this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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@lvxferre @sleepybisexual Gen IV was when the real power creep started to happen.
I know gen 8 pokemon are too strong but how was gen 4 guilty?
@sleepybisexual Aside from what lvxferre said, there's also Stealth Rock with very ineffective way of removing it because of ghost types, random 120 base power moves and the physical/special split essentially buffing the coverage of offensive pokemon (Gengars can actually use Ghost type moves). Essentially the gen that made dragons overpowered. I guess you can say these are all subtle. Gen 6 onwards just made it more blatant with gimmicks like mega-evolutions, z-moves and terrain.
Yup, and also the legendaries got a lot stronger too.
I also think that the power creep started out with Gen4, as it had lots of legendaries and evos for older mons. (There's a literal god there dammit.) However I feel like power creep is a symptom of a deeper issue in the series: it's basically mass production, and for mass production you got a few cosmetic changes from gen to gen but almost no meaningful change in core gameplay. And eventually people like you, @sleepybisexual and me got tired of that "base" product.
@lvxferre I know there are perverse incentives for power creep for games with in-game monetization but even with MOBAs who produce less and have less combinatorial possibilities on moves/items can have power creep so I don't think mass production alone does it. I'd reckon power creep is a demand side problem, people get more dopamine when something they use is overpowered. Also legendary power creep prolly started with Gen III Kyogre rain-boosted STAB Choice Specs 150 base power spread move.
I don't think that mass production is doing it alone, but that it's a factor. It's what prevents GameFreak from changing the core gameplay of the game; and without meaningful changes to core gameplay, they need to attract players through other ways.
And one of those ways is making the mons of a newer gen stronger than the ones of the gen before. (Another is introducing "gimmick mechanics" that get forgotten in the next gen.)
@lvxferre Define meaningful changes to core gameplay and Gamefreak doesn't seem to have perverse monetary incentives to power creep so I'm just guessing a more benign creative block here rather than willful. I don't think people buy Pokemon games for the competitive esports aspects anyway even though I see a lot of changes in later gens clearly geared towards VGC gameplay.