sundin13 said:
My argument has never been that a limited 'mon game couldn't be done better. I admitted in my last post that the designs in B/W weren't always the best, even. My argument is just that a full Dex isn't inherently better and there is a trade-off at hand. There are plenty of reasons to think that the game could be better if it was more limited, some of which I detailed previously. The core of it is that every Pokemon in the game takes some amount of dev time. Having more Pokemon does hurt my experience by sacrificing dev time that I feel could be better used elsewhere (and with this effort I am asking for, the amount of effort balloons as more Pokemon are added). I would personally rather a game that focused on other means of providing a fuller, more polished experience than a game which spent that time making sure that 1k Pokemon are all jammed in. Sure, it isn't as detailed as Smash Bros, but it isn't hard to imagine a Pokemon game which put more effort into polishing the Pokemon's battle animations, because that game already exists in Pokemon Stadium (which has much more limited movesets and a smaller roster and was heavily limited in scope). Compare the animations in that game to the animations and S/S and they have way more personality and individuality. When a Pokemon does a kick, it looks like they are doing a kick. Again, they aren't perfect, but I don't think the level of animations you are getting from Pokemon Stadium is something you can really expect when there are 1000 Pokemon each with a total movepool around 50 moves. In my opinion, the "right direction" for Pokemon is the one which focuses on polish and details, not the one that focuses on numbers. EDIT: I also just want to note real quick, S/S had little excuse to not include more Pokemon. While it likely did save them some time and allowed them to use resources elsewhere, it really didn't show as that game did not look or play very well. So just to clarify, there are three options imo: Obviously 2 is going to be preferable to three. I wouldn't argue that. However, if we are talking about the direction we want Pokemon to go, I'd take 1 over 2 personally. |
And my argument is that a full Dex is inherently better with no tradeoff, and we have previous games that have already proved this. We don't have to think of reasons to think the games would be better with a limited Dex, we have existing reasons to prove the games are better with a full Dex, and existing reasons to prove that a limited Dex doesn't make for more polished games with richer experiences. You've already pointed out the latter with Sw/Sh.
Every existing Pokemon has already taken its dev time. Every single Pokemon that existed on the 3DS games (i.e., Gen 1-7) already has pre-existing HD models and animations that were created for future use. You can find plenty of articles and posts in forums or on Reddit proving this. GameFreak STILL uses them to this day. Go look at something that has been in every single game mainline game, like Lucario. How much has that model and its animations changed? The argument that it would take copious amounts of dev time would apply under normal circumstances, but not in the case of Pokemon. That time was already taken and spent, and until TPC allows GameFreak to redo every model and animation from scratch, that argument holds no water. Heck, GF and Creatures Inc. did MORE work before the 3DS days when every single Pokemon would get new hand-drawn animations for each generation or game.
And again, you've already pointed out a couple of games that didn't benefit from GF's piss-poor excuse for not including a full Dex in Sw/Sh. Those games look like ass, run like ass, and cost $90 before you feel like you've gotten the amount of gameplay you would have gotten in previous games, while STILL not having a full Dex. And Dynamax sucks. So by claiming that including more mon hampers the overall experience, you're carrying GF/TPC's water and allowing them more excuses for less content along with poor optimization.
Yes, Pokemon Stadium exists. I've already pointed out how the animations in it are STILL better than anything GF has done, 25 years later. But Pokemon Stadium wasn't developed by GameFreak. And again, it's around 25 years old, so of course it has a more limited roster and moveset. But that is also a moot point, because you're practically saying that each Pokemon has a unique animation for each one of their moves, when we all know that they don't. That is highly disingenuous. Each mon has like, two animations, maybe three if they are really special; Pikachu has more than that based on it's different costumes and distributions, but it's Pikachu. SSB characters have more taunt animations than most Pokemon have total animations. And Pokemon don't even make contact with each other when doing their attack animations. They usually have one animation for physical attacks, one for special attacks and support moves, and a very simple hurt/faint animation. There is FAR less work in designing Pokemon animations than you're making it sound like. Oh, and did I mention that every single Pokemon that existed on the 3DS games already has pre-existing HD models and animations that were created for future use, like if the devs ever wanted to include them in future HD consoles? Therefore, the work is already done.
You are absolutely entitled to your wants and opinions. However, where I disagree with you is the mistaken belief that including a full Dex means a less polished game. It doesn't. The resources are already there, as is the proof from previous games. We also have proof that a half-ass Dex can still lead to a half-ass game, Sw/Sh. So since we know that the amount of polish, refinement and content in a mainline Pokemon game has nothing to do with whether or not it includes a full Dex, I don't understand why anyone would argue for less available Pokemon, which is absolutely an argument for less content.
