you could toggle on which appeared solely in battles against other players. Every turn, players would earn one point and could send these points to use items during battle. Normally, items could not be used in battles, so this added some more depth to the game. This was dropped in the next Generation. Black and White expanded upon the online capabilities and allowed players to battle random people online. Although, they did have to sign up to the Pokemon Global Link. A separate website that complimented the games. Players could use the site to keep track of their battle rating, play certain mini-games that would in turn allow the player to catch Pokemon and transfer them to the DS games. Many of which had new abilities. You could even download skins to customise the in-game gadget. I used this one. Speaking of that, this generations gadget, the C-Gear, is worth mentioning for the sheer amount of things it bought to the series. It was the first instance of allowing players to constantly be online, even while playing through the single player adventure. Using this, you could easily tell whether one of your friends was online. There was another feature which functioned similarly to the 3DS' Streetpass. Allowing you to see statistics of people you passed by who were also using this. The C-Gear also had Pokemon's only instance of video chat with other players. You could have a video call with 3 other people over local wireless. You could even have a video chat with another person online. A crazy concept for a Nintendo console at the time. Because it used a camera, this was only available on the DSi models. The quality in Pokemon animations skyrocketed in Gen 5. Every Pokemon had constant idle animations, even when viewed from behind and the camera was much more dynamic. I'd explain more, but it'd be easier to show you. The difference is astonishing! It breathed a lot of life into battles. For once, Pokemon, which never really pushed a console in terms of visuals, was one of the more impressive looking games on a console. I have to give Game Freak credit for the sheer amount of work this must have taken to animate more than 700 sprites (Remember, some Pokemon have different forms), front and back. That's enough about battles now. Black and White also introduced Seasons. Every time a month passed in real life, the season in Unova would change. Cycling between Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. This not only changed the aesthetics of the region, but also allowed the player to explore new areas that may have been inaccessible before. There was even a Pokemon that changed it's form depending on the season. This was immediately dropped in the next Generation. TM's are in this game as well. Which is nothing new, but now they were no longer single use. Quite the big deal, no more worrying about using up a good TM. The Entralink was an evolution of the previous generation's Underground feature. While it didn't have the Secret Bases, players could visit another player's game to do certain things together. You could literally walk up to someone playing their game and say Hi! Players could also take on a number of missions which involve doing certain things to help or even hinder the host player, from recovering their Pokemon after a battle, to trying to sell them an item for a rip-off price. Completing these missions would unlock various Pass Powers. Pass Powers are special enhancements a player could use to help them on their quest. They did various things for a limited time, from increasing the amount of experience you receive, to increasing the Pokemon encounter rate. Moving on to Black 2 and White 2 now, which gave us... The Battle Frontier was replaced with a new battle facility. The Pokemon World Tournament was a knockout tournament which pitted the player against AI opponents in order to be the last one standing. It featured a few different formats, such as Rental Pokemon only and a strange mode which forced you to temporarily swap one Pokemon with your opponent before each battle. But after you finished the game, you could enter special tournaments which pitted you against the Gym Leaders from every single Generation to date. A big massive nostalgia bomb, that hasn't been surpassed since. Do well against the Gym Leaders and you could even participate in a tournament featuring every Champion for the 5 generations, from Blue to Cynthia. It was a true test of your battling prowess. A new style of minigame came to us in the form of Pokestar Studios. This tasked the player with becoming an actor in various movies by using their Pokemon in battles. Apart from the novelty of escaping from a world where Ledians catch and train people, trying to survive a deadly virus breakout or battling a giant Tyranitar mech (Yes, really), this was an interesting puzzle game which tested your knowledge of Pokemon and moves in order to figure out what the director wants from you. The Unova Link feature allowed players to connect to their copy of Black or White to carry over certain story related things to Black 2 or White 2 that wasn't Pokemon. Kinda like how the GBA Golden Sun games worked. The thing of note is that communicating with other copies of Black 2 or White 2 could unlock difficulty options. You could make the game easier or harder. This affected the smartness of AI, as well as opponent's Pokemon levels. This was baffingly dropped in the next generation. And that's Gen 5. While it introduced quite a few cool mechanics to the series, only 3 of them are actually in the latest Pokemon games. (Infinite use TM's, Pass Powers and the Pokemon Global Link) I'd be lying if I said I was cool with this. To me, these games remain the pinnacle of the series precisely because of these new things. Gen 5 took a ridiculous amount of risks, focusing on a plot that doesn't entirely revolve around being the best trainer, forcing players to use the new Pokemon instead of the familiar same old, same old, offering difficulty options, strange and interesting new formats and a smorgasbord of challenging battles with past characters. And yet, despite all that, this game is on the lower end of the sales figures. And that makes me a little sad. These games deserve better. Quite frankly, if you skipped this gen, you missed out. You missed out big time. 4 6
