Speculation Future Pokemon Game Speculation Thread

[Bolt Strike]

I think that people wanted Johto to get some attention and there were some nods to those games, such as including one of HG/SS Team Rocket admins and Blue becoming the Viridian City Gym Leader. At the time, it did make me think that they were potentially setting up Let's Go Johto games. But they were made partly to attract Go Players into the main series and to get more people to buy a Switch before Sword/Shield came out. They could always try to attract more Pokemon Go players since it's still arguably their most popular mobile game, but I feel like that should have happened earlier if that was going to happen.

Well I think the major reason they were trying to attract mobile players is that back then they thought dedicated gaming devices were dying and mobile was the future, they've gone on record saying they didn't think the Switch would succeed. They likely thought attracting mobile gamers was the direction to go because they thought they would need to make mobile style games to build the Switch's userbase. Since then, LGPE did about average for a remake and the Switch has defied expectations because of some impressive early games like BotW and Mario Odyssey. So in a sense they've been proven completely wrong about all of this, they might not think enough mobile gamers are biting to be worth appealing to on console and what people are most attracted to with the Switch are the large, open area types of games. And since LGPE, they've been going in a completely different direction taking more inspiration from BotW than mobile. So I don't think it's a timing issue. I think they just don't think Let's Go is the right direction for the Switch anymore so they haven't continued it. To their credit, they have integrated some of the positive gameplay elements into other games (we've seen recent games include overworld spawns, co-op, PC anywhere, and throwing Poke Balls at wild Pokemon without battling) but as a whole I don't think they're interested in making more Let's Go games.

I don't think Legends games are supposed to replace Let's Go exactly. Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee were still effectively Yellow remakes. Legends are a different kind of main series game that aren't going to replace remakes.

Well, yes and no, I don't think you can really call them a direct 1:1 replacement but they do seem to be a spiritual successor to LGPE that Game Freak would prefer as their side projects. Yes, Legends games aren't entirely a recreation of a past Pokemon experience, they're more reimaginings of older regions than remakes, but for one I don't think Game Freak is really interested in remakes anymore. You can kind of feel with what Game Freak is done lately, they're not interested in recreating an old game where they have to stick to the script and exclude newer features and design practices, they feel that's too limiting. It seems like they want to continue making open world games, and they especially want to shake up the Pokemon rosters of older regions, including adding in Pokemon that were introduced after the originals, adding in cross gen evos, variants, convergents, etc. And at that point it's far too different to really be a remake, it's a different game that's just set in the same region, hence they just go with the Legends branding. So I don't think Game Freak wants to bother with them anymore, it prevents them from doing what they want to do with new games in old regions.

That being said, there are a few subtle things in LA that do seem to have been carried over and redone in a way to make them more appealing. Like LGPE, LA is based far more on catching multiple Pokemon and less on battling. You're encouraged to catch multiples of the same species and you can do so just by throwing the Poke Ball directly instead of battling them in the wild. They just seemed to have redone those mechanics in a way that feels more appropriate for a console audience. I think in that way, LA are close enough to Let's Go that most of the people interested in that style of play would still be interested while they can do other things such as more conventional battling and the BotW style gameplay to draw in players that probably were not interested in a mobile style game (I am part of this group for sure, I could never get into LGPE's motion control based mechanics and simplified gameplay but I love open area exploration games so I thoroughly enjoyed LA). So I do think while they are slightly different styles, they're close enough and Game Freak is probably not going to make more Let's Go style games and will be making Legends games instead, so in that sense they are a "replacement".

 

[My adventures]

Me and my mom both have had trouble playing hgss on nds as those versions seem to stop working past a certain point the only ones that do.. so we'd love a remake or whatevs for the switch

 

[Handium]

Me and my mom both have had trouble playing hgss on nds as those versions seem to stop working past a certain point the only ones that do.. so we'd love a remake or whatevs for the switch

I forgot that those games did that, lost a run because it froze and I was doing the no saving ver

 

[Daenerys]

Me and my mom both have had trouble playing hgss on nds as those versions seem to stop working past a certain point the only ones that do.. so we'd love a remake or whatevs for the switch

What's this now? I know about G/S/C cartridges not working properly because of the internal battery issue, but I've never heard of HG/SS being faulty. I still have my HG/SS games and as far as I know they both still work fine (the last time I played either of them was about a month ago).

 

[Handium]

What's this now? I know about G/S/C cartridges not working properly because of the internal battery issue, but I've never heard of HG/SS being faulty. I still have my HG/SS games and as far as I know they both still work fine (the last time I played either of them was about a month ago).

