Hello fellow jerry cans, hopefully you enjoyed the new video, talking more about Pokémon's business and management side rather than the games themselves. I've always wanted to make this video for months, and glad I finally got the chance! This was actually one of the most fun I had making a video, because I have to do some deep critical analysis for video game reviews, but it's so easy to bash corporations and their decisions. Join Discord and become part of the Jerry Can community: discord.com/invite/YqRFCneGSZ 0:00 Intro 1:30 Part 1: What is a Brand? 2:38 Part 2: The Pokemon of the Past 6:05 Part 3: The Consequences of Pokemon Go 8:55 Part 4: The Fall of Pokemon 13:05 Part 5: Who Cares?
I really appreciate you mentioning the anime. IMO, if they wanted to briefly bring back old characters like Serena or Iris or old mons like Greninja, it should have been done more akin to Gen 4, where the new region and pokemon were the primary focus, but they also gave fans something special for the 25th anniversary (At this point, there are so many soulless anniversaries, it almost feels like they happen every year). It also be a nice callback to Gen 4 which got remakes in Gen 8. And what's rumored to be happening to the anime team for Journeys is... sad, to say the least. And I stopped caring about the games since XY. The anime was good until XYZ, but then even the SM anime had a massive uplift and genuinely surprised me. But Journeys ruined everything. I am only giving Gen 9 anime a chance because of the SM anime and it's redemption.
@@zomorion9183 I'm curious why so many dislike the around the world concept for the anime, I felt if executed well, we could've had an ultimate season that could cap off Ash's journey. I think the main issue is that the journeys don't really connect with each other. LIke I'd argue Bea and Ash's matchups going from Johto to Galar is a good continuous thread taking advantage of multiple regions IMO. I also think they really hadn't taken advantage of the World Coronation Series with not as many important battles as expected IMO.
@@zjzr08 Because just there's way too much stuff to manage. For example, let's just focus on Ash and assume Chloe doesn't exist. Now who will Ash face? Ideally everyone. Every gym leader, every rival and every E4 member to eventually every Champion. Already we have a problem. There are 64 gym leaders, 12 or so rivals, 32 E4 members and 7 Champions. Let's say we don't show off any Gym leaders at all, excluding Galar. You'd need 56 of 130 episodes just for this. 1 episode per battle, except for the finals and semifinals where there'll be 3 and this is still not good as there wouldn't be proper pacing for most battles, unless they were 3v3s On top of that, you'd need to add development arcs for Ash's Journeys team, which, let's say that takes 20 episodes for the entire team. And let's assume Ash actually uses his old Pokemon and uses them to help train his new team, but that would only be for 2 out of the 20 episodes dedicated to training, to give them proper screen time. 76 out of 130 episodes and we still need episodes dedicated to Ash's development as a character. Like establishing what Ash even wants now that he is a Champion. Let's say that takes 8 episodes. And since we're travelling in old regions we're bound to meet old characters. If every companion had only 1 reintroduction episodes, that'd be 10 episodes minimum. A well-executed villain arc? 10 episodes minimum (inlcuding buildup episodes). Now you have 26 left for filler AND Goh's development (who is a 2nd protagonist) and the Mohn arc. This is especially true if this is Ash's last series. Ash has to beat trainers he lost to. Ash has to use his old Pokemon, and especially his old aces. Ash has to meet his old companions. And still most of the battles aren't 6v6 like they should be. This would be fine if Goh and Chloe didn't exist. But with them, this is just too ambitious.
@@zomorion9183 I guess this is where I say they should've made the anime extend to more than 1 generation, maybe preferably 3. The format doesn't depend on a current game, so extending stories this way seems viable. As new generations come out new Pokemon and regions are introduced gradually. On paper this should help the games have more time to develop, but as we see there isn't as much synergy and they still make games quick, it probably still doesn't help. Anyway, that's ideally 450 episodes or so for a whole story. Show Ash's ups and downs in the WCS and also don't rush Goh's captures. Showcase Galar's Gym Leaders sprinkled in with some past trainers in the 1st third, Gen 9 's in the middle, then Gen 10 at the end. There's actually more than 64 Gym Leaders, but you can distribute them and some rivals throughout those 450 episodes. Add Goh who will try to capture 1000+ Pokemon by the end of this (and he gets multiples in an episode) and you could get an epic series.
@@zjzr08 Exactly. But if they handle it how they handled Journeys, overworking the team and underpaying them, then it's gonna take a long while for that to happen. And honestly, for the world's largest franchise, treating them this bad is unacceptable IMO. I hope more people talk about this and the Pokemon anime becomes a lot better than what it is now.
I like to call this era “Nostalgia Hell.” We have Nostalgia movies, Nostalgia games and Nostalgia on top of Nostalgia thanks to Disney. Big companies like Disney and Game freak manipulate us instead of entertaining us.
I feel like Pokemon has always been a brand. From gen 1, they've branched out into different media and tried to get Pikachu and friends' faces on anything that could be used. I feel like the post GO era just made it more apparent that they were a brand and started their souless downfall. The only reason I feel we distinguished Pokemon as a franchise rather than a brand was because they were consistently making quality experiences.
Same I can 100% agree with you and feel the exact same way as most. Every time they release a new generation I get excited and wish for some merchandise like Gen 4-5 but all they have are Pikachu shirts or other first child merchandise. This type of branding makes the other generations soulless. Like what's the purpose if you're just going to keep bringing the 151 sauce.
the thing is, if you look at GameFreak's history, Gen 1 was a real risk for Nintendo. No one knew if it could work - so, in order for Gen 1 to have the best possible chance, Nintendo marketed it as much as they could in the late 90s. Gen 2 started to solidify its place in the market, but it still wasn't a certainty, hence why we then had the anime and movies, such as Pokemon 2000. By Gen 3, they knew it was working and it's just exploded from there.
The problem is not that they are expending the market but that there is no longer artistic vision behind the franchise as a whole, that video games are now treating how outsiders see it, simple products with no real value or improvement. As the first comment says, pokemon became its dead concurrence, it became Digimon or Yokai watch, but even wors because despite these franchises were clearly only made to surf on the pokemania, they had the decency to make decent products. I remember when pokemon had possible competition, everyone were talking about how pokemon was different because it had a 'soul'. I wonder where this soul is gone.
@@alwaysangry2232 By this point I think there are people out there willing to step up for Digimon or Yu-Gi-Oh having a better track record. Some people really rooting for YoKai Watch or Tem Tem to have a renewed monster-trainer RPG feeling.
The worst part of this is fans defend it. I was on GameFaqs recently explaining how Pokémon lost its soul and I was just mocked. If people voted with their wallets and were less group think we might not be here.
@@IgnitedQuils I agree, although if significant change has to happen, there has to be action in the side of the players if the developers don't, although it always isn't the case - see how Paper Mario Color Splash bombed but the director insisted to do something similar for Origami King...frankly while it did improve from Color Splash, it wasn't a significant jump, but because of the Switch it earned a lot IMO, and we can't be sure Pokemon mainline games would follow similarly.
Oh no 😥 it happened to everything I used to love... From Minecraft and... Uh... Well I gave up on mainstream games long time ago. Instead I prefer playing indie games and old games. Terraria still has good developers that DO CARE about their game tho😍. But for Pokémon and Minecraft , there is no such hope anymore. 😥
I wish I got to experience those games back in the day but atleast I still got to play them on emulators all the new games are pretty sucky and overpriced for what they are
For me, the greatest problem with the current state of Pokémon is the sheer amount of content that is released in short span of time. Even if the games were Breath of Wild quality it's like i couldn't care about it. It's just too much. I can't give a damn about gen 9 pokémon if i still haven't gotten used to gen 8.
When games come out faster than you can play them 😅... If it's multiple franchises or series, OK👌... But if it's just Pokémon that outspeeds it's playerbase. I am very worried. Like I play Renegade Platinum (rom hack) for 2 years now with long breaks. And still. Not a champion of sinnoh yet
@@KingOskar4 did you know in pokémon renegade platinum if you go in the breeding farm there is a girl who let you level up your pokemon with blissey who got healing wish end I can advise you with a good team to beat cynthia end the élite 4 Azumariil with waterfall acqua get pley rought end belly drum with leftovers Alakazam with life orf psychic aura sphere dazzling gleam/shodow ball energy ball scizor bullet punch bug bite Aerial ace sword dance Salamance dragon dance earthquake fly dragon claw then a choice band wild carge strenght close Combat flare bliz flereon end a iron first shadow punch ice punch drain punch will ò wisp/fire punch expert belt well i hope this team will be of use to you end if you are not at the end I think swampert is better then Azumariil for normal fight is more bulky i beat cynthia whitout item
@@ferrucciocaracciuolo8139 Oh thank you ☺️👌... I have not reached Cynthia yet. As for my team... I am using Sceptile, Celebi, Giratina, Blaziken, Lucario and finally Quagsire as an HM slav.
Bruh Sword and Shield came out three years ago. That's more than enough time to "get used" to them. Also, a shit-ton of games coming out is not "the current state of Pokemon", it's been that way since almost the very beginning.
I grew up with this franchise and lived during the pokemania of the late 90s, the drop of mainstream relevance in the early 2000s, to what it is today. From hype to niche to mainstream, this has always been the case. You had famous artist sing for the soundtrack of Pokémon the first movie, to hulk hogan promoting Pokémon day in New York, and even weird Al and Zach and cody involved with the games show etc It’s just more noticeable now because Pokémon is more mainstream than ever and not just some foreign Japanese phenomenon, to kids today Pokémon feels like it has always been part of the cultural zeitgeist so it’s become common ground to have normie artist like Katie Perry and Ed Sheeren to promote it
My older sister grew up in the pokemania but I didn't... I grew up when it was niche. Started with emulated Emerald, White 2. Then X&Y was announced. Heck even Naruto was nieche at first, and now, there's an asian restaurant next door that has Naruto figurines and posters as a decoration. Boy the times are changing
I would say even in the 2000s it wasn't really niche. As a kid during the early decade, ppl could still recognize pokemon, gen 3 anime merch was plenty (i had an advanced generation shirt that always caught eyes), our teacher gave us gen3 figures at the end of class as gifts once. Pokemon books were everywhere at book fairs. Pokemon anime at that point was always one nobody considered to be "anime" but just another toon, that's how integrated it was. Even the gen3 games were played and snuck to school/social events by older kids that had the console. Sure, it wasn't late 90's Pokemania levels but it for damn sure was reaching the new generation of young'uns after the kids playing red and blue grew out of it. But that just further adds to the point the brand was always big and pulling what it's pulling, the difference is they managed it better. Once they got a smartphone app to blow up they definitely started moving different. Lots of Japanese game companies are trying to get their feet into that market, but now that Go anchored Pokemon in nice and stable in the turbulent mobile ocean, the company is content coasting off it. All other spin offs? I consider mystery dungeon remake and new snap as blessings. The anime? Give Ash a companion literally named Go who's whole schtick is going around catching as many mons as possible. Let's Go exists just to cash in on the hype, regardless of opinions on those games that fact is undeniable. They've simply adopted that mindset of "getting on our phones is top priority" it seems. Hope they wise up and realize how fickle and easy to move on those casual mobile market is. Go isn't gonna be relevant forever, i think its safe to say its definitely died down. As cool as Masters is, it's something only the hardcore fanbase will appreciate if able to play. Unite is interesting cause i think it's also on Switch, i think designing mobile spin offs that way would be an interesting direction. But at the end of the day, these are no replacements for how spin offs used to be handled and they're clearly not helping GF's main duty with developing the core series
Its so sad for me to see my favourite franchise from when I was a child having become like that - It now only feels like a husk to sell money and nothing more
Exactly I feel sad that Pokémon used to be creative back in the past. But then once Sun and Moon came out I kinda started disliking the newer games which is sad because I love Pokémon so much ever since when I was a kid playing my first Pokémon game Pokémon Black. Just bring back all the old features like Mega Evolutions and the National Dex into the newer Pokémon games.
I always thought of Pokemon eventually stopping the creation of new "core games" and new Pokemon(at around 1000), and as it "brand" was firmly entrenched, it would eventually take the ultimate step of creating its own Amusement Park(s).
Yeah, I think ending the game series at 1000 Pokemon could be a good way to end it, I mean we already have the Pokemon god and origins of a lot of things, do we really need to know more about the Pokemon world? Just keep remaking the games or make a "new era" that feels different after. Have the mainline end its first epoch properly.
As long as Nintendo wants to sell consoles, that'll never happen. They're pretty much the only ones stopping Pokemon from going full corporate in the first place. There are still plenty of people that buy Nintendo consoles exclusively to play the Pokemon games.
Pokemon has always been this way to an extent. Pretty much any company that wants to be successful has to. But after watching the success of Pokemon GO and seeing how much success can come from minimal effort, they really went full speed ahead. Sun/Moon felt like the last gamed where there was any passion put into the projects. After that, the only soul came from games that weren’t mobile apps and weren’t heavily influenced by Game Freak (so, PMD DX since Spike Chunsoft is pretty much allowed to do what they want).
I remember being embarrassed as a kid because I liked Pokémon and none of my friends did, I tried to hide the fact I enjoyed the games and show. Nowadays it's weird if you don't like Pokémon. How far we have truly come
I'm curious when did you think that shift changed? Around Gen 4 and 5 Pokemon still felt "niche" albeit it still feels part of the Nintendo echelon. Is it really during after GO?
@@zjzr08 the most noticeable change for me was definitely GO in 2016, but I think that's the answer most people would give you due to the ridiculous mainstream media attention it got. Without taking GO into account, I think it was maybe around HGSS era for me, I kind of stopped caring about the opinions of others and actually spoke about the things I liked, doing this attracted others that had similar interests that were also maybe too embarrassed to speak about them. I guess it was more a shift in my own perspective than an actual shift in the view of Pokémon. Very interesting topic though, really thought provoking video!
