Soapbox: Here's How I'd Fix The Pokémon Series

How to fix the Pokemon series: Give the IP to an other developer like Monolith Soft etc

They could also optimize the game so it doesn't stutter all the time. A game as big as Pokemon should not have these technical problems.

Problem is that they don't need to fix anything since people still buy it anyways. Seems they would go full mobile before they would go all out on a system game.

Also I never understood the post-game need. If they main game is built full of content and side activities, do you really need a post-game?

Here's how to fix Pokemon: Play Shin Megami Tensei or Persona lol

Nah in all seriousness Game Freak has become extravagantly content with resting on their laurels so the sales of Sw/Sh have probably convinced them that people are actually perfectly fine with the direction the series has gone into. They only see your money, not your concern. I stopped playing Pokemon a long time ago and in an age where I've experienced games like SMTIV and the Persona series which do the whole monster collecting premise but elevate it in considerably more in depth and stylistically charming ways, I ain't looking back any time soon.

I'm too tired to list my grievances again x_x

@mariomaster96 I would give the franchise to Square Enix.

I would have 2 battle systems, one that mirrors Pokken Tournament but with full customization of your 4 main special abilities/combos and the classic battle style and you would be able to choose how you want to play and can switch styles whenever you like. Then I would have a truly open world where you have stamina like BotW and can traverse anywhere you can see and it would create more unique places where certain Pokémon could be encountered.

@Xaessya I think the gripe about the post-game is because the main game is overwhelmingly linear and DOESN'T have that many side activities. Plus the previous post-games in one or two gens were really good. So if you're being held by the hand then released once the main game's over, you sort of look forward to more content afterwards

In terms of mostly joking/completely unrealistic expectations:

Make the world as difficult to navigate as Death Stranding. Pokemon replace the tools used to traverse á la HM moves. For example, you literally cannot get across a river without a bridge without getting a water Pokemon large enough to carry you. Or you can’t go through a volcanic area without the use of a certain Fire type etc.

Tackle gym leaders in any order, scale levels to the order in which you tackle them. So if you choose to fight the Ground type leader first, he will be level 15 or so. If you fight the Dragon type leader last, she will be level 55 or so.

Make secret areas worth something. Picking up items is utterly pointless in most situations. I’m not saying hide a Rare Candy in every area but something better than an X Defend.

Actually try with the graphics. Again, not saying make it look like a 4K masterpiece but give me the same feeling I had when playing Battle Revolution and seeing my DS Pokemon in 3D on the big screen.

A proper Battle Frontier would be nice. I’ve missed that a lot.

Actually have single player content that requires Pokemon up to Level 100, there’s no point levelling your Pokemon past a certain level as it stands.

I feel like Pokemon Conquest nailed the postgame. When you beat the main story, you unlocked side stories. Something awesome I'd want from Pokemon Conquest is the option to play sidestories post-game. What if once we beat the game, we get the option to continue the main file if we wish, and can do so at any point, but could play as other people?

We could play as Lance, for example, with his little Dratini and play a side-story with his origins as a champion, play as the little bugcatcher on route 2 who feels devastated at his loss from the main char and gets challenged to a battle that boost his spirits up, play as Nessa who gets in a pokemon battle with a rival model in her industry.

The possibilities are endless! Pokemon Conquest nailed this perfectly! There were side-stories that were extremely short and there were side-stories almost the length of the entire main campaign. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the main games did this?

(Plus, in the age of the Switch, why isn't there something like, a stadium mode? Where you can select pokemon you've caught and raised and split-screen battle with a friend)

I don't mind the Gym Leaders, evil team, starter trio, etc. formula but the franchise needs to rethink the way it approaches those concepts. I shouldn't have to go to outside sources to learn central game mechanics. Even the UI is slow and archaic. Game Freak can keep creating the Pokemon designs and music (which were fantastic this gen) but outsource the actual game development to another company (perhaps Monolifth Soft or Square Enix) who actually knows how to make modern RPGs. There's so much potential and many easy improvements to make..

