Nintendo Has Pokemon gone down hill?

A couple of my friends and I were discussing this in school the other day. Have pokemon games and pokemon in general lost its luster?
Many people say the games are repetitive and the same everytime despite the new features like three demensional gameplay. They also say that the creators have run out of ideas for new pokemon and the 5th generation pokemon look rediculous. Others argue that the games keep getting better and the new features add a lot more to the game play. What do you guys think?

 

Gameplay has definitely improved, but memorability hasn't. I remember the first two generations off by heart yet I can't remember a damn thing about the 4th (other than Luxray's are cool). I think that the games themselves are better in terms of gameplay and having much more to do, but the personality of the game has gone downhill. If that makes sense.

 

Everyone has their own opinion and this is the internet. It is made with opinions. I've asked myself this question a lot and I wouldn't say they're any worse than they are now. You just have to look at the times and compare them to the past. When the first games came out they were a sensation. Everyone was getting into pokemon and it soon became a fad. When the second games came out, those true to the game loved it. Those who joined because everyone else was doing it soon stopped caring. You have to think. Back then the main concept was new. Now it's not and you can find games that seem to be based off of pokemon. Also you really can't make pokemon so much different after all these years. The basicness of pokemon is what made it so popular. I've heard many rants about how Nintendo feeds crap to it's LoZ fans and how each game is the same. Think about it. If something makes the game fun are you really going to get rid of it?

I will say that after playing Black it wasn't the same after playing Diamond. They just left out too much. The story was very good but after the main story of the game, if you don't have Wifi and a bunch of irl and internet friends it's not much fun.

New ideas of pokemon. There is an unlimited amount of pokemon. You could make ideas out of anything if you wanted too. I'm sure GameFreak has a safe filled with ideas that got thrown out of the original design. Yes some of the pokemon are familiar in the 5th gen. It doesn't mean there is anything wrong with them. Although if GameFreak really wanted to get original ideas they would ask the community. I remember hearing that when the first Megaman came out they had people send in drawings of ideas for enemies in the game and that they couldn't include all of them in the first game so they put them in the 2nd and 3rd games. This would be a great idea because I'm sure that everyone who loves pokemon has created their own before.

 

Ok well lets begin with the shows. First series= Not bad. Second series= was alright. Third series....just terrible,and it only got worse after that in my opinion. For starters the main character doesn't age at all, despite several seasons, but that didn't bother me too much. But really..the series just deteriorated quickly. Storyline just bored me. Get all gym badges, kick bad peoples' ass, try to be pokemon master but epically fail.

Games had the same problem storyline wise really, but i quite like the RPG style games. Designs of the pokemon themselves got more inventive..but yeah after seeing pokemon black there are some that..well they could use a little work.

 

Actually now that I think about it I really don't have a problem about the 5th generation pokemon. Yet, I always here that they're not right or something. Yes... and ice-cream cone pokemon. I saw that when I was playing and was like wtf. Well now that I actually caught one and used it I like it. Can someone be specific if they say that the pokemon are weird. Because so far they just say that and end. I want to hear which ones they think need rework.

 

I definetely agree with you as far as the shows go. The first was pretty darn good but it was all downhill from there.... Especially when Misty left. After she was gone the show was over for me.

 

The problem with Pokémon isn't that it's gone downhill, it's that it hasn't gone anywhere. Every game is pretty much the same.

 

Personally the games are repetative imo. The new gameplay features are interesting but its just an attempt to sugar coat it for the fans, old and new...

 

To be honest i love pokemon and i will buy all the handheld versions regardless. I have nothing against repeating the same type of game over and over again and just enhancing its graphics and features.
The 5th generation pokemon were a bit of a let down and most of my pokemon party is full of older generation pokemon. This is something i have never done before and never really wanted to do.

 

I have to agree with these two posts,

Of course the gameplay will improve as our graphics and technology do, but that does nothing for the personality of the game and its memorability.

