What Happened to Pokemon?
A series very near and dear to everyone including myself is the Pokemon franchise. These games dominated a span of a couple years during my childhood gaming and thus have cemented a special place for themselves in my heart. Despite this, my connection with these games exists for only a portion of the entire series where nowadays I don’t enjoy playing the new releases and would always opt to revisit the ‘classics’ I used to play before. The games have changed in how they play, their difficulty and how they’re marketed. This used to frustrate me, why did they have to mess with a winning formula? It only makes sense that I’m not the demographic that they want to play their games these days and this is what this article will explore in addition to what has changed within the games and a summary of my thoughts on this.
End of an Era?
Its quite clear that the target market for these games leans towards young children, but is also very accommodating to all age groups. At the end of the day, Pokemon is essentially a children’s game, with functionality and features that are also for older age groups and the competitive online aspect of the game immediately comes to mind. These titles are also put onto different platforms, going back to the Gameboy, through the DS systems and now coming to the Switch. If my situation is any indication of the what is happening at a larger scale then there are a lot of people who simply won’t opt into getting a new console just to play the next game in the series. So this starts to show why it’s apparent that the group of people who represent the target demographic is always shifting as one group moves on and a new one enters. With this the formula of what works within the game will also be changing and how it plays overall.
What has changed?
Well, I won’t really be able to tell you about everything that has changed because I actually stopped playing the main series games after Sun & Moon — so I am one installment behind. But the most glaring change will be that the next main series game will be on the Switch console. This will be an important test for the developers to have the game transition well onto the next system and take full advantage of its functionality.
In terms of game mechanics we saw the addition of features such as Mega Evolution and the Z-Move which signified both new and engaging ways to keep the game fresh, but also a way to diversify the competitive meta of VGC and showing that while the game is still catered a particular audience that other groups still are being acknowledged. Smaller tweaks to items and HM’s being rejigged happened over time as well as all the new Pokemon that have been added, making it ever so harder to ‘Catch ’em all’ — all 802 that is. I’m not going to get picky about the fact there is an ice cream or garbage-themed Pokemon because some of the original Pokemon are based on rocks and to me that’s just how its always been and indicative of the fact its not a game for those who want to critically analyse the design of the 802 Pokemon, it’s a game for children.
Closing thoughts
I glossed over it earlier but I think the fact that the developers still adding features that are designed for older audiences is a healthy sign of excellent game design. But at the end of the day, I along with so many others are not the main demographic. I think it’s important to acknowledge the ability of the Pokemon team to make these games that keep so many groups of people interested and playing through a series that have evolved over the decades. While many key aspects of the game have changed (like the bloody EXP. Share!!!), the core idea of the series remains very much intact. I am a little upset about the games not being the way they used to be, but that feeling makes me want to replay the old games and makes them really unique for me, which I am optimistic in that this is another design feature of these games or at least something the team was aware of when making these changes from game to game.
Overall, these games have massive appeal to an even more massive audience and for anyone who, like me originally was frustrated about these games being changed, remember; not everyone is like this a lot of people moved on or lost interest and now it’s a younger audience whom the team behind pokemon are focusing on. Additionally, change is critical to keep a series like this from stagnating and to ensure it is interesting and fun to play. But enough from me, I’m going to play Platinum now. :P
