Official Pre-Pokémon Sword & Pokémon Shield Speculation & Leaks thread

[SodiumChloride]

Isn't Morimoto the guy that inserted Mew in the games? That's the only thing I remember him for, well, that and the fact he was a "boss" in the Unova games.

He directed hgss

 

[badwolf1234]

Any new rumors? Trademarks? Sketch? Speculations? Or something for gen 8?

It is almost end of january and still no sign of direct so maybe february? Or march?

 

[Oriden]

Eh, I disagree.

Characters like Red and Green/Leaf design-wise, look between the 10 and 15 early range.

Meanwhile, Hilda and Hilbert look between the 15 and 19-years old.

And then there's Cynthia, who obviously looks between 20 and 30.

All of these are characters of which, with the exception of the first ones, have no 'official' age.

There's simply no way you can design a character to look between 10 and 30. Especially not when it's such big difference in age. Unless you design someone that has eternal youth.

If anything, you get the example I just gave in the sense that characters get a design range of 10-15, 15-20, and 20-25/30.

Eh... I have to agree about it depending on art style. Take Gary Oak for example- he always appeared to be in the 15-20 range to me, but he's always been 10 like Ash, the poster child for "eternal youth." There's also Yu-Gi-Oh where the characters never look their age and... anime in general is plagued with young-looking adults and mature-looking children to the point that a vague 10-30 appearance seems entirely possible.

Personally, though, I'd rather see them give actual options with a younger and older character model.

 

[techitisJ]

All this mother talk.

Meanwhile, I'm here wanting the Gen 8 protag to live with their father and have an absent mother.

It would be so great to have just Dad in the picture. Single Father representation is super important, because it exists, and it is not very well known.

Dang, the player could maybe have a sibling too. maybe an older one that calls you up and gives you tips on your journey, or a younger one who wants to know everything about your journey because they wish they were out there too. Heck, maybe that would be a good way to bring back the photo feature, andy you have the option to take photos and send them to your little sibling and there could be some generic text you can pick from.

And of course Dad is super supportive of your journey and is at home holding down the fort.

You know, before Sun and Moon happened, I had this crazy idea for the villain team in a game to be actually lead by the player's mother, and then Dad discovers this and will actually get into the plot, which is a cool idea. Then Sun and Moon happened and I was like "dang, can't have that dream anymore"

 

[Bolt Strike]

Eh, I disagree.

Characters like Red and Green/Leaf design-wise, look between the 10 and 15 early range.

Meanwhile, Hilda and Hilbert look between the 15 and 19-years old.

And then there's Cynthia, who obviously looks between 20 and 30.

All of these are characters of which, with the exception of the first ones, have no 'official' age.

There's simply no way you can design a character to look between 10 and 30. Especially not when it's such big difference in age. Unless you design someone that has eternal youth.

If anything, you get the example I just gave in the sense that characters get a design range of 10-15, 15-20, and 20-25/30.

Yeah, I don't see it. Let's look at those four (I'm using Red and Green's FRLG designs since they're more comparable in terms of artstyle, removing that from the equation).

Spoiler: Red's Artwork

Spoiler: Hilbert's Artwork

Both of the characters look to be about the same height and build. Neither of them have any distinguishing features like muscles or facial hair. So how can you tell that the latter is older? The differences don't appear to be all that striking.

Spoiler: Green's Artwork

Spoiler: Hilda's Artwork

Likewise with the girls. Same height, same build, same size chest. So I can't really tell design wise that Hilda is supposed to be significantly older. We literally only know that because Game Freak/TPC told us.

 

[Oriden]

Yeah, I don't see it. Let's look at those four (I'm using Red and Green's FRLG designs since they're more comparable in terms of artstyle, removing that from the equation).

Spoiler: Red's Artwork

Spoiler: Hilbert's Artwork

Both of the characters look to be about the same height and build. Neither of them have any distinguishing features like muscles or facial hair. So how can you tell that the latter is older? The differences don't appear to be all that striking.

Spoiler: Green's Artwork

Spoiler: Hilda's Artwork

Likewise with the girls. Same height, same build, same size chest. So I can't really tell design wise that Hilda is supposed to be significantly older. We literally only know that because Game Freak/TPC told us.

Hilda's chest actually looks flatter and more akin to a 10 year old than Green/Leaf's does.

 

[Silktree]

If to try to make the proportions about the same, Hilbert is clearly taller than Red:

Spoiler

Anyway, an age ambiguity of up to 5 years is reasonable, but over that? Please show me a character who could be either 10 or 30.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Hilda's chest actually looks flatter and more akin to a 10 year old than Green/Leaf's does.

