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Official Pokémon Sword and Shield speculation thread (Updated June 5th, 2019)

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Like a lot of people mentioned, 2D isn't necessarily easier than 3D, but I think that the kind of graphical leap Game Freak are trying to make is too big to be done in such a small amount of time. Zelda BotW took four years to make (? I think?). Sure, we aren't expecting BotW-level graphics, but I think Game Freak would need at least two years to make the graphics in this game the best they can be. Looking back, they really should have made SM for the Switch and maybe release the hypothetical Pokemon Z for the 3DS if Nintendo wanted something to keep selling that platform.

For those who say graphics don't matter and people complaining should shut it - this time around, when the Switch is capable of far more than any console Pokemon has been on, it's not that unreasonable for people to expect more. After all, we've seen large improvements in the graphics each gen so far, with Gen V making extensive use of 3D models mixed with sprites, then XY being blocky chibi-3D, and SM jumping to proper, more detailed 3D. The logical progression of that is Pokemon graphics similar to Nintendo's other franchises on Switch, such as Odyssey and BotW. Reiterating now that it's OK if you don't care about graphics, but other people do and for them it might be a big thing.

I was mostly OK with the graphics of SwSh when they were revealed - they're passable, but don't tell me you don't think something with fancier graphics would be nice. Pokemon has so many cool locations that could be done proper justice in luscious, carefully rendered 3D, and if it's moving to open-world having visually detailed areas becomes all the more important. The thing is that it feels like, to me at least, Game Freak is not getting enough time to focus on the core gameplay because of their busy release schedule and constant push to improve graphics. An open world is nice but who wants to explore it if there is nothing to do there?

This is why people wonder if moving back to 2D would improve anything. Remember HGSS, chock-full of sidequests and post-game content. Fighting Red - Safari - Gym Leader rematches - complicated quests to find Legendaries - Pokeathlon - you name it, it was in there. On the DS and the janky Gen 4 engine, no less, it was such an enjoyable, rich game. Go forwards to XY and you get the Looker quest, which was neat, and a few "collect a bunch of items" type things. That's it for the post game. And you don't have to complete puzzles to reach gym leaders, or fight your way through a maze-like cave to get to Mewtwo. Important items like the Mega Bracelet are just handed to you for free, as if Game Freak couldn't be bothered to code in a battle to make you prove your in-game worth. That makes it feel like less thought was put into the game, and you can't help but wonder if the push to move to 3D caused it, knowing that creating 3D graphics from scratch is significantly more difficult than making sprites.

I don't mind that the games are in 3D. I just wish Game Freak wasn't hobbled by such a tight release schedule. I'm happy that they are improving the stories of the game, even if I don't like their decisions to get rid of the puzzle-like parts and hand things to you on a platter. I believe (this is wild conjecturing, now) that if they weren't tied to yearly releases they would probably bring some of the puzzle like bits back because they'd have time to actually design it alongside creating better 3D graphics.

Just my opinion.
I do think that the short release schedule is an issue but...

Expecting Pokemon to already be on par with Mario and Zelda, which have been developed in 3D since the 90s, is a little unfair. They've made great strides considering that they are coming in so late to 3D.

And the "people are too busy" mentality isn't helping them either. Because 3D doesn't stop them from adding puzzles, but thinking that people don't have time to bother with them certainly does.

I think they need to change that mentality and give themselves a year or two more to develop the next generation of games.
 