I’ve only had it happen once but at least for me it randomly froze after exiting the buy menu, I assume it’s from age because it wasn’t anything with the 3ds itself and the game still could be read by it

 

[FelipePR]

What's this now? I know about G/S/C cartridges not working properly because of the internal battery issue, but I've never heard of HG/SS being faulty. I still have my HG/SS games and as far as I know they both still work fine (the last time I played either of them was about a month ago).

Data Corruption, no? I believe that any storage media is subject to electronic failure and damage, including DS Cartridges, you should not expect that your cartridges and console will last forever.

 

[My adventures]

Ohh they work.. but get the fourth gym badge then once you save the game and turn off, then once you turn it on again, it wont load and you can only hear faint music playing and blank screen

 

[guzmania]

Ohh they work.. but get the fourth gym badge then once you save the game and turn off, then once you turn it on again, it wont load and you can only hear faint music playing and blank screen

? i'm quite sure i've saved and quit/resumed between morty and chuck's gyms in hgss without consequence... are you sure that's not just a really unfortunate crash that happened to be in that spot? i don't think there's a connection there the way there was with the lumiose city glitch for instance

 

[My adventures]

Data Corruption, no? I believe that any storage media is subject to electronic failure and damage, including DS Cartridges, you should not expect that your cartridges and console will last forever.

? i'm quite sure i've saved and quit/resumed between morty and chuck's gyms in hgss without consequence... are you sure that's not just a really unfortunate crash that happened to be in that spot? i don't think there's a connection there the way there was with the lumiose city glitch for instance

I've played my copies a good 3 times even testing carefully this time.. seems i can do whatever i like, but I'm screwed once i have badge no. 4

 

[Daenerys]

I've played my copies a good 3 times even testing carefully this time.. seems i can do whatever i like, but I'm screwed once i have badge no. 4

Out of curiosity, are you sure your cartridge is legit? Some copies sold on eBay and elsewhere online in recent years are sometimes fakes that can pass as legit at first glance but are just modified flash carts that occasionally glitch up or get corrupted.

I bought a fake Platinum version from eBay a few years ago and the cart looks almost exactly like the regular Platinum except that the sticker on the front has much darker colors than the normal Platinum sticker and slightly off-center, and there are signs that the cartridge was super glued together, plus it was sold at an extremely cheap price so...

 

[Dreary_Rowlet]

I really really hope that Pokemon Z-A would cover the Pokemon war in some way or another, and hopefully we'll see Eternal Flower Floette as well!

 

[My adventures]

Out of curiosity, are you sure your cartridge is legit? Some copies sold on eBay and elsewhere online in recent years are sometimes fakes that can pass as legit at first glance but are just modified flash carts that occasionally glitch up or get corrupted.

I bought a fake Platinum version from eBay a few years ago and the cart looks almost exactly like the regular Platinum except that the sticker on the front has much darker colors than the normal Platinum sticker and slightly off-center, and there are signs that the cartridge was super glued together, plus it was sold at an extremely cheap price so...

Yeahh that is where I've gotten my copies from but I really wasn't sure where to buy them more reliably

 

[Poke Dragon]

Okay, so there's one thing that actually scares me and it's that there could be a Pokemon remake announcement this year. It scares me because it would most likely be a faithful remake, could be Johto or Unova, but I'm sure everyone agrees that a faithful remake would not be a good choice for either region.

 

[Norzan]

they've gone on record saying they didn't think the Switch would succeed.

Pretty damn funny in hindsight, even if one could argue that someone could think like this given the disastrous lifespan of the Wii U. But really the main issue of the Wii U was extremely poor marketing, not enough clarification given to the public that the console was not an upgraded Wii and really a lack of system sellers for literally years.

Thankfully Nintendo learned from that with the Switch, and Gamefreak seemed to ever so slightly got out of the mentality that console games were no longer profitable and mobile games were the future.

 

[Kallyle]

Given how each generation has resulted in us having closer and closer relationships with our Legendary Pokémon, should we expect to see a game where we ended up knowing a Legendary before we even became a trainer in a generation or two?

It’s a random question, but something to keep in mind for future titles.

 

[BorealRookidee]

Okay, so there's one thing that actually scares me and it's that there could be a Pokemon remake announcement this year. It scares me because it would most likely be a faithful remake, could be Johto or Unova, but I'm sure everyone agrees that a faithful remake would not be a good choice for either region.

If there was a remake this year, they would have announced it in the Pokemon Presents.

 

[Daenerys]

Okay, so there's one thing that actually scares me and it's that there could be a Pokemon remake announcement this year. It scares me because it would most likely be a faithful remake, could be Johto or Unova, but I'm sure everyone agrees that a faithful remake would not be a good choice for either region.

