It started very much as a light and goofy comedy but then started developing an actual decently engaging story partway through. You can watch in pretty much real time as the creator, Shippiddge, hones & refines his craft with the comedy bits getting better, the music amping up, and the action scenes getting really good.
It's a decent series, all things considered. I've been following Shippiddge back when he was still updating his Super Smash Bros Melee machinima series. He's definitely improved a lot since those halcyon days of yore, but it seems he has followed a trend that I noticed where many of these creators seem to take more and more time to update their works as they age out into living an actual adult life. I'm looking forward to whatever entries he is able to muster, but I am going to take a wild guess and say that this will probably be the last long form animation project he does, at least on YouTube. The current media landscape is far too hostile to indulge in fan created projects of this nature, especially the amount of time and pain it takes to get something good out. Not to mention the elephant in the room that are Nintendo's and the Pokemon Company's C&Ds. As is, I am thankful for what we are able to get. But I am not expecting more out of him after all is said and done, save for maybe the rare skit or two.
As for the series itself, the story isn't something that will rock your socks off. But it is decently entertaining as far as the ensemble cast iust is concerned, being an affectionate parody of the franchise it is based on. I do especially like Caterpie's continuing quest to gain his revenge against the duo, up to and including using one of the three starters in a ploy to kill Charmander, only for that plan to royally backfire with most of his family laid to the torch. Charmander as expected is quite the feisty fire type, with Squirtle and Bulbasaur having their own nice little quirks to add on to that. Beyond that, there isn't that much else to say. It's just a nice series, one of the rare Pokemon animation projects worth a damn.
Edit: Well then, the series just updated as I was finishing this post. Visuals certainly took a boost for some parts of it, and it seems the consequences of earlier actions have come back to haunt Squirtle. Now we just need to wait another... Five years or so before the next update.
I guess my point is this is one of the very few Pokémon-related things that I can genuinely get excited about, because Nintendo sucks so much cock that a webseries unironically has more soul and care put into it than Game Freak would ever care to.
I have not indulged in any official Pokemon related media since my last attempt to play Pokemon Moon which I got as Toys R Us was liquidating its inventory. I got bored before I could even catch my first mon beyond the popplio starter, and have not engaged with the series itself proper ever since, seeing as it got stale for me around the time Black & White rolled around. There is only so many wild encounters and grind I can tolerate before it becomes mind numbly dull. It isn't that Black & White were bad games per say, and I did appreciate the update to the visuals in terms of animated sprites. But the main gameplay loop remained stagnant, more or less the same since its Gen 1 days. I managed to get up all the way to the Elite Four, but my team was poorly optimized to face off against the setup faced against me. That would not be so bad, were it not for the fact that good locations to grind were few and far between. It might have been that I was not looking hard enough at the time, but I grew so bored with the process that I just up and quit in favor of other things.
Beyond that, there are various little other things that more or less neutered my enthusiasm for the franchise. I could never get used to the new voice actors they had for the likes of Ash Ketchum, so the anime was a bust as far as my ability to enjoy it goes. Then there are the world building aspects, such as the shift in design philosophy for the aesthetics of Pokemon, their Pokedex entries, and just the setting in general.
Before I continue any further, let me preface that I am highly opinionated and biased on the matter. I do not consider my own opinions to be strictly objective, especially in the light of the Pokemon games continuing to sell gangbusters in contrast to my own expectations and wants for how I would like the franchise to develop. Nevertheless, I need *some* place to vent, and it's fun to detail these thoughts in any case.
I'll start with the most immediate thing that comes to mind, that being the Pokemon themselves. To be blunt, Generation 5 was where immersion into the world was torpedo'd just by the existence of some mons. Be it for their visual design, their Pokedex entries, and just how they are incorporated into the worldbuilding at large, mons like vanilluxe and trubbish stood in a sharper contrast against the more ecological bent that Pokemon had up to that point. For the former, I find the very idea of "foodmon" to be at odds with any attempts to have a more grounded setting in terms of its ecology. I get what the design was going for, being that of representing the ice cream culture we have here in the states. But I find myself at disliking both the concept and visual design. To be fair, similar mons existed in the past like exggecute back in Gen 1. I could tolerate the latter, seeing as exeggcute are at least detailed as being seeds to form a much greater form as some type of hivemind. But for the likes of vanilluxe, I think this line would have benefited if Pokemon had been a bit more daring in diversifying the visuals of mons up to that point, such as having the mon we see in game just so happened to be shaped into an ice cream cone, perhaps even having more additional forms of ice being molded into different shapes to compliment its world building. In other words, adapting to a more urban environment to exploit a connection to humans using a form they might find cute and familiar, whereas some hypothetical "native/wild" form would appear drastically different in contrast. Instead, we get... Well, whatever this evolution line is supposed to be.
Then there's the garbodor line.
I understand that there may be people who like the design for what it is, that different design sensibilities were at work in terms of taking inspiration from using New York as a baseline inspiration for what sort but I cannot bring myself to appreciate the line as it stands in their current form. It quite literally is garbage. I could get a mon that make use of human refuse to its own advantage. I could get maybe, just maybe, newer types of mons being formed out of whatever godforsaken ether to create such a thing. But frankly, I find this line offensive to my sensibilities, both for the lost world building potential, and just how grotesque the line is in general. Why would you want to come up with a line whose entire existence is literally subsisting off and being human garbage? I could see the argument to its origins being similar to grimer and muk, human pollution and what not. But the hows and whys of its existence still elude me, and frankly I do not find myself inspired to try and find anything beyond wondering what the thought process was behind this creation.
