Pokémon: Out of ideas, or just outside of the box?

Fans of Nintendo’s hit monster catching series have been offering it the same criticism for years now, ever since it started giving us creatures past the very first 151. It all comes down to the same base complaint:

“They’re out of ideas.”

I disagree with this claim, and I think people who push this suggestion don’t really think enough about what an “idea” actually is. Let’s look at some Pokémon and I’ll show you what I mean by this.

First, Pokémon that are generally considered by fans to be good designs, or at least classic ones.

Pretty creative, right? Now let’s look at some of the lesser liked, accepted, to “it grows on you” newer creatures.

Obviously, I did pick and choose a little here, but what I feel about Pokémon designs tends to be universal, so if it’s just as well, I hope that can be forgiven this once. Now let’s look at these designs. A badass dragon, a lovable butterfly, and a spunky bird. The stuff childhoods are made of. The stuff my childhood was made of, as it happens. Compared to that, what do the kids of today have to look forward to when they start a new Pokémon game? A key chain, an ice cream cone, and a monkey with jewelry. Wow. Nice going, GameFreak. What did you do with the first two, pick the first things you saw while you were at lunch and slap eyes at them? Ha! Okay, so Pokémon has had object-based designs before. But not ones as lazy as a key chain and an ice cream cone, surely! Now here’s the first problem I have with the usual problems people have with Pokémon designs. Why is it that Pokémon can be nothing more than an animal drawn in the right art style and that can be a great design, but an object can’t? This series is called Pocket Monsters. In Japan, Pokémon’s country of origin, plenty of their cultural “monsters,” “yokai” as many of them are called there, are things like wheels and umbrellas come to life due to various circumstances. In other words, as far as the creators of Pokémon are concerned, a living object is as “monster” as, say, a dragon or a gremlin might be. And what this means is that right there, the suggestion that a Pokémon would only be based on an object because they’re out of ideas starts to completely fall apart. You know what, though? We don’t even have to get into the culture side of things as far as these object Pokémon go.

As I mentioned previously, Pokémon that are essentially just animals drawn in the Pokémon art style are usually accepted with little to no problems. Even the Pokémon that use similar concepts as Pokémon that already exist, like the mammals and birds in the beginning of each region, typically get a pass because they’re part of a greater theme. The thing is… While people are suggesting a Pokémon that’s “just a key chain” or “just an ice cream cone” means that the franchise is out of ideas, and that we need a return to form, the reality is the exact opposite. Think about it. Pokémon hasn’t even come close to making a Pokémon based off of every single animal yet, and even then, it could simply draw some animals a little differently, use some different colors, and then give it a different type and continue to go on forever. Object Pokémon are much more than that. Even simplistic ones like Voltorb and Klink typically have some sort of story to them, some purpose or another. And that Pokémon that’s “just an ice cream cone,” or the one that’s “just a key chain”? Think about their designs.

Kleki is a Fairy type, much in line with European and Japanese “fairies” of folklore, that steals keys. It’s not a cute little thing with wings, like you might expect, but it fits the idea of what some cultures consider a fairy perfectly. Vanilluxe, meanwhile, is actually an icicle that covers itself in snow and creates an icy mist with its cold breath. I realize the Pokédex is often full of absurd, impossible facts, but the lore that some of these Pokémon have going for them, combined with their designs, makes it impossible for me to say that these represent a creative mind that is out of ideas. Far from it. These represent a franchise that has more designs than ever before, if anything. The only thing that I find disappointing about it all is how few new ones the most recent entries gave us, instead opting to fill us up on Mega Evolutions, but that’s a topic for another day. For now, I’ve largely only focused on two of the three Pokémon I chose here, but what I’ve been saying extends to the last one as well. Many cry that Pokémon like Infernape are “overdesigned,” that it, like many legendary Pokémon, don’t belong anymore. For those claims, I just want to point to one more Pokémon.

I have yet to see someone who makes these claims apply them to Entei, but I would say it, as well as its two companions, fits the bill perfectly. It has a mask of multiple colors, its legs are decorated with four cuffs, and just look at everything on its back. If the same complaints that are applied to Pokémon like Infernape or even Dialga and Giratina were applied to this one, I’m quite confident it would look fairly different. So where does that leave us? I believe the answer is a lot simpler than people make it out to be. It isn’t an issue of Pokémon being out of ideas, and it really isn’t even as much of an issue of the franchise relying on “overdesigned” creatures nowadays either. The new designs aren’t what people have memories of, aren’t what people are used to, and so they aren’t what people feel they want. People seem to want more of what they know from Pokémon, but the thing is… Them sticking to what they know, what they’ve done, is asking them to not have and implement new ideas. If you ask me, all Pokémon and all Pokémon generations have a mix of unique designs. Sometimes they won’t appeal to you or to me, but Pokémon isn’t just for you or for me. It’s for everyone. For every design I like is a design someone else doesn’t, and vice versa. It’s my hope GameFreak will return to form someday and start giving more Pokémon with each new generation, and likewise, it’s my hope that people will come to embrace them all as they did the originals. Until then…