Main Series or Spinoff?

[Envoy]

I’m seeing this being debated quite a lot, so I figured I’d make a thread specifically to discuss and debate.

Are these games part of the main series titles, aligned with FRLG, HGSS, ORAS, and the like?

Or are they spinoff titles like the Stadium games, Colosseum, XD, etc?

Or are they something else entirely.

Personally, I consider them part of the main series.

We could probably also use this thread to discuss which generation they fall under. My personal opinion is that they are neither Gen VII or Gen VIII, but rather something else entirely. I’ll go ahead and call them Gen 7.5 for now.

Discuss.

 

[Cainhxrst]

gamefreak consider's them main series. I personally view them as a subseries within the main series meant to appeal to casual fans, to act as an entry point into the traditional main series we're used to

 

[Esserise]

They’re main series because that’s what they said, multiple times, at the conference.

Personally, I don’t like being too restrictive about the forms that something can or cannot take. It limits the ability to experiment and to try new things. I think if “main series” Pokémon games were only ever allowed to be one specific thing, they would get pretty stale, so I’m perfectly fine with the idea that the main series can contain two (or more) wildly different approaches to how the games are played.

As for what generation these fall under, in my head I haven’t really assigned them a number. I don’t really see a problem with treating them as a numberless, standalone off-Gen entry, although I am curious to see if they will branch off into an ongoing “Let’s Go” subseries. If so, these could probably be labeled something like “LG Gen 1,” or we could get all Minecraft-ey about it and say they’re “Gen 7LG1,” and then the hypothetical Johto editions would be something like “Gen 8LG2.”

 

[EmpoleonProd]

They're main series titles.

Bulbapedia makes the distinction pretty clear right here: Pokémon games - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

If the game follows the traditional path of receiving a starter, battling rivals, gaining gym badges (or completing island trials), defeating an evil team, and challening a Pokemon League, it's a main series game.

Additionally, in the press conference, which is on YouTube here:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ_qtyOa5Dg


The President and CEO of The Pokemon Company, Ishihara, states the 2018 games are main series games.

Games can be classified under three branches, as outlined in that bulbapedia link:

-Core series, often called main series or mainline series, all those terms are interchangeable, and are defined as I mentioned above

-Side series, these games share many mechanics in common with the core series, and often can trade and connect with them, but they do not share the same journey of gym badges or island trials followed by a Pokemon League Challenge.

-Spin-offs, these games usually share nothing in common with the traditional, turn-based, four moveslot combat mechanics, and definitely do not share much in common with the journey of the core games either.

You can think of the journeys of all the core games as sort of a plotline, such as for a book or movie, like this:

Player gets starter -> Player battles rival(s) -> Player receives Pokedex and sets out on a journey -> Player takes the Pokemon League Challenge and defeats gyms or island trials to get to the Pokemon League -> along the way, an evil team is met and defeated -> the player arrives at the Pokemon League and challenges them.

No side game shares this entire plotline, although some come close, and no spin-off comes even close.

The distinction is clear, most news and media outlets call it a main series title, because Gamefreak and The Pokemon Company themselves call it a main series title. On top of that, the team that develops main series games almost exclusively develops main series games, so if they developed these games and call them main series games, then they're main series games, no question.

As far as what Generation they categorize as, so far, most sources such as bulbapedia categorize it as Generation 7, but I believe they'll be closer to Generation 8 for two reasons:

1. They'll be on the same system, which opens the doors to compatibility.

2. We are confirmed to be receiving a brand new Pokemon not from Gen 1-7 by connecting Let's Go to Pokemon GO, which is almost guaranteed a Generation 8 Pokemon, we've had Pokemon revealed as teasers before, but they've never been available in games outside of their generation, of course, patterns can be broken all the time, so don't take my word as absolute, but for example, Munchlax was revealed well before Emerald was released, but we didn't get access to it in Emerald, so that's an example. We have however, received new Pokemon in new forms such as Mega Evolutions in Gen 6, Kyurem forms in Gen 5, etc. But never a brand new Dex entry altogether until Gen 7, which added new UBs and a new mythical.

I'd call it Gen 7.5 or pseudo-Gen 8 because it's getting a, supposedly, Gen 8 Pokemon. But unlike the fact that the games are main series titles, this is not confirmed fact and is only my well thought out speculation.

 

[Boss1708]

IMO they are main series games part of Gen VII.

There are 2 options:

1. LGPE is a one off experimental main series game (I think this is the most likely outcome).

2. LGPE is the beginning of an entire new branch of main series games. I am calling them Classic main series games Vs Alternative main series games, with LGPE being the latter.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I see them as a mixture of the two. They are labeled as a Yellow remake, which is a main series title, but the emphasis on Pokemon Go and removing some noticeable features, mainly the wild battle encounters and replacing them with how captures are done in Go, gives off a spin-off vibe for me. We've had other remakes before, but they weren't designed to connect with a spin-off title so heavily as much as Let's Go has with Pokemon Go. That's why I wouldn't really place Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee on the same level as FR/LG, HG/SS and OR/AS in that regard. That could change once we learn more about the games, but based on the trailer and information they provided beforehand, they're like a strange kind of experiment game for this franchise.

I don't know if it would be a one-off or the start of a whole new series, but it feels a bit more like a one-off to me. It is mainly because of how it is trying to attract Pokemon Go players, while also encouraging more people to get a Switch system before the next generation comes out. Depending on how well Let's Go is received financially, I could see them trying it again with other older regions, but I don't know if that would really be necessary for a few reasons.

