Pokémon and Adventure Games

Remember the post I made on journals a couple of days ago? They allude to another game series that I play, and the games of those series can be considered to be of the genre of adventure games. Now, technically speaking, many Pokémon games involve an adventure, so they all could be considered "adventure" games. However, they're also to a greater part other kinds of games, so they cannot be purely considered adventure games. Even so, a few games can be considered close parallels to the games of the genre.

What is perhaps the closest parallel would be the game Detective Pikachu. I still haven't been able to play the full game, but the parallels are already apparent in the demo. The player is prompted to look around and examine things in order to be able to advance the story further, just like in those games. Likewise, the player needs to act upon things once they are clearly in place so that things happen as they should. These are the hallmarks of the games, and as they occur in Detective Pikachu, it too can be considered the closest parallel to the adventure games - or rather one on its own.

Just as close would be games in the PokéPark series, which I've played to certain extents. To a good extent, they are also adventure games in that the player is prompted to inquire, investigate, and interact to proceed further; even the subtitle for the first game indicates the "adventure" orientation. What makes the games less of those games is the large number of mini-games that are akin to ones from party games, and must also be played in order to advance. So on one hand, the adventure part is well-defined, but on the other hand, it's also downplayed due to the mini-games. They're still fairly good from the standpoint of the former.

It should be noted that one of the most popular Pokémon games can also be considered an adventure game, at least by its catalog description. That game is Pokémon Go, and it is included as an adventure game by Google's Play Store. In a way, it is a true and open-ended adventure, as the focus is on getting out there and catching Pokémon. Yet it also includes many of the mechanics familiar to those who play the main series, as a role-playing game, and that may be considered where the adventure ends and one becomes a Trainer just trying to one-up other Trainers. There is still a good adventure to be had in this game, though.

Even if many offerings of Pokémon games don't closely align with true adventure games, they still in a way offer "adventures" with what happens in them. I find nothing wrong with that, and I still like them for what they are. But true adventure games that do involve Pokémon are or would be something else indeed, and I would enjoy playing them as much as I do playing any other Pokémon game. Perhaps with enough demand, this could remain a good direction for Pokémon games to take.

One year ago: Respect for Ikue Ootani