An extra year or 2 I don't think they can do even if they wanted. They gotta move in tandem with the anime and TCG. The best compromise I can think of is less games each year. Like no more 3rd versions or remakes. That way work will just pile onto the next generational title
 
The thing is that it feels like, to me at least, Game Freak is not getting enough time to focus on the core gameplay because of their busy release schedule and constant push to improve graphics. An open world is nice but who wants to explore it if there is nothing to do there?
And the "people are too busy" mentality isn't helping them either. Because 3D doesn't stop them from adding puzzles, but thinking that people don't have time to bother with them certainly does.
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An extra year or 2 I don't think they can do even if they wanted. They gotta move in tandem with the anime and TCG. The best compromise I can think of is less games each year. Like no more 3rd versions or remakes. That way work will just pile onto the next generational title
They could extend it by a year or two because the anime and TCG rely on the game releases, not the other way around. The thing is that they have to make it clear to these branches from the start that another year or two is the intended release time, so they can plan for that. If you tell the animation team that they need to plan for 4 or 5 years of episodes instead of 3, then they would schedule their episodes accordingly. The TCG could just release more sets. Pokemon isn't being dragged along by its other media branches- but they do all have to know when to expect the next generation to start. Right now the games can't be delayed because it was planned to release now, so everything else is planned to move along with it. But if they had been planned to take another year or two from the beginning, then the anime and everything else wouldn't be gearing up to end their things and move on to the next one right now- they'd be dragging it out to the best of their ability because they wouldn't be expecting to end just yet.
 
It’s not because of nostalgia; it’s the fact that many feel like Game Freak can’t handle 3D video games like they did with 2D.
i feel that's kind of subjective. especially considering the fact that they'll improve with time anyways and the fact that they're probably going to be shooting for longer development cycles anyways (based off of some of their statements).
 
They could extend it by a year or two because the anime and TCG rely on the game releases, not the other way around. The thing is that they have to make it clear to these branches from the start that another year or two is the intended release time, so they can plan for that. If you tell the animation team that they need to plan for 4 or 5 years of episodes instead of 3, then they would schedule their episodes accordingly. The TCG could just release more sets. Pokemon isn't being dragged along by its other media branches- but they do all have to know when to expect the next generation to start. Right now the games can't be delayed because it was planned to release now, so everything else is planned to move along with it. But if they had been planned to take another year or two from the beginning, then the anime and everything else wouldn't be gearing up to end their things and move on to the next one right now- they'd be dragging it out to the best of their ability because they wouldn't be expecting to end just yet.
As someone who wants to go to the animation industry. The studios have their own schedule too, sure they come out at the same time as the games but at the same time they keep as long as the actual games longevity, hence why each season lasts about 3 years or so. Telling em they now have to add extra 1 or 2 years is already more money they have to poor into the animation budget, not to mention extra planning and padding which could potentially ruin the shows quality costing them ratings. It's not simply a situation of just "Draw longer" a lot of scheduling and financial planning goes into this. Not to mention some artists might have other projects to work on so you have to pay more for their time to stay on board. Long story short, it's not simple. If it was they'd have done it.
 
I can't watch the vídeo with sound right now but from the subtitles the guy said he got the scans from pokékalos. But the last time they published CC scans was from the mid-June release, so...
 
As someone who wants to go to the animation industry. The studios have their own schedule too, sure they come out at the same time as the games but at the same time they keep as long as the actual games longevity, hence why each season lasts about 3 years or so. Telling em they now have to add extra 1 or 2 years is already more money they have to poor into the animation budget, not to mention extra planning and padding which could potentially ruin the shows quality costing them ratings. It's not simply a situation of just "Draw longer" a lot of scheduling and financial planning goes into this. Not to mention some artists might have other projects to work on so you have to pay more for their time to stay on board. Long story short, it's not simple. If it was they'd have done it.
There's one and simple solution to the all problem. They need to expand the team working on the main titles. Or they have to share the work with other companies. It's been 23 years, I understand they want to keep pokemon family-made but if they want pokemon to be a massive franchise, if they want a game every year, they need more people.
You simply cannot expect the same people who once produced 100 computers in one year to produce 200 more complex computer the next year.
 
