Modern Pokémon's Biggest Problems Aren't What You Think

3ds Pokémon is trashed for lame reasons

i think sun and moon could’ve been the switch games, and sword and shield for the 3ds.

You can just trade over gen 1-4 pokemon on repeated playthroughs of gen 5. Just hatch some eggs. It ain't that hard

Incompetent is the better argument than lazy. GamefrEAk has had damn near 30 years to figure out how to handle Pokemon in 3D, and the assets created in XY were designed specifically to be reused, and could work on Switch hardware given Let's Go exists. Nevermind the stupid ideas like Dynamax that requires every mon to have another large scale model or splitting the dev team to make some shovelware that was barely advertised and no one cared about. Yes, the deadlines need to be pushed back, and CAN be pushed back (no reason they can't license the franchise out to make spinoffs and do other things with the anime before moving on to the next region), but GamefrEAk ain't innocent in this either.

EDIT: Also no amount of deadlines forced them to lie about the reason for the Dex cut. That deception is 100% on them.

"Rushed". They didn't HAVE to do wild area's, open world, extensive 3D etc etc etc. They also could have hired more people to do the grunt work. They are 100% at fault. They chose to do this. They continue to choose it. They could still meet the bare minimum that most of the rest of the series did. Their real problem is over ambition. The move to 3D, endless gimmicks like the wild area, open world etc. Instead of this garbage they should dial it back and make good games instead of trying to make impossible great ones chasing whatever trend is popular. Pokemon Go and a thousand other stupid mobile tie ins. Breath of The Wild....and I guarantee you that we're gonna see some shift towards what Palworld offered.

I am tired of people defending this garbage company. I don't care if it's management or the devs, it doesn't matter. They have an absolutely OBSCENE amount of money, which can solve every single problem.

black and white's flak was unwarranted though. gen 4 gen 2 or gen 1 are much better examples being barely stiched together messes

half assed or rushed I don't see a difference. duh the devs want to make good game but the managers ore forcing them to half ass

I mean, how can they care after PoGo outearned all of Pokemon in two years without delivering a single minimum viable product?

It is completely soul-killing, but they should at least have the decency to move over and let the new generation of passionate developers to do their part.

Its why I have hope for the future- as Gamefreak is dragged kicking and screaming into more standard development practices by ever advancing hardware, the old guard is being vastly outnumbered by new blood.

NO ONE is getting into the dev team unless they're crazy passionate about Pokemon- their prestige is just too great. And even though we know that they treat the non-art folks pretty crummy (according to a good amount of info on Japanese equivalents of Glassdor and the likes) we know that doesn't stop devs in the rest of the world. (Just look at the likes of Blizzard and all the former greats ruined by EA)

There is a really great chance that these folks are absolutely brimming with the drive and even romhack experience to bring innovation and inspiration to the series, building on the changes of the more deviant generations, like gen 5 and 7. (I very strongly suspect that these folks are the ones responsible for those model updates, like fixing Blastoise's cannons. those changes were completely unnecessary but seem like the kind of thing I would expect a fan-turned-dev to do the moment they got a scrap of agency. If they were hired for switch development, the timeline would add up IMO)

Just look at how Sonic has managed to get way more competent with fans getting a ton of influence and just a little bit of breathing room.

Ugh, this fanbase can be so ignorant at times. They cannot fathom GF's situation.

i agree with your video delzethin also good job explaian

Being around since Gen 1 myself, I agree with the vast majority of the points in the video. (I agree with the point of the player demographic segment. That is a topic that is difficult to articulate well.) This is a trend I've been observing more frequently in entertainment companies. Trying to push out more product in an attempt to keep up with demand which naturally causes the products released to be of lower quality. The old Cost:Quality:Speed trifecta. I think a LOT of companies need to slow down a bit and let their properties cook for just a little longer. Maybe their market research suggests something different, but personally, I'm more willing to wait for a polished product than spend money on an unpolished one.

After reading reviews from employees that aren't with Gamefreak anymore (Yes, I take a grain of salt), I've heard that the main problems at GameFreak are:
1. incredibly outdated technology (2 generations behind apparently)
2. Higher ups keeping things as is. (If it isn't broke don't fix it.)
3. Skill set learned from the job is too low to bring anywhere else.
4. Management lets the grunts do all the work.
Positives things:
1. Will get you set up with the tools you need to work. Even from home. (Accommodating)
2. They listen to your complaints. (Fixing things actively though is a different story)
Again, these could be fictional or not, but if its true, they need to seriously fix some shit there.

Pokemon fans need to be more patient, but the Pokemon devs need to be a bit more competent at the same time.

3minutes in and we get the HALF ASSED excused of it being rushed. These games have 4 YEAR dev cycles splite across 3 COMPANIES and a fuck ton of cash Flow.

