The Legends: Arceus Graphics Discussion

[Kelleo]

Keep in mind that Pokemon does global releases in multiple languages. I don't know if there is any franchise with voice acting that has to coordinate that, especially with the release schedule that Pokemon sticks to (and before anyone cries 'more development time,' is voice acting really the thing you want to spend that extra time on?)

FE does just fine with it though. Three Houses released worldwide, I believe, and has full voice acting. BotW has it in its cutscenes as well and was also worldwide. It's 100% possible to do a worldwide release with VAing.

Also, I also disagree with Pokemon having yearly/almost yearly releases. It needs to slow down a bit.

 

[Esiouqrut]

FE does just fine with it though. Three Houses released worldwide, I believe, and has full voice acting. BotW has it in its cutscenes as well and was also worldwide. It's 100% possible to do a worldwide release with VAing.

Also, I also disagree with Pokemon having yearly/almost yearly releases. It needs to slow down a bit.

CMIIW, but it only has two options, right? BotW has more, but it also has nearly 2x development time as any Pokémon games. Really, if you consider it as a whole, it's not really feasible to have a full voice acting in a Pokémon game.

A lot of fans also disagree with the yearly release, but of course TPC wouldn't allow non-yearly release for many reasons.

 

[Kelleo]

CMIIW, but it only has two options, right? BotW has more, but it also has nearly 2x development time as any Pokémon games. Really, if you consider it as a whole, it's not really feasible to have a full voice acting in a Pokémon game.

A lot of fans also disagree with the yearly release, but of course TPC wouldn't allow non-yearly release for many reasons.

...What? I have no idea what you mean here. Wtf is CMIIW? And what good reason would there be to not allow non-yearly Pokemon releases? The series was doing fine this way before.

 

[Esiouqrut]

Wtf is CMIIW?

Correct me if I'm wrong.

And what good reason would there be to not allow non-yearly Pokemon releases? The series was doing fine this way before.

Pokémon is not just about the game. It's about the merchandise, the Anime, and everything in between them. Though, pretty much everything revolves around the mainline games. And stopping a yearly release of it could basically mean stopping everything now. Maybe not before, but that's the way they operate now, whether you like it or not.

 

[nickdt]

Aside from graphics I feel like the biggest issue with the game is the lack of voice acting as the writing and expressions would benefit from any voice acting, even if its simple grunts like Zelda.

VA literally kills of all replayability for Legends and would the game unnecessary slow in the first run. And don't come to me with the argument - they can make it toggleble, because then whats the point in implementing it in the first place if the majority of players are gonna toggle it off anyways.

I feel like Pokemon mainline games are literally the only games VA doesn't work for, because the games aren't set up for it and considering Gamefreaks current mindset that the children these they have the attention span of a sponge (By the lack of a better word), VA isn't a good idea in Gamefreaks mindset anyways, due to it getting boring fast for kids due to it dragging on the game longer.

Most people i know also don't play Pokemon for the text, but because they want to catch the monsters. Same with the kids. Even if the game was textless (Not counting the occasional directional hint they need to head towards), the kids wouldn't care because of the monsters.

Thats also something we need to keep in mind. We adults wouldn't mind VA, but we have to realize we aren't the target audience and never will be the target audience. Kids simply don't care for VA in a mainline Pokemon game (I don't know if many kids play the spin-offs, since i think those are mostly played by adults, although i can be wrong), since they button mash to get out of the text so they can go off to catch the monsters and battle with them again.

Heck, i can recall we adults were pretty annoyed with the amount of cutscenes in Sun and Moon, so if we are already annoyed by it, how would kids feel (And VA would only drag out those cutscenes even more).

The tutorial in LA is around 1 hour long (Depending on your playspeed) because it is text heavy. With VA, that would be stretch around the 1:30/2 hour mark (Which is way to long, especially for a Pokemon game where you want to catch Pokemon)

Anyways, to go on-topic for the thread. I personally don't care for graphics (Since those don't make the gameplay, the story and the Pokemon do), but even i have to admit the graphics in the game feel rough around some areas on the world and i feel this is especially the case in the first area (Tutorial land), because it feels like they just went: People don't wanna spent a lot of time here after the tutorial, so it doesn't matter if it isn't up there with the rest of the game.

 

[Oriden]

Personally, I think they should basically just implement Link level of voice acting and stop there, because grunts and whatever other noises are pretty universal, there'd be no need for having it dubbed into other languages, and it gives just enough life to the game without having to sit through dialogue and potentially cringy as hell voice actors- which given how badly TPC cheaped out on the anime (Ash in English has sounded like a braindead tin can since Gen 3), I wouldn't hold my breath that we would get A+ talent for the games either.

 

[Kelleo]

Correct me if I'm wrong.



Pokémon is not just about the game. It's about the merchandise, the Anime, and everything in between them. Though, pretty much everything revolves around the mainline games. And stopping a yearly release of it could basically mean stopping everything now. Maybe not before, but that's the way they operate now, whether you like it or not.

Oh, okay. I feel silly for not ever having seen that acronym before now...

And all that still did just fine when Pokemon wasn't yearly releases. For example, the Orange Islands arc in the anime filled in the blanks there until gen 2 came out. Also, plenty of shows and all that go through some hiatuses before continuing. Miraculous is very popular, but it had to go on hiatus not only because of the pandemic, but season 3 had just ended, so it was right as season 4 was still being worked on. And the pandemic pushed back further what would already be a timely wait for the next episodes.

