#they just fucked up sinnoh remakes all the way from conception

[friskibitz]

you ever think about how the pokemon company fucked up the one shot at real sinnoh remakes

[beakybirdsong]

Sigh okay it's Pokemon News Drop Day so I'm gonna make a quick appearance for initial thoughts. But uhhh they're not great lmao

So if you don't like debbie downers probably don't read this lol

Because I got a bit...edgy

But like...I actually *hate* that we're getting 3 different games and none of them look remotely...good, all for different reasons.

The D/P remakes, from what we've seen so far, just don't excite me in any way. My opinion could change going forward but for right now it looks like it might as well be a remastered port, which is...not really what I've come to expect from Pokemon remakes, even as someone who's generally become a huge pessimist over the years lmao. HGSS added Pokemon following, the Pokathalon, a customizable Safari Zone, team photos, polished bits of existing storyline (like awakening the legendaries or disguising yourself as a rocket), and I think even the Battle Frontier iirc. We got much less in ORAS, but the story was admittedly still polished up good from what it was, including a little post game romp where we could catch Deoxys, the DexNav, which was super fun to play around with, and additionally Mirage Islands, a bunch of minimaps in the region that changed every day, which you essentially could collect from others by playing online or using Streetpass and accessing BuzzNav. It was also the first game to let us really hunt a hoard of legendaries, some of which were hidden in really cool updated areas (lookin at you Sea Mauville).

My point of all this I guess is that if you're going to give us a trailer for DP remakes can you not make it look like...samey and bland lol?? I'm not saying there WONT be any new content, but I am saying that if there isn't then it just...is not gonna be worth the money that a Switch game costs. Especially after Swsh left such a bad taste in my mouth. Like H O N E S T L Y I'd probably be being a lot nicer right now if Swsh was like...a good game lmao but that shit still has bugs and even after two full DLC drops there's nothing to DO (outside of being a crazy person like me and hunting shiny legends in Dynamax Adventures).

NOT TO MENTION HOLY SHIT, the longer time goes on the less forgivable it gets that these characters are sooooo fucking static!!!! The whole *thud* thing worked fine back in the DS era because it was....yknow, the DS era, but it just looks so stupid over a decade later. You can't add any more movement than that?? Barry's static pose in battle is also just completely devoid of personality. I'd honestly be fine with the chibi style if they did something interesting with it. Which is my point ig. Please please pleeeaaassseeee do something interesting with these remakes. Give me a reason not to just play on an emulator, or hell. Dig out an old copy and play on the 3DS, which still supports DS games lmao.

Okay phew ANYWAY.

Idk if it's because I'm coming down off of that hot mess but Pokemon Legends is actually...kind of interesting in concept. Like it takes place in the past, neat. And it's """"open-world,"""" okay neat. And the starter options are remixed, neat (I have a lot of thoughts on that actually and they aren't bad but this isn't the time or place). And they clearly told the tree-renderers to get their fucking act together, but like...that's a good segue into the problem I'm having with it which is that it still just looks empty. And boring?? And I think what I'm getting hung up on is that part of my brain is like ooh cool but there's a much bigger part of my brain that's like "OK but WHY"

It's just so frustrating as a longtime Pokemon fan to look at these two games which are both set in Sinnoh and only seeing wasted potential. Why aren't we getting one really good Sinnoh game that could happen with a little more time and less spread-thin resources? One looks bad because it's static and underwhelming port of an otherwise big beautiful labyrinthine region and the other looks bad because it looks good in places but is otherwise is an empty looking world in the way that the Wild Area was. We could have all the good stuff in one package but why would they do that when they can double up on profits by shipping out two mediocre games?

