Good afternoon, I am asking a little research question for my game development project which is nearing completion of its prototype.

My question is regarding the 2D Pokemon RPG games. Specifically, what did you like about those games, what didn't you like, what would you add and what would you take away.

For example, I really liked-
The emergent strategy arising from choosing a team and move-sets for that team.

Each Pokemon has a limited move set of 4.
Pokemon has elemental strengths and weaknesses.
Evolutions!
No Pokemon were impossible to catch.

Pokemon captured at the beginning were still useful at the end-game.

Some things I would have liked changed were-
I would have liked a deeper story and more interesting characters.
More world-building and background (for example, what ARE Pokemon? Have they always been here or did they recently arrive and kill all the regular animals?!)
More sprite animations for in-battle abilities (I understand this was partly due to software limitations).
Better balancing (no completely useless Pokemon).

More end-game content.

Thank you for your time!

My single most disliked thing is breeding groups, and second to that, the breeding system itself. I also strongly dislike 1v1 Pokemon battles, which are most of the battles in the earlier game. (My favorite Pokemon game was probably Gale of Darkness due to the commonness of multi-Pokemon battles, but that's a 3D one, so it's not in the scope of the question.) I generally dislike non-tactical turn-based combat, and IMO Pokemon's is inferior even to other systems of this type, such as Final Fantasy. I'm baffled by why anyone would like the fact that Pokemon have such limited movesets, because I hate that.

Thanks S&S, I agree breeding took the game in a very micromanagement direction that I didn't feel was fun. A lot of work for very little reward.

I suppose I view the limited moves as being somewhat suitable because if you have a team of 6 Pokemon, and each have 4 moves, then really at any time you have a pool of 24 possible moves to make, which seems like a reasonable number.

I too disliked the 1 vs1 battles though.

It's not so much the micromanagement I object to, as the fact that it doesn't have any kind of genetic system that lets you get offspring which really LOOK like combinations of the parents. I'm not a fan of realistic genetic systems either, because they are too simple to figure out, not puzzley enough or requiring enough experimentation. I love pet breeding games like Pet Tycoon/Plant Tycoon. The kind of pet monster game I REALLY want to play is a tactical combat one where your overall goal is to capture or breed one of every pet, and there's a pretty big emphasis on breeding goals because at least 1/4 of the possible pets don't exist in the wild.

I signed up for the forum just to comment on this XD
I'm not sure if you're including the DS games because the terrain and building are in 3d but everything else is a sprite so I'll just assume it's the GBA games.

I really enjoyed the Pokemon games. Personally, I enjoyed the 1v1 battles /especially/ when it's vs other people via link cable or DS connect(if you're including the DS games)
I feel like there is less variable and makes it more skill based on the ability to work the system of switching out Pokemon and healing when you need to, sometimes using a move for that.

I generally disliked multi battles in Pokemon, while in games like Final Fantasy I have no problem with it.

However, one of my favorite parts of Pokemon is the story, maybe because I grew up on it - the problem is that it's not very deep. Generally I think it's viewed the complexity between getting good EV and IV stats is what makes up for a more child centered game.

There are times the limited 4 moves could become a hassle but I've felt like it adds a challenge that wouldn't be there otherwise. If your enemy uses a stat move to decrease your accuracy you might get stuck missing most of your moves and running out of PP for your best offensive move. This forces you to either use another move, switch Pokemon, or use an item like PP up, which are fairly scarce because of the price I believe.

As for breeding, it's very complex and time consuming, which isn't good, but I don't think they should make it super easy either.

As a younger child I felt like Pokemon was an open world game because it was expansive and felt alive. Now, of course, I can tell the difference. They did a good job tricking me XP
I can't really comment much on this part I feel.

I think Pokemon games are successful because the gameplay tends to go beyond just battling.

Here's a short list of what I liked about the games:

- Trading (Wifi)

- Battling

- Mixing Poffins/PokeBlocks

- Doing Pokemon Contests

- Making and sharing secret bases (Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald)

- Running around underground, Mining, and making secret bases (Diamond/Pearl), although I never quite understood the capture-the-flag thing

There really wasn't much need for endgame content because there was so much to do if you were able to play with a group of friends. Having said that, it's safe to say that I never really played the game competitively. I didn't catch-em-all, breed much, or raise the strongest Pokemon. I played because it was a fun way to spend time with friends. I think that's the main appeal the game has to a lot of non-hardcore gamers.

