# Why do the Pokemon still make no direct contact?



## Kirath (Oct 19, 2013)

I wonder why they couldn't have them running over to their opponent during a battle and actually tackle or bite them, but remain on their platforms instead. During the 2D era it was due to technical limitations, but I guess that's no excuse anymore. It's something that already annoyed me in the first Pokemon Stadium for N64 many years ago. 

To me, the fights look still as static as they used to be prior to the 6th generation. 

What do you guys think?


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## Zaru (Oct 19, 2013)

In every single pokemon game, I turned off attack animations before even starting the game, and I'm a total casual. They're a waste of time. I wonder what percentage of players do that.


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## ElementX (Oct 19, 2013)

Simple answer is that it would just take too long to animate 700 plus pokemon making physical contact with another pokemon, especially given the fact each animation would have to be different depending on the pokemon. Imagine Taurus using Stomp on a Joltik. Now imagine him using it on a Wailord. In the end they probably just figured it wasn't worth the effort.


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## Swarmy (Oct 19, 2013)

ElementX said:


> Now imagine him using it on a Wailord. In the end they probably just figured it wasn't worth the effort.



Which would only make the game look even less realistic than it is now.


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## Patchouli (Oct 19, 2013)

ElementX said:


> Simple answer is that it would just take too long to animate 700 plus pokemon making physical contact with another pokemon, especially given the fact each animation would have to be different depending on the pokemon. Imagine Taurus using Stomp on a Joltik. Now imagine him using it on a Wailord. In the end they probably just figured it wasn't worth the effort.



This. Along with the fact that they'd have to have 718 unique animations for every single attack. Considering how much time animations take in game development, it's just not worth it.


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## Bioness (Oct 20, 2013)

Sorry if your immersion is broken because the Pokemon don't have wireframes like games that do make contact. Like can you imagine the amount of work that would require?

Hell even in Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon they just said "fuck that noise" and went with giving them all the same physical contact animation.


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## 海外ニキ (Nov 11, 2013)

To be fair, there are moves where the Pokemon do sort of make direct contact. Flare Blitz, Brave Bird, Fly, U-Turn, etc.

Although I guess that's if you count the Pokemon turning into a completely different animation model, but meh.

Fly is probably the best example out of just the few I mentioned though, since the whole Pokemon model hits the opponent. (FYI: Dodrio's animation for Fly is a bit amusing.)


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## Island (Nov 12, 2013)

I never thought I'd hear somebody complain about this gen's animations. For this gen, the developers modeled 718 unique Pok?mon plus an additional 27 Unown plus a handful of other forms. Estimate 750 Pok?mon models, and then consider that you have unique standing animations for each plus one random filler animation plus at an aggressive stance animation _per_ Pok?mon. _Then_ count the Amie animations, including each Pok?mon being affectionate, getting angry, so forth and so forth.

Making Pok?mon realistically hit all other Pok?mon would have taken a lot longer. You'd have to account for each Pok?mon's size (big versus small, for instance) and where it is appropriate for each Pok?mon to be hit so that punching, say, Honedge doesn't result in punching air or that Machoke doesn't get bitten in the crotch.

It's a huge undertaking. Hopefully, now that Game Freak has made all of these 3D models, it can rehash them for later games and start building on what it already has instead of making new ones every generation, but for now, I think what we've gotten is plenty.


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## Yami Munesanzun (Nov 12, 2013)

Speaking of Attack animations:

Brave Bird is just so....awesome. 

You cannot deny.


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## BiNexus (Nov 12, 2013)

Yami Munesanzun said:


> Speaking of Attack animations:
> 
> Brave Bird is just so....awesome.
> 
> You cannot deny.



Absolutely.

Explosion is pretty high up there, too. It's so simple, yet great.


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## Saru (Nov 16, 2013)

Zaru said:


> In every single pokemon game, I turned off attack animations before even starting the game, and I'm a total casual. They're a waste of time. I wonder what percentage of players do that.



I turn them off too. After I realized that my imagination was way more powerful than the time-consuming animations, I stopped using them.


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## Vermin (Nov 16, 2013)

along with the time it would take to create animations it would also take up a shitload of game data


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