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What do you think is going to happen after Pokemon Sword/Shield?

Obmont

Neo Member
Wait so they're straight up admiting they want $20 more for 46% of a game? And lemme make sure I understand you right. This is happening to the latest game, Sword and Shield?

They aren't admitting to it and are just ignoring for now. A leaker played through and was able to show the complete Pokedex of just over 400 pokemon including the new ones. And yes this is all in the new game.

Has anyone come up with a theory why they would do this? Was it a forced decision due to less people working on the game...or lack of funding (not likely) or are they making it open world? MMO? There's gotta be something, why would they just destroy their game? Was there balancing issues? I mean I know there's a lot of pokemon.

While making Pokemon Game Freak pulled their A-Team off of Pokemon to produce this mediocre game while the B-team completed the mainline Pokemon title. The wild area has mmo elements but it's mostly single player and doesn't need to connect. The arguement about balancing issues could be made but they already ban certain Pokemon from events or make special sets where only certain Pokemon can be used, so that doesn't really apply. This is honestly why so many competitive gamers are upset. We will no longer get sets where a Pachirisu wins Worlds (mainly because Pachirisu is cut too).
 
Gamecube games are still better than this, both technically and in regards to contents, this is pretty absurd, considering XD and Colosseum are from 2, almost 3 console gens ago, and 16-18 years old iirc
The only possible way to save pokémon quality is to hand development to someone else, and seeing how much this series still sells, this is impossible
If possible, SwSh will sell even more than usual
 

garballax

Member
Gamecube games are still better than this, both technically and in regards to contents, this is pretty absurd, considering XD and Colosseum are from 2, almost 3 console gens ago, and 16-18 years old iirc
The only possible way to save pokémon quality is to hand development to someone else, and seeing how much this series still sells, this is impossible
If possible, SwSh will sell even more than usual
developers aren't the entire problem. that wouldn't fix anything. this game stinks of Pokémon Company greed to high heaven.
 

Obmont

Neo Member
developers aren't the entire problem. that wouldn't fix anything. this game stinks of Pokémon Company greed to high heaven.
Exactly this. Imagine just joining the dev team at game freak and they give you a mainline pokemon project while all the senior staff who are supposed to be training you go work on another game. Do you blame the guy who writes the code? No. You blame the management that allowed this to be written by a "B-Team" dev.

This is still a problem and if it impacts the bottom line at all (doubtful), TPC will take notice and the attention will actually bring light to the problems at Game Freak. Maybe they just need to shake things up and get the devs in line and let those that don't want to work a Pokemon game see themselves out the door.
 

Myths

Member
Pokémon Zero and Pokémon One. Takes place in the distant future with a brand new take on evolution and accessibility of Pokémon. “Cyberpunk, darker, etc. etc.”
 
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developers aren't the entire problem. that wouldn't fix anything. this game stinks of Pokémon Company greed to high heaven.

Certainly not the only problem, but a big portion of it
If the game is a technical mess, devoid of side content, this is developer's fault only
Tpc shitty marketing does the rest, as the dexit move is their, imo
" just cut 500 pokémon to thirst our fans about old pokémon, and to make buying future games necessary "
 

garballax

Member
Certainly not the only problem, but a big portion of it
If the game is a technical mess, devoid of side content, this is developer's fault only
Tpc shitty marketing does the rest, as the dexit move is their, imo
" just cut 500 pokémon to thirst our fans about old pokémon, and to make buying future games necessary "
i must respectfully disagree. if the game is a technical mess, yes that is on the developer's management. Let's Go was definitely rushed out so they could have a Pokémon game come out in the timeframe they promised a new game to be out by (possibly another decision by the Pokémon Company) and give SWSH some extra time. that definitely took a chunk of their team away. plus as others have mentioned in this thread, Little Town Hero would have taken more of their team too... depending on the budget and time constraints the Pokémon Company gives GF, is that still the developer's fault?
 
i must respectfully disagree. if the game is a technical mess, yes that is on the developer's management. Let's Go was definitely rushed out so they could have a Pokémon game come out in the timeframe they promised a new game to be out by (possibly another decision by the Pokémon Company) and give SWSH some extra time. that definitely took a chunk of their team away. plus as others have mentioned in this thread, Little Town Hero would have taken more of their team too... depending on the budget and time constraints the Pokémon Company gives GF, is that still the developer's fault?

