Is Game Freak getting lazy with the creation of Pokémon games?

by Ian McCormick

Staff Writer

The following story was written by a student on the staff of The Jaguar Times as part of Hilliard Bradley High School’s Journalism Production course.

A display of the Nintendo switch shows many of Nintendo’s past Pokémon game releases. Photo taken by Ian McCormick (10).

Game freak has been a major part of Nintendo since its endeavor into the video game industry in 1989. It’s brought us hours of enjoyable gameplay through various Nintendo games; however you can’t talk about Game Freak without talking about its most successful creation, this of course being Pokémon. Pokémon has been a worldwide success since its Debut in 1995 and it’s from there been seen as the highest grossing media franchise of all time. Additionally, it’s gathered over $110 billion in revenue. Looking back at the franchise, it’s clear to see that Pokémon has earned all the popularity it’s gained, slowly building up fans since its release.

However, I’m led to believe that Gamefreak is getting lazy with the production of its games which has drastically lowered the quality of their work. Don’t get me wrong, I consider myself a huge Pokémon fan, and have followed their work for as long as I can remember, and that is precisely the reason why I’ve felt insulted by some of their lower quality releases. Some of these disappointing releases include Pokémon: sword and shield, Pokémon: Brilliant diamond and shining Pearl, and so on. Most recently however, although I have not played it yet, I’ve felt disappointed in the trailers of Pokémon: Scarlet and Violet.

Much like me, others at Bradley have found the game Pokémon sword and shield somewhat subpar. World history teacher, Mr. Noor Algussain, says “I wasn’t that big of a fan of sword and shield, I mean as far as the open world I think it was a really cool idea, but it just felt empty.” Although I can agree sword and shield was one of Gamefreaks worst releases, I dislike it for a completely different reason. Rather than it feeling empty, I felt like sword and shield was trying too hard to appeal to the wrong audience. Sword and shield was a “good game” if you're looking at it from the perspective of the younger audience, this means players from the ages of 12 and under. The game was in Alghussain’s words “very hand-holdy” as to say it wasn’t very challenging compared to past Pokémon games, which younger people may in a way find helpful or more enjoyable, whereas the older fans from the early 2000’s could find boring or unappealing.

Although I myself didn’t like sword and shield However, this isn’t to say it was a complete failure. Hayden Cottrell (11) says, “I liked Pokémon Sword and Shield because they introduced Giganta-max Pokémon.” Which for those who don’t know is an in-game phenomenon which both increases the strength and size of your Pokémon in battle. I myself liked the idea of giganta-max but saw it as just a play on mega evolution and kind of lazy in it of itself. This is another reason why my argument is a challenging one to make, the Pokémon community is split fifty-fifty, with some enjoying the games others disliked.

Although I have a lot to say on older Pokémon games, I want to return to the topic of the recently released game, Pokémon scarlet and violet. In my opinion trailers for the game have seemed disappointing, but despite this, I discovered myself to be the minority in that regard. What I mean by this is everyone talked to was extremely excited for the release of this game. Not to say I myself wasn’t excited but just that I was zeroing in on everything I disliked about it rather than highlighting the promising aspects of the trailers. Andrew Barkhimer (10) says “I’m excited about it because of all the new stuff, and the past and future theme, I think that’s sweet.” I too have to admit the past and future theme of the game looks really cool, and there are many aspects of gameplay portrayed in the trailers I’m looking forward to trying out.

Nonetheless there’s still many things that have me wavering on the edge of disliking it. Some of these things include, a couple of the new Pokémon designs, take wiglet for example, it’s design is just flat out lazy and it’s a cheap copy of the generation one Pokémon diglett. Another thing I see myself disliking is the main antagonist of the game, team star. I’m disappointed to say I think that “team star” is going to be a lot like sword and shields main antagonist “team yell”. This is in regards to the fact they’ll be a mild nuisance in the progression of the story rather than actually villainous.

Despite, in my opinion, recent failures of the newer Pokémon games, it’s clear to see most of the Pokémon fan base is excited to see what game freak will release in the future. Furthermore, although I’m worried about some aspects of their upcoming releases, I’ll attempt to remain optimistic about scarlet and violet. In the end if Game Freak happens to make Pokémon scarlet and violet a complete failure, Pokémon fans will just wait on the next big release not lowering their expectations of the company.