For a long time, Pokémon has been playing it safe. In two decades the main series really hasn’t changed that much, instead retreating into a kind of calculable routine. New, main series Pokémon RPGs come out every couple of years: each time there’s two of them, each time there’s probably an enhanced version – either a third, or another pair – and each time Game Freak will add roughly one thing new and take roughly one other thing away, which was probably the new thing they’d just added last time.
And a lot of the time that works – Pokémon is comfort food. A new Pokémon game that just gets a bit bigger, a bit tougher, and a bit prettier every year or two would be probably be plenty. But at the same time, Pokémon has been so startlingly predictable that, if you know your history, even rumours and leaks about new games can be dismissed out of hand. There’s a known rhythm to it, a pattern that must be followed: there’s no way it’s coming out this year, because they haven’t done their spring reveal; there’s no way they’ll reveal the next one yet, they always release all the mythical Pokémon from the last games first; there’s no way they’ll drop random, wild Pokémon battles – it’s what the whole thing’s all about.
What it’s really been about though, for some time, is formulas. Numbers, equations, spreadsheets of stats and movesets and ruthless optimisation. Knowing exactly what to expect, exactly what to put into the formula so you get exactly what you want back out, whether that’s training competitive teams to within an inch of their life or just calling bull on another leak. Rumour: false. Training method: optimal. Pokédex: complete. A large part of that is obviously the fun of it, like any min-maxable RPG. But it is also, maybe, getting just a little tired.
Source: Eurogamer The Pokémon Company finally shows its hand, but for the first time we don't know what to expect