Yeah, you're right, this shed a new light for me on these problems
Didn't take in account the release window pressure, I think LTH didn't need so much resources tho
 
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SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
They will keep releasing Ps2 like games that take out more Pokemons that people like with turds and you will buy them because "I JUST CAN'T HELP MYSELF TEEHEE". Another franchise saved!
 

drganon

Member
They will make more pokemon games after sword and shield and wont stop after that until we're all dead.
 

Bakkus

Member
Hopefully the fandom will get over it.

I don't really get it to be honest. If there are really over 800 different Pokemon then it just seems idiotic to me to have ALL of them in every single game.

However, I would think selling the missing ones as DLC is extremely bad form.
I'd like to see them add updates that maybe secretly adds a Pokemon here and there once in a while.

Surely it would be preferable for the game to come out and for people to organically discover which Pokemon are in the game?
It seems mad to me that people are all over leaks wanting to know who is in and who is out. Why not discover that as you play?

Pokemon is one of those games that is always pretty good and very popular but the way people get so outraged and so upset over it just seems a bit too much to me.

I get that they have a very young audience but at some point those kids need to learn that you don't always get what you want.

It's one of those "good for all ages" games so it's really sad to see people just so mad and worked up about it.

All this shit about performance and whining about which Pokemon are in the game just doesn't really seem to be in the spirit of the game.
Like, at this stage, people already know what Pokemon is and what to expect.
Sigh. It's late and I'm too tired to be responding to all these same old tired apologist arguments devoid of any bigger perspective, so I'll just give you rule number 1 when working in a service industry:

The customer is always right
 

MagnesG

Banned
Game looks okay, I've seen and enjoyed worse. The addicting core gameplay is still there.

Completing the Pokedex without transferring takes time, I bet when the game comes out only 1/3 or less of the players are actually finished catching them all 400s instead of bitching.

Competitive players would adapt to the new environment as they should.

So nothing would happen, I would even predict game will sold more than X/Y, nearing into 20 million range.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Game looks okay, I've seen and enjoyed worse. The addicting core gameplay is still there.

Completing the Pokedex without transferring takes time, I bet when the game comes out only 1/3 or less of the players are actually finished catching them all 400s instead of bitching.

Competitive players would adapt to the new environment as they should.

So nothing would happen, I would even predict game will sold more than X/Y, nearing into 20 million range.
That could be true, Fire Emblem 3Houses is not exactly looker either but that didn't stop the game from being absolute blast to play.
 

Zannegan

Member
What will change? Probably nothing.

What should change? Nintendo should have Gamefreak become a consulting studio/art house to a more competent developer like MonolithSoft until they can get up to speed in-house.

They should also really have a western studio try to establish a really different side-series within the same world, more action oriented to try and capture the feeling of adventure that's present in the anime. I know they have spinoffs like Pokemon Rangers and Let's go, and a few party games, but those all seem like they would appeal to subsetz of the main audience. I'm talking about something different, like Astral Chain-esque combat different.

For the record, I don't see the reduction of the national dex as a bad thing, per se. It makes room for new pokemon (not just rattatta replacements either) and makes catching them all actually doable. For the folks who want to keep and migrate their old mons from old games though, yeah, that's pretty bad.

Nintendo needs to build a separate battling app to go with the Pokemon bank, where people can just battle with any mon from any gen on their phone (or maybe filter mons, rules, effects, etc. by gen) and set up weekly and daily challenges. Then the hardcore get a reason to keep and keep battling with their old mons and don't have to worry about their favorites being suddenly unusable, but each generation isn't shackled to an ever-increasing library of characters.
 
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FMXVII

Member
Pokemon Dick and Pokemon Vagina.

Followed up with Pokemon Trans.

Trans is the New Yellow.

But this gen will have to settle for:

+6 Sword & -6 Shield.

Someday current Nintendo shall finally NOT be contemporaneously analogous with 1987.

Sadly, that day isn't slated sometime C.E.
 
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woigemok

Banned
Game looks okay, I've seen and enjoyed worse. The addicting core gameplay is still there.

Completing the Pokedex without transferring takes time, I bet when the game comes out only 1/3 or less of the players are actually finished catching them all 400s instead of bitching.

Competitive players would adapt to the new environment as they should.

So nothing would happen, I would even predict game will sold more than X/Y, nearing into 20 million range.
I think they really missed the growth of sales potential on the Nintendo Switch with their way of developing the mainline pokemon game.

