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Main Series or Spinoff?

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!

It's good you're optimistic but don't be shocked if you come out disapointed.
 
It's good you're optimistic but don't be shocked if you come out disapointed.

And don’t be shocked if I’m right, I have a fairly good track record on here of being right.

After all I already predicted a Yellow remake nearly a year in advance.
 
Honestly, just because they said that it “only” has 151, it doesn’t mean that it won’t have connectivity with potential future entries. It’s a bit like the main games: RBY only had 151, GSC only had 251, RSE only had 386, etc.

So, who’s to say that we won’t get a Let’s Go GS that will let you get other Pokémon and that will have connectivity with LGPE?
 
Honestly, just because they said that it “only” has 151, it doesn’t mean that it won’t have connectivity with potential future entries. It’s a bit like the main games: RBY only had 151, GSC only had 251, RSE only had 386, etc.

So, who’s to say that we won’t get a Let’s Go GS that will let you get other Pokémon and that will have connectivity with LGPE?

Why should we have to pay for 7+ more games to get a full roster? thats even worse than DLC and PTW
 
Why should we have to pay for 7+ more games to get a full roster? thats even worse than DLC and PTW

For the same reason people have paid 50$ to get around 70 new Pokémon with the XY games. :p

Besides, it’s not like you are paying only for the Pokémon. You are paying for all the other features that fans may appreciate about this particular genre. What you may not like, others may appreciate.

I don’t mind having only the originals 151+1. It’s a good chance to use again some old Pokémon that I haven’t used in years, what with always trying the “new toys” only with the new games.
 
For the same reason people have paid 50$ to get around 70 new Pokémon with the XY games. :p

Besides, it’s not like you are paying only for the Pokémon. You are paying for all the other features that fans may appreciate about this particular genre. What you may not like, others may appreciate.

I don’t mind having only the originals 151+1. It’s a good chance to use again some old Pokémon that I haven’t used in years, what with always trying the “new toys” only.

They can do that by limiting the to main game only, then let everyone else post game
 
They can do that by limiting the to main game only, then let everyone else post game
And who says they aren’t? GF hasn’t said anything about postgame at all, besides confirming the absence of Johto (the region) and Sevii.
 
…I feel like we have derailed the topic enough. This thread should be about whether these games could be considered main series or spinoff.

They way I see it, these games are like Pokémon Colosseum and XD: games that borrow similar battle mechanisms and have limited pools of Pokémon. That doesn’t make them any less worthy as games, even if they have spinoff elements.
 
Yeaaaah I'm going to need you to go ahead and source that. That situation sounds very implausible.
Which is why I'm doubting myself for remembering that. It was near midnight when the news came out

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).
They also call it a "core RPG for everyone"
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.
True, what I actually meant (or tried, I'm tired I'm sorry) to say was that it may just be another continuity/reboot of Pokemon, since it doesn't really fit into any of the generations, being a decently major graphical change for Gen 7, but with Game Freak confirming that it isn't supposed to be the Gen 8 game.

Or may be it can just be like Colosseum/XD, which some people consider to be a core RPG. Idk.

I feel like the community is split whether to believe GF's statement for it to be a core RPG game, especially with the Pokemon Go aspect of the game and major differences in gameplay, something that Gen 7 didn't have
After all I already predicted a Yellow remake nearly a year in advance.
Not going to brag, but I predicted a Yellow remake back in 2016 :p
 
I'm really not sure if I could see them making a Let's Go series based around other regions. Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee were made in response to Pokemon Go's popularity, which was at its peak during its first few months with only the first generation Pokemon available. Plus, I think that these games are also designed to get people to buy a Switch before the next generation comes out next year. They also want to attract new and casual fans to the main series, which is always an important thing to do, but given the other circumstances behind the creation of these games, I don't know if there would be a need to make Let's Go into its own series remaking third version games. That's one of the reasons why it already feels like a one-off game to me. I'm not trying to write it off, but I'm just not sure if they'd need to make more Let's Go games to connect with other regions and so you can transfer other Pokemon from the other generations from Go into those games. Not to mention none of the other regions appeal to the general audience as much as Kanto does. I'm sure that they knew a game set in Kanto would attract more attention than if they did make D/P remakes instead and would guarantee more people to buy a Switch system.

Granted, this could easily change based on how Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee play, how well they do financially and how players receive them. This is really just based on what we know about the games thus far and my impression of them, but right now, I'd be kind of surprised if they went in that direction.

