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Pokémon games have become consistently ugly, and it's alright to wish they weren't
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this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2025
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It is worth pointing out that the first few generations were legitimately groundbreaking for mechanics as well.
Myeeeeeh, I don't know about that. Pokemon is deceptively late, given how rudimentary it looks due to being a GB exclusive. Blue and Red are 1996 games originally. Shin Megami Tensei had been doing monster capture and collection dungeon crawlers for a decade and six games by that point. Final Fantasy VII was less than a year away. Dragon Quest V and VI had done monster capturing and VI had "trainer battles" in an arena.
Pokemon was first to break big in the West and the idea of monster capturing as deck building is executed in a very particular way, but it was definitely pulling very directly from existing sources.
Fair.
I suppose it is groundbreaking in the same way as World of Warcraft and League of Legends are groundbreaking.
Neither of them actually introduced new concepts. But they put them together in a way that no one else had before.
I use the phrase codified. For example Ocarina of Time and Mario 64 didn't invent fighting or exploring in 3D, but both established a baseline of what it should feel like.
Pokemon took what SMT/Dragon Quest/Mother was putting down, simplified and refined the vibe and made it more accessible.
No? The first few generations were behind the curve even then.