Enjoy 4 min read February 4, 2025 at 11:49am
I started my Pokemon Sleep journey recently, as one of the way of reconnecting with the franchise after some break.
Upon opening the game I was greeted by Professor Neroli, which I found cute and immediately searched for some fanarts of him. But, aside from fanarts, I also found this Reddit opinion which, surprisingly, got over 8.7 likes/thumb ups/whatever the Reddit system is named.
Because hey, Game Freak. You already have a dream scientist, why don't you use her? Why do you have to create new characters? Why are you not trying to make a cohesive world from all of your games?! You missed a chance!!!
And I took this 2-years-old bait. Because there are valid reasons why, and because I feel like defending my Neroli.
1. Fennel is a dream scientist, and both "dream" and "scientist" are the issue
In Pokemon games, a professor guides player into the world and mechanics. And that's the first issue. Fennel is no professor. She is a devoted scientist - so much that she share her overworld sprite with the "generic female scientist" one.
"Hey there! I'm Fennel."
Something is just lacking...
Another issue is the distinction between sleeping and dreaming. Fennel is studying dreams specifically. Dreams are definitely not equal to sleeping habits, and that's what Pokemon Sleep is all about. It's hard to imagine how a game could track players' (or even pokemons') dreams.
But hey, maybe one day we'll have proper technology for a game like that as well?
2. Fennel's look and personality is not made for a slow and cozy game
Games sell, first and foremost, experiences. And the premise of Pokemon Sleep is a cozy, slow, chill, low-effort one. There are no battles, no moves, no figuring out type effectiveness (what was Dark stronger against again?), no trade nor any kind of competition.
There is almost no gameplay. The main activity is, after all, just sleeping - the more the better.
Pokemons need a lot of time to grow and evolve and there is not much to do to speed that process, since only one sleeping session per day with a maximum of 8.5 hours logged is taken into account while calculating the sleep power after a night's rest. Because of that, for most of the players, Pokemon Sleep is a very slow and relaxing experience. Just a low-effort way to collect cute companions!
(I said "most of the players" because Pokemon Sleep can be a great game for dedicated min-maxers... although I count them as a minority, and not a main target audience)
Overall, key words for Pokemon Seep are: slow, cozy, sleepy.
And now, let's compare our dream researcher Fennel with a newly introduced Professor Neroli... who has this slow, cozy, sleepy aura around them?
Source: Artworks of Fennel and Neroli from Bulbapedia, both characters belongs to Nintendo
Yes, I think the answer is pretty obvious.
It's similar with their writing. Fennel is bright and energetic, her sentences often end with exclamation marks. She's very passionate about her studies and almost drags player to help her.
"Hi there, Trainer! My name is Fennel. I'm researching Pokémon Trainers! The Game Sync is a vital part of that research! Let me explain the system for collecting Trainers' save files. Game Sync is a system that retrieves the memories of sleeping Pokémon! That’s right! We can collect save files of Trainers from all over the world! [...] Amazing, right?!"
Look! She is lovely! But also - a bit too excited for a cozy game like Pokemon Sleep!
Neroli's mannerisms is more calm. He uses exclamation marks too - usually while introducing something new or praising the player - but his sentences are shorter and he never rushes the player.
"Looks like this week's Snorlax wants to eat curries and stews. To start things off nice and easy, let's have you make a dish using the Auto Cook option. Congratulations! You've cooked your first dish!"
He's just a chill guy.
3. Fennel already has her main Pokemon and it's not the best pick for this game
It is a no-brainer that Game Freak went with Snorlax as the face of Pokemon Sleep. Big, slow, cuddly and insanely popular Pokemon well known for its love for sleeping? There is no better candidate.
Many Pokemon trainers and researchers are known to look a little bit like their ace/favourite pokemon - so to compliment the choice of a Snorlax, developers needed a human guide with a similar look. However... Fennel is already "taken" by Munna. Munna is integrated in Fennel's design with the flower-shaped hairpin as well as her blouse and shoes color - pink, just like the body of that Psychic-type Pokemon.
Source: Screen from Bulbapedia
Neroli, on the other hand, matches Snorlax in his body type (okay, Snorlax is a bit bigger), Snorlax eye mask and T-shirt color resembling the pokemon's body.
Since Snorlax is too solid pick to even consider changing it, some kind of redesign must have been done to help Fennel fit Snorlax better. Otherwise, there would be this weird disconnection between the researcher and the main Pokemon that could easily confuse unknowing players.
Ah speaking of unknowing players...
4. Is it worth it?
On a Pokemon Sleep release date, Pokemon Black was, depending on the country, around 12-13 years old. Though critically acclaimed, as of March 31, 2021, Pokemon White/Black sold 15.64 million units, making these games the lowest selling primary core series games.
On the other hand, by June 25, 2024, the game reached 20 million downloads worldwide - over 4 million more players than Black or White had.
While certainly reintroducing a character from a previous instalments would made some fans happy, there is a high chance that many Pokemon Sleep players did not play Pokemon Black or White - especially since those games are known for their high difficulty as well, making their experience a complete opposite from the one Pokemon Sleep is trying to offer - and would not be able to appreciate the appearance of a one NPC character from an older game.
From my perspective - while reusing a character from an older game would do well for tying different Pokemon games together - it simply wouldn't work with Fennel - at least not while risking compromising the atmosphere of a game, which is much, much more important.
I can only imagine if Neroli existed in Pokemon Black and White from the beginning, Game Freak wouldn't have many objections to reusing him in a different game... Though it could stil cause some issues. For example, if the game was released 13 years ago, would a researcher be 13 years older? Would they look differently? Would that imply that they moved from Unova at some point?
Those are little things that might seem unimportant, but could make things tricky, and I'm sure that the same people unhappy with introducing Neroli would pick on a details like that.
But with a brand new Professor, none of them matter.
Sleep well!