As someone who wants to go to the animation industry. The studios have their own schedule too, sure they come out at the same time as the games but at the same time they keep as long as the actual games longevity, hence why each season lasts about 3 years or so. Telling em they now have to add extra 1 or 2 years is already more money they have to poor into the animation budget, not to mention extra planning and padding which could potentially ruin the shows quality costing them ratings. It's not simply a situation of just "Draw longer" a lot of scheduling and financial planning goes into this. Not to mention some artists might have other projects to work on so you have to pay more for their time to stay on board. Long story short, it's not simple. If it was they'd have done it.
I'm not sure the logic of this being "more money" when the anime is continuously running season to season whether Ash goes to a new region or not. What exactly does a generation being postponed by a year or two change for them? I understand that pacing would be affected, but I don't see why budget would. And also keeping in mind that extending it by a year or two only really applies to the first game in a generation- they could also take sequels/third versions and remakes into more consideration as season fodder to tide them over. As it is now, the only time they've used a remake as an excuse to go back to any region was for Battle Frontier.

It's not like Game Freak releasing a new generation gives the animators a break of any kind? "Oh phew, now we can relax and spend less money because we have to make a million new episodes based on the new games that are coming out. So glad that only took three years instead of four or five."
 
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I don't understand why some of you are implying that a 4-year generation hasn't happened before. It did, twice, and the other media survived just fine. Even the GS delay (by 1.5 years) was handled very smoothly, but the ideal scenario is planning longer development from the get-go. They do need a bigger staff either way.

The Yokai also fight as an active party of 3 constantly, so there's a lot less attachment to individual Yokai. Even I, as a monster collection nut don't really care for much of the Yokai individually except Komasan, Babblong, and Noko, tbh.
My favorites, as of Yokai Watch 3, are Liarbird, Appak, Slackoon, Ponderoo and the Koma Knomads (only the first two are Japanese and have any lore to speak of). Out of the new ones, Suu-san (Lightside), Naviwan and Suzaku (Genjuu) appeal to me.

Also the mechanic in 4 gives nearly every returning Yokai a Mega Form so it's much more reasonable in that game.
This is premature since we don't have a complete list yet (although I could probably find it on some Japanese site), but it seems that the forms are counted separately from the original Yokai (but Shadowside and Lightside forms still share a number). Maybe the total number of designs is 140-160, excluding the 12 20? bosses. The game (as of now) definitely doesn't have all the forms from the show (around 80x2), and it seems that regular evolutions are missing.
 
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God, I'd jump for joy if GF went back to designing the games using the 2D engine. I've hated all the core games after the change to full 3D, so things going back to 2D would be a godsend. I know it's not gonna happen though since GF has this mentality that graphics should come before anything else (even though the rendering in some of the ShSw graphics ironically look really awful).
 
The possible consideration of 2.5D-2D graphics if gamefreak can't handle 3D with pokemon may be a nostalgia thing for some people. (I don't know this is the only place I have seen this topic even pop up) but I just know for myself pokemon cannot afford much more outrage which is why I agree that IF they get grilled for how SWSH looks closer to release or on release that maybe going back should be a consideration. I don't mine those kind of graphics myself esp if they seem to do better with them.
 
Is it just me, or did Ash wander off track more in the original series? I feel like he's been pretty on-point since at least Kalos with hitting his gyms and plot checkpoints and spending less time going out and... actually catching pokemon? He barely even had a full team in Kalos and he doesn't seem to have one in Alola either. Maybe they could use more time to take some original side adventures.

Ash stop walking away from regions with less than six new pokemon, you turd. The new pokedexes aren't that small.
 
Not exactly what I was pointing out...

What I mean is this: Even if they change the graphics, every other problem in the franchise still remains, but now it's IN 2D.
Nah, I got what you meant, but in addition to that it would just... be stagnating. There wouldn't even be graphic improvements because with 2D sprites, they kind of just hit a wall with nowhere to go.
 
Not exactly what I was pointing out...

What I mean is this: Even if they change the graphics, every other problem in the franchise still remains, but now it's IN 2D.
So, you think Pokémon is a lost cause?
 
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