Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

Pokemon Direct Presents tomorrow.

Are y'all ready for mobile games, Pokemon Go updates, and them ruining the long-awaited Gen 4 remakes with Go mechanics?

@Ralizah I’ll just be disappointed if the Sinnoh remakes turn out like Sw/Sh or Let’s Go. Gen 4 is my favourite and while I do still own the originals, I’d love to see a faithful remake that tightens up some of the pacing and provides a solid challenge. The originals are legitimately hard and have a great story which is surprisingly dark, which they’ll completely butcher. I really dislike the current art style too, detailed sprites or more taxing 3D graphics would be a big deal but I don’t see them changing it. It just feels like the team are stuck in the early 3DS days and Pokemon is probably the only major Nintendo franchise which hasn’t seen a major step up with the Switch like Mario and Zelda.

@nessisonett The Kirby game on the Switch kinda sucks. Especially compared to the last 3DS entry, Planet Robobot. Oh, and Yoshi's Crafted World, lol.

Also, if they were stuck in early 3DS mode, Sw/Sh would have had a solid multiplayer suite instead of forcing you to rely on a paid mobile app to trade with friends.

@Ralizah To be fair, Kirby and Yoshi are kinda more 2nd class franchises in terms of budget and return. Mario, Smash, Zelda and Pokemon are really in a league of their own. Although I guess Animal Crossing could arguably be included now. Having a quick glance at the sales figures for Switch games, it’s pretty hilarious that Momotaro Densetsu has now sold more than Arms 😂

@nessisonett It's OK, that series is going to rebound bigly when Legs is announced released exclusively on the New Nintendo Switch.

As for Pokemon, it's a thoroughly second-party series and is making bank, so I don't think Nintendo is going to have any say over the direction of the mainline games either way, unfortunately.

And Animal Crossing is arguably bigger than every other Nintendo series at this point. I guess we'll need to see how its next entry in ten years does to be sure, but even without the pandemic, there was a LOT of excitement surrounding it.

I'll tune in to the Pokemon Direct tomorrow. Pokemon Shield was underwhelming for me, so I'll keep my expectations in check.

It's not a DIRECT, it's a Pokemon Presents, which means it might not even involve console games that aren't spinoffs lol

Pokemon Unite 2 let's go

@Kidfried Animal Crossing is a fundamentally different game from the rest of the series. Mario Odyssey is fundamentally different. Breath of the Wild is a totally different game. Pokemon is not. They’re developing 3DS level games that don’t resemble even their previous home console efforts like Colosseum and XD in utilising the new hardware.

@Kidfried The entire crafting mechanic? The terraforming mechanic? It took small parts from New Leaf and completely blew it open. It’s barely even comparable to the original game.

The basic structure of the main story arc is similar to older Animal Crossing games, but the focus on crafting and customization made the moment-to-moment AND endgame gameplay extremely different from older Animal Crossings.

Although I'm not sure that was a good thing. Villagers in New Horizons feel shallow and lifeless, because Nintendo didn't want them getting in the way of you crafting your ideal environment, but that goes against the entire point of a social simulator.

Animal Crossing on GameCube was about fitting into a community. You were one of many.

In New Horizons, EVERYTHING is about you. The game design, villagers, etc. are all centered around the player. You're the center of the world. It's gross, but I can see why the game has exploded on social media.

I was pretty happy with the game during the main story section, but its limitations really shine through after you get the terraforming tools. If Nintendo is going to dumb down the social simulation elements, then they need to replace it with more stuff to do besides visiting random islands to imperialistically pilfer their resources and change the layout of the island with God Mode tools. I was hoping for multiplayer game modes or new mechanics to add depth to the experience, but, every time, it's like: "Now change up your island again. Except now you get to use MARIO-themed furniture to redecorate your island. Isn't this fun?"

THERE WE GO

Diamond/Pearl remakes for 2021 without Let's Go mechanics. Overworld graphics look like modernized GBA visuals.

The 2022 Pokemon game is a more ambitious looking open-world experience set in medieval Sinnoh. Coming out next year.

THEY LISTENED

Edit: Too bad the Stream crapped out early

I'm curious how much content from Platinum will incorporate, given they said it will be "faithful" to the original D&P. Platinum was a massive step up from those and had more story elements.

Just as I thought I was done with Pokemon, they announce these and draw me back in.

Sinnoh is my second favourite region, so nice to see that the remakes will be faithful ones. I'm curious as to whether they'll contain any of the Platinum improvements (such as the Distortion World or Battle Frontier), but I'll assume not for now.

As for Pokemon Legends Arceus, it's great to see something revolutionary for the series. Hopefully it'll end up being great, but time will tell.

Legends seems like that game everyone wants, but then you realise it's also developed by GameFreak.

Sinnoh and Johto are my favourites so this is honestly all I wanted. Faithful Gen 4 remake and ambitious new title. It’s as if they listened.

TPC and GameFreak succeeding where Nintendo and Sony failed. The world continues to be deeply broken, lol.

@Kidfried Same, pretty much. The dumbed down villagers really broke the endgame. Also, the lack of any responsibilities. I thought I'd come back for events, at least, but I completely skipped everything after mid-2020.

The customization options are nice, but not at the expense of what made the Animal Crossing games special in the first place.

@Ralizah It's ironic, isn't it?

At the same time, Legends is the game I worry about the most. I really hope some external team is helping them out.

@Octane Oh, totally. The new game could absolutely wind up being terrible. The Wild Areas in Sw/Sh were dreadful, after all, and this entire game looks to be one big Wild Area.

But I choose to remain optimistic. And, if nothing else, it puts to rest the fear that GF is going to keep developing safe, lazy Pokemon games because they have no financial incentive to do otherwise.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Honestly, I think this is the style all future remakes should go for if they're not going to update the level design. GBA-era tile work in a 3D setting doesn't look great.

What's interesting is that a different developer is working on this remake.

@Ralizah The graphics remind me a lot of the Friends of Mineral Town remake and while it’s simpler on the devs to remake everything in that style, it’s not really to my tastes at all.

@crimsontadpoles Saw a Porygon-Z in the trailer, a Pokemon not in the D/P regional Pokedex, but was in Platinum's, so we at least have a Pokedex of 210, which is what Platinum had, judging by its inclusion.