I love Pokémon. That's it. That's all. Pokémon have been doing many things right (and a lot of things wrong *cough*SPECIAL*cough*) since the very first game came out years ago. The game holds a very delicate balance of maturity as it appeals to ages from children to adults.
To a child, you can play through the game and Hyper Beam and Hydro Pump your way to victory, but to the more mature player you can breed, and train, and compete with the fiercest team available. There is as much strategy as you care to look for and that's the number one reason why (I think) Pokémon has had so much success as a game.
With the relatively recent release of Pokémon X and Y, I have been studying competitive teams and trying to put one together (and wondering why nobody loves poor Absol), but then Twitch Plays Pokémon came about and brought a whole new level of awesomeness to the Pokémon games. It is as amazing as it is frustrating (Route 9 I'm looking at you), because of how many people are aware of and love the game. If you were a fan of two heads are better than one, I'd like you to ask yourself the same of is 16,408 better than 1?
I digress.
Part of the fun for me of Pokémon is imagining what will come in the next release, and here are some of my projections for the upcoming versions of Pokémon. The most obvious ones are low on the list and the ideas get more unique the closer they get to number 1. Enjoy!
10 - Character Customization
This was a great addition to X and Y, and I'm positive they will be keeping this in the upcoming releases. One thing I REALLY hope that they bring, is throwing the Poké Ball customization.
That might seem a bit of a stretch, but how you throw the Poké Ball says a lot about your character; it would be cool to pick from different poses while you send your Pokémon into battle. Whether it's as simple as letting the ball roll out of your hand, to pitching it at 90 mph, to juggling or spinning... the possibilities are endless. I don't expect endless possibilities (especially with the first iteration of this idea), but being able to select from at least a few animations would be as cool as changing your outfit is now.
09 - Evolutions
When I first saw Inkay, I knew I needed the adorable little squid. I'm not one for cutesy Pokémon, but this one was able to pack a punch thanks to Foul Play (you can see me conversion story on my Top Ten: Pokémon). Needless to say, ever since I captured one I was eager as to what it would evolve into (I refused to look online, not that there was much there anyways). The anticipation was killing me level, after level, after level, after level.
It wasn't towards later in the game that I fought against its evolution, whiles still not having it myself. It was unbearable. How did this little guy evolve into the less adorable monster from "20,000 leagues Under the Sea". I mean (and this is also due to not looking online), it was shaking every time I sent it into battle. It was beckoning to me. It was telling me that it was ready to evolve... but how?
Finally, while showing off for my friends, one of them (shout out to you!) said "Isn't that the one that evolves when you hold the DS upside down?" I smacked my forehead that day at the creativity. The thing attacks upside down, and it's evolved form is the inverse of its previous form. I was enthralled and I really hope they do more of those evolutions. I also enjoy how Eevee turns into Sylveon.
The second part to this is Mega Evolutions. I like them, and hate them at the same time. Competitively, they offer a unique situation where we have to wonder if the Pokémon is holding a mega stone, or not. But that's really about as far as I see mega evolution going. I really enjoyed the plot point around it in the X and Y games, but now that we've investigated it, it lost its charm (for now). How can they evolve Mega Evolution? One thing I was personally hoping for, is that there becomes a way to make it permanent. How cool would it be to be able to play with your Princess... I mean Mega Absol (brohoof!). I thought that it could have been an AMAZING reward for the player to choose one Pokémon to stay mega evolved permanently. Think of this missed plot opportunity:
At the end of the Team Flare side quest, you find that there is leftover energy floating int he chamber. Someone (probably Professor Sycamore, heck I'd even take Oak) comes in an explains that this energy is waiting for something and later discovers that it can be absorbed into the mega stone... aka you pick a mega evolving Pokémon and it stays permanently mega evolved.
AMAZING!
All that being said, I really don't like the current future of Mega Evolutions, and unless there is more Pokémon that mega evolve or that we can get rid of the mega stones (both of which just negate what I like about it in the first place) I don't see a solid future in mega evolutions.
08 - Multiple save files
This one should be obvious, and I can see both sides of the argument. Honestly, I don't care about having multiple save files on one game (I used to), but something that having a second save file would help with comes up later in this list so I mention it now. Plus, with the previous entry being really long, I'll give you a break from reading for now. :)
07 - Getting rid of HM restriction
I'm really glad of how little this recent version is HM dependent. Surf is OBVIOUSLY a necessity, strength too, but a lot of the other ones seem just tacked on to restrict the player from going places to soon. I'm sure we've all seen the meme where the character is staring longingly over a small shrub and unable "step" over it due to game logic. The toning down of the HM necessity is great and how they explained, in game, why you weren't able to go to certain places was solid (with the exception of Lumiose where other people were allowed in the blacked out portions but not ME).