Ike Posted February 4, 2018 Posted February 4, 2018 Gen 2 also introduced new Pokeballs that would make it easier to catch certain Pokemon, however most of them were bugged and didn't do what they were supposed to do. The Moon Ball , for example, was supposed to make it easier to catch Pokemon that evolve'd using the Moon Stone, however the code was actually checking for Pokemon that evolve'd by using a Burn Heal. 2 1
Glen-i Posted February 4, 2018 Author Posted February 4, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, Ike said: Gen 2 also introduced new Pokeballs that would make it easier to catch certain Pokemon, however most of them were bugged and didn't do what they were supposed to do. The Moon Ball , for example, was supposed to make it easier to catch Pokemon that evolve'd using the Moon Stone, however the code was actually checking for Pokemon that evolve'd by using a Burn Heal. It's little quirks like that which give old school Pokemon it's charm. While I do agree that the new Pokeballs had a lasting effect on the series. I decided against mentioning them because otherwise I'd have to go through so many new items that are introduced and these posts take long enough to make. Edited February 4, 2018 by Glen-i
Fused King Posted February 8, 2018 Posted February 8, 2018 (edited) Maaan, this thread is a massive nostalgia trip, Thanks Glen-i ! It's fun to see different people having different nostalgic feelings for different Pokémon games for different reasons. For me, starting from Gen 4, or maybe even parts of Gen 3, me memory on certain tunes, areas, Pokémon, storylines, and whatnot start to become vague. Even though I own most of the games, I am quite happy they do these remakes so I can relive them once again as if they were entirely new games. I played the fuck out of Gen 1 and 2 when I was a kid, so I suppose that's why these are etched into my memory, though for some reason Gen 3 is my favourite, and I wonder if it will remain so after playing Alpha Sapphire. I don't know why, but Pokémon is a game series that has just fused with my soul for some reason. As much as I absolutely adore Nintendo's other flagpole series as well as a plethora of their other offerings, Indie games, and games on other systems, Pokémon is the only series that I just get a mad craving for from time to time. Looking past the competitive scene and vast number of extra things to do GameFreak throws in the games these days, I am at my happiest when I sit down in a lazy chair, have some good tea beside me, switch on whatever console or handheld the Pokémon game is on this time, and KNOW that I am in for an amazing journey where I make Pokémon buddies who stick with me 'till the end. It is that element, going on an adventure with a team, the very core of Pokémon that makes me come back to the franchise time and time again. I remember saying to myself I would quit the franchise with Gen 4, then I said the same buying Pokémon Black, then again with Pokémon X.....now I've just given up and let lust flow naturally. Edited February 8, 2018 by Fused King 1 1 1
Glen-i Posted February 14, 2018 Author Posted February 14, 2018 Generation 6 - X/Y/Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire Gen 6 was introduced worldwide in 2013 with Pokemon X and Y on the 3DS. Featuring 71 new Pokemon, the lowest amount of new Pokemon to date. That makes the total 721. Although that is arguable if you take into account a new mechanic. Set in Kalos, a region heavily inspired by France, these games marked the jump from Sprite based visuals to full 3D models, although the game still had mostly grid-based movement. The Gen 3 remakes, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, were released almost worldwide a year later in 2014, bringing the GBA games to similar full 3D as well. Time for the mechanic removals. Apart from the multiple mechanics that were introduced and immediately dropped from Gen 5, there was... This generation decided again to not do a Third Version, but also didn't go with a sequel. Hopefully, you don't mind if I go on a bit of a tangent. You see, I am strangely fascinated about what happened with the much expected Pokemon Z. Anyone who actually played X and Y will tell you about the many things in both Gen 6 and 7 that point towards this at least planned along the way (The main one being blatant cover Pokemon, Zygarde, getting a new form that ended up getting relegated to random free giveaway in Gen 7). For some reason though, Game Freak decided not to bother. Who knows how it would have played out? Anyway, this Gen also does away with any Battle Facility that isn't the Battle Tower. Which is bizarre, considering the remakes are of games that started it off. The Battle Frontier got nothing but a tiny passing mention in OR/AS. So apart from the new Pokemon, what did Gen 6 give us? Well, let's start with X and Y. I previously mentioned the jump to full 3D models. Now, X/Y weren't the first mainline Pokemon games to have 3D models, but they were the first to have pretty much everything in 3D. Areas, Pokemon, everything. It didn't offer full 3D movement yet, that'd be Gen 7 that gave us that. Anyway, the big new thing this generation was Mega Evolution. 