Some of my friends played gen 1 and 2 when I was in primary school, and it was fun and everything was right (I didn't even have money for a Game Boy). But when gens 4 and 5 came out and I had a DS, I was literally ashamed of playing childlish Pokemon game on a tiny console publicly, when my friends were grinding World of Warcraft with incomparable graphics and online world. Game Freak or Nintendo would be printing money had they created something similar - of course they didn't, and probably never will.
Honestly I believe in everything you just said because let’s be honest here I bet that even game freak knows that even if they made one very bad Pokémon game it would hands-down still sell no matter what and I bet they know it as well
@xid do not call sword end shield bad you will offensive to bad game at least bad game some times got good point sword end shield do not got good point
The biggest difference for me, (and this applies to almost all franchises that have survived and continue to produce content in this modern era) is that the old games let you have an adventure and explore, where as these new games are more akin to guided tours.
I feel like it's just the games that lost its soul and the other aspects of pokemon are thriving but since most people associate the franchise with the games they carry the same opinion onto the franchise as a whole.
It's been a brand for a very long time but it's more clear now than ever before The celebrity pokemon music campaing and ever increasing emphasis on mobile games also served as a wake-up-slap for me. It's very much a brand, one that is no longer made for me as much as the Pokemon Company claims it's for everyone. There's nothing for people like me to enjoy anymore
then the cancerous morons want to kill off all the other monster rpg games with that "pokemon ripoff" bullshit cause you arent allowed to have options besides pokemon
@@froddobaggins literally haven't finished a game past Sword and even that was a slugfest, haven't even gotten to the second gym on Shining Pearl and cleared like 2 of the areas in PLA but that's not even anything considering I've done no side quests, I've played gen 3, 4 and 5 more in the last year than I have anything gen 6 or beyond, I'm at the point where I'm saving up to by a gameboy color with a backlit screen so I can play my Ge 1 and 2 games, you know the series is in a sad state when you've got people like you, OP and I have no interest in the newer games
@@JBzucc hell, even if there's interest, people like me are pessimistic if not nihilistic for the new games. The graphics look like S/V is running on a PSP overcloked to hell and back, it's banking on the open world trend, and I heard that every game after and including X/Y was shit. Haven't played a new game since Or/As but it's sad, and what's worst is that I'm a gen 6 kid. I literally don't remember "the good ol days" because when I played the game at 7years old, the good days were over. It's sad seeing my childhood series start to rot. I'm not even 18 yet but I just want to know what the series will mutate into by the time I'm in my 20s or 30s
Couldn’t agree more…. All I want is that Pokémon returns to be art and passion like satoshi satoshi Tajiri and masuda in the gba/ds era did. It just hurts me so much that one of my favorite game franchises became a brand. Like I said, I wish Pokémon return to be art and passion like in gen 1 or 5. I will give an example, Like people always says, if gen 6 were made with the same effort as gen 5, had less laziness and had a third version, it could have been the best games of all time of the franchise
Also ORAS is one of the most passionate projects I've seen from Gamefreak in terms of mainline games. Yeah HGSS had pokemon follow you but that was about the only new feature outside of pokemon from gens 3 and 4 and the safari zone editor thing, other than that it's pretty much the same game, but ORAS added a LOT of new content to the game, not just for the story, but post-game as well.
I feel that gen 6 was a bit rushed because of the 3d models, if they stick to 2d would be one of the best pokemon games, the jump to 3d had a cost in the project
It's a shame seeing how the passion and effort that used to be in Pokemon slowly disappear from the series. Just compare Pokemon during its height in gen 4 to nowadays. High quality mainline games with a wide variety of spin offs slowly declining to bare bones and soulless games with practically no new spin offs in order for merchandise and mobile/gacha junk
I completely agree! I've been mentioning this to my pokemon friends, it's a shame they care more about due dates than completing creating the game itself. It kinda breaks my heart. I feel he losing his mind to greed and forgot how much we looked up to it as kids. A good amount of my friends and I are still Pokemon fans 💘
This video hits too hard. I still call myself a Pokémon fan, but I haven't bought SWSH and don't think I'll be buying SV, with the more I see putting me off. The lack of effort is so glaring, I don't know how anyone can deny it. Loving a series doesn't mean you have to be loyal without question, I'd argue you have to fight the crap choices to keep it good!
Again. With the whole praising them like Gods thing. Why isn't there and actual person in these comments that doesn't insult people for having a different opinion?
Yeah. SwSh was a disappointment to me, but I still had hope. SV did it for me, I'm not buying a Pokemon game again until I can see some sort of effort.
Coromon. Nexomon. Workémon (all android up to this point) ... Rom hacks, Drayano, then copiers such as Dinosaur King (ded), Digimon, and all the clones Austin had reviewed in "Bad Pokémon clones" part 1 and 2. People tried. A lot. Workémon is still kind of funny 😂
I haven't even felt the desire to pay attention to any Scarlet and Violet news and I'm pretty sure the game comes out in like a month. I just can't even force myself to care about Pokemon anymore and I've loved it since I picked up my first game ever, Pokemon: Crystal.
You're not missing much. Honestly the information we've been getting has been so incredibly mid that the recent 14 minute trailer was 80% of telling us the exact same information we've been told before.
@@UltraBall23 I hope you are sarcastic, because this quick new content over quality with cut corners is the issue Gireum has big issues about...also the stuff you said doesn't even need a new game, like DLCs exist.
@@zjzr08 I’m excited for the new game because of the new stuff. I know the quality isn’t great. Never said it was. I’ve been saying what Gireum is point out in this video for years now. My friends and I are going to have fun with it.
We laugh at Kaiba from Yugioh flying in a Blue-Eyes White Dragon Jet but one day Pokemon will do something like that in reality where you are going to go to a shopping mal that looks like a Wailord or Japan makes a plane that looks like an oversized Latios.
Pokemon GO was released before Sun and Moon. I should know. I did a business assignment on it and specifically mentioned how part of its timing was to get people on the bandwagon before the new game arrived.
While true (even the video wrote the dates), development was already ongoing for SM so whatever business impact GO had probably didn't affect SM's game design - celebrating the 20th anniversary and making a new region for it over a Pokemon Z, on the other hand...
I think you are one of if not my favorite content creators for Pokémon, I sincerely get happy when i see you post a video. it's like you speak for us real fans who also see where the franchise is going. Keep fighting the good fight bro!!
I think Pokemon has been a brand since 1998, when they released the TCG and the anime. That being said, it has been losing its soul during gen 7 with GO that revitalized the brand's popularity at the cost of everything, although there were symptoms of that even back in gen 6. If go never happened then... I don't think it would have changed that much.
Oddly enough, the one thing they could have also done to maximize profit would have been release heart gold/soul silver on the 3DS e-store, but they never did, and that frustrates me because I can't find a physical copy anywhere that's not a pirated re-pro or almost $200.
They probably are making another rushed sequel Let's Go Togepi/Pichu first and will sell HGSS later when there's almost no original copies left to maximize profits
The "Pokémon-Songs" of Post Malone are so bad and uninspired Just some generic lyrics with 10 seconds of 8-Bit-Soundtrack in it. And he calls himself a "big Fan"
I was a pokemon fan, stopped having interest long ago but somehow gets reignited because it was my fixation of the week. Pokemon, to me, is an idea that had a soul turned into a corporate brand to sell nostalgia. Nintendo is like Disney to me, but they worked. I honestly don't spend money on Pokemon anymore nor I was interested in Ash's journey past X and Y.
I could agree with you in some ways. The fact that they always bring back the 151 sauce and always constantly remind you about the first child! Get old and annoying really fast, this type of branding and behavior makes the other generation pointless and soulless. The fact that what's the point of a new generation if you just going to remind us about gen1 and only have merchandise for it.
The worst part about the gen 1 merch is that it’s not just gen 1 mons, it’s the SAME gen 1 mons each time. The starters’ base forms, their final forms, Pikachu, Eevee and it’s evolved forms, Meowth, Psyduck, Snorlax and the occasional Mew. Where are the starters’ middle stages, where’s Raichu, where’s Persian, where’s Golduck? When’s the last time you’ve seen a Lickitung on a piece of official merchandise?
Kachow, Lightning McQueen hadn't so much thought himself a brand, till he already was one. Mario and TLoZ have the same level of public recognition as PKMN but retain much more of their artistic integrity. Even to this point I've felt I've seen Mario take less chances, narrowing the scope of The Mushroom Kingdom to stuff that existed from SMB1-World. Guess we'll just have to see how the movie goes. But even if I'm a Gamecube era holdout, not a single franchise from that time has lost their way as much as PKMN, and most of that was post XY and Go.
Mario had a dreaded period IMO of seemingly being a "brand" since New Super Mario Bros Wii IMO until maybe Mario Odyssey - there's still remnants of that (like Toads not being as varied, like we are not seeing fat toads like in Mario Party 1) but things like Sparks of Hope and the movie may show they may be open to not latch on to nostalgia as much anymore IMO.
@@zjzr08 Even with Mario spinoffs too it keeps them in a way, shape, or form through staying power. The biggest gripe is mostly adding in stuff later, which artificially lengthens a game's window in the current day. I'm glad Switch still has a Luigi's Mansion and that it didn't just rush out MK9 or an Odyssey sequel. If those happen I feel like it'll get the right amount of attention. In other words, for as much "brand" that Mario has rn, it's one I'm more confident in. (Plz keep building back to a better Paper Mario). TLoZ is sailing free actually, besides tiny crossovers Link has retained pure art, practically nonexistent brand sinking.
@@runningoncylinders3829 I mean Zelda is still made by the same umbrella as Mario hence I see why it seems there's more creativity with Zelda - if Mario falls Zelda may become more "brand- like most likely.
Dang I miss how there used to be a variety of spin-off Pokemon games. It was always fun to try something different than the main games. Right now on the Switch we got 1 Mystery dungeon game and a New Pokemon Snap and thats it.(plus Pokken tournament but thats just a port) The D.S had so many with 2 Mystery dungeon games, 3 Pokemon ranger titles, Pokemon conquest, Dash, and Trozei! It always felt like during that time period there was always a Pokemon spinoff planned to release between the main games.
I also miss them, like Mario has a great mainline game track record, probably helps because there's a Party, Golf, Tennis, Kart and maybe Strikers in between, also the Mario & Luigi, Paper Mario and now Mario + Rabbid series. The spin-offs may be mid, but at least the mainline isn't (for the most part, looking at you NSMBU Deluxe, hehe).
This video perfectly explains why I can't find Gen 6 to be the downfall of Pokemon. At least Gen 6 feels like it had some sort of structure to it like the previous generations did, unlike Gen 8, where like 2/3rds of the main games have nothing to do with Galar and the region isn't even getting special treatment. Dexit is probably the main thing people remember the most about Sword and Shield; if that didn't happen, it would've probably been the most forgotten generation of the bunch. At least Kalos is memorable for how well it did in other forms of media, such as the anime.
I remember voicing my opinions on how SV was looking on a community post, and some replies came from defenders of current mainline Pokemon... it was hard to read through for me. It felt like those people were just accepting mediocrity. I had my expectations low for SWSH when I got Sword and I still felt disappointed. Maybe I was just getting too old, but then I remembered how kids and adults alike felt underwhelmed by SWSH. I was also told how I couldn't judge SV just based on trailers and other released info so far because "oh the game's not out yet", but then how can we judge if the game is worth it to us or not? Just blindly support these soulless games by buying it, instead of doing our research? Pokemon games aren't known for changing much from "unfinalized" trailer footage anyway. I want to continue loving Pokemon, but it's hard. Especially when there's other franchises and games having their own fun take on monster collecting, like Digimon and Monster Hunter Stories. (Both series I highly recommend to burnt-out Pokemon fans, by the way) For now, I'll just wait and see how SV turn out and see if it's worth the hefty $80 price where I live or not.
@@bluetimesskyrii I am so sorry for you😭... I call such people "Un-washed masses". Those who don't do research and blindly buy the newest pokémon game. What do YOU think? Is there a proper way to educate the unwashed masses? Because current Pokétubers (pokémon youtubers) just hype the stuff out of S/V. THEY say it will be good, but the game is not out yet
@@KingOskar4 Hard to say. SWSH was a wake-up call (move reference 100% intended) for those who felt like the Pokemon games were going downhill. Maybe SV will be the same, depending on how it turns out. Sadly, some people are just stubborn bastards. They're probably going to be why Pokemon continues to thrive despite its current stays, while similar game series and franchises continue to suffer under the assumption of being a Pokemon knockoff.
@@bluetimesskyrii Ah yes. Pokémon knockoffs, people have truly tried to copy the sucess of Pokémon. Here is what I know, by no specific order: Coromon, Nexomon, Workémon, Robopon, Digimon, Dinosaur King, Monster Rancher, the many many Gacha games, and some kind of animal transformation game. People have TRIED to copy Pokémon's success. Only Digimon and Gacha genre had success for one reason or another.
It's very interesting how there does seem to be a disconnect on synergy compared to before, with standalone stuff for the anime, mobile games and even spin-offs to a degree, when it's being used as a questionable excuse by a lot of fans on why there's a need for new material, that is seemingly just rehashes of some of their past material and selling them as new. Ironically, I think this lack of synergy should give the mainline games more freedom, because other parts of the franchise is getting more independence per se. For some reason the games are now seemingly treated as merch, something you'd probably be happy for a limited time to toy around and display, then just let it sit in a corner quickly after. I can say the Pokemon anime's latest changes could be argued as positive, especially the movies, but I also agree they may feel like pandering to the popular rather than the current. While I do like to play Masters, Rainbow Rocket Giovanni being the be-all leader is Kanto pandering. They used RR for the Shadow Pokemon gimmick for GO too. It seems PLA tried to avoid Kanto pandering, but signs of it did seem to return for SV.
