Biggest change I’d make: One edition of the game instead of 2. I understand the marketing genius etc. but I find the differences cosmetic with about 6 or so different version specific Pokémon not worth buying another game.

Just have one game with multiple saves and a customizable main story based on player in game choices.

Next change, no more gimmicks like dynamax or mega evolution. I think the next one is some type of diamond form. I’m sure once the people in charge realize the creative well is running dry, they will go back to actually innovating.

Maybe flesh out the personality system and diversify the move sets for different Pokémon. I have a tanky version of X, so it learns hyperprotect at 70 instead of extreme speed. I’d want each generation to make the Pokémon more unique and real, so therefore that exact Pokémon is special to the player. Also this would expand skill expression in the late game.

Make the badges matter more than just story benchmarks- maybe give the player a stipend or something. Badges should be more impactful.

Revamp breeding. No one wants to run around hatching eggs for days to get a shiny or perfect mon.

Cut down the legendaries. There’s no reason to have bird or mew clones every other gen.

Also I’d add a few more rivals in the game, and make those battle results stand. You lose, they talk trash. You win, the next battle is harder for higher stakes. I think this would add more life to the gameplay loop.

Finally, connect all the regions together, and add new regions as dlc or stand alone adventures. Make the option to have Pokémon battles scale, or disable people from using Pokémon not caught in the current region until a certain amount of badges in that region.

 

I mostly played when Red/Blue were on GameBoy. I briefly came back and played with an emulator. There are a lot of little changes I'd consider good, but the thing that really jumped out the most to me after I played on an emulator was how bad the balance was in the end game.