>>52533433I just think there was little thought put into how co-op changes the gameplay and many people weren't hooked by the fact that their friends could also explore the same world at the same time. All the co-op features such as battling, trading, teraraids, etc. could all just be done with Friend Codes.
Like, what does having your friend walking by your side DO for you exactly? The battles don't turn into double battles in the overworld. You can't do Gym Tests together. Cutscenes don't change. Catching or Pokemon spawn mechanics don't change. There's always this idea that people want an online Pokemon game or an MMO Pokemon, but they also try to make the game follow the RBGY "Gym/Evil Team/Elite Four" formula and that's a very single-player experience.
Scarlet/Violet should've been a primarily single-player game with loose online features, similar to SwSh. Maybe you can just connect to people's picnics if you go on the Portal and see that someone has one set up. Maybe you can join in Gym Tests with multiple people and get small rewards. Things of that nature.
If GameFreak wanted to do a co-op Pokemon game, they need to rework the entire formula and think about co-op gameplay as well. I think just taking the standard Pokemon formula and then you plop your friend next to you creates the question of, "Okay, now what?". I don't doubt you and others had fun with it, but I think there's a reason why nobody talks about the co-op features in any of the threads here on /vp/. Most reviews don't even mention it as a positive or negative, only that it exists, and that's precisely what that feature does: it exists in the game.