Yeah stuff like the anime bringing back old characters is great since its never really done that kind of get together before and I'm positive this series is the end of Ash's run as protagonist for that reason and many many others
Man, i cannot believe this really happened/is happening. I miss the days where once on two years i just bought a pokemon game for my console, went home, made my character and played on a new region, new pokemon, challanged arena leaders, got to top 4 and the champ, collected and searched for pokemon. Sadly these days are over, and they will never return. Its like seeing a friend dying and becoming a zombie. Pokemon is dead for me...
I don’t know if I will ever see a modern Pokémon mainline game with Colosseum/XD Gale of Darkness/ Battle Revolution- esque graphics. Genius Sonority actually knew how to scale the Pokémon properly and actually made water shoot out of Blastoise’s cannons and not its head…
yes bro i feel so sad abt the direction the pokemon company is going, i legit used to be so passionate abt pokemon, i made like a 151 fakemon dex thing. So to see the company like this is so upsetting
Just stick to the old gens,try playtrough again in diferent ways, is way better than the cash grabs we have today, just stick to the holy trinity HGSS,Platinum and b2 w2
I firmly believe Satoshi tajiri is not insane money hungry individual but still wants to make a good game. But there are people with a lot of influence who want a new gen rushed in order to sell newnian Lucario plushies.
I honestly really hate how we all blame game freak for the drop in quality in the recent games just because they were the developers. I feel like they’re the ones that want to create a grand adventure but it’s the higher ups at the Pokémon company that are demanding a new game every year causing each game to be rushed. With all the money they’re printing, this will go on forever and nothing will change
I won't completely sympathize with Game Freak because of their stubbornness and other decisions, but the developers back during the SWSH days and even now are going through their own kind of hell. I just wish GF was given more time and resources to flesh out new game releases. Pokemon has no excuse; they're the largest media franchise, let all that money go somewhere.
Oh yes 🤩👍... Ever since I got Renegade Platinum, I never looked back at the original Platinum 🥰. Same with Sacred Gold and HeartGold. Drayano sure knows how to make excellent games into the best ones.
This is why i like the fanfiction of the pokemon franchise moreso than i do the video games, manga and anime. They’re actually allowed to get away with unique stories and ideas.
Ah yes. Fanfiction! A lot of them are bad 'cause sturgeon's law BUT there are good ones! I remember fanfictions of pokémon world with new, orange haired OCs! I remember fanfictions with scuba diving! Also the "X character joins Team Rocket" fanfictions are... Questionable😅😂 but still, nice.
I am in a big "eh" in literary fanfiction. But fan content, on the other hand, are amazing imo. Rom Hacks are one of the best thing that came out from the fandom.
I still do and will forever love Pokémon. However, as of right now, I only value it for the creativity it provides me. I detest the brand and all of their games/marketing decisions. I don’t support the games currently but I’ll sure as hell continue to write fanfics lol
I looked up the word "Pokemon" on the YT search bar and your video was the first to pop up, I guess that means your doing something right, keep it up man.
nothing really to add regarding the whole brand situation, brought it straight to the point. except maybe that the whole National Dex thing was a big clue for all of this as well. I mean this was literally the whole 'catchphrase' of pokemon. Gotta Catch Em All. and althought sometimes complicated, they held it somehow true over the years. a new generation comes out and all the pokemon are programmed in, it was so exciting seeing your old favorites getting new sprites over the years and mixing your favorite team up with new additions...now it's like 'ohh now they removed sceptile entirely it seems compared to the just-over-home-without-dex-entry-situation in sword/shield'. the potential is infinite but reality proves (to them) that it's not necessary to keep it a passion project. minimizing effort/maximizing profit works so why even bother? Pokemon Go also was such a trap. conceptual-wise it was amazing but they don't listen to feedback about literal bullies that copy your route just to prevent you from owning any arenas, multi-account peasants who exploit and abuse the outdated and buggy systems in this game. instead they just higher prices of 'items' that are way too expensive and literally become entirely worthless after 30 min. I played from Gen 1 to Gen 4 back then, made a break until Lets Go and although it was kinda disappointing, the nostalgia still hit and the game even had arguably better graphics than the next mainline game sword/shield even. it truly feels as if the sole effort they put in is insidiously focussed on what exploits the nostalgia of old fans the most while simultaniously pumping out horsesh*t like the whole ed sheeran promo that no OG Pokemon Fan would even care about because it's like comparing apples to car-tires. but the general hivemind-human collective loves this nonsense so keep doing stuff like this am I right? truly a sad situation. from all the franchises one grew up with as a kid, this felt like the only one that stays. but seeing it deterioate so badly just gives a surreal and sour taste.
The hive mind nonsense is a side effect from society’s educational decline, instead of being taught to think for themselves, the youngest of us waste their braincells mindlessly scrolling on sites such as tictok, and facebook instead of being diciplined, informed ,or parented in any way.I dare not mention twitter.My point being the lack of proper education that legitamatley knows how to educate is part of the overall problem, the less critical thought in play, the less questions being asked, the more they’ll mindlessly believe anything they’re told and consume.It is ashame that the excitement for the next pokemon game has devolved from art to mass produced product that barely changes anything (just adds two cameras amd calls it “new” if you catch my drift.) other than the amount of wealth the wealthy already have.We truely live in troubled times, granted not in the same light as 30 years ago because 30 years ago, we still used our braincells for something other than staring and swiping.(Not that i was born in that era.)I’m just sick of corporate nonsense getting in the way of everything, including making our food perpetually sustainable, and in this case not being able to enjoy a decent video game.
Absolutely fantastic video, thank you. Honestly, this is such a good explaination of why my love for the franchise (more like brand) has faded away ever since gen 8, and why I don’t even feel excited for Scarlet and Violet despite all the features its boasting about. I just feel numb. I thought I was just being cynical and dismissed my feelings for such a long time. But seeing all the evidence laid out in this video makes me realize I was right to feel this way. I’m just so tired of all these big corporations sucking the life out of their products for the sake of fulfilling some quota. The passion and soul isn’t there anymore, and Pokemon isn’t the only franchise that’s suffering this fate (looking at you, Disney…) I suppose these days, I’ll just stick to Pokemon fan games/creations and other various indie stuff. At least these things actually have passion and heart put into them. I enjoy creations by Pokemon fans far more than the official Pokemon material these days.
To be fair, hiring popstars to sing songs for them is something that JRPGs have been doing since at least the PS1 era, though admittedly they were JPop stars rather than international English speaking stars.
Pokémon did music collaboration since the beginning. The soundtrack of Pokémon: The First Movie included songs by Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears. It was a brand since the very beginning.
The soundtracks of the first and second movie were changed for the West, though. Example? Lugia's song is in the Japanese original an entirely different piece.
That last line hits very hard. "Well... I cared, and all of it just feels soulless." I think Pokemon is definitely changing a lot. Some Better, Some Worse. The Mainline games are definitely changing and I'm hoping it's for the better. They're moving to Open World Style, non-linear storylines, and giving more freedom in things like what to do, and character customization (The new customization in Scarlet and Violet really excites me), and I'm all for it. Still, it feels like these new games are still lagging behind a generation in terms of how well developed it is or how good they appeal. I dont think the passion was lost, they seem very excited for these new releases with how much they are still teasing bit by bit as the release date closes in. It sort of reminds me of how Akira Toriyama felt about DBS Super Heroes and DBS Broly. He was genuinely excited for these movies to be released even though he is mostly riding Shotgun in the Dragon Ball Franchise.
For me, the last good main series Pokémon game was Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire. Since then, there have been exactly TWO things the Pokémon brand has produced that I consider to be of any sort of actual quality: The movie Detective Pikachu... and the game Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX. Everything else has been mediocre at best.
Man idk if im gonna get shat on for this opinion but scarlet and violet look mid tbh. Just meh. It doesnt feel like pokemon anymore. Large part of that is some of the new pokemon designs and character designs, its souless, it just doesnt feel like gens 1-5, heck doesnt even feel like gens 6-8. Just something odd about it that i cant put my finger on
I think it’s the graphics and how it effects the characters. They look a little too realistic. Gamefreak can’t seem to find the perfect balance between realistic and Sugimori’s art style.
Gonna be honest, ORAS was the last GOOD pokemon game, you could still see SOME passion in it, especially with the mirage spots and legendary locations. I'm convinced the only reason the Battle Frontier never happened was because of time constraints post-launch. Meaning the Gamefreak was already working on Gen 7 at that point, meaning no update for ORAS.
Nah that game was half baked too and braindead easy just like X and Y. That was the last Pkmn game I purchased and felt dead after playing it. Have not gone back since.
I think a lot of people will agree with me when I say this, but Pokemon started becoming more "brand" like after Black and White 2. Those games were amazing and had literally everything a fan could want. Then come X and Y and every main line game after that feeling souless, rushed, incomplete, or all 3 at the same time. It's a real shame because Pokemon games can be so good and yet we're fed utter garbage just because the masses will buy it anyway. Truly unfortunate times.
I would say after X & Y the quality was just worse and worse. With some ups and some downs. Problem being, the game White 2 was feature-COMPLETE at release, not post-updates. I agree with you.
Pokemon in Fortnite won't be surprising. Back in the day I had the perfect Pokemon game in mind where you play an action RPG with Pokemon having fix movesets with light customisibility and plays like the anime. It will never happen. Pokken, New Snap and Legends Arceus have some of the ingredience, yet, not even they reached their full potential.
I left pokemon and nintendo since the 3DS. I said it was my final anything from nintendo when I bought the 3DS full price and they lowered it some months later. Yes they needed to do so to stay alive. Then Megaman Legends 3 was cancelled. I went purely to PC and never looked back at nintendo. I wasn't born off of nintendo. In an alternate universe I am still a nintendo fan and Iwata is still alive making the right business practices to keep nintendo extremely competitive and profitable...not just profitable... Iwata was the perfect president, because he released a pure success and then a pure failure...then he helped create the switch. Unfortunately, life isn't fair. It's like the death of Ramanoujan and Touring. We will never know how our lives would have changed if these people lived a full life.
Right 🙏!! I started as a Playstation/Sony Boy but went full Nintendo when I discovered Emulation. Now I am a PC gamer💻 because that is the best platform. Not perfect but fixable if issues arise.
they even had amazing concept art and lore for gen 6 but literally left it in the trash can in 2015 😬zygarde is so interesting and it’s just left in a shelter, in a cave waiting… yup, that’s soulless
@@bub-e2592 Z would have to be good too and include much of the follow-up treatment of years past. Improvements to the Battle Facility, expanded lore on Zygarde including much of the SM additions like Cells, new places to see in Kalos, Dex expansion (granted XY Dex was quite good imo & we still had NatDex), pipedream of Mythical event playability such as Hoopa stuff, and a sampling of deserved callback content. There was for sure untapped potential in a Kalos revisit. I just don't want it to have been like USUM which was a waste of a follow-up.
Now I feel guilty for liking "Celestial". :/ I saw it on TV and was amazed that it was real and actually sounded pretty good. Not _great,_ but pretty good.
In pokemon go this has been a thing for 2 years now they always want to maximise profits but recently I started hearing about the same happening to the main games and now I am sad because apperently it won't change😞 But thank you for making such a good video about this and looking at it from an overall perspective and not only focuseing on one part of it
The one thing I think has been with the series for the years, is that the plushies/merchandise has made 60+ billion dollars as of 2019 while the games are only in 17 billion dollars (still a lot of money) but pokemon has always felt like that, making games to sell merchandise.
Incidentally, I bought my Eevee plushie in an German toy store in 2020. I know it does not count but it is also the only plushie I have as a young adult. But how exactly does TPC (the pokemon company) know how much plushies they sold? Games I can imagine how they count it.
Pokemon has never been a geeky or weeby interest. It has been a giant multimedia conglomerate since Generation 1. If you grew up between Generations 3 and 6 then I can see why you might think of Pokemon as just another Nintendo series. And if you grew up in the mid-90s or later, video games weren't a nerdy interest. You just convinced yourself that's why you were bullied. I remember the days where you would get beaten bloody for liking Star Wars or Spider-Man, much less some cutesy smiling cartoon critters.
I often get the feeling the pokemon company resents its older veteran fan base for asking more. Why bother playing, when the pokemon company themselves won't improve the franchise?
Genwunner here, lots of people forget that this started during Black and White when they hired the band Presidents of the United States to make a song.
I left pokemon and start playing SMT and Digimon games now bc,They don't give me the same feelings I get form playing black 2 white 2 ORAS platinum and HGSS or watching XY&Z Diamond & Perl or SUN&MOON anymore.
I agree 100% i hate what pokemon has become these days just a cash grab brand now when it used to be actual games that were good and had love and care put into them, the last great pokemon game for me will always be black and White 2 with ORAS being the last game that actually felt like a pokemon game, I also never plan to buy any of the new stuff from gamefreak either as I don't wanna support their greed and laziness, for those who want a good pokemon experience just get a gba and ds emulator on your phone (if your Android) and play the classics they're far far better then what gamefreak make today
I could not agree more 🙂👍... On android it is possible to patch the roms and get Rom hacks! As long as you can get, say, FireRed version, which is the bases of most patches, you have Pokémon adventures set for life! 🤩
@@KingOskar4 true that, its actually sad that fan made games these days are better then the ones made by the actual company that owns the ip, like that should really tell you how far they have fallen when fans make better stuff now and you can tell gamefreak and Nintendo to an extent are aware of this as they always attack the big fanmade games that draw a lot of attention away from their joke of a game
@@MartinMorning2 Whoa, really? That is just sad 😥. What do you think is the best rom hack? I personally like Renegade Platinum, and Sacred Gold. Catching them all finally became a feasable thing🤩! I would like Clover version but I am afraid of the stupid jokes 😂. Then I was also considering Ruby chronicles, in reverse order (3, 2 and 1)
@@KingOskar4 the ruby destiny games are pretty good, renegade is good too, snakewood is a classic and flora sky is also pretty good, too many great rom hacks to name really lol but those ones are the ones that come to my mind the most
I'm way behind in Pokemon, but I still love it. I like how even people who don't like Pokemon liked Legends Arceus when even fans were skeptical. It seems to me like they are trying different things for home consoles, while the handheld games were the same but kept improving. I hope I get a Switch with Violet for Christmas so I could get back into it.
