Your controversial opinions

[Norzan]

It's why i'm disliking more and more the mentality of "everything being digital" and physical copies going away with time. While i understand the benefits of digital, i prefer physical copies because i don't like the risk of losing a game because it gets pulled from digital stores or servers going down out of the blue. The same can be said for physical copies stopping to work, but at least with physical copies i can just buy another from Ebay or Amazon, even if that entails paying a lot of money for an another copy of rare game. Plus having access to way more games because for some reason a lot of games are still not in digital stores.

It's why i like that Gamefreak is at least making the DLC on a physical copy instead of being exclusive to digital. Hope they stay with this in future generations and not just phase out physical copies of games and their DLC.

 

[prog rocker]

The same can be said for physical copies stopping to work, but at least with physical copies i can just buy another from Ebay or Amazon, even if that entails paying a lot of money for an another copy of rare game. Plus having access to way more games because for some reason a lot of games are still not in digital stores.

The opposite can be said about here. Digital copies are the only way you can get things cheap, and thanks to stores only stocking well known games, it screws people that want lesser known games (e.g.: Story of Seasons, VNs).

On the other hand, I feel buying the physical version will be cheaper for me in the long run because, well, they tend to have the same prices (or similar enough) to the versions without DLC.

 

[Hidden Mew]

The digital download that people got would disappear one day?

I hope not. That was the impression I got from other people's posts. I think it should be fine as long as the Switch system itself isn't broken.

 

[Norzan]

The opposite can be said about here. Digital copies are the only way you can get things cheap, and thanks to stores only stocking well known games, it screws people that want lesser known games (e.g.: Story of Seasons, VNs).

That is true as well.

I'll add that i despise physical copies that just give you like a piece of paper with a code in it, so that you can download the game later in your computer or something. Absolutely stupid in my eyes.

 

[Puddle]

The digital download that people got would disappear one day?

When the Nintendo Switch eShop eventually closes down, digital copies of the Expansion Pass will still be playable if they were downloaded prior to the eShop's closure. However, if my Switch broke and I had to get a new one, or the data got wiped somehow, the Expansion Pass would then be lost because there'd be no way to re-download it. It's an unlikely scenario, and the eShop won't be closing for many years yet, but it's still enough to make me want to buy a physical copy just in case.

 

[Esserise]

Actually, I have a question. Since, as I understand it, save data for Switch games isn’t stored on the game card (like DS and 3DS games were) but rather on the Switch itself, if someone who already had save data for Sword on their Switch decided to buy the bundle pack, putting the new card in and playing through it would simply access the existing save file rather than starting a new game, correct?

(The unfortunate thing here is that you still can’t truly protect your save file from accidents due, say, to breakage, theft, or loss of your Switch, since Pokémon games still can’t be cloud saved.)

Digital copies are the only way you can get things cheap

In some cases. Sadly, that doesn’t really apply to Pokémon games.

 

[prog rocker]

In some cases. Sadly, that doesn’t really apply to Pokémon games.

I was about to edit my post to say "in my country", since USUM (for example) is almost 60 dollars here. And Switch games are around $100. Digital is the only way to get cheap games here.

 

[Puddle]

Actually, I have a question. Since, as I understand it, save data for Switch games isn’t stored on the game card (like DS and 3DS games were) but rather on the Switch itself, if someone who already had save data for Sword on their Switch decided to buy the bundle pack, putting the new card in and playing through it would simply access the existing save file rather than starting a new game, correct?

I've been wondering about this myself. It would make sense if the physical and digital versions were compatible with one another and able to both access the same save file, but we won't know for certain until the physical version is out and people have had a chance to test it.

 

[Shib]

I was about to edit my post to say "in my country", since USUM (for example) is almost 60 dollars here. And Switch games are around $100. Digital is the only way to get cheap games here.

it’s entire the opposite here (UK) as the eshop is almost always way the most expensive way to buy and the better games rarely have decent discounts.With physical there’s a lot more competition for retailers compete more on price - which gets really daft when you get the code in the box games so it become cheaper to buy a code for a digital copy that comes in a physical box than just downloading from the eshop - this was the case with the 3DS Crystal for me, £9 on the eshop but I got one of the codein a box (quite a nice Gameboy reproduction box too) delivered for £3.50.

edit - I’m talking specifically Nintendo - this isn’t necessarily true with other consoles.

 

[Puddle]

it’s entire the opposite here (UK) as the eshop is almost always way the most expensive way to buy and the better games rarely have decent discounts.With physical there’s a lot more competition for retailers compete more on price - which gets really daft when you get the code in the box games so it become cheaper to buy a code for a digital copy that comes in a physical box than just downloading from the eshop - this was the case with the 3DS Crystal for me, £9 on the eshop but I got one of the codein a box (quite a nice Gameboy reproduction box too) delivered for £3.50.

edit - I’m talking specifically Nintendo - this isn’t necessarily true with other consoles.

