• Welcome back to Pokécharms! We've recently launched a new site and upgraded forums, so there may be a few teething issues as everything settles in. Please see our Relaunch FAQs for more information.

Pokemon's Online Experience

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
I realize we've had lots of "What would you like to see in the next Pokemon game?" threads, so I'll make this one more focused. What more would you like to see from the franchise's online experience?
Just a word in advance: I'm not asking if you want Pokemon to go MMO. That ain't happening anytime soon and everyone knows it. Let's focus on stuff that actually COULD happen this generation, kthx. :p

Anyways, since the core RPG series hit the DS, online play has opened up new doors for the Pokemon series. Between Gen 4 and Gen 5, those options increased even moreso. But I still feel like online for those titles is lacking.

Where's our Entralink online mode? Where's a "make your own tournament" mode? Hell, where's an option to battle 2 vs 2 with four friends or 3 vs 3 with six? None of these are crazy wants, and I'm sure the DS could've handled them. It's more down to the Pokemon Company for not going the extra distance.

Recently I read through IGN's latest article regarding Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2, and something about its new online features caught my attention:

The local play is pretty standard fare, but as this was sorely missing from the last title, it's nice to see it included in this new one. You can finally do more than just exchange monster data with a friend, and can now battle head-to-head with them or even set-up a tournament with up to eight players. Wi-fi offers the same options, only with a cool new addition -- a worldwide tournament that cycles every seven days and will kick off the Monday the game launches.

Local AND WiFi include a tournament mode, with up to 8 battlers no less. I can only hope our next console battler - whenever it's finally released - steps it up to include such a mode. It'd make organizing small tourneys so much easier and welcoming.
 
I'm thinking that a beauty contest sort thing could be instituted, similar to the dress-up portions of the Musical and the Sinnoh Contests. In this, a Pokemon sprite or picture could be dressed up and posed in various ways. It would be fun to have the public vote your image through to the top in some contest.
 
Unless I grossly missed this, I'd want to be able to do four player double battles over wifi because I think it would be hilarious and really fun. However the biggest missed opportunity for me is making Black City/White Forest wifi as well as local. With Black and White having a slight emphasis on international play, you'd think Gamefreak would be all over making it wifi based. This is similar to the missed opportunity of making use of wifi for the Underground Gen IV. Pokemon already has the things in play for an awesome online experience that are either wasted on local connections or just not implemented like the tournaments. My dream would be for the possible Ruby/Sapphire remakes to have their Secret bases connected to wifi which could lead to all sorts of shenanigans, but Gamefreak and Nintendo aren't exactly making me hopeful.
 

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
Fumanshu said:
Option to trade more than one Pokemon in what feels like 2 hours.

I can't decide which is worse personally: the length of the trading process, or the fact that it takes people ages to properly connect this gen. :p
 
Top