I would consider it a seventh generation game. Even though it is on a new system, it won't feature a new set of Pokemon and a new region, so it's still part of this current generation. It's just a different and kind of unexpected way of extended the seventh generation a bit longer, as well as bridging it with the next one, especially when the special Pokemon is most likely going to be an eighth generation Pokemon.

 

[Muur]

Spin off for me. If they hadn't axed 90% of the roster and allowed to to fight the wild Mons, I'd count it as main. But with them changing the graphical style and nerfing the roster, it's more like Pokemon Conquest or GTI. Plus it's using Pokemon GO type gameplay

 

[Cookies and Creme]

The President and CEO of The Pokemon Company, Ishihara, states the 2018 games are main series games.

Idk if I'm remembering it wrong, but I remember that the translator during the conference tweeted out saying that he had mistranslated "mainline" multiple times. Idk if that's for something else, but just going to put that out there.

Speaking of which, Ishihari had stated that these games aren't part of Generation 8, and that Gen 8 starts in 2019. In this interview. Unless I was reading it wrong (which I do many times, trust me).
Pokemon 2018 Video Game Press Conference - full Q&A transcript - Nintendo Everything

In other words, as much as I disagree, the Bulbapedia article seems correct

 

[Sakuraa]

They called them main series games, so they're main series games. There's literally no debating it.

 

[Cookies and Creme]

They called them main series games, so they're main series games. There's literally no debating it.

Its still honestly really debatable. They are considered "main series games" but apparently are not the "core Switch RPG" that they were referring to at E3 last year. It comes down to what "main series" means

Either that or I misremember everything.

Edit: Also I would like to point out that just because they're calling it main series now doesn't mean they will in the future. Masuda had said that they will never abandon the gym formula, but they did Gen 7.

 

[Sakuraa]

Its still honestly really debatable. They are considered "main series games" but apparently are not the "core Switch RPG" that they were referring to at E3 last year. It comes down to what "main series" means

Either that or I misremember everything.

I really can't see how it's debatable when the game creators told us that they are main series games, but I guess that's just me.

 

[SUP3RN0VA]

Gamefreak refer to them as main series games, however, they are clearly seperate from the current main series titles.

I personally don't class them as Gen VII or Gen VIII though. We'd have to wait to see if this is a once off, or if it will become a new series, however, I'm willing to call this a new version of Generation I. I haven't thought of a good name for it, so for now I call it "Reborn Gen I" while the next in the series will be "Reborn Gen II" etc that will coexist alongside the current generations of the traditional games.

 

[Esserise]

Idk if I'm remembering it wrong, but I remember that the translator during the conference tweeted out saying that he had mistranslated "mainline" multiple times. Idk if that's for something else, but just going to put that out there.

Yeaaaah I'm going to need you to go ahead and source that. That situation sounds very implausible.

They are considered "main series games" but apparently are not the "core Switch RPG" that they were referring to at E3 last year. It comes down to what "main series" means

Just to point out - in purely literal terms, just because it isn't the "core RPG" that they teased last year doesn't necessarily mean it's not simply... another core RPG in of itself. It's just not the one they teased (not that it ultimately matters since all they hinted at was the release date and now we're getting games in both years anyway).

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

If they hadn't axed 90% of the roster

I take it you don’t consider FRLG a main series game?

Its still honestly really debatable. They are considered "main series games" but apparently are not the "core Switch RPG" that they were referring to at E3 last year. It comes down to what "main series" means

They also call it a "core RPG for everyone"
Source:


It is a core game, albeit more experimental than any game we've had before.

It’s literally not debatable. GameFreak themselves have called it a main series game and a core RPG. GameFreak decides what is main series and what's not, not us.

 

[EscLucy]

I think it is a main series game because as many people in this thread have said, it was said that it was main series in the conference. In my view, if it has been said by an official source to be main series, then I believe it is main series.

 

[Muur]

I take it you don’t consider FRLG a main series game?

You can trade the other Pokemon in and also the Sevi Islands has the extra Pokemon in it, so try again

 

[EmpoleonProd]

You can trade the other Pokemon in and also the Sevi Islands has the extra Pokemon in it, so try again

RS and BW were absent of lots of their National Dex at the time of release. I genuinely don’t think you know how to define a core series game because I’ve only seen you fail miserably so far.

 

[Muur]

RS and BW were absent of lots of their National Dex at the time of release. I genuinely don’t think you know how to define a core series game because I’ve only seen you fail miserably so far.

Right but you can still trade with the other gen 3/5 games to get them. This is CONFIRMED to only have 151 FOREVER

 

[EmpoleonProd]

Right but you can still trade with the other gen 3/5 games to get them. This is CONFIRMED to only have 151 FOREVER

Uhh... no it’s not?

The exact wording of the press conference was “the original 151 Pokémon will be available”.

Words like “only” or “exclusively” were never used.

My interpretation was that this meant for the main story. Post-game might pull a Sevii Islands or something on us.

On top of that, they ruled that possibility out in the trailer, because we’re meeting a brand new Pokémon AND we’ll also have access to some Alola Pokemon.

Next!

 

[Envoy]

Right but you can still trade with the other gen 3/5 games to get them. This is CONFIRMED to only have 151 FOREVER

No. It isn't.

It's confirmed to be 151 for these games. How these games connect with past and future games has not been discussed at all in any way, shape, or form (unless you count GO, and all we know is that, as of right now, you can transfer only Kanto Pokemon. There's nothing stopping them from changing that in the future with some sort of update.)

In terms of post-game content, all we know is that they're not including Johto and the Sevii Islands. We don't know if the rest of the roster is axed from the post-game because GF has said exactly nothing about that.

So the idea that, and I quote:

This is CONFIRMED to only have 151 FOREVER

Is something you're extrapolating yourself.