Pokemon: The Latest Generation

[MeshGearFox]

Pokemon game set in an ENTIRELY new region, so all pokemon are new. You have to analyze them from a phylogenetic standpoint. Figure out what's a species, what's a subspecies, who can hybridize, what constitutes a basal pokemon etc etc etc.

Additionally there's a DQ5-ish romance sub-plot to it, where you end up marrying one of three researchers of the opposite sex. You also have a kid.

Game takes place over three life stages (late teens, early adult, older adult, where you have a kid). Pokemon populations change over time, as does the setting, generally getting more populated and industrialized.

In the end game, instead of beating the elite four, you open up a pokemon lab. The final scene involves some new kids showing up and you offer them one of the newly discovered pokemon.

[Alisha]

i think one of the issues with pokemon is that instead of trying to retain its fan base they just replace lost fans with new younger fans.

[MeshGearFox]

Alisha the game was initially intended to give city-raised children the experience of catching bugs and exploring out in the countryside.

Whether or not it's fun for adults is irrelevant. The core, intended fanbase is children, always WAS children, and will always BE children.

Children have an unfortunate tendency of growing up. That makes retaining the core fanbase sort of tricky.

[Dincrest]

Well, there was Pokemon Colosseum on GameCube which had an older protagonist (he was 17) and slightly darker themes.  However, it remains a pretty much forgotten Pokemon title, and it was an attempt to appeal to the older fans.

[Draak]

Aside from that, the art for a lot of the Pokemon was still great. My understanding is that they changed the artist when Ruby/Sapphire rolled around, and it showed.

Nope, Ken Sugimori is the designer/illustrator since the Red/Blue days. It's just that his style changed an awful lot and not for the best, imo. Kinda funny his early works are better than the stuff he's been doing lately.

[MeshGearFox]

Kinda funny his early works are better than the stuff he's been doing lately.

Who can forgot such classics as:

Blackface McTitgrope: http://bellyshirts.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/jynx1.jpg
Dr. Lipschitz: http://images.absoluteanime.com/pokemon/mr_mime.gif
Bunchie: http://www.ceder.net/pc/character/chikorita.png

Anyway, Red and Blue maybe had the classiest pokemon just because it was first, but every generation's had its hits and misses and I don't think the particular ration has changed at all. Personally I'm a big fan of the more geometrically-styled designs from Ru/Sa and I always felt like Go/Si had a lot of really anonymous looking manz. Not really a fan of D/P's designs, though. They were really cartoony even by Pokemon standards, which looked... odd.

[Aeolus]

Plus with the changing technology comes different techniques, styles, and effects even from the same artist.

Besides after designing well over 500 different creatures and characters (remember that pokemon also have human characters as well like the trainers and the various teams) over the course of 15 years you start to wear a little thin.

Also pokemon will never die so long as it keeps appealing to the OCD tendencies of people and doesn't run out of ideas.

[Hathen]

I'm not too crazy about Red/Blue designs myself, actually. I think the designs peaked at G/S along with everything else, however. There were a lot of Ruby/Sapphire designs I liked, but there's only maybe a dozen designs from DP that I like.

[MeshGearFox]

DP had goddamn Stunky.

Got a cool idea for a thing Pokemon could use, though this idea actually comes from another game.

What if you had a system in place where every family of pokemon preyed on another pokemon family, and if you fought/caught enough of the predator, you'd see more of its prey appear, whereas if you fought a lot of the prey, the predator would be less prevalent?

Like, if you killed a bunch of wurmples or something, you'd see less pidgeys, because they eat wurmples.

[Wild Armor]

And isn't time to see some hibernating pokemon? They show up only certain seasons or you can wake them from their habitat early on like when you woke up that Snorlax in Red/Blue? If you beat them up, they'll probably throw a fit and head to the mountains anyways.

[KGB13]

I've been playing pokemon since the RBY days so I'm pretty excited for these. I like the fact that they're going back to colors and I like Black & White for names.

[Gen Eric Gui]

And isn't time to see some hibernating pokemon? They show up only certain seasons or you can wake them from their habitat early on like when you woke up that Snorlax in Red/Blue? If you beat them up, they'll probably throw a fit and head to the mountains anyways.

Ugh, no.  It's enough that they already pull this "Some monsters only appear in the day/at night" crap, I don't need stuff I can only catch in the Winter or in the Summer.

[WildArms]

Looks like they are finally changing graphics, ive heard, HEARD, there are skill trees, this last option would make me vomit (in a good way)

[Starmongoose]

I would have to agree that I am not fond of different pokemon at night, simply because I don't like my screen going all dark. I like the colours bright and vibrant in my pokemon games, not shades of purple and black.

I am also more fond of the old RBY graphics, esp pokemon sprites. I don't know if it's just me wearing my nostalgia goggles but Pidgey just never looked right after R/B. I want my little fat Pidgey back.

I would love it if they would try and break the mold a little with this game. They can still make it for children, I'm all for that, but even kids can get bored of the same story, over and over and over.

[Dincrest]

That and some people just don't have time to play during the day.  Yeah, Hoothoot is cool and all, but not when what you really want is a Pidgey.