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Why did Game Freak foreshadow Sun and Moon in X and Y?

That may be true, but the region he was talking about wasn't the previous ones. If they wanted an easter egg or a Hoenn plant like Jasmine was for HGSS in DPPt, I highly doubt they would have included the line that debunked it being one of the other regions or forgot to add a passing Strange Souvenir reference to ORAS.
given that we still don't really know where we're going yet, it is still possible that Region 7 is not the region the hiker and backpacker were talking about.
 
given that we still don't really know where we're going yet, it is still possible that Region 7 is not the region the hiker and backpacker were talking about.
We don't know what region 7 is, all we know that it's far from Kalos. I think that as time goes by, we start seeing a connection between the region and the strange souvenir.
 
What if gf knew the 20th anniversary was coming up and tried to put in minimal effort into XY? Like it was more of a cheeky easter egg plus a "We're sorry this gen is so short, but hey they next gen will be better due to the anniversary and lack of artist and creator blocks! Keep your hopes up!" type apology?

There's also the possibility that, much like the other power plants, it went nowhere and will continue to go nowhere. Like maybe it was either a scrapped idea or a scrapped event where you had to take the Strange Souvenir to "another region" like the Sinjoh ruins were and they forgot to take out the dialog when they didn't put it in.



That may be true, but the region he was talking about wasn't the previous ones. If they wanted an easter egg or a Hoenn plant like Jasmine was for HGSS in DPPt, I highly doubt they would have included the line that debunked it being one of the other regions or forgot to add a passing Strange Souvenir reference to ORAS.


Could have just been a random NPC factoid that they like to throw in. I mean moondials are actual things...but little kids probably won't know that.

This is actually kind of what I've been thinking as well. I don't mean to call gen 6 a "filler" gen, but surely they must have known years in advance that they wanted to debut a generation on the 20th anniversary, which arguably would have the potential to be something they'd want to go a bit more all out on.

This is just me being hopeful but I feel like X/Y was them trying to renew general interest for the series with older fans, and 3DS owners in general (visual overhaul, megas, nostalgia, etc). It worked, and a ton of people returned to the franchise, and now that everyone's interested in it again, while riding off of the anniversary hype, they're going to aim to "wow" us with s/m.
 
given that we still don't really know where we're going yet, it is still possible that Region 7 is not the region the hiker and backpacker were talking about.

Sure, the new region is still up in the air. But regardless, at least two of his statements (the souvenir one and the not a previous region one) are still hinting at something even if it's not the new region.

It's even possible they are making the hint-type person role a feature now and that role came to rest on a random NPC's backpack instead of an old major NPC like Jasmine. A lot of the backpacker's dialog could have been left vague because they either didn't have any idea what else the mystery region would have due to it still being in the planing stages or so as not to spill the beans three years in advance (if it is SM's region) or many, MANY years in advance (if it's not).
 
I'm fairly certain the backpacker is referring to Gen VII's region. Game Freak must have planned for a new Gen debuting for Pokemon's anniversary and was, at the very least, in the planning stages for SM while also working on XY. It just seems unlikely that they decided to randomly put that NPC there just so they can possibly reference some region that will come in the distant future.

I want to believe, much like @Stygian, that XY were "filler" region (lack of a better word) of sorts where they tested what the 3DS can do, what they (Game Freak) can do, and to try attracting old players back. There's quite a substantial amount of nostalgia pandering and the visual overhaul alone was enough to make people want to check it out. Maybe the low amount of Pokemon is because Game Freak decided to hold back and save the rest for Gen VII. Maybe the lack of post-game content in XY is because Game Freak decided to save some cool features for SM.

