Myth
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It's normal that I feel nervous every time someone mentions BotW? Because I feel that's putting the 2019 game in a pretty high pedestal, and if the game doesn't deliver that (even if the game is great) there's going to be backlash, "because it doesn't fulfill their expectations". Just stay calm, expect something good but not perfect, and you're gonna be alright.
I understand what you mean, and I agree.
But Botw is not perfect.
I agree that some people are having exaggeratedly high expectations. But I think when it's about Pokémon, people will always expect something, at least, good, most of the time, something incredible, and sometimes (as now, by what is supposed to means the change from handheld to a home console), something perfect or very close to it (perfect or close to it in the context of the series, at least).
After all, money to invest isn't a problem for them.
Game Freak is one of the best game developers to me, their creative ability is incredible, and the love that they put into the games is visible, taking care of every little detail.
But there's so much wrong too...But I know the history of the company, and I understand the most of the reasons for so. And I still find them incredible.
Game Freak started as a gaming fanzine. And even today, they are a very small company compared to other developers who produce others giant hit series almost annually.
But I hope they at least continue to "evolve" over time, as they have always done.
The 3DS era brought many advances (XY was one of the games with the most innovations in the series, and with the best online system of all the serie's games, SM have one of the most well-developeds characters and story of the series. Pokémon designs have also continued to being improved over these generations, getting better each time, more diverse, and with more personality. And so on...).
However, unlike the GBA and DS eras, it regressed in so many others...(Difficulty went down too much, and yet they didn't give us a difficult setting. The post-game has subsided. The exploration went down on XY, and died in SM. In the 3D era it became even more apparent how bad they are in the programming and graphical aspect. Other day I saw someone saying that they use several Lillie's files for each place that she appear in the game. It means that in the game files there are several Lillies: one for the home of the Kukui, one for the bridge where we are saved by Tapu Koko etc.
That is bad programming. Much bad. They don't need multiple files from Lillie, that just makes the game heavier. Even those who don't understand too much of programming will understand that they only need a single file of the character and then they will be able to use it everywhere.
There were other things that I don't remember right now, but that just makes you realize how much the Game Freak's programmers aren't very good (as if other things had not already made us realized that)...
Their philosophy in the 3DS era (of competing with smartphones) also seems wrong to me. They are making games for one of the most important series of video games.
If people today spend a lot more time on others medias, you don't take content out of the games, by doing so, you're only encouraging them to do so. You should do otherwise, you should add even more content.
And as Bolt the Cat has said here once, and I agree, the fanbase is not only split in black and white (super casual gamers vs. super hardcore gamers), it's something gray. So by doing that (cuting content out), you're "alienating" a part of the fanbase, and it's also damaging and holding content from a lot more people than you think.
In my view, the 3DS didn't have much to do with smartphones. But the Switch has absolutely nothing to do with smartphones (maybe LGPE for having relationship with GO, but I'm talking about the traditional series here).
I truly believe they will leave that kind of methodology behind, along with the 3DS. Time will tell if I'm wrong, but I really trust Game Freak in this regard.
We're talking about the highest-grossing media franchise of the world RPG game. Pokémon games should be the example to be followed, at least in technical aspects.
The games should be able to please from the most casual person to the most hardcore player ever.
Your plot has to be at least good (And as much as I enjoyed the XY's themes, I have to admit that it did it wrong).
Your graphics and programming aspects should have a high level of investment, and serve as an example of quality in the industry (not so much the graphics properly itself, but the animations and all the rest of the programming part should be near perfection).
But for some reason, Game Freak, the developer of the main game series, the developer of the main aspect of the highest-grossing media franchise of the world operates as an Indie studio with only 143 employees, even developing multi-projects simultaneously, planning to launch annual games. Do you understand how strange that is?
I know that when it comes to investments, security is an extremely important factor. It is not good for you to invest too much on something with no exact prediction of return.
The company has been growing gradually, and I know they've been hiring for years. In the beginning, there were far fewer than 140 employees. And I agree that growing too abruptly could undermine the entire creative process of the company.
But at the same time, it is ridiculous that they have grown so little in so long, and after all they have conquered.
Honestly, I already accepted that. I'm not sure why, (maybe Masuda is spending all the money himself lol), but for some reason, the company still operates as an Indie studio, although they still present a product immensely superior to an Indie game.
As a fan of the series, I hope that at least they keep increasing the company for the years ahead.
And for the Switch game, I hope at least they keep evolving, as they always did, but without regressions like they did in the 3DS era.
If they had any problems in the 3D transition in the past, I hope they have already totally solved it. And that the games, from now on, at least return to the level of the DS era (but without removing any of the advances of the 3DS era), and that after that, they continue to evolve more and more, as it always has been.
tl;dr
Sorry, it got too long.
It's good for some people to face reality and lower their expectations a bit.
But on the other hand, it is quite understandable the reason for so much expectation about it, it isn't totally unfounded.
The minimum that the company can deliver is a game that will not regress in anything anymore. And of course, enough of the "smartphone competition philosophy", they have to be aware that they aren't making mobile games. They are ahead of the most valuable, and one of the most important video game franchises in the world.
I don't expect a Botw, but I expect something really worthy, at least.
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