@Kimi Timoskainen Gireum has a good video why he doesn't like PLA as much - really great catching mechanic, but pretty bad exploration (mostly empty lands), very iffy story, and the presentation is just bad (characters looked so poorly animated, or not even be animated). And no, fans want to Game Freak to change effort on how they make the games, not the gameplay itself, which have aspects wanting things that don't need fixing to be kept (like having an optional Exp Share).
@Kimi Timoskainen The "Platinum 3.0" comment is in this thread...although could I ask what aspects that grow from Platinum that could be applied? New moves added like terrain look interesting, and a handful of new QoL and items are good additions. Problem is while also doing that they did add iffy custcenes and linear map design. That and of course cutting Pokemon when they didn't before, but I feel you may not see that as a big issue. Aren't these changes bad?
@Kimi Timoskainen 1. I agree and it worked fine for BW, but it didn't for for SM and SwSh. BW at least sprawled like a rectangle with its routes and some alternate pathwahs, which can't be said for both SM and SwSh. Also PLA isn't an open world game, it's really just zones you choose to explore and each zone doesn't connect with each other. 2. What I mean is you see characters not being expressive enough, and even for PLA, NPCs actually don't move outside of cutscenes. Even the simplest RPGs have NPCs move around a bit on an area, hey even Pokemon does that with sprites randomly moving about or models going back and forth. There's also a lot of black screen transitions, potentially a budget move to not animate more scenes. I'll come back with your they have little time comment, because that's a big issue I want to expand later. 3. I am frankly sick of talking about this, but assets of the Pokemon are futureproofed since Gen 6 to be reused even until now. Most of the work had been for them to be added to a mainline game. Now, it seems your issue is more on the Pokemon OBTAINABLE in the games, not what is PLAYABLE. BW in addition to 151 in the Regional Dex, and 203 Pokemon outside of it that is obtainable in the post-game. That means the only way to fill the rest up you need to migrate 300+ Pokemon from Gen 4, which still means 649 Pokemon is available to play there. See the difference with SwSh, where you literally can't play with a Greninja for example? Anyway, a lot of these issues can be fixed if they are given more time. But as the video said, it's a just seemingly a thing they just do now. PLA may had been better but is also a victim of this "games are merch" mentality. And that is the change, not exactly the gameplay, that players want. P.S. I think you could expand what you can do with Pokemon by adding stuff surrounding the Pokemon world - contests, secret bases, Pokeathlon, amie etc. are stuff outside battling that adds ways to expand the Pokemon world. That's an example of change that's positive but doesn't change core aspects of the games.
Before they started pandering so much with the characters from previous generations, many diehard fans were literally begging for them to return. Some of this just comes down to people wanting different things from the franchise and they can't please everyone. The newer content is not completely devoid of soul, but branding has done noticable, possibly irreversible damage to pokémon, and I find myself wishing that pokémon GO never blew up as much as it did. I don't stand by the decisions of the company, but I'm not leaving either. I put their intentions out of mind and find enjoyment in pokémon at face value
Games are still the center of their business model, but unfortunately they are all mobile gacha/ gacha-like games. Thank god for emulators, but even pirated i struggle to find any motivation to play their 3D main series games. ORAS and Let's Go were fine.. but i expect more than just "fine" from the biggest franchise.
I was and am still playing a rom hack Renegade Platinum, for 2 years. Never dissapoints with quality re-furbished Platinum content and variety of pokémons (all 450 in one cartridge available). But even that great game, I have long breaks from it
@@KingOskar4 Rings a bell, think i saw/watched some renegade nutzlocks. Gens 2-5 are always nice to come back to for a chill playthrough, both fanmade stuff and official.
In all seriousness though, this was always the case even if people were more in love with somebody titles that they grew up with back in the day. Pokemon was meant to conclude back in generation 2, but only went on because Ishihara and Iwata saw that the franchise was a huge Cash Cow thanks to the anime and merch. From that point forward, everything was essentially to fill a " quota". It's the reason you get to version exclusive games that act as a introductory to a generation followed by their more "cOmpLetE" version that releases sometime after. The anime was incredibly instrumental because it displayed the Pokemon in fully animated Glory that would be cemented into the fans minds ( it's why Pokemon like pikachu, charizard, and Greninja are incredibly popular). The very spin-offs were essentially spun off from already popular franchises like Dynasty Warriors and the Mystery Dungeon series, so there was already an expectation that they were going to be popular to begin with. All of this may seem more obvious now, but that's only because we live in the age of information where we can personally see stuff play out on social media. What this means for the future is hard to say because there will always be a bunch of people who may not be a fan of or a big franchise like Pokemon or Marvel goes, but likewise there will be a group of people that feel the exact opposite. I feel like both groups can exist, as they did even back then because that's just how things are
@@Shinyprofjareth that's why I kind of find some of these videos a little silly. No other company would release the same game Thrice out of the kindness of their heart even if you felt like you were getting some kind of deal. Even if we enjoy games like platinum or Emerald that's still incredibly scummy and I doubt that most of our fondness for those games would exist would it not be for the nostalgic attachment we had
Your second paragraph seems very dubious that they were simple cash cows after Gen 2, even if it is likely they want to end it after that. If it is they would put popular Pokemon in RS, but no, they dared to put a lot of new Pokemon, and excluded starters and legendaries of the past. Isn't it more likely they did want to stop at Gen 2, but Game Freak also wanted to continue? Remember Masuda didn't began to be forefront until maybe Gen 4 with his Masuda Method featured. It was usually Tajiri at that time and he's more of a sidekick. The implication that Game Freak didn't care even pre-GO is questionable to me, when there are noticeable shifts of their game direction.
@@zjzr08 if it isn't my old friend and yes, indeed it was. GS was created to be the ultimate Pokemon experience, but by that point the franchise have become a phenomenon and Nintendo put pressure on Game Freak to do more with Pokemon. It was because of the difficulty of them keeping up with everything that the TPC was established by Iwata and ishihara to manage the multimedia juggernaut while GF created the games that would be consumed and dispersed by said juggernaut. After generation 2, all of the franchises original sins like dual releases and sister games were created because they were a part of the tradition and obligation that people associated with the series. People may have more Nostalgia for the older titles, but that doesn't mean that the business model wasn't the same
@@desdar100 First of all Game Freak isn't owned by Nintendo. How could they pressure GF to do more with Pokemon, despite TPC not being made at that time yet? Why is Nintendo the seeming "bad guy" here when they are actually hands off in the games for the most part, and even Masuda said Nintendo and TPC won't do a thing they don't like? Also they started the double versions and third version before TPC was created with Yellow and Crystal (you could argue Blue is the real Japanese 3rd version), but I could argue GS feels like full games already at that time, unlike XY, SM and SwSh lacking a lot at it base (many say DP also had that issue). Hey even RS they tried to mix things up as I said, add to it the split evil teams, I don't think that's phoning it in.
16:21 pretty much how I feel about Pokémon now. I think the new Iono trailer is evident of that. The decision to have the trailers include voice acting, while the game still not having it is really jarring.
For me even though the games had been getting progressively worse for a while now, BDSP showed that they truly don't care. They outsourced one of the most beloved generations and took the easiest route possible just to fill a quota as you said. The state that game released in was inexcusable. Many bugs, needed the final music patched in, missing features for several months, and the most barebones of additions. I could go on.. it's a terrible soulless cashgrab
The problem with bdsp was not that it was outsourced. It was that after being outsourced Masuda rushed ILCA to get it out for the holiday season. It's all on Masuda and the other higher ups at TPC.
@@Blue_XIII I'm not saying that alone is the reason it was bad. I think BDSP would have been rushed no matter what, but ILCA had 0 experience making a full game prior to that. I get that Game Freak wanted to make Legends, but I think DP deserved better
@@cheeto5899 okay fair. It's just that people always are quick to blame ILCA as if they are the only ones responsible for bdsp being the way it is. Trust me ahen I say that I agree since gen 4 is my favorite region and it sucks that there will never be another remake for it since GF are prone to doing a "one and done" thing for everything that isn't kanto.
Legends Arceus was some of the most fun I've had in Pokemon games in a while, with a enjoyable aesthetic and story, so for that and other reasons (like how a lot of the faults you ascribe to the brand currently have been a thing for a long time) I can't say I agree with your overall assessment. But then again I enjoyed many aspects of Sword and Shield, so what do I know?
Honestly I think you can see the start of the attempt at desperate nostalgia pandering as far back as Pokemon X and Pokemon Y. While it still overall fitted the business model, and at first so did Sun and Moon for the brief amount of time it had prior to Pokemon Go, XY featured the first "gimmick" exclusive to certain Pokemon, Mega Evolutions. Nowadays it's looked at fondly, but even back then it was super obvious they were using it to desperately attempt to get their old crowd back; most of the Mega Evolutions in XY itself were for gen 1 Pokemon, to a point where instead of giving those forms to the local starters, they hand you a SECOND starter choice, this time of the "iconic" trio of Kanto starters, just so because they gave Mega Evolutions to these guys instead (and, say it with me, TWO FOR CHARIZARD). Part of me thinks that at first, they were just trying to get some goodwill back after Black/White, products they had put lots of love in, were lambasted just because they dared to try and make it solely about the new Pokemon in the main story. Then they tried to be ambitious again, with Sun and Moon, while still trying to keep a tiny "Kanto corner" with the regional variants for safety's sake; and then Pokemon Go happened. ... to this day I am still mad that Masters only give you eggs of gen 1 Pokemon for your protag to use. It's one thing to nostalgia bait, but you can tell they're desperate because the choices are not even bold; it's just the same 151 and the occasional postgen1 successes like Lucario.
Hello fellow jerry cans, hopefully you enjoyed the new video, talking more about Pokémon's business and management side rather than the games themselves. I've always wanted to make this video for months, and glad I finally got the chance! This was actually one of the most fun I had making a video, because I have to do some deep critical analysis for video game reviews, but it's so easy to bash corporations and their decisions.
Join Discord and become part of the Jerry Can community: discord.com/invite/YqRFCneGSZ
0:00 Intro
1:30 Part 1: What is a Brand?
2:38 Part 2: The Pokemon of the Past
6:05 Part 3: The Consequences of Pokemon Go
8:55 Part 4: The Fall of Pokemon
13:05 Part 5: Who Cares?
I really appreciate you mentioning the anime.
IMO, if they wanted to briefly bring back old characters like Serena or Iris or old mons like Greninja, it should have been done more akin to Gen 4, where the new region and pokemon were the primary focus, but they also gave fans something special for the 25th anniversary (At this point, there are so many soulless anniversaries, it almost feels like they happen every year). It also be a nice callback to Gen 4 which got remakes in Gen 8.
And what's rumored to be happening to the anime team for Journeys is... sad, to say the least.
And I stopped caring about the games since XY. The anime was good until XYZ, but then even the SM anime had a massive uplift and genuinely surprised me. But Journeys ruined everything. I am only giving Gen 9 anime a chance because of the SM anime and it's redemption.
@@zomorion9183 I'm curious why so many dislike the around the world concept for the anime, I felt if executed well, we could've had an ultimate season that could cap off Ash's journey. I think the main issue is that the journeys don't really connect with each other. LIke I'd argue Bea and Ash's matchups going from Johto to Galar is a good continuous thread taking advantage of multiple regions IMO. I also think they really hadn't taken advantage of the World Coronation Series with not as many important battles as expected IMO.
@@zjzr08 Because just there's way too much stuff to manage.
For example, let's just focus on Ash and assume Chloe doesn't exist. Now who will Ash face?
Ideally everyone. Every gym leader, every rival and every E4 member to eventually every Champion. Already we have a problem. There are 64 gym leaders, 12 or so rivals, 32 E4 members and 7 Champions. Let's say we don't show off any Gym leaders at all, excluding Galar. You'd need 56 of 130 episodes just for this. 1 episode per battle, except for the finals and semifinals where there'll be 3 and this is still not good as there wouldn't be proper pacing for most battles, unless they were 3v3s
On top of that, you'd need to add development arcs for Ash's Journeys team, which, let's say that takes 20 episodes for the entire team. And let's assume Ash actually uses his old Pokemon and uses them to help train his new team, but that would only be for 2 out of the 20 episodes dedicated to training, to give them proper screen time.
76 out of 130 episodes and we still need episodes dedicated to Ash's development as a character. Like establishing what Ash even wants now that he is a Champion. Let's say that takes 8 episodes.
And since we're travelling in old regions we're bound to meet old characters. If every companion had only 1 reintroduction episodes, that'd be 10 episodes minimum. A well-executed villain arc? 10 episodes minimum (inlcuding buildup episodes).
Now you have 26 left for filler AND Goh's development (who is a 2nd protagonist) and the Mohn arc.
This is especially true if this is Ash's last series. Ash has to beat trainers he lost to. Ash has to use his old Pokemon, and especially his old aces. Ash has to meet his old companions. And still most of the battles aren't 6v6 like they should be. This would be fine if Goh and Chloe didn't exist. But with them, this is just too ambitious.
@@zomorion9183 I guess this is where I say they should've made the anime extend to more than 1 generation, maybe preferably 3. The format doesn't depend on a current game, so extending stories this way seems viable. As new generations come out new Pokemon and regions are introduced gradually. On paper this should help the games have more time to develop, but as we see there isn't as much synergy and they still make games quick, it probably still doesn't help.
Anyway, that's ideally 450 episodes or so for a whole story. Show Ash's ups and downs in the WCS and also don't rush Goh's captures. Showcase Galar's Gym Leaders sprinkled in with some past trainers in the 1st third, Gen 9 's in the middle, then Gen 10 at the end. There's actually more than 64 Gym Leaders, but you can distribute them and some rivals throughout those 450 episodes. Add Goh who will try to capture 1000+ Pokemon by the end of this (and he gets multiples in an episode) and you could get an epic series.
