>>34087718The last two Gens made a lot of mistakes but the switch to 3D wasn't one of them, and it certainly wasn't the cause of anything else being bad. 3D was inevitable, Gen 5's shitty sprites were the proof of that.
The last two Gens have been so underwhelming because they've stopped trying to make the games fresh, the actual structure of the games has remained largely the same while they focus on improving the fluff, the stuff that doesn't matter as much. In a way the move to 3D ties into this but it's something that would have happened regardless, so blaming that entirely is wrong. They've added lots of neat features and deepened the narrative but in the end the core game hasn't changed much at all, which is why these games feel so boring.
It doesn't mean what they did was a mistake, either. There's nothing wrong with adding new features and trying to give these games a more complex narrative. They just have to realize that these aren't solutions to the series' problems. All the features and story content in the world won't save the series from going stagnant.
At the risk of making a really awful pun I hope Gen 8 switches things up. They don't have to reinvent the wheel but some serious changes to the formula would be very refreshing after these last two Gens.