While I kind of wish for them to stop making new Pokemon, I also wish for them to never stop. (Hard to make up my mind here.) Because then Pokemon will always be around for kids and adults alike to play. And people who have never seen or played the older games will probably find a lot of joy in the newer ones while the people who have play and seen the older ones can still enjoy them. ​

 

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I don't think that Pokemon has gone downhill as such. I just think that Nintendo and Game Freak should have stopped after Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. The gameplay, I have no issue with. It's basic enough for a child to play and understand, but there is enough there to make it an enjoyable time. The story of Pokemon in general doesn't really change with each Generation of games. Red becomes Silver. Silver becomes whatever the kid's name is in R/S/E (can't be assed looking) and so on and the general story is "Here. Have a Pokemon. Now go get eight gym badges and then beat five of the best trainers we can find."

I haven't really played that much of my copy of Black, purely because it's so different for me. I don't like the way that there are 150 totally new Pokemon that I'm stuck with until I finish the main story of the Pokemon league, but from what I've heard, the story is at least twice as extensive as previous games, where Team Rocket/Magma/Aqua/Galactic were just a small mini-plot and mostly an annoyance but Team Plasma's story continues well after the Elite Four. The new elements to the game play were quite interesting though, such as the triple battles, which do introduce a totally different style of play. Perhaps it's just because I grew up (like most people, hopefully) playing Pokemon Yellow, staying up late and playing Crystal and borrowing my friends copy of Emerald then my brothers copy of Diamond and Pearl.

 

In normal terms of the game, nah, it's fine. But the anime. The anime makes me sadface so many times.

 

It's a matter of people looking at the first two generations through the nostalgia goggles. Nevermind that Red, Blue and Yellow were buggy and unbalanced messes of games, those will always be considered "the best" due entirely to the fact that people played them when they were young.

People will complain about the "regrettable" designs, which they claim the first two generations did not have. To Gen I purists, I point out Jinx in all her racist glory as well as Lickitung, Tangela and Mr. Mime. To the Gen II purists, I point out Shuckle and Delibird. Personally, I'm a fan of the Gen II Pokemon, but not because I'm a purist, but rather because I don't care for the other generations as much as Gen II, plus the nostalgia goggles doesn't exactly point me away from it (really, though, I say the best generations in terms of Pokemon design are, in this order, II, IV, I, V, III.)

There's also the "its the same, so it sucks" complaint. Ok, except that they're not. Granted, the series is formulaic, but last I checked, every game had a different set of gym leaders with variations on type as well as variations on which Pokemon are available. You can't just play the exact same way in every game. However, to be fair, the formula was starting to get stale by Gen IV, which was fixed when Gen V came and the storyline actually became a major part of the game.

In terms of the battle system, I've seen people clamor for a real time system, which would be impossible to implement. I will agree that the battle system is pretty stale, but it would be impossible to implement 649 different movesets for a real time system.

Moving away from the games, let's look at the anime. I always hear how it used to be good, but sucks now, how it stopped being good when Misty was written off and how it should just end because its gotten stale and more general complaints about how Gens I and II were the best. And, again, I have to say that this is entirely the nostalgia filter at work. In fact, the anime has been consistent in quality since day 1 in that its never been all that good. Its a kid's show made to sell the games, cards, toys, etc. In fact, its completely average in terms of merchandise vehicles. It has been this way since day 1. It has always been about selling things to kids, not to entertain teenagers or adults.

In other words, no, the franchise is not losing quality, but rather, the fans are growing up.

 

The story is the selling point this time.

Now thank you for actually showing which ones you thought weird. Now Trubbish and Garbodor. Based off of garbage bags. Well... look at Grimer and Muk. They're based of toxic slime. I'm guessing the only reason you don't have a problem with these two pieces of toxic waste is that they resemble slimes, a common enemy in most rpgs. Now onto Gurdurr. Yes he is holding a material that is used to build buildings. The only thing I dislike about this pokemon is that his head looks like it got smashed to many times and bumps formed. And his red nose. What is he a clown? Now look at Machoke. They're actually very similar in that they've both got similar stats and both have similar evolution mechanics. But Machoke is wearing a belt... Kinda weird for a pokemon to be wearing something of a human. Now onto Rotom. That's really the 4th generation but I will say that it isn't uncommon to hear of ghosts possessing objects and people. Heck in the anime Gengar killed Ash and had his ghost flying with him. I figure you'd be okay with Rotom if he didn't have the ability of changing types by going into inanimate objects. I'm also really surprised that you're not against Genesect. The "Mewtwo" of this generation.

