Re: Wired- Pokémon Commentators' Problems to Acknowledge Change

So, here we are again: another piece I wasn't planning on writing about another inaccurate take on the series. As someone who's nearing three full decades of life and is transitioning to writing professionally themselves; it is because of a recent Wired piece that I am responding to them and addressing a broader issue in the process: the problem is not that Pokémon is "refusing to grow up," rather, it's that people that hold that mindset aren't willing to do the due diligence and realize that it's done exactly that and more over the past 25 years. Here is a response to the article and the general trend at hand: Pokémon commentators' problems to acknowledge change.

Source: Switch OLED Reveal Trailer, Nintendo UK YouTube Channel

For the sake of argument, I shall be referring to the author of the "Arrested Evolution" article as "Rusty Shackleford" to protect their identity. That title means I can also dig up this brick joke: and now the story of a well-intentioned but misguided editorial, and one of many fans who had no choice but to prove the person who wrote it wrong. This is Arrested Evolution.

As with previous pieces I've done, I will include quotes from the article for context when needed; and to help illustrate my counterpoints. The best place to start would be right at the beginning.

Quote: "Before you exit your house in 1998’s Pokémon Red and Blue—the first set of localized games in what has become a franchise of sprawling, borderline-unimaginable proportions—you’re given the option of interacting with the TV set. Clicking the A button on your Game Boy brings up this text: “There’s a movie on TV. Four boys are walking on railroad tracks. I’d better go too.” This is a reference to Stand By Me, the 1986 film based on a short story by Stephen King about preteens who venture into the woods to find the body of a missing person—and its ties to your own upcoming adventure only become clearer with time."

Admittedly, this isn't a bad start; but not for the reasons Rusty is suggesting: in many ways, Stand By Me is something of an unconventional; but effective coming of age story, with the body and the other dangers faced by the leads representing the loss of childhood innocence. I've also argued it would be a good tonal template for these in-development live-action spinoffs; but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Quote: "It’s a story that couldn’t be told with adults. As grown-ups, we are far too burdened by responsibility and self-awareness to embrace the kind of journey that the kids in Stand By Me go on. The same goes for the journeys in most Pokémon games, journeys only a 10-year-old could do—battle trainers, stop evil, catch ’em all. These are goals uncomplicated by the things age throws at us. Pokémon isn’t a franchise about growing up as much as it’s about the lens we view the world through as children, one full of play and dreams."

Here is where the problems start: Rusty seems to be operating under the misconception that the series hasn't adapted to the changing entertainment landscape since it began; and it's a mindset that I once held. Thankfully, rediscovering what I missed and finding new ways of addressing it has given more than enough material to dispute this claim. It's not just the age of the character that makes the story, it's how that character is shaped by those who perceive it. It's one of the biggest advantages that the series has over other games of its type: how the protagonists can be interpreted by its players. I'm already working out how I will portray my avatars in my playthrough in BDSP; but the point still stands: while this assessment is one way of looking at the series, it certainly isn't the only one. Plus, I don't know anyone that could see someone like Mario or Link this way; and even though Sonic has been 15 for at least 30 years now, he clearly still has his fans even if he gets a shaky remaster of an otherwise good game.

Quote: "There are now multiple generations after them, whether they’re young adults or children, who are experiencing it all for the first time. They’re enraptured by the fantastical simplicity of the games and the current heightened state of its popularity, thanks to megahits like the Pokémon Go mobile game, the recent installments Sword and Shield, interest in the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and the re-emergence of the Trading Card Game into headlines and broader cultural relevance. These new players have likely never touched Red and Blue. Their only relationship to Pokémon is the here and now."

This is kind of right, but mostly wrong: even with incidents surrounding the Pokédex changes and corporate having to drop the banhammer on those people making a mess of Walmart in Pennsylvania; these elements only appealing to newcomers is only half the story. The other half is made up of those who have been following the series in some capacity since Red and Blue (Hello!), who are also enthused by the new elements being brought to the table. Granted, there are elements that stay consistent through the years; but as I just stated, those fall under the banner of "not broken - don't fix it."