• First and foremost, HM's need a reboot and retooling. Despite their inconveniences, HM's were the only way your own Pokemon team could interact directly with the world. (Camping is amazing, but it is isolated to a menu system wholly removed from the environment)

Look no further than Astral Chain for inspiration, where you freely ride your Legion creatures around the world and use them to navigate jumps, doors, etc.

I want to see that level of interaction return in 3D with your own Pokemon team.

Sun/Moon's Poke Ride was flawed, because you utilized random Pokemon that you did not catch or train yourself, appearing out of thin air and disappearing just as quickly.

Other moves like Sweet Scent, Teleport, etc. were utilized in the environment as well. Because of this, I would add a new set of abilities that take the place of HM's. You can call them Skills, or whatever you like. Every Pokemon has a list of Skills, like how certain Pokemon could learn multiple HM's. They could include Surf, Climb, Fly, Smash, Strength, Cut, Dive, Teleport, Aromatherapy, etc.

You could even take a page from BOTW and add in more Skills that mimic survivalist mechanics. Want to build a Campfire to make your own healing items? Just pull out a Fire Pokemon to start a Campfire.

So much potential exists by just pouring over Pokedex entries and reading about all the incredible and fun things Pokemon can do.

I would still like to see what most long time fans would consider heresy. Dropping the turn based battle systems into a real-time system. Not direct control, but battles that play out dynamically in real time where your PKMN’s moves based on AI. You control when moves are carried out (again limited to 4) but you also have access to up to 4 Strategies that will affect how your PKMN moves, attacks and even their stats. Speed strategy increases speed and evasion but reduces accuracy and defence. Keep Distance will prevent physical attacks but reduce your accuracy and give time for opponents to react. One thing is for sure it would be exciting to watch and may even replicate the battles actually shown in the anime to some degree.

I love NintendoLife most days. But I can't stand their Pokemon articles.

I stopped playing Pokémon Shield: its dull

Watch and learn from this Monster Rancher 4 Battle gameplay.

And also from this Japanese only NDS game Zettai Onkan Otoda Master

Now about the story plot, just make it completely out of the box. No more a 10 years old kid ready to go out in journey from Mom's house.
How about some plot twist like these ?
1. You become a Pokemon trainer after you stranded in an island and lost your memories. There is an important people asked you to do that job.
2. You survived from the vehicles accident with some remaining Pokemons you have (It also shown there are some died Pokemons and other victims due that accident. It just show the reality that anybody can die) then you have to find out the help while there are some interferences from enemies and forced you to deal with them while at the same time still keep looking for help.
3. There are a feud between you and your sibling as the Pokemon trainer. You are the good Pokemon trainer but your sibling is a bad guy, use the Pokemons to do bad things and they were get brainwashed by technology.

Forget the repetitive story flow by meeting the other Pokemon trainers on the road, get challenged by them, meet with gym leaders and get challenged by them. For me the plot like that was too acting and very fake. Why don't change that plot completely and make it into believeable moments ?

Making the size of the Pokemon party an upgrade is as bad of an idea as whoever came up with wallet upgrades in the Zelda series.
It feels like just an artificial hindrance to the player.

You can start with graphics that don’t look like 3ds, and you can have a proper open world.

Oh and up the difficulty .

One Pokemon bait article was not enough for Nintendo life, now Alex has to wade in.

" Hello lovely people"

Who are now going to argue back and fourth for 200 pages or so, just think of all those clicks.

Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon got a 10/10 from Nintendo Life. That would suggest that the game ought to follow that game's infrastructure going forward perhaps? I mean in the site's opinion.

(Also bar Sword and Shield, the majority of the other ones got 9/10s)

Open world and maybe a better effort on the graphics and art on top?

@Xaessya "Problem is that they don't need to fix anything since people still buy it anyways."

Exactly, this is the biggest problem. That's why Pokémon needs serious competition, otherwise it's clear it won't get better by itself.

