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Pokémon is the highest-grossing franchise in the world and needs little introduction. I've been a fan of Pokémon for almost my entire life. I was aware of the series before, but my first true introduction was in 3rd grade. We had a game day where we were allowed to bring board games and video games to school. One of my friends brought her Gameboy Advance and let me play a little on her Pokémon FireRed save. I remember freaking out because her Clefairy was poisoned and I didn't realize that was why the screen was shaking. I thought I accidentally glitched her game or something lol. Anyway, after that I fell in love. During recess, we would pretend to be Pokémon. My favorite at the time was Ponyta, because I was also a horse girl lmao. Other favorites included Vulpix and Growlithe. I loved Fire types! One of the boys in my class even let me read his chapter-book novelization of the show.

Unfortunately, my mother was one of Those Christians™ who thought that Pokémon was satanic, so I was forbidden from playing the games or watching the show. However, my dad sneakily bought me LeafGreen for my birthday. My mom never found out because I hid the game under my bed. Later on, her stance towards Pokémon would relax but for me, Pokémon was always something that was slightly forbidden and thus exciting. Nothing compares to my first playthrough in LeafGreen. Everything was new. Each encounter was exciting. I remember spending hours grinding to beat Brock and Misty. I chose Charmander and was underleveled, so I lost quite a few times to both of them. I still hate Starmie to this day lmao. I have fond memories of getting Arena Trapped by Dugtrio in Diglett's Cave and getting lost in Silph Co. Later on, I spent hours trying over and over to make my way through the Elite Four and beat the rival character (I named him Gary). I was elated when I realized there was more to explore post-game (Sevii Islands + Cerulean Cave). That first playthrough was truly special. Since then, Pokémon has always held a special place in my heart. I don't think any other media has invoked such wide-eyed wonder and delight in me. As a kid, I dreamed of becoming a Pokémon trainer and exploring the world with my very own Pokémon by my side. If I had to choose a fantasy world to live in, the world of Pokémon would still be high on my list.

However, the state of modern-day Pokémon leaves much to be desired. The cost of becoming such a lucrative franchise, I suppose. The games seem to exist solely to push merchandise. According to this infographic, ~66% of Pokémon's total revenue is from merchandise sales. In order to feed the ravenous maw that is merchandise production, Game Freak, the developers of the Pokémon games, needs to maintain a breakneck release schedule. On average, there are only 3.25 years between each generation. (A generation is a term used for grouping Pokémon games. Each generation includes a 'flagship' game that has a new region and new Pokémon, as well as miscellaneous side games such as remakes. Whenever a new 'flagship' game is released, the categorization moves to the next generation.) The longest gap is 4 years. Since Gen V (2010), there have been 3 years between each subsequent generation, as you can see from this Wikipedia screenshot I professionally labeled in MS Paint. Presumably, Gen X will be released around 2025.

In modern game development, 3 years between games is somewhat fast. Nowadays, AAA games can take 5+ years to develop. (Whether or not modern Pokémon games can be classified as 'AAA' is debatable, but regardless, Pokémon is a flagship series for Nintendo. Personally, I would argue that from Sword & Shield onwards, they are AAA games.) However, not only does Game Freak develop core games, but they are also in charge of developing remakes and DLC. From the timeline above, only one of the entries (Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl) wasn't developed by Game Freak. This means that since Pokémon's inception, Game Freak has released a new Pokémon entry almost every year and sometimes twice a year. Game Freak's output is absolutely insane.

For reference, another output-heavy series, Call of Duty, switches between developers with every game. That way, the game studios usually have 3 years to work on a game, while the series itself has yearly releases. Unfortunately, Game Freak does not have this 'luxury'. While there are different teams within Game Freak working on different games, the studio as a whole has been stuck in the Pokémon mines since 1996. Working on remakes and side projects while simultaneously designing a new generation of Pokémon sounds exhausting. Yes, Game Freak occasionally releases non-Pokémon games, but their primary focus is grinding out new Pokémon content.

In 2013, Pokémon made the transition from 2D pixel graphics to 3D. The transition was a little rough. Game Freak's traditional game design for Pokémon didn't necessarily translate to 3D. The linear, geometric routes of the 2D games felt boring and stifling. Old-fashioned, outdated. The charming pixel designs of Pokémon needed to be translated into 3D. Environmental assets, characters, Pokémon, etc. all needed to be modeled and animated in 3D. Game Freak needed to learn how to work with a new game engine and all of the aspects that come with 3D games (physics, lighting, real-time graphics rendering, etc.), all while making sure to optimize the performance of their games. Remember, prior to this, all core Pokémon games were 2D. It's far easier (and cheaper) to make a 2D game. Game Freak needed to learn how to adapt to 3D while making games rapid-fire for the highest grossing franchise in history. With the release of the Nintendo Switch, expectations for new Pokémon games were at an all-time high. Reception to the 3DS games was generally positive; however, many critiqued the games for playing it safe and not taking full advantage of the capabilities of a 3D game. And so in 2019, the new Pokémon games trended towards large open areas before becoming fully open world in 2020, with The Crown Tundra DLC. The main Switch games, Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet, are some of the most ambitious Pokémon games to date. They are also the most heavily criticized.

