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Pokémon Go Release: What We Hope Is In The Game

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With the new year comes a new assortment of games to get excited about. Traditionally, each year’s list of most exciting games includes titles for PCs and gaming consoles. Rarely does it include a new entry in Nintendo’s famed Pokémon franchise. Most gamers feel that the series has grown too stale thanks to years of resisting change.

2016 is different in that any compilation of exciting games has to include this year’s Pokémon Go release. Nintendo and partner Niantic are changing the dynamic between the creatures and the real world, blurring the line between feeling like you’re a Pokémon Trainer in a game and being a Pokémon Trainer in real life.

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Read: New Pokémon Go Release Details Arrive

We know for sure that Nintendo and Niantic plan to launch Pokémon Go sometime within the calendar year. We also know that the we’ll capture Pokémon in the game by exploring in cities and towns around the world. In-app purchases will allow players to pick up the items they need to grow their team. Nintendo has even confirmed that users will get to battle the teams of other Pokémon Go trainers in their area.

Even still, there’s a lot that we don’t know. Until the two companies are ready to share more about the game information its fun to dream of what Pokémon Go will be like and what we hope will be in it.

A Story

When Niantic, developers of Pokémon Go, last spoke publicly about the game, they weren’t sure that Pokémon Go would even have a story. Theoretically, the game wouldn’t require one. Pokémon Go is for capturing, battling and trading Pokémon with other players on their smartphones. You don’t necessarily need a story to get that across.

That doesn’t mean that Pokémon Go shouldn’t have a story. Maybe we could journey through Johto and Kanto again. Maybe, we could get a new rival that’s more dangerous than any previous rival. Maybe that rival could be Mew Two or another dangerous, but legendary Pokémon. Beyond the core mechanics, the heart of the Pokémon franchise is its rather simplistic approach to story telling and the black and white character types that inhabit it. That struggle between doing what’s right and fighting off Team Rocket is essential to the formula. Pokémon Go needs a story and we hope it has one.

Trainer Customization

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Nintendo consoles have offered users the ability to create their own Mii characters even before more Microsoft copied the feature to create its own Avatars. A few Nintendo Wii U games use Mii characters for an added bit of customization. For example, Super Smash Bros Wii U lets users bring their own Mii characters into battle.

How cool would it be if Nintendo and Niantic took the Pokémon Go release as an opportunity to let us customize more than just our team of Pokémon? What if the game ditched the now too simplistic boy or girl choice and introduced true Trainer customization. Like with other RPGs, it’d add to the realistic feel of the game and the world that the tiny creatures inhabit. With small cash purchases users could pick up a new hat or a different backpack for their trainer, for example.

Pokémon Go Line-Up

The Pokémon Company and Nintendo have been very careful in how they handle demand for new creatures. No single Pokémon game has ever held every creature. The first three titles forced users into trading with friends and family to collect every creature and complete their Pokedex. Other waves of the franchise have kept the tradition alive. Some industrious gamers simply opted to purchase multiple copies of the game in every color available then borrow a friend’s handheld console to snag the latest creature.

Pokemon Go

There’s no way that Nintendo and Niantic lets players of Pokémon Go get access to every creature that exists in the other games. Theoretically, such a move would ruin the structure of the Nintendo 3DS based games and give users less of a reason to trade or participate in the events that Niantic revealed in an interview late last year. What if when users started Pokémon Go they were able to choose a specific region to explore. That world would then dictate what Pokémon are made available to them as they walk around in the real world. Such a move would keep tradition alive while embracing the reality that comparatively few people who play Pokémon Go will invest in a Nintendo 3DS handheld console to capture other Pokémon from those games. That’s actually assuming that Pokémon Go will interact with the other titles in some way or another, which hasn’t been confirmed.

Read: Battle & Trade with Pokémon Go for iPhone & Android

It’s entirely possible that Pokémon Go could be the biggest mobile gaming launch of all time. It certainly will be the most exciting Pokémon game to launch in recent years. What would you like to see in Pokémon Go?

14 Comments

14 Comments

  1. Shai rosenberg

    01/11/2016 at 12:24 pm

    I would love the story to be about arceus he didn’t have a game just a movie so this is a good chance to bring back the creator of all (natural) pokemon

  2. matt

    01/11/2016 at 12:44 pm

    regarding trainer customization, I’d love to see you be able to start with titles like Bugcatcher Joe, or Lass Sarah and then as you level up and explore more of the world you unlock new titles like Team Rocket Bill or Channeler Amber. Obviously these would all change your avatar appearance.

  3. Random Person

    01/11/2016 at 1:42 pm

    So umm… Pokemon X/Y customization didn’t happen? As for use of Mii’s someone obviously hasn’t been keeping track of the latest Pokemon rumble game?
    Not to mention “Mew Two”? Who the hell is that? Do you mean the pokemon Mewtwo?
    Its fairly obvious there is some failed research here… Maybe next time the writer of this article could research properly?

