If you could design a Pokemon game, what would you do differently?

[Buizel91]

Been able to use the region starters, or take a personality test (No Psuedo's and has to be in a 3 stage evolution.)

Level cap to 150, with highest wild level Pokemon being 120, so we can easily get to the max level without super grinding.

Attacks get better in power as you use them, once they have been used at least 10 (maybe 20 depending on the power level) times, the move then becomes "Perfected"

All regions available (if it's a huge console RPG game) if it's on DS make the current region huge so we don't get bored after the league (kinda like Black and White)

If a Pokemon has a signature move, NO OTHER Pokemon can learn it.

TM's have unlimited use, and there are no HM's, instead Pokemon are taught how to fly or swim, or get trained to break/move boulders without taking up a move slot, a Pokemon can learn only 2 of these ability's if it can learn the HM counter part in previous games (if that makes sense)

You have a limit on the amount of Legendaries you can have in your party (2)

Improvised moves in the anime (such as Counter Shield and Thunder Armour) are integrated into the game, some of the moves (Like Thunder Armour) need 2 specific types of Pokemon in one battle (So Thunder Armour only works in double or triple battles with the Electric type using Thunder on the Flying type and The flying type using Aerial Ace on the Target Pokemon)

Adding loads of moves for tutoring like in Platinum, HG and SS, and you need shards (like in Platinum) to tutor the move)

And that's all i can think of for now

 

[Boaal]

Redo the art style. I'm bored of the increasingly overly-cartoony look of the damn things. I'd make them all at least a little more realistic, which might even make the recent batch that look like utter crap enjoyable.

I'd just 'grow' the game up a little bit, make it a little nastier.

3D, open world.

Dynamic world. have things change. Team rocket are apparently this constant menace - so I'd have them constantly launching random attacks on random places. if you're there and a place gets attacked, you either help defend it, or run away. There seem to be multiple factions too, so why not have these things battling it out for one thing or another. Have a news system for updates on this type of dynamic thing. Faction joining, etc etc.

The big legendary pokemon are not catchable.They roam the world, they might attack people, but they shrug off all attempts at catching them.

Get rid of the fucking HMs. They suck. They represent inbuilt traits of a pokemon: so let the damn things do what they naturally would. If a pidgy flew before capture, let it fly afterward.

Entirely change the battle system. Make it dynamic, real time. The system, as it is, has enormous trouble accounting for variation of its attacks and properly representing what they should do and it's just boring. Sandstorm for instance: in 3D it could literally over an area with a sandstorm making it difficult to see your opponent and aim attacks. Remove the limitations on the number of attacks a pokemon can learn -it makes no sense that a pokemon has to randomly switch one for another permanently.

These are just ideas off of the top of my head. So if someone actually put some effort into thinking about it, it could be very good.

 

[EHKOS]

Bigger world, more locations, more interesting towns with more stuffs to do.
Have a starting area with branching paths with each path home to a different type of pokemon so you can choose which type you want to start with.\
EDIT: And make it a little better for adults, can we PLEASE get a mean gang? Also at the end I want to have my own gym, I kinda fucking earned it.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Allow HP UP, Iron, Carbos, etc. to be used all the way up to maximum EVs. Having to go out and grind 75 dudes to max your main pokemon's stats is a chore and a half.

 

[Buizel91]

Oh and I forgot to mention one big problem.

Someone was paid money to design this. Also stuff like this:

just won't do. That's not even a palette swap, it's just not caring.

Because this

Spoiler

and this

Spoiler

Are so much better.

 

[Fbuh]

Redesign the game to look a little more realistic and gritty. Darker, more sinister, with a lot of the Pokemon being actual monsters or carniverous animals. Fun stuff. And more bewbs.

 

[Pearwood]

Are so much better.

I'm not saying Gen 1 was perfect, far from it. But certainly better than an overflowing binbag and a more or less total copy of another Poke.

 

[Ryengu]

More stuff to do. Once you've beaten every trainer and finished the main storyline, unless you're obsessed with completing the pokedex about all there is to do for fun is the battle tower. Make trainers rematchable with varied strategies, more than three critters (except those jerks with 6 magikarps...) and scale their levels appropriately. Match Call makes you wait on it before you can fight and the Versus Seeker doesn't work for anyone indoors, most notably Gym Leaders. Also, change up the plot and maybe give us an actual choice that affects the way the game plays out. As it stands, picking your starter is about the most important choice you make in the game.

Aside from all that, real time combat ala Custom Robo or Star Ocean. It'd be awesome if they could pull it off.

 

[Ultra_Caboose]

I for one would like to see Pokemon take a different turn, dare I say into the clichéd "darker and grittier".

I've always wondered about what the rest of the world was like outside of the gyms and barely-pubescent trainers. Does every city in the world incorporate Pokemon into their lives?
Outside of the "regions", are there legitimate nations? Do they have the same outlook on how the main character engages with the rather destructive wildlife? If not, how would people perceive you keeping one at your side? What if it's even illegal to capture and train them?

On the reverse, I've wondered about how trainers were back before the world had it's current technology. How do people manage their Pokemon without an electronic transferring system, or high-tech healing stations and specialized hospitals? How did the concept of the Pokeball ever come to be? Might there even be Pokemon hidden in old apricot ball so long that the creature became a family heirloom, perhaps even a pet spanning generations?

Better yet, ever since Lt. Surge, I've always wondered about Pokemon being used on the battlefield. Do people use firearms in battle or rely solely on their Pokemon? Does every soldier get to actually train their own companions or do they get a stock "arsenal" of monsters before storming the fields? Even then,

A game that explored even one of these topics would greatly improve the series, in my opinion. I love the games, but I'd love it even more to have the universe expanded beyond a new set of towns and monsters.

