21Six.net

Unlike my previous lengthy things, this one isn’t so much filled with rage as it is disappointment with the evolution of a franchise that I essentially grew up playing: Pokémon. Since its inception, there have been massive leaps in the technology used to play games. But I’d like to take this time to explain to you my disappointment in a summary, before I spend the next three pages going into needless detail.

Essentially, while the series is a hand-held RPG and will always be one in the hearts of many, it’s transitions of the consoles have been far-from-stellar. This is made all the more obvious by the increase in technology from something as simplistic as the N64 to the Wii¹. As far as I can tell the main aspect of the console games (with the exception of monsters like Pokémon Snap and Television, as well as Hey You! Pickachu!) is nothing more than a 3-D take on the same formula.

What is the formula?

Are you high?

The 3-D variants aren’t even THAT much different. They’re the same four bases: ATTACK/POKEMON/ITEM/RUN. The main difference is, as with the advance, that you simply run up a little bit in the battle and shake a bit and send off some kind of magic against the opponent.

I hate that.

I have nothing directly against Colosseum-centric battle games. They’re perfectly fine. My main problem is that, here in the year 2007, we’re still stuck with games that have mechanics even surpassed by Final Fantasy VII and a multitude of other games. I mean, hell, they never even TOUCH when they’re fighting in the 3-D games. I thought we dropped that kind of idea back at the SNES.

Here you can see the main setup of these games. This is taken from the new game Pokémon Battle Revolution that’s out on Nintendo’s console. As you can plainly see, it’s simply, as I said, a Colosseum-centered game where, based upon other screenshots provided by IGN, I can safely assume that the pokémon, again, do not touch.

So my suggestion is this. A new style of game oriented around various aspects of the controller for the Wii. As I don’t have one, I’m not really going to include motion sensing, and there may be characteristics of the wii-mote that may be unchangeable. If there are, do bear with me on this. This is also assuming the technology is powerful enough to cope with it, which I doubt, but would like.

Of course, if it can’t, the various aspects that are central to the Wii could easily be modified for that of a PC–and a Pokémon MMORPG would probably be one of the greatest things since World of Warcraft.

The main suggestion: Real-Time.

Why? Because this is the console, not the hand-held. This suggests you’re going to be sitting and doing nothing for a long period of time. What better way to kill you time than by actually manipulating all the aspects of your creatures in battle and not just pressing the A button until you develop a blister and/or occasionally pressing up or down.

So how would it work? Let’s take the base story of the series: You are a trainer (“John”, we’ll call him) and you are on your way to become a master. You meet your professor, and he gives you a starting creature that you use to knock out more creatures and increase your collection while defeating your “rival” (“Richard”) and earning Gym Badges so that you can become the “master” of these little creatures–just like God intended.

Or Nintendo. But aren’t they same thing at times?

Each battle, as I said, would take place in real time. This allows for an active attempt to dodge (while still factoring in aspects like Speed and Agility. Not all pokémon move at the same speed, so it only makes sense that they would not all dodge at the same speed) and the positioning for increased damage in attacks. This also lets the PC to have more control over his creatures (though some, like Snorlax, really won’t have much in the way of “control”, what with essentially being just a large mass.) and focus more on strategy rather than “HYPERBEAM!” all the time.

This, of course, also allows the same things for your opponent.

Some attacks would obviously have to have a “Warm-Up” time, though some like “Tackle” wouldn’t. An attack like “Tackle” could also be altered so that it can change direction on the chance that a creature moved. It’s a matter of what makes sense, really. Or rather, what I think makes sense and what I feel would be a desirable video game.

Some attacks already have a “warm-up” like Solarbeam and a few other attacks like that, so we won’t need to do much in the way of editing those for the real-time lengthening of the concepts. A creature that has undergone the first part of a two-part attack will be able to move around on the ground, and you can still use items. Then, if there’s a cool-down time, you still have to go through the same process as with the warm-up.

Ideally, the creature’s movement would be controlled by the nunchaku attachment’s joystick. One of the four things [Attack/Item/PkMn/Run] would be selected by the D-pad and activated by some other button–the trigger or something and each subsequent menu would operate the same way.

But how would you encounter other creatures and trainers? It would seem that the system doesn’t really work to well outside of a battle, but I’ve thought about that for a little bit.

There would have to be minor changes–but that’s mainly because the trainer is essentially worthless during a battle. S/he only exists, within the confines of the game to move from location to location, gathering supplies and actually activating the battles. Everything is, thereafter, controlled by the creature. So it would make sense that the controls are modified for the moments when you are not controlling the pokémon.

I would suggest that the joystick would then control the person, instead of the creature, and the A button or another button would be for activating and you know the rest.

Now, in a perfect world, battles wouldn’t be random, but you could see the creatures and determine, then if you want to advance on the battle or not. You could then call the creature you want into battle and it would shift into the battle mode (where the trainer really just stands there with a thumb up his/her butt). Of course, this would actually have to factor in things like “scale” and other related terms, but it could be done–eventually. Rarity of pokémon would have to be more enforced, and this would also decrease the number of times you run into the “common” ones like Pidgey and Rattata–I know, you’re depressed.

Of course, all of this is a very rough idea, combined from (not so) sleepless nights and discussions with people regarding how to make a better console game.

1. I liked “Revolution” better [↩]