NUMBER 1: Creatures INC.- We have seen Creature pour DETAIL into the Models AND Animations. Bandais' new Snap Imfamously known as the Bandai Asset Flip, Bandai had stated not a single asset or animation had to be made. They had been give such a ROBUST library they off handily stated it was a JOY to work for TPC. The Animations models and textures are ALL THERE WAITING TO BE USED.

NUMBER 2: The Pokemon Company- The deadlines set is very obviously as shown in EVERY Iwata asks with them. 4 YEARS. They handle 100% of the Merch and advertisement end of Pokemon along with logistics and releases. Almost EVERY company to work with them wish to Keep Doing so.

NUMBER 3: Nintendo- MONEY+ EXCLUSIVITY= PROFIT

NUMBER 4: Gamefreak- We have seen ALL their titles outside of Pokemon Flop and Fail for the SAME REASONS fans complain about lack of content, no polish, bugs, glitches, bad mechanics and gimmicks. Low effort graphics, boring gameplay, nonexistent story, and lack of love/passion for the game.

I think most people that say the devs are lazy also know that they're half-assing it to get it out as soon as possible
They're inextricably linked issues

You could also mean "lazy" in the sense of "stingy", since it's really hard to believe that the highest grossing franchise of all time cannot perform better than this... they should be above an beyond industry standards!

I think you were too lenient on The Pokémon Company, not even mentioning the egregious lack of voice acting, questionable DLC monetization, and borderline pay to win in the competitive side.

Legends ZA would flop so hard if it was marketed as releasing in 2025 but it’s in January


But PLEASE make Pokken 2

I suppose I want a Pokémon RPG out of Dragon Age Origins. Allowing me to choose my Pokémon adventure

After Galar I just stopped playing Pokémon

I get the point about older generations having flaws too but the gen 5 flaws you mentioned are so nitpicky in comparison to the gaping holes in design left by the rushed development of new games

2 days and almost at 30k

I just really want a new Pokken Tournament game. Pokken DX was awesome!

I'm really hoping they push gen 10 to the 30th anniversary of pokemon and release a game with everything they learned from past 3d mistakes and I'm hoping too that they have dev kits for the new Nintendo console. Man can you imagine how crazy it'd be for a new pokemon game to come out around if not the same day the new console releases?

Bad news for you. The newer Pokemon games are a thousand percent better than the old junk they cranked out. 2d Pokémon sucked in every way. Amazing you talk about visuals and try to compare with the 2d garbage visuals. Each Pokémon game gets better and better so far.

Alright, I gotta see you tackle the current state of the Sonic franchise. It’s in a pretty healthy state right now, but I feel like there could always be improvements.

Since the death of Satoru Iwata game freak has fallen into its old ways in terms of bugginess. Gen 1 is a buggy mess, but Gen 2-6 the games were much more stable. Although Gen 4 did have speed flaws.

I want a Pokémon Smash Bros, yeah there’s Pokken but I found it too complicated to easily pick up and play and maybe a sequel could fix that.

Legends A-Z releases next year, so maybe this will be a rest year for Pokémon.
Still wondering when Black&White remakes will come out though.

Is this an AI voice? I can’t tell. But great video

While I agree that lengthening the generations from 3 years is definitely the best solution, I think 4 years is still not enough at this day and age. If anything I think 5 or 6 might be better for that. It also gives enough time to fill the gap with spinoffs and mainline title DLC content, while at the same time granting the dev team enough time to give them the polish the mainline titles need.

In fact, according to GamingBolt, "A very large part of this can be attributed to the very unique circumstances surrounding this game’s development. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are full open world games — massive ones at that — developed in three years by a 200 person team, in the middle of a pandemic that wreaked havoc on game development around the world, and caused innumerable delays across the board."

Gen 5 is still my favorite Pokemon game but I’m definitely not going to lie it’s not perfect man.

Great vid BUT Gamefreak is still lazy and apathetic for these games sold great and instead of coming back to fix the problems like graphics, bugs and attack animations, they just leave them due to the success they already made.

Absolutely agreed the biggest of these problems (as far as I have noticed and made my opinion known) is the rushed development cycle. Not only do the games come out so fast it’s hard to keep up with buying them all sometimes- problem a personal friend of mine shared with regards to the triple whammy of BDSP, Legends Arceus, and Scarlet and Violet ALL WITHIN ONE YEAR. But another problem from the rushed dev cycle- it leads to burn out for players playing the games.

For my money, though, the modern games hit their stride with Legends Arceus and Scarlet/Violet. Since, remember that burn out feeling I just mentioned? That’s how I was feeling circa Sword and Shield. Yes, I’m part of the problem since I still got Sword, I know I know- the formula is still FUN. I was just left wanting concerning the series feeling stale and, you know, pushed out too much too quickly. Feels like if I blink in the time of writing this comment, Gen 10 will be announced and push Legends Z-A out of the spotlight… like last time, frustrating as that was.

