If you could replace Game Freak with another studio to develop Pokemon who would it be and why?

Imagine designing a game around the concept that people would rather play other games and do other things instead of playing your game.

If they’re so worried about players getting lost in more complex routes, towns, and dungeons then why don’t they...add a map?

"People have less time to play" *locks me in a 20 minute cutscene with galarian hau that i neither asked for or wanted

Masuda: "People don't have time to play long games. People have a smaller attention style." Oh yeah I remember how BOTW got a lot of criticism for being super long and full of depth. People stopped playing it in a week. It has completely driven the Zelda franchise into the ground. It barely sold any copies. People don't even talk about it anymore.

Game Freak "people don't have time to play anymore" Also Game Freak, "sweet, let's add 151 curry recipes and 64 forms of Alcremie to collect "

A very accurate quote I once heard that summarizes the state of the franchise: "Pokemon once sold merchandise based off the incredibly successful video games. Now it sells video games based off the incredibly successful merchandise."

"I hope people don't get their expectations too high." is a statement equal to "I'm here for your money, not for your praise." which is absolutely disgusting considering that Pokemon is the largest franchise of Nintendo overtaking Mario and Zelda which have better good-looking games. Let that sink in.

The most annoying part about the "scale" argument is that GF got it right in the Let's Go series. Battling Brock's Onix is an awesome experience because Onix is massive during the fight. To add insult to injury, Let's Go uses the same assets as every other 3D Pokemon game before and after it. GF can do it, they're just choosing the business model of a yearly release over consistency.

"...nowadays players get bored and frustrated more easily and they aren't interested in things that are so demanding/challenging." The entire Souls-like Genre: *thriving*

Am I the only here who thinks that they should just chill a bit? they don't have to release a new game every year?

When you pointed out the 3D models have no personality, I was devastated how true it was. Didn’t even realize it. They just stare at you.

"Marshtomp looked okay in 2D, now he looks like he shat his pants on the bus and can't do anything about it" -Radicalsoda

If people "don't have time to play" then why make a game at all

"People wouldn't use the battle frontier" Said by the same company that holds massive tournaments centered around what the battle frontier is fucking about

the video talks about immersion in the map design section, but I wanted to mention the exact point my immersion was shattered beyond salvage. I tried to be as immersed as possible, so when I got to the snow town, I looked at my character and thought "he's literally in a t-shirt and jeans. there's no way he's not freezing his ass off." so I went to the clothing store to update my look to reflect my location. there were no coats. in the town where it is always snowing no matter what time of year it is, the local clothing store where residents without pokemon have to go shopping due to how dangerous wild pokemon are, there are no warm clothes to buy.

I don't disagree but I absolutely adore Gen 6 marshtomp's brain-dead face its so stupid and I love it

It took me years to realize Hoenn Route 119 was a single route. It always felt like two or three routes in one.

Yo they really just told us “oh, you want a challenge? Go do a nuzlocke”

26:18 Black and White had a really good story that actually motivated me to keep going through the game and was paced really well between your two rivals, N and team plasma. The game felt pretty balanced between gym challenges and the overarching story. The problem with the newer games isnt that they have a bigger focus on narratives it's that theyre not great. 1) they're just not interesting while they have some neat ideas, like hop feeling like hes making his brother look bad, it's not executed all that well. 2) they interrupt way too much in most rpgs you can usually skip all the story to begin with but there's also a much better flow between gameplay and story. Usually you go to a town are free to explore for a bit and then get a few cutscenes and then head to a dungeon maybe get a cutscene at the start and then youre free to play with another cutscene at the end usually before the boss. In the new pokemon games you'll get a cutscene then walk into a building and get another cutscene then walk out to get another cutscene it feels like my time is being intentionally wasted when you could've put that all into 1 cutscene. 3) the cutscenes usually just tell you stuff you already know or when they do give new information it's not much and it's not interesting. For example when you meet Sonia in Hammerlocke all we learn is that there were two heroes instead of one everything else we already knew. It would've been better if that was the first time we saw mention of the legends of the darkest day and dynamx in ancient times. Then if the player had paid attention to the glyph in Tuffield and statue in Motostoke and maybe interacted with them they could have an interesting moment where they connect the dots themselves. 4) The cutscenes are just presented as people standing around talking. More interesting presentation would do a lot to make it more engaging. The lack of voice acting in a 3d game is also jarring. It adds to the uncanny valley feeling of the world. It makes it much harder to suspend your disbelief when you can't hear the characters talk. Its especially weird in gym battles where you can hear chants in the background too. 5) The story feels like the gym challenges have noting to do with the rest of the story so when you get to story segments it feels like time is being wasted.

