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Official Pre-Pokémon Sword & Pokémon Shield Speculation & Leaks thread

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The only aspect where Gamefreak needs to improve on is their general communication with the public, a lot of developers, talk more on the developmental process, current projects, future some indication of everything in-between with what consumers can expect. The only thing we get from Gamefreak is silence lol
I see what do you mean, but I think it's this way to generate surprise. There is no need to know their plans all the time, because we already know that there will always be a new main game anyway, unlike other companies and other series, where it is something uncertain to happen.

Agreed, Game Freak needs to be more honest with their player-base as well. The "Everything comes together" was definitely a lie for Sun and Moon.
The marketing is responsibility of TPC and Nintendo, Game Freak only develops the software and nothing more. We can only say that they have indirect involvement with marketing in atypical situations like those of Mew and Meltan (that also involves the software in some way).

Also, we don't know what "everything comes together" really meant...In this generation we had the connection to the first and second generation games through the Bank, thus causing all main line games to be connected again. "Everything comes together" may have meant that and many other things. We don't know for sure, but I don't think it was a lie (may have been just a reference to the 20th anniversary, as well).
 
I see what do you mean, but I think it's this way to generate surprise. There is no need to know their plans all the time, because we already know that there will always be a new main game anyway, unlike other companies and other series, where it is something uncertain to happen.


The marketing is responsibility of TPC and Nintendo, Game Freak only develops the software and nothing more. We can only say that they have indirect involvement with marketing in atypical situations like those of Mew and Meltan (that also involves the software in some way).

Also, we don't know what "everything comes together" really meant...In this generation we had the connection to the first and second generation games through the Bank, thus causing all main line games to be connected again. "Everything comes together" may have meant that and many other things. We don't know for sure, but I don't think it was a lie (may have been just a reference to the 20th anniversary, as well).

I feel the surprise bubble burst when they revealed literally every pokemon before the games launch and then the datamine happened a week before official release.
There was no surprises left at launch. But we def need some communication happening, some is better than none. I suppose the riddler kinda made that worse since he was revealing mons before Gamefreak did.
 
The only aspect where Gamefreak needs to improve on is their general communication with the public, a lot of developers, talk more on the developmental process, current projects, future some indication of everything in-between with what consumers can expect. The only thing we get from Gamefreak is silence lol

I wonder if this culture is partly what leads people to want to leak and know everything about the games because we get so little. The games get heavily datamined before release and we very often get confidential official concept art leaked months before their initial reveal. Perhaps if Pokemon were to have a better news release info, this may not happen at the same extreme.

Looking back when I was following Monolith with the months leading to the release of Xenoblade 2, I never saw this heavy leak culture or the lack of info associated with the game nor was there anything confidential leaked.

Why cant gamefreak do something similar ?
I think the leak culture associated with Pokemon has a lot to do with just... being Pokemon. You know, one of the biggest and most popular franchises. It's like how Apple computers rarely get viruses- it's not because Macs have superior protection against them, it's because more people use a PC so most viruses are coded to target a PC. It's all about the size of the audience.
 
I feel the surprise bubble burst when they revealed literally every pokemon before the games launch and then the datamine happened a week before official release.
There was no surprises left at launch. But we def need some communication happening, some is better than none. I suppose the riddler kinda made that worse since he was revealing mons before Gamefreak did.

But you were talking about communication about projects that are under development, right? So, I was referring to that kind of surprise.

About this specific situation, regardind the pre-release info that we get, I strongly agree that TPC/Nintendo should change that. They really should save some surprises for players to find out themselves by playing the game, and not reveal pretty much the whole game before the release.

About leaks. It's hard to compare to other series like Xenoblade like you did before, because they don't have the same popularity that Pokémon has.
 
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I think they'll be better with communication this gen, them opening up their own twitter page and youtube page is sign of that. We've sort of received some kind of information on gen 8 anyways with Ishihara's statements (for longtime fans, not an entry point, etc). A lot of people have written that off as PR speak that doesn't actually mean anything, but given Zell saying that he knew internal excitement about gen 8 was very high, and Pokeshopper mentioning that he could tell from his meeting with TPC reps that there was a lot of excitement around generation 8, I think Ishihara just has a good feeling about these games.

A lot of times in the previous generation, gamefreak/TPC is usually on the defense in interviews justifying why they made certain decisions, etc, so Ishihara's statements are certainly a big contrast. We've never had them blatantly hyping up their games like this. I think it's safe to take his statements about gen 8 at face value at this point
 
I feel like the initial Meltan reveal in Pokemon GO was possibly a sign of better communication too- at least in that they're thinking more outside the box in how they communicate, versus going trailer happy like they did before. If they pull off more guerrilla reveals like that, this Gen will certainly stand out.
 
