Tag: future projects

If you were put in charge of the next pokémon game, but still had to stick with the same general archetypes and framework as the past games, what sort of concepts and themes would you want to include?

“If I were put in charge of the next Pokémon game” is set to be the topic of my next major project once I get the rest of this playthrough journal out of the way.  In brief, though:

– I would really like to explore the possible variations on the relationship between humans and Pokémon a bit more, through a combination of subplots/side-quests and maybe expanded mechanics for the way players relate to individual Pokémon.  This could possibly tie into the ‘Pokémon liberation’ philosophies put forward by N and Ghetsis in Black and White; I would like to make that a major theme, but that might feel less like a new game and more like my take on Black and White, so maybe keeping that to the side is best.

– I have always been convinced that Pokémon is about exploration and discovery.  I would like to increase the direct relevance of the Pokédex quest (and, by extension, of learning more about individual species of Pokémon) to the way the story unfolds and the way we play the game.

– I think the responsibility that comes with power would be something Pokémon could do a lot with.  Pokémon games always end with the player becoming Champion, but your position and its importance are rarely acknowledged in-game.  Surely the most powerful trainer in the region has certain duties?  Obligations?  Or, if nothing else, personal goals which are furthered by this power?

Is there anything you would change about the gameplay mechanics if you could? Like would you want to add any other stats? Or maybe raise the amount of HP Pokemon get?

Well…

Can I just say “yes”?

I mean, not to either of those specifically, but just in general… yes.  If you gave me control of those games I would rip out their guts and replace them with special stardust.  To explain everything would take months.  Luckily, this is exactly what I plan to do once I finish my Black 2/White 2 playthrough story.

I know you may have a lot of pressing requests by many on this grand website, however, I implore you to perhaps make a segment covering NPC’s that stand out, like your divine wisdom applied to those witty characters (…or witless fools) in a comedic fashion. For example: Ghetsis: a manipulative spawn of all horrors witnessed in the bowels of hell, who is also fanatically Intelligent (as opposed to those happy “i got a rattata who can kick your ass” NPC). Maybe cover Looker and Cynthia as well?

I actually covered Cynthia last year, if you want to take a look, along with Blue, Lance, Steven, Wallace and Alder.  I’m planning to do a series on the rivals as well (probably including Wally and N), but heaven knows how long it will take me to get around to it.  As for Looker… hmm.  Y’know, I’d never really thought about it, but I probably could spin out a piece about him.  I’ll see if I can wedge it in somewhere.

Would you consider doing a Top 5 or Top 10 Pokemon you find boring in terms of what they do, in an effort to give them something more interesting? I ask because I love Fearow… but he’s just your run of the mill birds of prey, and I can’t really think of anything he already has that could be pushed somewhere interesting.

Hmm.  I do rather like that idea, but for the fact that it would be very difficult to order them; blandness is, by its very nature, rather difficult to quantify.  I sort of have two or three other projects lined up for after the playthrough journal that I’ve already been putting off for far too long, though, so this might have to be a ‘distant future’ one.

Are there any pokemon from the original Unova project that you would now change rescind your final verdict on, whether pass or fail?

Probably several… there are quite a few that I was indecisive about the first time, you see.  For most of them, there are good points and bad points – I believe I even had one or two positive things to say about Emolga.  I think you can probably tell by reading the entries which ones I was sure about and which ones I could have gone either way on, but… hmm…

I may have been too soft on Liepard, Haxorus, Cinccino, Stoutland and maybe Emboar.

Conversely, I may have been too hard on Druddigon, Krookodile, Musharna, Stunfisk and the Musketeer quartet.

And then there’s Garbodor, whom I still haven’t changed my mind about, though I grudgingly concede that he may not have deserved quite the level of vitriol I hurled at him in ‘11 (dear gods, I can’t say ‘last year’ anymore when talking about my Unova reviews…).

I almost think it may have been a mistake to use the ‘final verdict’ structure, since it detracts attention a little from the fact that, again, there are good points and bad points (well, for most of them anyway).  Heatmor, for instance, has a wonderfully mad design, but happens to be terrible at fighting.  Conversely, I’m not going to deny that Conkeldurr is strong, but I still don’t think we needed Conkeldurr and Machamp, and I remain convinced that the clown nose thing is appallingly stupid.  It also fails to highlight just how much worse, say, Maractus is than Klinklang or Cryogonal.  If I review every Pokémon in X and Y (do I have a choice?) I might choose a somewhat different format.

I may as well throw my hat in the ring. My favorite pokémon is Anorith, but I can’t help but be a little disappointing with Armaldo. Now, Anorith is based on the anomalocaris, which was a voracious (& compared to the other species of the time) massive and speedy marine predator. So I was hoping it would have an evolution that showed those sort of traits off a bit better. But instead we get a bulky dino-thing. What are your thoughts on this, & would you consider an article on the fossil pokémon?

I’ve always liked Anorith and Armaldo.  The anomalocaris is such a weird and alien creature that you almost don’t need to do anything with it to create a cool Pokémon, and actually I think the Cambrian explosion in general would provide a fertile vein of inspiration for future designs.  I think the reason they took the design in the direction they did was to create a vision of evolution, sort of like what they did with Eevee, by showing the adaptation of marine species to life on land (although, in fact, Armaldo can still move and hunt underwater, and retains Swift Swim as his Dream World ability).  In fact, I rather like this progression, although, now that you mention it, perhaps a sleeker, faster form would have been better.  This might be a good place to introduce a branched evolution, actually, since it’s a place where you can use the choice to tell a story – one form focused on the land, and became the ancestor of such and such a Pokémon; the other form focused on the sea, and became the ancestor of some other Pokémon – which is the kind of thing that happens all the time (well, on a geological timescale) in reality.

An article on fossil Pokémon… you know, there’s rather a lot I could say about them in a one-off, and I am a great lover of the prehistoric beasties.  Yes… yes, I think I will.

Hm, what about doing a little series on Moves/Abilities? I think it could be very interesing.

Discussing what, exactly?  Moves and abilities are interesting in the way they interact with specific Pokémon – how they reflect a Pokémon’s design, how they integrate into a Pokémon’s tactics, and so on – but I’m not convinced there’s much to say about the moves and abilities themselves, in isolation, other than “well, this one clearly sucks” and “this one is massively overpowered” and “yeah, this one is kinda meh.”  Having said that, I probably will have an entry or two on this whenever I finally get round to that series I keep meaning to do on how I would run Pokémon if I were in charge.

I mean, I’m not exactly saying ‘no,’ but you’re going to need to be more specific to sell me on this.

Hey, dude! I was wondering about your opinion on PETA stating Pokemon encourages animal abuse, as well as your opinion on the game they made for it that parodizes Pokemon Black 2 and White 2. They really seem to have nothing better to do, right?

This is actually going in an article I’m writing, but it’s being pushed down the schedule a little bit by the fact that my dissertation is due on Friday!  Fun times!  So, yeah; all will be revealed, and stuff.