Don’t expect Pokemon to get too mature or dark
The Pokemon games have always remained light-hearted. Nintendo has yet to come out with a seriously mature take on the series or a title with a lot of dark elements – and this won’t be changing in the future.
First, here’s what Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda said when asked if the stories could take on a more mature direction:
We tried to do that a little bit with Pokémon Black and White, telling a story that, while it appealed to kids, would also be something that adults could enjoy more than previous titles, dealing with some more in-depth themes. With X and Y, we’re also hoping to have some of those more in-depth themes as well. But at the same time, we’re trying to create – with Pokémon X and Y in particular – this warm and kind atmosphere in the games. That’s one thing we’re trying to get across.
We’re trying to increase the depth and appeal to adults more in the gameplay this time. For example, in the battles, we’re introducing Mega Evolution and hoping the strategic elements will be even more fleshed out than before.
Masuda later addressed a similar topic, commenting on making the Pokemon series more dark:
At Game Freak we’re always looking for new challenges and new things to do, so I can’t say that that we would never do something like that, but with Pokémon X and Y we were able to get an E rating again, and we think it’s very important to be able to appeal to a wide audience. Of course, if we were able to go in a more realistic direction while we kept this E rating and remained able to appeal to that wide audience, then maybe we’d explore something like that in the future. But we have no plans at the moment.