The second biggest problem is that every single time you point out an objective flaw in this game a member of PokéDefense Front is summoned, telling you that you're a manchild for simply expecting the biggest multimedia franchise in the world to be good again.
Yay for nuanced criticism, eh?

Something that would really upset the online ranked battle community but would really mix things up and add more strategy would be to have battles where the player could Mega Evolve, Z-Move, or Dynamax. But the catch is that you can only do ONE of those things during battle. So you’d be facing someone who might have a team built around Pokémon with certain z-moves while you’re team is based on dyna- or Gigantamaxing Pokémon.

@johnvboy hey, that's one thing we can 100%, totally agree on 😄

Just let Genius Sonority make the next one.

@mariomaster96 That would never work. It is game freaks game, and they don´t know how to make one.

Game freak should still make the games, have you ever thought what other companies would do? And, it is Game Freaks IP sooo...
And more pokemon? No. Just No.

Opening up the world to tackle it in any order would be great! Would even like to have the world be setup like Animal Crossing NH where each person gets a random map that is slightly different so you cant just breeze through a linear map using a guide. Having the Gyms open to battling over-and-over again would be great and they could scale with your level. Like having a gym leader you first beat soupe up all their Pokemon and evolve them to their Final forms with some snappy dialogue about how they won't lose to you thise time would be awesome. Maybe they even add in some rare pokemon that can counter their mono-types for coverage. Lots of opportunity for GameFreak to push the envelope

@TheFrenchiestFry actually though. For Halloween I decided to dress up my character and ended up unconsciously dressing her up as Kasumi...and then immediately after that, my dynamax adventures Pokémon was one with an identity crisis and one of my human partners was named “Morgana”. Needless to say, it was a pretty strong sign for me to go back to Royal lol

Some really solid ideas. I will say I'm not sure imposing faux limitations is a ringing endorsement for some of the stuff Animal Crossing does. Pokémon had real limitations due to the limited technology and it's development. Unless I'm completely naive, I don't think there's anything technical that makes it impossible in implementing batch crafting in Animal Crossing.

But I digress. It's not about Animal Crossing. It's about Pokémon. I think some of these are real solid ideas that could push the formula forward. But also keep it familiar. I really like the idea of starting your own gym as a post game reward. I would really have a lot of fun with that

@Ramen756 Considering Kasumi's whole arc in Royal is basically brought about because of a traumatic identity crisis that's surprisingly fitting

@clvr,

Always for the clicks.

Game freak are aloud to experiment with new mechanics (dynamax, z moves, mega evolution) to keep the series fresh and so every games isn't the same, as we all know if every pokemon game was the same then we would have people moaning still.

Another idea would be for the next set of games to have a completely different pokedex ecah, so for example one version would have 450 pokemon and the other version would have a different set of 450 pokemon, this would give a better reason to get both versions and for people to trade more

@Ulysses I really like that idea of using Pokémon for skill type actions. It makes me think of the Squirtle Squad and how they basically became firefighters. Or the Machop in Vermillion City helping the old guy build some kind of structure. Using Pokémon abilities for real world things would be pretty sweet

@johnvboy yeah I wouldn't be mad if they at least were not as blatant most of the time lol
At least try to hide it a bit 😄

I’m expecting Gen 9 (designed with the inevitable Switch Pro in mind) to be a more dramatic overhaul/reboot than Sw/Sh.

We had 2 generations on DS and 2 on 3DS, and whilst none were truly revolutionary, I’d argue that the first gen on a new system is usually the more conservative evolution.

@clvr,

They always put articles like this on a slow news day.

Great job on this opinion article Alex. You bring up some valid points. I do think a major problem is everyone buys Pokémon games regardless of the quality (that I’m guilty of myself). One thing I would like to see is starting out with main starters that aren’t the standard fire, water, and grass type. Anyways thanks for the interesting perspective.

I think an article and an opinion piece on the quality of Pokémon games on a day when they've turned a year old is appropriate. And sure, there's a level of baitieness to it. I mean, just about all sites are trying to get you to engage with it some capacity. At the same time, we should be adult enough to then have civil discussions about the topic at hand when all is said and done.

