The Genius of the DexNav
Game Context
The DexNav was an in-game functionality present in the 2014 remakes of the third Pokemon generation, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, for the Nintendo 3DS.
Early in the game, the player gets access to it, and is prompted to use it to hunt after a Poochyena that knows Thunder Fang; to contextualize how special that is,
such a specimen could only be traditionally obtained if the player went to the Pokemon Day Care (which usually takes 2-6 hours into the game to reach), and bred a female
of that species with a compatible male that knew that move, having then to hatch the egg, which can take around 5-10 minutes of non-stop running. So yeah, it's
pretty damn hype, especially if you know the implications.
MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD
The DexNav: a deep dive
There is a lot to unpack about the utility of the DexNav, and as such, I'll try to go from the more generic aspects to the more specific ones. The most generic
one is, I think, how it can be used to facilitate hunting for certain species, circumventing the long-lasting random appearences that had been plaguing
the saga since its conception (each encounter takes at least 15s, so it's very appreciated). The most obvious way to use it is to hunt for a specific species, but more
interestingly, it can be used to avoid engaging with any species the player has already caught, essentially farming pointless encounters quickly, until an uncaught
species appears. To know the state of completion on each route,
the DexNav showcases a simply color code on a crown icon: bronze for fully incomplete; silver for partially complete (that is, all species of a specific obtention method
have been acquired, those being walking through tall grass, surfing or fishing); gold for "complete"; and platinum for post-a-certain-event completion, which unlocks
even more pokemon per route.
The next aspect in which this mechanic is relevant is in team building. The system rewards both knowledgeable and curious trainers who are willing to spend their time to find pokemon with rare characteristics, which can be key to how a team is played, and what weaknesses can be covered. I find that access to hidden abilities is especially interesting, because it gives the option to experience the game in ways that no other game in the series had facilitated until now, since getting pokemon with those is usually not an option in an average playthrough.
While not a very prominent aspects of the game, since difficulty was not very present by the time those games released, the DexNav can also be used to facilitate certain battles by abusing the RPG level dynamics, in a completely organic way. Here we aren't talking just about brute force through numbers: as a consequence of the DexNav enabling encounters with higher level pokemon, getting a specimen with a move that is learnt much later from what the game expects the player level to be (referring here to normal moves, learned by leveling up), or closer to a level in which they can evolve, go from unrealistic, tedious plays to possible, out-of-the-box ones.
Another key aspect it impacts is the breeding experience, which might not be obvious at first glance. Beyond the whole egg move inheritance, which gets facilitated by getting direct access to some of them, it can be key in IV farming. IVs, or Individual Values, are random numbers that affect a pokemon's stat potential, unchangeable, generated with the pokemon itself. Through some shenanigans, you can pass IVs through breeding, meaning it is relatively easier to breed a specimen with a full range of perfect (or close to) IVs than it is to have one appear from tall grass (which is less than 1 * 10^(-8)). Since the DexNav makes it easier that pokemon with up to three perfect IVs appear, the time spent in this tedious process of egg-hatching is reduced considerably.
Going even more specific, a facet that is usually forgotten about the DexNav is that it can be used to see if a pokemon has an object attached. While it is not perfect, because sometimes that information is hidden by other outstanding characteristics, and there are already abilities that can provide that information, it does fasten the process of finding specific objects, be it for evolution (like the Magmatizer), adventure-specific items (like the Lucky Egg, which increases experience gained by 50%), or competitive-specific ones (like the Focus Band).
Finally, it is also used for what might be one the most niche Pokemon experiences: shiny hunting. There's a whole method behind chaining encounters to raise the probability of a shiny appearing, which requires preparation, patience and quick decision-making under tense situations, pushing the player to optimizing how they move, and learning the surprising depth that such an easy-to-access system has.
In fact, I would consider that to be one of the strongest points of the DexNav: it's not only something that eases the experience for every player willing to use it,
without being intrusive in mostly any manner, but it is actually fun to play with. There's a road to mastery on how to use it: realizing the tricks to optimize pokemon
encounters; what are the ranges at which you can quickly approach, and when you have to move slowly; at what distance you can dash without the pokemon being able to
run away; what are the best routes to minimize the chance that an undesired encounter will happen; what places are the best to generate the next encounter from...
Despite all of this, I wouldn't say the system is close to perfection: using it on water and caves loses mostly every facet of agency in the experience, and having
to constantly use repelents is an unecessary waste of money and time (to farm said resource).
The Essence of Pokemon
With all we have seen, however, I wanted to point out why the DexNav is not only a success, but for me, should almost be a must in every subsequent main Pokemon game
release. In short, it is everything the series needed to reinforce its central pillar, one that had been poorly treated since the first generation, which stood strong from
a collective agreement of what the series was about, more than what the games presented. I'm talking, of course, about collecting.
In most Pokemon games, things go as such: there's a Professor who wants your help collecting data. They then send you out in a world where catching pokemon is a
random (which easily leads to frustration), repetitive, almost mindless process, which coexists with an obstacle course in the form of the Gym Leaders, which offer (more or less) challenging fights
that give the opportunity to prove the player's worth as a trainer. It is not difficult for most players to tell where their fun will be.
In Pokemon, collecting is the process to grow stronger, not the base of the game. In the first generation, they
tried remeding this by gamifying the Dex's completion: get to a certain amount, and we will give you an item. Extrinsic motivation never fails, aye? Apart from that, the
other only incentive to do so is a pat on the back for completing the Dex. Also very... motivating? To be fair, it was the first iteration of the formula, and there
weren't that many species as to become as overwhelming as it is nowadays. On subsequent generations, however, the developers expect you to be intrinsically motivated
to fulfill the task, despite involving none of the basic motivators defined in the Self-Determination Theory (agency, competence and connection), and in fact, going
against them. Because that's the types of system that exist in RPGs, except Pokemon's motivations shouldn't try to be Dragon Quest's. It wasn't
until the 4th generation that something was attempted, with the PokeRadar. It was still frustrating, and obtuse, but I mean... Then in 5th gen, we got something similar, plus hidden
spots, which was cool. That's the right way to go, although it didn't give many tools to the player to be agent with that. Past the DexNav, they reverted to nothing,
and eventually, decided to show pokemons on the grass, instead of tying them to random generation. While that's fine, and much better than what was in the original games, it's
also kind of basic. There's no depth beyond moving towards or away from the creatures on your path.
Despite all of this, Pokemon's slogan is "Gotta Catch 'em All". Yes, they have a lot of creatures with cool designs. But there are no systems that make collectionism be
the center of the experience: 99% of situations are covered with False Sweep + your best ball, maybe Sleep Powder if you are feeling spicy, run around the place, repeat. Yes,
there is diegetic integration with some species relating to their environment, yes, there are some systems like using Headbutt on trees, or fishing, even using some party
members' abilities, but if this handful of options is the pinnacle of what the Pokemon collecting experience has to offer...
Luckily, the DexNav embraced that essence, and is, in my opinion, a very solid proposal towards how to evolve the formula, with a relatively low implementation cost, and
a nearly perfect narrative integration that uses the instrinsic evolution of the player to achieve active projection (again, I explain this in detail in my
Dark Souls presentation), instead of forcing a narrative that clashes with
the gameplay. Any upgrades I would propose for the system are critiques that are unrealistic to expect from a remake, and thus, a game that was already heavily
restricted in how much new content it could bring to the saga. As a closing thought, though, what could a system that empowers active and agent player exploration do,
if the ecosystem that conforms the game's landscape was centered around complementing the given options?