@@zjzr08 Exactly. But if they handle it how they handled Journeys, overworking the team and underpaying them, then it's gonna take a long while for that to happen. And honestly, for the world's largest franchise, treating them this bad is unacceptable IMO. I hope more people talk about this and the Pokemon anime becomes a lot better than what it is now.
I like to call this era “Nostalgia Hell.” We have Nostalgia movies, Nostalgia games and Nostalgia on top of Nostalgia thanks to Disney. Big companies like Disney and Game freak manipulate us instead of entertaining us.
I'm going to use "Nostalgia Hell" in my vocabulary going forward, it's all too accurate
Why blame GF when they dont have a say to it coz of nintendo?... You even left out the pokemon company.
@@KitsuManko my mistake, I meant the Pokémon company. When did game freak loose their say in Pokémon?
@@KitsuManko Nintendo doesn't own the content, and the mainline games are Game Freak's responsibility.
Imagine comparing GameFreak with Disney
I feel like Pokemon has always been a brand. From gen 1, they've branched out into different media and tried to get Pikachu and friends' faces on anything that could be used. I feel like the post GO era just made it more apparent that they were a brand and started their souless downfall. The only reason I feel we distinguished Pokemon as a franchise rather than a brand was because they were consistently making quality experiences.
i miss when we tought the franchises compteting with pokemon at the time were souless, damn
Same I can 100% agree with you and feel the exact same way as most. Every time they release a new generation I get excited and wish for some merchandise like Gen 4-5 but all they have are Pikachu shirts or other first child merchandise. This type of branding makes the other generations soulless. Like what's the purpose if you're just going to keep bringing the 151 sauce.
the thing is, if you look at GameFreak's history, Gen 1 was a real risk for Nintendo. No one knew if it could work - so, in order for Gen 1 to have the best possible chance, Nintendo marketed it as much as they could in the late 90s.
Gen 2 started to solidify its place in the market, but it still wasn't a certainty, hence why we then had the anime and movies, such as Pokemon 2000.
By Gen 3, they knew it was working and it's just exploded from there.
The problem is not that they are expending the market but that there is no longer artistic vision behind the franchise as a whole, that video games are now treating how outsiders see it, simple products with no real value or improvement. As the first comment says, pokemon became its dead concurrence, it became Digimon or Yokai watch, but even wors because despite these franchises were clearly only made to surf on the pokemania, they had the decency to make decent products. I remember when pokemon had possible competition, everyone were talking about how pokemon was different because it had a 'soul'. I wonder where this soul is gone.
@@alwaysangry2232 By this point I think there are people out there willing to step up for Digimon or Yu-Gi-Oh having a better track record. Some people really rooting for YoKai Watch or Tem Tem to have a renewed monster-trainer RPG feeling.
The worst part of this is fans defend it. I was on GameFaqs recently explaining how Pokémon lost its soul and I was just mocked. If people voted with their wallets and were less group think we might not be here.
The thing people fail to realize is that one can still enjoy the series and still be critical as they want it to improve.
@@IgnitedQuils I agree, although if significant change has to happen, there has to be action in the side of the players if the developers don't, although it always isn't the case - see how Paper Mario Color Splash bombed but the director insisted to do something similar for Origami King...frankly while it did improve from Color Splash, it wasn't a significant jump, but because of the Switch it earned a lot IMO, and we can't be sure Pokemon mainline games would follow similarly.
It's so frustrating to see so many people gobbling up and defending the slop, they're like flies snidely telling bees that shit is better than honey
Honestly while I like Let's GO Pikachu Eevee as a spin off, there hasn't be a legitimately GOOD pokemon game since ORAS.
GameFaqs is a shitshow anyway, if you dare say anything negative there's a 90% chance that Dickriders will come out and make fun of you.
Everything i used to know and love is crumbling to a soulless, money-hungry, brand. Nobody can stop it, except for the brand itself.
And that'll never happen :/
Oh no 😥 it happened to everything I used to love... From Minecraft and... Uh... Well I gave up on mainstream games long time ago. Instead I prefer playing indie games and old games. Terraria still has good developers that DO CARE about their game tho😍.
But for Pokémon and Minecraft , there is no such hope anymore. 😥
What did minecraft do?
I wish I got to experience those games back in the day but atleast I still got to play them on emulators all the new games are pretty sucky and overpriced for what they are
For me, the greatest problem with the current state of Pokémon is the sheer amount of content that is released in short span of time. Even if the games were Breath of Wild quality it's like i couldn't care about it. It's just too much. I can't give a damn about gen 9 pokémon if i still haven't gotten used to gen 8.
When games come out faster than you can play them 😅... If it's multiple franchises or series, OK👌... But if it's just Pokémon that outspeeds it's playerbase.
I am very worried. Like I play Renegade Platinum (rom hack) for 2 years now with long breaks. And still. Not a champion of sinnoh yet
@@KingOskar4 did you know in pokémon renegade platinum if you go in the breeding farm there is a girl who let you level up your pokemon with blissey who got healing wish end I can advise you with a good team to beat cynthia end the élite 4 Azumariil with waterfall acqua get pley rought end belly drum with leftovers Alakazam with life orf psychic aura sphere dazzling gleam/shodow ball energy ball scizor bullet punch bug bite Aerial ace sword dance Salamance dragon dance earthquake fly dragon claw then a choice band wild carge strenght close Combat flare bliz flereon end a iron first shadow punch ice punch drain punch will ò wisp/fire punch expert belt well i hope this team will be of use to you end if you are not at the end I think swampert is better then Azumariil for normal fight is more bulky i beat cynthia whitout item
@@ferrucciocaracciuolo8139 Oh thank you ☺️👌... I have not reached Cynthia yet. As for my team... I am using Sceptile, Celebi, Giratina, Blaziken, Lucario and finally Quagsire as an HM slav.
@@KingOskar4 i think you should use swampert even if he got a bad nature he can learn all the hm end be of use in battle
Bruh Sword and Shield came out three years ago. That's more than enough time to "get used" to them. Also, a shit-ton of games coming out is not "the current state of Pokemon", it's been that way since almost the very beginning.
I grew up with this franchise and lived during the pokemania of the late 90s, the drop of mainstream relevance in the early 2000s, to what it is today. From hype to niche to mainstream, this has always been the case.
You had famous artist sing for the soundtrack of Pokémon the first movie, to hulk hogan promoting Pokémon day in New York, and even weird Al and Zach and cody involved with the games show etc
It’s just more noticeable now because Pokémon is more mainstream than ever and not just some foreign Japanese phenomenon, to kids today Pokémon feels like it has always been part of the cultural zeitgeist so it’s become common ground to have normie artist like Katie Perry and Ed Sheeren to promote it
My older sister grew up in the pokemania but I didn't... I grew up when it was niche. Started with emulated Emerald, White 2. Then X&Y was announced.
Heck even Naruto was nieche at first, and now, there's an asian restaurant next door that has Naruto figurines and posters as a decoration. Boy the times are changing
My thoughts exactly. The fact he glossed over these facts makes me think he's now being nitpicky
I would say even in the 2000s it wasn't really niche. As a kid during the early decade, ppl could still recognize pokemon, gen 3 anime merch was plenty (i had an advanced generation shirt that always caught eyes), our teacher gave us gen3 figures at the end of class as gifts once. Pokemon books were everywhere at book fairs. Pokemon anime at that point was always one nobody considered to be "anime" but just another toon, that's how integrated it was. Even the gen3 games were played and snuck to school/social events by older kids that had the console. Sure, it wasn't late 90's Pokemania levels but
it for damn sure was reaching the new generation of young'uns after the kids playing red and blue grew out of it.
But that just further adds to the point the brand was always big and pulling what it's pulling, the difference is they managed it better. Once they got a smartphone app to blow up they definitely started moving different. Lots of Japanese game companies are trying to get their feet into that market, but now that Go anchored Pokemon in nice and stable in the turbulent mobile ocean, the company is content coasting off it. All other spin offs? I consider mystery dungeon remake and new snap as blessings. The anime? Give Ash a companion literally named Go who's whole schtick is going around catching as many mons as possible. Let's Go exists just to cash in on the hype, regardless of opinions on those games that fact is undeniable. They've simply adopted that mindset of "getting on our phones is top priority" it seems. Hope they wise up and realize how fickle and easy to move on those casual mobile market is. Go isn't gonna be relevant forever, i think its safe to say its definitely died down. As cool as Masters is, it's something only the hardcore fanbase will appreciate if able to play. Unite is interesting cause i think it's also on Switch, i think designing mobile spin offs that way would be an interesting direction. But at the end of the day, these are no replacements for how spin offs used to be handled and they're clearly not helping GF's main duty with developing the core series
Its so sad for me to see my favourite franchise from when I was a child having become like that - It now only feels like a husk to sell money and nothing more
Exactly I feel sad that Pokémon used to be creative back in the past. But then once Sun and Moon came out I kinda started disliking the newer games which is sad because I love Pokémon so much ever since when I was a kid playing my first Pokémon game Pokémon Black. Just bring back all the old features like Mega Evolutions and the National Dex into the newer Pokémon games.
Let’s give a round of an applause to COVID-19 for ruining everything good in the world! Woo hoo! 😒
You just described the community. Not the company.
I always thought of Pokemon eventually stopping the creation of new "core games" and new Pokemon(at around 1000), and as it "brand" was firmly entrenched, it would eventually take the ultimate step of creating its own Amusement Park(s).
Yeah, I think ending the game series at 1000 Pokemon could be a good way to end it, I mean we already have the Pokemon god and origins of a lot of things, do we really need to know more about the Pokemon world? Just keep remaking the games or make a "new era" that feels different after. Have the mainline end its first epoch properly.
@@thecod2345 Are Gen 8 Pokemon not popular? Interesting. Does it feel that way during the past year or so?
nah we gonna get gen 100 eventually
As long as Nintendo wants to sell consoles, that'll never happen. They're pretty much the only ones stopping Pokemon from going full corporate in the first place. There are still plenty of people that buy Nintendo consoles exclusively to play the Pokemon games.
@@Wandermidget You seem to be saying a ton of the Nintendo sales are ONLY due to Pokemon, that seems like a big statement.
This is how Pokemon dies a very slow death by abandoning their hardcore fans. Casual fans will move on to the next popular brand.
Fire emblem and xenoblade is the greener pastures
I love how Post Malone and Ed Sheeren’s videos are only including Gen 1 Pokémon. Nice to see the pandering branch out into even music.
Pokemon in 202X is a pure form of "Don't ask questions, just consume product."
Pokemon has always been this way to an extent. Pretty much any company that wants to be successful has to. But after watching the success of Pokemon GO and seeing how much success can come from minimal effort, they really went full speed ahead. Sun/Moon felt like the last gamed where there was any passion put into the projects. After that, the only soul came from games that weren’t mobile apps and weren’t heavily influenced by Game Freak (so, PMD DX since Spike Chunsoft is pretty much allowed to do what they want).
Pokemon Go spoiled the TPCI.
I remember being embarrassed as a kid because I liked Pokémon and none of my friends did, I tried to hide the fact I enjoyed the games and show. Nowadays it's weird if you don't like Pokémon. How far we have truly come
I'm curious when did you think that shift changed? Around Gen 4 and 5 Pokemon still felt "niche" albeit it still feels part of the Nintendo echelon. Is it really during after GO?
@@zjzr08 the most noticeable change for me was definitely GO in 2016, but I think that's the answer most people would give you due to the ridiculous mainstream media attention it got.
Without taking GO into account, I think it was maybe around HGSS era for me, I kind of stopped caring about the opinions of others and actually spoke about the things I liked, doing this attracted others that had similar interests that were also maybe too embarrassed to speak about them.
I guess it was more a shift in my own perspective than an actual shift in the view of Pokémon. Very interesting topic though, really thought provoking video!
@@zjzr08 gen 5 was peak pkmn cuz of all the interaction and philosophies NPCs had (not just the main characters- imagine)
Some of my friends played gen 1 and 2 when I was in primary school, and it was fun and everything was right (I didn't even have money for a Game Boy). But when gens 4 and 5 came out and I had a DS, I was literally ashamed of playing childlish Pokemon game on a tiny console publicly, when my friends were grinding World of Warcraft with incomparable graphics and online world. Game Freak or Nintendo would be printing money had they created something similar - of course they didn't, and probably never will.
@@trxxblx-wxs-hxrx Not sure the connection with this convo talking about the mainstream awareness and acceptance of Pokemon...
Honestly I believe in everything you just said because let’s be honest here I bet that even game freak knows that even if they made one very bad Pokémon game it would hands-down still sell no matter what and I bet they know it as well
gen 8 is proof
@xid do not call sword end shield bad you will offensive to bad game at least bad game some times got good point sword end shield do not got good point
@@uwuowo1773 you mean gen 6. Especially oras. It only went down hill from there.
@@tbc1880 no no, you’re clearly thinking of BDSP.
@xid battle frontier.
The biggest difference for me, (and this applies to almost all franchises that have survived and continue to produce content in this modern era) is that the old games let you have an adventure and explore, where as these new games are more akin to guided tours.
I feel like it's just the games that lost its soul and the other aspects of pokemon are thriving but since most people associate the franchise with the games they carry the same opinion onto the franchise as a whole.
I don't know about that, I've heard numerous similar complains from the anime, manga, TCG, merchandise and spinoffs parts of the fandom too.
