>>57611124>>57611340The problem as I see is that Pokemon has forgotten what it is, both from the Game Freak side and from the fangame side.
One of the first interactable objects in Gen 1 is the television displaying a Stand By Me reference, and this is very important to set the tone of the game. Just like Stand By Me is about a group of kids going to see a dead body, Gen 1 is about the protagonist leaving the safety of their hometown to confront the darkness of the real world - a classic coming of age story. And the darkness the protagonist finds takes the form of Gary, Team Rocket, the ghost of Marowak, Mewtwo, and certain Pokedex entries. But all of these examples are used not for the sake of shock value, but to be part of the main character's story of dealing with such dark elements through companionship, trust, and other values that seem quaint in our cynical age. It isn't high literature, but it's worth stepping back and analyzing.
Just think about how Gen 1 treats the subject of war through Lt. Surge. It makes it plain that he saw some shit and his pokemon saw him through the tough times. Because that's what Pokemon is supposed to be about. So war is a perfectly acceptable subject for the franchise to tackle, but obviously a horrible way to deal with the subject would be garbage like "what if venusaur were used like tanks and charzards like fighter jets? pew pew, boom." That is how immature writers handle mature subjects, which is a mark against the writer not the subject.
Pokemon - official or fangame - should feel like your character is heading off into a dangerous world they don't yet fully understand and are not the center of. Instead what we get is literal isekai trash, or alternative fangames where someone throws another character into a volcano. But that's a writing problem, not an edge problem. Pokemon needs edge in the right places or it stops being a coming of age story. You need a dark part of the world to confront and overcome.