Quote: "Both sides of the fandom are enormous, which leaves the supposed aims of the franchise in a muddled state. Is it meant for the older fans, whose responses to the series range from deeply nostalgic to desperate for progress? Or is the Pokémon Company’s sight solely set on newer devotees, those yet to discover the ins and outs of the addictiveness that has ensured Pokémon’s popularity for more than two and a half decades? One of the main attractions of the franchise, along with one of its major pitfalls, is that it’s done little to keep up with those fans who have cherished it all this time. I don’t mean this in the sense of maturing its storylines. Giving Ash Ketchum, the lead character in the anime, a goatee, or filling the games themselves with surprise grittiness, is a silly way to capture the fleeting attention spans of an older crowd."

First of all: why not both? I know it's a tricky line to walk; but at this stage, I believe the first quarter-century of its existence is proof that it has appeal to all manner of age ranges and skill levels. I know I just brought this up, but this year also marks the 35th anniversary of both Zelda and Metroid; and we just came off the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. as well. Seeing as the brand is also part of Nintendo's "big four," it is another one that can appeal to players of all ages and skill levels. Second, I don't really buy into the idea about attention spans getting shorter over time (that's the kind of thinking that got way too many people mistakenly prescribed Ritalin growing up); so the idea that it's done "little to keep up with fans" over all this time is just another way of saying "it's just a fad" with extra steps. Lastly, Rusty actually does raise some valid points in this passage which honestly should have been his opener. I still may not have all the details for the future ahead of me; but I am confident in saying this: if the games and anime are to be expanded, I still want it to be done organically. I definitely think the newer anime seasons and movies have done a good job with balancing old and new elements that other ones didn't quite stick the landing on (looking at you, Digimon Adventure reboot), so I agree you can't go too far with that (wasn't a fan of that "End of Pokémon" trailer, found it so depressing it made End of Evangelion look like Care Bears Nutcracker Suite). As for the games: I definitely agree The Pokémon Company, Game Freak and other partners aren't going to lose millions on an M-rated installment of the series. If I want a game like that, I can definitely go play Shin Megami Tensei and Persona, and recommend others do the same. The trick is to do it in a way that stays true to the spirit of the material. I am clearly seeing elements of both Breath of the Wild and GTA in the darker aspects of the upcoming Legends Arceus; but I agree copying them outright isn't the way to go. Using them as a reference to create something of their own is, and at this stage; I just hope the launch goes smoother than the Definitive Edition did.

Quote: "Rather, Pokémon relishes in the comfort it provides—with every new installment essentially serving as a soft reboot of the series. It’s why Ash Ketchum will remain eternally 10. He is meant to represent every new kid getting into the series for the first time. And it’s why—before Arceus was announced—any changes in the Pokémon games’ mechanics, difficulty levels, or game designs have been incremental at best."

Again, this tends to overlook the value brand consistency has. It is entirely possible to maintain the appeal of the series while adapting it to a changing market. I also don't understand the soft reboot analogy either- I know the timeline of the series has often been disputed; but that's typically not how that works. That's a more accurate way of describing something like Dragon Ball Super, which was a follow up to the original Dragon Ball and DBZ that disregarded the events of GT (which was already apocryphal due to Toriyama not being directly involved beyond a few designs). Rather, while I have maintained Ash and other characters do tend to work quite well as ciphers for the viewer/player (I tend to portray Ruby less as the effeminate fashionable guy from the manga and more of an adrenaline junkie in the vein of Spider-Man and young John Connor in T2); that's about as much an oversimplification as saying Batman is just some rich guy whose parents got shot in an alley beside an opera house. It's also disingenuous to suggest the changes have been incremental; when that's typically not how game design works. Even if a feature is only unique to one generation, it can influence later ones. Sometimes, design ideas that can't be implemented in one game can be revisited in later ones. It can be something as simple as monsters being left on the cutting room floor being revamped for later generations; or it can be something as big as fighting a professor in battle (not counting accessing the data via MissingNo). The point is, there's a difference between adding a new idea to the core gameplay and fundamentally changing the concept so much it becomes unrecognizable. DMC Devil May Cry was such a notorious example of this that its disappointing performance made it so Capcom didn't release a proper sequel for years; making clear that it was a direct sequel to the first four games that renders DMC non-canon.