30 (22 more were added in OR/AS) Pokemon were now available to utilise this mechanic to temporarily change form and get a large power boost, and possibly change it's type and ability. There's a couple of caveats, however. The Pokemon had to be holding a specific item, which means they couldn't hold anything else (Unless your name is Rayquaza, in which case you had to have a specific move) and only one Pokemon on your team could Mega Evolve. This helped some weaker Pokemon become more viable in battles... mostly. More on that at the end of this post. These games also introduced a new typing called Fairy Type. Designed to be a hard counter to Dragon, Fighting and Dark Pokemon while also giving more of a reason for Poison and Steel type moves to exist. Some old moves and Pokemon had their typing changed to accommodate this new type, such as Clefable, Granbull and Whimsicott. While I'm on the subject of type changes, it's worth noting that Steel Pokemon are no longer resistant to Dark and Ghost moves. Instead, they take normal damage. Super Training marked the first time a player was given a tool to freely influence the Effort Values of a Pokemon. Remember those? I talked about them in the Gen 3 post. By playing a minigame, you were able to give your Pokemon whatever EV's you liked without much thought. This simplified the intimidating, mathematical world of EV Training. Backwards Compatibility changed it's methodology with the accompanying application, Pokemon Bank. For 5 quid a year, players could store up to 3,000 Pokemon in cloud storage. They could also use this to quickly transfer large amounts of Pokemon between different 3DS Pokemon games, including any future games that might come out. Another application, called Pokemon Transporter allows you to transfer Pokemon from Gen 5 to the 3DS games, as well as any Pokemon from the Virtual Console versions of the Gen 1 and 2 games. Some new battle formats showed up here, Sky Battles were limited to Pokemon that could fly, through being flying type, or having the ability Levitate. Horde Encounters pitted your Pokemon against 5 wild Pokemon at the same time and Inverse Battles, which reversed type matchups. So Water Pokemon would be weak to Fire and strong against Electric. These could not be played with other players and were all dropped in Gen 7. Well, except for a bizarre case where Inverse Battles was implemented in the Battle Spot for a month in Sun and Moon. Online communications saw a big Quality of Life improvement with the Player Search System. Building upon Gen 5's C-Gear, you were able to constantly be online throughout the adventure, being able to see whenever people on your friends list were online and quickly invite them to a battle or a trade. You could even do this with random strangers if you so wished. It had a number of other features, such as Pass Powers (Now called O-Powers) and a customisable profile page. Wonder Trade was a new method of trading Pokemon which involved the player sending a Pokemon of their own choice to a random player who did the same. You wouldn't know what Pokemon you were receiving until the trade was done. This Generation also saw the Battle Competition, official online tournaments that provided special rules for competitive players to test their strategies against each other. Participating would earn you special prizes. Outside of battling and trading, this game introduced Trainer Customisation. At the beginning of the game, you are given a choice of default trainer looks, mostly different skin colours. Throughout the game, you were able to obtain a multitude of different clothes to help personalise your look, as well as different hairstyles. And finally, there was Pokemon Amie. Think Pokemon meets Nintendogs, and you'd be pretty much spot on. Here, you could care for your Pokemon. Feed them, pet them, play games with them, stuff like that. Pokemon that were cared for a lot in this method would develop advantages in single player battles, such as healing themselves of a status ailment sometimes. Bloody hell, that was a lot! And there's still the Gen 3 remakes to talk about. Soaring refers to a way to travel around the Hoenn region. After getting a certain item, you could ride a Latios or Latias around Hoenn to quickly get to places you've been before. Unlike the HM move Fly, you didn't need to have the Lati on your team to use it, making it more convenient. It was kinda dropped in Gen 7. Secret Bases naturally returned for these games only. It was the same concept as the original, but had a number of improvements, such as Streetpass compatibility, recruiting other people to your base to provide helpful services and the Capture the Flag game from Gen 4. Pokemon Contests also made a temporary return here. These worked pretty much exactly like the originals, with some minor changes. Finally, we have DexNav, a OR/AS exclusive feature, that allows players to search for a specific Pokemon. Using this can even get you some Pokemon with hidden abilities, special moves and high IV's. And that about does it for Gen 6. Personally, while I rank this Gen as probably my least favourite, it's not on account of the mechanics. The games were just