The Pokemon Company recently suffered from an extremely in-depth leak that has revealed just about all of their plans for the next five years. It stands to reason either way, then, that the tenth generation of Pokemon is coming sooner rather than later. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet had some good ideas, solid music, and great Pokemon designs, but it’s safe to say that a vast majority of the game could be improved for the next iteration.
1. Graphics that actually look good
On Nintendo Switch 2, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet run just fine at a smooth 60 frames per second. Given how simple Paldea’s geometry looks, you would think the game could run just as well on a normal Nintendo Switch, but that wasn’t the case at all. On launch (and to this day on Nintendo Switch), Scarlet and Violet run shockingly poorly. There’s stuttering, lag, and all sorts of visual glitches all over the place, which understandably left players feeling like they had purchased an incomplete game. The bar is pretty low, but we’re hoping for significantly upgraded graphics for the next generation of Pokemon. Paldea’s cliffsides and grasslands had lots of potential, but wound up looking bland and flat. Scarlet and Violet’s actual Pokemon models looked good, though – but for generation ten, we’re looking for landscapes that look good too. And looking good isn’t quite enough here – it’d be fantastic if the game could run at 60 frames per second as well, but I’m how realistic an expectation that is at this point remains to be seen.
2. Take more ideas from the Legends series
Pokemon Legends: Arceus felt new and fresh when it released, and part of the reason why is because it fundamentally changed the formula. Ideally, we’d love a tenth-generation Pokemon game that combines elements of Scarlet and Violet and the Legends games. In terms of capturing Pokemon, keep the Legends system – I want to be able to toss a Poke Ball at a Pokemon that hasn’t spotted me. I don’t really want to start a dedicated battle with every single one. That being said, we’re fans of turn-based Pokemon gameplay; particularly the competitive aspect of it. Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s battle system has its positives, but we personally wouldn’t want it for a 10th generation Pokemon game. Battles aren’t the only things the Legends series has changed, though. Pokemon Legends: Arceus also introduced the Link Cable, as well as Pokemon evolution you have to manually activate rather than automatically. The Legends series also lets you destroy overworld obstacles with your Pokemon and move around during battles. If the tenth generation keeps these features while retaining Abilities, it’d be the perfect balance.
3. A better story than Scarlet and Violet
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s base game started off slow, but wound up with one of the coolest story segments of any Pokemon game at the end. The DLC stories weren’t quite as good, however, with The Indigo Disk in particular falling flat. Most fans don’t play Pokemon for the story, but it definitely helps make the entire experience more memorable. Pokemon Black and White (and their sequels) had good stories as well, and they’re beloved in the modern day because of it. Personally, we’d like to see Pokemon move away from its format of stories – get seven Gym Badges, the evil team (which for some reason always has “Team” in its name) pulls shenanigans with a Legendary Pokemon, and then you beat the eighth gym and fight the Champion. Scarlet and Violet made a few steps away from this format, but we’d like to see even bigger leaps made in the tenth generation.
4. Reduce the grind
Most (if not all) of Pokemon’s DLCs are based around Shiny hunting. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Shiny hunting – collecting Shiny Pokemon is addicting, to say the least, and I get lots of time out of the games searching for them. That said, most Pokemon DLCs feature Shiny hunting as the main attraction. And when they do, their corresponding gameplay loops often involve grinding for some kind of “points” over and over again. In Sword and Shield, you grind for Dynite Ore. In Scarlet and Violet, you grind for Blueberry Points. Pokemon Legends: Z-A is the most egregious of them all here – as a Shiny hunter, the amount of resetting, RNG, and grinding you have to do is ridiculous. You have to grind to get Hyperspace berries, and then you have to reset until you get the donut effects you want. Then you have to reset until a Hyperspace hole containing a Pokemon you want appears. And then you have to go in and reset until you find a Shiny Pokemon. None of this is even mentioning the Hyperspace Survey, which – you guessed it – involves grinding for points. I don’t think anybody in the world believes grinding for points is a fun pastime, and I hope Pokemon gets the message in their next titles.
5. No more two-version games
This is extremely unrealistic and completely unlikely, but if you think about it, the only reason Pokemon releases two titles at once is simply to make more money by gating off version exclusives. Is it relatively easy to find players online to trade with? Yes. But the idea of two separate versions is a very old and dated one. Many players buy both versions of the game, and in many cases they are completely identical but with a few Pokemon swapped out. Again, there’s no way Pokemon ever abandons this strategy with main series games. The Legends games do count as main series, and they’re single versions, but the non-Legends main series Pokemon games are always two versions. Maybe it’s time to change that.
6. Don’t be $80
Mario Kart World is is a great game, but it caught a lot of criticism for its $80 price tag. Still, there’s a non-zero chance that the tenth generation of Pokemon on Nintendo Switch 2 costs $80, even though this is completely unconfirmed. Can you imagine how mad fans on social media would get if the new Pokemon games were priced at $80? Even at their current price points, Pokemon games are subject to extreme scrutiny from fans. There will be controversy around the tenth generation even if they don’t cost $80, so we can’t imagine how intense the discussion will be if Nintendo decides to pull the trigger and increase the price of the base game.
7. Keep up the positives
While Pokemon games have their flaws, but it’s important to note that they’re not all bad. For one, just about every title has good music – that’s one area they nearly never miss in. Even Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, which left a lot to be desired, have good music. Scarlet and Violet had some great battle tracks as well, plus plenty of themes full of catchy leitmotifs. The other thing Pokemon has never gotten wrong – making catching new creatures and filling out the Pokedex addictive. Here’s hoping the next generation of Pokemon keeps these two elements intact! It’d be nice to have a slightly larger Pokedex as well – at this point, including all 1,025 Pokemon in a single game is out of the question, but 500 or 600 Pokemon would be a fantastic number. More likely, the Pokedex will be around 400 instead. Scarlet and Violet also had some really good Pokemon designs across the board – Pokemon always includes some good designs in each generation, so I’m not worried about that for the tenth generation.
We could go on and on about more things we’d like to see from Pokemon’s next generation, but those are the big ones. Are you hoping to see something that wasn’t on this list? If so, feel free to let us know in the comments down below.