Combat overhaul:

• 4 move limit, but at the beginning of each battle, you can choose 4 moves from your whole list of moves your Pokemon has ever learned. That way, you can choose smaller moves like Ember for random battles, and utilize more niche attacks for any given situation. But with each choice, you limit your Pokemon's coverage for that given battle. This also removes a critical weakness of HM's where you lose move slots in order to use them.

Your opponent is charging a Solarbeam! Do you use one of your 4 move slots on Protect, or save it for a coverage move?

Story mechanic: Team Rocket/etc battles illegally utilize all moves at any given time without the 4 move limit.

@gaga64 Pokemon games/generations were never designed with certain Nintendo systems in mind. In fact, Gamefreak is notorious for releasing new Pokemon games for "old" systems. They begrudgingly move to the new one way after the console's release and may add some features utilizing that platform's quirks if they feel like it at the time. This unwillingness to closely cooperate with Nintendo while designing their games is actually one of the reasons why the difference in graphics between Pokemon and other Nintendo titles is growing bigger and bigger.

Play harder into the real world parallels.
Right now the regions have an analogue for Tokyo, Kyoto, some Japanese Island region, Some Japanese Mountain Region, NY, Paris, Hawaii, and London.

When remaking generations, go hard into that. Be able to travel to Galar-lite in a Gen 6 remake. Add the outer boroughs to Unova. Give Galar a rival bonus region with the same pokedex but based off Manchester or Dublin or Edinburgh.

And for all generations that aren’t Johto and Kanto (which are geographically close), make new regional variants in the remakes.

Pokemon needs to grow up or at least have a game for grown ups. The only challange the games offer are competitive online battles between breeders. At that point just release a colosseum game with perfect stat pokemon for everyone...

The concept needs to evolve and sheed this "pure" image.

This series has needed a BotW-level overhaul for well over a decade. Everything about it needs to change imo.
Not to mention...why has Gamefreak not done a Pokémon MMO? Everyone on planet earth would play it.

None of this matter. SnS sold well above expectations so why try hard when they it will sell no matter how mediocre it gets, because it's pokemon. Don't expect the next game to be a masterpiece because it won't, no future pokemon game will be.

Just make me the head of GF.

@AlexOlney This is a fantastic article. I too love Pokemon and wish it would finally leverage some of its vast potential instead of rehashing. I'd add to your pipe dream that we should just do away with HMs and calling other people's pokemon and just tie the environmental traversal effects to the pokemon's TYPE. Need to get through a mysterious shadow blocking the path? You'll need a dark pokemon for that, and you'll have to go out into the wild and find one. I like your idea for gyms, but I'd also say they could double down on the mono-typing and force the player to ONLY use pokemon of that type in that gym. Type matchups are for street fights and top tier battles - make us beat the gym leader at their own game and prove we're a better trainer of that kind of pokemon than them (gyms could even have mini-games inside to help level up Pokemon of that type, or teach them special moves). Pokemon has never really rewarded players for training a wide variety of monsters, but if you can just access your boxes from anywhere at any time you could be retooling your team instantly. They could really streamline the training with a catchup mechanic too. For example, say the TRAINER has a level, and as long as a pokemon is below the trainer's level, it only has to participate in a single fight against any Pokemon to go up X levels. The games have so much potential, I'd hate think they already reached their peak.

I fear Pokemon may go the way of The Simpsons if changes aren't made soon.

It hurts that I don't agree with everything here but I'd take ANY of it over what we have now
Idk man I've loved Pokemon since it first came out over here, like I'm bored of Shield already and I'm replaying HeartGold which I'm still finding vastly superior (for the record, I don't play with nostalgia goggles, I HATE Gen 1 with a passion because It's just so bad now)

@SeantheDon29 Boring and soulless yet still consistently adored by millions?

I'd love this, particularly since Pokémon go already does quite a lot of it. I'd also love to be able to send out my REALLY GOOD dunsparce out against a merely above average magnezone and stand any real chance of winning. Gameplay that prepares for the end/metagame stuff would be nice too.