Dexit was the final straw for me. When you start removing the Pokémon from Pokémon, you've done something very wrong.

_"You're gonna buy it anyway"_ - Junichi Masuda

"Pokémon games were made back in the day with heart and soul" Now it's made with swords to cut corners and shield to protect from criticism

To be fair, Pokemon is too big to fail, and it is sad when you think about how mediocre the anime and game have become. But, that is just the way it is, since Pokemon will always continue to make money, no matter how bad the games are. P.S. The fact that there are people who are so dumb, they don't understand how copyright works, saddens me to no end. If the concept of catching and training monster is somehow only GameFreak and/or Nintendo's, then video games wouldn't exist pass a couple of titles.

Miss those gen 5 sprites, they have so much character. Honestly that whole gen was awesome looking back on it and it was the only time the games actually felt more 'mature' than usual. Great story, awesome art-style, moving sprites, slightly harder difficulty, battles felt great to play & some of the very best Pokémon competitively. Gen 5 was the peak of Pokémon, fight me.

New Feature in Gen 9: All Pokemon in your Boxes will gain half the exp earned by your fighting Pokemon. Have fun!

"So I hope people don't get their expectations too high.." .... seriously? THAT is the attitude of a developer of one of the most anticipated & cherished titles of all times? that is just appalling.

The part I miss is the complex and branching routes, I'm playing sword and shield for the first time rn and it's hard to stay immersed when each route is like 3 minutes long and a straight path

This is the first time I have ever seen anyone praise HMs or Mt. Moon's layout, and somehow you managed to do it in a detailed and convincing manner. Well done.

My opinion on the whole debacle: Friendship with Gamefreak ended; now fan-made games are my best friends.

"Dont expect too much"? Imagine the people behind Zelda tell their Fans, "yea, dont expect too much from BOTW 2"

Game Freak: "We don't need difficulty options, players can choose playstyles to make the game harder." Nintendo employees: "Should we livestream a Nuzlocke run?" Nintendo: "That's sounding like a mighty fireable offense there."

I agree that in the age of social media, having just about anything on the internet at our fingertips, and mobile games, people have been conditioned to be more impatient and have a lack of focus or interest on things for a long period of time. However, there are two ways of handling that situation. The first is to just accept it. You know, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em? This is what Pokemon is doing. Kids can't stay interested in a game, you say? Just make a boilerplate game, and it'll sell. They'll play, get bored, but hey, we got the money, and we'll do it again. That's something bigger game companies can get away with right now. They have the fame to be a recognizable name and to earn interest from players no matter what. But, by playing this game, they'll only be getting fair-weather players from here on out. Once the well runs dry, that's it, close up shop. Smaller game companies have to take a different route. You say that kids aren't interested in a game for a long period of time? Well, we'll have to make them stay interested. We'll have to create things so interesting and unique, they'll have no choice but to stay focused. Let's create challenging puzzles with mysteries surrounding them so that players are talking about how to solve those puzzles. Let's create interesting characters or an engrossing story so that people will be discussing the lore all over the internet. Those tend to be the games that don't garner a huge following, but they get a loyal following of players. Look at what a small, piddly game like Five Night's at Freddy's did just because it added such an intriguing element of mystery to it. Look at how much work two brothers did to create Cuphead and how people fell in love with the art style. Look at what older Pokemon games did to build challenging route maps, caves, temples, and ruins to get players interested in finding the latest legendary Pokemon. Those are the games I want to play, and I hope others do too.

“People wouldn’t appreciate the extra content” >Proceeds to make million different curries no one cares about, and 28 forms of Alcremie

"People have no time to play games" Here's something they don't understand, people will MAKE time for a game if it's really that good. If it's shit quality like gen 8 then ofc they're going to drop the game pretty quickly after release while gen 4 and 5 are revisited at least once by most pokemon fans despite being released so long ago.

