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[DylanEno]

"Story less intriguing than expected"

They were expecting a story in a franchise that has bottom of the barrel stories?

After Black and White, there's promise. And the whole team Skull and team...whatever their name is that's obviously evil despite putting on a front that they just want to help your Pokémon or whatever - they showed promise too. The whole plot seemed at the least fairly intriguing based on the trailers. Unfortunate to hear that probably won't be the case.

I'm just hoping it doesn't reach AZ levels of stupid.

 

[Coffee Dog]

jesus @ slowdown in doubles

it sounds like we should have stuck with sprites, they didn't impact your ability to play the game. how can such a huge series be such a technical shitshow.

 

[hemo memo]

Nah that's just his voice

No seriously the voice and the video is like 0.5 even on 720/60fps. I know it's not the voice because I listen to Cerny.

 

[DylanEno]

Have you seen what the hardware is like on the OG 3DS? Nothing substantially powerful....even though the visuals aren't mind blowing, it is just too much for the OG 3DS hardware. I don't know how the VRAM works, but on Wikipedia, it notes that it has only 6 MB VRAM and 128 MB FCRAM. So yeah, doing anything that involves multiple things might get strenuous..

Hmm. I just thought they'd have figured out by now how to get their software to run better given how long they've been putting games on that specific piece of hardware.

 

[Tom Nook Sawyer]

No seriously the voice and the video is like 0.5 even on 720/60fps. I know it's not the voice because I listen to Cerny.

I think he was poking fun at Andre (even though he didn't review this one.)

But yeah those double battles look rough

 

[The Elite]

I always enjoy these games for a little while and then fizzle out fairly quickly.

The changes sound like they might keep me in the game longer.

 

[clemenx]

jesus @ slowdown in doubles

it sounds like we should have stuck with sprites, they didn't impact your ability to play the game. how can such a huge series be such a technical shitshow.

Eh, speak for yourself. I wouldn't change the 3D models we have now for anything. They're so goood.

 

[Memory]

Shiiiiit was going to skip, might have to pick this up after all. Hell of a swansong for the 3DS.

Its amazing Pokémon can manage to get these reviews after all this time.

 

[WooHooAlex]

I feel like I'm the only one that still loves XY/ORAS in this thread ;_;

ORAS was extremely disappointing, in my opinion, but I loved X & Y.
My favorite is still gen 4, though.

 

[DylanEno]

Eh, speak for yourself. I wouldn't change the 3D models we have now for anything. They're so goood.

I just wish they made the boy character look less wide eyed and smiley. Girl character looks infinitely less creepy.

 

[CloudWolf]

So it's a Pokémon game? Cool.

I mean, it's not like a mainline Pokémon game ever scored lower than a 8,5-9 on average.

 

[dreamlongdead]

Well, it has been over two years since I last played XY or ORAS. I lost my OR cartridge, so I never got to play that beyond the 5th gym. I think I have recovered by now.

I do like reading about the shakeups in Sun and Moon's gameplay structure. That gets me a little more excited, even though the leaked info about the Alola Pokémon is disappointing.

Aside from the new Pokémon themselves, I'll be going into this game very blind. I've watched zero actual gameplay and I avoided anything related to story or locations. I will play with EXP share off.

I will say that several of us may end up liking Sun and Moon, because our expectations will be in check. XY is a poor game, but my disappointment with it also stemmed from overhype.

I don't have much else to pick up for 3DS, so I might as well get Sun.

 

[Coffee Dog]

Eh, speak for yourself. I wouldn't change the 3D models we have now for anything. They're so goood.

I mean, they're great looking models, but somehow gamefreak has managed to have technical problems with a transition to three dimensions in a 2016 game, when the game will have no more than 4 pokemon models (now that only singles and doubles remain) and two trainer models on screen simultaneously. 6 character models, and on top of that 3D is hard disabled.

I shouldn't have to be deciding, in a multi million selling series, between playability and 6 onscreen three dimensional character models. But for some reason game freak cannot manage both and have decided to sacrifice performance and playability. That's ridiculous.

 

[Puruzi]

I LOVED X and Y. Didn't buy ORAS but X and Y was good shit

 

[DylanEno]

ORAS was extremely disappointing, in my opinion, but I loved X & Y.
My favorite is still gen 4, though.

XY's pacing was garbage; tiny Pokedex; forgettable characters; awful region; largely bland, synth-driven OST with zero melody; worst story yet; worst Team yet... In what world is XY better than ORAS?

Oh, right. Customizable trainers.

 

[Trey]

I love ORAS.

XY is pretty garbage in comparison to the rest of the series.

XY the best pokemon games up till now. Fight me.

 

[jj984jj]

The scores are unsurprising, it's a major game release in a major franchise that doesn't completely depart from what makes it great.