 

[Oriden]

Oh, okay. I feel silly for not ever having seen that acronym before now...

And all that still did just fine when Pokemon wasn't yearly releases. For example, the Orange Islands arc in the anime filled in the blanks there until gen 2 came out. Also, plenty of shows and all that go through some hiatuses before continuing. Miraculous is very popular, but it had to go on hiatus not only because of the pandemic, but season 3 had just ended, so it was right as season 4 was still being worked on. And the pandemic pushed back further what would already be a timely wait for the next episodes.

Pokemon has pretty much always been yearly releases, almost from the start, so I'm not sure where you're getting that from.

 

[Kelleo]

Pokemon has pretty much always been yearly releases, almost from the start, so I'm not sure where you're getting that from.

Wasn't more like every two years? I still feel like the releases used to be a little further apart.

 

[Oriden]

Wasn't more like every two years? I still feel like the releases used to be a little further apart.

Most releases were only a year apart.

Here's the breakdown-

7 months between Red/Green and Blue.
1 year 11 months between Blue version and Yellow (or 2 years 6 months between Red/Green and Yellow if you want to ignore Blue).
1 year 1 month between Yellow and Gold/Silver.
1 year 1 month between Gold/Silver and Crystal.
1 year 11 months between Crystal and Ruby/Sapphire.
1 year 2 months between Ruby/Sapphire and FireRed/LeafGreen.
7 months between FireRed/LeafGreen and Emerald.
2 years between Emerald and Diamond/Pearl.
2 years between Diamond/Pearl and Platinum.
1 year between Platinum and HeartGold/SoulSilver.
1 year between HeartGold/SoulSilver and Black/White.
1 year 9 months between Black/White and Black 2/White 2.
1 year 3 months between Black 2/White 2 and X/Y.
1 year 1 month between X/Y and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire.
2 years between Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire and Sun/Moon.
1 year between Sun/Moon and Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon.
1 year between Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon and Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee.
1 year between Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee and Sword/Shield.
(and then it was 7 months after that for Isle of Armor and another 4 months for Crown Tundra)
2 years 2 months between Sword/Shield and Legends: Arceus (or 1 year 3 months if you count the DLC).

Not going to count Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl at all because they weren't developed by Game Freak and shouldn't be factored in. I'm also pretty sure that Let's Go was largely outsourced and a case could be made for its dismissal, but I'll leave in that one since they did work on it.

But mostly you'll see that there's only been a few times since the release of Yellow version that they actually hit the two year mark, and one of those times was just five years ago.

 

[Oriden]

Whoa!! Amazing work~, that's super great info! Nice job compiling all that...

That makes sense. Also, it should be noted that these are all mainline games, and although I doubt the main team works on spinoffs, that work still happens, so Pokémon as a whole is quite active with making and publishing games IMO.

So in summary, they COULD skip another game this year, but there is precedent for other games coming out because of ~7 month differences between some games (which I assume would be taken to 10 months so it can fit a November launch date).

XD Thanks, it took awhile calculating them.

And yeah, they could skip this year but with Legends being such a different format and it basically having been over two years between games already, I think they're going to have to move on sooner rather than later. Nevermind the anime and all that, but for the sake of shaking up the competitive scene. That, and to reduce the number of years without the last 60 or however many pokemon that didn't make it into Gen 8.

 

[pitchtheripoff]

VA literally kills of all replayability for Legends and would the game unnecessary slow in the first run. And don't come to me with the argument - they can make it toggleble, because then whats the point in implementing it in the first place if the majority of players are gonna toggle it off anyways.

I'm sorry but that's ridiculous. Pokemon would benefit GREATELY from voice acting, we've seen how awkward the cutscenes look without them [See: Sword/Shield]

Kids not caring is not really a valid argument as Pokemon cannot be always advertised towards kids, it's literally the reason Sword/Shield had as much flaws as it did and at the end of the day adults are just as much of a consumer as children. The iconic monster speaks his name, it's literally one of the reasons he's so popular. Plus don't you think Legends have voice acting would add a bit of life to it? A lot of the lines the characters deliver would be even better if I actually heard it being spoken, the dinner scene comes to mind. If VA kills any sort of replayability for you, I shudder to think how you play other games that have longer intros or any intros at all.

 

[Oriden]

If VA kills any sort of replayability for you, I shudder to think how you play other games that have longer intros or any intros at all.

By clicking through them faster.

 

[pitchtheripoff]

By clicking through them faster.

Exactly, you do that in Pokemon anyways. What would make it any different with VA or without?

 

[Oriden]

Exactly, you do that in Pokemon anyways. What would make it any different with VA or without?

Having to listen to cut-off dialogue for the entire game.

 

[RexMissingno]

They could probably incorporate voice acting and have it be able to be turned off in the settings for those who prefer to click through the dialogue.

 

[nickdt]

They could probably incorporate voice acting and have it be able to be turned off in the settings for those who prefer to click through the dialogue.

Thats the whole thing as well: Whats the point in implementing it if the majority of players turn it off when they replay the game anyways.

 

[Oriden]

I think the bigger issue is still how much more time it would take to localize the games in eight languages.

 

[pitchtheripoff]

I think the bigger issue is still how much more time it would take to localize the games in eight languages.

I feel like you can just do English and Japanese VO with subtitles

 

[Oriden]

I feel like you can just do English and Japanese VO with subtitles

No? Would you be just as happy with it if they only voiced it in Japanese and Spanish?