...or maybe we're just hopeless dreamers who wish to see Game Freak do a better job with SM, compared to XY. :LOL:
 
I don't want to get ahead of myself, but maybe, just MAYBE they hinted at it because they actually want a multigenerational plot. Although BW/B2W2 weren't planned to work like they finally did, which is why there are some open plot threads, I'm sure the reception to the idea of a continuous story and expansion on existing characters and idead was mostly positive. Its why ORAS compared to other remakes is unique, ir introduced a new character, gave some more light on whatega evolutiob can be, and gave us hints that Team Flare isn't the only group in the world that want to harness such a major energy soruce. All this could be furthered in gen 7,not necessarily with mega evolution either. I am really curious were it can lead, and I do think it can lead somewhere, there's enough there for gen 6 in its entirety being a build up to gen 7.
 
People called Gen V filler. Now they are calling Gen VI filler. Can someone please tell me what exactly are they "filling" for? At this rate, people are making GF's transitions longer than their stable periods.

Excuse me, but that conclusion lacks the most basic logic. GF have just decided to make generations shorter, in order to increase sales. They are not filling for anything.

@Ryuutakeshi I edited it, sorry. It just boils my blood when people dismiss entire generations of hard work from GF's part with such terms. Shallow isn't correct either, imo. They are not shallow for GF and Nintendo, I am sure. It's just a perception of some fans, and they are making it sound like a fact.
 
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People called Gen V filler. Now they are calling Gen VI filler. Can someone please tell me what exactly are they "filling" for? At this rate, people are making GF's transitions longer than their stable periods.

That's pure stupidity, excuse me.
Let's not get that harsh.

Though I agree that the term "filler" is being misused. I think the proper word is something like shallow.
 
People called Gen V filler. Now they are calling Gen VI filler. Can someone please tell me what exactly are they "filling" for? At this rate, people are making GF's transitions longer than their stable periods.

Excuse me, but that conclusion lacks the most basic logic. GF have just decided to make generations shorter, in order to increase sales. They are not filling for anything.

@Ryuutakeshi I edited it, sorry. It just boils my blood when people dismiss entire generations of hard work from GF's part with such terms. Shallow isn't correct either, imo. They are not shallow for GF and Nintendo, I am sure. It's just a perception of some fans.

I literally said "I don't mean to call x/y a "filler"("filler" being in quotation marks because I knew that wasn't necessarily the correct word to use, but it was close enough) generation, but". I didn't intend to have it come off that way, so sorry that it did. Obviously gen 6 was still a huge generation in it's own right, and I agree with you that gen 5 shouldn't be referred to as "filler" either, but the point I was trying to make is it wouldn't surprise me if GF intentionally planned gen 6 to be a shorter one so that they could debut gen 7 on the anniversary.
 
I literally said "I don't mean to call x/y a "filler"("filler" being in quotation marks because I knew that wasn't necessarily the correct word to use, but it was close enough) generation, but". I didn't intend to have it come off that way, so sorry that it did. Obviously gen 6 was still a huge generation in it's own right, and I agree with you that gen 5 shouldn't be referred to as "filler" either, but the point I was trying to make is it wouldn't surprise me if GF intentionally planned gen 6 to be a shorter one so that they could debut gen 7 on the anniversary.
Game Freak are not very good at planing ahead in time. They plan in advance for one game at the most. They probably planned ORAS during XY (people had been expecting Hoenn remakes since BW), but I doubt they would have been thinking of the next generation already.
 
Game Freak are not very good at planing ahead in time. They plan in advance for one game at the most. They probably planned ORAS during XY (people had been expecting Hoenn remakes since BW), but I doubt they would have been thinking of the next generation already.
XY came out about 3 years ago.

3 years is pretty standard development on a primary IP

So I'd actually disagree on this. A lot of developers base sequel ideas off of cut concepts for their original project and as soon as one ends the next tends to begin very quickly.
 
XY came out about 3 years ago.

3 years is pretty standard development on a primary IP

So I'd actually disagree on this. A lot of developers base sequel ideas off of cut concepts for their original project and as soon as one ends the next tends to begin very quickly.
Had they planned SM in 2011, which is when XY started development iirc, we wouldn't've had Zygarde's moves left in the code of XY, don't you think? I think they plan an entire generation from the beginning, but I doubt they'd be thinking of Gen VII back in 2011 or 2012.
 