But Legends Arceus was super fun and a breath of fresh air to me. The gameplay loop of catching Pokémon to get resources to catch more Pokémon and filling out the Dex just worked for me, all while not forcing another trek through Kanto with cumbersome motion controls that were off putting. And, while I definitely felt the performance issues for Scarlet… the open world setting was a blast to explore, the story was one of my favorites with a great cast, and it just felt like it broke the mold enough to satisfy my want for the series to evolve and innovate while feeling familiar!

But none of this changes the fact they need more time. Legends Arceus would have been an amazing stop gap title between the Sword and Shield DLC and Scarlet and Violet, with BDSP being a… traditional mainline entry in the meantime. But nope, Legends Arceus was out a month when they plopped Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly in our laps and said Gen 9 was coming. Please, don’t let history repeat with Legends Z-A…

On the whole, though, I’m not one to be super upset over issues with games, even if I will acknowledge them. Pokémon can and should do better, they’re the highest grossing media franchise on the planet. I can’t say for sure if a 4 year cycle with a mainline entry, a mid-Gen entry, and a Legends style game is feasible without a number of potential issues. But I’d rather a longer cycle between the games than a rushed cycle any day.

Also, totally agreed with your take on the wonky localization of Black and White. Half the time it feels like people are just having completely unrelated conversations. The story is still good, it just didn’t get a good localization.

i've been saying this for years, pokemon should be a live service game. something like genshin impact. have a strong base game and instead of having to make a brand new engine and build everything from scratch every 3 years, build off the base game and introduce new regions/pokemon in expansions. it solves everything.

only downside is it would be less profitable because they can no longer do the scam of selling 2 games with 3 different pokemon on each side, and they have to stop charging a subscription for pokemon home. but to please their shareholders pockets they can just start charging a subscription or some kind of battlepass for the main game if it has some sort of endgame loop that keeps people coming back, and they can sell microtransactions in stuff like costumes for your character... it can work

Another problem I don't really see mentioned much is that Pokemon has a bit of a monopoly on the monster-collecting genre's audience. Despite a lot more monster-collector games out there, some even competent enough to stand toe to toe w/ the Poke giant, they don't get enough mainstream attention to push any sort of improvement in TPC's development routine.

This was an excellent video! Brought up all of the issues that have bugged people about Pokémon games since their transition to 3D, and ways to remedy them. Very straight and to the point, and hits (almost all) of the main points. Nothing was said about the manga or the anime, but they are also offshoots from the generation’s flagship series that would only benefit from longer time between generations.

the only modern pokemon game that was a mess is Legends Arceus. It is the worst game i ever played on the Switch. Graphics for the other Pokemon games are decent enough even if they can be better. Fans who say that GF don't put in the effort are not legit fans and they should just leave the franchise. Dex cut is good because we don't need every pokemon in one game. BDSP are the best remakes since remakes should be faithful. ORAS and HGSS are not good remakes imo.

We need to be able to catch ALL of the pokemon in the series....the saying literally goes "pokemon! Gotta catch em all"

Because Pokemon has far too many tourists in it's "community"
People who were never fans of Pokemon, but "Pokemania" fans of the hype behind it not the series itself
The Palworld drama revealed these people and their opinions should be ignored

The problem is the Pokemon Company INTERNATIONAL not Game Freak
As another point is that the "decline" happened once the releases were no longer staggered at Gen 6

An actually logical take good video

And PLA derangement? Lovely

I like how the 3d games look. They're colorful and have a coherent art style (even if people on twitter say otherwise and pull up a screenshot of a generic corner to imply the game is ugly).
Just a shame the games are indeed rushed at the ending of development.

Off topic but is it just me or do sound a lot like Norm McDonald

Now Pokémon actually has some real competition! {honestly Mario got better because of Sonic being around a good rival can make you improve on what you think you are lacking} there may be some hope yet let's just hope that the company doesn't start panicking and flailing when trying to compete faster with newer tiles was instead of trying to improve their equipment. And no I'm not just referring to the new game that's coming out that allows you to have 'happy go lucky time' with your Pokémon. Granted the new game also includes death by Snu Snu of their rivals who knows what ideas that will pop into Nintendo's head

"Saying the developers must've been lazy is ITSELF a lazy argument."
Alright, you've earned my respect.

the investors are responsible for the 3 year dev time, also, go might not be around much longer after what they recently did to players avatars, which made male avatars look like round potato butch lesbians and made female avatars look like transgender females and everyone is complaining about it

pointing out the flaws of older games is not the own you think it is because everyone else knows weird design choices is not the same as a broken game