Speaking of, the nastiest taste in my mouth by far was the fact that we're getting three new games at all. Other parts of first-party Nintendo are making a point to ask for understanding and delay releases because of the pandemic and it seems like Pokemon just isn't letting up. What kind of conditions and crunch are these developers working under while also dealing with the handicap of doing it all remotely?? Do they get to sleep and eat like Jesus fucking Christ. I know there's a studio name I don't recognize helping with the DP remakes but STILL. It's not worth it! It's not worth it! Make a better game later!!! Stop beating your own franchise and the people who make it half to death!! Getting even one new mainline Pokemon game a year is unrealistic and unsustainable and it needs to stop fucking yesterday!! Hell, I would cry tears of joy if we went a year with no new Pokemon news at all! That's how ugly this feels.

In an attempt not to end on a sour note I guess, Snap looks good enough to get. I'm curious to see how many courses there are, but the characters look endearing enough, and by nature of being an on-rails game the world feels alive because it's not an unrealistic ask to make it feel that way (they did it just fine on the N64, even with the technical limitations of the time). I would much prefer mainline Pokemon games veer away from this "open-world" direction they're going in and just focus on making their little segmented areas tighter and more immersive in terms of aesthetic and exploration and maybe like one or two static encounter mons with a bit of personality. But I'm getting carried back into the Mainline Game Bad Thoughts Zone and I don't wanna be there. So. Idk check out that Venusaur doing a cannonball! Instant serotonin. Hoping there will be some fun pokemon interactions you can apple into happening like Surfing Pikachu or the Jigglypuff concert. Snap looks fun. I like fun. This is fun. This is fine!!!!!!!

[pahrak-the-sinnoh-slizer]

Okay I’m gonna try to collect my Sinnoh Thoughts now

-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

-I guess I should start with the art style for the remakes.  Like, this wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I still think it looks good. Cute little chibis, then full-size in battles and shit—that’s an authentic RPG experience.

-Like the names, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.  Brain sees anything close to “Brilliance” and thinks of Starlight so

-It does seem like there won’t be much if any in the way of expanding on the base games, which is less than ideal, but like, I was kind of expecting a soulless cash grab and this looks to have actual effort put into it!  I still get to revisit Sinnoh with a fresh coat of paint, I’ll be fine.

-I do hope they retain some of the changes from Platinum, though.  It’s no secret several improvements were made there and I’d like this to be as definitive a Sinnoh experience as possible.

-Somehow I missed it on my first watch but there’s footage of the Underground!!  I never got to do too much with it back in the day so I’d love another chance…though I guess that’ll require Switch Online, huh…

-Oh, and it’s being worked on (at least in part) by another company.  That sounds like a good thing: better distributing the workload, being able to better keep up with the insane release schedule they’ve been trying.

-Saying the series is “entering a new era” really made me think they were going to start Gen IX, and they are not ready for that.

-Legends is just such a neat idea, and Sinnoh is the perfect region for it with its focus on history and myths.  The Pokedex ended up feeling more like accessing data that already exists, so if they really go in on the idea of creating the region’s first Pokedex, it could really deliver on the concept’s potential in a way that we’ve never seen before.

-Also the old Poke Balls looks really cool.  Would love to see apricorns involved, but I won’t get my hopes up.

-The scarves!  I fucking love those scarves!

-Like…this is hands-down the biggest evolution the series has ever undergone.  All open world, seamless transitions, changes to the battle system…it’s just all so new!  I can’t wait!

-Also this is a tough starter choice, I love all three, not at all expected and super cool.

-Some of the animations do look choppy, but that can be easily fixed by this time next year.

-And motherfucking ARCEUS. Holy shit.  Fingers crossed the Azure Flute is involved.

-Anyone else thinking about Pokémon Conquest?

-There is the question of if either or both will have trainer customization.  I won’t be too bummed if not, but it would be cool.  What I really want to know is if the League Card maker from SwSh will be back!

-Megas…?  No?  Well, okay.

-But what about regional variants?

-OH and the gym badge xylophone!  That’s essential!  You did keep that, right?

-Just…this is a degree of love I don’t think the Pokémon Company has shown to any region other than Kanto. I’ve been yearning for that to change for so long, and now it is, starting with my favorite region…I’m so excited.

