Patreon Exclusive Bonus Video: GameFreak's Design Philosophy
Added 2025-02-01 02:27:47 +0000 UTCI did my best with this one, it's a longun so enjoy!
Comments
(prepare for annoying rambling) The more you speak about gens 1-3, the more I get behind them as I understand more about them and how and particularly _why_ they exist in the ways that they do. I was part of that 2nd generation of people getting into pokemon during gen 4, so I never knew a pokemon era without online connectivity and which didn't force me to interact with friends i barely had that played the games too. Rare Tama gen 7 mention wahoo I feel like as much as I despise the pokemon DLC expansion model, gen 7 could have benefited the most from it, instead of Ultra, having the pokedex expansion baked into the base game, the new areas (of which there really aren't all that many of note in USUM) too; then instead of the Necrozma plot taking place as an extra plot thread in a divergent Alola canon that craps on the core characters, it'd be part of a postgame plot after all the Ultra beast stuff gets ironed out where (to oversimplify to avoid even more unnecessary rambling) this 'repackaged' DLC version of the plot actually gives the characters a more suitable and satisfying wrap-up, especially Lillie, since she's the main character of the Alola stories and she gets absolutely shafted in base sun and moon at the end alongside Lusamine with a very "err i dunno" type ending where Gladion disappears to Kanto for a month and Lillie is caring for Lusamine, post-Nihilego exposure with nothing more than a "this is happening, you get no details past this point ever". Back in the older games, it'd be left as a more _intentional_ cliffhanger like how HGSS had Giovanni leave the cave during the Celebi event and its implied that he jumps down the waterfall. It's a mystery, but also somewhat of an effective bookmark for those who want to look into it more. It feeds the theories and leaves that story open in a way that's intriguing, whereas in the more modern games you get some credits and a shrug, almost like it WANTS you to speculate and theorise what's happening because the story doesn't wrap up into a bow pretty enough to truly finish off so many of its stories. You get a little bit of what Plumeria does implied to the player if they go looking, which is fine since she's a very much tertiary character as far as the games' plot is concerned, but for other characters like Kukui or Guzma or even in Ultra, the Ultra Recon Squad, you don't get enough given to you to justify that level of investment you have for them. As much as I love gen 7, I feel like that rush release formula they really leaned into at that point culminated in the sort of messy wrap up of those games and lead into the DLC era on Switch as it was more acceptable to be doing so going into that console gen. This definitely carried on into SwSh and _somewhat_ into SV as well, and I'm just on my knees hoping the one year break they took from releasing a game in 2024 means the next games are going to finally be balanced and cohesive. SV has some characters, notably Arven, that it does very well, but others, like Penny and the Star bosses managed to receive such an unsatisfying story conclusion that it was baffling IMO. IDK, I need to stop typing, my thoughts are getting further from my point I was trying to make and it's all getting jumbled into a mess that sounds like aimless complaining XD - Great video, thank you for emptying your brain on the table about this topic for us to see, it was very interesting!
Leon Garnet [Skullboss]
2025-02-02 16:33:58 +0000 UTCI really enjoyed this one. It's pretty much the thing I'm most interested in about pokemon.. marriage of mechanics and storytelling in pokemon red/blue was so strong I think I've been chasing that since I was a kid. Like you mentioned, the strongest monsters being the most difficult to find and catch. And each typing having different sorts of roles to play in battle. Not to mention the touches of non linearity to exploration and the twists and turns of story beats like Cinnabar Mansion and Giovanni showing up in the last gym and rumors like his relationship to the protagonist. Just helped that game feel allive and directed and cinematic in a way that I think goes beyond my simple nostalgia for it. But that nostalgia certainly helps.
CertainlyCity
2025-02-01 23:33:05 +0000 UTCI think in Gen 2 it evolved a little and Meganium is still mostly a support Pokemon but in a different way. Rather than Powders Meganium uses Screens. But it fits more into each type having a variety of different roles that can exist in Gen 2.
Tama Hero
2025-02-01 18:25:31 +0000 UTCsomething kinda crazy this vid made me realize is that venusaur is the only grass starter who uses the powder moves. meganium gets poison powder and that's genuinely it. i guess they think the more status-oriented style isn't suited to a starter?
Bynine
2025-02-01 14:56:35 +0000 UTC