As a UK resident myself, I really like CeX, a company that buys and sells used games (as well as consoles, CDs, DVDs etc). They sell all the Pokemon games at significantly cheaper prices than they had at launch, with the exception of HeartGold and SoulSilver which, with the PokeWalker, cost a ridiculous £75 for SoulSilver and £85 for HeartGold. The two games were selling for normal prices back in 2012, but have skyrocketed since.

I hope the Sword and Shield bundles, being special editions of sorts, don't become "rare" and end up with ridiculous prices like HGSS. I'll be keeping an eye on them on the CeX website.

 

[Shib]

with the exception of HeartGold and SoulSilver which, with the PokeWalker, cost a ridiculous £75 for SoulSilver and £85 for HeartGold. The two games were selling for normal prices back in 2012, but have skyrocketed since.

I find the aftermarket on HG/SS so funny because I got a decent preorder deal on SS then around six months after release I got HG for around £10 (both of those were with the walkers) from one of the supermarkets but they had them that price for ages so I didn’t think of them as that valuable. Then I guess the internet decided they were the best Pokémon games ever and the prices went mad!

 

[AngryBinacle]

For me, this was always the cruel paradox of the Battle Frontier when I was younger. The battling gameplay was far too difficult and confusing (and the factors like EVs and what-not far too invisible and grindy) for me to ever have a chance of succeeding, but there is such a thrill that comes when you're presented with this huge, open theme park that's full of these unique facilities that look unlike anything else in the game. Because I never formed any meaningful experiences there, I didn't miss it at all when ORAS deigned not to include it, but the irony is that after all the advances that SwSh have made toward disintegrating the barrier of entry on competitive battling (and with me still being too much of a self-effacing hermit to want to interact with real people in a competitive way), I would probably be very excited to give it a try, nowadays. Restricted Sparring, which I thoroughly enjoyed, was just a small taste of what I think a modern Battle Frontier could be (and I suspect that Dynamax Adventures will be another, given how it seems to operate like the Battle Factory).

Plus, I am always reminded of this ancient (I had to Wayback Machine this b, since the original article has long-since died and decayed into digital detritus) quote from an interview with Junichi Masuda and Takeshi Kawachimaru about Pokémon Platinum:


This is entirely in the spirit of the Nintendo Switch, which as a console is very conducive of group play. Max Raid Battles and soon-to-be Dynamax Adventures are a strong example of how I think they do understand that, but I think they could take it even further. It is... curious, to me, that they are adding a Multi Battle tournament in the Crown Tundra, and yet it is one that focuses on working with AI partners. Don't get me wrong, I am delighted by the idea of getting to team up with Klara, but I think it would be even more fun if it were something you could get into with your friends, siblings, parents, children, or significant others.

An excellent read and I absolutely agree. While the gen 3 and 4 battle facilities didn't really catch on because of the high entry bar, it's much easier to reach it nowadays and I would've loved to use it in SwSh.

 

[Puddle]

I find the aftermarket on HG/SS so funny because I got a decent preorder deal on SS then around six months after release I got HG for around £10 (both of those were with the walkers) from one of the supermarkets but they had them that price for ages so I didn’t think of them as that valuable. Then I guess the internet decided they were the best Pokémon games ever and the prices went mad!

In 2012 I bought a copy of SoulSilver with the Pokewalker from CeX, for a pretty normal price (I think it was about £28). I'm really glad I did, because the prices started to increase dramatically not long after.

I've never seen a supermarket selling games for £10. That was a good find!

 

[prog rocker]

I've never seen a supermarket selling games for £10. That was a good find!

Lucky! The supermarkets here sell games the same price as any other shop here.

 

[Shib]

I've never seen a supermarket selling games for £10. That was a good find!

I’m pretty sure it was Sainsbury’s but I definitely saw it in more than one branch.

It’s the sort of deal that hung around for ages, but these days even half that discount would be gone in five minutes - I think there’s a lot more armchair entrepreneurs around now who just pour money to eBay in search of a couple of quid “profit” for themselves.

 

[AngryBinacle]

The DS games were, for their time, the best. If we get a gen 4 remake, much of Sinnoh's shortcomings can be easily solved. HM's, battle-speed, Pokémon variation, etc. How they'll handle the mazes in 3D? No clue. But there are plenty of 3D games with intricate dungeon designs. Exploring is one of the most important parts of a mainline RPG, SwSh severely lacks this. Even with the DLC, the games are still subpar. Sinnoh did this right.