Quote: "It’s an odd status, one that’s perhaps best represented by the games scheduled for release on the Nintendo Switch in the coming months. The first ones, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, were released today. They are updated versions of the Nintendo DS’s Diamond and Pearl, the duo that made up Pokémon’s fourth generation in 2006. The second is Pokémon Legends: Arceus, an open-world game set in the Pokémon universe’s distant past, which sends players on a quest to create the Sinnoh region’s first Pokédex (the encyclopedia where Pokémon information is kept). The former is the latest in Pokémon’s series of remakes, something it’s been doing since 2003 with the release of Fire Red and Leaf Green—updates to 1996’s Red and Green. With its chibi-style sprite work and familiar stylings, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have received a heavy dose of backlash. The aesthetic has become shorthand for technical laziness. However, this is likely due to the fact that, because looks toward the future (or what fans consider to be “the future”) seem so rare, a look back at the past feels needless."

Again, it's become increasingly clear the backlash has dissipated to such a degree that the only people still feeling like this (including those acting salty on Metacritic) are not the majority, but a vocal minority. I also don't care for the "laziness" criticism, and I strongly encourage other aspiring writers to retire it from their vocabulary. Given how the new remakes are currently this year's biggest launch for the Switch ever in the UK (US and Japanese sales have yet to be released, but it stands to reason they'd have a similar tally), I think it's safe to say that the impact the visual design had on the launch was effectively nil. As for fan consideration for the future, I think this interview does a good job about how even though it gets tough to deal with; that the developers are still committed to making experiences they might enjoy playing as much as players might. I've also argued that in many ways, this discourse is the reverse of the memetic "Sonic Cycle." Whereas the Sonic Cycle is often one of hype being met with disappointment, this franchise has one of concern being met with relief come launch day. 

Quote: "Pokémon’s nostalgia is inherent on an unavoidable scale. The games have to rattle the little part of our brain that enjoys nostalgia, because there really seems to be no other way to construct them otherwise. Pokémon’s conception was marked by nostalgia, something that was then built into the series’ DNA. Satoshi Tajiri, its creator, grew up in a rapidly urbanizing portion of Tokyo. As a young boy, he’d seek out and collect insects in the rural areas around his hometown—areas that were quickly being paved over for rampant cityscape. This youthful fascination with bugs, along with a burgeoning interest in gaming, led to him seeing the link cable hardware of the Game Boy and envisioning bugs crossing back and forth along a wire, as if traded among friends."

While that is definitely an element about the series and its original design philosophy (which has been present in the series since its inception); it's not the only one that makes it work, let alone the main one. In fact, knowing Tajiri's background for the series' concept (along with my own experiences, and me being elated to find out that he and I are both on the spectrum) still fascinates me, as it illustrates a large part of why I find his country and the art they produce so fascinating. It's always at a crossroads of past tradition and future innovation. I honestly don't know about the Monster Hunter comparisons to Legends Arceus either, I've only really played/enjoyed World and Rise. Heck, I've often pegged pop culture transitions with the franchise crossing generations; with the original series helping mark the end of the '90s and the beginning of the new millennium. 

Quote: "The resolution to figuring out your place in Pokémon’s future likely doesn’t lie in demands to grow up, though. Because there’s beauty to be found in the kind of comfort that Pokémon can provide to both a new player and a long-term player—the feeling of letting go of your forecasts for the series. "

Once again, Rusty Shackleford makes a statement I agree with the words of; but not the reasoning behind it. Hype culture is like a proverbial double-edged sword; equal risk of satisfaction and dismay. I'm not one to put too much stock in people getting huffy on imageboards and Metacritic user pages; I just want to do the best with what I'm given. It doesn't make much sense to me to play something over another title rather than in addition to it. I'm more likely to treat another game in the same vein as a companion title or alternative rather than a replacement. I'm still interested in getting Monster Rancher 1 and 2 DX along with BDSP and Legends Arceus, much as I am trying Nick All-Star Brawl and Multiversus now that I have all the fighters in Smash Bros. Ultimate. Given the current situation around the world, the main thing I want out of any future game is for it to be good. Whether it's someone like me who's a lifelong fan or a youngster discovering the series for the first time, what matters the most it what your experience means to you.

Quote: "That’s the point of Pokémon, after all: There’s a movie on TV. Four boys are walking on railroad tracks. You’d better go, too."

While this article did venture into "Cowboy BeBop at His Computer" territory in spots, it's an overall well-intentioned; if flawed take on the change the series has seen over the last quarter-century. Rusty Shackleford, you are more than welcome to visit and play online if the opportunity ever arises. Whether others acknowledge it or not with the series, everything changes. That's all for now, and I will see you in my full review of Pokémon: Secrets of the Jungle. Take care.