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Speculation Gen 9 Predictions (Development predictions, New Regions, Version names)

Yep. Legends: Arceus is likely to be like the Let's Go games, a one-off. Doubtless lessons learned will be integrated into Gen IX, but it's likely to be just standalone.

The title and the books suggest otherwise though.

I also think Lets Go is gonna be a thing in gen 9.

Maybe they go about it like this

Even numbers get a Legends title (Gen 8 gets LA)

Uneven numbers get a Lets Go title (Gen 7 got LGPE)
 
Look at how the logo for LoA is done:
3f846bb2b7467380da76211dcf0e7d88bbd0fc87.gifv

"Arceus" is in a totally different font from "Pokemon Legends". If it was intended to be just a one-off, doesn't it seem like they'd do the whole logo in a more consistent font? Or at least make "Legends" in that same black ink?

Not that it guarantees any future titles, of course, but I think it's definitely leaving the possibility.
 
The title and the books suggest otherwise though.

I also think Lets Go is gonna be a thing in gen 9.

Maybe they go about it like this

Even numbers get a Legends title (Gen 8 gets LA)

Uneven numbers get a Lets Go title (Gen 7 got LGPE)
I think that Let's Go Johto might be the very next game, and that's what I expect if we do get another main series title release in 2022.
 
Look at how the logo for LoA is done:
3f846bb2b7467380da76211dcf0e7d88bbd0fc87.gifv

"Arceus" is in a totally different font from "Pokemon Legends". If it was intended to be just a one-off, doesn't it seem like they'd do the whole logo in a more consistent font? Or at least make "Legends" in that same black ink?

Not that it guarantees any future titles, of course, but I think it's definitely leaving the possibility.
It’s definitely not impossible, but at this point I’d err on the side that it’s a one off since it appears to be drastically different from any other main series game. We definitely need more information, though.

Either way, establishing a hard rule about the pattern of releases still seems arbitrary. I don’t think it would make sense for GF to box themselves in like that.
 
Again, this is game freak we're talking about, owned by Nintendo. They do whatever they want, pretty much. Predictions are always unreliable when dealing with pokemon.
 
It’s definitely not impossible, but at this point I’d err on the side that it’s a one off since it appears to be drastically different from any other main series game. We definitely need more information, though.

Either way, establishing a hard rule about the pattern of releases still seems arbitrary. I don’t think it would make sense for GF to box themselves in like that.

Drastically different =/= one off. Video game IPs introduce drastically different gameplay styles all of the time. Mario had Super Mario 64, which took a series that was traditionally a linear platformer and made it into an open 3D sandbox. Metroid had Metroid Prime, which took the series from being a 2D Metroidvania platformer towards more of a 3D Metroidvania FPS (it's not really regarded as an FPS, it's officially referred to as a FPA, but it's pretty close). More recently, BotW took a series that was traditionally a linear action adventure and made it a large, open world action adventure RPG. All of those games took their games in wildly different directions from what those series traditionally were, but they were popular spins on existing IPs and sold well enough to get sequels, mostly becoming running subseries of the IP that ran alongside the traditional entries (they really haven't replaced them for the most part because there's still a contingent of fans that prefers the original experience).

That seems to be what's happening with LA. They're setting this up for Legends to be a subseries of Pokemon that satisfies the demand for a large scale open world Pokemon experience fans have been crying for since the Switch came out. The jury's still out on whether or not they actually will continue this with a full series, but there's one factor that will determine that and that's sales. If the game gets insane sales and becomes profitable for Game Freak and TPC, there's no way they can't continue it. The fan outcry and the money they'd be leaving on the table would make it absolutely prohibitive from them leaving it as a one off. You may be correct about it being a one-off, but how different it is from the source material would not be a factor in whether or not this is one game or a running series of games, more likely factors would be sales and the ability to continually come up with ideas for new entries in the series.

Either way, subtitling it as Legends Arceus seems to be an intentional futureproofing move. If the game is profitable enough to become a running series, they want to be able to distinguish this game from future Legends entries. Just titling this "Pokemon Legends" though, that would be closer to boxing themselves in. How would you identify it from its successors if it was titled as THE Legends game? I agree that the pattern might not be as strict as @nickdt is indicating, but if it becomes popular and successful, then new Legends games will easily show up on the schedule every few years.
 
It’s definitely not impossible, but at this point I’d err on the side that it’s a one off since it appears to be drastically different from any other main series game.
I don't really see why that should lead to an assumption that it'd be a one-off? They're definitely dedicating a lot of effort to trying new things with it if they're going so far as to outsource the more traditional games- I think it'd be odd if they went to that effort to try something so different and then just completely dropped the changes for good.
Either way, establishing a hard rule about the pattern of releases still seems arbitrary. I don’t think it would make sense for GF to box themselves in like that.
Oh, I definitely don't think there's going to be any pattern to it, I just think the possibility is open for future lines.
 
I don't really see why that should lead to an assumption that it'd be a one-off? They're definitely dedicating a lot of effort to trying new things with it if they're going so far as to outsource the more traditional games- I think it'd be odd if they went to that effort to try something so different and then just completely dropped the changes for good.
It’s not that I think they’ll drop the changes for good, I’m just not convinced that whatever the changes are (like I said, we really need more info) will necessarily only be used in another Legends game.