below standards. I want to talk about Mega Evolution and the Fairy Type a bit now. I remained impartial before, but I can't finish this post without mentioning my biggest beef with these mechanics. I like the idea of these changes. In theory, Fairy Pokemon should help balance the competitive game while Mega Evolution provides a chance for weaker Pokemon to have more of a presence in the same scene. Great concepts aside, they were both handled pretty poorly. The Fairy type did help to make Fighting, Dark and Dragon Pokemon not so overpowered, but had the unfortunate side effect of making Fairy Pokemon themselves overpowered. They were effective against some powerful types while only being weak to two types that didn't see a lot of usage at all. It just moved the problem. I think having another new type alongside Fairy would have diminished this power shift. Mega Evolutions were the biggest blunder though. I love Mega Evolutions, it's a really cool concept, and it was a great opportunity to get less used Pokemon up in the rankings, and it worked in part. Forgotten Pokemon like Kangaskhan, Mawile and Beedrill suddenly became not a bunch of laughing stocks. However, Game Freak totally ballsed it up and decided to give a bunch of Megas to a bunch of Pokemon that were already powerful and popular. I like Groudon, but come on... It didn't need it. And don't get me started on Mewtwo getting two. Such a missed opportunity. Anyway, this weekend, I'll try and get Gen 7 up. 2 3
Glen-i Posted February 18, 2018 Author Posted February 18, 2018 (edited) Generation 7 - Sun/Moon/Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon Generation 7 started 2 years ago when Pokemon Sun and Moon came out nearly worldwide. Set in the Alola region, a Hawaii style place consisting of 4 Islands. 80 new Pokemon were introduced here, although that wasn't all that Gen 7 had to offer. A year later, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon came out. Despite having two diiferent versions, these were traditional Third Versions, but did give us 5 more new Pokemon, bringing the total to 807. Just like Gen 6, these games retain the full 3D visuals, but now allow for full 3D movement, they also had improved visuals. Because these games are quite recent, I'm gonna drop an UNMARKED SPOILERS WARNING! But apart from all that, here's what Sun and Moon gave us. Woah, wait... Hang on, not even the latest Gen was exempt from the dreaded mechanic cuts, and this game had some doozys. Triple Battles and Rotation Battles were dropped, slashing the available Battle Formats by half. While it's not completely clear why this happened, most people accept that it's probably due to the 3DS struggling to perform with that many high quality models on the screen. HM's also vanished, replaced by an alternative that I'll go into later. Some powerful ones like Surf and Fly stuck around as TM's. Possibly the most baffling cut was the removal of the National Pokedex. I haven't really mentioned what this was yet because, like every other Pokemon fan, no-one ever thought this would be dropped. So let me give a quick rundown. The Pokedex is an in-game record of what Pokemon you have seen and caught. "Catching 'em all" refers to filling this bad boy, it also provides some flavour text for each one you encounter. Ever since Gen 3, there have been 2 styles of Pokedex, the first Pokedex encompasses the Pokemon that are available in the region the game is set in (Gen 5 would have the Unova Pokedex, for example) and then there's the Pokedex that contains every Pokemon that exists. That's the National Pokedex. Gen 7 no longer has the National Pokedex, which means even if you have every single Pokemon in your copy of Sun/Moon, the game will not acknowledge it. The best you can get is to use Pokemon Bank which has a very simplified National Pokedex for people who have a current subscription, although this is pretty inconvenient. Enough about what isn't there, let's look at what Sun and Moon gave us. This game dropped the traditional Pokemon Gym... DAMMIT! I guess Gen 7 wasn't quite done with the cuts yet. I'm sure you know what a Pokemon Gym is, but I'll give a quick lowdown. Throughout each game, the player is tasked with conquering 8 of these Gyms, each one specializing in a different Pokemon, which generally involve battling a number of trainers, solving a puzzle and defeating the Gym Leader. Gen 7 replaced the Pokemon Gym with the Island Trials, a series of short challenges, based around 7 different Pokemon Types (8 in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon). The player had to perform a certain trial, which may involve puzzles and battling wild Pokemon. At the end, you have to defeat a Totem Pokemon, a sorta boss fight, involving a powered up Pokemon. Completing these would net you a Z-Crystal of the same type. There were also 4 Grand Trials, one at the end of each Island, that pitted the player against a particularly powerful trainer, not unlike a Gym Leader The most obvious addition to the battling mechanics were Z-Moves. (Oh, hey! Another suspiciously named thing that probably was planned for Pokemon Z) The previously mentioned Z-Crystals allowed a Pokemon that was holding it to use a Z-Move. A super powerful attack that can only be used once per battle. There were two basic types of Z-Move, an offensive one of huge strength, and one where it provides an extra effect on top of a status attack. While there is a Z-Crystal for every Pokemon type, there are some Z-Crystals which only a specific Pokemon that knows a specific move can use. I