It's been a brand for a very long time but it's more clear now than ever before
The celebrity pokemon music campaing and ever increasing emphasis on mobile games also served as a wake-up-slap for me. It's very much a brand, one that is no longer made for me as much as the Pokemon Company claims it's for everyone. There's nothing for people like me to enjoy anymore
true, is made for the drooling consoomer adult children of today, how many actual kids played the lets go pikachu?, the silence is the answer
I feel like such a boomer because the only shit I play is TF2 and Pokémon pre Gen 6 lol.
then the cancerous morons want to kill off all the other monster rpg games with that "pokemon ripoff" bullshit cause you arent allowed to have options besides pokemon
@@froddobaggins literally haven't finished a game past Sword and even that was a slugfest, haven't even gotten to the second gym on Shining Pearl and cleared like 2 of the areas in PLA but that's not even anything considering I've done no side quests, I've played gen 3, 4 and 5 more in the last year than I have anything gen 6 or beyond, I'm at the point where I'm saving up to by a gameboy color with a backlit screen so I can play my Ge 1 and 2 games, you know the series is in a sad state when you've got people like you, OP and I have no interest in the newer games
@@JBzucc hell, even if there's interest, people like me are pessimistic if not nihilistic for the new games.
The graphics look like S/V is running on a PSP overcloked to hell and back, it's banking on the open world trend, and I heard that every game after and including X/Y was shit.
Haven't played a new game since Or/As but it's sad, and what's worst is that I'm a gen 6 kid. I literally don't remember "the good ol days" because when I played the game at 7years old, the good days were over.
It's sad seeing my childhood series start to rot. I'm not even 18 yet but I just want to know what the series will mutate into by the time I'm in my 20s or 30s
It's surreal that once Scarlet and Violet comes out we'll have over 1,000 species of Pokémon
Still no uranium and plutonium
@@mr_man-to7bv well, we _have_ one half of the pair, technically...
I stopped playing after usum and I played every game since gen 1 back in 1999.
It's time to move on and do other things in life.
Couldn’t agree more…. All I want is that Pokémon returns to be art and passion like satoshi satoshi Tajiri and masuda in the gba/ds era did. It just hurts me so much that one of my favorite game franchises became a brand. Like I said, I wish Pokémon return to be art and passion like in gen 1 or 5. I will give an example, Like people always says, if gen 6 were made with the same effort as gen 5, had less laziness and had a third version, it could have been the best games of all time of the franchise
Dudes really out here acting like we didn’t get Diamond, Pearl, Gold, and Silver smh
Also ORAS is one of the most passionate projects I've seen from Gamefreak in terms of mainline games. Yeah HGSS had pokemon follow you but that was about the only new feature outside of pokemon from gens 3 and 4 and the safari zone editor thing, other than that it's pretty much the same game, but ORAS added a LOT of new content to the game, not just for the story, but post-game as well.
I feel that gen 6 was a bit rushed because of the 3d models, if they stick to 2d would be one of the best pokemon games, the jump to 3d had a cost in the project
@@rcthekinglol7973 he said GBA and DS era but yeah silver black and platinum were masterpiece's!!
Are you implying that Pokemon was not a brand as long as it has been around?
Deep down I had sort of felt the same way, but you've done an excellent job of turning my feelings into words. Great work as always!
It didn't express my words.
But I'm glad your worries we're expressed
This video isn’t an “opinion” piece, it’s 100% objective facts.
It's a shame seeing how the passion and effort that used to be in Pokemon slowly disappear from the series.
Just compare Pokemon during its height in gen 4 to nowadays. High quality mainline games with a wide variety of spin offs slowly declining to bare bones and soulless games with practically no new spin offs in order for merchandise and mobile/gacha junk
I completely agree! I've been mentioning this to my pokemon friends, it's a shame they care more about due dates than completing creating the game itself. It kinda breaks my heart. I feel he losing his mind to greed and forgot how much we looked up to it as kids. A good amount of my friends and I are still Pokemon fans 💘
This video hits too hard. I still call myself a Pokémon fan, but I haven't bought SWSH and don't think I'll be buying SV, with the more I see putting me off. The lack of effort is so glaring, I don't know how anyone can deny it. Loving a series doesn't mean you have to be loyal without question, I'd argue you have to fight the crap choices to keep it good!
Again. With the whole praising them like Gods thing. Why isn't there and actual person in these comments that doesn't insult people for having a different opinion?
Yeah. SwSh was a disappointment to me, but I still had hope. SV did it for me, I'm not buying a Pokemon game again until I can see some sort of effort.
True pokemon Fans:
- "you know pokemon franchise, you used to be cool"
And this is why we need a Dark Knight equivalent to Pokemon. To fight against corporate pandering like this.
Coromon. Nexomon. Workémon (all android up to this point) ... Rom hacks, Drayano, then copiers such as Dinosaur King (ded), Digimon, and all the clones Austin had reviewed in "Bad Pokémon clones" part 1 and 2.
People tried. A lot. Workémon is still kind of funny 😂
I haven't even felt the desire to pay attention to any Scarlet and Violet news and I'm pretty sure the game comes out in like a month. I just can't even force myself to care about Pokemon anymore and I've loved it since I picked up my first game ever, Pokemon: Crystal.
Honestly I really don't get why people are so hyped about the game so much, given Game Freak's track record on the Switch
New Pokémon? Check
New competitive scene? Check
1000hr game time? Check
Bad graphics? Check
Sounds fun to me.
You're not missing much. Honestly the information we've been getting has been so incredibly mid that the recent 14 minute trailer was 80% of telling us the exact same information we've been told before.
@@UltraBall23 I hope you are sarcastic, because this quick new content over quality with cut corners is the issue Gireum has big issues about...also the stuff you said doesn't even need a new game, like DLCs exist.
@@zjzr08 I’m excited for the new game because of the new stuff. I know the quality isn’t great. Never said it was. I’ve been saying what Gireum is point out in this video for years now. My friends and I are going to have fun with it.
We laugh at Kaiba from Yugioh flying in a Blue-Eyes White Dragon Jet but one day Pokemon will do something like that in reality where you are going to go to a shopping mal that looks like a Wailord or Japan makes a plane that looks like an oversized Latios.
Nah, it would be a snorlax themed mall and a plane that looks like an oversized pidgeot
Pokemon GO was released before Sun and Moon. I should know. I did a business assignment on it and specifically mentioned how part of its timing was to get people on the bandwagon before the new game arrived.
While true (even the video wrote the dates), development was already ongoing for SM so whatever business impact GO had probably didn't affect SM's game design - celebrating the 20th anniversary and making a new region for it over a Pokemon Z, on the other hand...
I think you are one of if not my favorite content creators for Pokémon, I sincerely get happy when i see you post a video. it's like you speak for us real fans who also see where the franchise is going. Keep fighting the good fight bro!!
Who said I'm not a real fan?
I think Pokemon has been a brand since 1998, when they released the TCG and the anime. That being said, it has been losing its soul during gen 7 with GO that revitalized the brand's popularity at the cost of everything, although there were symptoms of that even back in gen 6. If go never happened then... I don't think it would have changed that much.
I realized when Pokemon GO became such a massive hit with the plebs that the winds were changing. And I hate that I was right.
Oddly enough, the one thing they could have also done to maximize profit would have been release heart gold/soul silver on the 3DS e-store, but they never did, and that frustrates me because I can't find a physical copy anywhere that's not a pirated re-pro or almost $200.
Maybe because you can still play them in the 3DS as DS games, but yeah, Wii games can be bought in the WiiU, why can't DS games for the 3DS?
They probably are making another rushed sequel Let's Go Togepi/Pichu first and will sell HGSS later when there's almost no original copies left to maximize profits
I keep getting emails for clothes, houseware, and stuff, with a pokemon design, so yeah its a brand lol
Houseware with Pokémon?! 🤨🍽️ Well I had like one plate and one bowl with Pokémons on them... From Generation 1's days. That's why I am surprised🤨
The "Pokémon-Songs" of Post Malone are so bad and uninspired
Just some generic lyrics with 10 seconds of 8-Bit-Soundtrack in it.
And he calls himself a "big Fan"
There are only gen 1 Pokémon in it so that's probably a good summary of how much of a fan he really is lol
I was a pokemon fan, stopped having interest long ago but somehow gets reignited because it was my fixation of the week. Pokemon, to me, is an idea that had a soul turned into a corporate brand to sell nostalgia. Nintendo is like Disney to me, but they worked. I honestly don't spend money on Pokemon anymore nor I was interested in Ash's journey past X and Y.
I could agree with you in some ways. The fact that they always bring back the 151 sauce and always constantly remind you about the first child! Get old and annoying really fast, this type of branding and behavior makes the other generation pointless and soulless. The fact that what's the point of a new generation if you just going to remind us about gen1 and only have merchandise for it.
Agreed. Why get hyped for the new gen's species and gimmicks when they get removed come the next gen anyway?
The worst part about the gen 1 merch is that it’s not just gen 1 mons, it’s the SAME gen 1 mons each time. The starters’ base forms, their final forms, Pikachu, Eevee and it’s evolved forms, Meowth, Psyduck, Snorlax and the occasional Mew. Where are the starters’ middle stages, where’s Raichu, where’s Persian, where’s Golduck? When’s the last time you’ve seen a Lickitung on a piece of official merchandise?
@@inconemay1441 It's like if they made gen 2 baby pokemons and evolutions only avaible on Gold & Silver and never after that.
Kachow, Lightning McQueen hadn't so much thought himself a brand, till he already was one.
Mario and TLoZ have the same level of public recognition as PKMN but retain much more of their artistic integrity.
Even to this point I've felt I've seen Mario take less chances, narrowing the scope of The Mushroom Kingdom to stuff that existed from SMB1-World. Guess we'll just have to see how the movie goes. But even if I'm a Gamecube era holdout, not a single franchise from that time has lost their way as much as PKMN, and most of that was post XY and Go.
Mario had a dreaded period IMO of seemingly being a "brand" since New Super Mario Bros Wii IMO until maybe Mario Odyssey - there's still remnants of that (like Toads not being as varied, like we are not seeing fat toads like in Mario Party 1) but things like Sparks of Hope and the movie may show they may be open to not latch on to nostalgia as much anymore IMO.
@@zjzr08 Even with Mario spinoffs too it keeps them in a way, shape, or form through staying power. The biggest gripe is mostly adding in stuff later, which artificially lengthens a game's window in the current day. I'm glad Switch still has a Luigi's Mansion and that it didn't just rush out MK9 or an Odyssey sequel. If those happen I feel like it'll get the right amount of attention. In other words, for as much "brand" that Mario has rn, it's one I'm more confident in. (Plz keep building back to a better Paper Mario). TLoZ is sailing free actually, besides tiny crossovers Link has retained pure art, practically nonexistent brand sinking.
@@runningoncylinders3829 I mean Zelda is still made by the same umbrella as Mario hence I see why it seems there's more creativity with Zelda - if Mario falls Zelda may become more "brand- like most likely.
Dang I miss how there used to be a variety of spin-off Pokemon games. It was always fun to try something different than the main games. Right now on the Switch we got 1 Mystery dungeon game and a New Pokemon Snap and thats it.(plus Pokken tournament but thats just a port) The D.S had so many with 2 Mystery dungeon games, 3 Pokemon ranger titles, Pokemon conquest, Dash, and Trozei!
It always felt like during that time period there was always a Pokemon spinoff planned to release between the main games.
I also miss them, like Mario has a great mainline game track record, probably helps because there's a Party, Golf, Tennis, Kart and maybe Strikers in between, also the Mario & Luigi, Paper Mario and now Mario + Rabbid series. The spin-offs may be mid, but at least the mainline isn't (for the most part, looking at you NSMBU Deluxe, hehe).
This video perfectly explains why I can't find Gen 6 to be the downfall of Pokemon. At least Gen 6 feels like it had some sort of structure to it like the previous generations did, unlike Gen 8, where like 2/3rds of the main games have nothing to do with Galar and the region isn't even getting special treatment. Dexit is probably the main thing people remember the most about Sword and Shield; if that didn't happen, it would've probably been the most forgotten generation of the bunch. At least Kalos is memorable for how well it did in other forms of media, such as the anime.
I remember voicing my opinions on how SV was looking on a community post, and some replies came from defenders of current mainline Pokemon... it was hard to read through for me. It felt like those people were just accepting mediocrity. I had my expectations low for SWSH when I got Sword and I still felt disappointed. Maybe I was just getting too old, but then I remembered how kids and adults alike felt underwhelmed by SWSH. I was also told how I couldn't judge SV just based on trailers and other released info so far because "oh the game's not out yet", but then how can we judge if the game is worth it to us or not? Just blindly support these soulless games by buying it, instead of doing our research? Pokemon games aren't known for changing much from "unfinalized" trailer footage anyway.
I want to continue loving Pokemon, but it's hard. Especially when there's other franchises and games having their own fun take on monster collecting, like Digimon and Monster Hunter Stories. (Both series I highly recommend to burnt-out Pokemon fans, by the way)
For now, I'll just wait and see how SV turn out and see if it's worth the hefty $80 price where I live or not.
Blah blah blah whatever dude
@@ProtoBrown And people replying like this is why I feel invalidated about my opinions. 🤐
@@bluetimesskyrii I am so sorry for you😭... I call such people "Un-washed masses". Those who don't do research and blindly buy the newest pokémon game.
What do YOU think? Is there a proper way to educate the unwashed masses? Because current Pokétubers (pokémon youtubers) just hype the stuff out of S/V. THEY say it will be good, but the game is not out yet
@@KingOskar4 Hard to say. SWSH was a wake-up call (move reference 100% intended) for those who felt like the Pokemon games were going downhill. Maybe SV will be the same, depending on how it turns out.
Sadly, some people are just stubborn bastards. They're probably going to be why Pokemon continues to thrive despite its current stays, while similar game series and franchises continue to suffer under the assumption of being a Pokemon knockoff.
@@bluetimesskyrii Ah yes. Pokémon knockoffs, people have truly tried to copy the sucess of Pokémon. Here is what I know, by no specific order:
Coromon, Nexomon, Workémon, Robopon, Digimon, Dinosaur King, Monster Rancher, the many many Gacha games, and some kind of animal transformation game.