Take Monster Hunter and Zelda Breath of Wild for example.
Both games succeeded in growing their sales from the original ceiling to another ceiling but Pokemon it's still with the same floor and ceiling despite Nintendo Switch's core market advantage.

Monster Hunter 4 to Monster Hunter World sales = 4.8m to 14m
Skyward Sword to Breath of the wild sales = 3.7m to 16m
Pokemon Sun and Moon to Sword and Shield = 16m to ??

Breath of the wild is likely to surpass 20m mark sooner than the new mainline Pokemon franchise at this rate. Unless GF isn't stingy to seek help from monolith soft and other Nintendo studio, expand their effort and time not only just resources to create a new seamless open world of Pokemon with all pokemons included and no features from previous games were cut in the final product. That's when Pokemon will likely surpass the 30m mark and returned to the glory day of the sales number of Gen 1 and Gen 2.
 
As somebody who played Red back in the day I think Nintendo is going to make a metric fuck-ton of money, and will release the next gen of Pokemon 4 years from now.
 

Saruhashi

Banned
Sigh. It's late and I'm too tired to be responding to all these same old tired apologist arguments devoid of any bigger perspective, so I'll just give you rule number 1 when working in a service industry:

The customer is always right

Stuff like this is what I mean.

People think some things are not a big deal so they're an "apologist".

As I said, anyone looking for a game of the year experience with mind blowing graphics from a Pokemon game is kidding themselves on.

Oh and nobody who's ever worked in retail or the service industry is ever going to agree that "the customer is always right".

Plus if I am buying the game and you are buying the game and we both have a completely different set of expectations then we can't both be right.

Keep on crying about "apolgists". :)
FFS.
 

Yoda

Member
I'm not convinced it'll sell poorly, this franchise has a MASSIVE casual fan-base. It may get critically panned, but I doubt that'll dent sales.
 
Even casuals will notice once they play it and get pissed off with this many cut. There's a reason GF is holding off on sending review copies until release day.

returns.png


I think the game will still sell well initially but it won't have near the legs as other titles and will long term hurt the franchise, unless they pull a 180 and allow SwSh mon to be transferred to the Sinnoh remakes.
 

LemonSawa

Neo Member
Probably let someone else do the game, like let Capcom do it, GameFreak wants to work for now in other stuff so they are probably tired of being a Pokemon machine..

Dont release all Pokemon in a single game, but make it in a longer plan, like te next set of games will have parts of the ones not released in this gen and no bullshit when trading. Also return everything that is part of the side game, like the contests and Amie, mega evolutions.
 

Saber

Gold Member
Probably let someone else do the game, like let Capcom do it, GameFreak wants to work for now in other stuff so they are probably tired of being a Pokemon machine..

Dont release all Pokemon in a single game, but make it in a longer plan, like te next set of games will have parts of the ones not released in this gen and no bullshit when trading. Also return everything that is part of the side game, like the contests and Amie, mega evolutions.

I think Nintendo should do the development for good. I'm more willing to believe Nintendo itself is more than capable of doing advance in the series than GF gonna ever do.
 
What was the fucking point of introducing new players to Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee if they can't even transfer even half of the mon from that game into SwSh? Let's Go Pika/Eeve was basically fucking pointless and a worthless cash grab sequel that mislead consumers.

Who fucking makes these decisions? Game Freak is the absolute worst.
 

Yoda

Member
Read up a bit more about this, I think they're creating a problem to sell a "solution" to later. Most likely some form of Poke-Cloud you'll need to subscribe to for a monthly fee. I believe something like this already exists, but they most likely feel like they could charge more, and this will set them up to do that.
 

Caffeine

Member
What was the fucking point of introducing new players to Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee if they can't even transfer even half of the mon from that game into SwSh? Let's Go Pika/Eeve was basically fucking pointless and a worthless cash grab sequel that mislead consumers.

Who fucking makes these decisions? Game Freak is the absolute worst.
idk who but there def is a disconnect of decision making between projects. lets go was supposed to appeal to go players, clearly it didn't, then u have all the decisions around this game which dont fit their cookie cutter pattern. and even going back a title to ultra sumo you can see a stark contrast to these last 2 projects. who knows what they have in their head after this. i'm sure sword and shield will sell well.

actually now that I think about it they always add features in 1 game only for them to never return decision making has been all over the place for 2 decades.
 

