I genuinely believe we the fans caused the downfall of Pokemon

I wanted to start a discussion about this and I wonder how many of you will agree with what I’m saying. I believe that the backlash to gen 5 caused a radical shift in how Game Freak handled the Pokemon series.

Now I’m aware that no group is a monolith, but a loud group of people clamored about the stupidest stuff, no legitimate criticism of the game. People whine about not being able to catch their old favorites (despite the fact that every almost every old Pokémon could be transferred to the game and many of the old favorites could be caught in the post game areas). People yelled about how unoriginal like 5 of the 156 designs were and declared the whole generation lazy (despite the fact that gen 1 featured such original concepts as Poké ball, upside down Poke ball, and pile of goo just to name a few).

And it’s not just public outcry. The sales for BW were the lowest of all the games with a new region at the time by about 1 million, and BW2 is one of the lowest selling mainline games in franchise history. Now I acknowledge that people growing out of Pokémon could have played a role in BW sales, and that usually every third version game typically doesn’t do that great sales wise. But I don’t think it’s ridiculous to say that the online backlash played a non-insignificant role in the decrease in sales. Especially when it’s comes to BW2, which is so clearly a labor of love and effort, but has only been celebrated more recently.

And that’s another thing I wanted to talk about: effort. Every game before Gen 6 had their flaws, but it was clear that effort was poured into each title. But after gen 5, it became increasingly clear that GAME FREAK did not want to direct all the time and effort into the Pokémon franchise. You can see this in their business decisions. They were going to make a third version gen 6 game, but then they canceled it in favor of trying to make their own IP like the elephant game or that town game (You can check the DYKG Pokémon Z videos for more details).

And many decisions that fan seem to loath nowadays in recent Pokémon games, seem to be born out of response to the online backlash to gen 5. The hyperfocus on older Pokémon, especially gen 1 Pokémon like Charizard. The focus on nostalgia and the decrease of new Pokémon per generation. The new forms, Megas, and special gimmicks given almost exclusive to old and popular mons. All of this feels like it’s trying to address those people who whined about the new mons and not being able to catch the old mons in gen 5.

They stopped putting in all of their effort towards Pokémon. Why bother putting in such effort and manpower if you won’t be rewarded for it? A lot of things like the lower number of new Pokémon in each dex , less complicated routes, the easier fights, all seems to indicate that Game Freak wants to put less effort and wants to make these games for a less engaged, less interested type of gamer. They were punished for being inventive and trying something new, so they stuck to the same old stuff.

One of the reasons I made this post is because I saw a post about how ORAS was one of the best games on the 3DS. And this is one of the things that irritates me about the community, the switch up. I remember being in this fandom during BW, it was hated on release, and now it’s one of the most beloved in the franchise. When ORAS was released, people raked it over the coals (including the infamous IGN review), and now some are saying it’s one of the best remakes. A lot of people were trashing Sun and Moon sometime after release, and now there seems to be people coming out of the woodwork saying it’s their favorite.

And to be clear, I don’t mind people changing their minds on a game over time. What I do mind is the mob mentality that centers itself around negativity towards a new release, only for a few years later for people to come and say it was actually kind of good, after the damage has been done. It’s like the infamous Zelda cycle but worse, because we have seemingly changed the direction of the franchise in a negative direction.

I also want to discuss the difference between GAME FREAK and The Pokémon Company (TPC). A point that is commonly brought up in this type of discussion is that Pokémon is the one of the largest franchises in the world. People ask why more money simply can’t be put into Pokémon game development, but it’s not that easy. Majority of the money is made from toys, from merchandise. Only a fraction of it is made by the games and only a fraction of it is given to game freak. And given game freaks more than 10 year long stretch of releasing a game almost every year, it seems kind of clear that the Pokémon company has been pushing GAME FREAK to release a game every year; that way they’re able to release more merchandise which makes more money. And while this might be a reach on my part, given the decrease in sales of gen 5 and the continuation of the one game a year trend, I think it’s possible that the fan backlash ands it’s repercussions led to TPC giving less time and money to Game Freak for their games.

And what frustrates me to no end is when I’m in the Pokémon community and I see so many people dogging on GAME FREAK. Now obviously game freak is not without fault. They have made their own decisions as a game company. But if you don’t think those decisions have been heavily influenced by both pressure from fans and pressure from the Pokémon company, you are out of your damn mind. Between pressures from fans, time and budget restrictions from TPC, and a desire to make a good game, something had to give. And that passion, that desire to make something seems to be what gave.

And when I see people criticizing Game Freak, it’s kind of frustrating to see the lack of accountability, or at least the whitewashing and revision of history when we talk about how we got to this point. We are the makers of our own misfortune. It was in part the fandom’s fault for why modern Pokémon games are the way they are. Either us or TPC. And at this point, it could very well be both.

Now in the title, I said the downfall of Pokémon, but that’s kind of a misnomer. Pokémon has been better then ever in terms of game sales, with no reason to change course. And to be fair, I actually like some of the newer titles, even some of the switch ones. I had a lot of fun with SM and ORAS, and despite their faults, I enjoyed Legends Arceus and SV. Even BDSP wasn’t that bad. And I am looking forward to Legends Z-A, as the extra time they are taking for it seems to be a good sign. But it’s clear that the games are not the same as they were before. And it’s partially our fault.

(Side note: BDSP is basically just a carbon copy of DP (not talking about Platinum), and anybody that ranks it lower than DP is either disingenuous or has nostalgia goggles on. For every features that is lost, a new feature replaces it, so it’s basically the same game.)

Ultimately, I’m not saying you can’t criticize Game Freak or Pokémon, and the decisions that were made for the new games. I only ask that your criticisms are mindful of how we got here. I ask that you direct your critiques not at the hardworking men and women who are trying their best to deliver something good within a strict time and budget, but rather at the corporation that enforces those restrictions on them just to make more money.

TL;DR: We killed Pokémon; we are the makers of our own misfortune. Also most corporations suck.