Out with old, in with the new. Sometimes, change can be better for a game. Other times, changing and removing certain features from a previous game make its players miss those old features. Here are 10 times in which Game Freak removed the wrong features from its games.
10. Phenomenon Mechanic (Black/White, Black 2/White 2).
This feature was only in generation V games, and this is a personal pick. The phenomenon mechanic when a patch of grass shakes, a cloud of dust forms in a cave, or rippling water. If you step on it, you get wild encounter, you get a wild encounter with rare Pokemon, even as rare as Metagross. Even if you get an Audino (which most of the time you will in the grass) you can knock it out and get a lot of EXP. Coming across a dust cloud is even better, as it allows to pick up gems that boost the power of your Pokemon’s moves by 50%. And, games after generation VI do not include these gems, which I thought were fairly useful items, and made for interesting use in competitive battling.
9. Swarm Mechanic (Gen II-V)
This mechanic had been around in games from generation II all the way up to generation V, and while the swarming Pokemon were random, I liked the amount of variety it gave the player. I think that if this was added into Sword and Shield, it would have given the opportunity to make more Pokemon obtainable, which is what previous games did so you wouldn’t have to keep transferring Pokemon up to newer generations.
8. Safari Zone
I’m just going to put all of them together. They are all useful to the player, and gives the player so much more to do, especially in Heart Gold/Soul Silver with all of the variety and customization options that are available. When you customize the Safari Zone’s terrain and blocks you place in the terrain, it changes the Pokemon you are able to catch.
7. Horde Encounters (Gen VI)
These were only around during generation VI, and it made it much easier to catch shiny Pokemon. On top of having a better shiny rate, every Pokemon encountered in a Horde has a possibility of having its Hidden Ability, making it very helpful to people who are looking for good competitive Pokemon.
6. Game Corner (Gen I-IV)
While it was pretty luck based in most games with slots, the Game Corner would give you really nice prizes for getting enough coins, and had the exclusive Porygon. In HeartGold/SoulSilver, there wasn’t much luck, as the Voltorb Flip game was majority skill-based, and is one of the best mini games in Pokemon to date.
5. Difficulty Settings (Black 2/White 2)
These settings increased the AI, gave Pokemon held items, and increased their levels. Many of you may not remember this, but there were options to change difficulty settings in Pokemon Black 2/White 2 using the Key System. The Key System also had other features, such as being able to change the chamber in Clay’s Tunnel, Black City to White Forest (or White to Black) and being able to set the difficulty in a game. However, the problem with the difficulty setting (and many other keys) is that you had to beat the Elite Four in White 2 order to unlock them for Black 2, and then you had to transfer them to that game. Since Sword and Shield was just an absolute cakewalk for me, I think that difficulty settings would have been a nice feature.
4. Player Search System/PSS (Generation VI)
The Festival Plaza in Generation VII is inferior in every which way compared to the PSS. The PSS made it easy and efficient to make friends, as once you battled a passerby, they became your acquaintance, allowing you to make them your friend very esasily. And, if someone wants to battle you in the Festival Plaza, you don’t get a notification for someone asking to battle you, meaning that finding new people to battle in the game is hard, as the only friends I made in Gen VII were made on Discord.
3. Different Cities + Black Tower/White Treehollow (Generation V)
This is a bit of a surprise, but I thought that the idea was very unique and was done very well. Black City and White Forest are two of the best towns in all of Pokemon, and here’s why. It made you want to buy both games. They were so different, yet were so similar. In the original games, Black City had you battle trainers, and if you entered the Entralink, it was possible for you in Pokemon White to go to Black City, and talk to the trainers to get them to move to White Forest. They will then move to White Forest, and whatever Pokemon they had when you battled them, you would be able to catch that Pokemon’s pre-evolution in White Forest. For the second games, Black Tower/White Treehollow was an extra challenge, and when you were done, you could do it all over again by transferring keys from your other game to battle the Black Tower in White 2. The best part, is that you can keep going back and grinding levels. I have been battling the White Treehollow for almost 4 years trying to get all of my Pokemon to level 100.
2. Dex Nav (Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire)
You knew this one was coming. Dex Nav is a close second place, but it is number 2 on this list. I considered putting it #1, but Dex Nav had so many uses that I couldn’t help but put it so high on the list. In my opinion, Dex Nav is the best way to get the exact Pokemon that you want by chaining, and you chain by just searching for the same Pokemon over and over again until you get the perfect one. The longer you chain, the better the Pokemon. If you keep you chain long enough, you start getting better shiny odds, and I think that using Dex Nav is the best way to hunt for shiny Pokemon, as well as competitive Pokemon.
1. Battle Frontier (Emerald, Platinum, HeartGold/SoulSilver)
Surprise, surprise. I have probably spent over 150 hours in the Battle Frontier across all of my games. While Gen. IV offered less facilities than in Emerald, they were still great, my personal favorites being the Battle Factory(which appeared in both Gens), and the Battle Arcade. What was also so great about the Battle Frontier was its challenge. I remember having to win 20 straight games in the Battle Factory to Battle Noland in Emerald, and it took me forever. It took so long that I had memorized moves, abilities, and held items of every Pokemon, and then I finally won. But wait, that’s just for the first medal. The second medal takes 42 straight wins to get (I still haven’t gotten it). Personally, I think that the problem with these new games is their lack of challenge, and that it takes forever to progress in these games because of the “hand holding” that the new games do.
So, there you have it, the 10 best features that were removed from previous Pokemon games. If you have any feedback for me, it is more than welcome. I am a bit new to this scene, and I am always open to new ideas that will make my content better.
Death, Taxes, and Video Games 