guess I would be remiss if I didn't mention Alolan Forms. Although quite frankly, this isn't a new mechanic, what with it being very similar to form changes. But one of the big selling points of the game before it released was that 18 Pokemon from Gen 1 had drastically different looks. As an example, here's Marowak. Original on the left, Alolan Form on the right The changes weren't all cosmetic. The typing of these Pokemon changes (Marowak went from Ground type to Ghost/Fire type) the moves they could learn differ, (Alolan Marowak can learn Shadow Bone, normal Marowak gets False Swipe) and the ability they have would be different. Unlike usual form changes, Alolan Pokemon could not change to the original look, meaning you couldn't get the old Pokemon without trading with a previous generation. Wild Pokemon could now call for backup when they're in trouble. These are known as S.O.S Battles. Some Pokemon could only be found by being called by another Pokemon. You could even get Pokemon with Hidden Abilities this way. Despite 2 battle formats getting dropped, a new one emerged called Battle Royals. A 4-player free-for-all where each player tries to gain points by knocking out other people's Pokemon. Person with the most points wins. Pretty simple. Super Training got a bit of a tweaking with Poke Pelago. This provided people with a number of useful services, from EV training Pokemon to growing berries. This all happened in the background over a period of time, leaving the player to do other stuff, in game or in real life while Poke Pelago did it's work. HM's were replaced by Ride Pokemon. Building on from Gen 6's Soaring, these functioned simlarly to HM's, except that you didn't need to keep a Pokemon with a certain move on your team, making it much more convenient. The online connectivity got another meddling with. Gen 6's PSS got replaced by the Festival Plaza. Players could have battles and trades online via this, take part in missions, as well as use various facilities to aid them in their adventure. Unlike the PSS, this didn't allow people to play through the single player adventure while seeing which of their friends were online. The Third Versions, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon gave us... Ummm... a couple of minigames? Hold up! There's the Battle Agency, a simplified version of Gen 3's Battle Factory, that gives you rental Pokemon to try and get through 3 Battles in a row. And that's that. Until today, I always struggled to pinpoint what bugs me about Gen 7, (Apart from the blatant Gen 1 favouritism) and I think I hit upon it by looking back at it in a more subjective look. The stuff that's supposed to be exciting and new is just the old stuff with a new lick of paint. Scratch beneath the service and Gen 7 is probably the most unambitious set of games in the mainline series. Mechanic wise, of course. This game does some new stuff in other aspects. The setting is interesting, and there's some cool concepts, even if they're not implemented as well as they could be. I'm not keen on Z-Moves, they just became an excuse for people to nuke Pokemon they don't want to deal with using actual strategy and Alolan Pokemon was another missed opportunity done for the sake of attracting the people who dropped the series long ago. Well, 7 long write-ups later, I'm at the end of my little retrospective on the mechanics of Pokemon. Maybe you learnt something through this? Because I did. And there's a big part of me that's keen to find out what Game Freak have in store for the jump to the Switch. Maybe Battle Frontier will finally come back? Maybe Triple and Rotation battles will make a spectacular return, or it could be a completely new format. It's impossible to tell, and I guess that's one of the many reasons Pokemon fans are so hungry for information. Edited February 18, 2018 by Glen-i 2 4
Nolan Posted February 18, 2018 Posted February 18, 2018 I’ll be honest I kinda skimmed the Gen 6 write up. I actually found 6 and 5 to be a bit of a trudge. I never even came close to finishing Black. In gen 6 (don’t recall which version I had) I did finish the story but I just couldn’t hardly care about any of it. Gen 7 I actually found to be extremely refreshing to the series. I don’t think I’d call it unambitious even though I agree Z moves are about just nuking Pokémon, I don’t know that it takes away from strategy though (well I suppose it unarguably does actually). Sometimes you get into random encounters that you just can’t be arsed with I appreciate it for that in a way. The island trials and lack of gyms though I think is nice. The formula isn’t really changed from the gym trials, but it feels different enough to put a fun new spin on it. I find Aloan forms fun as well, I just wish there were more of them. It’s a bit silly that only 18 (2% of all known Pokémon) evolved slightly differently due to location. I like Gen 7. The locations, the change from gyms to trials, the quality of life improvement in ride Pokémon. It’s good stuff. Now to the nitty gritty, back in the sprite based days it was an accomplishment to have every Pokémon possible as following you on the overworld, and done away with due to memory and whatever. Well, in the new world of 3D everything where all of the Pokémon have 3D models that can just as easily be overworld or battle.....where the fuck are my follow buddies?! sidenote; I’ve never played Gen 3 or the remakes. Back then I was “too cool” for Pokémon (god school is fucking bizarre). Luckily by Gen 4 I was basically an adult and had my own money to just buy what I wanted.