[sage-nebula]

I hope you dont mind my asking, but wouldn't GF have decided to remove the national dex long before LGPE released? I can see those games selling well confirming to GF that "pokemon sell well regardless of cut features" but it feels strange to blame it on LGPE when the development time on the games would suggest they made this choice awhile ago. (Not to defend lgpe lack of content) Sorry if this is a bother, I just feel like I'm missing something and would really like to understand your reasoning

For almost any other game I would agree, however for Pokémon in particular:

The National Dex (insofar as the ability to transfer old pokémon over) was never going to be a Day One feature. It’s never a Day One feature in the first games of the generation. Even if they wanted to make it one, in this case they couldn’t because Home isn’t releasing until 2020. As I’ve said in other posts, if they wanted to patch in the NatDex, they’d have the time to do it. Technically speaking, they’d have the time to do it, especially since the fanbase would be willing to wait (even if there’d be a few whiners here or there) the extra time.

Since it’s not a Day One feature, it’s something that can be worked on later in the development cycle (/can even continue to be worked on after the development cycle, or at least it could be if this series were treated with the respect of, say, The Legend of Zelda series). Again, I’m not talking about DLC that’s already on the game card that needs to be activated later, I’m talking about DLC that’s patched in, content created after that you download either to the harddrive or (though I don’t know if Switch DLC works this way specifically) onto the game card itself. Given the type of content they generally want to show early in the release cycle (the general theme / concept of the games, scenes of the various areas in the region, new ‘mon), and the fact that this would be a feature added post-release anyway, we can make a safe bet that the NatDex is something they’d work on much later in the development cycle, possibly even in the last year since, again . . . they’d have that time if they wanted to use it (and if this series was treated with genuine respect).

The Let’s Go games were stated by Masuda to be the future of the franchise if they sold well. They featured a Pokédex that was limited to only the Kanto ‘Dex, plus Meltan and Melmetal. They released in November 2018, and indeed, they sold well. In early 2019 (February, IIRC) Sword & Shield were released. While of course I don’t work at Game Freak and thus can’t say for sure, I would place money on the idea that if they were even a bit on the fence about adding the National Dex, the fact that Let’s Go sold so well despite being limited to 153 ‘mon pushed them right over the edge to, “Cut the National Dex from Sword & Shield, there’s no point in working on it.” I mean, why should they expend the effort if people will buy the games anyway? Especially when President Ishihara went on record saying that long-time fans only cared about “new pokémon and features” around the time of Let’s Go’s release. Sure, they might have already been thinking about cutting the National Dex beforehand, but Let’s Go no doubt assured them that it was a safe and correct call to make.

So that’s what I mean when I say that Let’s Go’s positive sales figures sealed all of our fates. To be entirely honest, before the National Dex announcement, I was certain that we wouldn’t see the shockwaves from Let’s Go until Gen IX. But Sword & Shield having a limited ‘Dex just like Let’s Go, and having special feature ‘mon behind $60 paywalls like Let’s Go, and having core features stripped out like Let’s Go, and the fact that it’s starting to look frighteningly like the starters won’t be able to evolve like in Let’s Go . . . the effect is pretty apparent. Sure, some of this stuff was present even before Let’s Go (namely the whole “let’s ditch useful features in the name of simplifying things” tack that Masuda has been married to for years now), but in the wake of Let’s Go, it’s success, and what Masuda said would happen if it was successful, it’s really hard not to see the link.

(Note just in case anyone read too quickly: I’m not saying the starters WON’T evolve. I’m only saying that I’m starting to fear that’s the case since we’re less than a month away from release and we haven’t even seen second stage evolutions yet. Maybe they’re just trying to keep starter evolutions a surprise, that’s entirely possible, but it’s also highly suspect, and Game Freak destroyed any trust or good faith I had in them a while back.) 

