But now onto this longwinded post. lol
Let's be honest... most of us think of Pokemon the way we think of Power Rangers... we have a secret love for it that we tell our friends doesn't exist. But most of us have played some form of the game and/or seen an episode of the tv show... so most of us, despite ourselves, found things within those that we wished was different. That one thing that if they changed it could move it from being a secret love to something you weren't afraid to tell others about.
Earlier this month Rodrigo over at majorspoilers.com voiced his indepth opinions on how he would change the franchise. You can find it HERE. This got me to thinking... mainly because I disagree with almost everything he says there. lol. Not to say he was wrong... he gave his opinion on what he would like to see done. My own vision just differs greatly. How so? Join me in this week's Breakdown.
1: Say NO to Dog Fighting
Pokemon is about animal cruelty. Let's be honest. What happens every time you throw a pokeball? The Pokemon tries desperately to escape until, because you just had your original pet beat it mercilessly, it gives up out of sheer exhaustion. In fact, other than your original, no other pokemon ever joins you by choice. And then what do you do? Enlist their help to save the world? No. You go around the country forcing them to fight other animals until either they or their opponent is knocked unconscious so that you can either catch more Pokemon (most of which you will never use so they're literally just for show in your digital zoo) or so you can win badges like you're some kind of boy scout. This is the thing that needs changing most noticeably. So:In my version I would draw attention to what should be obvious. Pokemon are vicious wild animals that attack you every time you walk through a bush, but so are lions so that doesn't make the violence okay. What it DOES make more understandable is why a child would need a Pokemon protector just to walk down the street. How else are you going to protect yourself from giant fire breathing hounds that live pretty much behind every tree? And that's how you start out... just a kid who loves his/her pet, and all Pokemon, really. But then the Rocket Corporation does the unthinkable... they open up gyms all over the country where their gym leaders use captured Pokemon in gladiator style battles for public amusement. They even encourage others to come down and try and defeat them. You, on the other hand, don't want to beat them... you want to destroy all those gyms. Your Pokemon isn't forced to come on this journey because a) the Pokemon you got when it was a baby is used to helping you out and b) it honestly wants to do it's part to stop the violence. Plus, you know what's better than badges? Walking away from an exploding gym as the other trainers' captive Pokemon are set free.
Suddenly the game isn't about pitting animals against each other... it's about saving them, and occasionally, when a wild beast tries to maul you, it's about protecting yourself. Which also means a fight isn't over when your Pokemon is injured, it's over when you are. Your Pokemon is just protecting you.
And that brings us to:
Fight the system (New fight system)
Pokemon desperately needs a new fight system. Turn based? Really? Why is it in the cartoon you can run and jump all over but in the game your Pokemon just sits there while it's attacked? Plus, if in this version you're the target of the attack, not your Pokemon, there's no more sitting in the background for you.
2: Turn (it up)
Snowdragon is charging up a frost beam... what do you do? Dodge, obviously. Moves should be assigned to buttons. Jump, Dash, Bite or Thunderbolt should each have their own buttons allowing you, the trainer, to seamlessly command your Pokemon. No more turn based... I wanna see those Pokemon throw down.3: I choose me
You're a kid. You're not gonna rush in and help your Pokemon fight that FlameBear with your bare hands. But you're not useless. As your Pokemon fights to save you, you're still supposed to provide support through potions and power ups- but mainly your job is to not die. The Pokemon is fighting to protect you in most cases. Position yourself in a safe place before releasing your Pokemon. Move to a better position if things become dangerous.
But that's not all. Why is it that after you level up you no longer encounter low level Pokemon? Well in this version it's because as you become a stronger master lower level Pokemon learn to fear and respect you. Forget teaching your Pokemon moves like "howl". As you level up you gain automatically triggered abilities that can scare off a potential attacker or convince them that you're awesome and that they should join you.
That's why...
4: TKO
...There's no need to beat your enemies unconscious and trap them in balls. The focus is to scare them off or, since they're intelligent beings, get them to agree to join your cause. Arguably you can have some boss Pokemon who won't run away when badly injured no matter how badass you are and will therefore fight you until they can't fight anymore but that won't be the focus of the game.
5: Friends fo' eva
Since this isn't turn based, why are we summoning one Pokemon to the field at a time? Since you're in the woods how come only one Pokemon attacks you at a time instead of a pack? Building strong relationships with and between your Pokemon will allow you to summon multiple Pokemon to the field, one being your main, which you command, and the others being controlled by AI based on your training sessions. Which brings us to...
6: Ride the train
Pokemon centres are for quick healing and stocking up on supplies. One of which is the training ball. Coming in various type (rock, fire, etc) it's basically just a ball you use to play with and train your Pokemon. Play catch to increase agility. Throw it in the air and have them attack it to practice accuracy. Use a heavy ball to increase strength. This way you can focus on what stats you want your Pokemon to build. Stats will be important because...
7: Paper, rock, scissors
Rodrigo at major spoilers said that the who-is-strong-against-what system didn't make sense to him.. but it made perfect sense to me to a point. Bug Pokemon are weak against flying Pokemon because most flying animals eat insects. Electricity is weak against rock because rock insulates and anything "grounded" automatically gets protected from shock damage. It only truly gets confusing when you throw types like "fighting" in there. Here's what I would change... No one Pokemon should be restricted to a single type.
Let's say our types should exist to explain attributes. So let's say the important attributes are:
1. Power type (fire, water, electric, etc)
2. Terrain advantages (Flying, swimming, digging, sticking to walls, etc)
3. Physical advantages (attributes like strength, speed, etc)
For power types the obvious advantages apply.
Terrain advantages covers things like a flying type being faster (speed) than a bug, thus giving it a fight advantage but at the same time, if you're in a forest (where it's harder to fly) or your bug is a burrower you have things at your disposal to help your bug type turn the tide.
Also changes in terrain can give you or your opponent weakness or strengths you wouldn't normally have. Fighting in and around water? That amphibious type's speed is going to sky rocket but it's also going to make it much more susceptible to electric attacks and the electric Pokemon's accuracy is going to go through the roof as well.
Physical advantages help here too. A flying Pokemon may start off with speed that your favourite bug type can't match but a bug would have greater agility which is used in dodging. So when you first get your bug type it may be prone to using it's "run" or "flee" move when left up to his own devices but you can train it to master it's "dash" and "dodge" moves instead making it much better against flying types than it was before.
I could probably go on and on... but you're tired of reading this now, aren't you?
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