Silvawuff

Member
Why would GF apologize for trimming out the Pokemon ranks? They even said they did it for game play reasons and to improve the overall experience. Some folks need to calm down and drop the self-entitled toxic gaming outrage culture. I feel if it wasn't exp share or the dex cuts, it would be something else.

I fully intend to play this game and enjoy it. I haven't really touched a Pokemon title since X/Y and I'm excited to see how the series has changed. Does anyone actually catch them all or do the hardcore league battling stuff that would make either of these changes the pain deserving of the outcry? For the older Gen 1 fans working with limited time to game in life, any kind of QoL casual-friendly change is a good one, at least for me personally.
 
idk who but there def is a disconnect of decision making between projects. lets go was supposed to appeal to go players, clearly it didn't, then u have all the decisions around this game which dont fit their cookie cutter pattern. and even going back a title to ultra sumo you can see a stark contrast to these last 2 projects. who knows what they have in their head after this. i'm sure sword and shield will sell well.

actually now that I think about it they always add features in 1 game only for them to never return decision making has been all over the place for 2 decades.

The Player Search System was freaking awesome and is a big reason why Gen 6 is better than Gen 7.

I'm fine with features being taken out but the problem is they're replaced with things that are worse instead of better or replaced with nothing at all. One of the few times they improved was with ORAS where it gave you the dex-map and PSS where with the DEX map you could see if you caught all Pokemon and which ones you didn't in a specific area. It was great.

Now they're taking out the GTS which was awesome and has been a core feature for over a decade since Gen 4 and replacing it with something worse.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Consumers speaking out about things they dislike are called overgrown weeb dorks?

Grown men that still play Pokémon and exhibit signs of insanity by complaining annually on internet forums about how terrible it all is even though it's been the same game for 23 years are overgrown weeb dorks, yes.

- A grown man who will still probably buy Sword in a sale next year
 

Lanrutcon

Member
Riots. Blood in the streets. Bedlam and carnage. Gamefreak employees strung up with their own mouse cords. #freepsyduck trends. Pewdiepie executes a random Japanese person live on Twitch. A lone Pokemon trainer adjusts his red cap as he prepares to brave the mean streets. His law is the only law.

It's the apokelypse.
 

Saruhashi

Banned

Haha. I appreciate the banter but still I don't get the level of outrage over this and the shitty attitude towards people who are OK with the game just being whatever it is.

I understand that fans of something will always want their "thing" to be as close to perfect as it can possibly be but I don't see how people who are fine with what Gamefreak are offering are "apologists" or whatever. We are talking about a Pokemon videogame here after all.

I see it as a pretty simple situation.

Game Freak: Here is the new Pokemon game, do you want it? It's 60 bucks.
Me: Nah, I'm good.

The biggest problem are people who care SO much about all these terrible things going on with the game but still go out and buy it.

Someone who is happy to pay up and play the game is just doing what normal people do with products they want to buy.

Some people take this stuff WAAAAY too seriously and are way to confrontation with folks who think the game seems just fine.
 
Wouldn't that require the full dex to come back?
Not necessarily. I guess they could add the Pokémon from the Sinnoh regional dex that are absent from Sword & Shield.

I can see Game Freak bringing back the full dex in Gen 9 while keeping the same models. Following the pattern of two generations per console, Gen 9 would come on the Switch and reuse the same models from the previous generation, the way Sun & Moon did after X & Y.
 
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Ryu Kaiba

Member
Haha. I appreciate the banter but still I don't get the level of outrage over this and the shitty attitude towards people who are OK with the game just being whatever it is.

I understand that fans of something will always want their "thing" to be as close to perfect as it can possibly be but I don't see how people who are fine with what Gamefreak are offering are "apologists" or whatever. We are talking about a Pokemon videogame here after all.

I see it as a pretty simple situation.

Game Freak: Here is the new Pokemon game, do you want it? It's 60 bucks.
Me: Nah, I'm good.

The biggest problem are people who care SO much about all these terrible things going on with the game but still go out and buy it.

Someone who is happy to pay up and play the game is just doing what normal people do with products they want to buy.

Some people take this stuff WAAAAY too seriously and are way to confrontation with folks who think the game seems just fine.
The problem isn't that it's not close the perfect. The problem is that it's not even close to adequate. Pokemon is the biggest media franchise of all time but their games look like some fan hack.
People who are asking for more are not wrong.
 