As a final note, the reason why I say that the Pokémon games aren’t treated with respect is . . . well, there are a few reasons:

Game Freak stated themselves that they put their B Team on Sword & Shield while their A Team worked on Little Town Hero. They also said they wanted to create something, “as exciting, or perhaps even more exciting” than Pokémon. They’re tired of working on Pokémon, and it shows. Which, I mean, I get it, it’s been 20+ years, but in that case tell Nintendo so that they can shift the main games over to another studio. I get that Game Freak was created for the sole purpose of making Pokémon, and maybe Taijiri-san is pissed at how you’re disrespecting his baby (I would be), but for the good of the series, if you don’t want to work on it, give it to someone who does. Don’t just shift it onto your bare bones secondary dev team.

These games are in a hellish development cycle where a new one is popped out every year. Contrast this to The Legend of Zelda where, while we’ve had some anomalies where assets were able to be largely reused and so games came out only a couple years apart (see: Ocarina of Time to Majora’s Mask) --- even that had two or three years before releases, not one the very next year. Most mainline Zelda games spend five or six years in development. I’m fully aware that we will likely be waiting until something like 2022 for Breath of the Wild 2, and I am prepared to wait that time because I know the game we get will be incredible. Granted, I’m going to be dying every single time they announce a release date to push it back, but it’ll be a death I’m grateful for because I will know that the end product will be worth it. The Pokémon games used to have a similar luxury. While there were a grand total of five games released during that time (with “five games” being used loosely, given that one was a slight upgrade and the other four were really two games with slight differences between versions), Gen IV lasted for a grand total of four years. We had Diamond & Pearl in 2006, Platinum in 2008, HeartGold & SoulSilver in 2009, and then finally, Black & White in 2010. By contrast, Gen VII didn’t even last three years, technically. I mean, this November would be its third anniversary, but that’s when Gen VIII officially starts instead. To be fair, it could be argued that Gen IV didn’t have a full four years since it came out in September 2006, and Gen V came out in September 2010. But even if you make that argument, it still had a full year on Gen VII, and to be honest, that showed. The Sinnoh games are far and away not my faves, but they were still full of content. HeartGold & SoulSilver are often considered to be the best remakes in the entire franchise, and considering the content that was cut from OmegaRuby & AlphaSapphire and Masuda’s reasoning for why that content was cut, I can’t exactly argue with that even though I did genuinely enjoy ORAS. And the games that Gen IV ushered in? Controversial opinion, but I think that the Pokémon games peaked with Gen V. Black & White not only initially had a ‘dex that was nothing but new pokémon (and yet STILL included the Nat Dex later, because in Masuda’s own words he felt it cruel to keep people from playing with their faves forever!), but it also introduced a METRIC TON of new mechanics, some of which we no longer get to use (Rotation Battles? Game Freak doesn’t know her). Who knows what exactly Game Freak did with that extra year, but it was clearly a lot of work given how wonderful the games were in Gen IV and Gen V. The extra dev time showed.By contrast, Gen VII got 2.5 years (or 3 if you’re being generous). Every single game released during this gen had massive content cuts, even when comparing to Gen VI, which also had massive content cuts. Mechanics were stripped away, and Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon technically didn’t have a NatDex either, but at least you could still have all of your ‘mon in them at a later date if you wanted to. Now with Sword & Shield, we don’t even have that, despite the Switch being far more powerful than the 3DS. (We also don’t have Mega Evolution for whatever godforsaken reason, even though the Kanto Mega Evolutions at the very least were already used in Let’s Go, the fuck, Game Freak). Pokémon games print money and always have, and Game Freak has taken this and their lack of interest in the series to the depressing but I suppose logical extreme of “do whatever and they’ll buy it anyway.” There’s no love here, there’s no respect here. They just don’t care anymore, and as someone who does care an awful lot, it’s super upsetting to me.

And while people have tried to argue that the games can’t be delayed because of the anime or the card game or whatever else:

The games come first. They’ve always come first. I know some people mistakenly think that the anime came first and that the games were created later, but that is 100% false. Pokémon started as a game series and the anime was created to advertise the games, straight up.

