@cryptotalk96 25 August 2022

Game Design Critique: Pokemon Go vs Nearly Every Pokemon Game Before It That Was Excellent Playing Pokemon Go in 2022 reminds me of the reasons I stopped playing several years(!) ago. Sadly, the developers took a 'Pokemon Detective Pikachu' approach or a Kathleen Kennedy approach. Whatever you call it, it's 'different' and 'lite' and 'approachable'. More importantly, in this review, I'd say it is 'unfun'. Here is how Pokemon Go works: 1) Player walks and clicks on map locations near them (most of the time) 2) Player enters a 'battle' screen when clicking a Pokemon 3) Player throws a poke ball to try to catch it 4) Player continues to catch Pokemon to make progress -- filling up their inventory all the time with pokemon they don't need or want to collect Candies used for "leveling" CP points of the ones they truly want 5) Player uses Poke stops to get items like Poke balls 6) Player uses Gyms and Raids with other people to get Coins used for accessories and other items. Additionally, a key pokemon may be caught after these types of Raids and Gyms are pretty much King of the Hill - mechanic. Whoever stays "King of the Hill" earns coins and merits. That's the game. Here is how nearly every acclaimed Pokemon game works: 1) Player walks to locations with buttons 2) Player enters battle screen by running into the pokemon physically (trainer battles) or walking in a field of battle (grass, desert, cave, etc) 3) Player may throw a pokeball to catch, or battle pokemon for exp to level up their pokemon 4) Player manages their team carefully choosing which ones they prefer to max out in skills - as some battles require certain types and some players prefer a focus on certain pokemon 5) Player generally does NOT catch every single pokemon they battle 6) Gyms contain several challengers with quips concluded with a battle with the gym leader. The gym leader is part of the lore or story of Pokemon universe The Game Freak company know the formula pretty well, after all they made Yellow, Red, Silver, and so many more versions of this exact game it almost gives me a headache trying to remember them all. The key mechanic missing in Pokemon Go -- and it's biggest failings -- is an emotional connection that builds from the battles themselves. Pokemon MUST level up and gain xp. Using Candies as a replacement for xp is a silly and likely a money grab stand-in mechanic for Niantic lab. Secondly, Pokemon battles are just that. You battle, but there's no catching involved. The original and latter series all have battles and catching together. You can optionally catch, you are never forced to accumulate perpetually to make progress. XP increases the skills you can use (and that excites the player because they can do neat effects like Sleep - making an opponent fall asleep -- or some super powerful Charizard fire attack at a higher level). (As an aside, Pokemon Go devs fell into a hole with the Raids as a result of this progression problem they created: at the end of a raid, the player is presented with a 'reward' ? Can you guess what it is? Catch the pokemon you just destroyed. Yep, and that sums up how poorly they understood the conceptual backing of Pokemon. They need you to catch something because there is no payoffemotionally for Raids -- you never really had to level up or carefully select types and attacks to replace when you levelled up your pokemon. That doesn't exist is Pokemon Go at the nuanced level in Pokemon games that came before). Once a player gets the coolest pokemon, there is no payoff in Pokemon Go. You didn't really have to work for it, you just had to throw a ball - no battle moves used by all the previously caught "cool" pokemon. Raids and Gyms are bland for this reason -- you never "build up" your pokemon through hard work, through battles that increase XP, HP, PP, and moves available to that Pokemon. For a game with pretty great 3D models of pokemon ( a dream for fans at one point ), it throws the REAL pokemon game mechanics that would have counted -- and fails to catch the player's heart. I highly recommend Pokemon Yellow if you're unconvinced; its an old game that has the core part down perfectly. You can learn from it. Hard work is needed to appreciate things, to enjoy things.