The Pokémon franchise is the highest-grossing media franchise of all time, pulling in billions of dollars by producing a plethora of video games, consumer products, television series, and feature films. In terms of the games, they've established a formula that, for better and worse, kept countless players hooked on each generation of the series.
The gameplay loop is wildly appealing and the addition of new monsters always gets fans anxious with anticipation. However, despite the positives the game series brought to the table, certain things about the gaming end of the franchise haven't aged well over its 25-year history.
The Exhausting "Gotta Catch 'Em All" Philosophy
The franchise's original slogan was "gotta catch 'em all," focusing on completing the Pokédex as one of the big appeals of the games. With each mainline game (until Kalos onward) introducing at least 100 new species, that concept focus for the games wasn't going to be sustainable forever.
Including the few new reveals for the exciting and upcoming Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the overall roster has hit the 900 mark. It's easy to see why completing the Dex is no longer an appealing feat for many players, as opposed to when there were only 151 creatures. It's too exhausting for longtime fans to collect every new character that's introduced, and it's intimidating for neophytes just beginning their Pokémon collecting journey.
The Endless Gameplay Loop
The aforementioned gameplay loop of the mainline games has been a mainstay in the series' 25 years. To The Pokémon Company and Game Freak's credit, it managed to work well for quite a while before things started to get stale from a quality standpoint. There have been some important quality-of-life improvements introduced to Pokémon games in the meantime, to be fair.
Many veteran fans cite the first five generations of games as being the best the franchise had to offer. However, once the games transitioned to 3D, some fans felt the loop was starting to show its age. In terms of the amount of content, it appeared corners were starting to get cut to compensate.
Only One Developer For Mainline Games (Until Recently)
An important note to make is that, as of this year, it looks like this is something that could start getting corrected going forward. Until the reveals of Legends: Arceus and Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, Game Freak were the only developer studio in charge of the mainline games of the franchise.
It's a lot of pressure for a developer tasked with handling the most important games of the IP, and it's related to the aforementioned staleness that came as the demand began to increase. With ILCA having worked on the recently-released Sinnoh remakes, hopefully they stick around and take some of the burden off of Game Freak, who can improve the quality in the future games they produce.
Legendary Pokémon Events Aren't Special Anymore
The Legendary Pokémon species in the games used to have more of an "event" atmosphere to them befitting of that title. They truly felt like rare and special encounters but have recently been reduced more often into Wi-fi gifts.
Legendary/Mythical Pokémon events had great activities that occasionally came complete with their own "side quests," but the Mythicals in particular typically get handed out by NPCs. Diamond and Pearl's remakes continued the trend, with an elderly couple in Floaroma Town, which is early in the story, handing the player a Jirachi and Mew. It's an admittedly moderate touch, but one that has somewhat taken their luster away.
Too Many Annual Releases
A big franchise seemingly adopting an annual release model is enough to raise some red flags. Longtime franchises like Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty suffered for it at some point or another by releasing too many games with diminishing returns. And though Pokémon technically didn't get a mainline release last year, it did receive Sword and Shield DLC expansion. The Pokémon Company keeps things on strict timetables regardless of the state of the games, as they aim to time them to coincide with anime and merchandise releases.
This could easily be seen as one of the culprits for the games being stretched so thin but, to make another note, it could be alleviated in the coming years. With ILCA as a potential alternate and Game Freak finally venturing out of their comfort zone with Legends: Arceus, it could be a signal of meaningful change. If the latter pans out like fans hope, it could make a case for Pokémon Legends expanding into a respective series.
Hand-Holding Tutorials
Pokémon games have certainly never been "hard" overall. There were instances of occasional boss fights that provided a fun and refreshing challenge, but the difficulty has never been something that's remotely defined the franchise. But around the start of the IP's transition to 3D models, things started to get easier to the point of being aggressively intrusive.
It became most noticeable in Sun and Moon, with rivals like Hau permeating the "hand-holding" deep into the games to make it feel like an extended tutorial. Some things like the catching tutorial were given a "skip" option, but how NPCs like Lillie, Hau, and Sword/Shield's Hop consistently interrupted gameplay undid any streamlining. While ostensibly helpful, these attempts to help gamers out are more annoying than anything else and interrupt the fun gameplay that players expect to get when playing a Pokémon game.
3rd/4th Version Games
Another staple of the games that's thankfully been done away with was the "3rd/4th" version games. It began with the first games with Yellow and went through Crystal, Emerald, Platinum, and Ultra Sun/Moon. These iterations didn't offer much in terms of new features and were just a cheap and easy way for The Pokémon Company to make some money.
The fifth-generation was a welcome exception, though, as it got a pair of outright sequels and not "complete edition"-style games, while X and Y received no successors. They were an excuse to market full-price definitive versions of the prior pair in an age where DLC wasn't possible for the franchise.
The Gimmick Features
While it was at least admirable that Game Freak attempted to freshen up the formula with certain features, some of them proved no more than half-hearted gimmicks. There have been some great mainstay features like Regional Variants that are true breaths of fresh air, but things like Z-Moves, Dynamaxing, and Gigantamaxing feel tacked on.
Even still, they're more than likely not going to stay beyond a generation. What's worse for some fans is that Mega Evolutions -- something that was widely beloved -- went (mostly) ignored beyond its respective generation.
Intrusively Friendly Rivals
They do tie into the hand-holding issue of the more recent games, but the progression of the traditional in-game rivals hasn't aged gracefully on their own merits either. Blue from the original games struck a good balance of the fun, cocky rival, and Silver presented a more interesting dynamic of an angry young man going through some character growth.
But once X and Y came around, things took a notable turn for the worse. It began the trend of the clingy, intrusive rival characters that, in addition to feeling like a tutorial in and of themselves, hurt the pacing of the game with how often they forced unskippable dialogue and cinematic cutscenes.
Trade Evolutions Don't Matter Anymore
Back in 1996 when Red, Blue, and Green launched, the concept of rare Pokémon that can only be obtained by trading seemed reasonable. It was a gameplay mechanic to encourage in-person socialization during a time when gaming technology (especially handheld gaming) was much more primitive compared to now.
However, with the advancements in internet and Wi-fi capabilities, it now seems arbitrary. It's an admittedly fun inside joke of the fan base, but the NPC that tricks the player by trading a Haunter holding an Everstone (preventing evolution) is a testament to this. Giving players an in-game "freebie" with an NPC allowing them one trade evolution seems like a reasonable compromise.