Filler episodes exist, and the PokéAni is no stranger to them. The Orange Islands arc was an entire arc of filler created to pad time between Gens I and II. The Delacora Islands (or whatever they were called) was a filler arc meant to pad time between Gens V and VI. Arguably the majority of the Sun & Moon anime was filler, given its slice-of-life genre, meaning the anime was even less of an excuse not to delay Sword & Shield. You can’t tell me people wouldn’t have been happy with another year of the Alola crew running around getting into random adventures. People would have eaten that up and loved it. We could have had it all.

I’m not even going to dignify “but the card game” with a response lmao. This isn’t Yu-Gi-Oh!. Sure, the card game makes money, and probably a decent amount of it (merch sales probably make up the franchise’s greatest source of income, and as someone who easily spent several hundred dollars in two weeks at the PokéCenters in Japan---including over $100 in one trip to a PokéCenter while I was there, and we went multiple times---I am a big part of that), but they come up with bullshit new expansions all the time and could easily keep doing it. Again, not a reason to delay the games if the games need more time in development.

So all in all, at the end of the day, Game Freak is no longer treating these games with love and respect, which makes them an awful lot like the villains in the games they create. The Let’s Go games were harbingers of disaster for the games, and we were told this very plainly, and just about no one listened. In fact, I legitimately lost friendships with people who got mad at me for making Facebook statuses about how they should buy Let’s Go used if they absolutely had to have them because how DARE I believe Ishihara when he said that Let’s Go were considered core titles, and how DARE I believe Masuda when he said that Let’s Go would usher in the last twenty years of the franchise. Clearly, I was just being an ugly bitch. (I wish I was exaggerating, but this actually happened, I got blocked over it, it was ridiculous.) And now here we are as a result, with no hope of things getting better unless Nintendo forcibly rips Pokémon out of Game Freak’s hands, which I don’t even think they can legally do given that they only own 1/3rd of the IP. (The other 2/3rds belong to Game Freak and Creatures Inc., as I understand it.) 

TL;DR:

Pokémon is still my favorite fictional fantasy world, but as someone who has always loved the games first and foremost, the current state of it depresses me to no end.

[pokemonruby]

rank the regions from favorite to least favorite, and tell us a little abt why if u want!! :D also the name+theme of the region u made!!! (i mightve missed it earlier hehe)

CRACKS KNUCKLES

hoenn, of course! it’s the generation that truly got me involved with pokemon as a whole - the games, at least. honestly i could write a full-length essay on why hoenn is my favorite region and how precious it is to me but i don’t want to put anyone through that kind of torture so. long story short? motherfucking Trumpets  (also i already elaborated on why hoenn is my favorite region in the past and it was INCREDIBLY lengthy) 

unova! not only is it home to my favorite games in the series, but the region itself is just... incredibly well-made? i honestly believe they put more effort into making every location memorable into this region more than any other in the series. i think unova embodies the truest sense of “adventure” featured so far - which is saying something since pokemon itself is based around the concept of, well, going on your own adventure! not to mention it has the best variety of pokemon to select from in my personal opinion, especially the bug-types. i was discussing this with my boyfriend last night but unova made me, someone who normally detests bug-types, absolutely love each and every one it had to offer. leavanny is my fucking BABY. also the vanillite and trubbish lines are valid anyone who thinks otherwise is probably a genwunner. 

sinnoh! definitely one of the fan-favorites from what i’ve noticed.... like... y’all really want those remakes, don’t you. then again i was in the same position prior to oras was announced so, yeah, i totally get it. but sinnoh itself is an incredible region jam-packed with fascinating lore and i just love how... mellow it is? the snowy aesthetic is definitely one i can get behind and i am literally on my KNEES begging we’ll see another cold region here soon, because i am downright tried of tropical locations. honestly platinum is the game i pick up whenever i want to feel relaxed since... that’s the whole vibe sinnoh just gives off, i suppose? aside from its outrageous difficulty like what the fuck is that pokemon league 

now here’s an unpopular one: kalos! i love the overall aesthetic of the kalos region and while x/y definitely suffered in many departments, i think it made up for them with its amazing landscape and the wide selection of pokemon you’re able to obtain. not to mention it introduced fairy-type pokemon which i absolutely adore so, i think all this kalos hate should stop to be honest. yes it lacked in some areas but the games were overall good in my opinion. but that’s an entirely different topic i can tackle on a later date fkgflgskdfj

johto! though it’s tied with kalos if i’m being honest, i love the johto reigon! it’s simplistic but not to the extent it’s unbearably boring like kanto is - really, it’s just an improved version of it. also i have more nostalgia for johto than i do its predecessor so most of my adoration for the region stems from that fact. i don’t have much else to say other than the fact i love hgss but why is red’s team in the 80s when you’re barely level 50 after defeating every single gym in the game. Why. 