I also can't really blame anyone for not seeing these as main series games. They are Yellow remakes and they have referred to them as core RPGs officially, but some of the changes we know about, mainly the Pokemon Go connections, make it so drastically different than what we're used to from main series titles in this franchise. Even when the rumors were going around and these were thought to be the Switch games they announced last year, it wasn't uncommon for people to say that these sound like spin-off games and I'm sure that was one of the reasons why many people didn't believe the rumors until they were officially revealed. At the very least, they're much more experimental remakes than we've had before, so that has understandably thrown a lot of people off, myself included.
 
I wonder about if Pokemon will be able to connect with other main games, or just with Go? Although I am very unfamiliar with Go, I believe levels are attained differently, moves have different base powers, and stats (IVs, EVs, values, etc) are not the same/not on the same scale? If this game connects with Go, would Pokemon even be programmed the same as a typical game? With the absence of wild Pokemon battling, it leads me to believe that EV training is likely not an important function in the game and competitive battling appears to be absent as well. Now, of course, the way a Pokemon is programmed doesn't mean it isn't a core title, as Gen I and II are programmed differently, but it still leads to some question. I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out when the games come out.

Since people were very excited about a new "core game" because of all the leaks, I think GF was not going to come out a say "this is just a spinoff" since they want to generate excitement. That being said, I don't really believe they are the ones who invented the definition of a core series game that Bulbapedia uses, so I'm pretty sure they can say what they want, and that may or may not fall into the fan-definition of what a core game is. Speculating, do we know if GF called Coliseum a core game, or XD, or snap, or ranger, etc etc? Probably not on most of those, but the point is we don't really know how they define it, and we need to remember they are in the business of generating excitement at this point.

As far as the people saying "no argument", I just think its important to remember people are making these arguments on a fan-made definition. Until GF releases a definition on the subject (which won't happen), we are free to debate based on what we have understood over the past 20 years as being the definition. I still think a lot of these questions will be without concrete answers until more information surfaces.
 
As many others have already pointed out, this isn't really a debatable topic when we've been directly told that they are main series titles. Personal opinions on what should and should not be a main series title will of course differ, but you can't argue against an established fact.

I think the better question is whether or not Pokémon GO should now be considered a "side series" game due to its ability to directly connect with and transfer Pokémon to a main series title.
 
I think it is pretty simple.

A main series Pokemon game, is a game about a new Trainer, who recieves his first Pokemon, and goes on a journey to become the best trainer of the region. During this journey, the Trainer stops a Villain Team from conquering the region/the world, and the game ends with the Trainer winning the Pokemon League title.
 
I actually disagree that it's not debatable. While GF did say that it's a "mainline game", there are people who still disagree, pointing out that the capture mechanics being drastically changed, the removal of random wild encounters, and its connectivity with Pokemon Go being major deviations from typical core series games. Just because the main company said that it's something doesn't mean the audience will just accept it. For example, Sakurai had stated multiple times that his vision for Smash is to be a party game, backed up by the fact that Nintendo did not accept competitive Smash for many years, but nevertheless there's a thriving competitive scene for three of the four Smash games.
 
They'd probably be considered a second branch of the series, like the linear Mario games vs. the sandbox Mario games, the 2D Zeldas vs. the 3D Zeldas, or the 2D Metroid games vs. the Metroid Prime games. In each case, they're all considered main games, but not quite the same.
 
And their refusal to accept it is completely irrelevant.
Not really. The company can say all they want but people can believe that they want, just look at all those people online who still consider it a spin-off. Yes, the company and you may consider it a mainline game, but many people don't and won't, and while it won't change the fact that GF will see this as a spin-off, their statement on it being a mainline game will not change the opinion of those who believe it to be a spin-off.

I honestly don't see it as the "main" main series games, and even if you tell me it's "main" series I won't change my opinion. That's kinda what I'm trying to say. It's dumb but I don't care.

Now that I think of it, why do we even care if it's mainline or not? Most of us are still going to buy it...
 
Not really. The company can say all they want but people can believe that they want, just look at all those people online who still consider it a spin-off. Yes, the company and you may consider it a mainline game, but many people don't and won't, and while it won't change the fact that GF will see this as a spin-off, their statement on it being a mainline game will not change the opinion of those who believe it to be a spin-off.

I honestly don't see it as the "main" main series games, and even if you tell me it's "main" series I won't change my opinion. That's kinda what I'm trying to say. It's dumb but I don't care.

Now that I think of it, why do we even care if it's mainline or not? Most of us are still going to buy it...

You can't have an opinion against something that's fact though...

That'd be like if I told you tree trunks are pink.

Do you think that's an acceptable opinion to have? No, because it defies all fact.

The fact here is it's a mainline game, you saying you won't accept it as one is like me saying tree trunks are pink. It's laughably false because facts say they're brown.
 
Please note: The thread is from 6 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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