Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they’ve been chewing over. Today, Lowell considers how Pokémon could do with a rival to keep it hungry, and who might be able to step up…
When Pokémon Sword and Shield brought Pikachu and friends to a home console for the first time in all-new mainline Pokémon game, I remember many – myself included – excused the game’s faults. I attributed the exclusion of hundreds of Pokémon, some textures and animations straight out of the GameCube era, and an absurd, unfinished narrative to Game Freak’s lack of experience designing a fully 3D, semi-open world. Surely, I thought, one of the most renowned gaming series in history would get it right next time. And to some extent they did with Pokémon Legends: Arceus. I still consider it the best Pokémon game since Black 2 and White 2.
However, ambitious as it was, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is, by most metrics, an inferior game to Sword and Shield. Technical problems the team has apologised for and issued patches for still persist six months after release. The DLC will come suspiciously late in the year, and we’ve seen nothing outside of a few key art images. Pokémon HOME integration was announced, and then unannounced, then announced again. Whole tournament results got wiped out by glitches. For several months, online battles only had one arena with the same copy-and-pasted grandma model cheering in the background. Really, if you threw a trailerful of rakes into the massive Wyndon Stadium and set Game Freak and The Pokémon Company loose, they’d find a way to step on every single one.
Even then, I enjoyed quite a lot about Scarlet and Violet. It has amazing music. Terastalization is a wonderful mechanic. The split stories are surprisingly decent. And while the overworld runs about as well as a one-legged Slowpoke, it has a lot of great ideas spread throughout. And yet, we all know it could have been much, much better if Game Freak and The Pokémon Company weren’t content to churn out undercooked titles.
Cassette Beasts and Temtem add refreshing ideas and innovations to the genre, but these games challenging Pokémon is akin to a level 22 Charmeleon going up against a level 80 Mewtwo.
Game Freak and The Pokémon Company needs a rival to keep them honest. A Blue to their Red. A Gary Oak to their Ash Ketchum. Someone to push them to do better, to innovate rather than regress, a game that makes people say, “Why play Pokémon when I can play ‘Other Creature-Collecting & Battling Adventure’ instead?” After all, Pokémon’s custodians have no incentive to make a technically watertight game when they continue to break sales records regardless.
Unfortunately, Pokémon’s one-time rival Digimon is a shadow of its former self. Smaller titles, like the recent Cassette Beasts or the superb MMO Temtem (both of which I reviewed and enjoyed) add refreshing ideas and innovations to the genre, but these games challenging Pokémon is akin to a level 22 Charmeleon going up against a level 80 Mewtwo.
So who else could possibly take a piece of Pikachu’s pie? Such a game would have to have a massive publisher behind it with an established fanbase. If Epic’s Fortnite threw 150 critters to find and capture as you built/danced/shot around the island as Spider-Man, for example, Pokémon’s Chief Operating Officer Utsunomiya might get a little sweat on one of his stylish outfits. Pearl Abyss’ DokeV – remember that fever dream of a trailer? – might surprise us all whenever it eventually releases. Atlus’ Persona 5 Royal targets a completely different, and much more mature, market.
This, in my opinion, leaves two publishers with creature-collecting history: Capcom and Square Enix. I would argue Capcom is the publisher/developer best poised to make Game Freak sit up in their chairs, as it has proven in recent years that it values quality and delivering on fan expectations above all else – both of which the recent Pokémon games distinctly lack.
I’d go so far as to say that Capcom’s own monster-battling game, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, is superior to every Pokémon game on the Switch. However, as of right now, there’s still no word on a third entry. Maybe a Monster Hunter Stories 3 will shake things up on a future Nintendo console.
All this might read like I want Pokémon to fail. On the contrary, I want one of my favourite gaming series to improve rather than succeed while delivering the bare minimum.
That leaves us with the surprise announcement from this past weekend: Square Enix is making new Dragon Quest Monsters. It has the potential to be the perfect Pokémon rival – the game that makes everyone say, “Wow, I wish Pokémon did this.” Not much younger than Pokémon itself, DQM has a similar storied history to build upon and, importantly, a massive company to support it. Both games also have you collecting hundreds of monsters while batting in gyms/arenas. Breeding, adventuring, great tunes – all the hallmarks of the genre are there.
While both Dragon Quest Monsters and the main series haven’t traditionally sold well outside of Japan, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age changed that; both critically and commercially, it surpassed its predecessors around the world. Sure, the last few Monsters games haven’t left Japan, but if Square Enix can bring the quality of Dragon Quest XI to the monster-rearing series, it could make fans, critics, and most importantly The Pokémon Company take notice.
And lest I forget: the legendary Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball fame is responsible for the monster designs, which range from the iconic Slime to the absolutely amazing Sham hatwitch. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather raise a Hacksaurus than a Haxorus.
All this might read like I want Pokémon to fail. On the contrary, I want one of my favourite gaming series to improve rather than succeed while delivering the bare minimum. Despite my criticisms, I put hundreds of hours into Sword and Shield collecting every single Pokémon. Scarlet and Violet completely lost me after the credits rolled, though.
Pokémon needs to be better. To grow and innovate rather than flounder and stagnate even if it won’t stop selling well. Boycotts and online complaints (like the previous 900-ish words) will have little effect on Game Freak and The Pokémon Company all the time the games break sales records. They will continue delivering games that are the equivalent of a Garbodor dressed up to look like a shiny Celebi. Only a true rival can make a difference. And as of right now, the next Dragon Quest Monsters adventure might be the rival the Pokémon games, and its fans, desperately need.
