Pokemon: How To Fall Out Of Love With A Franchise

Whenever a franchise has been running with great success for too long, it runs the risk of becoming stale, repetitive, or a lazy cash grab. The risk of innovation and quality runs low when you know that there is a huge fanbase that will support you, no matter what.

Recently, I have played a lot of Pokémon. This year alone, I revisited Pokémon White 2, Pokémon Ultra Sun, Pokémon FireRed, and Pokémon Shield. Incidentally, the Pokémon Diamond remake, Brilliant Diamond, ultimately led me to lose interest in this franchise. Most recently, I viewed the trailer for the upcoming Winds and Waves and felt nothing. But why? I used to love Pokémon growing up, so much so that I still consider getting a tattoo of my favourite Pokémon somewhere on my body. How can the love for something that brought you immense joy growing up fade away, leaving you with only indifference each time a new installment is released?

To preface this, I need to acknowledge that this is a discussion surrounding the mainline games only. Not any of the spin-offs, like the newly released Pokopia, which seems to be quite good. This article will discuss the bread and butter of the Pokémon franchise, its generations, and all games that have the well-known catching and battling as their base gameplay.

My disillusionment began with the aforementioned Shield and BD. Playing those two games, it became clear to me that something was amiss. Something that made me enjoy the previous games just kind of faded away. This, in some small part, can be attributed to those being the 8th generation of mainline games and growing up. But given the fact that I thoroughly enjoy playing other games in the series, this couldn’t possibly be the main factor, could it? After all, Pokémon Black and White, as well as their sequels, Black and White 2, are some of my favorite games of all time, and I keep coming back to them.

The uncomfortable truth about Pokémon is that they don’t try anymore. Or at least not where it counts. It’s the most successful franchise of all time, and yet each game somehow feels more unfinished than the last. When the Pokémon Company got hacked last year, and tons of unreleased information got released to the public, concerning patterns emerged. When we look at Pokémon X and Y, the first 3D Pokémon games released for the Nintendo 3DS, we can see clearly how much the games were missing. Hours of cut content were laid bare. This is nothing new for the Pokémon Company, as the mainline games always had a certain degree of being unfinished, which is why, for the longest time, they opted to make third version games that rounded out the experience one or two years after release. Think Pokémon Crystal, Emerald, or Platinum. X and Y never got a third version; instead, they jumped straight to the seventh generation.

If you look at the Pokémon release schedule, it becomes clear that the schedules for mainline games have tightened drastically. Where back in the day, 3-4 years between the releases of a new generation was the norm, this has now jumped to 2 years. Newer games are released in such a way that barely enough time goes past to properly work them out. Where I gave Grace to Pokémon Sword and Shield, when the trailer for Legends Arceus dropped, I felt a mighty disconnect. The game looked bland, lifeless, unpolished, and almost unfinished. The same occurred with both Scarlet and Violet, as well as the newly released Legends Z-A. Looking at their performance, their handling, and most importantly, their graphics, makes it clear how little care went into properly fleshing out these new games.

And the problem isn't necessarily that it doesn't look like the new GTA 6 because Nintendo's strong suit was never graphics. It just looks plain bad compared to other titles on the Switch or Switch 2. Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom feel like fully realized games with an art style and direction that make it clear that the developers knew what they wanted and had the time to flesh it out. Meanwhile, the Pokémon Company pumps out games at such a rate that even when they postpone, it still feels like only half the game.

Add to that, a DLC (Downloadable Content) replaces one of the most fun parts of the games: the postgame. Back in the day, after defeating the main champion, Pokémon games would usually allow you to explore other parts of the region previously inaccessible. Entire new towns, routes, and dungeons would open up to you, giving you much more space to explore. However, now you need to buy a DLC. And while I do not have anything against more content, the thought of sacrificing actual established parts of the game for a 40 dollar price tag.

And this is heartbreaking to see, because it becomes clear that this is a problem at the executive and planning level. Pokémon as a franchise is so tightly scheduled with multiple different things running in accordance with each other. Be it the anime, the movies, or the highly successful card games, it runs in such a way that it prevents the actual developers of the games from doing their job. Add to that a reported budget of 13 million dollars for Legends Z-A (according to leaks), which is a fraction of modern AAA titles, and there comes a real sense of unimportance for the craft.

I love Pokémon; I love the early titles in a way that goes beyond nostalgia. I can accept the good with the bad, the quirks with the brilliance, but I can’t accept laziness and cash grabs. Modern Pokémon deserves better; it doesn’t deserve games that are mediocre and half-baked at best. This is true for most franchises, but especially for the most successful one of all time. As of now, it seems that the Pokémon company has listened to at least some of the complaints, and so I look warily to the future, for I want to be enchanted again by those little monsters on my screen.