I am playing Pokemon Violet at the moment and it is a total bore. I have played the game so many times and I just want to run around catch Pokemon and battle.
I do not need another tutorial about what a Pokemon center is. Or a tutorial to tell me that I need to use a Pokeball to catch a Pokemon.
Can we get a “I’ve played this game 100 times” mode where it just saves the tutorials and lets us play the game?
Honestly, this might be a bit of a hot take coming in. But I don’t think the lengthy tutorial is the actual issue when it comes to modern Pokemon games. Plenty of games have very slow openings, monster hunter is the first that comes to mind.
I think the issue is that the game doesn’t actually have any depth behind the initial tutorial. Once you know how to battle, catch, and level up, what more is there? Barring competitive play, the basic mechanics are the entire game.
Legends was a breath of fresh air, because you did have to explore and learn about the world and Pokemon in order to succeed. Even if it was incredibly minimal.
If anyone is still reading this, my recommendation for a game that scratches the deep mechanical and monster collecting itch would be Monster Sanctuary. The story is thin on the ground, and the designs themselves can lean on the simpler side. But my god, I haven’t seen an equal when it comes to team building or strategy. Genuinely fantastic.
Thanks for the recommendation. I haven’t played Pokemon in over a decade, and from what I’ve read here that probably will not change. However, Monster Sanctuary may be worth checking out.
I cannot recommend it enough. It’s a metroidvania and exploring for all the cool monsters is so much fun. It’s cheap and indie too, and gets genuinely tough right near the end. But it tests your ability to team build, rather than to just grind. New monsters will basically be at the level of your current squad, regardless of where you got them.
Now that you mention it. I think this is it. I’m not excited to play the game at all because after an hour, I feel like I’ve sheet seen everything the game has to offer. I caught some cool Pokémon, what else is there to do? Although I’m interested in the Diamond remake, I guess the classic style was better in some way.
Exactly my point. The first pokemon games you play generally feel so much more exciting because of the novelty of the world. Exploring the world, finding cool little secrets, it’s genuinely fun that first time round.
For all the complaints about Pokemon tutorials, they are a minority of the actual issues. But a good representation of the fact that Pokemon refuses to break “tradition”. Think about the world design of Pokemon. Like, genuinely think and compare each of the maps and regions. And they’ll honestly start to blend together. Even Alola, which imo had the best designed world, aesthetically, blends in to the rest of the world.
And the issue is, when they DO break the mold. It’s fucking fantastic. Area Zero, the Megalopolis from Su/Mo, the Distortion World. All fantastic zones that are relegated to the 11th hour and then barely brought up again.
Once you’ve explored one Pokemon game, you’ve probably explored them all. And that’s pretty egregious considering the main draw of Pokemon is exploration.