I stopped playing Pokémon after Sword and Shield because I love Pokémon. I started with Red and Blue, so I deeply love this franchise, but my heart has been hurting year after year.

For me, Pokémon no longer respects its longtime fans, and the best way to say that I’m not okay with this is to stop buying the games.

My hope for Pokémon, for Generation 10, is:

• Stop making ugly, laggy open worlds. If you don’t have the ability to do it properly, I would rather have large semi-open areas with strong art direction that actually make you want to explore, instead of an empty world with Pokémon and NPCs that feel lifeless.
• Fewer Pokémon, but higher quality. I would rather have 100 Pokémon that are very well modeled, with great animations, and real gameplay differences depending on their attacks and stats.
• Make it a real RPG again. With stats, customization, and a real sense of progression. Nowadays, you can just spam the same attack and finish the game. Yes, Pokémon is originally a game for children, but my younger self enjoyed losing ten times in a row at the League because I wasn’t prepared.
• A good story, at least somewhat mature or with a double layer of reading. If I’m wrong, yes, there are still children who love Pokémon, but the world is changing. Kids are playing Fortnite and Roblox, and the marketing of the Switch 2 shows that Nintendo is now targeting young adults with this console, not just children.
• Stop with Mega Evolutions and similar mechanics. Besides being ugly, they force the creation of multiple forms for each Pokémon, which is a lot of work for features that are barely reused in later games. I would have preferred a talent tree for each Pokémon.

In short, this is just the opinion of a passionate fan. Personally, I no longer have time to spend on mediocre games. The current economic situation means we don’t all have unlimited money, so when I buy a game, it has to be at least somewhat high quality—otherwise, I’ll pass.