Next thing we need to work on, is removing the restriction from them. Now that TM's don't break after use, it shouldn't be a problem. It shouldn't have been a problem before as HM's didn't break after use anyways. Now I won't go into too much detail of some cool suggestions for HM possibilities here (it will be covered later), but I think the HM system should be overhauled completely in an upcoming version.
06 - Poké Ball Customization
Straying away from the completely obvious suggestions, we get into some more subtle suggestions. Poké Ball customization. I really liked what they did in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum with the Capsules. My Little Eevee's all had capsules to match their characteristics. I haven't seen it in Black/White / 2 yet, and it wasn't in X or Y. I really missed that. I have to settle with buying hundreds of each ball from the store in Lumiose and then color coordinating for cool shows. For example: Heal ball while searching for Sneasel (in hopes of breeding a shiny), or a luxury ball while catching a Froakie/Frogadier/Greninja in Friend Safari's (again in hopes of breeding for shiny).
That's the closest to capsules as I have been able to get, and my current goal of reincarnating my all Eeveelutions (with the addition of Pinkie Pie thanks to X and Y), I am slowly Eevee hunting and plan on capturing on with each kind of ball possible. Seeing as I was fortunate enough to get a Masterball in a trade, I have one to spare. Thank you that random guy! I hope you liked the Pokémon I traded you for it (it wasn't a wondertrade, but I no longer remember the details).
Needless to say, Poké Ball customization would be cool, whether it is another capsule system, or maybe even creating your own balls. They did that (kinda) in Gold, Silver, and Crystal and it was BROUGHT BACK in D/P/P. Why do you keep getting rid of it Game Freak. PEOPLE WANT IT!
05 - Realism
I am saying this one in acknowledgement that... it's a game. I fully understand that. There are just somethings that they can do better in the sense of realism.
First of all, the antagonist teams. I go over that one in an earlier post. Team Rocket was based on realistic goals an visions. Teams since then haven't really done the same thing. BUT, someone got me thinking about Team Flare and their goal. It really is a legitimate goal, I just don't like the extreme they took it too in the game. I bring this up to show that Pokémon's villains are getting better, but with some tweaking they could become top of the line.
Secondly, travel restrictions. Boulders or water blocking your way is one thing. This twig of a bush blocking my path is another thing. They got better with this in X and Y, but there should be a better example of restrictions when it comes to stopping the player from going places. If I have my 463 pound almost 29 foot-long Onix, I think I can find a way over that bush. I can ask it to pick me up and drop me on the other side. I could have it squash the bush and probably many other surrounding buildings (in the case of LT. Surge's gym). You kinda see what I mean now?
That being said, I feel that HM's should still be moves (given that they already are), but that other factors should allow you access to other places. For example, when a water Pokémon becomes bigger than you, you can use it to cross water. If a Pokémon has a certain amount of strength it can move boulders. This would result in a complete overhaul of the HM system, but that would be PERFECT for a next Gen plot point. You'd need to carefully monitor what Pokémon show up when, but that would increase the realism of the game in the way that I'm thinking about.
A brief mention to dual-type attacks. The elemental punches and tri attack and more are all BEGGING for it. Make it happen.
Finally, relationships. I'll get more into this later.
Really finally, have the elite four and league champion roam except in certain situations (such as disasters or tournaments. Heck, start a system where tournaments are held). Being an elite four and champion must be the MOST BORING JOB ever. The champion seems to travel quite a bit, but the elite four don't seem to. Fix that. Once the player is recognized to be able to battle them, have the league organizers give them contact information for the elite four. Have the player look for and find them. Give the elite four a "schedule". Then, once all of the elite four are defeated, have them do the same thing in regards to the champion. It also wouldn't hurt to actually be recognized as the champion once you beat the game... but this brings me to my next topic.
It would be fun to have some characters wander the entire world. They kind of did it in RSE (the reporters), but having some people actually on a schedule throughout the world would be awesome. It would be great for a rival to have a schedule, so that now you have a clock to race against too. If this was done, then YOU'D be the champion and could roam around and people would come to YOU to battle. This brings me to ANOTHER topic, but before this gets too long, I'll stop (you guys get a bonus at the end).
04 - Prequel
Remember how I said that Mega Evolution doesn't have the greatest future? This is one way to work around that, AND explain some of the history of Pokémon.