So...more specifically, here are a few other things I liked about the games:

1) Day/Night Feature: This is something that started in Crystal Version. It was revolutionary to play a game that had such an obvious connection to the real world at the time. You catch certain Pokemon during the day or at night, and do certain events depending on the day of the week. In Diamond/Pearl and Black/White, they took this feature to the next level by adding the four seasons. But Crystal also introduced to the series the...

2) PokeGear: This device has many spin-offs in later games, but basically it combines the map with other cool features such has a radio and a cell phone. With the radio, you can actually tune in to different stations depending on the time of day and listen to the music for certain benefits/events. With the cell phone, you can for the first time battle trainers you've already faced in the game. In Emerald version, you can even battle Gym Leaders again. Emerald is actually my favorite game because of the...

3) Battle Frontier: As you know, each generation typically has two main versions and a third spin-off version. Emerald was the spin-off to Ruby/Sapphire, and it was the only one to include the Battle Frontier, which introduced several new ways to battle with only three Pokemon. This was the game that made strategy and tactics matter because each battle facility had different game mechanics and limitations. You had to know your type strengths and weaknesses, and strategically place your Pokemon in the right order based on this. For example, in the Battle Arena, you cannot switch Pokemon and you have only three moves before the fate of the battle goes to judging based on Mind (who uses the most offensive moves), Skill (how many of your moves actually hit), and Body (who has the most HP).

I can go on and on, but I'll just say that this site is a good place to look for all that the games have to offer, and why it has such a huge fan base after so many years. I didn't really like the anime series all that much (though I did watch them), but I have to say that I genuinely don't have many complaints because the games were fun.

What didn't I like? Well...the random battle feature. I don't know, random battles tend to bother me in any video game. Because battling trainers was usually enough to level up my Pokemon, I could get away with using Max Repel all the time (so it wasn't much of an issue).

I liked your mention of the trading I forgot that. That is a major part of it due to the version exclusive Pokemon.

Also, this may have just been me, but I spent a lot of time with my siblings on diamond/pearl/platinum playing underground with our secret bases and playing capture the flag. One of the most fun I've had XP

Yeah that's the cool thing about these games, even after you beat the elite four you still have a bunch you can do. In just Pokemon pearl I have over 230 hours.

it doesn't have any kind of genetic system that lets you get offspring which really LOOK like combinations of the parents.

I registered to this forum specifically for the purpose of replying to this comment, because breeding mechanics is actually something I really love about Pokemon, although I do agree that the Pokemon do not look like a combination of their parents (usually they will be the same Pokemon as the female).

There are a few things that breeding is extremely useful for in Pokemon games:

• Breeding for Pokemon that cannot be caught in the wild - there are certain Pokemon you can only obtain through breeding and hatching the egg
• Breeding for Egg moves - there are certain moves that a particular species of Pokemon can only learn if one of the parents knows the move. The key to this is that the move can be learned from the father, which doesn't have to be the same species as the mother, just the same "Egg Group"
• Breeding to increase the chance of a "Shiny" Pokemon
• Breeding for particular stats - Pokemon have "Individual Values" which determine variation across six stats (HP, Att, Def, Sp. Atk, Sp. Def, Spd), which means that two Pokemon of the same level and species will have different stats. You can use breeding to control which stats are maximised, which then corresponds with how you will use this Pokemon within your team

The last point is, for me, what makes Pokemon absolutely awesome - to be competitive (against other players; NPCs are just way too easy), you need to plan your team of six Pokemon up front. You need to know how you want to utilise each Pokemon, which will then determine what moves you teach these Pokemon and then you need to breed and train your Pokemon appropriately. This is a lot of work, but it is extremely fulfilling when you finally have a team you can be proud of.

Admittedly, the process of breeding can be extremely tedious at times. I've invested literally hundreds of hours of gameplay into breeding Pokemon, and even more than that calculating probabilities of passing on particular stats, etc. Fortunately, most of the gameplay can be done while watching TV or something - it's mostly pressing left and right (or up and down), walking backwards and forwards so that you can hatch the egg you are carrying.

If you want more information about breeding, and breeding mechanics, I recommend having a read of Serebii and Bulbapedia. GameFAQs also has some good information.

