Petting Pokémon Should Be a Series Staple Going Forward

Players have had surprisingly few ways to interact with their Pokémon throughout the series, and that’s something future games should remedy.

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Category : Pokemon

It’s easy to see why Pokémon is the biggest name in RPGs. In a genre where every other franchise is constantly reinventing itself, Pokémon has stayed true to its original spirit of innocent adventures with fantastical creatures. The wide variety of monsters ensures that everyone has their personal favorites, and its simple formula keeps each game accessible to new children while also providing older players with comfortable nostalgia.

Yet, for all the games’ talk of friendship and camaraderie, the series has a surprising lack of opportunities for its audience to pet, hug and peacefully play with their monsters. This may have made sense in the earlier games, back when they were but simple creature-catching RPGs with a greater emphasis on combat, but the franchise has grown considerably since the days of the Red and Blue. Now that this change in focus has become such an integral part of the series, there’s no reason not to embrace it.

Earlier Pokémon games had a considerably sharper edge than their modern counterparts. Not only were the sprites for creatures like Golbat and Haunter surprisingly monstrous, looking more like Shin Megami Tensei demons than the brightly-colored beasts of the present, but the games were more rooted in surprisingly realistic problems. Team Rocket was a crime syndicate that used Pokémon to enact crimes, while characters like Lt. Surge referenced the violent wars of days gone by.

With all this in mind, it makes sense why those earlier games didn’t spend as much time emphasizing the power of friendship. However, Pokémon’s tone has been softening since Ruby and Sapphire. This isn’t a bad thing, and the series’ sales clearly demonstrate that this lighter style is here to stay. However, it raises the question of why so few of the core RPGs have really provided the opportunity to play with one’s Pokémon.

Some games have experimented with ways to interact with Pokémon outside of battle — Gold and Silver allowed players to get their partners haircuts and massages, and Diamond and Pearl introduced the Poffin mechanic so players could make food for them. However, it wouldn’t really be until X and Y’s Pokémon-Amie feature that players could truly pet their magical friends. While the addition was an adorably welcome one, it’s surprising how long it took to be added.

Sword and Shield have fortunately continued the tradition by adding balls and other toys, allowing trainers to play fetch with their Pokémon, but the mechanic still feels limited. There are only a handful of trinkets that can be used with one’s partners, and curry is now the only food that can be prepared for them. These aren’t bad additions by any means, but it would still be nice for the games to expand on them.

Some of the most enduring images of the Pokémon franchise stem from its anime and movie adaptations, in which trainers are seen hugging, carrying and interacting with their partners in ways that aren’t represented fully in the games. While technological limitations might have justified excluding such mechanics from earlier installments, there’s no reason why future games shouldn’t rectify that.

Granted, the series’ lore means it might be difficult to justify interacting with every Pokémon. One’s hand is likely to go through most Ghost-types, while monsters like Muk and Magcargo are simply too dangerous to make physical contact with. Still, that doesn’t mean there aren’t creative workarounds. Perhaps there could be specific items that allow for contact with otherwise-hazardous creatures, or maybe special toys players can give them that don’t disintegrate upon contact. It might be a bit hand-wavy, narratively-speaking, but it wouldn’t be the weirdest thing in this series.

Pokémon is great because it allows players to bond with a huge variety of creatures, each of which is someone’s favorite. Millions of players have experienced the series’ message about how bonds between people and Pokémon make both stronger, so it would be fitting to put more emphasis on building that bond outside of combat.

That doesn’t mean Pokémon has to stray from its RPG roots, just that it should add to it by giving players more opportunities to express their love for their partners. Imagine getting all the way to the end, beating the Elite Four and having the final victory screen not be of one’s avatar posing dramatically, but instead giving a big group hug to all the friends that got them this far. There’d be no cuter way to end one of these adorable games.

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