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Is gamefreak the least competent developer for Nintendo?

They aren't mad it's a third version they are mad it's on 3DS and not the 300$ port-machine. And that they were gullible enough to take rumours for facts.

We know next to nothing about the game, hard to be throwing a fit over it.

Absolutely scathing hottake. Yikes.

I see the argument for releasing on 3DS because of install base. Obviously it makes sense. But, how else do you build an install base on a new piece of hardware that will be the future of the company? You release a key game like a Pokemon RPG on it. I would have really appreciated a dual release of these games on Switch and 3DS. I mean, how painful would that have really been?

It's just a shame. Everyone could have been happy. And hey, while they were at it, they could've released Gold and Silver on switch too! That would've been fantastic. Sadly, instead it's 3DS or nothing. And I'll surely have to re-buy Gold and Silver one day on the Switch VC. Ugh... I have to be honest, it does make my blood boil a little.
 

Neoxon

Junior Member
If they are independent why haven't they ever made a game for any other platform? I would think that Sony/Microsoft would love to have a Pokemon game.
Game Freak as a developer is independent. Pokémon as an IP is co-owned.
 

KHlover

Banned
On a technical level? Absolutely. The framerate during battles in X/Y and Sun/Moon is atrocious as soon as there's more than one Pokemon on screen or as soon as any remotely complex attack animation starts to play. If it really were due to complex models I'd have explected that to be fixed in Sun/Moon, but it wasn't. Not that the models look any more complex than, say, Monster Hunter, which also has a ton of other stuff going on during battles and yet fares better than any Pokemon game on 3DS. No 3D in the overworld is a joke as well.
 

Plasma

Banned
From a technical standpoint I guess, the framerate in the last couple of Pokemon games haven't exactly been all that great and that's something Nintendo usually do a good job at keeping stable.
 
They probably are, besides some other lesser known developers that make the modern Mario Parties and Yoshi's New Island, etc.


I still don't understand why the 3DS Pokemon games have such low res textures and no texture filtering when games of similar scale didn't have those issues.
 

jstripes

Banned
Laughing at the "they went to the more install base machine".

They are not fucking Square or Crapcom. They must push the new machines and they fucking know Switch is gonna need them in the long term.

Xkmy8uC.jpg


These are recent lines in Japan for a chance to buy a Switch. That's without Pokemon. Releasing Pokemon to existing demand like that would be an insane waste of a system seller, especially with a not yet mature install base.
 

Neoxon

Junior Member
They probably are, besides some other lesser known developers that make the modern Mario Parties and Yoshi's New Island, etc.


I still don't understand why the 3DS Pokemon games have such low res textures and no texture filtering when games of similar scale didn't have those issues.
If I had to guess, the super-high poygon count for the Pokémon models may have something to do with it.
 
If they are independent why haven't they ever made a game for any other platform? I would think that Sony/Microsoft would love to have a Pokemon game.

Nintendo owns part of TPC, which controls the Pokémon IP. GameFreak can't do what they please with Pokémon, but they're not bound to develop only for Nintendo. They can develop original IP for PlayStation/Xbox, and they have (Tembo). It bombed.
 

Regiruler

Member
This thread wouldn't exist if ultra sun and ultra moon were also announced on switch. Just because pokemon isn't coming to switch right now doesn't make gamefreak "incompetent".

I agree with the premise of the thread completely independently of whether or not Ultras were coming to Switch or not.

Hell it'd be all the more obvious if the game was coming to Switch.
If I had to guess, the super-high poygon count for the Pokémon models may have something to do with it.
But why exclusively work with such high-resolution models?
 

YAWN

Ask me which Shakespeare novel is best
I'd call someone who makes a game for the larger install base and proven market quite competent.

Don't let your disappointment slander Gamefreak. They make stellar games and have their heads on their shoulders business wise. The game they literally just made is the 2nd highest selling game on the system, right behind another game they made. They'd be idiots to pass up the 3DS market, and while I was hoping for a Switch version too, perhaps they didn't want their extremely hyped up first console game to be an upscaled port.
 

gaiages

Banned
Laughing at the "they went to the more install base machine".

They are not fucking Square or Crapcom. They must push the new machines and they fucking know Switch is gonna need them in the long term.

It's Nintendo's job to push the Switch, not Gamefreak's. They're in it to make money, just like any other second or third party company.