Hnnngh, speaking of things that would make Gen 8 stand out, I'm so sad to say that one of those things would just be them producing the game without any of this "people don't have time to play" logic that Masuda keeps spouting. First with ORAS and the Battle Frontier, and again here with LGPE-


How dumb do you have to be to make a game with the intent that the player will put it down as soon as possible?!

Foaming at the mouth because ORAS wasn't even directed by Masuda and yet it still exhibited that logic. Please GameFreak, don't do that to Gen 8. Please.
 
I'm firmly in the "it all comes together" tagline being related to 20th anniversary. Like you have to understand that Sun and Moon were like the most extensive games they made so far. Like seriously, they went from pixels, to semi-3D, and then to actual 3D models and environments for main series games in 20 years. Compared to other games that's not much of a achievement, but in terms of pokemon and gamefreak itself, it definitely was. They built their games on imagining the protagonist is you for years and then finally "you" are transported to a much more realistic looking world than you were ever in before. Everything that came before was leading up until that very moment. It had nothing to to do with all gens coming together outside of the Red and Blue easter egg and Rainbow Rocket in USUM. Or it just could have meant that their extensive Hawaiian and Polynesian research had also paid off and they were just happy to show show it off after years of development.

Either way, it was less of a lie and more people taking it out of context.

Hnnngh, speaking of things that would make Gen 8 stand out, I'm so sad to say that one of those things would just be them producing the game without any of this "people don't have time to play" logic that Masuda keeps spouting. First with ORAS and the Battle Frontier, and again here with LGPE-


How dumb do you have to be to make a game with the intent that the player will put it down as soon as possible?!

Foaming at the mouth because ORAS wasn't even directed by Masuda and yet it still exhibited that logic. Please GameFreak, don't do that to Gen 8. Please.
Can't they just like make "full" and "quick" options instead of screwing people who want maximum playtime and milk it for everything until gen IX. I mean come on. That's one of my only problems with the recent games is that they're just too quick to end and you're just left running around post games until you get bored and give up.
 
I'm firmly in the "it all comes together" tagline being related to 20th anniversary. Like you have to understand that Sun and Moon were like the most extensive games they made so far. Like seriously, they went from pixels, to semi-3D, and then to actual 3D models and environments for main series games in 20 years. Compared to other games that's not much of a achievement, but in terms of pokemon and gamefreak itself, it definitely was. They built their games on imagining the protagonist is you for years and then finally "you" are transported to a much more realistic looking world than you were ever in before. Everything that came before was leading up until that very moment. It had nothing to to do with all gens coming together outside of the Red and Blue easter egg and Rainbow Rocket in USUM. Or it just could have meant that their extensive Hawaiian and Polynesian research had also paid off and they were just happy to show show it off after years of development.

Either way, it was less of a lie and more people taking it out of context.


Can't they just like make "full" and "quick" options instead of screwing people who want maximum playtime and milk it for everything until gen IX. I mean come on. That's one of my only problems with the recent games is that they're just too quick to end and you're just left running around post games until you get bored and give up.
I have to agree- on both points. XD

Definitely agree that the "it all comes together" was likely in reference to the 20th anniversary and all those years of developing experience coming together to create Sun and Moon. Considering it followed the footage of every generation up to that point- in all, it didn't mean anything besides "We've been doing this for a really long time. =D"

And aaaauuuuuugh, especially when there basically is no post game? I didn't play LGPE nor will I ever, but the very thought of the game being made purposefully short and the post game being limited to "virtually cuddle and dress up your partner and beat up NPCs for "bragging rights"" is infuriating to me. What even is that logic.
 
I think they'll be better with communication this gen, them opening up their own twitter page and youtube page is sign of that. We've sort of received some kind of information on gen 8 anyways with Ishihara's statements (for longtime fans, not an entry point, etc). A lot of people have written that off as PR speak that doesn't actually mean anything, but given Zell saying that he knew internal excitement about gen 8 was very high, and Pokeshopper mentioning that he could tell from his meeting with TPC reps that there was a lot of excitement around generation 8, I think Ishihara just has a good feeling about these games.

A lot of times in the previous generation, gamefreak/TPC is usually on the defense in interviews justifying why they made certain decisions, etc, so Ishihara's statements are certainly a big contrast. We've never had them blatantly hyping up their games like this. I think it's safe to take his statements about gen 8 at face value at this point

While I certainly also expect a different approach from the next generation, I think it's good to take these statements with a grain of salt.

