What Should Nintendo Take From Fan Games?

[Raviel the Phantom]

So a lot of us have played many a fan game. I personally have played Zeta, Reborn, Rejuvenation, Insurgence, and Uranium, and have enjoyed each game. The creators of these fantastic games each had something that the originals, while loved, seem to lack that make them a bit better in my opinion. And instead of banning them like they did to Uranium, Nintendo should really draw inspiration from some of these games. What parts in these games do you think would be awesome to appear in a Game Freak Official Pokemon Game.

For me it has to be the following:

-Reborn: More in-depth storyline and harder gym battles

-Zeta: HM items

-Rejuvenation: Reverse Candies/Disobeying Pokemon Level Caps

-Insurgence: Delta Pokemon (I guess they did with Aloan Pokemon)

-Uranium: Standard Pokemon evolving into a legendary

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

(Nintendo didn't ban/take down Uranium; one of the links was removed and they voluntarily removed the rest but they're still updating through the patcher)

EDIT: Actually they're not updating anymore, as mentioned by Azery in another thread

Things I'd like to see from fangames in the main series:

-EV/IV checker (kind of already exists with Super Training, but iirc doesn't show exact numbers)

-Gym Leaders (and by extension E4) with full teams

-Gyms for each type (or 14 leaders + E4)

-Difficulty modes (and not like in BW2 where you basically can't even use them because they're only unlocked after the main story and need to be re-unlocked if you start over)

-All Pokemon available in one game through single-player and without needing online distribution

-More sidequests

-Key items replacing HMs (but HM moves still available maybe as TMs because I don't want to lose Surf and Waterfall)

[pyrromanis]

I want a story breaking the 4th wall constantly like Super Eevee Edition!

EV/IV visible

Unwinable/extreme difficult battles like Garchomp and Arceus.

Daily/weekly weather. I'm tired of everywhere being clear weather and only some routes having constant rain/hail.

More Julia and coffee!!!

[Masquerain]

Should take battle field effects 100% , more mature plot and more fleshed-out characters. Also forgettable HMs and the side quest system

Edited September 21, 2016 by Masquerain

[FairFamily]

EV/IV checker.

less freebie pkmn, I mean come one a starter , a starter with mega evolution, a mega evolution pkmn and a legendary or a starter with mega evolution, a legendary with mega evolution and a primal legendary.

Actual early difficulty.

better/more story (a bit better then gen V would be great)

[mde2001]

Other than maybe getting rid of HMs and a more interesting story, I'd go with nothing.

As older pokemon fans, its really easy for us to complain about the games being to easy, the characters being a little one dimensional, and us getting legendaries way too easily. However, Nintendo is having to create a game that can be played for young children, and if you throw Reborn style field effects, with a level cap included, at a young child, the game will become to complicated. Similarly if the game is so challenging that they just get stuck at at a gym, they'll give up. Pokemon is primarily a game aimed at kids, and while it is great that we can all still enjoy it, it isn't fair of us to expect the same difficulty level and mature storyline that we get from fangames.

An advantage of a fangame is that they can do all of that stuff, and do it well, in a manner that will satisfy us older fans, but I don't think Nintendo should aim to alienate its primary target base, just to satisfy the long term fans.

[Tartar]

better/more story (a bit better then gen V would be great)

Honestly, Gen 5 was really good in the story department. But what I'd actually like is for them to have Pokemon stories more like those of the Mystery Dungeon games, those had phenomenal stories.

Otherwise, difficulty options would also be great, and having those difficulty options unlocked from the get go instead of being locked would be great.

[Raviel the Phantom]

I remember playing the games as a kid with Red and Blue, and once you figured out the weakness system (this was before the internet) it was not really challenging. Heck, most gyms were surrounded by Pokemon that they were weak against. And by more challenging I don't mean Reborn-Level difficulty, but something more of Whitney being the standard for gyms.

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

Other than maybe getting rid of HMs and a more interesting story, I'd go with nothing.

As older pokemon fans, its really easy for us to complain about the games being to easy, the characters being a little one dimensional, and us getting legendaries way too easily. However, Nintendo is having to create a game that can be played for young children, and if you throw Reborn style field effects, with a level cap included, at a young child, the game will become to complicated. Similarly if the game is so challenging that they just get stuck at at a gym, they'll give up. Pokemon is primarily a game aimed at kids, and while it is great that we can all still enjoy it, it isn't fair of us to expect the same difficulty level and mature storyline that we get from fangames.

An advantage of a fangame is that they can do all of that stuff, and do it well, in a manner that will satisfy us older fans, but I don't think Nintendo should aim to alienate its primary target base, just to satisfy the long term fans.

One thing you mentioned that I don't think really fits with the rest of what you said is one-dimensional characters. Characters not being one-dimensional wouldn't make the game too difficult for the target demographic, and a storyline doesn't need to be mature for characters to not be one-dimensional. Although Pokemon does have a fair amount of characters that aren't one-dimensional.

