So let's strip away all the shiny coating of paint.
Replace every single model with textureless boxes, make every map basic gray shapes.
Is it still a fun game for all the same reasons [insert your favorite pokemon game] was?
If not, trash it.
If so, explain how.
I think many people would agree that the ideal Pokemon game maxes out the potential of its mechanics first and foremost, so why should these games be judged any other way before acknowledging such a factor?
I, for one, quit this series the minute I began to look at it this way, so I think it's important that anyone consider this. We should always take a critical look at the things we love.
What is with autists and this idea that good graphics and good gameplay are mutually exclusive?
>>26918138
Pokemon's main appeal is the Pokemon themselves and not the gameplay.
>>26918193
In the game industry, some games ending up focusing hard on one or the other, so with their overly negative minds believe every game has to be this way because they have nothing better to do than piss and moan about shit.
>>26918193
When the hell did I imply that?
>>26918222
This, desu.
There's a lot of games where the mechanics shine more than the graphics, and games like that have their place.
But there are others where the mechanics are a means to an end, and the meat of the game is story, characters, personalization, that sort of thing.
Do you think Animal Crossing would be fun with gray cubes?
Would Harvest Moon be?
Shit, would any Elder Scrolls game be enjoyable without all the lore? Just punching cubes to death without explanation? Would any RPG survive that sort of treatment?
Outside of MLG Tournament style """e-sport""" games, almost everything benefits from aspects other than mechanics. Team Fortress 2 or LoL or Rocket League would still be worth something, but even they would lose something.
If you're only deriving pleasure from a game's mechanics, you're missing out on a huge part of what games are.
And in Pokemon? It's all about collecting monsters and getting stronger than anyone else. The mechanics are only meant to strengthen that goal. That's it.
>>26918138
Actually anon it's interesting you bring this up.
So far SM hasn't brought enough with it for me to buy it. I think the rotom dex is a good addition, and hoping for more new stuff like that. But either than that, we're just getting the "same old new" -- region, characters, and pokemon.
I want to want SM, but as of now this is reminiscent of the gen 6 pre release. If it's more of the same I could go without, but there's still lots of time to decide as the new info comes.
>>26918344
I'm not saying a game should only focus on mechanics, but I think Pokemon stands out from other RPGs because the role you're playing is shallow enough that you need more than the story at hand (said story which is nearly the same in every game of the series) to create something worth playing. If you get your jollies just by carrying around some moe monsters through a cockfighting tournament then I think you need to raise your standards. The mechanics have to improve the base experience in this case
>>26918344
>It's all about collecting monsters and getting stronger than anyone else.
Those are mechanics, though.
>>26918344
>Harvest Moon
Yes, in fact the whole problem with that series is that they refuse to just double down and focus on the actual farming mechanics.
>>26918138
>remove visuals from a visual medium
>this much autism
>>26919886
This guy gets it.
>>26918138
Presentation matters, you dipshit.
