Spoilers What are your feelings on Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon?

[DoctorWhy]

Masuda: As for why we’re releasing two, we thought of a game mechanic to include when we were developing Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version, but we didn’t have enough time to do it. We needed two games for that, so this time we decided to make two.

Iwata: So that’s why you made two.

Masuda: Yes. A little later, we thought of making them sequels. When you told me that if we were going to release something for the Nintendo DS system, we had to come up with something new, I was really worried. (laughs) Then I thought, “How about sequels?”

Now that Iwata is dead Masuda doesn't need to worry as much as before... Kimishima probably just cares about the last 3DS games being profitable enough without stealing too many resources from the Switch project.

I could go on and on about this topic, but I'll shorten my feelings:

The fact that Masuda is so obvious about wanting to reuse and rehash old content, and worried about the idea of making new kinds of quality content and progressing forward, both confirms my previous suspicions and speaks very poorly of his character as a game developer. Pokemon has so much more potential than GF is willing to put into it, it seems, and it's so disappointing. I'm very tired of Masuda being director/producer. He should stick to music composition like he used to, or something. GF really needs to hire more young employees--people in their 20's who grew up a huge fans of the series and have a lot of new ideas and ambition to make Pokemon great. Heck, I've seen so many ideas for how to improve Pokemon online--whether it's fan games, fan art, blogs and posts, etc. and the fans have so many amazing ideas.

 

[StandbyForBattle]

It would be nice to have someone young who is a huge fans and have ideas to step in the director's chair and producer. Masuda has being director of each Generation (DP, BW, and XY), and Producer (Pt, B2W2, XY, ORAS, and SM), I think it's time for Masuda to step back a little.

 

[Bolt Strike]

I could go on and on about this topic, but I'll shorten my feelings:

The fact that Masuda is so obvious about wanting to reuse and rehash old content, and worried about the idea of making new kinds of quality content and progressing forward, both confirms of previous suspicions and speaks very poorly of his character as a game developer. Pokemon has so much more potential than GF is willing to put into it, it seems, and it's so disappointing. I'm very tired of Masuda being director/producer. He should stick to music composition like he used to, or something. GF really needs to hire more young employees--people in their 20's who grew up a huge fans of the series and have a lot of new ideas and ambition to make Pokemon great. Heck, I've seen so many ideas for how to improve Pokemon online--whether it's fan games, fan art, blogs and posts, etc. and the fans have so many amazing ideas.

I definitely feel like Game Freak needs a change in philosophy and having younger devs step up and take larger roles would be a great way to accomplish this. This is what Nintendo's been doing with the Switch and so far it's been paying off in spades, Game Freak could stand to learn a lesson from what Nintendo is doing.

 

[StandbyForBattle]

Younger developer developing Gen VIII for Nintendo Switch, and Masuda isn't going to be director/producer would something new for the Generation. I just hope Gen VIII is good enough without a third game, sequel, or alternate version to ties it off.

 

[KrisiChiki]

Pokemon has so much more potential than GF is willing to put into it, it seems, and it's so disappointing.

As much as I love Pokemon, I completely agree with you. This is the type of franchise that has such an enormous potential and freedom to create amazing content. Just looking at some of the fan-made content is enough to see how much greater Pokemon could be.

I feel like Game Freak has fallen into the trap of marketing and sales, afraid of trying to new things and daring to take Pokemon in directions we haven't seen before. The SM games were a step in the right direction by changing the game formula a bit, but I don't know what will happen in the next Generation of games. I do like Gyms, but it was nice to have Trials for a change. Alternatively, it may be what @Bolt the Cat said and Game Freak is just stuck on old philosophies.

 

[Bolt Strike]

As much as I love Pokemon, I completely agree with you. This is the type of franchise that has such an enormous potential and freedom to create amazing content. Just looking at some of the fan-made content is enough to see how much greater Pokemon could be.

I feel like Game Freak has fallen into the trap of marketing and sales, afraid of trying to new things and daring to take Pokemon in directions we haven't seen before. The SM games were a step in the right direction by changing the game formula a bit, but I don't know what will happen in the next Generation of games. I do like Gyms, but it was nice to have Trials for a change. Alternatively, it may be what @Bolt the Cat said and Game Freak is just stuck on old philosophies.

I don't think it's just old philosophies that have been the problem. Some of the issues that have plagued this series have been fairly recent, such as limiting content and inconsistencies in gameplay and design between generations. It does sound more like a marketing/sales issue, they're expecting to be able to rake in massive sales by barely putting in any effort and relying on brand loyalty and the mobile boom.

