SwSh Game Freak "Lied"?

[SUP3RN0VA]

It’s not something to agree or disagree with lol. It’s a fact that they are a marketing company being blamed for all of SwSh’s development issues. Again: GF owns a third of TPCi. Creatures—the company who does all the Pokémon modeling—also owns a third of it. If the games had been delayed, TPCi would be in charge of continuing to market Alola and figuring out how to do so. I am not saying they’re blameless, but at the end of the day it isn’t their job to set up deadlines for games. It’s their job to keep things marketable and interesting based on what they’re given.

I’m not sure what point you’re making in regards to Bank. I believe you were indeed misinterpreting what I said.

It’s also a fact that the Pokémon Company are in charge of Brand Management, and that would have to include the games. The Pokémon Company are also the “publishers” of the game, along with Nintendo, which suggests they’re the ones that produce the financing at the very least. There is no reason at all to assume that Gamefreak gets the decision to develop the games in their own timeframe, and then the Pokémon Company doing their entire jobs (marketing, setting release dates for merchandise, etc) based around whatever Gamefreak decides. That doesn’t even make sense.

 

[Kit Chan]

4Kids decided that. TPCi are following their footsteps.

4kids dialogue was better, especially Team Rocket.

 

[SeanWheeler]

If they've been working on Sword and Shield since Sun and Moon came out, and all they were doing was changing some textures like a remaster, then there's no legitimate excuse for the National Dex cut. Even if they couldn't finish on time, they could release a Day 1 patch to finish. Even when they are busy working on the Galar maps, dialogues, story, wild encounter rates, trainer teams, new Pokémon, Galarian forms, Gigantamax, minigames, item locations, moves, human characters, etc. there should be teams making sure all the Pokémon and backward compatible stuff work in the game. And GameFreak should be able to afford that kind of work in their best selling series.

 

[Silktree]

TPC is not an independent company. It is more or less equally owned by Nintendo, Creatures... and Game Freak. So while the latter may not be the only ones to blame, they are hardly powerless as some are making them out to be. Not to mention that if development had been properly managed, they would have known even last year that they needed more time or resources, giving the other companies enough foresight.

Failing that, there was an interview in an ORAS guidebook where Masuda openly admitted that an annual release schedule has its cost. That's honest, while promising quality animations, competitive balance and brand new models... isn't.

 

[Couple's Consoling]

I honestly think a lot of this has to do with the different ways creators in different cultures discuss their work. I've noticed this listening to subtitled director commentary on anime before. Creators in Japan are encouraged to be humble to the point of being almost self-effacing, while remaining relentlessly positive and very vague. Compared to how blunt Western creators can be, I think intent and tone can get super super lost in translation, and we just end up reading things differently. But I can't claim to be a culture expert, and I hope I'm not just stereotyping.

 

[Stratelier]

...then there's no legitimate excuse for the National Dex cut.

The bigger reason is due to the added complexity that an ever-increasing Pokedex and move count applies to the workload. It's kinda like (and I know this example is controversial for its own reasons) when Disney decided to reset 40 years of canon-by-default published work.

Or, more accurately, like basically any TCG. Trying to maintain backwards compatibility forever will inevitably break something, hopefully not something major, but it's going to happen eventually.

 

[Gligarman]

This whole situation is just a complete mess. There is no way Home was designed from the ground up without the ability to transfer all of the Pokémon. They need to come up with a solution because this franchise is not invincible.

 

[SUP3RN0VA]

TPC is not an independent company. It is more or less equally owned by Nintendo, Creatures... and Game Freak. So while the latter may not be the only ones to blame, they are hardly powerless as some are making them out to be. Not to mention that if development had been properly managed, they would have known even last year that they needed more time or resources, giving the other companies enough foresight.

Failing that, there was an interview in an ORAS guidebook where Masuda openly admitted that an annual release schedule has its cost. That's honest, while promising quality animations, competitive balance and brand new models... isn't.

Owned by three companies perhaps, but it still has it’s own President to run the franchise. I highly doubt Gamefreak gets the luxury of choosing how long development times go on for when The Pokémon Company are in charge of Brand Management and sets the release schedules of everything Pokémon related, which all would be based off when the core series games release. Gamefreak may be a part owner of the company, but as far as we know, their only role is game development, and nothing more, where as the Pokémon Company in general is in charge of seemingly everything. I really see no reason to suspect that Gamefreak gets the decision on how long development time goes for and when the game should be expected to release.

 

[Oriden]

I would be skeptical of it including battles, because it seems like it'd be totally unnecessary to have a dex cut at all in that case-they'd still make all the models, wouldn't they?

Eeeeh- unless they do a slow roll out like Pokemon GO. There'd be more time then to implement Switch-standard models.

I’ve seen multiple native Japanese interpretations and they say that the statement implied that new models had to be made from the ground up...

"From the ground up" could have meant the textures and rigging and some alterations to the wireframes... I don't know, I wish there was clarification on what that meant. They bothered to clarify the "no plans to patch stuff in later" thing but this issue didn't manage to draw the same attention.

 

[SinnohEevee]

Yeah, I admit that a lot of our frustration has been fueled by Game Freak being terrible at PR. Are there any PR coaches that Game Freak could visit? Because they sure need it!


I wouldn't be surprised if Dexit was actually forced by TPCi on Game Freak so they could milk Home for more money.

Why should GF bother with PR when they know everyone will buy the games anyways?

 

[EncyExit]

Let's just hope they didn't put too much stuff into SW&SH so that they could spend more time on gen 4 remakes lol

 

[SeanWheeler]

You know what else GameFreak lied about? The 18 Gyms. They said there would be 18 Gyms, and then clarified that only the version exclusive Gyms would add up to 18. And then the game came out and between both versions, there are only 10 Gyms because only Stow-on-Side and Circhester have different Gyms between the two versions.

 

[Esserise]

You know what else GameFreak lied about? The 18 Gyms. They said there would be 18 Gyms, and then clarified that only the version exclusive Gyms would add up to 18. And then the game came out and between both versions, there are only 10 Gyms because only Stow-on-Side and Circhester have different Gyms between the two versions.

Game Informer were the ones who misreported it, and were then told by TPCi to issue this retraction:

"In the Galar region, Pokémon Gym Battles are popular sporting events, and the 18 different types of Gyms that exist in Galar contribute to the background setting of the story in Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. In each game, Trainers must collect eight Gym Badges to complete the Gym Challenge and earn the opportunity to participate in the Champion Cup.

Over the course of the main story, Trainers will challenge eight Gyms, which are all in the Major League. Which Gyms appear in the Major League and Minor League will differ between Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. For example, depending on the version of the game, Trainers will be able to challenge different Gym Leaders, such as Bea or Allister.

Each version will have eight Gyms and eight Gym Leaders that Trainers can battle for a traditional Gym Challenge experience that fans have enjoyed throughout the Pokémon video game series."

So that had nothing to do with Game Freak, and no one ever said that the version-exclusive Gyms would "add up" to 18.