Opinions and Stories

Colourful Thoughts: What happened to diving?

Arguably one of the most useful HMs from Generations III to V is suddenly nonexistant in Pokémon XY and SM. What happened to it, and what would a current generation dive look like?

I remember when Dive was introduced back in the Generation III games. Out of every single HM that was introduced then, Dive was the one HM that was revolutionary for its time. This is because it exposed the player to what life was really like under the seas of the Hoenn region, and it did so beautifully. You can find wild Pokémon underwater, you were exposed to calming underwater soundtracks, and diving is essentially the only way to reach certain caves and the only way (before you’re able to Fly there) to reach Sootopolis City.

So what happened to Dive these days? It was omitted completely in the Gen IV games, and while it made a reappearance in Gen V, you could only dive in one spot in the game, which is east of Undella Bay which lead to the Abyssal Ruins. It was again not included in XY before making its return in ORAS. In ORAS diving got a bit of love: the underwater overworld graphics were improved immensely, not to mention it’s absolutely amazing when you swim underwater with Kyogre, Wailmer, or Sharpedo! However, with Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, we don’t have a Pokémon that we can go underwater with via Ride Pager. It’s especially strange given that there’s a lot of surfing area in the games, so why aren’t we given the opportunity to dive?

In Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, this feature could’ve been improved even further. Imagine encountering Pokémon not only in the traditional method, but also simply by walking up to their models and triggering a wild Pokémon encounter that way. I think would’ve been a very immersive experience, especially with SM’s improved graphics over the sixth generation games.

Imagine exploring the seas the same way you could explore the skies in ORAS. Wouldn’t that be exciting?

Readers, would you like to see Dive return in the future, and if so, how would you like the Dive mechanic to be implemented? Personally speaking, I think it’s a highly underrated and overlooked mechanic that should’ve been kept around permanently, but unfortunately, anyone who has played Pokémon games realizes that not all good features last.

What do you think?

Edited by bobandbill.