 

[Desdar300]

It is worth noting that this was almost several years ago and a multitude of things have occurred that have changed both GF and Nintendo's perspective.
- The YW boom ( 2013-2015) in Japan showed that Pokémon could lose its throne and by extension its fans if they play it too safe.
- Nintendo's controversial history pre-Switch speaks for itself.
We're in different times now. A time were soon we'll have our first ever console Pokémon game and a time were Nintendo might've tapped into the power they once had two decades ago and (for many) single -handedly stole E3 by a landslide.
If I came here six years ago and said that in an upcoming Pokémon game wouldn't have Gyms and an evolvable Legendary, I'm, sure many would've assumed that I was a troll.
I don't know what USUM are but my gut tells me that they won't just be typical third versions but I'll save my notions until we get more info.

 

[Guzma]

Yeah, I think part of the reason SuMo took chances is because YW ended up being popular enough that it could potentially be dethroned. YW didn't have much of an impact out of Japan, although I played the first game after seeing the reviews and found it pretty fun and a good "filler" game while I waited for SuMo. I also wouldn't mind if GF decided to take a note from them including DLC yokai in the sequels to add to future generations, especially if future gens are as small as Gens VI and VII. I doubt they'd do that, but it could also be a good way to introduce formes and Megas from third versions and remakes into the initial pair of a Gen.

Really, the things I want the most in USUM is Team Skull teaming up with the player against Aether (still sad this didn't happen in the originals even though the plot and characters were still very good by Pokémon standards), a less irritating Battle Tree, Gyms (I like collecting replicas of badges IRL), a bigger variety of Pokémon in the Alola dex and some new Alola variants.

 

[Syrinaris]

I'm reserving judgement until I get more info than we have now.
I also would have preferred ~any~ other reveal of a game than USUM (sinnohsinnohsinnoh)

Two things that made me the angriest at SuMo -- no dive feature to explore underwater. We're in ~a chain of islands~ for crying out loud.

No MatchCall/TrainersEyes feature. This one is what I raged the most at while playing the game and after it ended. The Battle Buffet is a piss-poor replacement for the Mauville Food Court. And I am not going to pester myself into constantly going to the league to defend my title ~just~ so I can level up a new Poke that I caught, or a baby I hatched. Ditching the re-battle feature was ~seriously~ angering for me.

 

[Guzma]

No MatchCall/TrainersEyes feature. This one is what I raged the most at while playing the game and after it ended.

Ooh, this is something else they need to bring back.

 

[Desdar300]

It's also worth noting that games the third versions were typically marketed as the 究極のバージョン ( Ultimate version) of what ever game they followed up while BW2 was obviously stated to be the series first 続編 ( Sequels).
USUM are being coined as a 互い違い物語 (alternate story) so were probs dealing with some AU stuff.

 

[Silktree]

They were all alternate stories even if the differences weren't that big (and they kind of were in Emerald's case).

Plus, Masuda called them "ultra" titles, which should be synonymous with ultimate.

 

[Mew2]

I'm reserving judgment until I get more information. However, I am surprised that we have heard nothing more about these games since their initial reveal, especially since the game is scheduled to release in November of this year.

 

[StandbyForBattle]

They were all alternate stories even if the differences weren't that big (and they kind of were in Emerald's case).

Plus, Masuda called them "ultra" titles, which should be synonymous with ultimate.

When Masuda mention "Ultra Titles", is he referring to Ultra Beast will have a big role or will US/UM will be Ultimate Version?

 

[Silktree]

He's referring to the games being ultra=ultimate.

 

[StandbyForBattle]

Ultra means an extremist.
Ultimate means being or happening at the end of a process; final.

So will US/Um will be big games?

 

[Silktree]

They will be games about killing Pokemon. That's how extreme they are.

Seriously, the words mean the same thing in this context.

 

[StandbyForBattle]

I wonder if they'll add some sort of new mechanic in US/UM?

 

[Desdar300]

They were all alternate stories even if the differences weren't that big (and they kind of were in Emerald's case).

Plus, Masuda called them "ultra" titles, which should be synonymous with ultimate.

Ultra stands for Ultra Beast. The Mascots were implied to be UB in SM .
He's making a really bad pun.

 

[Silktree]

A bad pun? Here is what he says: "New features will allow you to enjoy your adventure even more, making this truly an ultra title."

No reason to assume that he's referring to the mascots in that sentence.