Also what jstripes says. People that already have a Switch quickly forget how damn hard it is to get a Switch currently... it'd be a waste and just make fans upset.
 

Costia

Member
Ok, hear me out. I am a giant Pokémon fan since forever, and I love the mechanics and character design in the mainline games. But gamefreak as a developer is laughably far behind every other developer working with or for Nintendo.

They are consistently behind technically:
...
Anything managing to run on the 3DS, an i mean to run at all, is a f*ing technical miracle.
I has a CPU running at 266Mhz. For reference, that's the clockspeed of a PC cpu from 1997.
They are too conservative:
...
Expanding doesn't necessarily solve problems, it can create problems as well.
Getting something done in a large team can be quite difficult (need to have large meetings, resolve disagreements, get it approved by a large management team etc..).
If they have a team of 35, and everyone is on-board with what a Pokemon game is supposed to be, then they should stay that size.
They are bad at systems design.
Looks like you don't like some of the mechanics they introduced.
To claim it's bad design you should at least show that the game was poorly received, which AFAIK it wasn't.
I am not saying all of their design decisions are perfect, but that overall they are good at system design, and the game's success is a good indication that this is the case.
 

Hydrus

Member
You guys are really wilding out over no switch port announcement huh?

I think more people are pissed that we're most likely getting two enhanced versions of games that just came out 6 months ago. If this was something like a DP remake, it would be a different story.
 

xealo

Member
The current hardward being 3DS. Not Switch.

Pokemon games are a mess technically even for the 3DS. They sell more on the concept and implementation of that concept and brand, than they do on how well put together they are under the hood.
 
I came in to say no because of whoever makes Mario party, but I can't disagree with anything that the OP said. Sun was incredibly disappointing to me and that was coming off of x and y, which aren't great but competent. I expected the second set of games on 3DS to run better and to at least have an online system as good as xy. Festival plaza and bottle caps are horrible gameplay systems.
 

JoeM86

Member
Anyone who says Pokémon games aren't well put together needs to actually pay attention to the battle engine.

That is a masterpiece.
 

wildfire

Banned
they lack experience in 3d, they are lazy and they love to milk their games alot, they used to care about quality but not anymore since they'll sell just fine.

the Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are aimed to be better and complete versions of games that came out less than a year ago, It's like they rushed S&M to make you pay again later for a compelte experience not to mention seperating them into dual versions, this is an insult imo.

Never played a Mon game since red and blue and even I felt insulted over Ultra. It's not even an expansion pack. It's a patch revision like you said.
 

Razmos

Member
The fact that they remove the best features from each game only to be left out entirely or replaced with something similar but inferior in the next game really bugs me.

It's always 2 steps forward 1 step back with them and they make the most stupid decisions.

I feel like they intentionally do this so they can keep churning out "Third versions" or sequels with minor improvements for more money.

Either that or the various development teams just don't communicate at all.
I feel like the franchise is being held back by them at this point.
 

Sandfox

Member
They obviously aren't incompetent given how huge Pokemon has been for over 20 years with the games still be well received. There are complaints to be had about Gamefreak but this is a knee jerk reaction based on platform choice.
 
Never played a Mon game since red and blue and even I felt insulted over Ultra. It's not even an expansion pack. It's a patch revision like you said.
This is what I worry about. And it definitely wouldn't be above Game Freak - Emerald and Platinum were that way, and going back to that format after B2W2 proved you can do a proper sequel in the same region as well as pack it full of post-game content and great gameplay has be deeply worried. Especially since the last time they did a remake - OrAs - they did some... decidedly minimum effort choices, especially regarding postgame or the lack thereof.

Game Freak's not the worst, but they have a lot of bad habits as far as removing features from their games and seemingly not wanting to work on their games past the (admittedly quite polished) top layer as of late.

It's Retro and you all know it
????????? Sarcasm?
 

Pandy

Member
Xkmy8uC.jpg


These are recent lines in Japan for a chance to buy a Switch. That's without Pokemon. Releasing Pokemon to existing demand like that would be an insane waste of a system seller, especially with a not yet mature install base.

I made this point in the other (salt) thread.

There will be a Switch Pokemon in development as we speak, but it would be terrible planning to sell it into a user base significantly below the series' potential without Switches on shop shelves for people to pick up with the game.