Glen-i Posted February 18, 2018 Author Posted February 18, 2018 (edited) 6 hours ago, Nolan said: Gen 7 I actually found to be extremely refreshing to the series. I don’t think I’d call it unambitious even though I agree Z moves are about just nuking Pokémon, I don’t know that it takes away from strategy though (well I suppose it unarguably does actually). Sometimes you get into random encounters that you just can’t be arsed with I appreciate it for that in a way. I should probably clarify that when I call Gen 7 unambitious, I'm referring exclusively to new mechanics in the game. Of which there are very little. It's a game filled to the brim with old mechanics tweaked to be more useful or convenient (Well, OK, except playing online with friends) Which is fine, but Pokémon games have been doing that for ages, the difference is they tend to introduce something new alongside it. Sun/Moon gives us Z-Moves and Battle Royals, neither of which really impress me. Despite all that, I think Gen 7 are very good Pokémon games. I actually think it's only beaten by Gen 2 and 5. It doesn't do anything special with the mechanics, but what it does is solid. Sun and Moon's strengths instead come from the setting of Alola, which feels full of life. It's characters are quite interesting. Hau, Guzma and Lusamine in particular stand out as the rare well-written Pokémon character. So basically, it's the opposite of Gen 6, which had cool mechanics, but everything around it completely sucked. Edited February 18, 2018 by Glen-i 1
Dcubed Posted February 18, 2018 Posted February 18, 2018 (edited) Yeah, that’s an important thing to note. Though these write-ups have been focused on the large gameplay mechanic changes the series has gone through, the games themselves are more than just their raw mechanics. Things like level design have changed dramatically over the course of time. In particular, the level design saw a seismic shift in Gen 5, where Unova presented a dual linear route layout with its world, laying out every town in a direct path where you could swap between two directions. It was also the first game that made ALL HM usage entirely optional, as it took out all HM roadblocks from the critical path and used them entirely for optional areas. Likewise, you’ve also seen a shift towards having things like time limited areas and cryptic mysteries, like the Mirage Islands in Gen 3, the deeper areas of Mt Coronet in Gen 4 and the underwater ruins in Gen 5. And then there’s the trend of unresolved mysteries, like the Ghost Girl in Gen 6. The newer games are filled with tons of little vignettes and areas with self-contained stories that really breath tons of life into their worlds! You’ve also seen a shift towards a stronger focus on narrative and a shift away from the open world design of previous games towards something more linear and cutscene driven (perhaps taken to too far an extreme for many people in Gen 7, where they really went overboard with roadblocking and a focus on cutscenes!). Even when not introducing major new mechanics, the games have innovated in tons of different ways. From new Pokemon, to new kinds of settings, to new kinds of mini games, to a side story in Gen 5 where you go on a Ferris wheel ride with an estranged lover who confides in you and wants to find comfort in you, with VERY strong sexual undertones! (Yes, your choice of gender does determine the NPC’s gender; in fact, this becomes an implied gay/lesbian relationship in B2/W2 - where you meet an equivalent NPC, with a similar story and their gender is swapped to match your own!). To look at the big mechanic changes alone only scratches the surface about how the games have changed over the years. It’s really interesting to look how the designs of the mainline games have changed over the years and how the philosophy of the develops have changed too. They’ve also gotten REALLY good at ghost stories too... The Pokédex entries in the newer games are bloody frightening and disturbing! How they get away with a PEGI 7, I have no idea! Edited February 18, 2018 by Dcubed 2 1
Julius Posted February 18, 2018 Posted February 18, 2018 (edited) Great write-ups for Gen V, VI, and VII, @Glen-i; I've really enjoyed reading these! What I was referring to as my favourite QoL improvement introduced in Gen V was simple stuff to do with how items were handled. The effect of a Repel runs out? The game tells you, and asks if you want to spray another. Want to use a Super Potion on more than one member of your party? After a Super Potion is used on one member, you're kept on the party screen as opposed to being booted back to your bag's medicine pocket. Very small touches, but it just generally allows for the whole experience to flow a little bit better. I actually started Pokémon White again just the other night, for the first time since launch, after falling out with my SoulSilver playthough and dabbling with Y's opening hour, and it's making me realise just how backwards the evolution of the franchise has been with Gen VI and Gen VII (in some pretty important ways). I'd completely forgotten that the game starts with you receiving your starter Pokémon in your own bedroom, and I've had an amazing time with the game so far. The UI is incredibly responsive, the battles are fast-paced, the animations and sprites hold up extremely well, and its the only time that I can remember a main series Pokémon game being so resolutely focused on just one thing above all else: storytelling. The plot is so well-paced that it actually has a lot of momentum, so I'm not surprised at all that I already held the game in such high regard. To give an example of that momentum, I'm going to outline the structure of the game for each location in the