I actually am with you in the order of the generations. You clearly do understand.

 

It's not that I'm against them. It's just that I don't reallt think there is much thought going into pokemon anymore. I mean really? A Pokemon that posesses Household appliances? And an icecream cone? What about bags of rubbish? All Pokemon resemble something, such as a bird, or a dog, like perhaps a snake or a kobra (Ekans and Arbok), but really? An icecream cone? When it evolves, it gets another scoop. I think part of the reason people didn't say "Hold on. THat's just slime. And that's bigger slime" with Grimer and Muk is because even though you knew they were just slime, or ooze, or toxic waste, they didn't really look like it. Fearow is a bird. It looks like a bird. But it doesn't look like any bird I've ever seen.

I think the reason that Pokemon was so popular was because they looked so similar to creatures that we see every day, and as children we always had that active imagination. "A small bird? Maybe it's a pidgey!", you know? But now, it's just moved from being creatures, to household appliances and my chores.

Also, in the anime, I'm sure that Gengar just gave Ash an out of body experience or something. The western adaptations of the anime are way to sugar coated to have someone dying.

 

well me personally think the game play and pokemon themselves are great but the storyline is getting dull it's the same for almost every game.... If they made it diffrent like maybe not having to do gyms maybe something else that still needed battles. If I remember the oragne leauge is diffrent from conventional gyms maybe somethng like that or even choosing to be a team rocket would make the games much better

 

alot of the new features are to descuise the same old charectors like ash; how old is that kid really?

 

I awlays thought i would be cool if every now and then, you got money after you became the Champion, because you'd have trainers want to battle you, but you'd be too strong, and you'd get some of their money, like when you lose. Or people randomly want to battle you when you're walking around. Just something to make you realise you actually are the Champion, and it wasn't just some other trainer in a fancy costume you defeated.

 

Although most people say that gen2 was the end of the nostalgia trip you are wrong, my first pokémon game was ruby for the gameboy, i loved it because it was a big step from the black and white colours (i am british, dont make fun of my spelling) and how emerald added gifs, slightly glitchy, but it was a step, then diamond and pearl came and that was probably the start of the downfall, you now had to use wifi (or cheat) to get anything decent, i had to beg my freind for his ar card so i could get arceus (to this date my favourite legendry) now almost every wifi is WPA whereas DS' only worked on WEP and this was the worst thing for black and white.

The other thing while in on the subject is black and white's pokémon, all self evolving (hoen did this as well) sinnoh has the least amount of no-evo pokémon bar legendrys and had II and III gen pokemon being basic or stage one evolutions for them. Making it feel like pokémon generation weren't a boundry to the game (i know 2 gen did this as well, but not as much as sinnoh)

Finally i come to the least important thing in the rant, legendry pokémon.

In first and second gen it was easy: mew created all pokémon and ho-oh and lugia created entei, zaptos and all that lot with celebi and mew2 not really being mentioned untill they got a full flicking movie about them. By gen III god's 2nd and 3rd day was shortend to 3 pokémon raining war on everything and creating soliders to fight. Then gen IV cane and turned the entire tree on poké life on its flicking head, saying that pokemon created time, space and a demension which it could destroy the other dimension, and if you think it could get any worse, BOOM! POKÉGOD!! a pokémon that created seven pokemon (really creepy huh? seven days, seven pokémon) to create EVERYTHING, even humanity was created by pokémon mespirit, uxie and azelf.
By now i thought, everything has been covered, how is black and white, gonna top this? Answer, it didnt.
Yes the plot was great but what were plasma fighting for? Pokémon liberation? World domination? A flicking peice of crap legendry pokémon? because it is never said what reshiram, zekrom and kuyrem were legendry for. Only that they all had a human partner and fought to the death over somthing. Genesect and keldeo are'nt even legendry. Genesect is a fossil pokémon that has been given a lazer and keldeo is a apprentice to the accual legendry pokémon cobalion, terrakion and virizion.


Disclaimers: this is and will stay my own opinion. Manaphy and pheone are not legenry
Pokemon because they hatch from eggs. The main reason i didnt swear is because this could be read by people of a certain age.

 

Pokemon hasn't so much gone downhill as the hill has gone up own its own and pokemon refused to follow it.