Max raid battles are a total slog. Okay, so you get a status condition, and there's a bad weather condition up, and you have to wait a few turns before you can click on one button again. Wow. Bad NPC teammates don't make it better. It kills all engagement and excitement of combat/boss battles. I remember how anxious some Dragon Quest battles could get, now that's ecstasy. Pokémon could learn from other games' boss battles. The new Raid Dens are also meh if you already got all the legendaries. The random team formats are frustrating, as well. I want to use my own sweethearts.

Mega's, Z-moves, D-max... Why. I'm of the opinion that such mechanics are not necessary and made the already bursty combat even more bursty. I really dislike them.

Seeing how Dexit is regarded as a positive thing by a few here; I absolutely disagree. I'm fine with them gradually returning by DLC, but having all of them available is a massive boon to the philosophy of the series. I'm also partial to all my 'mons. Gamefreak could outsource a lot of their work. (Free) monthly updates would be awesome, as well. There surely are ways to handle the big dex. We still miss onky 235 Pokes, I hope they return in 2021, especially with the return of all the legendaries now. Bwegh, legendaries.

That brings me to my final point; **** legendaries.

 

[Neyo]

Female Unfeazant and Meowstic are better than the male.

 

[Shib]

Max raid battles are a total slog.

The new Raid Dens are also meh if you already got all the legendaries.

I really didn’t see the point of the raids prior to release, felt a bit too much like a “look Pokémon Go players, here’s a thing you guys like” (yes I’m aware they said it was coincidental) so more of a marketing move than fun gameplay but I found they’ve actually made the game a lot more fun for me for the most part.

However they are only good if you have friends to play with or an NSO account. I don’t think it was done to “sell NSO subs” as some people think, judging by the usual development times I suspect GameFreak got a bit screwed over by Nintendo introducing the NSO sub scheme after they already started developing this online feature then just a had to roll with it.

 

[Esserise]

Seeing how Dexit is regarded as a positive thing by a few here

Is it? The view that I've mainly seen, and espoused myself, in this thread is not that it was an actively positive thing, but rather that it was an unfortunate but understandable decision given the circumstances, and that it's kind of impressive that they maintained (and still attempt to maintain) cross-gen transferring for as long as they did when that kind of feature is by no means a standard among monster-catching games.

Gamefreak could outsource a lot of their work.

I mean, while we don't know the precise distribution of the labor, we do know (7th paragraph down) that they staffed up heavily when working on SwSh. The in-studio team effectively doubled in size, and they had many outsourced workers. So it's not like they aren't aware of these options. It's entirely possible, of course, that maybe they aren't coordinating their teams as efficiently as they could, or that there's some other unknown factor that's causing problems - that's all just wild speculation - but at the same time, I think people really do underestimate the amount of work it takes to create a big-ticket game like this, especially within only a 3-year window. (Indeed, many people are of the opinion that they should think about slowing down the time between releases, and even Masuda has admitted the difficulty of producing games at such a relatively fast rate. But the release cycle is probably a hard thing to just suddenly pump the brakes on in such a huge and multifaceted franchise.)

 

[AngryBinacle]

Is it? The view that I've mainly seen, and espoused myself, in this thread is not that it was an actively positive thing, but rather that it was an unfortunate but understandable decision given the circumstances, and that it's kind of impressive that they maintained (and still attempt to maintain) cross-gen transferring for as long as they did when that kind of feature is by no means a standard among monster-catching games.



I mean, while we don't know the precise distribution of the labor, we do know (7th paragraph down) that they staffed up heavily when working on SwSh. The in-studio team effectively doubled in size, and they had many outsourced workers. So it's not like they aren't aware of these options. It's entirely possible, of course, that maybe they aren't coordinating their teams as efficiently as they could, or that there's some other unknown factor that's causing problems - that's all just wild speculation - but at the same time, I think people really do underestimate the amount of work it takes to create a big-ticket game like this, especially within only a 3-year window. (Indeed, many people are of the opinion that they should think about slowing down the time between releases, and even Masuda has admitted the difficulty of producing games at such a relatively fast rate. But the release cycle is probably a hard thing to just suddenly pump the brakes on in such a huge and multifaceted franchise.)

Pokémon is by definition not the standard of monster-catching games; It holds a bracket on its own. It's a giant. Anyway, I'm aware of the things you mentioned and we obviously don't know enough details. I just think that the DLC's show us there really are plenty of opportunities to (re)introduce 'mons. Maybe even enough room to let all of them return (by way of remakes, for example). Creature design probably doesn't take away resources/people from other parts of the development-team.

Anyway, I have no intention to flare up the Dexit discussion. I think we've all seen enough of it, but I do think Nintendo can do better in this part. Especially with the future-proofed models.

A gen 8 with all of the 'mons would be a dream come true. 'Only' 230 or so are missing.