What makes you Love/Hate Pokemon?

[MrHide-Patten]

I've always had a bit of a love hate relationship with the Pokemon franchise.

On one hand, it's one of the first games I ever got into, helped me make friends, and was inspiring as an artist to see new designs and such. However as I grew up, the games were still being primarily targeted at kids, so the games (NPC dialog and narrative) always seem very vapid and dull, making more Pokemon rather than expanding upon the older set (Pokemon like Politoad, Slowking, Scizor and Steelix, to name a few), and my lack of disposable income to spend on a machine to just play Pokemon games.

But those are just a few of my minor personal pros and cons, I could honestly waffle on for ages as to why I haven't played since Diamond and Pearl, but I'd rather know what everybody else likes and dislikes about the game series.

Why? I'm an indie dev from Australia (Indie is all we've got practically left since the global financial crisis, making Australian studios too expensive to work with overseas contracts) and I've been kicking around the idea of making a Pokemon-esc style of RPG for IOS and Android (PC as well potentially). Now I know that I can't just copy paste what works for Pokemon and expect the money to roll in the door; there'd be a more of an emphasis on making a small team stronger as opposed to collecting critters and then gathering dust in PC Storage, and I'd like to add some nuance to the narrative as well.

But that's the sort of idae I'm going off, but having more data to work off would really help make this better.

 

[Tayh]

It's worse than MLP, in that it is produced exclusively to sell merchandise to small kids, but to both genders instead of just girls.
Its fanbase is less obnoxious, but in turn it's vastly larger and more widespread.
In particular, hugelol.com really needs a pokemon-filter.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

It appeals to me as a completionist, I like most of the Pokemon designs, and I just love RPGs, so I like the games.

What I hate, is all the time wasters they put in (looking at you, breeding), the way they divide the games in 2+ versions to sell more (and how I always end up buying both versions eventually, due to the next reason), how there's only one save for the game, so you either have to give up all your progress if you ever decide you want to go through the story again, or you need to buy another game, and how it's never actually worthwhile to catch them all (Might have changed with Black/White, but before all you got was a certificate...).

 

[Terminate421]

I love the games and the potential behind them. Marketability as well as the concepts allow for many interesting things.

 

[TheEvilCheese]

I love RPGs with a strong sense of character progression (in power terms not narrative ones, well that too but it's hardly relevant here). Pokémon lets me create a team of monsters and challenge the world with them. The biggest attractions for me as an adult are completing the pokedex and online battles. Neither of which give the short term gratification you'd expect from a "kids game", but are all the more rewarding because of it.

I have yet to find a more fun competitive turn based RPG, and that scratches a big itch.

 

[sextus the crazy]

I like JRPGs, in general, but the pokemon ones are really easy to get into and are good on the go. The designs appeal to me.

Also, the Pokemon Competitive scene is pretty awesome; the metagame is incredibly interesting to watch and study, even if you don't play it much.

 

[Berny Marcus]

I love Pokemon ever since I played it on my gameboy in the 90s. I used to like the anime as it was apart of my childhood, but it has become so childish, and uhg I hate Ash now for what he has become.

I still like the games overall, but I avoid the third versions because it's basically the samething, although I do buy the remakes like HeartGold and Soul Silver.

 

[Someone Depressing]

I like Pokemon because it's an entry level RPG, with many fun, colourful and inventive things to stuff into tennis balls, and it probably provided the morals of friendship to some children somewhere. It's also vast, and fun, and gaining each new overworld ability gives you a new, wonderful area to explore, to find all of the secrest in, and to stuff more colourful horses into tennis balls.

I hate everything else.

 

[TehCookie]

It's a simple game that can be played on the go for minutes or hours at a time. It also has that sense of exploration that I love of finding new Pokemon, areas or even items scattered about. Also I love turn based JRPGS.

 

[TimeLord]

Apart from being a fun, engaging and rediculously attictive game. I love the music.

Every time I start up Y I listen to the starting music all the way through. Why? Cause it's awesome!
Also the Champion theme for Alder in Gen 5.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Problem was it hadn't changed enough. Fresh coat a paint, but it was always top down isometric perspective, sprites and menues. Very boring, especially when they started to try and bring huge narratives with it.

Now X and Y.... holy shit, it's like a whole new game. Like it's the CONSOLE Pokemon game we've been wanting them to make for years.

 

[Salus]

LIKE: The collecting, the training, the sense of exploration, the great feeling of building your own team.

DISLIKE: PokéInflation, the phenomenon of adding so many new Pokémon that it just dilutes the existing ones. I stopped playing after Diamond and Pearl because there were simply too many Pokémon, and frankly, when I flip through the strategy guides the new designs seem very uninspired and dopey. That, and the fact that they release THE SAME GAME EVERY TWO YEARS. I believe it goes Professor Oak, then Professor Elm, then Birch, Rowan, Juniper and Sycamore. I can't go through the same "select 1 of 3 starter Pokémon" then beat the elemental gym leaders in sequence, then do the Elite Four, then (SURPRIZE!) your rival. Honestly I'd come back if they simply returned to the starting hundred Pokémon that (IMHO) were the best.

I was a big Pokémon fan and had a partner, we bought 3 sets (6 games between us) and played together until we just couldn't do it anymore. One of my main gripes is TM's, and how teaching your Blastoise Thunder Punch just sucks the color out of competitive play. I don't like Pokemon that use this universal all-element move pool.