@SeantheDon29 Remain popular enough to keep getting made despite claims of lesser quality from what the fanbase considers the prime of the series?

Like the modern episodes of The Simpsons or not, it has stayed popular enough despite it's flaws to remain on tv for 32 seasons.

Pokemon is in the same boat in that regard.

Even better, here's a quote that Bart said back in 1992.

"Quality, shmuality! If I had a TV show I'd run that sucker down to the ground!"

This quote applies to both The Simpsons and Pokemon

@Munchlax I'd argue they took more steps back than forward, when you take into account the lack of exploration, weak online experience, and a few other key factors.
Not a terrible game, just not as good

I would like to see Pokemon do away with the need to sit through long, unskippable conversations.

I honestly couldn't care less about the story, but 90% of the conversations, I could live without, entirely.

Conversations with Mom. With Professor Tree. With your rival/friend. With the random "bad guy."

I just want to be able to skip them, without spamming the A-button.

Party battles, 4 vs. 4, 2 vs. 4, anything other than one on one. That’s extremely dated. Even Dragon Warrior got rid of the 1 on 1 fights in favor of a more robust party system in future entries. Something that has to make us think and plan each round, instead of just knowing when to switch to the next Pokémon’s weakness, would be a godsend.

And all the stuff that Alex said. Great post. May Game Freak or whoever is making this garbage, actually listen.

@Munchlax Basically what they've been doing Gen III onwards. A few steps forwards, a few steps back. I don't think things really got too bad until X & Y, but I remember taking note at the age of 12 that features I enjoyed in Gold/Silver were missing in Ruby/Sapphire...

@VinniVinni Pokemon mystery dungeon has that, but maybe you're talking more mainline series!

just finished Bugsnax and it hit some of my Pokemon needs. Doesn’t have battles or leveling, but good creatures, worldbuilding, and a wonderful story/characters. I would like to see a Pokemon game go smaller. Get lost in Viridian Forest and have an adventure.

@mariomaster96

NO!
In the first instance, Game Freak are the owners, creators of the Pokemon franchise and they are the ones who create the characters and creatures, settings, history and mechanics of the game, no other developer could use that package; but I do not deny that with another "support" developer I would help to improve many things in development.
And enough of "blame" to game Freak, do not forget that Nintendo and the Pokemon company also have responsibility and for me, one thing they must fix for Pokemon games is that Nintendo leaves them more time for game development and allow Game Freak to correctly develop the games; In the last generations it has been seen as realtively every year there is a new game of the main line, to such a degree that the generations last 3 or less years than before, and I mention it, because of how interesting that when Pokemon had to be ready to the launch, another game if it was given more opportunity for further development (Animal Crossing) when its release date was closer to Pokemon, and the result is very conclusive; If you want a game to be very good in many aspects, giving it a good development time is the first factor in having that game as excellent as possible.

@mariomaster96
my exact thoughts. When I read “Here’s how I’d fix the Pokémon series “. My first thought was “give it to Monolith” lol.

A lot more exploration, and lots more side content are the two things I'd want to see improved most in the next pokemon generation.

I'm not interested in Pokemon unless they massively revamp the battle system. I haven't played since the original Silver, but it looks like battles haven't evolved much since then. Time to do something more interesting.

Then again, Sword and Silver sold almost 20 million copies, so who am I to give Nintendo advice.

@FX102A With hundreds and hundreds of Pokemon that just wouldn't be possible. You're looking at an exponential increase in animations, physics etc. The Smash Ultimate team considered developing 80 odd characters an insane undertaking - Pokemon has over 10 times that many creatures.

