Action or Strategy?

I've done three posts in three days with question marks in the titles, and I suppose I'll just do another one before I have to break the streak with a (hopefully) very special post to come tomorrow. Why not.

This time, I want to discuss two general principles that apply to games and how they relate to Pokémon. Recently there was a suggestion that the Pokémon main series games might be different on the Switch, and the reason is due to the two principles, which I've mentioned in the title of this post. I personally disagree with fiddling with a system that works, but both principles are worthy of consideration. From this consideration, it turns out Pokémon games, including the main series, apply some of both.

In principle, "action" means that the player is demanded to advance by pressure caused by active enemies or time limits, which would otherwise cause negative results without response, while "strategy" means that the player is demanded to advance by beneficial and thoughtful executions to avoid negative results. It would sound like both principles are mutually exclusive, but even in games unrelated to Pokémon, some of both may be necessary. So it would help to think of both principles as a "continuum" - different games and their parts have their places among two ends of a line.

Back to Pokémon, the main series games are highly strategic, since the only action required in the battles is inputting moves and actions which are then exchanged accordingly, while there's a lot of preparation that goes into planning out which moves and actions to have and how they will interact within that exchange. Of course, with the advent of VGC battles, time limits are put in place, which create pressure for action. Go has battles, but the preparation is somewhat different (though vaguely similar to the main series), the enemies are active, and the battles are time-limited, which is rather action-oriented. Similarly, Pokkén is a real fighting game and therefore demands action, as are some of the interactions and mini-games in PokéPark. Shuffle has stages that demand strategy by moves and action by time. For all of these games, different parts demand different amounts of action or strategy, though there are places where either becomes prominent.

Thus "action" and "strategy" are present in the Pokémon games, though not always clear-cut and to the same degree. But in particular for the main series games, the mechanics are so well-established for each game that it's hard to see them totally reworked in a way that strays too far from the original intent. I say let things be, but understand the demands of each game, especially in regard to the two principles as they continue to apply to Pokémon games.

One year ago: Thank Heaven for Little Boys