Pokémon Sword and Shield were primarily criticized for not allowing all Pokémon to be in the game, the poor performance in the Wild Area, and the shoddy story. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet got absolutely dumped on. Rightfully so, those games are kind of a mess. Scarlet/Violet are very buggy games. Textures don't load in fully, objects pop in, and your Switch fan sounds like a jet engine while you travel through the overworld at a choppy frame rate. The camera constantly clips through the ground. More often than not, when you battle, you won't be able to see your Pokémon unless you manually adjust the camera because of how wonky it is. NPC models load on top of each other. The lighting is poorly done and makes the already low quality textured world look worse. The cutscenes are awkward and stilted. Perhaps worst of all, it is very clear that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are unfinished games. All of the aforementioned issues are symptoms of a game rushed to release. Aspects of Sword/Shield also came across as unfinished, but it is especially notable in Scarlet/Violet.

There are a lot of small details in Scarlet/Violet, such as clothes having different brands. It's a nice touch and adds to the worldbuilding, but it seems odd when compared to other parts of the game that lack that same attention to detail. It's very easy to tell where they had to cut corners. For instance, there is a noticeable lack of interior areas in Violet. Aside from certain exceptions (such as your house, the school, gym lobbies, one singular sandwich shop chain, etc.), you can't really go into any of the buildings. Even the Pokémon Center is no longer a building but rather a kiosk. This is a shame because the interiors that do exist are quite nicely decorated and look good. The fact that you can only go into one type of sandwich shop is bizarre, especially when other stores and restaurants exist. However, for these, when you 'go' into the building, only a menu pops up that you can order from, rather than a physical interior for you to explore. Once you exit that menu, your character also exits the building, which is pretty lame. Unused interiors have been datamined, suggesting that they

were cut because the developers didn't have enough time to implement them. Cut content isn't unusual in video games. Most, if not all, video games have content that had to be axed in order to meet deadlines or because the game's development went in a different direction. However, having Scarlet/Violet rushed to be released, to the point that the developers had to cut most interiors, is really unfortunate. Everything about the games lacks polish. It feels as if the games needed AT LEAST another year of development. In general, you can say that about pretty much every recent Pokémon release. They all feel half-baked, rushed in order to meet a deadline, so that there will always be a yearly Pokémon release.

Now, Pokémon games aren't exactly known for being super polished and bug-free. The earlier generations have quite a few infamous bugs (hello, MissingNo.) but are still highly regarded. So, what changed? When did the series go downhill? In my opinion, Pokémon's decline can be traced back to 2016, with the release of Pokémon Go. However, you can see the warning signs begin with Pokémon's transition to 3D in 2013. While X and Y are generally well-regarded games as they introduced the new Fairy type and probably the most interesting of Pokémon's battle gimmicks (Mega Evolution), X/Y are still flawed. X/Y lack a proper post-game, have a nonsensical plot, blatantly pander to nostalgia (Kanto), and mark the decline in the games' difficulty. Pokémon games have never been super hard, but the earlier ones still provided a challenge, especially for newcomers. You had to either level up your Pokémon or have better type matchups. However, X/Y introduced the start of the team-wide Experience Share (which was thankfully optional, unlike in later games). Perhaps more egregiously, a lot of the battles in X/Y were easy because many important trainers (rivals, villains, Gym Leaders, etc.) had incomplete movesets over the course of the game. This may be understandable in lower level areas. But the final Gym Leader having a Pokemon with only three moves or Tierno's Roserade only knowing one move is ridiculous. Still, even with these flaws and the criticisms over Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire cutting the Battle Frontier, the mainline Gen VI games were still well received. Gen VII is when things get more divisive.

Personally, I don't like Sun/Moon and I've never played Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. Aside from Lillie, I didn't really like any of the characters. I found playing Pokémon Moon to be an incredibly tedious experience due to all of the unskippable cutscenes. When compared to Mega Evolution, I thought Z-Moves were really boring. That being said, I can appreciate Sun/Moon for breaking away from the traditional Gym structure of previous generations. Game Freak was trying something new to shake things up, which I applaud them for. Pokémon Sun and Moon are fine games... just fine. But who cares about Sun/Moon when a few months earlier, in July 2016, Pokémon Go was released.

In the summer and fall of 2016, Pokémon Go had a staggered launch, where over time it was released in different regions of the world. The servers for the mobile game were overloaded, and the game itself was buggy and laggy. But despite these issues, the game became a global phenomenon. Its success was unprecedented, making it one of the most downloaded and highest-grossing mobile games of all time. Nintendo's stock soared by billions (USD) in July 2016. At the time, it seemed like literally everyone had the game installed on their phones. From children to the elderly, everyone was playing Pokémon Go. News outlets gawked at the success of the game as they tried to explain what Pokémon was to their boomer audience. Think pieces bemoaned that the game was everything wrong with society, as everyone seemed to be glued to their phone to catch that next Pikachu. People gathered in swarms to catch Pokémon. No one seemed like a stranger anymore because everyone was playing Pokémon Go. Even if you didn't know someone, you could still happily have a conversation about what you just caught. Often, you'll see people on the internet joke that the summer of 2016 was the closest we've gotten to world peace. While definitely an exaggeration, there has been nothing since that has matched the communal furor that Pokemon Go's launch had. For the first time in a very long time, everyone was united by one shared interest.

