[X] My Assistant

[Wizboy777]

There's always Pokemon Special..
It's a very dark manga series of Pokemon, though the characters are still around 12-13.
I believe Pokemon and people actually die in the series.. that's what I hear anyway.

Yeah, I did read part of the Ruby/Sapphire arc of the Pokemon Special manga. It's a lot better than the Anime. Characters do die (if I remember correctly) and yes, it's a little darker than the Anime. And there's actual romance in the manga. Ruby x Sapphire is an awesome pairing that's actually canon.

I still stick with my previous idea of a Colosseum/XD-based Anime, but an Anime based on Pokemon Special (especially the Ruby/Sapphire arc) would be great as well. There's so many ideas for new Anime spin-offs of Pokemon, but it looks like none of it is gonna happen any time soon. Blah, make me a Colosseum Anime already!

[Zaloog]

I think there should be a new series of Pokemon anime that tells the story of new characters for a more mature audience while the current series continues to air. This way we can see a new take on Pokemon and Nintendo can make more money revisiting old regions. The new series should have a Teen rating showing scars and mild amounts of blood as well as tone down on the comical Pokemon attacking people scenes. That would be something i could watch.

[Ghost Flame]

Maybe they should have a darker RPG for the Wii; at least to experiment. I'm not talking about people and pokemon getting killed, but maybe some scratches, sighns of fatigue, and the destructable envionment that was cut from Battle Revolution. Nothing too fancy or gorey, just something to try out and ease fans in without heavily affecting the tried-and-true RPG style we've come to know and love.

[DD321123]

Yeah with PBR hyper beam or hyper voice in a glass building.
"Those kids with their arceus with hyper voice destroyed my house!"
Pokemon XD should've been a bit darker. Shadow pokemon, well in reverse mode (or whatever it is called) does hurt shadow pokemon (Them hurting themselves) so maybe it was a bit violent but not super violent. (Wow, a badder confusion. I am so scared!) But they will lose a lot of their kid audience and revenue and that will impact the company.

[Netbug009]

It wouldn't sell well enough, and why is it needed? The games as they are seem fine to me. When did E rating start to mean kiddie game anyway?

[The Letter W]

I wouldn't mind a more mature Pokemon series. I think the darkest the anime has gotten is the first movie?
I mean, they do say the legendaries are super!dangerous, but Mewtwo is the only one that's actually killed anyone.

[Leander]

I'm not entirely sure on the subject of a darker game.

While I dearly love a combination of Pokemon and horror (so fun to think about!), I think part of the fun is that the series is targeted as being so child-friendly when there are some seriously questionable things in it. An animated ghost-doll that seeks the child that discarded it and sticks itself with pins to generate attacks; a ghost balloon that tries to steal children; an icy Pokemon which is described to enjoy freezing foes solid and eating them in a leisurely fashion; a Pokemon whose ability is to cause people to go into a deep, utterly nightmare-infested sleep. Etc, etc. (all examples from the third and fourth generations, btw -- Banette, Drifloon, Glalie, and Darkrai.)

Not to mention Team Galactic. Oh, Team Galactic. They blew up a lake and left countless Magikarp to flop around helplessly and die. I dunno about you guys, but I was honestly disturbed by that part of the game. It felt so wrong. I really wanted to help those fish, but couldn't. They set off another bomb. They're shown to be cultish, even reminiscent of the Nazis if you listen to Cyrus's speech and Looker's reaction to it. Cyrus, imo, is a complete monster. He may not be some kind of violent sadist or some such, but he wants to create a world without spirit (free will/emotion) and become a God in it, thinks of his followers as mere pawns and utterly useless and lies freely to them, and unlike every other villain in the Pokemon series... he refuses to change his ways.

See, it may all be in a G-rated-as-Animal-Crossing game, but there's darker stuff there if you look closely. |3

Edit: Forgot to mention -- there was implied character death in the Sinnoh arc of the anime a bit ago, haha.

This post has been edited by Leander: Feb 8 2010, 10:08 PM

[FancyGranola]

I think it is fine the way it is. Pokemon makes me feel like the little kid in me is getting preserved. The game makes everything different because the goal isn't just to beat the Elite Four, it is also to make friends and battle others over Wi-Fi. Pokemon is evolving for sure, and I doubt they would need to change anything that could possibly jeopardize the success.

[Shiny Gardevoir]

I think they should... A pokemon with Final Fantasy-like story would be great
I'm not really looking for a game filled with tragedies or something like that... But if they add in a mind-boggling mystery (maybe at least something like those in mystery dungeons?) and merge the plot with the goal (beating the champion), I think that would be great...

It's sad that the problem is resolved before you fight through the championships... It kind of removes some thrill... But that's just me...

[spotty]

I just find out amusing about the thought of Pokemon ripping out spleens and shredding eyes. But I doubt Pokemon will ever change. Most people who play the franchise and who enjoys it will keep coming back to each new generation. I personally dislike a number of the Gen 5 Pokemon, but everyone who knows I play Pokemon knows I'm going to be going out and getting White. So. Nintendo has your money no matter what they throw up into a cartridge and ship millions of. As long as they keep getting their money, they won't change drastically. Yes the change from Gen 2 to Gen 3 was drastic, but that was because Technology took a nice large step into what we know today. So, yes I would like to see some of the more violent nature of Pokemon, but I doubt we're ever going to see it.