About what Ishihara said at the Let's Go conference, he was certainly saying those things because he foresaw the possibility of part of the core community reacting badly to LGPE (something that Blizzard wasn't able to do when they announced Diablo for mobile, for example). Regarding what he said later in interviews (about being a game for longtime fans, not an entry point, etc.), he could also be saying that just because of the community's reaction. Being a game "for longtime fans" and "not an entry point" could be also just referring to being a game like XY and SM were.

And about the King Zell's statement, he even said that "sometimes with Nintendo, going to HD is already a big deal".
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I also personally believe that the representatives of TPC and Nintendo in general don't have the same yearnings and wishes regarding the games that the community has.

Hnnngh, speaking of things that would make Gen 8 stand out, I'm so sad to say that one of those things would just be them producing the game without any of this "people don't have time to play" logic that Masuda keeps spouting. First with ORAS and the Battle Frontier, and again here with LGPE-


How dumb do you have to be to make a game with the intent that the player will put it down as soon as possible?!

Foaming at the mouth because ORAS wasn't even directed by Masuda and yet it still exhibited that logic. Please GameFreak, don't do that to Gen 8. Please.

I hope/believe that on a home console they will leave that kind of approach behind. Let's Go doesn't really count because it's related to the mobile game anyway.
 
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If the only major thing to do for post-game aside from catching legendaries is completing the Pokedex, then that's a sad excuse for a post-game, I have completed the Pokedex for both Sun and Ultra Sun and that still wasn't enough to keep me playing since I don't really care trying to get to the top of the Battle Tree since it restricts legendaries in Sun and the Super battle challenges in Ultra Sun.
 
The only thing that kept me playing US was shiny hunting. Because after RR there is nothing. Shiny hunting keeps me playing LGP. Shiny Hunting is honestly my post game content.

That involves completing the Pokedex anyways, so i'm sure that'll be even more time consuming this go around. I really do hope there is a National Pokedex or that the wildlife is so large and diverse in this game that they're able to achieve a larger regional Pokedex. I like using only new Pokemon for my first playthrough, but I also like having options throughout the story. A regional Pokedex of around 450-500 would be nice. 550-600 would be more desirable to me, but i'm sure that would be one helluva stretch.
 
So... what do we think would fix this post game-issue? There are some glaring things that don't make a remotely good post-game- complete the pokedex and cuddle your partner being top of the nope list.

I think having several different activities available could be a good start- a Battle facility of some sort and a mini game facility like the Pokeathlon. And Contests, maybe.

I wonder if a greater separation of the League and the plot would be a decent way to extend gameplay- like drop hints at the plot while you make your way through the gyms just to keep things interesting, but don't heavily involve the player in the plot until they've become Champion, after which the difficulty level could just keep rising as you go to save the world from whatever. Make saving the world feel like an actual challenge instead of part of the course of becoming a Pokemon Master.

Another thing that extends play for some people is... shiny hunting- which I see @KiranTheWitch mentioning as I type this- but they keep making that easier and easier to the point of feeling less challenging. Which I kind of think is okay to an extent? Like the idea of completing a living shiny dex is more tempting now because it isn't as insanely difficult as it used to be. But they're also starting to feel a lot less special, so it would be a good time to introduce a new even rarer alternate coloration for people to pursue as well. That way you get a reasonably feasible challenge of capturing every pokemon in its alternate coloration... and then you get the actual super bragging rights of finding a pokemon with an even rarer coloration. And if you decided to make a living dex of that too... welp. That ought to keep some people playing for a long while.
 
For the postgame, I really hope they bring back the Pokemon World Tournament! Either that or a fully-fledged Battle Frontier like Emerald's or Platinum's. Or maybe even both?! Getting through all the battles of the Pokemon World Tournament or even completing one Battle Facility takes so much time. They already have so many assets for the PWT or Battle Frontier so why don't they just add it in? It's so weird, Gamefreak's seemingly backwards logic :(.

If there's one thing that I really wish would happen but probably won't happen is if they add Orre back in for the postgame as a tribute to the very first 3D pokemon games. Bring back Miror B and his retro groove and have his Ludicolo "react to Miror B's mega groove"! But that will never happen since Colosseum and XD were products of Genius Sorority. :(
 
For the postgame, I really hope they bring back the Pokemon World Tournament! Either that or a fully-fledged Battle Frontier like Emerald's or Platinum's. Or maybe even both?! Getting through all the battles of the Pokemon World Tournament or even completing one Battle Facility takes so much time. They already have so many assets for the PWT or Battle Frontier so why don't they just add it in? It's so weird, Gamefreak's seemingly backwards logic :(.