[mde2001]

Oh, what I certainly think they can have more developed characters than they currently do, but I think that they each still need to have a pretty clear thing that they do, that young kids can remember them by. I was wrong to refer to it as one dimensional, as that isn't really what I'm referring to. I was more thinking that they can't go into characters with extensive, tragic backstory as they couldn't explore it fully in a way that young kids would get.

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

Ohhh, okay. Yeah, I don't expect to know every character's life story. What I'd mainly want to see is some Gym Leaders and E4 getting more screen time beyond beating them to go on to the next challenge. Even just a small side appearance like ORAS's leaders and E4 have is good.

[FairFamily]

Other than maybe getting rid of HMs and a more interesting story, I'd go with nothing.

As older pokemon fans, its really easy for us to complain about the games being to easy, the characters being a little one dimensional, and us getting legendaries way too easily. However, Nintendo is having to create a game that can be played for young children, and if you throw Reborn style field effects, with a level cap included, at a young child, the game will become to complicated. Similarly if the game is so challenging that they just get stuck at at a gym, they'll give up. Pokemon is primarily a game aimed at kids, and while it is great that we can all still enjoy it, it isn't fair of us to expect the same difficulty level and mature storyline that we get from fangames.

An advantage of a fangame is that they can do all of that stuff, and do it well, in a manner that will satisfy us older fans, but I don't think Nintendo should aim to alienate its primary target base, just to satisfy the long term fans.

I disaggree, most starting pkmn players most likely got their asses kicked by Brock because they choose charmander as their starter and still continued playing. I must admit though challenging games were more the norm back then. I also think that the game has room for complexity. There is a lot of room in pokemon to teach the player about extra mechanics. You just don't do it in the first three gyms but later down the road.

Edited September 21, 2016 by FairFamily

[Combat]

Event Pokemon.

Finding a rare Pokemon like this is always a treat in fan games, and would leave a lasting impression for me if they were in the real games.

[YinYang9705]

Event Pokemon.

Finding a rare Pokemon like this is always a treat in fan games, and would leave a lasting impression for me if they were in the real games.

well, ORaS has deoxys as the final pokemon in the story, perhaps future games will continue this trend.

[Combat]

well, ORaS has deoxys as the final pokemon in the story, perhaps future games will continue this trend.

Sorry, not those event Pokemon. I meant the event Pokemon that require you to do events in order to find them. Like most Pokemon in Reborn.

[YinYang9705]

oh, my mistake

[Lucky98]

One thing I want is a more in-depth story. Black and White took a step in the right direction with this, but then X and Y wasn't the best. I'm hoping Sun and Moon will focus more on story aspects.

Harder Gym Leaders and Boss Fights would also be nice. I mean, each trainer can carry six pokemon. So why does only the champion actually use six? While they're at it, they could also add a challenge mode like in Black 2 and White 2, but made so they're accessible before beating the game.

-Insurgence: Delta Pokemon (I guess they did with Aloan Pokemon)

-Uranium: Standard Pokemon evolving into a legendary

Technically, Delta Pokemon are originally from the Trading Card Game. So they aren't really taking them from Insurgence.

Also, hasn't it been established that legendary pokemon by definition don't evolve from anything, or am I just assuming that?

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

Technically, Delta Pokemon are originally from the Trading Card Game. So they aren't really taking them from Insurgence.

Also, hasn't it been established that legendary pokemon by definition don't evolve from anything, or am I just assuming that?

Although they don't evolve from them in-game, Diancie are mutated Carbink. So it may not be Farfetch'd for a regular Pokemon to evolve into a legendary under extremely specific circumstances.

[Pokemon Researcher Kat]

I definitely agree with everything that is being suggested, but a small part of me would also like to see something along the lines of a reputation system put into the games. It doesn't have to be a rewarded type of thing like a credit system, just basically having more obvious consequences for things that happen in game. Maybe even to the point where your choices actually start effecting the story, but I'm not expecting too much. Just something that not only will (hopefully) leave a lasting impression on kids, but also kind of appeal to the older players a little bit.

[Chase]

Hmm. I don't know how much I would like to see from fan games because I feel like Game Freak does a good job of taking from what works with them already (in the case of Mega/Alola forms as of late) and also keeping pace while still appealing to newer clients and younguns.

Things I would like to see though. Most of these come from Reborn.

• Every type of Gym/Equivalent - I don't know if Gym battles are confirmed for Sun and Moon, so maybe the trend of Leagues requiring "badges" is being bucked in favor of the Island Trials or whatever, but I would like to see a generation provide a challenge for EVERY type.
• Rematches. - Give the grinders some love, yeah? (I know GF's done this one before - make it a staple.)
• All Pokemon available in the generation - barring Version exclusives - FROM THE START. - none of this remake business completing the Dex. No Pokemon Bank. I want 'em all. Now.
• Non Myth/Legendary Event Pokemon. - Not ALL THE DAMN time mind you - but this is a good concept.