Now, I realise that I haven't answered the OP's question, so I'm going to have a go at that too:

What I like about Pokemon:

• Game Mechanics - The game mechanics in the Pokemon games are significantly complex, which I did not fully appreciate until I read Pokemon Game Mechanics by Rain_Dance on GameFAQs. Learning and understanding how the game actually worked really appealed to me, in a way that the storyline couldn't.
• Battling - There are a number of interesting things related to battling: the type of battle (single, double), the type of your Pokemon (STAB on moves, resistance against other moves), your Pokemon's stats, and your Pokemon's moves
  • Interesting comments from other posters which talked about the variability of moves, and the fact that your party had a maximum of 24 moves (6 Pokemon, 4 moves each). For me, the complexity comes in choosing the right moves to teach your Pokemon from the pool of moves your Pokemon can learn. This was made even more complicated when you were restricted to using each TM only once.
• Breeding (obviously) - Shouldn't need to say much more on this topic; read above.
• Trainer Card - An indicator of your game progress, the trainer card will have different colours (and a different number of stars) as you meet various requirements in the game. Unfortunately, the game does not tell you what the requirements are - but you can definitely find the requirements online
• Catching 'em All - it's not extremely challenging to find out where to catch all of the Pokemon, but the fact that you can't catch all of the Pokemon in the wild is a good thing: you have to do things like trade (with different versions of the game), breed and evolve Pokemon in special ways in order to be able to catch all of the Pokemon
• Post game - there is actually quite a bit of stuff to do post game: heaps of new places to explore (after you've unlocked all of the "HMs" that you need to explore everything), including places with higher levelled trainers, who have a much better AI (e.g. Battle Frontier) and new dungeons where you can catch legendary Pokemon
• Contests, Super Contests, The Underground, Voltorb Flip, etc. - You don't have to participate in these for story progression (and I usually don't), but I love these these as "mini-games" which you can play when you're tired of the main story. You can also get your friends involved in this, even though they have no idea how to play Pokemon!
  • Contests are fun, and rely on a different set of stats than the ones you use for battling (e.g. Cool, Tough, etc.). What's cool about this is that you can increase your contest stats by making and feeding Pokeblocks or Poffins (depending on generation) to your Pokemon. The inigredients you put into the Pokeblock or Poffin will determine which contest stats get raised, and the quality will determine by how much. Making Poffins with your friends (allowing you to get even higher quality Poffins) was also really awesome.
  • The Underground in Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum was absolutely awesome. Not only can you set up your secret base and play capture the flag (as mentioned by another poster), which actually involves setting up traps all over the place to slow down your opponents (friends), but you can mine the walls to find rare items (evolution stones, fossils, etc.)
  • Voltorb Flip was a game in HG/SS which feature in the game's Game Corner. The cool thing about this game was that, rather than being about chance (such as the slot machines in other games), there was a strategy for playing Voltorb Flip. Again, anyone can play this game without having any knowledge of how Pokemon works.
• Hacking (not actually a feature of the game, but still one of the most appealing things for me) - I don't mean cheating by giving yourself unlimited Master Balls, or by creating impossible Pokemon; I mean using the various tools and techniques to analyse the game's RAM and ROM
• Community (again, mostly outside of the game) - There's a massive Pokemon community, which I like. There are various websites, made by numerous people, dedicated to Pokemon. Not all of the Pokemon players are kids, and it can be good to have a conversation with an adult who shares the same passion for Pokemon you do. It's funny when your colleague talks to you about why PHP sucks, and then gives you a link to a blog run by the same guy who runs a Pokemon site.

There's a lot of other things I love about Pokemon, but these are probably the main ones.

What I don't like about Pokemon:

• The difficulty - overall, games in the Pokemon series are far too easy for older gamers, and can be easily beaten with your starter Pokemon. You can find many documented "challenges" online (e.g. Nuzlocke Challenge), but they don't unlock any achievements or anything like that in game. It would be pretty cool if these challenge modes could be supported "officially", but this would likely require multiple save files (I don't want to erase my game just to play it again in "challenge mode".
• The storyline - the storyline is very linear, at mostly the same across the different games. Fortunately, it can generally be completed quite quickly, which means you can spend more time doing the fun stuff.
• Cheaters - I hate the fact that there are "hacked" Pokemon everywhere, and people who will cheat in the game. For me, this defeats the purpose of playing the game.

There are probably more things on this list too; but I can't think of them right now!

Anyway, hopefully this is a reasonable response!

Thank you guys, this has been extremely helpful.

As I say my prototype is almost done so now I am considering which extra features to put in the game once all the initial bugs are dealt with, so this has all been very useful information.

Good luck, can't wait to see IT ^_^