The Evolution of the Berries Mechanic in Pokemon

Last year was the 20th anniversary of the Pokemon franchise, and The Pokemon Company and Nintendo did many things in order to commemorate this, not the least of which was the release of the seventh generation of main series games, Pokemon Sun and Moon. Over the course of the history of the series, berries were introduced in the second generation games, Gold, Silver, and later Crystal, and the mechanic of growing them has been refined over the course of the rest of the series. And yes, I will be going over all of the generations in which berries were available, even the ones in recent memory. I'm going somewhere with that, trust me.

In Generation II, berries grew one at a time on very specific trees. In Generations III and IV, trees could be planted in patches of "soft, earthy soil(?!)" found throughout the region and harvested from to yield multiple berries. The remakes in those Generations, to account for the lack of "soft, earthy soil" in Kanto and Johto, used different mechanics. I, personally, never played Fire Red or Leaf Green, but it apparently had a post-game area known as the Berry Forst in which there was a regenerating supply of berries. In the Gen IV remakes of Gold and Silver,the player would use portable Berry Pots to grow berries and harvest them. This latter mechanic probably inspired how later generations of games would handle berry growing.

Generation V's berry growing mechanic made use of the gen's very good idea to have several features rely on the Pokemon Dream World, a flash website which was shut down ages ago. It was impossible to grow berries in the Gen V games themselves. Instead, the player would need to go into the Dream World to plant and care for them. With the shutting down of the Pokemon Dream World, it is now impossible to grow berries in the Generation V Pokemon games, so, uh, excellent forward-thinking there, GameFreak.This did, however, carry over the idea of having all of the player's berry trees in one, relatively easy to access place.

The non-remake duo of Generation VI games, X and Y, had the Berry Fields, an easily-accessible location to grow berries in. It also greatly expanded the mechanics of berry tree raising to include stuff like mulching and weeds. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire pretty much went back to how things were in the original versions of the games as far as berries went, however.

And finally, the Generation VII games, Sun and Moon, make berry growing more convenient than ever. Early in the game's storyline, you unlock Poke Pelago, which can be accessed from any location (except for Festival Plaza) at any time (outside of battles or cutscenes, of course). One of the islands you can unlock for Poke Pelago, Isle Aplenny, lets you raise eighteen berry trees at once when fully expanded. This is a downgrade from the number that could be grown in X and Y's Berry Fields, but you can access Poke Pelago from the X button menu very conveniently.

In fact, "convenience" is the trend here. As you may have noticed, getting berries has become more convenient as the series went on, and this is not the only case of the Pokemon series becoming more convenient as it goes on. For example, ever since Generation V, Poke Marts have been merged with Pokemon Centers. Furthermore, TMs have become infinite-use, rather than being discarded after being used once. In Sun and Moon, Ride Pokemon have replaced HMs, thus finally removing the need to use "HM Slaves". The list of examples of this could go on and on.