Main Pokemon Games vs Fanmade Games (A lil rant?)

[MhicKy]

Just wanted to share this here as we wait for v13.. 

A lil backstory first, I started playing Pokemon ever since gen1 but only really got into it by gen3, that's the time I considered myself a Pokemon Fan and had some interesting stories in relation to the series, when Black and White was about to come out I asked a cousin of mine who worked at Saraiva (A brazilian bookstore that also sells games) to hide a copy for me so when I passed there by Saturday I would have one and, fair enough, he did, even tho' all copies were already sold out by day 1 I got mine on a Saturday (day 4 I believe?) because of that freaking legend!
Gen6 was really special (at least the story of how I got it) since I went to Barra Shopping (one of the biggest malls in Rio de Janeiro) with my at the time crush at ONE IN THE MORNING for the event, sadly we didn't managed to get a copy since most of them were pre-ordered and we got there 30mins after the event started but I did managed to win a commemorative headband by winning the tournament of Pokemon Stadium, after that we went at 1:30AM in a Saraiva that was at a 2:30 drive from there and literally CAMPED at the door until they opened and got our version! Tho' the story of how I got it is exciting, gen6 turned out to be very disappointing in many regards.. By gen 7 I didn't care much but played it anyway and the only reason I played gen8 was because it was gifted to me on xmas, I had no intention to own Pokemon Sword but here it is, siting on my shelf, collecting dust.. Even tho' I tried to make gen8 exciting by placing a couple rules on myself it was still disappointing.. (For the people curious, the rules were: only normal type Pokemon, no dymanaxing, no grinding and battle style had to be on Set at all times)

I don't like the road current pokemons game have been treading since gen6, in which every new version needs a new gimmick.. gen6 was megas and I was fine with it since some Pokemon that were really terrible (my favorite one, Mawile, as an example) really started to shine even tho' tehre were Pokemon that clearly didn't need it (Lucario, Mewtwo..), gen7 had the Z-Moves and I couldn't care less, it's existence wasn't a bother to me but also didn't please me, it was just yet another gimmick but by gen8 both megas and z-moves were scrapped for dynamaxing and now I just give up.. Not to mention how easy most of these games are, and no, I don't like GameFreak hiding behind the "It's a game for children" excuse when this game has things like Nature, IV, EV and Abilities (things that children clearly wouldn't understand), besides, most people who grew up with this game are already, well.. Grown ups..

Now compare it to fanmade games like Reborn and Rejuvenation.. Sure these fanmade games aren't as polished and take a long time to come out but that's expected since most of them is made by either just one guy or a small development team with no budget and even tho' there's all these hurdles these fanmade games are what ignited my love for Pokemon again, specially Rejuvenation.. GameFreak should really be learning something with them, specially when currently I am more hyped for a version on a fanmade game that isn't even finished instead of Gen9..

My final thoughts here are, keep up the good work Jan, Zumi and everyone that helps this game, you clearly created something special here, wish you people were the ones directly involved with the main series.. No really.. I meant it.. 

[TharTV]

Pokemon Sun/Moon is actually pretty hard if you don't use the exp share function (probably same thing for XYZ). But I agree, Reborn and Rejuvenation are way more fun to play. Especially the field effects are genius, and add a whole extra layer of strategy to the combat system.

Idk if you have tried it yet, but Temtem's also a pretty good Pokemon clone, and has a WAY better combat system compared to Pokemon. It's also pretty hard especially in the beginning when you have to figure everything out.

[Jace3]

39 minutes ago, TharTV said:

Pokemon Sun/Moon is actually pretty hard if you don't use the exp share function (probably same thing for XYZ). But I agree, Reborn and Rejuvenation are way more fun to play. Especially the field effects are genius, and add a whole extra layer of strategy to the combat system.

I would also say Pokemon Emerald with the Battle Frontier were also amazing and hard. You would need to train you pokemons in specific IV/EV to even stand a good chance to clear all of the battle frontier to gain your gold medals. So for myself, I consider Pokemon Emerald one of the best games they ever made (even tho I'm a gen 2 fan, because you could have 16 badges for the first time).

[MhicKy]

@TharTV, didn't played Sun/Moon but X/Y was very easy.. Gym leaders only had 3 pokemons (except for the first 2 that had only 2) and the elite 4 only had 4 pokemons in their team, giving you a massive advantage over them and the game gives you, for free, right after the second gym, a Lucario with the Lucarionite and the Mega-Ring.. Haven't tried TemTem tho' but might as well take a look later
 

[Gentleman Jaggi]

I played Sun entirely without Exp Share and it definitely wasn't hard. There's a bit of a spike in enemy levels once you get to Poni Island and after winning the league but calling that game hard is definitely pushing it.

[Tikkit]

You do have to remember that a mainline Pokemon game has to cast a far wider net than a fan game. Being less difficult is a decent way to ensure you're not alienating new players, while a fan game has no such worries.

[Nocturne93]

21 minutes ago, Tikkit said:

You do have to remember that a mainline Pokemon game has to cast a far wider net than a fan game. Being less difficult is a decent way to ensure you're not alienating new players, while a fan game has no such worries.

The mainline games could at least add difficulty options for more experienced players. They introduced that function back in Gen V, but it was difficult to unlock and it was once again removed in Gen VI. 

[Tikkit]

12 hours ago, Nocturne93 said:

The mainline games could at least add difficulty options for more experienced players. They introduced that function back in Gen V, but it was difficult to unlock and it was once again removed in Gen VI. 

Now, I don't know what goes on at Gamefreak, so take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt. But it does seem like a lot of time to make teams for every Pokemon trainer, and then go on to basically make two more teams, assuming there's an easy, normal and hard scale, and then make sure that everything is balanced and that hard isn't too easy and easy isn't too difficult and so on and so forth. Again, I don't know the process involved so maybe it's actually super easy.

[MhicKy]

@Tikkit, like @Nocturne93 said, I think it's high time GameFreak start creating difficulty sliders on their games, they just simply can't keep going like this.. Like I said in the original post, I played through Sword and Shield with 4 restrictions on myself and it was still a snooze fest.. The only lick of challenge I had was the champion and that's cuz he was overleveled, his Pokemons were Lv63~Lv65 while mine were Lv55~Lv59.. And I still won only losing 2 Pokemons on my side..

I get that GameFreak wants to keep the games casual for new players but that just alienates the old audience that think these games are waaay too easy.. Placing different types of difficulties could fix this issue easily, giving challenge to old players while keeping it casual for new ones, again, most of us aren't children anymore, Pokemon has been around for decades, GameFreak NEEDS to understand that they have an adult audience as well and not just casual children that never played Pokemon in their lives..