With the recent announcement of Pokemon versions Black 2 and White 2, it would seem necessary to draft a list of considerations for the upcoming installment.
As a series with extended life, Pokemon has seen multiple iterations of itself. The series has done little to deviate from its tried and true format; refining itself in a few areas, and little more. With the induction of the latest games, versions Black and White, players saw the most radical iteration of the series since its conception.
Black and White featured the Unova region, a location set a vast distance away from previous game locales. The intention of this decision was to feature the latest 150 some-odd Pokemon that were created and those only. This was intended to provide the series with relative freshness. This change was welcome, deviating from the redundant introduction of old Pokemon in a new generation.
The new Pokemon, however, seemed to prove more fatal than beneficial, as many unsightly and easily disliked Pokemon were introduced. Few of the new Pokemon will become beloved of staples of the community. While complex color palates creates more eye appealing images, the reality is that the new Pokemon were poorly received.
Furthermore, with more complex technologies available, Nintendo should be able to create a larger game environment and provide more end game sustenance. Black and White have notoriously little of either. This seems to be the trend with nearly all of the Pokemon games: shallowness.
Black and White sought to bring large cities and superb sights to trainers. However, the major city that players ventured to featured virtual nothing in the way of interaction. Many of the buildings are there for show, not permitting the player any entry. the few locations that exist in the city provide virtual nothing of interest. The most functional buildings in the city are the Pokemon Center and the Pokemon gym.
The bridges, too, feature nothing of interest. Sure, they look splendid, but why is this relevant to the game experience? Nothing happens on these bridges. The gamer cavorts across and enter the next location. Thus, we arrive at the first consideration:
1.) Provide larger, more accessible and functional locations in the game.
2.) Big, cool shots, cities and bridges mean nothing if the only activity for the player is to stand around.
The second consideration is: Stop adding and then removing features from the games across generational (game version) gaps. They have introduced a permanent run button and removed it. They introduced a device to hunt specific Pokemon and removed it. Gamers saw the ability to run with a Pokemon following added and removed.
Such decisions, and many more, result in a gimmicky nature and leave a sour taste in the mouth of the fan base.
The next consideration pertains to the moralistic nature of Pokemon: Yes, one target audience for the game is young children. However, many players started playing with the original release of the games and have since continued playing. What does this mean? We don’t need shallow, virtual people informing the players to love their Pokemon and that Pokemon are wonderful things. This moralistic nature often ties in with some villainous team attempting to conquer the world. Provide us either more complex morality tales or remove the need for villains. Pokemon would function fine as the gamer’s journey to conquer the Pokemon league.
Ultimately, what Pokemon offers is one game, providing the player to start their journey in any region and progress to the others, leveling their team of monsters as they go along. If they expand the regions as well, they will be able to include more environments to catch the various assortments of Pokemon that have been created.
Oh, and they can provide multiple save files.