Why back in my day, we had 151 Pokémon and we liked it!
The Pokémon series is one of the longest running series in video games. It has sold over 200 million games as of 2015 and with Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon coming soon, that number will undoubtedly increase. Since the first generation of Pokémon games, the formula has remained largely the same: choose a fire, grass, or water starter Pokémon, beat the 8 gym leaders to acquire badges, stop a nefarious gang, and then beat the Elite 4 to become champion. Here’s my issue: Every time a new game comes out, it gets a little easier, and kids are the ones who lose out.
Who knew kids would love forcing various kinds of animals to cockfight so much? God bless Japan.
Pokémon Red is a simpler game than Pokémon Y. There’s fewer Pokémon, attacks, stats, items, and places to go. Yet somehow, it’s a way harder game. In the first generation, after choosing your starter, your rival chooses the Pokémon that’s strong against yours and challenges you to a battle. In Y, your first battle is against a Pokémon that you are strong against. Because you already have an elemental attack, you should win hands down.
See, this battle used to be hard. Now they hand you victory on a silver platter.
After the first gym victory in Gen 1, you wander through a multi-level cave filled with dead ends and trainers. Exploration here is rewarded with several new attacks and rare items. You can totally miss all of these, as they’re not on the path to progress through the cave. After your first victory in Gen 7, you’re given the Exp Share, which allows you to level up your Pokémon super-quickly. Gen 7 feels as if the designers were afraid that kids would wander off if they weren’t immediately given everything on a silver platter, as compared to Gen 1 which made you work for your progress.
To get through Mt. Moon, you need to get to 3, which leads to 6, where you can get to 7, which is the exit. You can miss several levels, rooms, items, and trainers by just trying to find the exit.
Even the mechanics have been softened up considerably. In Gen 1, if your Pokémon got poisoned, it would lose HP every turn in battle and every few steps after battle, until it fainted. You had to plan ahead, strategize, and stock up on useful items. In Gen 7, poison doesn't do any damage outside of battle at all. Moreover, Gen 7 hands you tons of items that you never need to use. Perpetration is key for a lot of life, and games are no exception. When games remove the need for planning ahead, they cheapen the experience.
Challenge allows kids to think more critically about games and strategy, like in gym battles. In any Pokémon game, the gyms are the major checkpoints of progress and often the most challenging part, culminating in the ultimate series of battles with the Elite 4. The gyms of Gen 7 are much easier, partly because they send out fewer Pokémon. No leader has more than three Pokémon, whereas in Gen 1, gyms 5, 6, 7, 8 have at least four. Even though the leader’s Pokémon in Gen 7 are higher leveled, the Exp Share removes any leveling challenges. Less Pokémon means faster battles
The general power of the leader’s Pokémon has also been decreased. In Gen 1, the second gym leader, Misty, has two Pokémon: Staryu and Starmie. Starmie is a powerhouse in Gen 1, possessing an extremely high speed and special stat. To beat her, you needed to capture a grass Pokémon around Cerulean City or initially picked the grass starter. In contrast, Grant, the second gym leader in Gen 7, has two much less powerful Pokémon, Tyrunt and Amaura. Given the different types of Pokémon you can catch before this gym, plus the strength of your starter, this gym is a cakewalk. Pokémon’s tagline is “Gotta Catch ‘Em All”, but the later games are removing the need to catch a varied team.
Even an over-leveled Pikachu would find this difficult, just because Starmie can do so much damage with Bubblebeam.
Gen 1 taught you early on that building a team of different Pokémon is essential to your success and demanded that you train them so you’re ready for anything. In Gen 7, you are given 3 powerful Pokémon just by making your way through the story. In Gen 1, you are given your starter. You can find other free Pokémon throughout the game, but it requires exploration and backtracking. You are encouraged to find out more about the game, while knowing that very little will be handed to you right off the bat.
Seriously, you just get a gym leader's Pokémon, for going through the story. With the Gen 7 starter, the Gen 1 starter you get, along with Lucario, you can make it through the whole game no problem.
In Gen 7, a whole cast of characters reminds you what you should be doing along the way. Exploration barely factors in to the storyline. In Gen 1, you are told that there are 8 Gyms and the Elite 4 and by beating them, you can become Champion. You have to figure out where they are, how to get there, and how to defeat them. For example, after you beat the 3rd Gym you’re basically left at a dead end. But, you have just received the HM Cut, which allows your Pokémon to cut down certain trees. By backtracking to an area previously blocked, you find Rock Tunnel. Rock Tunnel is pitch black and can only be illuminated by a Pokémon with another HM, Flash. You can only get this HM by going through another cave and finding a helpful scientist. Gen 7 would never put you in this kind of position. You would have been told exactly where to go, given the Flash HM, and be guided through the whole cave, which has at least person who will heal your Pokémon in the middle. Is it easier? Yes, but it makes the game less memorable. You also help them become better game players, because you’ve forced them to be more explorative and analytical.
I grew up on Gen 1, so they have a special place in my heart. I can fully admit that I’m way nostalgic for the original games, but they weren’t without their problems. The original games are full of unexplained mechanics and balance issues. You have no way of knowing which attacks were better than others, or which attacks were which type. There was no counter to psychic Pokémon, and poison Pokémon were essentially useless. Pokemon could have the wrong stats for all of their moves and be terrible (lookin’ at your Flareon and Arcanine). Your backpack only had 20 slots, so you are constantly forced to head back to the PC to drop off spare items. The newer games have improved in so many ways, but those improvements came at the cost of challenge. There’s a middle ground where things can be understandable without being obvious, where the game can be hard without punishing, and where you can challenge and intrigue kids without frustrating them, and hopefully Pokémon will find it with Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon.