I think things like IVs will be seen with the new Hyper Training in Sun and Moon - so those of y'all repeat posting can chill on that one. Unless you want to complain that "it's not numerical." Please. It's in there now.

[Harem Master]

Well... All I'm waiting for is for GameFreak to add all types to complete the Eeveelutions, 'cuz my OCD is itching.

[Commander]

Now I want to talk to you guys about the whole story and Pokemon games. Let's look at the sales of a few games that had a bit more focus on story instead of good old gym badge and run...Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD. Those games both sold over a million copies. That's about 10% of what a new gen Pokemon game sells. Now let's look at one of my favorite indie series: Legend of Heroes, Trails of Cold Steel to boot. Combining the PS3 plus the PSV, it's roughly half a million, which is considered really good. So yeah, those side games were still selling really well, especially given it was during the Gamecube era.

What? You still don't think that's enough evidence to merit this. Super Mystery Dungeon and Gates both sold just in the millions as well so if you're going to make spin-offs, you can't say there's not enough demand to an Orre type game. The data shows that people are really looking for a story deep Pokemon game and it'd definitely could be very profitable. You can even see each Gen (bar Gen VI) actually improves storywise and the writing is getting better. Gen VI also finally broke the "nobody dies in Pokemon" trope so there's not much holding them back.

All of what I just said has reason behind it. Most of the fan-games are getting popular is due to having a decent or really good storyline (due to Pokemon having such a weekly sowed plot) so time and time again I just wish for a console game especially given how even more shallow the single player experience is becoming. Gen IV, V, and VI brought so many good things to bring a challenge into the Pokemon series and now they can do so much more than back then especially in the graphics department (since XD was the only good looking 3d adventure game for Pokemon back then).

So instead of saying I want GF to do something fan-games do, I want them to make a game to blow them out of the water which they have the resources to do so. Hire a studio to do an RPG adventure that reaches probably the +60 (I suppose 40+ would also work) hour mark that uses the 20 years worth of mons you built along with some really, really good story writing. Even if it was a profit loss, which it wouldn't be, that would put more pressure on fan-game makers to make a game like yours instead of fans wanting you to make games like theirs (which in return reduces the amount of fans making games). The rest I don't care either way as there's an unlimited amount of options.

[Cobalt996]

I was going to post my opinion but...

So instead of saying I want GF to do something fan-games do, I want them to make a game to blow them out of the water which they have the resources to do so. Hire a studio to do an RPG adventure that reaches probably the +60 (I suppose 40+ would also work) hour mark that uses the 20 years worth of mons you built along with some really, really good story writing. Even if it was a profit loss, which it wouldn't be, that would put more pressure on fan-game makers to make a game like yours instead of fans wanting you to make games like theirs (which in return reduces the amount of fans making games). The rest I don't care either way as there's an unlimited amount of options.

Commander has similar views, which are realistic in that they expand the scope of a game without ostracizing the intended audience, but still provide the sought "improvement."

[Obligatory "I'll expand on this later, since it;s late now" even though I'm prolly going to forget ;-;]

[Lilleen]

Better characterzation. Now, I'm not saying that every Pokémon games are bad at characterzation. There are some pretty nice characters like Silver, Cynthia and N. The problem is that I feel like not every character is given a nice personality to make them memorable. They sometimes just thows in a character with a half decent design and little to none personality. I'd rather have a Pokémon game with fewer character with an actual personality rather than many characters with no personalities.

This is where fan-games like Reborn and Rejuvenation excels at. These games have many characters, but are able to give them personalities that makes them stand out from one another.

[ty_taurus]

Difficulty settings would be a blessing. Just making the game easy might be suitable for the target audience of children, but it makes the more skilled players feel ostracized. Giving the player a choice allows all players of all skill levels to enjoy without needing to enforce custom made restrictions. Casual would be like X and Y, Competitive could be closer to what Reborn and similar fan games are like, and Normal can fall somewhere in between.

Also, if a Gym Leader/Trial Captain is going to use only 3 Pokemon, shouldn't we be restricted to 3 as well? It should be an even fight.

I'd also like for the games to allow Pokemon customization from a gameplay standpoint. We can play with EVs and IVs now, but let us permanently change Natures and Abilities as well, that way we can eliminate the breeding mechanics completely. Pokemon should be about raising the Pokemon you catch to be as strong as they can be, not breeding out imperfections like in a puppy mill. Breeding moves could be redistributed to Tutors.

You could have NPCs called Nature Coaches. Once per day, you can train a Pokemon with them to help your Pokemon change it's nature. Leaving your Lax Weavile with the Adamant Coach will change it to Adamant. Then it's just about allowing Ability Capsules to work similarly to how they do in Reborn: a permanent change that includes hidden abilities.