Pokémon Mystery Dungeon UX: The significance of tone
Note: Originally posted on my personal blog on February 3rd 2020.
In January, I started my journey in User Experience (UX) writing. I am trying to learn by observing everyday examples of basic UX skills.
I didn’t have to wait long. A week after I started, The Pokémon Company announced a new game: “Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX” for the Nintendo Switch. After playing the demo, I wanted to share an observation on the importance of finding the right tone in UX writing (i.e., how something is being expressed).
I grew up with the Pokémon (Pocket Monsters) core series on the handheld Game Boy. As a gamer and biology nerd, I enjoy the games very much to this day. The “Mystery Dungeon” series is a spin-off from the core games, and I downloaded the new demo the same day to give it a try.
The observation on tone
The game opens with a quiz of random questions. These determine which of 16 pocket monster avatars you will play as in the game. The last question is fixed, and asks:
Do you want to play as a boy or a girl?
I will admit that it took a moment until the user centered part of my brain kicked in. Then I thought: “It’s pretty cool how they phrased that question!”
From “the boys only club” to inclusiveness
Let’s provide some context: first of all, the core series of Pokémon started in 1995/1996. Back in Generation 1 (Red/Blue/Green/Yellow), the player could only choose a male character as their avatar. As the series popularity grew, this situation would change.
It was late in Generation 2 that the player could choose the sex of their protagonist for the first time, in Pokémon Crystal (2000/2001). Back then, the question was phrased as; “Are you a boy? Or a girl?”. Pretty rigid and perhaps due to limitation in the hardware.
Let’s note that male and female Non-Player Characters (NPCs) have always appeared in the series. Sex differences for the pocket monsters themselves have gradually been introduced to mirror how we find biological species in nature to be either male of female.
Why tone matters
The “Mystery Dungeon” phrasing of the question seems more contemporary, and user centered. In the last 25 years or so, gender issues and discussions have become more mainstream — as has gaming.
It is plain to see that this progress is reflected in video games as well. With this change in tone, the player can choose not only the outward representation (sex) of their avatar. They can let the game reflect their inner representation (gender) as well!
Not only that, in the latest core game installments (Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, 2019) character customization is further encouraged by visiting in-game clothing stores and by offering different hairstyles, with even more options coming later this year.
To conclude, the Pokémon series is the biggest franchise of all time, across all categories. I applaud how they lead the way with such a subtle (ahem) switch of tone.
However, we should remember that there are gamers who don’t identify as either male or female sex. It is unclear right now how the Pokémon series will adapt to this reality.
For now, the aforementioned clothing and styling option is a plausible quick fix. Moreover, presenting the idea to play as either sex welcomes gamers of all kinds with an option to better represent their true selves.
Until next time, take care!
Simon