I think last time (with X/Y) reviewers called the games great for being a visual update to a classic formula with a few new convenient features while this time (with Sun/Moon) they're noting the changes being made to the formula though.

While I'm sad to see DexNav and sneaking go I'm glad it still seems like a step forward, and hopefully Game Freak keep this in mind and don't go straight back to the old standard gyms (keeping support Pokemon in battles), HMs, etc. Also I hope now that they'll presumably be moving on to more powerful hardware that they can fix the slowdown issue, but honestly there was no reason it had to be so bad in these games if they only optimized the models for the 3DS.

 

[Lumination]

The GameXplain review mentioned that there is 2v2 slowdown in the old 3DSs but not in the n3DSs. Can anyone else corroborate?

 

[Daemul]

SM gets the same score as XY which gets the same score as BW. Do reviewers copy/paste their review scores or something?

 

[Coffee Dog]

XY's pacing was garbage; tiny Pokedex; forgettable characters; awful region; largely bland, synth-driven OST with zero melody; worst story yet; worst Team yet... In what world is XY better than ORAS?

Oh, right. Customizable trainers.

XY had a lot of QOL and mechanics changes, as well as the graphical overhaul. It was a good game to return to for people that have lapsed when it released, but now that better pokemon games have come since and mostly kept those improvements (ORAS and SM) there is absolutely no reason to come back to XY.

 

[Puruzi]

XY the best pokemon games up till now. Fight me.

hell yeah my dude

 

[OrionX]

Gimme gimme

 

[13ruce]

I'm so ready for this! Sadly i'm from Europe 1 week left.

 

[Dimmle]

SM gets the same score as XY which gets the same score as BW. Do reviewers copy/paste their review scores or something?

It sure feels like that but I think the truth is that consumer reviews for Pokemon games are dull any way you slice them.

Edit: Oh, sorry, I'm talking about the text, not the scores.

 

[Diprosalic]

Pokemon is way past anybody caring about review scores.
the stuff longtime fans care about is largely irrelevant for reviewers.

 

[Berordn]

XY the best pokemon games up till now. Fight me.

Garbage story, garbage characters, completely unrealized and underutilized region. Nothing makes sense and nothing interesting happens.

Absolutely barren post game following on B2W2, one of the most content packed and feature rich games to date.

If not for Platinum existing, Kalos would be tied with Sinnoh for worst region.

 

[ViciousDS]

fuck.......Watch Dogs 2.....new TV Sunday.....yet I might end up playing on a tiny ass screen for the next two weeks till FFXV




WHY!!!!

 

[Holy Order Sol]

the fuck

no mainline Pokémon game has a bland soundtrack that shit is ALWAYS top-tier

 

[Trey]

Garbage story, garbage characters, completely unrealized and underutilized region. Nothing makes sense and nothing interesting happens.

Absolutely barren post game following on B2W2, one of the most content packed and feature rich games to date.

If not for Platinum existing, Kalos would be tied with Sinnoh for worst region.

pull up

 

[Anura]

Garbage story, garbage characters, completely unrealized and underutilized region. Nothing makes sense and nothing interesting happens.

Absolutely barren post game following on B2W2, one of the most content packed and feature rich games to date.

If not for Platinum existing, Kalos would be tied with Sinnoh for worst region.

Thankfully, Platinum makes Sinnoh into the best region!

 

[BossDarkseid]

The reviews sound really good! Makes it go from a "I'll get SMTIV Apocalypse and Pokemon at Christmas...." to "Pfft who needs time and money"

 

[Sadist]

Can't wait!

 

[Wanderer5]

Dishonored 2 last week, Pokemon this week, such a month for me heh. All set with my preorder of Moon.

I should get at it with pokemon bank so I can move my pokemon from AS.

 

[Berordn]

Thankfully, Platinum makes Sinnoh into the best region!

Thankfully yes. Z could have saved the generation, based on all the content they ended up using in the other media... But we know how that went.

 

[Koppai]

I've been playing it and loving every minute of it

 

[Dekuboy]

XY the best pokemon games up till now. Fight me.

- EXP share is awesome, but can get you easily OP. While without it I find the game hard (that is not negative)

- Way too many old mons. My best experience with Pokemon was RSE. It gave a huge world and it had a good mix of old and new mons. When I battle the E4 or other Trainers I want to think "Holy shit, what mon is that? What can it do?" and not think "Oh yeah that is a gyarados/mon x, just use thundershock/attack y". Most of the mons you already saw and I think the reason of that wasn´t because of the low amount of new mons, but rather with the constant spawning of every mon.
SM did this right, eventhough they literally showed every mon before.

- Postgame was nice, but too easy and most people don´t even know that there is a postgame

- routes and overworld look beautifull and are detailled. But the routes are way way way to linear. Just look at the route to the fairy gymn. You can´t explore anything else. Sun Moon have also this linear routes, but they are kinda like Souls 3. Linear but you can explore them better.