I kind of didn't want to mention that because I already felt pervy enough discussing girls' chest sizes, but yeah, her chest actually does look slightly smaller than Green's. XD

If to try to make the proportions about the same, Hilbert is clearly taller than Red:

Spoiler

View attachment 115196

Anyway, an age ambiguity of up to 5 years is reasonable, but over that? Please show me a character who could be either 10 or 30.

That's not that much taller TBH. That's what, less than a foot? You see that kind of height variance at any age range.

 

[SodiumChloride]

I think gen 8 will be comparable to Yokai Watch 4 in terms of graphics and world scale

View: https://youtu.be/rwqUGaulw4c

 

[Oriden]

If to try to make the proportions about the same, Hilbert is clearly taller than Red:

Spoiler

View attachment 115196

Anyway, an age ambiguity of up to 5 years is reasonable, but over that? Please show me a character who could be either 10 or 30.

Well, if a character was designed to look maybe in their 20s, they could be interpreted as a young-looking adult or a tall child. That would roughly cover that age range.

 

[William-Jdubz]

Yokai 4 is doing a lot of really good things right, moving from turn based to action, incorporating a new battle style that is a little more fluid with a new party system, humans involved in the fights as something optional, while the game is still linear like pokemon, the map is larger and has incorporated the famous Ni no Kuni anime cell shaded style which works in its favour. Once they work out the kinks with the frame drop issue, the game looks rad.

Gamefreak really has no excuses for Gen 8.

 

[Silktree]

The difference between Red and Hilbert looks to be about 15cm, which happens to be the difference between the average 11 year old and average 14 year old. Sure, you can choose to assume that it's just genetics (Unovans sure are tall), but we actually know that Hilbert and Hilda were originally designed to be 16 years old and then toned down to 14 (at least Cheren was). CoroCoro even noted that they looked older than usual.

Well, if a character was designed to look maybe in their 20s, they could be interpreted as a young-looking adult or a tall child. That would roughly cover that age range.

So either way, most kids wouldn't be able to relate to that character.

 

[Oriden]

The difference between Red and Hilbert looks to be about 15cm, which happens to be the difference between the average 11 year old and average 14 year old. Sure, you can choose to assume that it's just genetics (Unovans sure are tall), but we actually know that Hilbert and Hilda were originally designed to be 16 years old and then toned down to 14 (at least Cheren was). CoroCoro even noted that they looked older than usual.


So either way, most kids wouldn't be able to relate to that character.

Unless they just stick with a chibi style of characters like LGPE, or any other art style that makes all of the characters shorter and younger-looking... really just defending that it depends on the art style and that a certain style could achieve an ambiguity of 20 years.

Still in favor of actual age options with different models, though. It would be easier and look more appealing than trying to achieve an age ambiguous look.

 

[Minya_Nouvelle]

Please show me a character who could be either 10 or 30.

Spoiler: Maybe?

Not that I want our characters to look like this.

 

[PurplePopplio]

If we do get age choices, then I really hope that we can also choose our career path. It's getting really tired that the end goal is always to become Champion. I would love to become a professor or a famous chef or even a teacher who aids young trainers at the Pokemon School. So many different paths that can be implemented.

 

[Oriden]

If we do get age choices, then I really hope that we can also choose our career path. It's getting really tired that the end goal is always to become Champion. I would love to become a professor or a famous chef or even a teacher who aids young trainers at the Pokemon School. So many different paths that can be implemented.

Even just one alternative route, like if they made Contests an option instead of Gyms, would probably go a long way toward making things more interesting.

 

[Fairy Type Arceus]

Ok guys I get it you don't want to be reminded that our characters are kids but trying to make the main character somehow fit between 10 and 30 is insane.

For one this game is targeted at kids they're the ones who need the immersion the main character should reflect them not the old guys like us that just so happened to stick around.

Two gamefreak hardly acknowledge the older fanbase so why would they make the main character any older then maybe 15. The most acknowledgement we get is in some trailers an adult is playing the game and inremakes designed to pull those who left back in and also kids 10 years ago didnt play that region yet because they were babies so to them its new and thus sales for it are guaranteed.