@graysoncharles
1-In that, Nintendo is also responsible, since as we remember, the franchise belongs to both Game Freak and Nintendo, so that decision is not only GF.
2-I have no opinion here
3-For me, it is cruel that a developer does not give its the opportunity to make other games just because its "Star" game is the only thing that many people want the focus, but that is not the worst, no, Is, that is when people then say if that is what they only know how to do, right?
4-Here I cannot criticize the programmers or your opinion, since the game is not very badly programmed if we refer to a game full of bugs as it was in its first games (red & green), but I know that there are still bugs or other details.
5-For me it is good to experience something so that the game is "Exactly the same", minimum, the mechanics (broken or well done) give more life to the game and also give interest to the ideas that they put in "the history" of the "Pokemon world"
6-No discussion, but also Nintendo, its online is still somewhat painful ...
7-That would be the right thing to do if the game did not belong to GF, but it is a game "CREATED and developed" by GF, so no; However, it is best that Nintendo takes responsibility by giving GF a more "useful" support to be able to develop the games, that is, by giving them a very competent support developer.

I've never been able to get into Pokemon or its imitators. I think the main reason is the PKMN battles themselves, which I find unengaging. The game world and TPC's mercenary practices don't help matters.

More compelling story. Make cool story for ten characters, then let the player pick and choose who to play. Or make the story about a team. Colosseum was more compelling than Sword for crying out loud.

I got turned off the series when the Exp Share was available from the beginning- it just made the whole game far too easy.

Black & White was my last full outing, with all of my Pokemon transferred from games as early as Ruby & Sapphire. My level 100 Dragonite, Alakazam and Arcanine were unstoppable and I nearly filled the entire Pokedex. God knows why I got rid of it after ploughing over 500 hours into it! One of my biggest regrets ever!

I'll tell you how you fix Pokemon, and I cannot believe that Nintendo has not done this yet. You create a Pokemon game going back to its roots of card battling, but only the cards have NFC readers in them. So you trade and collect cards in real life but then use those cards to battle in-game. it's so obvious and would create more money than they can count.

Honestly, my only gripe is the latest game should be made playable with a decent framerate to get rid of the severe ghosting.

Someone above mentioned Persona. Maybe what we need is a completely different change of pace for the mainline games. How many times have we done the 'gym badges - elite 4 - champion' loop now?

How about a game set at a college campus? They could do Pokemon U and Pokémon Tech, with each game featuring a campus set around either academia or STEM. There would be a large campus to explore and varsity competitions replacing the tired gym system. In between all this would be a school class system that you have to undertake where you could be doing anything from teaching a fire Pokémon new moves whilst welding to marine biology with your Goldeen.

As well as Persona-style classes would be an underground Pokémon tournament you could enter out of hours. As well as this they could add societies you could join based on certain Pokémon types and species.

The end goal of the game might be to graduate from the College but then there would be a post-game scenario where you study for your Pokémon Honours Doctorate. This would involve teaching classes (battling) as well as experiments on certain strategies and levels.

@RadioHedgeFund
+1
Pokémon colusseum and XD were good examples of some new in a story for main Pokemon games, obviously, add more exploration and catch Pokemon, and some things as Pokemon camp of sword and shield

It looks the same nothing was fix...

@Damo Cheers for the reply. Yes, yes of course. Fair enough, ha.

@graysoncharles

That is the most correct, that the decision, both Game Freak and Nintendo to receive support for another developer to do the work of making the games, is unanimous.
Of course, yes, Game Freak would not be out of the game, they are the ones who would continue to implement the characters, creatures, worlds and stories in future games; well, they are "the creators".

Alex Olney, Why do you think Pokemon needs fixing? It's still presently the highest grossing franchise on the planet. It still grosses billions a year.

Please tell me where Pokemon needs fixing? The video games play better than they ever did and have a massive online feature now, not to mention the tournaments are as competitive as ever.

Since Sword and Shield has dropped, I've seen a lot of old Pokemon tropes end and new ideas that allow gamers to catch pokemon that normally you have to EVOLVE OR TRADE TO RECEIVE. Honestly, that was a feature I was demanding since Gen 1.

Your ideas seem like a waste and things we have seen in other games. Falling into typical tropes is what harms a ln older franchise and you're just printing and repeating idea that came from other properties.