People have TRIED to copy Pokémon's success. Only Digimon and Gacha genre had success for one reason or another.
It's very interesting how there does seem to be a disconnect on synergy compared to before, with standalone stuff for the anime, mobile games and even spin-offs to a degree, when it's being used as a questionable excuse by a lot of fans on why there's a need for new material, that is seemingly just rehashes of some of their past material and selling them as new.
Ironically, I think this lack of synergy should give the mainline games more freedom, because other parts of the franchise is getting more independence per se. For some reason the games are now seemingly treated as merch, something you'd probably be happy for a limited time to toy around and display, then just let it sit in a corner quickly after.
I can say the Pokemon anime's latest changes could be argued as positive, especially the movies, but I also agree they may feel like pandering to the popular rather than the current. While I do like to play Masters, Rainbow Rocket Giovanni being the be-all leader is Kanto pandering. They used RR for the Shadow Pokemon gimmick for GO too. It seems PLA tried to avoid Kanto pandering, but signs of it did seem to return for SV.
Yeah stuff like the anime bringing back old characters is great since its never really done that kind of get together before and I'm positive this series is the end of Ash's run as protagonist for that reason and many many others
I started to feel this when I saw them release those formal Pokémon shirts/office wear.
It just felt way out of left field
Nah if Kanye made a song for a game that would be FIRE
Man, i cannot believe this really happened/is happening. I miss the days where once on two years i just bought a pokemon game for my console, went home, made my character and played on a new region, new pokemon, challanged arena leaders, got to top 4 and the champ, collected and searched for pokemon.
Sadly these days are over, and they will never return. Its like seeing a friend dying and becoming a zombie. Pokemon is dead for me...
You just grew up
I don’t know if I will ever see a modern Pokémon mainline game with Colosseum/XD Gale of Darkness/ Battle Revolution- esque graphics.
Genius Sonority actually knew how to scale the Pokémon properly and actually made water shoot out of Blastoise’s cannons and not its head…
Some of the fans still hold the fire in their hearts… I know mine burns less and less tho.
yes bro i feel so sad abt the direction the pokemon company is going, i legit used to be so passionate abt pokemon, i made like a 151 fakemon dex thing. So to see the company like this is so upsetting
Just stick to the old gens,try playtrough again in diferent ways, is way better than the cash grabs we have today, just stick to the holy trinity HGSS,Platinum and b2 w2
I firmly believe Satoshi tajiri is not insane money hungry individual but still wants to make a good game. But there are people with a lot of influence who want a new gen rushed in order to sell newnian Lucario plushies.
I honestly really hate how we all blame game freak for the drop in quality in the recent games just because they were the developers. I feel like they’re the ones that want to create a grand adventure but it’s the higher ups at the Pokémon company that are demanding a new game every year causing each game to be rushed. With all the money they’re printing, this will go on forever and nothing will change
I won't completely sympathize with Game Freak because of their stubbornness and other decisions, but the developers back during the SWSH days and even now are going through their own kind of hell.
I just wish GF was given more time and resources to flesh out new game releases. Pokemon has no excuse; they're the largest media franchise, let all that money go somewhere.
Bandai Namco should make the mainline games
@@haroldnecmann7040 That would be hilariously ironic if it ever happened, since Bandai makes the Digimon games. >:D
I'm just glad that Pokémon hasn't tried to copy MineCraft or Fortnite... yet.
It seems like u never miss... You always come up with quality content
That say the exact same thing over and over.
I'd love to see a video from you comparing a fan rom hack to the main series games
Oh yes 🤩👍... Ever since I got Renegade Platinum, I never looked back at the original Platinum 🥰. Same with Sacred Gold and HeartGold. Drayano sure knows how to make excellent games into the best ones.
This is why i like the fanfiction of the pokemon franchise moreso than i do the video games, manga and anime. They’re actually allowed to get away with unique stories and ideas.
Ah yes. Fanfiction! A lot of them are bad 'cause sturgeon's law BUT there are good ones! I remember fanfictions of pokémon world with new, orange haired OCs! I remember fanfictions with scuba diving! Also the "X character joins Team Rocket" fanfictions are... Questionable😅😂 but still, nice.
I am in a big "eh" in literary fanfiction. But fan content, on the other hand, are amazing imo. Rom Hacks are one of the best thing that came out from the fandom.
@@kevincairo8917 my favorite pokemon thing is the nuzlocke comic, “it’s a hard life”.
I still do and will forever love Pokémon. However, as of right now, I only value it for the creativity it provides me. I detest the brand and all of their games/marketing decisions. I don’t support the games currently but I’ll sure as hell continue to write fanfics lol
I looked up the word "Pokemon" on the YT search bar and your video was the first to pop up, I guess that means your doing something right, keep it up man.
nothing really to add regarding the whole brand situation, brought it straight to the point. except maybe that the whole National Dex thing was a big clue for all of this as well. I mean this was literally the whole 'catchphrase' of pokemon. Gotta Catch Em All. and althought sometimes complicated, they held it somehow true over the years. a new generation comes out and all the pokemon are programmed in, it was so exciting seeing your old favorites getting new sprites over the years and mixing your favorite team up with new additions...now it's like 'ohh now they removed sceptile entirely it seems compared to the just-over-home-without-dex-entry-situation in sword/shield'.
the potential is infinite but reality proves (to them) that it's not necessary to keep it a passion project. minimizing effort/maximizing profit works so why even bother?
Pokemon Go also was such a trap. conceptual-wise it was amazing but they don't listen to feedback about literal bullies that copy your route just to prevent you from owning any arenas, multi-account peasants who exploit and abuse the outdated and buggy systems in this game. instead they just higher prices of 'items' that are way too expensive and literally become entirely worthless after 30 min.
I played from Gen 1 to Gen 4 back then, made a break until Lets Go and although it was kinda disappointing, the nostalgia still hit and the game even had arguably better graphics than the next mainline game sword/shield even. it truly feels as if the sole effort they put in is insidiously focussed on what exploits the nostalgia of old fans the most while simultaniously pumping out horsesh*t like the whole ed sheeran promo that no OG Pokemon Fan would even care about because it's like comparing apples to car-tires.
but the general hivemind-human collective loves this nonsense so keep doing stuff like this am I right?
truly a sad situation. from all the franchises one grew up with as a kid, this felt like the only one that stays. but seeing it deterioate so badly just gives a surreal and sour taste.
The hive mind nonsense is a side effect from society’s educational decline, instead of being taught to think for themselves, the youngest of us waste their braincells mindlessly scrolling on sites such as tictok, and facebook instead of being diciplined, informed ,or parented in any way.I dare not mention twitter.My point being the lack of proper education that legitamatley knows how to educate is part of the overall problem, the less critical thought in play, the less questions being asked, the more they’ll mindlessly believe anything they’re told and consume.It is ashame that the excitement for the next pokemon game has devolved from art to mass produced product that barely changes anything (just adds two cameras amd calls it “new” if you catch my drift.) other than the amount of wealth the wealthy already have.We truely live in troubled times, granted not in the same light as 30 years ago because 30 years ago, we still used our braincells for something other than staring and swiping.(Not that i was born in that era.)I’m just sick of corporate nonsense getting in the way of everything, including making our food perpetually sustainable, and in this case not being able to enjoy a decent video game.
Absolutely fantastic video, thank you. Honestly, this is such a good explaination of why my love for the franchise (more like brand) has faded away ever since gen 8, and why I don’t even feel excited for Scarlet and Violet despite all the features its boasting about. I just feel numb. I thought I was just being cynical and dismissed my feelings for such a long time. But seeing all the evidence laid out in this video makes me realize I was right to feel this way.
I’m just so tired of all these big corporations sucking the life out of their products for the sake of fulfilling some quota. The passion and soul isn’t there anymore, and Pokemon isn’t the only franchise that’s suffering this fate (looking at you, Disney…)
I suppose these days, I’ll just stick to Pokemon fan games/creations and other various indie stuff. At least these things actually have passion and heart put into them. I enjoy creations by Pokemon fans far more than the official Pokemon material these days.
To be fair, hiring popstars to sing songs for them is something that JRPGs have been doing since at least the PS1 era, though admittedly they were JPop stars rather than international English speaking stars.
I don't think most people care. Pokemon will always be popular because of nostalgia and of course the new generation is growing up with pokemon.
6:52 but that’s EVERY Pokemon game that’s ever come out
The mcu stans lost their shit with the "X and y review is next" card
Pokémon did music collaboration since the beginning.
The soundtrack of Pokémon: The First Movie included songs by Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears. It was a brand since the very beginning.
The soundtracks of the first and second movie were changed for the West, though. Example? Lugia's song is in the Japanese original an entirely different piece.
That last line hits very hard.
"Well... I cared, and all of it just feels soulless."
I think Pokemon is definitely changing a lot. Some Better, Some Worse. The Mainline games are definitely changing and I'm hoping it's for the better. They're moving to Open World Style, non-linear storylines, and giving more freedom in things like what to do, and character customization (The new customization in Scarlet and Violet really excites me), and I'm all for it. Still, it feels like these new games are still lagging behind a generation in terms of how well developed it is or how good they appeal. I dont think the passion was lost, they seem very excited for these new releases with how much they are still teasing bit by bit as the release date closes in. It sort of reminds me of how Akira Toriyama felt about DBS Super Heroes and DBS Broly. He was genuinely excited for these movies to be released even though he is mostly riding Shotgun in the Dragon Ball Franchise.
For me, the last good main series Pokémon game was Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire. Since then, there have been exactly TWO things the Pokémon brand has produced that I consider to be of any sort of actual quality: The movie Detective Pikachu... and the game Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX. Everything else has been mediocre at best.
Man idk if im gonna get shat on for this opinion but scarlet and violet look mid tbh. Just meh. It doesnt feel like pokemon anymore. Large part of that is some of the new pokemon designs and character designs, its souless, it just doesnt feel like gens 1-5, heck doesnt even feel like gens 6-8. Just something odd about it that i cant put my finger on
I think it’s the graphics and how it effects the characters. They look a little too realistic. Gamefreak can’t seem to find the perfect balance between realistic and Sugimori’s art style.
Agreed after watching the newest trailer the textures look like N64 ones. Also the frame rate and pop in is still pretty bad.
@@pinstripecool34 Watching the Sunflora run in the recent trailer made me want to throw up.
Gonna be honest, ORAS was the last GOOD pokemon game, you could still see SOME passion in it, especially with the mirage spots and legendary locations. I'm convinced the only reason the Battle Frontier never happened was because of time constraints post-launch. Meaning the Gamefreak was already working on Gen 7 at that point, meaning no update for ORAS.
Considering Pokémon Z was scrapped around the same time, this theory makes more sense to me than the other ones I've heard
Nah that game was half baked too and braindead easy just like X and Y. That was the last Pkmn game I purchased and felt dead after playing it. Have not gone back since.
@@TophDaGreat ORAS was far from Half baked. Also the idea that pokemon was never braindead easy to begin with is laughable.
I honestly hate Pokemon Go for this reason. It'd also be best for Nintendo to just buy The Pokemon Company outright to fix this mess.
Wait till you see the other convergent pokemon...is another gen 1 Mon and ends there
I think a lot of people will agree with me when I say this, but Pokemon started becoming more "brand" like after Black and White 2. Those games were amazing and had literally everything a fan could want. Then come X and Y and every main line game after that feeling souless, rushed, incomplete, or all 3 at the same time. It's a real shame because Pokemon games can be so good and yet we're fed utter garbage just because the masses will buy it anyway. Truly unfortunate times.
I would say after X & Y the quality was just worse and worse. With some ups and some downs. Problem being, the game White 2 was feature-COMPLETE at release, not post-updates.
I agree with you.
Pokemon in Fortnite won't be surprising.
Back in the day I had the perfect Pokemon game in mind where you play an action RPG with Pokemon having fix movesets with light customisibility and plays like the anime. It will never happen. Pokken, New Snap and Legends Arceus have some of the ingredience, yet, not even they reached their full potential.
I left pokemon and nintendo since the 3DS. I said it was my final anything from nintendo when I bought the 3DS full price and they lowered it some months later. Yes they needed to do so to stay alive. Then Megaman Legends 3 was cancelled. I went purely to PC and never looked back at nintendo. I wasn't born off of nintendo.
In an alternate universe I am still a nintendo fan and Iwata is still alive making the right business practices to keep nintendo extremely competitive and profitable...not just profitable...
Iwata was the perfect president, because he released a pure success and then a pure failure...then he helped create the switch. Unfortunately, life isn't fair. It's like the death of Ramanoujan and Touring. We will never know how our lives would have changed if these people lived a full life.
Right 🙏!! I started as a Playstation/Sony Boy but went full Nintendo when I discovered Emulation. Now I am a PC gamer💻 because that is the best platform. Not perfect but fixable if issues arise.
Everything after Gen 5 is soulless
they even had amazing concept art and lore for gen 6 but literally left it in the trash can in 2015 😬zygarde is so interesting and it’s just left in a shelter, in a cave waiting… yup, that’s soulless
Eh gen 7 was good
@@ceruledge7934 There are plenty of positive ideas to save both SM and ORAS.
The Ultra Games do not stand a snowball's chance.
Gen 6 could've been one of the best If they made an Z version.
@@bub-e2592 Z would have to be good too and include much of the follow-up treatment of years past. Improvements to the Battle Facility, expanded lore on Zygarde including much of the SM additions like Cells, new places to see in Kalos, Dex expansion (granted XY Dex was quite good imo & we still had NatDex), pipedream of Mythical event playability such as Hoopa stuff, and a sampling of deserved callback content. There was for sure untapped potential in a Kalos revisit. I just don't want it to have been like USUM which was a waste of a follow-up.
Now I feel guilty for liking "Celestial". :/ I saw it on TV and was amazed that it was real and actually sounded pretty good. Not _great,_ but pretty good.