- legendaries aren´t hidden anymore.

Oh and making many mons not that good. E.g. goodra not having a water/fairy/poison or a at least getting recover (goodra would be completly viable in gen 5 with weather wars, but this was so drastically nerfed in gen 6 that he didn´t have a chance) and noivern e.g.

 

[Aleh]

Garbage story, garbage characters, completely unrealized and underutilized region. Nothing makes sense and nothing interesting happens.

Absolutely barren post game following on B2W2, one of the most content packed and feature rich games to date.

If not for Platinum existing, Kalos would be tied with Sinnoh for worst region.

Lol please even in DP Sinnoh is way better than Kalos

 

[Anura]

Thankfully yes. Z could have saved the generation, based on all the content they ended up using in the other media... But we know how that went.

Yeah, it's super disappointing and it's a real waste of a region based off something like France.

 

[clemenx]

XY the best pokemon games up till now. Fight me.

Every new generation is always the best. I think it is pretty clear too. Pokemon has had nothing but steady, uninterrupted improvement. Gamefreak has never released a worse game than one of their previous, lack of stuff like The battle frontier doesn't offset all the QoL and other changes they're constantly making for the best.

This is of course outside completely subjective stuff like monsters design. You may love Sinnoh too much but go and try playing Diamond/Pearl now. They feel terrible.

 

[Wanderer5]

Is the EXP share returning? I like that option to rid of some of the grinding.

 

[Berordn]

Lol please even in DP Sinnoh is way better than Kalos

Honestly my memories of Sinnoh before Platinum are marred by the awful animations and how the whole world moves like it's coated in molasses, so that's dragging it down.

Sinnoh is by an large a more interesting region, but at least Kalos is snappy.

 

[Aleh]

Every new generation is always the best. I think it is pretty clear too. Pokemon has had nothing but steady, uninterrupted improvement. Gamefreak has never released a worse game than one of their previous, lack of stuff like The battle frontier doesn't offset all the QoL and other changes they're constantly making for the best.

This is of course outside completely subjective stuff like monsters design.

I think there's more to it than just the technical side of things though, and XY were particularly lacking story/lore wise and content wise. Not saying all the improvements they did bring aren't important either, of course!

 

[Tom Nook Sawyer]

Is the EXP share returning? I like that option to rid of some of the grinding.

It's back

 

[Trey]

Every new generation is always the best. I think it is pretty clear too. Pokemon has had nothing but steady, uninterrupted improvement. Gamefreak has never released a worse game than one of their previous, lack of stuff like The battle frontier doesn't offset all the QoL and other changes they're constantly making for the best.

This is of course outside completely subjective stuff like monsters design.

generally I agree with you. I like what I'm hearing about S/M. but potential performance issues, and them trying to compromise on IVs instead of removing them entirely from competitive consideration, have me a little disappointed. But HMs have finally died, so it's a net gain.

 

[Aleh]

Honestly my memories of Sinnoh before Platinum are marred by the awful animations and how the whole world moves like it's coated in molasses, so that's dragging it down.

Sinnoh is by an large a more interesting region, but at least Kalos is snappy.

I can agree with this, gen 4’s engine was poorly optimized. Kinda had the opposite problem of XY to me

 

[Wanderer5]

It's back

Great!

 

[PreyingShark]

The GameXplain review mentioned that there is 2v2 slowdown in the old 3DSs but not in the n3DSs. Can anyone else corroborate?

Can confirm that the slowdown's mostly gone on my n3DS XL. But I never checked to see if it's the same even without n3ds enhancements forced.

 

[Deleted member 231381]

Garbage story, garbage characters, completely unrealized and underutilized region. Nothing makes sense and nothing interesting happens.

Absolutely barren post game following on B2W2, one of the most content packed and feature rich games to date.

If not for Platinum existing, Kalos would be tied with Sinnoh for worst region.

I don't understand how anyone can think Sinnoh was the worst region? I find that opinion genuinely baffling. Like, not because Sinnoh is my favourite or anything, but just... it's definitely not the worst at any particular thing. It's incredibly well-rounded. There's aspects where it isn't as good as any other specific region, but as a whole?

 

[Not75Drops]

Sun/Moon's engine is a new one, like BW had a different engine than DPPt/HGSS, so I don't know about optimization. Though another big issue is the fact they're still using super high poly models, and there's more detail in the battle environments than Gen VI. Trainers also appear now which creates even more of a strain.

 

[Lumination]

Can confirm that the slowdown's mostly gone on my n3DS XL. But I never checked to see if it's the same even without n3ds enhancements forced.

Thanks!

Now the question is whether or not I'm willing to give up my old Animal Crossing save for a n3ds xl haha.