Saruhashi

Banned
The problem isn't that it's not close the perfect. The problem is that it's not even close to adequate. Pokemon is the biggest media franchise of all time but their games look like some fan hack.
People who are asking for more are not wrong.

Right, but what those people need to do is NOT BUY IT.

There's no point in taking swipes at people who might buy it because they don't really care.

Whether it is adequate or not is entirely up to the individual consumer.

That's where the whole thing about "apologists" etc just makes no sense to me. If someone is willing to spend the money to get the game then that's up to them. They aren't "part of the problem" because they are fine with buying what's offered.

Maybe the game will flop because it doesn't have big boy graphics like the new big boy consoles and maybe it will flop because all the Pokemon are not included. The people asking for more for their money need to stop spending money on these games then.
 

Obmont

Neo Member
Right, but what those people need to do is NOT BUY IT.

There's no point in taking swipes at people who might buy it because they don't really care.

Whether it is adequate or not is entirely up to the individual consumer.
You're contradicting yourself in the second sentence. If a fan cares enough about a game and they want to see that their voice is heard, they will not buy the game AND they will get their family, neighbors, and cowrokers to not buy the game as well. I myself am not buying the game, convinced the only two family members that play to not buy the game, and convinced 3 coworkers to not buy the game. They don't follow these issues and could definitely be considered casuals, but these problems mattered to them (as much as people keep saying that casuals don't care about the dex cut). That's how you get the changes you want to see.

If you're wondering how the discussion went, I found this to be the most convincing infograph paired with the question: "Which of your favorites were cut?"


y29gP6m.png
 
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SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
Haha. I appreciate the banter but still I don't get the level of outrage over this and the shitty attitude towards people who are OK with the game just being whatever it is.

I understand that fans of something will always want their "thing" to be as close to perfect as it can possibly be but I don't see how people who are fine with what Gamefreak are offering are "apologists" or whatever. We are talking about a Pokemon videogame here after all.

I see it as a pretty simple situation.

Game Freak: Here is the new Pokemon game, do you want it? It's 60 bucks.
Me: Nah, I'm good.

The biggest problem are people who care SO much about all these terrible things going on with the game but still go out and buy it.

Someone who is happy to pay up and play the game is just doing what normal people do with products they want to buy.

Some people take this stuff WAAAAY too seriously and are way to confrontation with folks who think the game seems just fine.
Nobody and I mean nobody is expecting perfection here. Specially not from GF. There have now been countless threads that touch on why people are upset at them and countless threads where it becomes a "leave GF alone!" scenerio as if said people were on their payroll. This is a gayming website, people are gonna nerd out either way. Tesseract out.
 

BlackTron

Member
I really just want Hey You Pickachu/Eevee but without any Pokemon Go nonsense, all turn-based. It had a graphic style that behooved the series, switched annoying-ass random encounters with Pokemon you could see on the screen (which also made the game feel more alive, colorful, and full of well...POKEMON) and stuck to the more charming gen 1 pokemon.

Sword/Shield gives us back turn based encounters, but throws everything else I found to be a breath of fresh air in the the Hey You games out the window.

They just keep tap dancing around the ideal Pokemon game, sorry Game Freak but I'm out.
 
You're contradicting yourself in the second sentence. If a fan cares enough about a game and they want to see that their voice is heard, they will not buy the game AND they will get their family, neighbors, and cowrokers to not buy the game as well. I myself am not buying the game, convinced the only two family members that play to not buy the game, and convinced 3 coworkers to not buy the game. They don't follow these issues and could definitely be considered casuals, but these problems mattered to them (as much as people keep saying that casuals don't care about the dex cut). That's how you get the changes you want to see.

If you're wondering how the discussion went, I found this to be the most convincing infograph paired with the question: "Which of your favorites were cut?"


y29gP6m.png

The thing is, the cuts don't even make sense business wise. Wouldn't it make more sense to at least allow the Kanto region mon to be transferred to Galar since I dunno, LGPE is only a year old and still sold in stores.

Before Gen VII GF always had releases that complimented each other in between gens which is why they had such long legs. HGSS benefits Platinum and BW, ORAS compliments XY and SUMO.

Gamefreak always made tons of money by having entries that were more or less "catch up" entries for new or returning players. So why are they limiting themselves from making more money lol.
 
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