A reader imagines his perfect Pokémon game, with a Zelda-like open world and MMO style online – but fears it will never get made.
Pokémon: Lets Go came out this week and as I write this I havent had a chance to play it, but the reviews look good and it seems like a useful bridge between Pokémon GO and the real Pokémon games. Ill be getting it for the nostalgia at least, but what Im really looking forward to is next years mainline sequel which should introduce a whole new generation of pokémon.
New pokémon are always an exciting thing but thats not what Im really looking forward to. This will be the first proper Pokémon game made for a home console (well, hybrid) and Im hoping that is going to mean major changes in how it looks and plays.
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I dont like to think of myself as shallow but the first thing Id like to see is a major change in the graphics. In my opinion this needs to be an over-the-shoulder third person game in the style of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild. Not in terms of the difficult traversal but that its a huge open world where you can, eventually, go wherever you want and pokémon are seen wandering around naturally – a bit like Xenoblade Chronicles as well.
The Switch can absolutely do these types of graphics so I see zero no reason not to do it. Id also like to see the style of graphics be improved so that the pokémon have fur, scales, feathers and whatever else is appropriate. Ive always thought this but after seeing the amazing Detective Pikachu trailer this week, Im more convinced than ever.
Again, I see no reason why the Switch cant do this graphically and even the very earliest Pokémon artwork, before there was a cartoon, used to portray them with fur, etc. Although what I would keep from the cartoon is the pokémon noises they make, which Ive never understood why they dont use (it cant be a rights thing because they do use them sometimes, especially for Pikachu – maybe its because the cartoon gets made after the game so theyre not ready in advance?).
Pokémon has always been an open world game and a modern evolution of the concept needs to embrace that and push it further. The other thing though is Id like to see the game also expand its online features, which were starting to get quite complex with Sun and Moon.
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Basically, Pokémon should be a MMO were there are tons of actual human trainers wandering around and you can battle and trade with them wherever you want. Like Fallout 76 but it works and the multiplayer actually matters and makes sense in context. Im sure Nintendo would be worried about people being awful to each other online but its pretty easy to imagine some obvious safety features they could put in and itd still work fine.
I want to make the Pokémon game be a whole world I can plan in, maybe setting up my own home and eventually gym that I can fill with items and pokémon. In terms of gameplay everythings already there, they just have to modernise it and embrace the full potential of Pokémon.
My only worry is that I just dont think Game Freak has it in them. Theyve always been shown to be not very technically competent and I worry they havent got the ambition and attitude to really change. Its probably complicated by the fact that Nintendo dont own them or the Pokémon franchise as a whole (why they never bought them out I dont know).
I worry that when next years game does come out it wont be much more than a high-res Pokémon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon and that itll sell really well (because Pokémon always does) and then theyll still never bother improving it. But I can dream…
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By reader Gordo
The readers feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
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