Splatoon 2 and Monster Hunter XX are going to keep Japan busy for a while yet.
 
I'd say given they are 35-50 person team almost every year releasing a game that sells millions of copies outselling most every franchise out there. They are ahead of the game in that aspect. They are perhaps one of Nintendo's most valued developers.

With that said, the games have struggled in terms of performance since the DS. They are rarely pushing the system's limits but they are barely getting it running completely. B/W had major optimization issues as well as X/Y and S/M. I feel they have evolved the series. S/M being the biggest change of pace yet. S/M feels more like a PS1 style RPG which is progress from the NES/SNES style RPGs of the past. In terms of content, I also feel they are putting out the bare minimum and slowly gotten rid of a lot of post-game and side-game content compared to entries in Gens 2-4. It'd be nice if Game freak either bulked up and got closer to ~100 team members working on Pokemon or got outside help such as Monolith.
 

The Hermit

Member
They make them boatloads of money what are you even on lol


Expecting a game for the current hardware is exceeding expectations ? Luuuul

For gamefreaks? Totally. It would be very surprising a Switch game this early to be honest.

It took ages for them to make a 3DS game.
 
No, it is just that Pokemon fans always exceeds expectations for Pokemon games.

Right, expecting the kind of content GBA games had is "huge expectations"

Sun and Moon was overall well-received except by people who absolutely hate dialogue and cutscenes in games. It was the first Pokemon in 3D, it had a different gameplay structure and it finally fixed the HM system, even the IVs to some extent. Baby steps, but these are still notable improvements for the series. After that game appealed to longtime fans who thought the formula was tired, they decide to basically rerelease those games a year later. It's not even for their new hd portable console, it's the same game over again. So much for Pokemon fans constantly saying that "it's not a yearly franchise like cod or madden".
 

entremet

Member
This is what I worry about. And it definitely wouldn't be above Game Freak - Emerald and Platinum were that way, and going back to that format after B2W2 proved you can do a proper sequel in the same region as well as pack it full of post-game content and great gameplay has be deeply worried. Especially since the last time they did a remake - OrAs - they did some... decidedly minimum effort choices, especially regarding postgame or the lack thereof.

Game Freak's not the worst, but they have a lot of bad habits as far as removing features from their games and seemingly not wanting to work on their games past the (admittedly quite polished) top layer as of late.


????????? Sarcasm?

Bait.
 

Clefargle

Member
Game Freak's not the worst, but they have a lot of bad habits as far as removing features from their games and seemingly not wanting to work on their games past the (admittedly quite polished) top layer as of late.

Yup, gamefreak can't seem to build iterative featuresets. Anytime they knock it out of the park with a cool feature everyone loves you can bet that it won't last more than one or two cycles without being arbitrarily replaced with some worse version.
 

jstripes

Banned
No, it is just that Pokemon fans always exceeds expectations for Pokemon games.

I'd also go further and say Pokemon fans specifically, excluding the wider base that purchases these games.

The people who are super salty about everything are grown-ass nerds and probably less than 5% of their sales. The rest are kids who are just excited to get a new Pokemon game.
 

Conan-san

Member
They need to be throttled by Nintnedo for showing them up as being unwilling to transition from at seven year old handheld, yes.
 

Crayolan

Member
If they are independent why haven't they ever made a game for any other platform? I would think that Sony/Microsoft would love to have a Pokemon game.

1. They have

2. Pokemon is partially owned by Nintendo so it won't be releasing on non-Nintendo systems. There are some mobile spin-offs though.
 

yyr

Member
They made Pocket Card Jockey, so no.

Game is like digital crack. It's so good.

And they made Mendel Palace on NES which is fantastic.
 
I'm not surprised it wasn't gonna come to Switch. Have we ever had a mainline Pokemon game launch on a system in the first year?
 

Terrell

Member
Yeah, this is very transparently a thread about "why didn't I get Pokemon Stars? What a garbage developer holding back my dream game! RABBLERABBLERABBLE!!!"

It makes it very difficult to have a discussion around something if it doesn't come from a place of honesty.

Game Freak isn't even the least competent Pokemon developer.

That would be Genius Sonority.

Sorry, Ambrella holds that title for forever and always.
 
Game Freak certainly limit the potential of the franchise, I would love to see Nintendo's in-house devs let loose on it. That'll never happen though as there would be no going back after that.
 
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