My dislike for the direction of where the franchise headed started to fester more with Generation 6. While I cannot say I am overly familiar with it and the generations that come afterwards in the same way I was for previous titles, I still got the jist for them by exposure through other means. If there is one thing I greatly dislike about them that stands against the grain of popular opinion, it would be both the concept and execution of mega evolutions. First and foremost being the temporary nature of it being too analogous to Digimon for my liking. To me, the growth of the Pokemon you have as a companion should reflect a sign of permanent growth, a maturation into something greater to stand as proof that you and your mon have gone against the odds and came out stronger for it.
In contrast, mega evolutions are only ever temporary, with their designs reflecting that. They do not factor in an ecological sense, most of their designs being some ridiculous exaggeration of the final form for any given line, or otherwise too "battlemodeish" to try and factor into the greater world in terms of its setting. I get that is part of the core of the franchise, Pokemon growing through battling and the like. But I would greatly prefer it showcasing through both the trainer and mon, or at minimum being factored in ecologically in some manner. By the very existence of the concept, it kills the potential for any mons who would have had the possibility of a second or third form being "robbed" from them due to the existence of a mega evo standing in the place of that. It also neuters the possibility of other evolutionary or form change concepts that could be considered. To name one example, you could have a Pokemon be able to type shift by the introduction of some technologies or the like to emphasize how Pokemon benefit from Mankind beyond what is seen in the series, perhaps enough to the point that they themselves would poach human technology and other resources for their own benefit as another theme in that game. Come to think of it, that would have made a decent counterpoint for Black & White if something like that had been introduced back during that era.
But as it stands now, I doubt we'll get different from the norm without it being some half assed gimmick, assuming Gamefreak ever decides to broach the topic again.
Truth be told, I am in very much in agreement with Thrang in saying that the passion of the fanbase, whilst sometimes autistic, usually produces results I find more to my preference than not. I definitely prefer some of the hypothetical what if for some of the newer starters like for the Sobble line.
It's a pipedream, but I bet you could find a way to canonize some variation of these forms above. Instead of having to create new Pokemon from scratch, you could expand upon the base forms of the Pokemon we have now to create different subspecies, or even diverging branches from the existing stock.
I know that Pokemon's take on the regional form concept has already done so in a way. But I find their execution on some of the mons out there to be lackluster in terms of aesthetics and design. Perhaps I am going skitzo crazy, but I swear the color palette for Pokemon as of late has become softer, or simplified in a manner I cannot quite put my finger on. Apparently the likes of the Alohan Vulpix now has a much smaller neck and bigger head in proportion to its body, and the "native" vulpix has followed suit for the sake of merchandising.
Or as demonstrated with the starters, they become thematic mascots instead of being their own species.
Take this redesign of inteleon for instance. Out of all the reimaginings I have come across, I found this one struck the best balance of keeping true to the roots of what their original designer was going for whilst keeping the proportions solid. I can see this iteration of the species actually living out and about in the wild, instead of that domesticated abomination of a twink lizard that we have in canon. It can be a friend if you really want it to be, as seems to be the desire for starter designs going on since Kalos at minimum. But it still keep things thematically neutral for the concept not to override its inclusion for some given ecosystem.
I could go much further, but I think I have made my point that the Pokemon of yesterday are a different beast compared to the lot we get nowadays. At this point, Pokemon has gone too deep into the course that has been set for it to really avail my greivences with it as a franchise. Pokemon will not change, not with the momentum it has right now. Given time, I could see a future where in ten to fifteen years it is unseated from its throne in a similar vein to what happened to other poorly treated franchises like Star Wars, where the neglected added up to a point where once loyal fans young or old no longer give a shit about the latest entry. But I doubt it will be enough to foster any effective changes in time to make a difference. I'm just content to try and enjoy what fan works are out there that don't get C&D'd. If Gamefreak does not give a shit about the series, so be it. At there exists a decent caradre of fan creations that can take the edge off, to say nothing of the competition that is up and about despite Nintendo's best efforts to neuter them.
I've got my stockpile of fanworks set me to last for at least a little while, with more to come as time goes by. Not everything is a a banger that will rock your socks off. But given enough time, passion and spite, I can at least count on this fandom to deliver something they give a damn about. I cannot say the same for Gamefreak.
Played as a kid, still playing, but the new games kinda suck imo, I don't buy them for Switch, just waiting for my local library to purchase them and then of course I've got to pre order them for a little fee because all the kids are waiting too. I love Romhacks though, especially those with gen 1-4 mixed. Any recommendations?
Pokemon Seaglass Emerald might be up your alleyway. I have not personally played it, but it looks to be a solid effort that utlizes an aesthetic inspired by Gen 2. If I recall, it also has updated mechanics and mons from the other generations on top of that as well.
And while it isn't a romhack, I had a good time with Pokemon Xenoverse as well. You don't even need to have a rom to modify for the effort.
Far as I can tell, it's a completed effort, so no worries about updates. It's been a couple years since I last played it, but I enjoyed my time during my playthrough of the game. It's got a good selection of mons going from Gen 1-7, and even a couple fakemons sprinkled in that seem decent enough.
