I’ve been playingPokemonsince Red and Blue. In fact, a few weeksbeforeRed and Blue. To be sure, the games had already been out in Japan for some time before the West got our hands on ‘em, but a buddy of mine had an emulated version of Red before we knew the franchise was destined to go big worldwide. Good times. I caught a Pidgey and everything.
Anyway, my point is, like many of you, I’ve been playing since the beginning. There are things I’ve liked less about modern Pokemon, and things I’ve liked more. And then there are things that I’ve always craved, never gotten, and might never get. Read on - I’m curious if you feel similarly. And let me know about anythingyou’venot gotten in the comments below! If you’re into that sort of thing.
5Difficulty Options By Default
There were unlockable difficulty settings once, in Pokemon Black 2 and White 2. That’s nice, dear. In Black 2, it’s Challenge Mode, which makes the game harder. In White 2, it’s Easy Mode, which makes it, y’know, easier. Not that an easier mode was ever needed, but there’s no harm in adding it.
Except that, in both cases, you have to beat the game for it to unlock. And you can’t even get Challenge Mode on White 2 without an IR connection to a copy of Black 2. Imagine getting a Pokemon game that finally has a harder difficulty setting, except you got the wrong version, so instead you get an easier setting, and either way, you can’t even check it out until you’ve defeated the Unova Champion.
Wild stuff. I know, I know. Game Freak has made it pretty clear that this sort of content isn’t really appealing to them. But it’s appealing to plenty ofus, dang it. If you’re worried that players will ditch your game if it’s too hard, just make it so that you aren’t locked in if you choose the harder mode. So long as players can lower it at any time, what’s the harm in letting us give it a whirl?
4Truly In-Depth 3D Dungeons
In Gen 1, we had a good assortment of suitably complex dungeons: Mount Moon, Rock Tunnel, two Team Rocket “dungeons”, and Victory Road. Plus, Celadon Cave. Gen 2 had its own batch, as did Gens 3, 4, and 5.
Something happened with Gen 6, and it’s mostly gotten worse since. In Sword and Shield, even the caves were quick straight lines from one side to the other. The open world nature of Scarlet and Violet ensures it’s hardly any better. Even in Legends: Arceus, it’s just… rote. The only exception is Scarlet and Violet’s Area Zero, which is the happiest part of the game for me. It feels like the real deal, just that once.
I guess this is just one of those things. To a lot of Pokemon players, complex RPG dungeons are of little interest. Worse, they’re just hassles. But I play Pokemon like JRPGs, through and through. I just, er, can’t really do that anymore. That’s no fun. But this list is about wishes I’ve never had fulfilled - and I’ve certainly never gotten anything remotely compelling in this regard since Pokemon went 3D.
3New Game Plus
I’d love to restart a Pokemon adventure with some powerful party members right off the bat. What’s the point, some might ask? I don’t know, fun? Might be weird of me to say that when I’ve been going on about difficulty, or rather, a lack thereof, but more options are always better in my book. Hard stuff, steamroll stuff, everything goes.
It’d be funny. I mean, I could pulverize my rival’s starter, blitz through the entire game one-shotting absolutely everything. Pokemon games are almost always rather easy to begin with, so heck with it. Besides, with New Game Plus, I did the work, I did my time, to get my pals all leveled to the max. They worked rigorously for it. It just happened to be another lifetime for them all.
Granted, under normal circumstances, this would mean deleting our original save files. And that’s silly. Pokemon’s postgame, be it through high-end multiplayer battles, breeding routines, or catching ‘em all, that’s where most of one’s potential playtime hours will be racked up. Erasing all of that wouldn’t feel good. There’s an obvious solution to this…
2Two Save Files
Just two, Game Freak. Two. Not one, but two. I know that’s literally doubling what’s presently on tap, but I believe in you. I’m not asking for something that’ll eliminate people’s need to ever get more than one copy per household. I know you want your money. You’re a company, this is understandable. But how bad would it be, truly, to have just one more slot?
Pretty bad, I suppose, as it’s never happened, and it may very well never happen. It’s a one-and-done game scenario, and I’ve always hated that. And I know plenty of you do, too. Wouldn’t it be rad to avoid deleting all that progress you made if you ever felt like replaying from the beginning? Yeah, there’s the cloud now, but it’s just not the same.
Is there a logistical reason for this? No, I really am asking y’all. Maybe I’m being silly here. Maybe there’s a technical reason. Live events, data limitations,something. Help me out here. Because if there isn’t… then gosh dang it, guys.
1Age Selection
Remember when Hilbert and Hilda were around 15 years old in Pokemon Black 2 and White 2? Rei and Akari are also 15, in Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Calem and Serena don’t have official ages, I think, but they’re probably right around there.
That’s the highest we’ve ever gotten for mainline Pokemon player characters. I don’t expect Game Freak to suddenly let us all be 70-year-old trainers, but it’d be lovely if we didn’t usually need to be 10-11 years old. Some will argue that it’s against the spirit of the game to be much older than that, but even 15, 16, isn’t quite cutting it for a lot of us at this point. We’re getting up there.
Not everything has to cater to me. I’m 36 (somehow) as of writing this article. Again, it’s OK if I can’t be that “old” in a Pokemon game. It’d just be super cool if I could be at least, like, college-aged. It’s something that’s always taken me out of games, having NPCs constantly chattering at me about how young I am. There are degrees here. Let me crank it up a notch or two.