with alola, i do think it’s a feel-good region in general but i don’t possess the same fondness for it as i do the others i’ve mentioned so far. it’s not necessarily forgettable but sumo just aren’t games that i replay often so... i don’t think much about alola, i guess? but i do like the positive vibe it gives off as a whole! also why did only gen 1 pokemon get alola forms - oh wait, because nintendo is constantly baiting people’s nostalgia :/ 

and lastly, kanto... i don’t think i need to go into too much detail on why i personally dislike this region but, to put it simply: it’s boring. like, unbearably boring to the point i can’t bring myself to touch any of the kanto games because it fails to keep my attention. understandably they’re the first games in the franchise but nintendo has failed to make improvements with the remakes - though lgpe is more blameworthy of this than frlg, which i actually don’t mind that much. still, it’s this excessive kanto pandering that’s driven me further and further away from the region as a whole... like, yes... there’s definitely nostalgia but it isn’t enough to cure this region of how utterly monotone it is. at least the pokemon are good, with raichu being my favorite of all-time and pikachu a close, CLOSE second, but i don’t really count the pokemon because they’re a different circumstance altogether. 

WEW! that got lengthy, i apologize. in regards to my fan-made region, it’s called “fairel” and it’s primarly based off fairytales/myths instead of a real-life country like the usual trope is. though i have taken slight inspiration from greece because it’s pretty much the paragon of mythologies and all. the best way i’d describe this region is like studio ghibli aesthetic - a sense of endless adventure and mystery waiting to be unraveled. there’s a reason the champion is an archaeologist, after all! 

.... that being my sweet little angel, victor. he’s my main pokemon oc and i would die a thousand deaths for him. also, with my story taking place several years into the future - his boyfriend is the son of lance. who’s also a dragon master but unlike his father his team has actual variety & doesn’t own three illegal dragonites. 

the main plot summed up is that the multiverse is real and you should trust no one, not even your true self. 

[tainbocuailnge]

that's pretty much exactly why i couldn't finish super mystery dungeon either, it was just so patronising i couldn't deal with it. i had the same problem with sun and moon, which wasn't as bad, but it felt like the game never really stopped holding your hand (and i only really got to let loose and have fun during the rainbow rocket episode). i really hope this isn't the direction future pokemon games will be taking :/

sumo I never finished either but that’s definitely series fatigue, i’ve played basically nothing but pokemon for like half my life so at some point I decided to just retire as trainer. i think my main issue with recent mainline games is the scale? xy was far too ambitiously large and ended up being barely cohesive as a result, oras I enjoyed a lot but that’s definitely because it already had its plot set out from earlier versions and it still added the whole space travel and dimensions thing which then opened the way for sumo adding all these ultra beasts from different dimensions, and i don’t mind that per se but it kinda feels like the pokemon universe as a whole is becoming too large for its own good. i don’t think its core game concept of extreme bug catching gets along well with how much deep lore its starting to make nowadays, and the amount of legendary-tier pokemon they keep pulling out of their ass at every turn doesn’t sit right with me either cause its kinda a symptom of the lore flying out of control. im probably not in any position to complain about deep lore being a fate blog and all but at least fate always had deep lore instead of deciding it wants to have deep lore 4 generations in yknow

catch me preordering sinnoh remakes anyway tho cause i’m still disappointed by the wasted potential in that one a decade later and I fucking loved how they expanded on rse with oras so I’ve got good hopes for that one if it ever happens