I've played Sapphire and Fire Red and seen footage of the rest. THEY ARE ALL THE SAME
DAMN THING!
Well, there's really nothing new anymore. And no they're not, but I'll go into why below.
Start in a small town, mom tells you to see professor, someone tells you professor is on trouble, ave professor ten you get your pokemon.
Sounds like any RPG really, though not always with the professor part.
After that their nephew/niece becomes your rival.
Actually, in G/S/C and HG/SS it was a thief with no relation to anyone (though I've heard rumours he was related to Lance).
In D/P/Pt it was a childhood friend. The Professor's nearest Kin didnt really battle you, because she picked the pokemon weak to yours. She was more there for Misc help.
Now, I havent played/looked extensively into Black and White yet, but I'm pretty sure your rival isnt related to the Professor. In fact, I think the rival and the girl who chooses the pokemon weak to yours are only you're best friends.
Get all badges rinse and repeat.
Oka, I'll give you that. But then again the Zelda games are the same way, with items collected instead of badges. Mario is on a linear path with no real deviation allowed (I know the warp tubes, but unless you know they're there, you're not going to skip worlds). ANd most any game that requires you to level up or not allow you to pick your path is the same way, where you have to overcome one goal and can not move on without choosing which path you'd like to take.
To add to the milking why do they release tow versions of the game on the same platform with the only difference being ONE damn pokemon?
Actually, most games only allow you certain pokemon to catch. I think in FR and LG, you could only catch growlithe in FR and Vulpix in LG (or vice versa). But in this game the physical world itself is entirely different (white forest and something else in white vs. Black city). There's still version exclusive pokemon and yes, the main one on the box is the real difference that most people will base their decision on. But even the gym leaders are different (Iris in White, Shaga in Black).
While yes, you can wait for whatever game they will release as the third game (pokemon Gray?) to get everything as well as a new pokemon that you may not get or where the focus isnt so much about getting it, each version itself has those nice little quirks that make them special. You can say nintendo is only doing it for money, and Hey, I wouldnt disagree. They are business. But the version exclusive encourages trade and getting together to complete the game, as well as building a nice joined fan base, which they can sell more games without the riots that might arise over "oh, Black is better cause it has Reshiram," and "nah uh! White is better cause it has Zekrom" that would cause bad blood when fans wanted to purchase the games.
People talk about COD, Halo etc. but THIS is the most milked franchise EVER
I wouldnt say ever. There's always Mario and LoZ. And FPSs on the whole are the same and overly milked. If its not Halo or CoD, then its a Halo or CoD clone. Besides, this is one of Nintendo's most solid corner stones. No matter what you do to a pokemon game, if it has the same basic formula that you seem to have an issue with, its going to be a solid game that will sell. Again, every game company is a business, so if it aint broke and its making you butt loads of money, why stop it or fix it?
Now, as to it being always the same, I dont think I've ever seen two games in different generations that were exactly the same. Since pokemon has come out, here's some of the changes we've seen:
- Introduction of pokemon
- Separation of the Special category into Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense
- Separation of the bag in terms of items and categories
- The night and day change based on real world time
- Friendship level (though this was seen in Yellow, it wasnt extensively brought out until G/S/C)
- Ability to set items to select
- Introduction of IVs, EVs, and Priority Movies
- Double Battles
- New types and variations of them (we've seen the addition of the new types Steel and Dark)
- Weather Conditions
- Triple battles
- Sprite Animations (both Trainer and Pokemon)
- Abilities
- Natures
And finally
- the difference between a Physical and Special attack and arena moves like Spikes/Stealth Rock/Toxic Spikes
Finally, the Dream World is a major change that is going to pretty much break the game, especially with the new Type combinations and the math involved in perfecting a competitive battle team.
Now, if you wnat to complain about Pokemon sprites and ideals, I do want to point out that GameFreak has gone from Myth to germ to otherworldly to extraterrestrial, and even the mechanical human made world. So stopping short of making religious deities pokemon (God vs Allah, or Moses vs Jesus and such), I would honestly like to know where anyone who says the designs are garbage would like them to go. People seem to think that all the money goes into the design, and the rest is just after thought, when really that sprite is meaningless. I'll quote myself from another thread:
This was in the Non Canon thread, but it relates to this:
emeraldrafael said:
goldendriger said:
Probably because you're (we're) not the target demographic. Pokemon isnt for our age, its for young kids. And lets not forget, these people that are "designing these crappy pokemon" are also designing new looks for old pokemon.
Charizard used to look like this:
http://www.smogon.com/download/sprites/rb/6.png
Reminds me of a down syndrome dragonite
Magmar used to look like this:
http://www.smogon.com/download/sprites/rb/126.png
Reminds me of those water head babies you're not supposed to laugh at.
Mewtwo used to look like this:
http://www.smogon.com/download/sprites/rb/150.png
Constipated?
Zapdos used to look like this:
http://www.smogon.com/download/sprites/rb/145.png
Oh noes, someone pissed off Big Bird
The original designs werent that great, even back then. So when you go and say that these designers are making crappy pokemon, remember they're making older pokemon new sprites. If they had just left the original 150 as their original sprites, everyone would be pissed. So its a little hard to be original, when you have to appease people who are far to old for the game so they dont whine and ***** that their favorite old pokemon look dumb.
And you're going to tell me that Weavile, Dialga, Electivire, Empoleon, Arceus, Darkrai, Giratina (either form doesnt really matter, though Giratina-O looks cooler in my opinion), And Lucario dont all look cool? Plus Garchomp.
And in the new generation, you get Kojondo, Jalorda, Mebukijika, Shibirudon, Zeburaika, Ononokusu, Sazandora, Pendoraa, Genosect, and Victini all are bad designs?
So knowing that GameFreak has to also work on the old pokemon, its hard for them to also make new pokemon. Besides again, everyone's complaining about a game that odds are, if you're on the Escapist you are beyond the target age audience. Pokemon is the standard intro RPG. its what you play when you want to get into gaming and have the choice of mindless fun ona linear level, or complex though provoking strategy through math that I've seen expressed as Mathematical Calculus problems that High School and even a College professor didnt want to look at and try and explain to me why someone would put this much effort in or how they came to it all. What with Probability and countering being so big of a margin, especially with the multitudes of sets you could run with a pokemon team, from Walls to tanks to passers to supporters to sweepers.
So yeah... thats probably why. If you odnt like it, stop complaining, other people like it, its there right. Who are YOU to decide what is and isnt played?