I've played HG/SS countless times and know where everything is. But i still feel like there's something new to be found around every corner. Easily one of my favorite games to play

Honestly for a company who's main game has the main audience be kids, they fail to realize that if there is one thing kids hate it's being told what to do. Deep down we knew it was never about gaming but about sales, but it didn't feel that way in the past.

No wonder DK has been missing for so long, he’s been working on a whole movie 😂

Remember when people were excited to explore that Poipole/Necrozma world city in USUM and then it turned out to be a long corridor of nothing? Yeah...

It's amazing how the removal of HMs made us realise how important they actually were to us. In older installments, HMs really just really made you wanna groan - but without them, it all feels so soulless, or that something's missing. It's like that one friend that nobody really wants in a group but then when they're not there, it just feels wrong What SM/USUM did, I can at least slightly get behind - I like how it feels like the HMs now have personality and fun behind them rather than being only discs, but SWSH? It feels so hollow. Feels like they didn't even try

Gen VI didn't have narrow routes like Gen VII and VIII as far as I recall. In fact, the thing about Gen VI is that it feels like a classic 2D game made in 3D, with its chibi designs and such, that's why, even with all its problems, I still liked it. I'm not saying the games should return to that design, but it worked well for the 3DS.

honestly, the 2d really looked better and pokemon visuals peaked with gen 5

pokemon red/blue/yellow. "i cant get past the town cause of the angry coffee man. i guess i'll just expore. oh this shop keep wants me to deliver a parcel to oak" now: HEY YOU MUST FOLLOOW THIS WAY. ALSO TAKE 10 FREE POTIONS CAUSE ITS REALLY REALLY DANGEROUS WITH LEVEL 2 POKEMONS IN THE WILD!

Gamefreak: "Gamers are not interested in playing challenging video games." Miazaki: "Hold my estus flask."

My biggest gripe with the comment about how "players get frustrated more easily" is that is automatically assumes the player doesn't want to be frustrated. Frustration and anger makes games much more fun because of that satisfying feeling when you finally overcome that part of the game that has been challenging you! Frustration should be an integral part of any good game, as it requires players to adapt and overcome. Dumbing down a game so players wont get frustated isnt doing anyone any favors and if you quit a game because it frustrates you too much, that's a completely personal decision.

"Hey guys, I know we're a multibillion dollar company with decades of experience under our belt and hundreds of people under our umbrella, but don't get your hopes too high that this game will be worth your time. Because work is hard." -Basically what Masuda said

Its so depressing to see a franchise you loved your whole life turn into what pokemon has become.

The old games definitely have a certain magical feeling to them that the new games don’t have. I always felt it but never could put my finger on it til I had my siblings (10 and 12 years old) play the new game and then had them play one the games I played when I was their age (I’m 24) Firstly they loved the graphics of the new games and were much more drawn to it (which I figured would happen) What I didn’t expect was they said they’d rather replay games from my childhood cause they didn’t have to watch a cutscene again if they wanted to try a new team out. That it was extremely annoying and dumb they have to play a story they already know and can’t skip through at all due to unskippable cutscenes whereas older games was mainly text you could mash through in no time. They also enjoyed being able to wander around and take routes whereas in the new game they noticed they did everything the exact same way. Old games they noticed they played drastically different from each other and found they were talking to each other about what they did and got excited that there was something they haven’t experienced yet. This really made me take a deeper look into the games and realized that Pokémon a game where I dreamed of was dying. They are sitting on a throne in Olympus but it’s starting to crumble beneath them. They just haven’t noticed it yet

I feel like what happened to Sword and Shield can also apply to Balan Wonderworld. Both were really hyped up from reveal, the demo comes out and it doesn't live up to expectation, both have a lowered difficulty, both have a bad plot, both have things that are reused, both have a gimmick people don't like and both have their fans. Only difference between the two is that Balan Wonderworld had a legitimate reason for how it turned out because the creator of the original Sonic worked on it and he didn't have experience making complex games.

