"What Game Freak Could Learn From Genius Sonority"

GameFreak's been taking the stage with Pokemon games lately, and we've seen little of Genius Sonority lately when it comes to full game releases. But...Genius Sonority is by far, one of my favorite Pokemon game developers. I absolutely loved their games. Pokemon XD was one of the first Pokemon games I played and I still find myself coming back to it to re-complete it once a year. I don't think I'm too biased either, as I find a lot of good reasons to come back and I'll be talking about them here.The Theme & StoryFor all of you that aren't familiar with Pokemon XD and Colosseum, there was once essentially an additional typing, a possible "third typing" that could be given to a Pokemon: Shadow. Shadow moves inflicted super effective damage on non-Shadow pokemon and ineffective damage on Shadow pokemon. The backstory behind this typing was essentially that these pokemon had the doors to their hearts shut artificially, turning them into soulless puppets. To turn them back into regular pokemon, you would essentially have to battle with them (having access to their Shadow moves included) after capturing them. After a certain amount of time, you could purify them back to normal. Genius Sonority knew how to be dark with the theme and this introduced an amazing battle mechanic (explained in the difficulty section).I loved the concept of "stealing" back stolen pokemon to save them, of capturing someone else pokemon for a cause instead of hearing the "this isn't the right time for that". At one point in the games, you literally had to go to the factory that mass produces these Shadow pokemon (and if played both XD and Cole, then twice). This was a huge step up from what I played in FR/LF, HG/SS, R/S/E. Even with the usual "save the world" theme in most games, Gen 7 finally lended itself to something truly dark: cryogenic preservation of Pokemon aka freezing them alive. When I saw "that scene" in SM, I was wildly shocked and disgusted (but that's what the game wanted me to feel, so good on GF). I genuinely hope GF, when they're designing the Gen 8 game, that they will introduce plot with genuinely unique and explicit dark elements like they have in Gen 7. It's refreshing to see GF not treat you like an innocent child, to recognize that there are evils that you encounter along the way and they should be dealt with accordingly. Though I admit, one game alone is not enough evidence to say they'll keep things rolling this way.The DifficultyI loved difficulty level of the games. I understand The Pokemon Company wants games to be accessible to everybody of all ages, but I argue that there's a certain degree of difficulty that should come with each game. If I can just catch any random pokemon, put any random move on them and still win, I'd argue the game is still too easy. There needs to be some level of strategy involved for you "feel" the reward of winning, otherwise progressing the game feels pointless. Here are some examples from Genius Sonority:In Pokemon XD and Colosseum you were morally tasked with saving/catching every single Shadow Pokemon. There was a moral incentive to be good at the game (free the pokemon and purify them so they can feel emotions again). Now since Shadow Pokemon and their shadow moves can do x2 damage to you, you were essentially limited to how long you could stay in battle to capture them. Some trainers you encounter along the way also have 3-6 shadow pokemon in their arsenal, so you really had to be careful. You might argue, why not just keep a horde of shadow Pokemon in team then (to take x0.5 damage)? Well, shadow pokemon caught tend to be severely underleveled by the time you encounter the next one and they do not level up during the duration that they remain shadow pokemon. You can only level them up after you've purified them, limiting the duration of your use. Furthermore, at least two moves are reserved for shadow moves, meaning you have less move options. Keeping lots of shadow pokemon in your team meant a team of under leveled pokemon that can take Shadow type attacks, drag out very long battles in return and run the risk of lacking strong offensive attacks, while also being incredibly prone to super effective attacks by normal pokemon due to lack of move slots reserved by the shadow moves.Essentially, you were forced to care about what pokemon you had in your team and when. You had to switch out your caught pokemon with some shadow to balance your team and be ready to capture other, higher leveled shadow pokemon at all times.Something worth mentioning was that the very last battle of Pokemon XD involved trying to capture 3 shadow legendaries in addition to 3 other non-legendary shadow pokemon (some with specialized attack stats) that were all 5-7 levels above you all in a single battle. This was absurdly difficult, and I wouldn't want to see that ever again, but it was extremely rewarding winning that fight with every shadow pokemon caught.In Pokemon Battle Revolution (PBR), there was a sequence of battles in what is essentially a half-baked 'adventure mode'. You were given a set of cards that essentially allowed you to rent teams. And that's all you were given at the beginning of the game. With predetermined teams, you had to win against whatever the AI pitted against you in sets of battles. And get this: opponent's pokemon and levels varied depending on the team you chose. If for example, you had a custom team with legendary pokemon, the AI would add a legendary to its arsenal and even occasionally make the pokemon levels higher (by 3-7) than the ones your own team. I struggled beating some of the challenges, losing multiple times but it was never too frustrating. It made my wins feel as if they were worth something.I would also argue for more battles akin to the one you had against Diamond/Pearl/Platinum champion, Cynthia. When you battled her, she had pokemon that were on average all 4 levels above you, (with her Garchomp being around 5-10 levels ahead depending on how you much trained). You had to think out your team composition. She had one of the most powerful teams relative to your progress in any mainline pokemon game. Garchomp, Lucario, Milotic, at this point, all pokemon with at least one specialized stat higher than 125 and all-around balanced stats that had no qualms using more powerful moves (e.g. Earthquake/Outrage, Close Combat, Hydro Pump). You had to seriously think about what order you were going to send them in, what to swap out when one fainted and I don't just mean "just pick the one with the type offensive". You had to care about speed and the order of the moves you used in the battle, because if you didn't you'd take unnecessary