With many avenues that the Pokemon series can take following Scarlet and Violet's open-world introduction, one feature, in particular, could use some extra iterations to improve it. A future Pokemon Gen 10 region should see its crafting system more nuanced than what has been offered so far, from Pokemon Legends: Arceus to Scarlet and Violet.
Pokemon games have seen a newfound involvement in crafting, to varying degrees of success. The franchise's most recent entries, Scarlet and Violet, put a spin on the traditional feature of technical machines through the use of 'Pokemon materials,' allowing players to harvest resources from wild Pokemon battles in order to gain access to new moves. The resulting 'TM Machine' crafting system was one that, while making use of player exploration and Pokemon combat, could still easily be forgone by players, marking a lack of effectiveness in its inclusion.
The Crafting Systems of Pokemon
While Scarlet and Violet took the technical machine approach, Legends: Arceus' crafting allowed players to use materials gained from exploration to craft Pokeballs, healing ointments, lures, and more. This allowed for a range of applicability; from fashioning 'Scatter Bangs' out of Caster Ferns to help fend off wild Pokemon to having players act as apothecaries by mixing Sitrus Berries and King's Leaves for topical medicines to be used in battle. Legends: Arceus' crafting made the most of its scattered resources and, in turn, its exploration. Its crafting fit in tune narratively with the game's emphasis on its dangerous open-world areas, having players utilize scavenging in order to procure the resources necessary for their travels.
Scarlet and Violet's TM Machine was comparatively lacking. While the idea of collecting materials from defeating wild Pokemon was all well and good, it didn't add a level of exclusivity that made its endeavors particularly worth it. Technical machines could be found all over Paldea, many of which were tucked away in hard-to-reach places. The ability to happen upon rare TMs, like stumbling across Frenzy Plant, Hydro Cannon, and Blast Burn in a hidden cavern, felt much more exciting than grinding for materials or spending League Points. Of course, the TM Machine did serve a purpose for players seeking to craft multiples of a TM to help bolster their team's movesets, though the majority of casual players could make do with what they picked up from their travels, marking a redundancy in the feature.
With Pokemon's Gen 10 being a likely continuation of Scarlet and Violet's open-world concept, a new crafting system could help bolster the structure of future titles. With this, there are a few avenues that could be taken to help give the system more substance. For starters, given the increased variety in Pokemon evolution methods, there might be applicability in crafting to create an item necessary for a future Pokemon to advance to its next stage. This could allow for more varied involvement from the player, having them search for items in the overworld to combine with Pokemon materials that hold contextual significance for the evolution, playing into their Pokedex entry.
Alternatively, crafting could be used as a way to summon certain Pokemon, similar to the route Legends: Arceus took. This could be fashioned more exclusively than general lures, acting similarly to how Pokemon Legends: Arceus' Celestica Flute summons riding critters, albeit, allowing for more input from the player in regard to procuring the necessary materials rather than just handing the item/Pokemon over to them. Having some Pokemon be exclusively available through the use of crafted items would certainly incentivize collectors to make use of the feature, and might make for more thorough exploration from players. Regardless, whatever Gen 10 Pokemon ends up landing on, here's to hoping its crafting holds a bit more weight.