early game, just because I think its the most effective way to exhibit my point. So, spoilers for a nearly 8 year-old game, up until just after the second gym, I guess? Nuvema Town (starting area) Choose your starter Pokémon Battle Bianca Battle Cheren Route 1 Learn how to catch Pokémon from Professor Juniper Have a Pokémon catching contest with Bianca and Cheren Accumula Town Attend a speech given by Team Plasma with Cheren Battle N Route 2 Battle Bianca Striaton City Battle Cheren Get your first gym badge Dreamyard Battle with Team Plasma to save a wild Pokémon Route 3 Battle Cheren Wellspring Cave Battle Team Plasma to retrieve a stolen Pokémon (with the aid of Cheren) Nacrene City Talk with Cheren Get your second gym badge Battle N Team Plasma steal a dragon's skull from the museum (which belongs to the second gym leader) Pinwheel Forest Battle Team Plasma (with the aid of the third gym leader) As you can see, you have an encounter with one of your two rivals/friends on a frequent basis, which allows us to see the evolution of their own goals and motivations: Cheren has the goal to be the Champion of Unova and to be the strongest trainer around, but his goal is questioned later on in the game, and this is something that he clearly struggles with; Bianca, on the other hand, has no idea what she wants to do, and this journey is her way of seeking out her destiny. The speech given by Team Plasma in Accumula Town informs us of their goals very early on, and throws out an ethical conundrum to the player: Team Plasma wants to free Pokémon from the trainers of the Unova region, which makes players question the morals and ethics of capturing, training and battling Pokémon. We frequently run into them, and the mysterious N, too, and gym leaders are involved with the main story and the battle against the evil team much more than in any other main series game (which pays off to great effect later on in the game). I actually haven't played White 2 yet, so I plan to later this year, but I think that Black & White are quite easily the most story driven games in the main series, and are probably some of the tightest games in the franchise mechanically, too. @Dcubed rightly mentioned how BW were the first main series games to not depend entirely upon the use of HMs, or at least not as much as past games did up to that point, and it just adds to the momentum and narrative flow of the game. You don't really feel as bogged down in Gen V as much as in some other generations because it is so tight, and because it flows so well, in my opinion. I hate seeing the argument that "Game Freak can't make an open world BOTW-type game with Gen VIII". They certainly could, given the right support by Nintendo and its subsidiaries. Pokémon is the most valuable franchise in the world. Of course they could. But that doesn't mean that they should, and this would mean that we wouldn't see Gen VIII for a while, let alone Sinnoh remakes, and it gives us and Game Freak a problem with diminishing returns, at least with regards to the technological advancements such a game would make compared to the 3DS titles. More importantly, it's much cheaper and much more effective to tell a great story than it is to create an open world Pokémon game in an entirely new engine. I'd like to think that some things that we would like to see in an open world game could make their way over to Pokémon Switch (such as interactable/avoidable Pokémon in the overworld, similar to Pokémon Ranger or Chrono Trigger, or perhaps even fleshing out the overworld a bit more so that routes are only a recommended means of passage as opposed to the only means of passage), and I think Gen VII showed that Game Freak is looking at storytelling as being the way to move Pokémon forwards. However, a problem I had with Sun & Moon is that the games seemed to depend a bit too much on cutscenes when it came to the important parts of its storytelling, which immediately makes it difficult for the player to relate (as we don't have any control over what we're seeing/doing, nor does the game typically look like this) to the story. Black & White, and I'm sure Black 2 & White 2, place a lot of trust in the players, and they make a point to carry some heavier undertones, show character and NPC progression, and overall have a mature storyline given the world that we're dealing with. They show that Pokémon has the lore and budget to tell an enticing story with endearing characters, so I hope that, above all else, smarter storytelling is what we see from the next main series games. Edited February 18, 2018 by Julius Caesar 1
Dcubed Posted February 18, 2018 Posted February 18, 2018 1 hour ago, Julius Caesar said: Great write-ups for Gen V, VI, and VII, @Glen-i; I've really enjoyed reading these! What I was referring to as my favourite QoL improvement introduced in Gen V was simple stuff to do with how items were handled. The effect of a Repel runs out? The game tells you, and asks if you want to spray another. Want to use a Super Potion on more than one member of your party? After a Super Potion is used on one member, you're kept on the party screen as opposed to being booted back to your bag's medicine pocket. Very small touches, but it just generally allows for the whole experience to flow a little bit better. I actually started Pokémon White again just the other night, for the first time since launch, after falling out with my SoulSilver playthough and dabbling with Y's opening hour, and it's making me realise just how backwards the evolution of the franchise has been with Gen VI and Gen VII (in some pretty important ways). I'd completely forgotten that the game starts with you receiving your starter Pokémon in your own bedroom, and I've