Pokémon Disaster

Gotta catch em all…after beating them mercilessly into submission of course!


If only this kid lived in the world where Big Boss
exists, he could have a whole different set of issues
with this kind of enthusiasm

Writing dark deconstructions involving the Pokémon series never gets old, and quite frankly is a seemingly endless treasure trove from which to mine from. Which is a good thing, too, as I’m not always immersed balls deep into any one game in the series, in spite of multiple titles usually coming out during any given year, though my amorous tendencies for the series remains unabated. As I’ve briefly mentioned before on ATE, I have had a tenuous relationship at best with Scarlet and Violet, as the games just represent what I deem as an excessive low point for the series, which makes it a serious difficulty in swallowing the dreck that represents Pokémania in any tolerable fashion. Even the thought of booting Scarlet up at the current moment makes me shudder, as the title is such a trial in patience on every conceivable level.


What Pokémon Scarlet and Violet should have been called

Though the titles have shaped up a bit through patches and post launch content, it’s a day late and a dollar short, quite honestly. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: just because a game has an awesome approach to game design, doesn’t mean everyone needs to ape it. I know it’s inevitable, and especially in a day and age where the triple A gaming industry is always looking for a sure fire hit, you’ll bet your ass that anyone who’s anyone is going to crib notes from something as prolific as Breath of the Wild without batting an eye, but carbon copying the experience while losing the series DNA in the process does active damage to the brand, and nothing positive for anyone in the long run.


How I imagine most conversations go during
Pokémon developer brainstorming sessions

I guess since the publisher is at least shared in this case, one developer publishing under the Nintendo banner borrowing from another developer could *at least* be somewhat justified as colleagues of sorts sharing notes, but Pokémon never needed to go full open world in the first place, at least not the mainline titles. It was an experiment better saved for a side project, and to be left at that, as it makes Scarlet feel far too aimless in it’s scope when you really pair down the entire experience. The industry goes through ebbs and flows with this kind of thing all the time, as you’ll see something like Street Fighter II, Mario 64, GTA III, Halo, WoW, Minecraft, or Fortnite touch down like a mother fucking meteor on the face of the gaming planet, and everyone wants to make the same colossal impact, sometimes spawning entire sub-genres of *insert game killer here*, and thus the new trend will be born.


Sometimes the comparisons of quality work as
intended if not quite literally, though not all are so lucky***

And while I iterate now for the sake of transparent acknowledgement, Scarlet and Violet were obviously never billed as a Zelda Killer, but the lengths of effort in which the devs themselves went to compromise the very foundation of the Pokémon design ethic ended up coming off as a net-negative, and upon reflection, just completely sabotaged the whole notion of quality therein.

Being inspired is one thing, but make sure not to lose your own identity in the process.

~Pashford

(***EDIT: Dark Cloud rules, by the way.)