This is less about the mega evolution and more about going back to the ancient times. How cool would it be to play as a character in a prehistoric Pokémon world where Aerodactyls and Archeops are the Pidgeys and Fearows? That factor aside, I think it would be great to explore a less modernized Pokémon world and actually seeing some of the history, we can read about now, happen.
Yeah, this one was a short one.
03 - Plot
This is another short one, but high on the list because of the immense potential.
The advances to the aesthetics and game play have been amazing the last view years, but the plot needs some finishing. The general plot is fine. You have a friend, and you both want to be the best. I get it. The part I'm more concerned with is one, as mentioned above, the antagonists and two, not mentioned above, the legendary Pokémon. The antagonists I'll leave alone for now, I don't want to beat them to a pulp, but the legendary Pokémon is where my major concern lies in regards to plot.
In every generation there are legendary Pokémon that tend to gravitate towards the player. Why? I mean really, WHY? I get that the player does good, the player is the protagonist. Other people are good too. What makes the legendary Pokémon more apt to follow the main character than other characters? Explain that in the plot.
Pokémon X and Y get into this slightly as the main character literally saves the Pokémon from death. But even then, it should be more difficult to meet it than "You saved me? Let's battle!" It should "thank" the player (by destroying the facility) and then fly off. The player should have to put EFFORT into finding the legendary Pokémon. It would make a GREAT post-game quest and it would make more flavorful sense for the legendary Pokémon to gravitate towards the Pokémon League Champion.
That being said, a throwback to Dragonheart (similar to the Ho-oh and the legendary cats) could be cool too. Example: The legendary Pokémon, that doesn't like death, could have seen a baby struggling to live after birth. It could have entered the hospital tended to/cared for the main character and then left. That gives them a bond worthy of gravitation. Roaming legendary Pokémon are fine, but one thing needed to have more fun with this is to have more MYSTICALMAN EUSINE type people too as mentioned earlier.
02 - Immersion
They did it regarding Pokémon in Pokémonamie, but now let's see if we can direct that towards people. It turns it more RPGish, but given character customization just happened, the next logical step is this. This would help me, as a plot gamer, immerse myself into my character. I don't mean getting a girl friend, or something like that (though it would be a direction to take this), but I mean affiliation. If I do something mean to someone, they won't like me. If I get a bad reputation with a gang, they will hinder me; if i get a good reputation, they will help me etc. Let my actions affect the game more than did I win or did I lose.
01 - MMORPG
There are two ways they could go down this road.
First, literally make a MMORPG where players can interact with and meet other players. Instead of fighting they battle Pokémon.
Second, they can make a second save file. How does this make an MMORPG you might ask; it doesn't. BUT one save file can be single player mode. And, you guessed it, a second save file can be multiplayer mode. Have you ever wanted to play WITH your friends, your second save slot is the solution. As a second save slot, you have the option of playing in your solo world, and whenever your friend and you have the same time free, you can both open the second save slot and journey together.
If this gets implemented, it would take Pokémon to a WHOLE new level of awesomeness. It would be even cooler if there was a separate plot for the multiplayer version too. Maybe the two games cross paths every now and then. For example, you pass by a couple while shopping at the mart, or as the duo you see your single self leave the gym you're about to face. Things like that would make the Pokémon world that much cooler.
00 - *Bonus*
Battle Types:
You can select what type of battle you want to have (in a majority of cases). I agree it's a big endeavor, but maybe the gym leaders and elite four etc. You could request a single, or double etc. Then, if you become the champion and people ask you to battle, you get to say whether its a triple battle or whatever.
Last thing regarding battles, but this would require a complete overhaul of most of the games mechanics so this is wishful thinking at best, a version where (during the battles) your point of view was that of the Pokémon. You'd run around, and attack the opponent; it would be an real-time version rather than turn-based. Again, wishful thinking, but an awesome idea.
==xx==
That was a massive Top Ten List, I hope you can see why it took so long for me to want to do another one. I'm hoping to do more of them, but they will probably not be weekly like before, but I will get them out on Tuesdays from now on; this one was special.
I'd like to hear whatever you guys think too. I know this isn't the most popular blog, but it gives me something to do to distract me from other things I have to do :)
Also, a side note, I'm replaying the Pokémon games starting from Generation I onwards. This gave me the idea to start my own Nuzlocke challenge and to keep a record of the happenings. You can expect regular updates in my diary called: The [Version] Nuzlog. I've started already and will post the first entry soon, you'll laugh. It's pretty bad. Nowhere to go but up, right?