  4. Pokémon Researcher

    01/11/2016 at 6:37 pm

    So clearly the author doesn’t understand what would make Pokémon Go great. A story is not needed as there was not real story in Pokémon Red and Blue and they were the best. The new games with endless story and tutorials don’t immerse you in the world and let you explore. Pokémon Go is a renewal with the chance to explore. If you want story let players join Team Rocket if they so choose. Explore, battle, trade, gym battles, collecting badges that is Pokémon. Pokémon being dependent on the season or time of day would be amazing. Stumbling upon a sleeping Spinirak during the day or a sleeping Pidgey at night would really be immersive in the game. There is so much potential in this game, why bog it down with a needless and superfluous story?

  5. Bradley

    01/11/2016 at 9:21 pm

    I Would like to know how pokemon evolution will work, gyms, ext.

  6. Bradley

    01/11/2016 at 9:33 pm

    I just thought of one other thing as well the pokedex.

  7. Mark Pepin

    01/11/2016 at 11:35 pm

    I just want IV/EV, natures, and breeding. Those are the bread and butter of the game.

  8. Mark Pepin

    01/11/2016 at 11:41 pm

    And no, there was a completely misled section of this article. We should not have to choose different generations to play as. Literally the earth would be the “different region’s”… They should definitely releas all generations of pokemon at least eventually and different places would contain them. Idk what the article is saying when it says ” there has been no single game where you can catch all the pokemon”, ya, but the modern games, you most definitely can get all the pokemon.

  9. Nerd

    01/11/2016 at 11:47 pm

    I don’t really want a story. Stories are fine for the DS games, but the beauty of pokemon GO is that it can bring us closer to real-life pokemon than ever before, and I think throwing a fictional story in there would just take away from it. Let real life be the story this time.

    Here’s my top hopes for the game:

    1. Make it genuinely difficult to catch rare pokemon. Have owning a Lucario or a Dragonite be something to brag about! Force players to use pokemon they wouldn’t otherwise on their teams due to how hard it is to get specific kinds. If there is breeding, it should take a while so that people can’t spam produce rarer pokemon like Eevee. Battling and trading would be so much more interesting and useful if it didn’t take under an hour to catch a Gible, like in the DS games. I wanna hear conversations like, “Oh, I know someone with a Lapras, isn’t that cool?” That’s how it’d be if pokemon were real, after all.

    2. Let legendaries be legendary. Make them as god-like as they are in movies- just… not on a player’s team. Have them roam the world, just a few at a time, so that it’s special to have one passing through your area, and even moreso to own one.

    3. Don’t make it too connected to the DS games. Namely, don’t let people upload their max-stated shiny Aegislash to pummel their friends with. In theory this game could eliminate RNG abuse in a way that’s just not possible with the DS games- meaning people won’t be able to control their pokemon’s IVs anymore.
    I IV breed and I’ve RNG abused a few times, but I miss the days I could slap any pokemon on my team, and it’d be more interesting to leave it up to chance.
    Not to mention, if they DID allow you to transfer pokemon from your DS to your phone… how many people do you think would bother to go outside to catch new ones?

  10. Adware

    01/12/2016 at 1:58 am

    The story part is just pure dumb, just think about it an app that is set in real world, where you have to walk around and find pokemon, just think how story would work

  11. Michaelafraser

    01/12/2016 at 5:56 am

    1=8my best friend’s sister-in-law makes $84 /hr on the laptop . She has been fired from work for five months but last month her pay check was $21612 just working on the laptop for a few hours.
    why not try here…. See More

  12. Scott Miller

    01/12/2016 at 7:58 am

    I feel like you are completely missing the point of the way this game is going to work. It’s by the same people as Ingress. You aren’t going to be able to choose your region, your region is defined 100% by your physical location. You won’t be able to customize your Trainer like an Amiibo. You won’t have a virtual presence like that. The trainer is you, in the physical world. If there is a story, it would be a solo story, it’ll be an over-arching real-time story of global scale, like the major events in Ingress. And they have already stated that only the original 150 Pokemon will be available at the beginning, and availability will be determined by rarity and physical location. (you can’t catch water pokemon living in a Desert)

  13. Bdiangelo

    01/12/2016 at 2:59 pm

    this games either going to be the worst, or best Pokemon game. I agree 100% with what nerd had to say, it would be the greatest feeling to come to school and tell my friends, “Hey, I caught a scyther!” And I would have earned it. Rare Pokemon, being rare as they should. Nintendo, Niantic, please, don’t screw this up.

  14. Abhishek

    01/14/2016 at 7:35 am

    100% agree with nerd and bdiangelo. it would require no story cuz the story will be in our desire to put others down for example today my bulbasaur evolved and i let others know about it but sadly i came to know that my best friends charmeleon evolved to charizard!!! That moment will itself become a start to a new story…… and also that pokemon go plus device……… will it work if it is with me at school and the phone is with my sister at her school!!!!
    Stories must nclude involvement of toughest players, most loving trainers, most caring trainers, most richest trainers and so on n their respective events ……..only for a short duration ….about a month or a quarter,,,……

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