[BarkingChaos]

Has the world been brainwashed by the amount of M rated games into thinking that more blood/darkness/gore makes a game better? I play a lot of hack n slash games and love slasher movies, but I still love cute things too. For people who are only arguing that pokemon isnt "cool" anymore, get over yourselves. If people dont like you because you play pokemon, tough. They arent your friends anyway. My friends are all fine with pokemon. Heck, they actually asked me to draw pokesonas of them. Anyway, back to the topic.

No. It doesnt. Pokemon doesnt need to be any darker than it already is. Have you people ever read the pokedex entries for certain pokemon? Theres plenty implication of death. The games themselves are full of implications of mature themes. Thats all you need. The implications are subtle enough that younger kids may not catch on, but older players will understand. The thing is, pokemon has always been a family game. Its not a 3 year old game, its a FAMILY game, meaning its appropriate for everyone. And you seem to think that making it more mature would make it popular. It doesnt work that way for the same reason that young disney stars will never be taken seriously. Once you have that "for kids" image, its hard to get rid of. People would either just ignore the game completely, say its gimmick a bigger audience, or have crazies that would sue.

However, It would be cool if you could play as Team Rocket or whatever team for once. But again, that doesnt mean that you have to include graphic violence and death. I do agree that they need to make the main character older. Maybe have some kind of age selecting thing and the character has a different appearence depending on what age you select.

Point is though, pokemon works without the need for blood and intense violence.

[Zero Gravity]

I don't think a T rated Pokemon would be all that bad, hell parents these days pay attention to ratings on games and buy their kids "M" rated material. i seriously doubt Pokemon would suffer

[Sl3ndii]

I would SO LOVE to see a Gyarados kill Dawn with a Hyper Beam...

[pyreflydust]

Wow this is an old thread.

Personally I don't think making a darker game would add anything to the series. Pokemon is a very cute series that occasionally adds some darker elements. It's perfectly suitable for children and it should stay that way. Think about the idiot parents who would think "Oh it's pokemon, it should be fine for my six year old." without looking at the rating. Most parents don't seem to pay attention to things that were never intended for kids, why would they be suspicious enough of a Pokemon game to look at the rating and actually think?

I mean we get angry mobs when there are video games made solely for adults that are not made from something based on children's media. The world thinks everything needs to be child friendly and adults aren't allowed to enjoy things as it is, there's no need to get them angry at Pokemon again since I'm pretty sure most people are over whatever they didn't like about it when it was everywhere at the end of the 1990's/beginning of the 2000's.

[Knight of Cydoni...]

Um, yes. And can be the pedophile he always wanted to be!

[Some Person]

Isn't there a short movie like this? I think it's where Ash is about sixteen, Pokemon battles are like dog fighting and about as legal, and I think Team Rocket or someone end up killing Professor Oak... That's pretty dark.

[Snivy615]

i disagree. but i would like some bad words.

[Kirvee]

Oh wow this is old...

You know, I remember when I was 10 years old, I thought of a Pokemon game that I always imagined would be REALLY awesome to play if it ever actually came into existence. You played as a pokemon (kind of like PMD, but not "human becomes pokemon") and you lived in a world that was taken over by an evil trainer, who sought to capture every single pokemon in your world and turn them into slaves. You literally watched almost all your friends get pulled into over-sized pokeballs and whisked away to his lair/castle. Then one day, you and one of your only remaining friends decide to set out to try to DO SOMETHING about the evil trainer, starting with releasing the captured pokemon and/or save those about to be captured.

The basic set-up I thought of for it at the time was a bit like Banjo-Kazooie. You and your friend + any other Pokemon you had join you would travel to various locations and save as many pokemon as you were able to. The only enemy in the game would be the oversized pokeballs, which couldn't be defeated, but could be temporarily warded off by using an attack on them. You could assemble a team of up to six pokemon for your runs to various locations, but you could only control one specific one at a time, however you could switch control freely.

The end of the game would see you fighting against the evil trainer, who not only enslaved all of his pokemon, but effectively brainwashed them into following his every command.

The game I envisioned at the time would've been 3D, and on something like the N64 (nowadays, it'd be the Wii, or one of the other 3D systems).

I thought of ALL of that when I was just 10 years old. Nine--almost 10--years later, all I get is PMD, Rangers, Colosseum, XD, and to a degree Black/White. And yet, none of those games are quite at the level of epic dark as the game I imagined.

I keep hoping maybe someday it'll be made, but considering how long it's been....not very likely. =/

But I'm just saying, if a 10 year old could think of a dark-themed pokemon game, why the hell can't Nintendo?

[SnivyCap]

Umm... Ok, I'm lost for words. Pokemon has dark elements in it - they're there, they are just hidden so that EVERYONE can enjoy it! E rating means EVERYONE. That means it's good whether you're 6 or 233! For younger kids, they get their basic "I'm going to be the Champion with my Rare Candied team!", older kids start thinking about EVs and good team combos, and then you have an incredibly long stage where you're battling in Championships and building specific teams with EV training, blah blah blah. Then, you have adults, who probably play for leisure time, or as a way to connect to their kids. That's why Pokemon is good for EVERYONE - Plus, if you just try a little bit harder, you can notice the dark things there are in the Pokemon World.

[Shadow Fennekin]

I think they should, the current one is too boring