 

[Hyper-space]

Either a Pokemon MMO with all the previous regions (maybe expanding on some of them) and deeper side-mechanics or an alternative to the Pokemon franchise.

They could keep on making the same ol' Pokemon games, but have a side-series that would be more geared towards those who are tired of the formula and want something new. It could be called Pokemon: Bronze/Grey or something. In this side-series they might have the pokemons evolve like ACTUAL evolution, with the concept revolving around "Mutation, Feedback and Replication". You could start by choosing one of the three Pokemon templates, maybe along the lines of the holy trinity (Fighter, Wizard and Rogue), with Mutation being a random power-up or ability that you get, with the feedback being combat and problem solving while replication would depend on whether you are successful.

 

[DevilWolf47]

Quite a few things honestly. Obviously expanding the human population would be an issue, as well as trying to emphasize more on how the people survive when Pokemon capable of tapping obscene destructive power have replaced all other animals it seems, especially since it means people would have to either use Pokemon as food or live vegetarian diets. Expanding depth is a must for me, as well as trying to explain how the kids get education when they leave home early to capture the fucking things, how Pokemon reproduce when they don't seem to possess genitals, and add some more visual cues between female and male individuals of Pokemon species.

I'd also add gameplay depth, though some of that was done for me in the Pearl/Diamond versions with the difference between standard and special attacks. Maybe more status ailments or add a difference between poison statuses since poison from mushrooms and poison from snakes are generally different cups of arsenic, and maybe add death or some expanded consequences to evolution.
...okay i'll be flat out, i'd add depth and challenge the fucking kids now that we have handheld devices that can do such a thing. I might have to cut the number of Pokemon down as a result, but honestly simply adding more Pokemon rather than improving gameplay was a mistake Pokemon has been making for far too long.

 

[Svenparty]

1.Morality would play heavily into the story with different final outcomes such as rigging the Pokemon League with Team Rocket.

2.Instead of catching a new legendary Pokemon you would make your Pokemon in some freaky experiment.

3)David Lynch directs the dream sequence featuring Gary as a ballerina

 

[chris_ninety1]

I'd probably change it around a bit, maybe an early 1940's setting, I'd make the Pokemon battles gun based first person shooters instead of strategy, and probably change the Pokemons into soldiers. Oh, and a bonus Zombies mode and a functionable campaign mode with a crappy story. But keep Pikachu, that guy's adorable.

OK, so I don't know jack about Pokemon, although this...

Spoiler

... made me laugh. Would I be right in saying someone wasn't even trying with that one?

 

[The Grim Ace]

1) Let every region have its own league and gyms like it already is but make it so there are more than just eight gyms. I'm tired of their being eight gym leaders one must defeat to make it to the league when -- from the looks of the anime -- there were more than eight gyms in every region, so, let players decide which gym leaders they want to fight so they can get the minimum eight badges. Their can be a special bonus for beating all of the gym leaders in a region but it otherwise feels so contrived to face only those eight gym leaders and none other.

2) Yes, like so many others in this thread, make it an MMO. No other series is so conducive to an MMO that can wildly print money than Pokemon is. Guilds (or would they be called teams? or groups? or hell if I know what) would be the main thing that makes the game and having classes other than just a normal trainer would really add to it.

3) Since Nintendo now has the 3DS, AR is completely the way to go, like, if battling with someone nearby, display both Pokemon as AR figures. Yes, it's kind of gimmicky but that would be absolutely awesome. AR would also be good for interacting with your Pokemon outside of contests, concerts, and cock-fights. How that would exactly work would be a bit difficult to work (better suited for the Kinect maybe?) but the higher connectivity would be the way to go.

4) Keeping the echo going: no more HMs. Flying Pokemon past a certain level should be able to fly in general, water Pokemon swim, etc.

5) Experience should be gained not just from winning battles but from using abilities in general. Maybe a kind of each ability can be leveled up on top of leveling up the general level of a Pokemon.

6) After incorporating all of these and other great ideas that other people have, hold off on a new Pokemon game for a decent while. The series in the US is only thirteen years old yet, just in the main series, there have been nineteen games. That is over saturation of the market with basically the same game in those thirteen years. Nintendo should take a Pokemon break right after.




[small]Then again -- sure -- this idea prints money, it just doesn't print as much as remaking the same game every few years does >.<...[/small]

 

[captaincabbage]

Incorporate Generations 1-3 into one game

Screw that! combine generations 1-5 in one game! ^^

OT: My idea still stands firm that a free to play MMORPG would just work. I think specifically free to play because I imagine Nintendo would know that kids parents wouldn't want to pay a monthly subscription fee just to keep their little shit kids happy. It'd be much easier to get their money 50c at a time, wit fancy apparel for trainers and pokemon.
Having a WoW type world, that's gigantic and awesome to trek across, with all five regions combined into one.
As it goes, you would start with your trainer. you can do all the usual awesome customization you would expect in an MMO, then pick what region you want to start in. Once you go through the first eight gyms of your region, you're free to challenge the regional Elite Four and go onto other regions, battling trainers, both real and AI etc.

The way I think the gyms would work is that the gyms you go to first in your region are the usual low leveling gyms you'd expect. The twist comes when you go to another region. For trainers for that region, the gyms are like your first ones, but specifically for people who came from other regions the gym leaders are a higher level, with more advanced pokemon.