Honestly, stick to whatever your day job is and quit standing on a soapbox and proclaiming what you think is best because I'll guarantee ya this now: if your ideas were good, Nintendo would've hired you on the board to direct the next pokemon game.

Haha, the people wanting to give the IP to Monolith are funny. I cannot wait to have Pokemon be hidden behind gatcha mechanics and you need to level certain Pokemon to unlock field skills (basically the dreaded HMs of the old games) to progress thus making exploration tedious.
The Pokemon games have issues but most of them can be solved by giving the developers more time for development. It's clear that GF was struggling on a technical level with HD development on a console after developing on outdated handheld hardware the past years. They are now out of their comfort zone. Giving them more time would have helped them sort many of those issues out.

Reading most of the comments in here and it seems like people want to turn the games into something completely different which just baffles me. Just go play the Persona games if you want to play a Persona game.

@Salvince As we all know, sales= quality. Always.
/s

@MajinSoul Because Monolith always put gatcha mechanics in there games. As we all know...

Also, I would love Monolith to pick up Pokemon mainly because they know how to make 3D worlds MUCH better designed and fleshed out than GameFreak.

@jowe_gw In other words, you can't form a response to my facts and avoiding the subject. Your forfeiting essentially. The fact that Sword and Shield are still selling despite your ignorant rant, means its a good game ¯(ツ)/¯. Your argument is invalid.

@jowe_gw in other words you would ruin an entire series for your own blind ego. Your argument: Monolith makes games look good, so I'd give them a series they have no experience with just to waste millions on a good looking game. You'd bankrupt a company, shut the F UP.

@MajinSoul I disagree, Game freak spends a lot of time on each pokemon game. The fact that there's little to no junk code in ANY Nintendo game, proves that they work harder than most devs ever will and get more accomplished. It's honestly just proof people are taking Pokemon games for granted and don't appreciate what goes into each game.

The graphics are fine for the console, the only real issue in today's game industry is the self entitled and ignorant fans who rely on games looking flawless to be considered "good."

The graphics are amazing for pokemon. Especially we had 5 pokemon gens that spanned almost 20 years before we saw any 3D pokemon game on the handheld level. We all just need to take a step back and appreciate the work that has gone into the series to make it such an amazing success.

@Salvince Dude... What are you about? I mentioned Monolith Soft being able to do better due to that very team having more experience with big 3D worlds while also being a support group for a lot of other Nintendo modern games (they participated in the development of games like BoTW and even Animal Crossing New Horizons in in some way).
You can say a lot about GameFreak but they are not experienced in console development. It's not really all that hard to see.
Funny you say that giving Pokemon to Monolith Soft or they helping in the next Pokemon game would "bankrupt a company" considering Nintendo has been using that studio as codeveloper for multiple games at this point. I guess that means Nintendo is doomed once again.

And your point about my opinion being "invalid" because the game sells a lot is stupid. There is no other way arround it. Sells does not equal that the product is better than the ones selling less than it. Sure, in a perfect world it would, but we are not in it. With that logic I could say that games like Fifa or CoD are the pinnacle of game design quality,for example. Or that Skylanders is better than the Zelda series. And I could go on.

Also,I'm sorry, but the graphics and specially animations on SWSH are not great. Not by a long shot. Sure, they are TECHNICALLY the best a Pokemon game ever looked... But Pokemon games were on a 3DS before (and LGPE were just as meh looking btw since they reused engine and a bunch of animations between the two). Nintendo themselves made better looking games on the Switch earlier in it's live cycle (some even codeveloped by that studio that you say would make Nintendo backrupt if they ever touched a Pokemon game).

And amazing how are you painting critism as "entitlement". If me looking at other Nintendo games that cost the same, were released on the same console and earlier than SWSH and say "huh, those games look way better than SWSH" makes me entitled then fine. But I just don't like how this series does the bare minimum and apperantly I should be applauding them and I should avoid all critism towards it. No, I don't.
This series has been stale for a a while, it's developer has been crunched to put out games in an unhealthy rate while also not being able to make a game of the same visual quality like the main studios at Nintendo can.