I've been thinking about this lately, but before I get into this, allow me to explain my credentials. I've every mainline pokemon game. Some multiple times. More specifically, I've played Pokemon competitively since Gen 4. I know the tiers. I understand the mechanics. I win 90%-ish of my matches on Pokemon Showdown. I've seen the battle system change over time since RBGY. To say I have a deep understanding of the battle system in Pokemon is an understatement. I don't simply understand it; I love it. Clearly I love it.
However.
I've noticed something for a while now. Every generation has drastically altered the battle system, until generation 5. Strangely, Gen's 5 and 6 were frankly just minor tweaks to 4. What that tells me is two things.
1. Pokemon's battle system is kind of perfect now.
It really is. Pokemon's battle system hasn't seen much major dramatic change since Gen 4 because it frankly hasn't really needed it. It was basically perfected in G4, with G5 and G6 being reletively unremarkable tweaks. Not that that's a bad thing. Mega Evolutions are... controversial, but they are a neat twist. But really, they are just a glorified form change. Same with the added Fairy type. I love it, I'm glad it happened, but it's not a core change to the battle system the way the physical/special split, natures, IVs, hold items, special abilities, etc were. These updates are neat, and I'm glad they are here, but by comparison to how major the tweaks used to be, these are kind of boring. Before, every new game literally meant relearning the battle system. After 4, it's just been updating yourself on the new rules. Going back and playing DPPt today is painless. Go back one more game? Good luck.
2. Pokemon's battle system is kind of stale.
Which is weird for me to say. It's perfect, but it's stale. It's so good, but it's getting boring. It all comes down to the lack of significant change in what is coming to be like 8 years? But at the same time, I understand why. It's perfect. You can't fix perfection. But it's weird to dramatically change setting from game to game, but have the combat system feel the largely same from game to game. And it used to not feel that way. Now it does though, and Mega Evolutions are pretty decent proof that Gamefreak is aware that they've kind of plateau'd with the battle system. Instead of evolving it further, they just gave a bunch of Pokemon new forms and added a new type. Again, not bad, just not really game-changing the way previous generations were.
And that got me thinking. Just what can they do next generation. Really. How can they evolve the battle system in a meaningful way? Can that even do it? Like I said, I think the combat is fundementally perfect. Any more tweaks is more about keeping things fresh than improving it fundementally. Do they even need to change it? Why evolve something that's already been done so well? Also, I specifically mean evolve. This isn't one of my "Pokemon should be a hack and slash" threads. I am talking about the main series this time, which means I'm not talking about ideas for a spin off. If the battle system changes, it must be a change that evolves from the current one, not one that abandons it.
Well here's my opinion on the matter: They could really do one of two things:
1. Just leave it be.
Really, just leave it alone. It really is perfect. Stale or not, I keep buying the games and a lot of that is because the combat is so deep. It works so well. If they just did minor tweaks for ever, is that such a bad thing?
1. Evolve it in a drastic way.
But on the other hand, Pokemon is getting bigger and bigger. Each game is getting prettier and prettier. Eventually, we're going to get to a point where Pokemon will look like Dragon Quest 11 on PS4/NX. And you know what will happen after Pokemon reaches it's graphical peak? More generations will come out, and at that point, will we really be fine if we're still having those same battles? I don't know if I will. So what Pokemon can do is do an evolution that is now meant to improve the battle system mechanically, but tactilely. A change to the battle system to make it more immersive, because it's already perfect mechanically.
Now I don't know that this change would be. Maybe it would be something like Chrono Trigger. Just something that makes it feel different while keeping the various improvements in mind. Me being a fan of action games (Masuda, the producer of Pokemon, is as well), I think that taking a page from the battle system in Ni No Kuni would be fantastic. This way, the battle system can mechanically stay largely in tact. Still four PP moves. Maybe add a fifth weak "Stuggle" move like what Mystery Dungeon does for when you're out of cooldowns. Instead of the Speed stat effecting who goes first, it could effect how fast your moves cool down or something. This way, the battles are more dynamic while still keeping the core of what makes the more traditional battle system so perfect.
Or not. I don't know. But I do know one thing. The Pokemon battle system hasn't really done something exciting in a long time. That stinks.