had an amazing time with the game so far. The UI is incredibly responsive, the battles are fast-paced, the animations and sprites hold up extremely well, and its the only time that I can remember a main series Pokémon game being so resolutely focused on just one thing above all else: storytelling. The plot is so well-paced that it actually has a lot of momentum, so I'm not surprised at all that I already held the game in such high regard. To give an example of that momentum, I'm going to outline the structure of the game for each location in the early game, just because I think its the most effective way to exhibit my point. So, spoilers for a nearly 8 year-old game, up until just after the second gym, I guess? Nuvema Town (starting area) Choose your starter Pokémon Battle Bianca Battle Cheren Route 1 Learn how to catch Pokémon from Professor Juniper Have a Pokémon catching contest with Bianca and Cheren Accumula Town Attend a speech given by Team Plasma with Cheren Battle N Route 2 Battle Bianca Striaton City Battle Cheren Get your first gym badge Dreamyard Battle with Team Plasma to save a wild Pokémon Route 3 Battle Cheren Wellspring Cave Battle Team Plasma to retrieve a stolen Pokémon (with the aid of Cheren) Nacrene City Talk with Cheren Get your second gym badge Battle N Team Plasma steal a dragon's skull from the museum (which belongs to the second gym leader) Pinwheel Forest Battle Team Plasma (with the aid of the third gym leader) As you can see, you have an encounter with one of your two rivals/friends on a frequent basis, which allows us to see the evolution of their own goals and motivations: Cheren has the goal to be the Champion of Unova and to be the strongest trainer around, but his goal is questioned later on in the game, and this is something that he clearly struggles with; Bianca, on the other hand, has no idea what she wants to do, and this journey is her way of seeking out her destiny. The speech given by Team Plasma in Accumula Town informs us of their goals very early on, and throws out an ethical conundrum to the player: Team Plasma wants to free Pokémon from the trainers of the Unova region, which makes players question the morals and ethics of capturing, training and battling Pokémon. We frequently run into them, and the mysterious N, too, and gym leaders are involved with the main story and the battle against the evil team much more than in any other main series game (which pays off to great effect later on in the game). I actually haven't played White 2 yet, so I plan to later this year, but I think that Black & White are quite easily the most story driven games in the main series, and are probably some of the tightest games in the franchise mechanically, too. @Dcubed rightly mentioned how BW were the first main series games to not depend entirely upon the use of HMs, or at least not as much as past games did up to that point, and it just adds to the momentum and narrative flow of the game. You don't really feel as bogged down in Gen V as much as in some other generations because it is so tight, and because it flows so well, in my opinion. I hate seeing the argument that "Game Freak can't make an open world BOTW-type game with Gen VIII". They certainly could, given the right support by Nintendo and its subsidiaries. Pokémon is the most valuable franchise in the world. Of course they could. But that doesn't mean that they should, and this would mean that we wouldn't see Gen VIII for a while, let alone Sinnoh remakes, and it gives us and Game Freak a problem with diminishing returns, at least with regards to the technological advancements such a game would make compared to the 3DS titles. More importantly, it's much cheaper and much more effective to tell a great story than it is to create an open world Pokémon game in an entirely new engine. I'd like to think that some things that we would like to see in an open world game could make their way over to Pokémon Switch (such as interactable/avoidable Pokémon in the overworld, similar to Pokémon Ranger or Chrono Trigger, or perhaps even fleshing out the overworld a bit more so that routes are only a recommended means of passage as opposed to the only means of passage), and I think Gen VII showed that Game Freak is looking at storytelling as being the way to move Pokémon forwards. However, a problem I had with Sun & Moon is that the games seemed to depend a bit too much on cutscenes when it came to the important parts of its storytelling, which immediately makes it difficult for the player to relate (as we don't have any control over what we're seeing/doing, nor does the game typically look like this) to the story. Black & White, and I'm sure Black 2 & White 2, place a lot of trust in the players, and they make a point to carry some heavier undertones, show character and NPC progression, and overall have a mature storyline given the world that we're dealing with. They show that Pokémon has the lore and budget to tell an enticing story with endearing characters, so I hope that, above all else, smarter storytelling is what we see from the next main series games. Oh you’re gonna LOVE B/W2! I can’t believe you’ve never played them! They’re great sequels that do a lot to answer the questions left by B/W... (perhaps not all though ) And if you like the moral ambiguity that B/W present regarding the ethics of the Pokemon series... whoo boy! There is some great stuff that gets really dark in the sequel... Let’s just say that the writers were very brave and didn’t really try to hammer home an unbalanced justification in their favour... They very much leave it to your interpretation, especially if you explore some of the side stories... 1
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