Had they planned SM in 2011, which is when XY started development iirc, tmwe wouldn't've had Zygarde's moves left in the code of XY, don't you think? I think they plan tge entire generation from the beginning, but I doubt they'd be thinking of Gen VII back in 2011 or 2012.
It's not uncommon practice, but more likely Gen 7 was being conceptualized based on what wouldn't work for XY. Gen 6 for instance was almost certainly in development during BW
 
Game Freak clearly didn't have everything planned, if Zygarde's moves were in XY's coding.
Kyurem's moves were in BW
The Azure Flute was in DP

Stuff doesn't always make the final cut. Remnants are left all the time. Reading into it may just lead to disappointment.

Also, Meta, we do have an edit button.
 
Kyurem's moves were in BW
The Azure Flute was in DP

Stuff doesn't always make the final cut. Remnants are left all the time. Reading into it may just lead to disappointment.
Which is ironic to say, because I am clearly not the disappointed one. While some people are so disappointed of Gen VI that they are calling it filler, and trying to justify their disappointment with this.
 
Which is ironic for you to tell me, because I am clearly not the disappointed one. While some people are so disappointed of Gen VI that they are calling it filler.
I meant it as a blanket statement. And thus far I don't believe anyone in thread has called Gen 6 filler.
 
Kyurem's moves were in BW

I think you mean the God Stone; Freeze Shock/Ice Burn did come to fruition of course. :)

Onto the larger point, for every Thousand Arrows or Thousand Waves you can point to, you can counter-point to the Backpacker. If indeed he is referring to the region in SM, which I believe that he is, then he was put into the games for a reason. And so were Zygarde's moves. So we have friction here; both them were intentionally put into XY. The question is, "Why both?", and that is a question that we need to be careful about reading into. As ever, remember that we aren't supposed to know about Zygarde's other moves. We can clearly see that it has other forms, but we don't know how these threads connect. We aren't looking at a finished tapestry yet. For all we know, we could still end up seeing a Zygarde-centric app released in the meantime to unlock Zygarde's moves in XY/ORAS, as proposed by Silktree and Scarftail. On the other hand, as I have said before, the game code has never been fully indicative of the future - Kyurem ended up getting two forms instead of just one, while the Kami trio and Keldeo actually received forms as well even though there was no data for them in BW. The Azure Flute was a slightly different issue (they decided not to distribute it because they thought it would have been too confusing, or so they say), but touches on similar territory. Ultimately in either case, we still got what was there, just not in the way you would expect. Kyurem got forms and games, and Arceus was still distributed. For these reasons, I fully believe that Zygarde will receive its forms properly in the games, but not in the way that one would probably anticipate.

To that point, I disagree that Zygarde's moves in the code indicate a "rushed" Gen VI or an "unplanned" Gen VII. I think they represent a rough endgame that would invariably be reached some way or another. I very much doubt that they completed work on XY and then thought, "Oh shit, the 20th anniversary is in two years! Scrap the plans for Z, everybody!" If the Backpacker is talking about the region in SM, then they knew the general direction that they were headed in. Zygarde's moves don't preclude that possibility.
 
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To that point, I disagree that Zygarde's moves in the code indicate a "rushed" Gen VI or an "unplanned" Gen VII. I think they represent a rough endgame that would invariably be reached some way or another. I very much doubt that they completed work on XY and then thought, "Oh shit, the 20th anniversary is in two years! Scrap the plans for Z, everybody!" If the Backpacker is talking about the region in SM, then they knew the general direction that they were headed in. Zygarde's moves don't preclude that possibility.
If you want the Kalos example of a not-programmed-but-still-implemented thing, then look no further than ORAS and its Mega Evolution selection, and the Weather trio's new signature moves. Heck, even Generation VI Pokémon got in on this outside of those, with Hoopa receiving an entirely new forme in Hoopa Unbound, and a signature move it can only use while in that forme - Hyperspace Fury!
 
Please note: The thread is from 8 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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