Pokémon Go is technically a spin-off game. It wasn't developed by Game Freak but was a collaboration between Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, and US-based Niantic. Pokémon has always been a behemoth in the video game industry. Each game is pretty much guaranteed to sell millions of copies. But Pokémon Go's success was a new achievement for the series. Not only did it help Nintendo break into the mobile gaming market, something Nintendo had floundered with previously, but it also established Nintendo and the Pokémon IP as serious contenders in the market. By September 2016, two months after its release, it had reached over 500 million downloads and became the fastest game to make over $500 million in revenue. Its success would inspire Game Freak's 2018 releases, Let's Go, Eevee! and Let's Go, Pikachu!. Simply put, Pokémon Go was a massive success and still remains successful today, despite Niantic's repeated blunders. And in my opinion, it was this wild success that caused the decline in quality of the Pokémon franchise.

Just looking at the timeline, the yearly Pokémon releases didn't start until 2016. Every generation prior had a gap year. Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were probably well into development when Pokémon Go released, but I think the resounding success of the game made Game Freak want to capitalize on the hype. While finishing up work on Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, I believe that Game Freak quickly pivoted to make their Pokémon Go spinoffs. Let's Go, Eeevee! and Let's Go, Pikachu! were targeted towards the Pokémon Go demographic while also shrewdly pandering to the nostalgia of long-time fans by being Gen I remakes. This article also supports my hypothesis, as it states that the two games only took about 2 years to develop, which matches the timeline. I'm curious to know if Eevee/Pikachu were Game Freak's idea, or if they were games mandated by Nintendo or The Pokémon Company. I don't think Nintendo is too involved with Game Freak, but perhaps with the success of Pokémon Go, they might have pitched the spin-off idea to Game Freak. I just think it's curious that Eevee/Pikachu appear to be one-offs. Game Freak hasn't made a game with the same style or gameplay since then, which leads me to believe that they might not have been the ones with the original idea.

I love Pokémon, and this franchise will always be incredibly nostalgic and meaningful to me. However, I can't help but wonder if I'm outgrowing it. Is the problem me, or is it the games? The past few generations have been incredibly 'meh' to me. I don't really remember much from Gen VII onward. The games are largely forgettable and lackluster. There are some good ideas but poor execution due to the games being constantly rushed. I've said before that I blame Pokémon Go for this reason, but really, I'm not entirely sure WHO to blame. Is it Game Freak's fault? Perhaps Nintendo or The Pokémon Company? Who knows, but Pokémon Go does make a convenient scapegoat. Or perhaps it served as a catalyst. As I mentioned before, the yearly releases didn't start until the year it came out. I think the game's propulsive success led to the mandate for yearly releases. Not only did Pokémon Go need material from the mainline games so that it could keep releasing new content, but the Pokémon franchise as a whole has never been bigger. And it's only natural to want it to become even more successful, even more profitable, even if the capitalistic desire for forever increasing profits isn't sustainable. From the dismal technical quality of Scarlet/Violet, the cracks are clearly showing. But will anything change? Scarlet/Violet faced massive backlash online. They're the lowest rated games in the mainline series and yet they sold 22 million copies worldwide, 10 million of those within the first three days of release.

Like some other franchises (Animal Crossing, The Sims, etc.), I feel like Pokémon is suffering from success. And there's no incentive to change. No matter how broken or low-quality the games are, they WILL sell millions of copies. I want to play a new Pokémon game and feel a semblance of the wonder I felt as a child. I know that realistically speaking, nothing will ever replicate that feeling, but out of all of the new releases, Pokémon Legends: Arceus came the closest. It was such a departure from Game Freak's other games and seeing the difference between PLA and Scarlet/Violet is depressing. It's clear from Scarlet/Violet that Game Freak isn't lazy. The studio has ambitions and wants to broaden the scope of the series, but they don't have the time to successfully do so. I can only hope that in the future, Game Freak is given room to breathe and allowed the time needed to make a game they can be proud of. Or perhaps outsource the development of some of the games to other companies that are more familiar with 3D game development. That way, Game Freak can chill a bit, and other studios can have their own take on Pokémon. As a long-time fan, I may never be fully satisfied with the new direction the series is taking, but that's fine. I just want the new Pokémon games to be of higher quality. Newer fans deserve good games, even if I personally do not like them. I hope that the debacle of Gen IX is a one-off and that Gen X will be pushed back to 2026 to align with the 30th anniversary of the series. I hope the next games will be decent, and I hope that I'll continue to enjoy Pokémon in the years to come.