What I meant, though, is Legends Arceus suggests to me that they really want to shake up the formula of main series games rather than establish a new pattern. They could, of course, do both but I just feel like it would gradually become less impactful. I could see them doing more one-offs, but I’m still dubious that they will make a series out of “Legends” specifically.
 
@Bolt Strike I still feel that it is a one off. There really isn’t strong evidence either way, but I just see Arceus’ status as basically PokeGod as a good reason for it to get a game to itself that maybe nothing else would get.

I think you're looking at factors that Game Freak and TPC don't consider to be significant. They do love capitalizing on Arceus being seen as "PokeGod" by the fans for marketing purposes, but if they have other legendaries they could market as well, they're not going to let that stop them.

It’s not that I think they’ll drop the changes for good, I’m just not convinced that whatever the changes are (like I said, we really need more info) will necessarily only be used in another Legends game.

What I meant, though, is Legends Arceus suggests to me that they really want to shake up the formula of main series games rather than establish a new pattern. They could, of course, do both but I just feel like it would gradually become less impactful. I could see them doing more one-offs, but I’m still dubious that they will make a series out of “Legends” specifically.

The problem is that a drastic change in the main series might turn off some established fans, especially if it's something that can't coexist with the established formula. Some of the other subseries I mentioned before, like the 3D sandbox Mario games and the Metroid Prime series, are entries that have completely different styles of gameplay. Usually the main culprit is 3D, you can't have a gameplay style that's both 2D and 3D because that difference significantly affects design philosophy, but openness of the level design can also be a factor (not always, it seems like 3D Mario is finding a way to hybridize both the sandbox gameplay of 64/Sunshine/Odyssey with the retro inspired linear gameplay of 3D Land/3D World with Bowser's Fury, but the Bowser's Fury approach will not work for all IPs). In Pokemon's case, having a game that's both linear and open world seems to be an impossibility, and there might be enough fans of the traditional linear games that might get turned off by whatever changes need to be made to facilitate the open world gameplay of LA (level scaling and difficulty is a commonly cited issue, the storyline might suffer, some might not even want an open world altogether). So it might be better for Legends to serve a similar role as the 3D/sandbox Marios or the Metroid Primes of the world and just have the two styles coexist alongside each other instead of trying to appeal to conflicting preferences with one game. If they can make it work, by all means, it would be much more economical if they could, but I have doubts that it could.
 
@Bolt Strike we don’t know what factors GF and TPC consider significant, so I’m basing it off of my own educated guesses. My opinion is still the same.

Then you're making poor educated guesses, because Game Freak and TPC's behavior, as well as basic business logic, point to those factors being unlikely to be part of their decision making.
 
Then you're making poor educated guesses, because Game Freak and TPC's behavior, as well as basic business logic, point to those factors being unlikely to be part of their decision making.
No. I’m making soundly educated guesses from my own perspective that do not conflict at all with any kind of business logic. Please don’t attempt to be demeaning just because you disagree. There really is not enough information on the table for you to take that sort of tone.
 
There's a new video on Gen 9's potential location from an old interview hint with Masuda:


Thoughts?

He literally said take it with a grain of salt and that Masuda might be trolling. I think you're reading into too much here.

I do think a California region will happen at some point, but probably not yet. I think they want to represent other popular countries before coming back to the U.S. My money's on Australia.
 
There's a new video on Gen 9's potential location from an old interview hint with Masuda:


Thoughts?
He literally said take it with a grain of salt and that Masuda might be trolling. I think you're reading into too much here.

I do think a California region will happen at some point, but probably not yet. I think they want to represent other popular countries before coming back to the U.S. My money's on Australia.

According to this interview from October 2019, GF really did go to Redwood City as part of their SwSh promotional tour: Game Freak Talks Sword And Shield's Champion, Wild Area Interactions, And More

Thankfully, Pokémon Sword and Shield director Shigeru Ohmori and producer Junichi Masuda recently visited Redwood City, Calif. just outside of San Francisco, giving us an opportunity to not only play the first hour and a half of Pokémon Sword and Shield, but also catch up with them about several additional topics related to the upcoming Switch games.

I'm not saying I think this is proof the Gen 9 region will definitely be California, but it wouldn't surprise me. It has a wide range of climates as well as some interesting places to base POIs on (Yosemite, Death Valley, Lake Tahoe, etc.), and the story could have some new themes, like Native American legends or a hipster-y villain team.
 
I'm not saying I think this is proof the Gen 9 region will definitely be California, but it wouldn't surprise me. It has a wide range of climates as well as some interesting places to base POIs on (Yosemite, Death Valley, Lake Tahoe, etc.), and the story could have some new themes, like Native American legends or a hipster-y villain team.

They're not going to tip their hand on what's next, it's bad for PR and marketing if they can't surprise people. Whether or not they factually went to Redwood is irrelevant (although if they did lie, that would be very strange, but we've established this is fact), if that was their choice for 9th gen, they wouldn't have said so. It's most likely a red herring.
 
Please note: The thread is from 2 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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