the ideal direction pokemon should be taken in and why I have a bad feeling about B&W

[sqrrlsarge]

okay, so obviously many people are very leery of this new generation, including myself. The biggest problems, of course, being the new pokemon, the apparent limited access to older pokemon in the main game (more so than generation 3 and 4), and the description of team plasma, basically describing them to be the PETA of pokemon. There are also numerous complaints about the anime, but I don't watch the anime anymore, anyway so I'm not going to focus on it in this thread. what I want to do is not just complain about how bad everything looks in B&W, but to explain my ideal direction pokemon should be taken into. First of all, let me start with the new pokemon, and adding new pokemon to future generations. New pokemon in and of themselves are not a bad thing, however what is bad is when they add new generic pokemon, and worse, what I call substitute pokemon, which I define as limiting or eliminating the in game availability of one pokemon and replacing it with one just like it. this trend started in the third generation, continued to a lesser extent in the fourth generation, and now seems to be bigger than ever in the 5th generation. an example? in the third generation, instead of rattatas and pidgeys, you get zigzagoons and wingulls. instead of caterpie and weedle, they gave us wurmple and his two evolutionary patterns. not only is this tactic unnecessary, but it completely alienates people who have been playing since the first generation. I thought nintendo was finally getting it when Heartgold and Soulsilver came out and gave many fans such as myself their dream game, they even made the 8-bit music accessible. I saw this as hope that maybe, just maybe, the next generation would be more catering to older generation players, and nintendo finally realized that its us that they make most of their money from, and the children of today aren't nearly as into pokemon as we were when red and blue came out, in fact, I have a cousin whoes 7, one whoes 6, and a step brother whoes 8, and they all have no clue how to play pokemon and only watch the show, saying the games are too hard for them to play! I thought nintendo had finally accepted this fact and would finally make the 5th generation the game that we have been waiting for. I was wrong. Instead what I'm seeing is the third generation all over again: expecting none of the first generation players to have interest in pokemon and move on to a completely new audience of players 10 and under, and yet they make the game mechanics increasingly complicated so that their target audience will find the game difficult to understand, thereby making it a lose lose situation for everybody. as I said before, I welcome new pokemon, but they should be introduced in the same way they were in gold and silver, which was that they were supposed to GO WITH the old pokemon and give you more options, not to REPLACE the old pokemon and give you less.

[Perentie Fan]

They are not abandoning old pokemon, they simply want you to play the main story line using all new ones in a whole new region. In this way they hope to attract new players as well as old ones.

But once the main game is done, many new possibilities open, including finding old pokemon in the wild, the elite four beginning to use them and even seeing old characters (you get to battle Cynthia and apparently Looker shows up as well).

In fact, the Dream World offers old players the ability to use old pokemon in whole new ways thanks to the number of new abilities they get given.

And as for being too difficult, much of the main game seems to have been simplified in this generation (the various routes are no longer the mazes they could be in the past).

[sqrrlsarge]

They are not abandoning old pokemon, they simply want you to play the main story line using all new ones in a whole new region. In this way they hope to attract new players as well as old ones.

But once the main game is done, many new possibilities open, including finding old pokemon in the wild, the elite four beginning to use them and even seeing old characters (you get to battle Cynthia and apparently Looker shows up as well).

In fact, the Dream World offers old players the ability to use old pokemon in whole new ways thanks to the number of new abilities they get given.

And as for being too difficult, much of the main game seems to have been simplified in this generation (the various routes are no longer the mazes they could be in the past).

1. well I mean I don't doubt the old ones will be easily accessible when you beat the game, its just from what I hear that in this one you won't even be able to get stuff like Zubat or Magikarp in the main game, I mean yeah I want to test out the new pokemon, but I also want to have SOME pokemon I'm familiar with throughout the main story, since that's always the part that matters most. please correct me if I'm misunderstanding this and the older pokemon are no more restricted than the pokedex-nationaldex system of the 3rd and 4th generations.

2. it's good that they're making the routes less confusing, but I was referring to all the complex game mechanics such as EVs, IVs, etc. no little kid is going to figure that crap out!

[KingofSpain]

I totally agree about the complex mechanics. It’s ridiculous that the game itself doesn’t explain natures, EVs and stuff. If it wasn’t for the internet and sites like smogon and bulbapedia then no-one would really know what EVs were or how to EV train or how to breed with the right egg moves. And IVs require a hideously complex formula to work out. The games always have some old guy in them who says something like, “This pokemon has outstanding potential” or “Did you know the nature of a pokemon affects how it will grow?” or “I hear the kinds of pokemon you battle with affect how yours will grow.” Could it be any more vague? Then there’s a plethora of items with ill-defined effects. The power anklet for example, “this item promotes speed upon levelling.” Now let me just google it to see what it actually does.

I’d like the games to actually tell players details about the mechanics to at least try to bring the casual/younger players who don’t know about the mechanics into the loop because at the moment pokemon looks like a game aimed at very young kids with a ridiculously complex, yet fun battling system buried within it.

[marhawkman]

the complexity is something you don't really need to worry about unless you're insanely devoted to getting a peerfect team.

[Sarco the Legend]

EV's and IV's don't matter in training to defeat the Elite 4, which is all a little kid really cares about anyway, so I don't think these games fail.

[Justmcnew]

In fact, the Dream World offers old players the ability to use old pokemon in whole new ways thanks to the number of new abilities they get given.

Not just the Dream World which from what I understand is Online Only with the DS but the PokeShifter as well which allows you to migrate Pokemon from the Gen IV games onto Gen V but that feature is unlocked only after you've beaten Black & White.

There's been rumors going around that when you migrate Gen V Pokemon onto Black & White their Abilities might change like in the Dream World but I think it only effects the Dream World not with the PokeShifter as the old Pokemon will still retain their old Abilities from the previous Generation.

I'm also hoping that there will be a new feature in Black & White which sets Pokemon above Lv. 50 to be set at Lv. 50 for Wi-Fi Battles with the C-Gear to make battles more fair, Pokemon Battle Revolution has this feature and the DS games should have it as well.

I heard you can do it on HeartGold and SoulSilver but not on Diamond/Pearl or Platinum though.

[Valafar123]

You be dissing Tauros with an afro?