To all the people begging for gen 4, remakes think of this Piss easy cynthia

The idea that sword and shield was even considered to be on the 3ds after sun and moon is ridiculously jarring to me yet so believable.

"people don't have time to play one single game" Animal Crossing: exists

Honestly the thing that pissed me of the most about SwSh surprisingly wasn't the trees. It's that they got rid of Decidueye's animation for Spirit Shackle. It's signature move. I wouldn't be surprised if they did the same for the other 2 Alolan starters as well honestly. It just really makes me mad because they most likely had the animation in the game. They just didn't use it.

There's a bit of irony about a series where your character is meant to go on a journey and grow alongside your Pokémon not only remaining stagnant, but also having its mascot be a Pokémon that refuses to evolve and shoving it into your face in every generation.

"People don't have time to play games anymore" is kind of right... I mean, there's a lot of good games out there for people to waste time with Gamefreak's terrible games

XY, ORAS (and maybe Sun and Moon too) Were the only games that looked good despite using 3d models because those games had a chibi/cartoony style which helped the world still look convincing and vibrant..

"People don't have time to play" that's such a piss poor excuse to make a shitty game

Story focus doesn't need to mean "handholding", Black and White and their sequels are proof of that.

Pokemon Colosseum did an EXCELLENT job with the battle camera dynamically granting an overview of the battle, and switching between different perspectives during attacks. Giving the attacking pokemon a lovely front facing shot of their attack, before switching to another front facing view of the opponent receiving it. Not just the arbitrary back facing hop with the standard damage reaction. Back to the animations too, I absolutely love the recovery animations from defending pokemon, who took time to shake themselves off after being thrown backwards from a powerful attack, then retake their position on the battlefield, rather than a small little flinch we see today.

It's gotten to the point where the most difficult thing is keeping your pokemon from going over the level cap of your current gym badge

I just started playing alpha sapphire, and my torchick's scratch animation has it jump, scratch, and then turn around and come back. That's animation, and it genuinely shocked me that it was so detailed, considering I have delt with over 200+ hours of sword and it's sh*t animations.

This just in, SwSh are the last main line Pokémon games to exist. GameFreak confirmed that the ninth generation will consist of Pokémon: Left version and Right version, which are empty packaging that do not contain actual games, just a note saying "congratulations, you've won!" and a "Pokémon Champion" sticker. When asked about the reason, a representative stated: "People are really busy and impatient, they don't have the time to play videogames any more, so we've taken that part out of the product." The games are set to release in mid 2022 and have already broken records, with preorders exceeding even the likes of No Man's Sky. When asked whether videos containing silence at any point will be removed from KZfaq for technically containing the entire Pokémon LR soundtrack, Nintendo refused comment, though the game's composer, Junichi Masuda, has denied accusations of having plagiarised John Cage's famous work 4'33'', saying in a statement to IGN (translated from Japanese): "this is ridiculous, I didn't copy anybody's music, I didn't do anything, nobody told me we were even releasing anything, they just put my name in the list of developers without telling me, please leave my house and don't talk to me again." We will, as always, keep you updated as this story unfolds.

The saddest thing about this is that the topics discussed concern only Pokemon titles, not Nintendo games in general. All other main Nintendo series are constantly getting bigger, more interesting and innovative, especially after moving onto Switch. Mario Odyssey is the best looking Mario title ever, with interesting new mechanics and worlds to explore, BoTW is the biggest and most innovative Zelda title ever bringing the series to new heights, while Pokemon titles are getting worse and worse with every game.

I love how objective you are in these. You dont talk based on what you want or what you feel would be nostalgic and cool. You call out gamefreak in their hyporcitical lies, you point everything out objectively to the point where its literally impossible to disagree because everything youre saying is just true. I like these types of videos. You do a great job at not getting overly emotional, and you do a fantastic job at explaining the disappointments of this series as pure facts compared to what it used to be.

Glad you addressed the map design. Always felt the fun in pokemon wasn’t just the casual gameplay of making a team of 6 and fighting your way to the league but the exploration of the region. Pokemon games didn’t need the hand holding that they’re justifying, they just needed to make the journey more fulfilling instead of a straight line. I mean come on they expect us to beat the strongest trainers and pokemons in the region but they cant trust us in finding our way through a town?