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they’ve been chewing over. Today, Lowell considers how Pokémon could do with a rival to keep it hungry, and who might be able to step up…
When Pokémon Sword and Shield brought Pikachu and friends to a home console for the first time in all-new mainline Pokémon game, I remember many – myself included – excused the game’s faults. I attributed the exclusion of hundreds of Pokémon, some textures and animations straight out of the GameCube era, and an absurd, unfinished narrative to Game Freak’s lack of experience designing a fully 3D, semi-open world. Surely, I thought, one of the most renowned gaming series in history would get it right next time. And to some extent they did with Pokémon Legends: Arceus. I still consider it the best Pokémon game since Black 2 and White 2.
However, ambitious as it was, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is, by most metrics, an inferior game to Sword and Shield. Technical problems the team has apologised for and issued patches for still persist six months after release. The DLC will come suspiciously late in the year, and we’ve seen nothing outside of a few key art images. Pokémon HOME integration was announced, and then unannounced, then announced again. Whole tournament results got wiped out by glitches. For several months, online battles only had one arena with the same copy-and-pasted grandma model cheering in the background. Really, if you threw a trailerful of rakes into the massive Wyndon Stadium and set Game Freak and The Pokémon Company loose, they’d find a way to step on every single one.
Even then, I enjoyed quite a lot about Scarlet and Violet. It has amazing music. Terastalization is a wonderful mechanic. The split stories are surprisingly decent. And while the overworld runs about as well as a one-legged Slowpoke, it has a lot of great ideas spread throughout. And yet, we all know it could have been much, much better if Game Freak and The Pokémon Company weren’t content to churn out undercooked titles.
Cassette Beasts and Temtem add refreshing ideas and innovations to the genre, but these games challenging Pokémon is akin to a level 22 Charmeleon going up against a level 80 Mewtwo.
Game Freak and The Pokémon Company needs a rival to keep them honest. A Blue to their Red. A Gary Oak to their Ash Ketchum. Someone to push them to do better, to innovate rather than regress, a game that makes people say, “Why play Pokémon when I can play ‘Other Creature-Collecting & Battling Adventure’ instead?” After all, Pokémon’s custodians have no incentive to make a technically watertight game when they continue to break sales records regardless.
Unfortunately, Pokémon’s one-time rival Digimon is a shadow of its former self. Smaller titles, like the recent Cassette Beasts or the superb MMO Temtem (both of which I reviewed and enjoyed) add refreshing ideas and innovations to the genre, but these games challenging Pokémon is akin to a level 22 Charmeleon going up against a level 80 Mewtwo.
So who else could possibly take a piece of Pikachu’s pie? Such a game would have to have a massive publisher behind it with an established fanbase. If Epic’s Fortnite threw 150 critters to find and capture as you built/danced/shot around the island as Spider-Man, for example, Pokémon’s Chief Operating Officer Utsunomiya might get a little sweat on one of his stylish outfits. Pearl Abyss’ DokeV – remember that fever dream of a trailer? – might surprise us all whenever it eventually releases. Atlus’ Persona 5 Royal targets a completely different, and much more mature, market.
This, in my opinion, leaves two publishers with creature-collecting history: Capcom and Square Enix. I would argue Capcom is the publisher/developer best poised to make Game Freak sit up in their chairs, as it has proven in recent years that it values quality and delivering on fan expectations above all else – both of which the recent Pokémon games distinctly lack.
I’d go so far as to say that Capcom’s own monster-battling game, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, is superior to every Pokémon game on the Switch. However, as of right now, there’s still no word on a third entry. Maybe a Monster Hunter Stories 3 will shake things up on a future Nintendo console.
All this might read like I want Pokémon to fail. On the contrary, I want one of my favourite gaming series to improve rather than succeed while delivering the bare minimum.
That leaves us with the surprise announcement from this past weekend: Square Enix is making new Dragon Quest Monsters. It has the potential to be the perfect Pokémon rival – the game that makes everyone say, “Wow, I wish Pokémon did this.” Not much younger than Pokémon itself, DQM has a similar storied history to build upon and, importantly, a massive company to support it. Both games also have you collecting hundreds of monsters while batting in gyms/arenas. Breeding, adventuring, great tunes – all the hallmarks of the genre are there.
While both Dragon Quest Monsters and the main series haven’t traditionally sold well outside of Japan, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age changed that; both critically and commercially, it surpassed its predecessors around the world. Sure, the last few Monsters games haven’t left Japan, but if Square Enix can bring the quality of Dragon Quest XI to the monster-rearing series, it could make fans, critics, and most importantly The Pokémon Company take notice.
And lest I forget: the legendary Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball fame is responsible for the monster designs, which range from the iconic Slime to the absolutely amazing Sham hatwitch. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather raise a Hacksaurus than a Haxorus.
All this might read like I want Pokémon to fail. On the contrary, I want one of my favourite gaming series to improve rather than succeed while delivering the bare minimum. Despite my criticisms, I put hundreds of hours into Sword and Shield collecting every single Pokémon. Scarlet and Violet completely lost me after the credits rolled, though.
Pokémon needs to be better. To grow and innovate rather than flounder and stagnate even if it won’t stop selling well. Boycotts and online complaints (like the previous 900-ish words) will have little effect on Game Freak and The Pokémon Company all the time the games break sales records. They will continue delivering games that are the equivalent of a Garbodor dressed up to look like a shiny Celebi. Only a true rival can make a difference. And as of right now, the next Dragon Quest Monsters adventure might be the rival the Pokémon games, and its fans, desperately need.