 

[William-Jdubz]

Instead of bleating for older characters, what we should be fighting for are the bitchy egotistical rivals to be back instead of the overly friendly ones who give you revives every encounter lol

 

[Bolt Strike]

The difference between Red and Hilbert looks to be about 15cm, which happens to be the difference between the average 11 year old and average 14 year old. Sure, you can choose to assume that it's just genetics (Unovans sure are tall), but we actually know that Hilbert and Hilda were originally designed to be 16 years old and then toned down to 14 (at least Cheren was). CoroCoro even noted that they looked older than usual.

A difference of 15cm doesn't mean much if we don't know their absolute height to begin with, adults can have that kind of variance too. For instance, my mom is 5'5" and I am 5'10". That's a difference of 5 inches, which is 12.7cm.

Ok guys I get it you don't want to be reminded that our characters are kids but trying to make the main character somehow fit between 10 and 30 is insane.

For one this game is targeted at kids they're the ones who need the immersion the main character should reflect them not the old guys like us that just so happened to stick around.

Two gamefreak hardly acknowledge the older fanbase so why would they make the main character any older then maybe 15. The most acknowledgement we get is in some trailers an adult is playing the game and inremakes designed to pull those who left back in and also kids 10 years ago didnt play that region yet because they were babies so to them its new and thus sales for it are guaranteed.

That's part of the problem, just targeting kids is limiting their audience and leaving money on the table. If they target a general audience then they have a larger group of people interested in their games.

 

[Adelon]

On the topic of comparing Pokemon to mobile games, this is what I found on Smogon:
As for the whole "Pokemon is Too Big to Fail" thing we have to focus on what Gamefreak actually cares about, which they themselves have claimed is their child audience
unfortunately that does not mean just any child audience

Let's be honest, Gamefreak cares about Japan first and foremost and any and all of their efforts are focused on Japan first, we "overseas" audience are peripheral, nice to have sure, but when thinking about how their games are received they're not looking at what IGN said but at what Famitsu did

with that in mind let's see how Pokemon is doing in Japan among children and see if it is "Too Big to Fail"

this here is a chart of what franchises are most popular among children under 12 according to Bandai, japan's biggest expert in (and owner of most) children's entertainment all over Japan

as we see for the last 5 years Pokemon has been on the decline among children, not only did Yokai Watch scare the pants out of them (and we know it did just by looking at the ratings of the anime and subsequent changes to it) but even after Yokai Watch's popularity waned it still hasn't recovered, in fact Pokemon is even less popular now

not only is Pokemon not "Too Big to Fail", it is failing (well, starting to decline) in japan

this whole trend to "appeal to children more than to old time fans" is a reaction to the franchise faltering in Japan, after all the otaku will buy anything but children are fickle customers (you're not an otaku you say? well you're consuming something meant for children under 12 so to Gamefreak and TPC you're an otaku and a hikkokimori and a bunch of other things that may or may not apply to your demographic in you country; what's a millennial? otaku are herbivores!)
what are (japanese) children into these days? cute things! friendly and harmless things! easy things!
Mainukurafto? what's that?

the recent trend to makes the games simpler and easier to play, the stripping the games of their complexity, the hand-holding, heck even the appeal to nostalgia is they going back to something they know works
those are made not from overconfidence but from desperation, Gamefreak knows is failing and is playing catch-up, just like Sega was playing catch-up to the PC Engine
imitating tendencies that are popular in Japan at the moment regardless of what any other country thinks about those tendencies

so, will Gamefreak run into "Pokemon fatigue" as each new instalment tries to appeal to children by making things "softer and easier" in a world where (western) children are into PUBG and sandbox games?

maybe, but it won't be because they think they can "sell anything and people will buy it anyways"

So the recent trend right now to appeal to mobile games is because apparently because Pokemon is falling for children in Japan. And I've heard mobile gaming is very popular in Japan, can anyone back me up on this? Of course, on an overall scale, this doesn't matter so much since Pokemon much more global influence than these other games. Problem is that Pokemon is global Phenomenon and gets revenue from all over the world in much more quantites than other franchises, so the failure in Japan isn't to serious. But GF still insists on trying to appeal their Japanese Audiences ( Children Specifically ) more than anything even when its not required, and the results are very present from the incompleteness to of XY to hand holing of Let's Go. So if GF says children prefer mobile games, there only talking about Japanese Children.

I don't think it really helps that Japan's population of children is shrinking each year due to demographic changes, right?

Pokemon is in big trouble. I feel like we are witnessing its twilight years. They really ought to be ditching consoles and moving onto smartphone games that can be updated over time to keep fans interested. The Pokemon Cinematic Universe we are seeing the appearance of suggests to me a sense of growing panic.