mattpalladium:

the backlash against the mere concept of a Pokemon game reminding you about type matchups is hilarious to me because that’s not even supposed to be the hard part of gameplay

memorization of minutia is a fraction of playing a game, or at least should be for good design. preparation in between battles and moment-to-moment decision making are the actual meat of it. like, for an easy comparison, Shin Megami Tensei games have ALWAYS let you see what the type weaknesses and strengths are for demons/Shadows/what have you, and this does not by any means make them Easy Games For Babies.

obscuring game mechanics intentionally slathers a layer of trial-and-error onto the more meaningful parts, and praising this as True Difficulty betrays a misunderstanding of game design and a desire to play gatekeeper and jerk off one’s ego more than anything else

plus, again, Pokemon already IS a game for kids. it just also happens to have appeal to us too. it isn’t literally MADE for us.