An important philosophical quandry
02-23-2025, 04:48 AM
What is the closest analogue for death in the pokemon games?
Specifically, I mean, from a gameplay perspective.
There's 3-4 options that initially come to mind.
1) Fainting (or the total party "white out"), but with the ease that a fainted pokemon can recover at a pokemon center, it hardly carries the same permanence of death.
2) Releasing your pokemon. This, I think is the obvious choice as it carries the permanence of never seeing your pokemon again, but there's enough flavor to suggest the idea that your pokemon is out there in the world possibly living its best life. The loss feels more like a breakup than death.
3) Trading is the weakest inclusion here, as you could in theory have your pokemon traded back to you, and it even remembers that you were the original trainer who caught it. But I think it deserves mention as once the trade occurs, your pokemon is fully gone from your plane of existence.
4) Evolving. See this really shouldn't be on this list. After all, evolution in pokemon is symbolic of growth. It's the reason pokemon go from cute baby to akward middle form before landing into their matured adult form. It's baked into the design of the game and is something to be celebrated.
...however... I'm starting to think that isn't the case.
I think that, in fact, evolution is the most death-like out of all the pokemon game mechanics. It's sudden, sometimes unexpected. The change between forms is abrupt and disjointed. It is permanent. Once your starter baby evolves, it can never go back...
...Maybe I've been thinking about this because my 4 year old really loved her sprigatito. Perhaps this is on my mind because her dad forgot that you're supposed to press "B" repeatedly and not just hold it to prevent her level 34 sprigatitio from evolving. Maybe pokemon scarlett has an autosave function that activates right after evolution completes and frantically resetting the switch doesn't let you go back.
I murdered my daughter's first pokemon, and I don't know what to tell her.
Specifically, I mean, from a gameplay perspective.
There's 3-4 options that initially come to mind.
1) Fainting (or the total party "white out"), but with the ease that a fainted pokemon can recover at a pokemon center, it hardly carries the same permanence of death.
2) Releasing your pokemon. This, I think is the obvious choice as it carries the permanence of never seeing your pokemon again, but there's enough flavor to suggest the idea that your pokemon is out there in the world possibly living its best life. The loss feels more like a breakup than death.
3) Trading is the weakest inclusion here, as you could in theory have your pokemon traded back to you, and it even remembers that you were the original trainer who caught it. But I think it deserves mention as once the trade occurs, your pokemon is fully gone from your plane of existence.
4) Evolving. See this really shouldn't be on this list. After all, evolution in pokemon is symbolic of growth. It's the reason pokemon go from cute baby to akward middle form before landing into their matured adult form. It's baked into the design of the game and is something to be celebrated.
...however... I'm starting to think that isn't the case.
I think that, in fact, evolution is the most death-like out of all the pokemon game mechanics. It's sudden, sometimes unexpected. The change between forms is abrupt and disjointed. It is permanent. Once your starter baby evolves, it can never go back...
...Maybe I've been thinking about this because my 4 year old really loved her sprigatito. Perhaps this is on my mind because her dad forgot that you're supposed to press "B" repeatedly and not just hold it to prevent her level 34 sprigatitio from evolving. Maybe pokemon scarlett has an autosave function that activates right after evolution completes and frantically resetting the switch doesn't let you go back.
I murdered my daughter's first pokemon, and I don't know what to tell her.