"People don't have time to sink into one game" Someone please make him a collage of people's play times in Animal Crossing

I don't think we need to pit the Battle Tower against Pokémon Contests. You put emphasis on the player being able to play how they want, yet it felt like you were dismissive of anyone who doesn't play mainly to battle. My first Gen was Gen 4-mini-games like Pokémon contests, Pokéathelon, the underground, etc. kept the game enjoyable for me and gave me plenty to do after the main game. Battling is fun, but I want something MORE than battling to introduce variety in the game play. I love chocolate, but if I could only eat chocolate for every meal, I would grow to resent it. Side features and mini-games keep battling from feeling like a chore. GameFreak seems to be cutting back on these as well, with no contest equivalent in Gens 7-9.

Looking at this video now that the gen 4 remakes have dropped, I'm terrified of what they might do to ruin gen 5, for me.

"People don't like difficult games these days." Then explain how From Software and the Dark Souls franchise has become one of the most popular names in gaming with many trying to emulate their design? The people they are appealing to are playing mobile games on their smartphones while the people buying their games are waiting for them to make something with more teeth.

Problem: People don't have time to play the game. Solution: Add more reason as to why people wouldn't want to play the game. Stonks

Reject the main series. Return to Mystery Dungeon.

Fun fact for people that didn't know: Shin Megami Tensei (a series that DistantKingdom mentioned as being the first monster collecting game) is still alive and kicking, the fifth mainline entry into the series released a month ago and I really recommend checking it out if you want a game that is similar to Pokémon and is a good challange.

I feel like they know the “not everyone wants to progress by battling” stance is bullshit. Because it doesn’t matter if you level up your whole crew via Curry... you can’t finish the game without battling the gyms. To piggyback on this: how sick a Pokémon game would be if you could choose the battle or pacifist route and each one has a different criteria for “winning” Think different paths you decide to take early on and at any point you can end your pacifist run and try your hand at the gym challenge. I mean shit. Let’s actually do something with the idea of “not everyone wants to battle”. Almost every single Pokémon story has had a character who doesn’t necessarily want to be your standard battle trainer.

the “same model used for everything” comment betrays the fact that they don’t know how to model, animate or stylize 3D models in order to get them to look good. Look at any CGI animated movie. They should’ve gotten people who actually know how to do 3D well for it to not look soulless.

Pokemon focuses too much on stupid features and babysitting us at this point. It's become tacky and there's no secrets anymore. They take out all the depth thinking it will turn people away, but then add stupid mechanics and confusing depth that adds nothing but frustration like finding a shiny that cannot gigantimax. Gigantimax is not interesting or even nice to look at. It's awful and against the epic theme they though it would inspire. In OG Ruby&Sapphire no one complained about the bikes, diving or secret bases. Now we get an all-in-one water bike thing and it's such a lazy and bullshit opt. We all loved the idea of riding our water Pokemon and that black shadow had 50x the charisma this stupid tennis ball bike has. Even darkness and flash would of made S&S better. Sure we all think it was trash and we hated it, but we always prevailed and it added that feeling of dread we all shared when we were kids, it was scary if not for the idea of it than what it was. Think about darkness and the ambiance of minecraft. They are too scared of children not being sure what to do to a suffocating degree that denies us the nature of curiosity we all have. No one remembers stuff given to them than what they find themselves. I grew up with OG Ruby, I'll never forget sky pillar. I didn't use the internet and I found secrets without looking for any. Pokemon designs became more and more confusing. With better technologies and graphics they give us the stupid copper-elephant thing no one can make heads-or-tails of... They obviously have fallen into creative bankruptcy, they created gigantimax and mega forms because they feared Pokemon was stagnating and needed these stupid distractions... This has not only backfired as a tacky and shoehorned mechanic, but it has caused alienation to those that made the franchise what it was... Pokemon has become stagnated and it's fallen hard. Why would it even try anymore? It's established itself as a pop culture titan right?

I miss when pokemon designs had sharp edges and shading. Now they're all rounded and slick/smooth.