In pokemon go this has been a thing for 2 years now they always want to maximise profits but recently I started hearing about the same happening to the main games and now I am sad because apperently it won't change😞
But thank you for making such a good video about this and looking at it from an overall perspective and not only focuseing on one part of it
Pokemon was a brand from day 1.
But you're right that it became soulless around LGPE.
PLA was still good.
I love Pokémon.. since day one, but I’m now I’m tired of seeing it. Too much disappointment in the last few years
To be fair, the singer in the Pokerap was fucking D Train. Who had a few hits years prior
The manga is still actually good thankfully
The one thing I think has been with the series for the years, is that the plushies/merchandise has made 60+ billion dollars as of 2019 while the games are only in 17 billion dollars (still a lot of money) but pokemon has always felt like that, making games to sell merchandise.
Incidentally, I bought my Eevee plushie in an German toy store in 2020. I know it does not count but it is also the only plushie I have as a young adult.
But how exactly does TPC (the pokemon company) know how much plushies they sold? Games I can imagine how they count it.
@@KingOskar4 Eevee is an overrated Pokemon that nearly everyone loves myself included.
@@KingOskar4 same way any toy/merch company does i figure
Pokémon = cash money pay now
Pokemon has never been a geeky or weeby interest. It has been a giant multimedia conglomerate since Generation 1. If you grew up between Generations 3 and 6 then I can see why you might think of Pokemon as just another Nintendo series. And if you grew up in the mid-90s or later, video games weren't a nerdy interest. You just convinced yourself that's why you were bullied. I remember the days where you would get beaten bloody for liking Star Wars or Spider-Man, much less some cutesy smiling cartoon critters.
I like to say Pokemon is like the japanese version of Disney, but on games 'n kinda like FIFA on its releases
I often get the feeling the pokemon company resents its older veteran fan base for asking more.
Why bother playing, when the pokemon company themselves won't improve the franchise?
Genwunner here, lots of people forget that this started during Black and White when they hired the band Presidents of the United States to make a song.
I left pokemon and start playing SMT and Digimon games now bc,They don't give me the same feelings I get form playing black 2 white 2 ORAS platinum and HGSS or watching XY&Z Diamond & Perl or SUN&MOON anymore.
I agree 100% i hate what pokemon has become these days just a cash grab brand now when it used to be actual games that were good and had love and care put into them, the last great pokemon game for me will always be black and White 2 with ORAS being the last game that actually felt like a pokemon game, I also never plan to buy any of the new stuff from gamefreak either as I don't wanna support their greed and laziness, for those who want a good pokemon experience just get a gba and ds emulator on your phone (if your Android) and play the classics they're far far better then what gamefreak make today
I could not agree more 🙂👍... On android it is possible to patch the roms and get Rom hacks! As long as you can get, say, FireRed version, which is the bases of most patches, you have Pokémon adventures set for life! 🤩
@@KingOskar4 true that, its actually sad that fan made games these days are better then the ones made by the actual company that owns the ip, like that should really tell you how far they have fallen when fans make better stuff now and you can tell gamefreak and Nintendo to an extent are aware of this as they always attack the big fanmade games that draw a lot of attention away from their joke of a game
@@MartinMorning2 Whoa, really? That is just sad 😥. What do you think is the best rom hack? I personally like Renegade Platinum, and Sacred Gold. Catching them all finally became a feasable thing🤩! I would like Clover version but I am afraid of the stupid jokes 😂. Then I was also considering Ruby chronicles, in reverse order (3, 2 and 1)
@@KingOskar4 the ruby destiny games are pretty good, renegade is good too, snakewood is a classic and flora sky is also pretty good, too many great rom hacks to name really lol but those ones are the ones that come to my mind the most
I'm way behind in Pokemon, but I still love it. I like how even people who don't like Pokemon liked Legends Arceus when even fans were skeptical. It seems to me like they are trying different things for home consoles, while the handheld games were the same but kept improving. I hope I get a Switch with Violet for Christmas so I could get back into it.
@Kimi Timoskainen Gireum has a good video why he doesn't like PLA as much - really great catching mechanic, but pretty bad exploration (mostly empty lands), very iffy story, and the presentation is just bad (characters looked so poorly animated, or not even be animated).
And no, fans want to Game Freak to change effort on how they make the games, not the gameplay itself, which have aspects wanting things that don't need fixing to be kept (like having an optional Exp Share).
@Kimi Timoskainen The "Platinum 3.0" comment is in this thread...although could I ask what aspects that grow from Platinum that could be applied? New moves added like terrain look interesting, and a handful of new QoL and items are good additions. Problem is while also doing that they did add iffy custcenes and linear map design. That and of course cutting Pokemon when they didn't before, but I feel you may not see that as a big issue. Aren't these changes bad?
@Kimi Timoskainen 1. I agree and it worked fine for BW, but it didn't for for SM and SwSh. BW at least sprawled like a rectangle with its routes and some alternate pathwahs, which can't be said for both SM and SwSh.
Also PLA isn't an open world game, it's really just zones you choose to explore and each zone doesn't connect with each other.
2. What I mean is you see characters not being expressive enough, and even for PLA, NPCs actually don't move outside of cutscenes. Even the simplest RPGs have NPCs move around a bit on an area, hey even Pokemon does that with sprites randomly moving about or models going back and forth. There's also a lot of black screen transitions, potentially a budget move to not animate more scenes. I'll come back with your they have little time comment, because that's a big issue I want to expand later.
3. I am frankly sick of talking about this, but assets of the Pokemon are futureproofed since Gen 6 to be reused even until now. Most of the work had been for them to be added to a mainline game.
Now, it seems your issue is more on the Pokemon OBTAINABLE in the games, not what is PLAYABLE. BW in addition to 151 in the Regional Dex, and 203 Pokemon outside of it that is obtainable in the post-game. That means the only way to fill the rest up you need to migrate 300+ Pokemon from Gen 4, which still means 649 Pokemon is available to play there. See the difference with SwSh, where you literally can't play with a Greninja for example?
Anyway, a lot of these issues can be fixed if they are given more time. But as the video said, it's a just seemingly a thing they just do now. PLA may had been better but is also a victim of this "games are merch" mentality. And that is the change, not exactly the gameplay, that players want.
P.S. I think you could expand what you can do with Pokemon by adding stuff surrounding the Pokemon world - contests, secret bases, Pokeathlon, amie etc. are stuff outside battling that adds ways to expand the Pokemon world. That's an example of change that's positive but doesn't change core aspects of the games.
When he said, "The Pokemon GO nation attacked", I immediatrly got a Pokemon GO ad lol
I got an ad for Temtem before the video started.
Before they started pandering so much with the characters from previous generations, many diehard fans were literally begging for them to return. Some of this just comes down to people wanting different things from the franchise and they can't please everyone. The newer content is not completely devoid of soul, but branding has done noticable, possibly irreversible damage to pokémon, and I find myself wishing that pokémon GO never blew up as much as it did. I don't stand by the decisions of the company, but I'm not leaving either. I put their intentions out of mind and find enjoyment in pokémon at face value
It's been a brand, they always release 2 versions
Games are still the center of their business model, but unfortunately they are all mobile gacha/ gacha-like games.
Thank god for emulators, but even pirated i struggle to find any motivation to play their 3D main series games.
ORAS and Let's Go were fine.. but i expect more than just "fine" from the biggest franchise.
I was and am still playing a rom hack Renegade Platinum, for 2 years. Never dissapoints with quality re-furbished Platinum content and variety of pokémons (all 450 in one cartridge available).
But even that great game, I have long breaks from it
@@KingOskar4 Rings a bell, think i saw/watched some renegade nutzlocks.
Gens 2-5 are always nice to come back to for a chill playthrough, both fanmade stuff and official.
Said you keep me safe now you're tearing me down sonic Pokemon
In all seriousness though, this was always the case even if people were more in love with somebody titles that they grew up with back in the day.
Pokemon was meant to conclude back in generation 2, but only went on because Ishihara and Iwata saw that the franchise was a huge Cash Cow thanks to the anime and merch.
From that point forward, everything was essentially to fill a " quota".
It's the reason you get to version exclusive games that act as a introductory to a generation followed by their more "cOmpLetE" version that releases sometime after.
The anime was incredibly instrumental because it displayed the Pokemon in fully animated Glory that would be cemented into the fans minds ( it's why Pokemon like pikachu, charizard, and Greninja are incredibly popular).
The very spin-offs were essentially spun off from already popular franchises like Dynasty Warriors and the Mystery Dungeon series, so there was already an expectation that they were going to be popular to begin with.
All of this may seem more obvious now, but that's only because we live in the age of information where we can personally see stuff play out on social media.
What this means for the future is hard to say because there will always be a bunch of people who may not be a fan of or a big franchise like Pokemon or Marvel goes, but likewise there will be a group of people that feel the exact opposite.
I feel like both groups can exist, as they did even back then because that's just how things are
True that is why All these gen 5 fans need to realize
@@Shinyprofjareth that's why I kind of find some of these videos a little silly.
No other company would release the same game Thrice out of the kindness of their heart even if you felt like you were getting some kind of deal.
Even if we enjoy games like platinum or Emerald that's still incredibly scummy and I doubt that most of our fondness for those games would exist would it not be for the nostalgic attachment we had
Your second paragraph seems very dubious that they were simple cash cows after Gen 2, even if it is likely they want to end it after that. If it is they would put popular Pokemon in RS, but no, they dared to put a lot of new Pokemon, and excluded starters and legendaries of the past. Isn't it more likely they did want to stop at Gen 2, but Game Freak also wanted to continue? Remember Masuda didn't began to be forefront until maybe Gen 4 with his Masuda Method featured. It was usually Tajiri at that time and he's more of a sidekick. The implication that Game Freak didn't care even pre-GO is questionable to me, when there are noticeable shifts of their game direction.
@@zjzr08 if it isn't my old friend and yes, indeed it was.
GS was created to be the ultimate Pokemon experience, but by that point the franchise have become a phenomenon and Nintendo put pressure on Game Freak to do more with Pokemon.
It was because of the difficulty of them keeping up with everything that the TPC was established by Iwata and ishihara to manage the multimedia juggernaut while GF created the games that would be consumed and dispersed by said juggernaut.
After generation 2, all of the franchises original sins like dual releases and sister games were created because they were a part of the tradition and obligation that people associated with the series.
People may have more Nostalgia for the older titles, but that doesn't mean that the business model wasn't the same
@@desdar100 First of all Game Freak isn't owned by Nintendo. How could they pressure GF to do more with Pokemon, despite TPC not being made at that time yet? Why is Nintendo the seeming "bad guy" here when they are actually hands off in the games for the most part, and even Masuda said Nintendo and TPC won't do a thing they don't like? Also they started the double versions and third version before TPC was created with Yellow and Crystal (you could argue Blue is the real Japanese 3rd version), but I could argue GS feels like full games already at that time, unlike XY, SM and SwSh lacking a lot at it base (many say DP also had that issue). Hey even RS they tried to mix things up as I said, add to it the split evil teams, I don't think that's phoning it in.
16:21 pretty much how I feel about Pokémon now.
I think the new Iono trailer is evident of that. The decision to have the trailers include voice acting, while the game still not having it is really jarring.
For me even though the games had been getting progressively worse for a while now, BDSP showed that they truly don't care. They outsourced one of the most beloved generations and took the easiest route possible just to fill a quota as you said. The state that game released in was inexcusable. Many bugs, needed the final music patched in, missing features for several months, and the most barebones of additions.
I could go on.. it's a terrible soulless cashgrab
The problem with bdsp was not that it was outsourced. It was that after being outsourced Masuda rushed ILCA to get it out for the holiday season. It's all on Masuda and the other higher ups at TPC.
@@Blue_XIII I'm not saying that alone is the reason it was bad. I think BDSP would have been rushed no matter what, but ILCA had 0 experience making a full game prior to that.
I get that Game Freak wanted to make Legends, but I think DP deserved better
@@cheeto5899 okay fair. It's just that people always are quick to blame ILCA as if they are the only ones responsible for bdsp being the way it is. Trust me ahen I say that I agree since gen 4 is my favorite region and it sucks that there will never be another remake for it since GF are prone to doing a "one and done" thing for everything that isn't kanto.
Pokemon Soulless Silver and Heartless Gould. Brought to you by Square Enix and the Illuminatti
Legends Arceus was some of the most fun I've had in Pokemon games in a while, with a enjoyable aesthetic and story, so for that and other reasons (like how a lot of the faults you ascribe to the brand currently have been a thing for a long time) I can't say I agree with your overall assessment. But then again I enjoyed many aspects of Sword and Shield, so what do I know?
Honestly I think you can see the start of the attempt at desperate nostalgia pandering as far back as Pokemon X and Pokemon Y. While it still overall fitted the business model, and at first so did Sun and Moon for the brief amount of time it had prior to Pokemon Go, XY featured the first "gimmick" exclusive to certain Pokemon, Mega Evolutions.
Nowadays it's looked at fondly, but even back then it was super obvious they were using it to desperately attempt to get their old crowd back; most of the Mega Evolutions in XY itself were for gen 1 Pokemon, to a point where instead of giving those forms to the local starters, they hand you a SECOND starter choice, this time of the "iconic" trio of Kanto starters, just so because they gave Mega Evolutions to these guys instead (and, say it with me, TWO FOR CHARIZARD).
Part of me thinks that at first, they were just trying to get some goodwill back after Black/White, products they had put lots of love in, were lambasted just because they dared to try and make it solely about the new Pokemon in the main story. Then they tried to be ambitious again, with Sun and Moon, while still trying to keep a tiny "Kanto corner" with the regional variants for safety's sake; and then Pokemon Go happened.
... to this day I am still mad that Masters only give you eggs of gen 1 Pokemon for your protag to use.
It's one thing to nostalgia bait, but you can tell they're desperate because the choices are not even bold; it's just the same 151 and the occasional postgen1 successes like Lucario.