If there's one thing that I really wish would happen but probably won't happen is if they add Orre back in for the postgame as a tribute to the very first 3D pokemon games. Bring back Miror B and his retro groove and have his Ludicolo "react to Miror B's mega groove"! But that will never happen since Colosseum and XD were products of Genius Sorority. :(
Weeell... technically the very first 3D Pokemon games were Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Snap.

We could so use a new feature in the games that better replicates Snap. Poke Finder did not cut it.
 
For the postgame, I really hope they bring back the Pokemon World Tournament! Either that or a fully-fledged Battle Frontier like Emerald's or Platinum's. Or maybe even both?! Getting through all the battles of the Pokemon World Tournament or even completing one Battle Facility takes so much time. They already have so many assets for the PWT or Battle Frontier so why don't they just add it in? It's so weird, Gamefreak's seemingly backwards logic :(.

If there's one thing that I really wish would happen but probably won't happen is if they add Orre back in for the postgame as a tribute to the very first 3D pokemon games. Bring back Miror B and his retro groove and have his Ludicolo "react to Miror B's mega groove"! But that will never happen since Colosseum and XD were products of Genius Sorority. :(


Which is too sad, because Miror B.'s XD theme is one of the best songs in the Pokémon games.

Aside from fixing the obvious rights hell, I guess the other thing they could do with them is fixing the names of the non-important NPCs. Seriously, most of them clash terribly with the main series due to them sounding like they were made up. Even the Japanese version was like that.
 
With the comment about how people "like phone games nowadays" why not have post game missions?

They can either be monthly or weekly missions and can be stuff like:
  • battling X amount of trainers
  • catch X amount of pokemon
  • use the GTS or Global link X times
  • trade X amount of pokemon
  • Get a level 10 Bidoof through wonder trade
  • find a shiny
  • find a trainer with a pikachu in an online battle
  • find a pokemon that's been traded from Go
  • Re-battle every odd number gym. They have level 95 pokemon now.
  • Make it to the last round in [new battle tower mechanic here]
  • Find a hidden [random overworld pokemon] hidden randomly somewhere in the region.
  • talk to a gamer kid NPC.
  • Find all gamer kid NPCs.
Every time you complete a list of random missions you're score gets uploaded to your online stats. They can keep cycling through endless possibilities until they inevitably shut down the servers for gen XI.

It's not much but it's still something to keep people busy while they wonder around aimlessly/look for shinies. This is also a great way to incorporate the medals again.
 
So... what do we think would fix this post game-issue? There are some glaring things that don't make a remotely good post-game- complete the pokedex and cuddle your partner being top of the nope list.

I think having several different activities available could be a good start- a Battle facility of some sort and a mini game facility like the Pokeathlon. And Contests, maybe.

I wonder if a greater separation of the League and the plot would be a decent way to extend gameplay- like drop hints at the plot while you make your way through the gyms just to keep things interesting, but don't heavily involve the player in the plot until they've become Champion, after which the difficulty level could just keep rising as you go to save the world from whatever. Make saving the world feel like an actual challenge instead of part of the course of becoming a Pokemon Master.

Another thing that extends play for some people is... shiny hunting- which I see @KiranTheWitch mentioning as I type this- but they keep making that easier and easier to the point of feeling less challenging. Which I kind of think is okay to an extent? Like the idea of completing a living shiny dex is more tempting now because it isn't as insanely difficult as it used to be. But they're also starting to feel a lot less special, so it would be a good time to introduce a new even rarer alternate coloration for people to pursue as well. That way you get a reasonably feasible challenge of capturing every pokemon in its alternate coloration... and then you get the actual super bragging rights of finding a pokemon with an even rarer coloration. And if you decided to make a living dex of that too... welp. That ought to keep some people playing for a long while.
Contests and Battle Facilitues are both nice but what keeps them from being repetitive would be incentives such as battling specific people or obtaining things unique to each challenge like they did in the BF. Contests could have you go up against a league of Grand Festival winners or something of the like in unique ways.

There could be a plethora of new items and accessories to collect (though I hope they do away with Pokemon customization. It's cute for Pikachu and Eevee but aside from that i'm not a fan) and finding different things around the new region I think would encourage a large region of exploration.
 
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