The state of pokemon is so fucking depressing man. When I was a kid playing platinum and battle revolution I could only DREAM how an official pokemon game would play on console without the restraints of the DS. If I could show SwSh to 10 year old me he would be so disappointed...

I never noticed how colorless the 3d models are I always felt they didn't look right and seeing them with stronger colors look shockingly better.

What's interesting is part of my critique of pokemon is that all you can really do with them anymore is battle them. I liked contests since it was a nice break of pace and I enjoy pokemon beyond the strategic elements of battling, of which has never been even remotely on the radar of thought provoking in nearly any mainline title anyway. I WANT to play pokemon. I love the pokemon I catch. Giving us more things to do can only be a good thing I think....no?

Adding on to the Galar Mine point, the most insulting part of it for me is how they give you an infinite escape rope right before the first of the only 2 dungeons in the game, which both require zero brain power to get through.

I miss the Black and White Sprites Back when THE Pokemon had their personality!

So many people defend GF. Imagine if Sakurai got rid of half the smash characters and stages cuz people didn't have time to play

There's a timeline where Pokemon Sword and Shield are 3Ds games?? And we're not on it???

Let's be real about the 3D shift : it was not sustainable to add about a hundred new creatures per generation and have to redo every pokémon in 2D art. The 3D shift HAD to happen at some point, but it's clear the "uncanny valley" effect is stronger and stronger with each new title and as the world is supposed to feel more lively, the Pokémon feel more and more hollow.

The laziness in Gamefreak's design philosophy never ceases to surprise me.

Everyone: “Why did you remove ‘this’ add ‘this’ bad thing and do ‘this’ bad decision?” Gamefreak: “Oh, well we believe our consumers have brains the size of walnuts and can’t handle those features existing.”

The sprite graphic was truly great, I love the style of especially gen 3.

After Gen 5/6 I was done. I've been watching alot of critical reviews of Pokémon and the Gamefreak company in genreal, and you'll be very surprised with the amount of things Gamefreak have left out, been lazy with regarding the production of recent Pokémon games, and changing things up way too much. I feel sorry for new Pokémon fans because they will never know the magic of the older generations (gen 1 - 5)....just my opinion tho of course 😌🤷🏻‍♂️💯

“They are aren’t interested in things that are so challenging.” Not only are we interested, we’ve been begging for it for years. AND WHO SAID GAMES THAT ARE CHALLENGING ARE BAD!?

"3D Models can't have as much personality as 2D Sprites" - That really depends on the artist, doesn't it?

Pokemon Xenoverse has been a next level experience, and proves that a couple of dedicated 20 something fans have the ability to way outdo GF in their own game making abilities, Retro Mons sprites, Retro areas, an interesting continuity, decent art style shift in dynamics, A SOUND TYPING which nerfs Fairy, I never expected to say I feel Game Freak should start hiring guys out of fan games specifically because they seem to understand the game more, hell, it even lets you choose between Classic XP gain or Modern

What if Sword and Shield is actually secretly about the player character struggling with dementia? The reason NPCs seem to talk in such a handholding way is because their mental state genuinely merits that level of care.

That ORAS interview was just disgusting, and really makes me consider the Pokemon games a lost cause, at least as long as Masuda and Ohmori are in charge.

while pokemon proudly anounced the "open world" they robbed the chance of players to think and act freely how ironic

Thanks for the feature, great video. 👀👀👀

"All of these can be seen as attempts to dumb down the games to make them easier, in order to appeal to a hypothetical group of hyper-casual-mobile-gamers who don't have time to play games." God damn, if that isn't the perfect summary of what's wrong with modern Pokemon games, idk what is.

I hate the excuse that this is a kid's game, that's why they're making it so easy. Like, I was a dumbass kid back in the day, and I literally made it through rock tunnel in pokemon red *without using flash*-- kids aren't usually that dumb, and even if they are, they can just look up walkthroughs/cheats or whatever. (Yeah, it took me like a few hours, but I still managed it lmao)

Remember Pokken Tournament....don’t you wish game freak put out models of a similar quality

Just imagine a 2D pokemon game with today’s game engines

Tbh, the moment sun and moon had the exact same sprites as gen 6 was a huge red flag not to buy another main Pokémon games.