If they were planning on releasing a remake game this year, I'm pretty sure they would've announced it in the Pokemon Presents tbh.

Although just to play Devil's advocate, I think I would still take a faithful remake of a Johto or Unova game over nothing if given the choice.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Pretty damn funny in hindsight, even if one could argue that someone could think like this given the disastrous lifespan of the Wii U. But really the main issue of the Wii U was extremely poor marketing, not enough clarification given to the public that the console was not an upgraded Wii and really a lack of system sellers for literally years.

Thankfully Nintendo learned from that with the Switch, and Gamefreak seemed to ever so slightly got out of the mentality that console games were no longer profitable and mobile games were the future.

It's probably because they lived in a handheld bubble up until the Switch. They probably didn't understand why home consoles are so popular because Game Freak and most of TPC never really touched past consoles like the N64, GC, and Wii and didn't really understand what kind of experiences people bought those consoles for (especially the N64 and GC). Even going as far back as the N64 and PS, there's been a strong fascination with open exploration adventure games. You had tons of sandbox platformers like Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie, action-adventure games like OoT, exploration heavy RPGs like Final Fantasy VII, but many of the highest selling games on console did and still do put a heavy focus on exploration. There's just an inherent appeal to have a large open space to roam around for hours, days, even weeks. Not to belittle anyone that likes other genres, there are some games that don't fit that pattern that still sell extremely well on consoles, but most frequently the games that do sell on consoles tend to have exploration elements.

And honestly I feel like Nintendo kind of forgot during the Wii and Wii U era as they were chasing casuals, but luckily they remembered with the Switch and that's played a role in why the Wii U failed and the Switch succeeded. The Wii U was especially a sad time for anyone that grew up with the above games or more modern takes on those experiences like Skyrim, all Nintendo really had was BotW, which was delayed into being cross-gen and saw far more success with the Switch than the Wii, Xenoblade Chronicles X, a side entry in the XC series which was (and still is to some degree) a niche ARPG (again, no offense to Xenoblade fans, if you love them then great, they just don't sell super well), and a few ports/remakes and third party games. Slim pickings for fans of those types of games, if you were like me and you grew up with games like Mario 64/Sunshine, Banjo-Kazooie, OoT, and Metroid Prime, you probably didn't see much you liked from the Wii U unless you also liked some other genre. Now I think the marketing confusion was probably a larger factor, but beyond that, I think the lack of these types of experiences on the Wii U really hurt it.

Meanwhile they learned their lesson with the Switch. The Switch had a tremendous launch year lineup, but in particular the one-two punch of BotW and Mario Odyssey (and especially BotW, but the two were pretty much 1a and 1b) really jumpstarted the Switch's success. It was really refreshing having games like this be emphasized after quite a long stretch with little that remotely resembled these games.

Anyway back to Pokemon, seeing BotW bring the kind of success that it did is when the lightbulb really seemed to come on for Game Freak and TPC. I think that's when they started to understand why they were wrong about mobile vs. console. You can really kind of see this with the evolution the series took on the Switch. LGPE was still very much mobile inspired and was probably decided on before they saw BotW's success so it was too late to adapt, then SwSh they threw in the Wild Area to provide a limited form of the BotW type of experience, then with the SwSh DLC and LA they started stepping closer and closer to BotW-esque open world, and then with SV they finally went all in.

If there was a remake this year, they would have announced it in the Pokemon Presents.

Yeah, I feel like people saying "they could just announce something in a Summer Presents" is just copium. Most likely if they had a game to announce for the Holiday season, we'd already know about it.

Now I do think maybe there's an outside chance of NSO ports being revealed at the Summer Presents for this year's "game" but that might just be copium too. Every year I keep thinking "this is the time that NSO ports will be announced" and they keep not saying a word about NSO. IDK what the holdup is, but I think at this point it's probably time to stop expecting this and be pleasantly surprised if it actually happens.

 

[zoroarctic]

If there was a remake this year, they would have announced it in the Pokemon Presents.

Not necessarily. ORAS and USUM were both announced in May. This of course doesn’t mean it’s likely to happen, just that you shouldn’t be surprised if it does.

 

[BorealRookidee]

Not necessarily. ORAS and USUM were both announced in May. This of course doesn’t mean it’s likely to happen, just that you shouldn’t be surprised if it does.

Yeah, but those were before TPC figured out their whole Pokemon Presents on Pokemon Day thing. Now that that exists, there is no reason they wouldn't have revealed it already.