This Old Neon Forum

Starmancer wrote:But JRPGs are 90% battles. There are no "more options" outside of Minigames, which you seem to think aren't good enough. Maybe what you need is to branch out. Have you played Rune Factory 4? That has plenty of stuff to do, including monster raising and collecting, and they help you out in the battles.

Persona 3 and 4 are DEFINITELY JRPGs, and they're probably 20-30% battles. There's no reason why a game should be strangleheld by a genre. A game should try to be whatever it wants to be, and the genre can be sorted out later.

Haven't played RF4. Sounds like it might be fun, may check that one out. Thanks for the heads up!

Edit: Also, I never said it "wasn't good enough." In fact, I said that even if Pokemon changed, I'd still buy it and would still spend the majority of my time battling! I'm not complaining here, just saying it would be cool if Pokemon had more to offer. It could easily offer more, and there's no reason to try to make excuses for it.

Starmancer wrote:

Claytone wrote:And trust me, I'd still spend 90% of my time battling, but I think Pokemon can be more than that, and I'd like it to be.

So basically...you don't want Pokemon to be a JRPG. :/

He's saying he wants more options, but even with those added options he would still spend most of his time battling.

And like Claytone said, a game can be whatever it wants to be. JRPG's don't have to keep their singular focus, I'd say the only factor that keeps a JRPG a JRPG is the turned based battles and leveling up. If those stay it doesn't matter what's added to it, it'll still be the JRPG you know and love.

Also when I say more features, and I think Claytone is with me on this one, I mean optional features. None of this crap needs to get in the way of the hardcore Pokemon player who wants nothing more than to battle and collect, I just want more to do on the side. Pokemon Amie was a great addition that could be ignored, but offered good benefits when used. I think Pokemon could have more side quests as well to liven things up; help someone out who's being attacked by a wild Pokemon, breed someone a good Pancham, escort someone through the woods. It can be anything, it just all adds up and makes the experience more diverse.

But it does leave a game less focused, and that's a very important factor. Black 2 already had so much optional crap that I could honestly say detracted from the Main part of the game. Like Nads said, Nintendo should be focusing on what already makes the games well liked. Gamefreak has about 70 employees, so they have to limit themselves somewhere. It would be nice if they could have these things, but then again, other games exist.

BTW, I never said it was a bad thing to want Pokemon to not be a JRPG, I just think it'd be far easier to simply play a different game rather than sit around and hope a series you're already into changes so drastically. So Claytone needs to play Rune Factory, and you need to play Shin Megami Tensei.

Starmancer wrote:But it does leave a game less focused, and that's a very important factor. Black 2 already had so much optional crap that I could honestly say detracted from the Main part of the game. Like Nads said, Nintendo should be focusing on what already makes the games well liked. Gamefreak has about 70 employees, so they have to limit themselves somewhere. It would be nice if they could have these things, but then again, other games exist.

BTW, I never said it was a bad thing to want Pokemon to not be a JRPG, I just think it'd be far easier to simply play a different game rather than sit around and hope a series you're already into changes so drastically. So Claytone needs to play Rune Factory, and you need to play Shin Megami Tensei.

I played Shin Megami, that's not Pokemon! I agree, they should be focusing their time into expanding what's so well liked about the game, as I said I don't it needs to change drastically, it needs an overhaul, a revamp. There's nothing wrong with how the game plays, it could just do so much more with its concept right now than what it's doing.

I don't think the words "revamp" and "overhaul" mean what you think they mean...because they definitely imply drastic changes.

And you're right, Shin Megami Tensei isn't Pokemon. But it's more what you're asking for - more story, stronger gameplay, more exploration and choices, while still retaining a collect 'em all focus.

Starmancer wrote:I don't think the words "revamp" and "overhaul" mean what you think they mean...because they definitely imply drastic changes.

And you're right, Shin Megami Tensei isn't Pokemon. But it's more what you're asking for - more story, stronger gameplay, more exploration and choices, while still retaining a collect 'em all focus.

Drastic updates to the to the established forumla! I don't want to change Pokemon, I just want more diverse content. And with each game they are doing this, and I can definitely see Pokemon going in the direction I'm thinking of, it's just their taking baby steps to be safe when they could take leaps. Again I don't want more story. Shin Megami was okay but I didn't care for collecting the demons, they didn't have any value to me beyond being pawns. On the other hand I want to collect Pokemon and want to be able to do more with the Pokemon I collect.

The Shoemaker wrote:A living breathing world: The world felt very static to me, some Pokemon would be seen as pets, families would hang out at homes and trainers would wait in fields to battle you. It all felt like an RPG from the 90's and nothing more.

That's been their staple for the whole entire series! Although your right here... I liked how the graphical improvements are in these games, compared to previous generations, and that they added some brief cut scenes at key moments. I thought some of the script was kind of funny too!

kitroplious wrote:

The Shoemaker wrote:A living breathing world: The world felt very static to me, some Pokemon would be seen as pets, families would hang out at homes and trainers would wait in fields to battle you. It all felt like an RPG from the 90's and nothing more.

That's been their staple for the whole entire series! Although your right here... I liked how the graphical improvements are in these games, compared to previous generations, and that they added some brief cut scenes at key moments. I thought some of the script was kind of funny too!

I thought some of the things the Pokemon trainers said to you were hilarious "I'll show you why I wear shorts in tall grass!" Cut scenes were pretty but I felt they came out of nowhere :p

And I can't imagine being boring is a very good staple to have Give them a little more life and purpose beyond waiting for you to talk to them!

An argument against the focus on story in the Pokémon games is the fact that the game is an international phenomenon, aimed mainly at kids. Pokémon has been simplistic enough to grasp what you're supposed to do even and what's happening in the game, even though you're like 8 years old and barely know any English, like when I got Pokemon Blue.

I havn't played the Pokemon Black/White 1 & 2 games, but if I am not misunderstood, those games explore the ethics of battling/capturing Pokemon, and it sort of questions your actions. Can anyone confirm this? I find it to be a potentially interesting place for the Pokemon series to bring up..

Jelly wrote:An argument against the focus on story in the Pokémon games is the fact that the game is an international phenomenon, aimed mainly at kids. Pokémon has been simplistic enough to grasp what you're supposed to do even and what's happening in the game, even though you're like 8 years old and barely know any English, like when I got Pokemon Blue.

I havn't played the Pokemon Black/White 1 & 2 games, but if I am not misunderstood, those games explore the ethics of battling/capturing Pokemon, and it sort of questions your actions. Can anyone confirm this? I find it to be a potentially interesting place for the Pokemon series to bring up..

I haven't played Black and White, but I like the idea of that story. I don't know if it's worth saying again but I agree that the story works with it's simplistic nature, I just think that it could be added upon not through the use of text but through the use of unique experiences within the game.