damage and end up losing, even if marginally. Even more annoying was that any pokemon that had low HP would automatically get their health healed with a full restore if you didn't beat it down successfully the first try. I want more battles like this. I don't want every battle this since it would drive me insane, but I want more battles at this difficulty when there's actual tension in the story line and you have a strong motive to win (e.g. mid-game and end game rival battles, battling the team leader).Last time I remember this happening was battling against Lusamine in SM. My team was severely under prepared (as I was just capturing whatever I wanted) and I lost at least twice thanks to the Ancient Power Clefairy constantly getting its buffs. I had to think out my strategy (e.g. charge-beam Raichu) I hope the Gen 8 seriously takes into consideration the difficulty level. I want a game where I don't absolutely steamroll, but am actually challenged to think it through a bit a bit more often (and definitely more than once).The MusicHas anyone ever listened to Mirror B.'s Battle theme? I honestly can't remember any song I've heard from the mainline games that come close to the composition of this one. I know not everyone's a fan of Mirror B.'s theme, but it stands out A LOT in the pokemon series where not many songs in the mainline series carry the same nuanced disco style it has. And there's also a ton of others. Genius Sonority picked out and composed tracks that had a lot of tension to them, that made you feel powerful when you battled.XD Normal BattleXD Cipher Peon BattleXD Cipher Admin BattleXD CitaDark Isle BattlePBR Gateway ColosseumPBR Final BattleOne of the common traits that made Genius Sonority stand out was their use of synths. They used them quite a lot in the XD/Cole/PBR tracks to make them feel 'active'. AND they constantly used different instruments all at once to create a sense of urgency and energy in a battle (e.g. Citadark Isle Battle or XD's RSE Battle Remix]). I would love to see that kind of style return as regular trainer battle music instead of the passive music we currently get. Energetic pokemon battles where you actually feel something is at stake.If anyone's been following Nintendo's first party games lately, you've also probably noticed that there's a trend of 'adaptive music' among their games lately. They are essentially scores of music that are dynamic. In Breath of the Wild, you'll hear a tune that changes key and/or tempo depending on the type of day, or your location, or maybe even an event you triggered. You'll also hear this kind of sound design this in Mario Kart depending on how you've progressed along the race track, and Mario Odyssey depending on enemy you've taken control of or where you are. I'd honestly love nothing more than to be battling and when both pokemon are low or maybe both opponents have lost half their pokemon, warp the soundtrack into something more epic. This is definitely the chance to go from an invigorating soundtrack to an orchestral sort of tone.Battle AnimationsI honestly don't think people care too much about this one, but one thing I've always noticed that is Game Freak's animations for pokemon feel much less alive. I might attribute it to spending years on handheld using 2D sprites and the concept of "platforms" to position pokemon and animate pokemon moves, but honestly who knows, maybe they didn't have the budget or time to revise.Let's dive straight into loose a analysis. I'll only be examining flinch animations, although this analysis does loosely apply to attack animations as well. As far as move animations go, Game Freak essentially uses frozen animation frames to animate being hit by an attack. This isn't that notable in some moves, but very noticeable in prolonged range moves. Here are some examples of Game Freak animations:Hydro PumpEarthquakeOutrageIt really does break the immersion simply because there's this frame of time where the pokemon is being hit, but eitherA) isn't immediately responding to the attackB) isn't responding appropriatelyC) is stuck midway through the 'flinching' phaseor all at once. A couple other examples include 'Earthquake' and 'Brave Bird' if you're paying attention carefully.Let's make a comparison against this using Genius Sonority. Here are some attacks from Genius Sonority:Hydro CannonIce BeamEarthquakeThe pokemon, upon being actually 'hit' by the animation responds to the attack immediately and the flinch state is rarely ever frozen. Take a look at ice beam or hydro cannon and you'll see exactly what I mean. In SM, if you get hit by ice beam your pokemon is put into a frozen 'flinch' state while being hit with the attack. In XD, the pokemon flinches once the attack arrives, carries on the flinch state (but never frozen) for the duration of the attack, and returns to normal immediately after the 'hit' has finished.This is even more apparent in Earthquake from Game Freak and Genius Sonority, and you'll immediately notice the difference. Earthquake is prolonged in SM, but Game Freak doesn't allow the pokemon to start their flinching animation right away by freezing them in their current state. Only halfway through the animation do they allow the flinching phase to be repeated. The delay and repetition takes away the illusion of 'weight' or 'power' behind an attack. On the other hand, Genius Sonority starts Earthquake out with a shockwave to signal a powerful attack coming in. Once the pokemon is hit, they play their flinch animation once and once only. There are some frozen frames, but only enough to sync it with the attack animation and it's never dragged out like GF's.Please keep note that I'm not being selectively biased when choosing these moves. I'm choosing these moves because they best represent the problem and demonstrate how GF and GS both approach battle animation.Now I know some people might be skeptic and argue that this is because of the 3DS's hardware limitations, but I'd argue for you to take a look at how the the animations for something like earthquake can be carried out in parallel among 4 pokemon. There's honestly no excuse, and Game Freak deserves a bit a critique here.Genius Sonority has honestly done so much right. But I genuinely think it's PMC's fault for not having more faith in them. They've produced genuinely good pokemon games with good core experiences and they've been dropped from producing full console games for failing PBR. I hope Game Freak will be consulting them for the next Gen 8 game. I see a lot of potential in a console game, especially with a new generation and I think these elements of Genius Sonority would be worthy upgrades from Game Freak tradition. via /r/pokemon https://ift.tt/2LeYKFX