Topic: Pokemon Sword & Shield

@-Green- I enjoyed Lily's story, but it was her story, not yours. If they do the narrative route in this game, I hope they put the player is the main character.

@Anti-Matter @Heavyarms55 I'd really like that, but I think 2020 is a year for a Let's Go title (Johto; Gold/Silver/Crystal based). 2021 could either be a new region/generation or a Sinnoh remake. Either way, if they keep Let's Go, they'd have to alter their heartbeat of new/remake games. I personally don't care about the Let's Go games, so I wouldn't mind to go back to the old rhythm

@toiletduck Let's go Dunsparce and Let's Go Shuckle

So how is this open area working? Are they gonna have like towns and main locations with just a fixed camera but then in the open area you can control the camera?
That sounds kinda weird to me. Like I'll get used to controlling the camera and it'll feel annoying when I suddenly can't do it.
I would really prefer if they have a smaller segmented world but you can always control the camera. Camera control doesn't need to mean complete open-world. Look at something like Dark Souls 1.

Uncharted has camera control, so yeah..

NieR: Automata has parts where you have free camera and fixed though, although that one really utilizing it well by making the camera style to harken back to other genres, which I doubt Pokemon will do.

@darkfenrir I'd even argue that as long as you're not actively hunting Pokemon (looking for them in trees, having the ability to draw the attention of flying Pokemon by throwing a rock, or even using binoculars or something like that, etc.), you don't even need a free camera in Pokemon games. It doesn't really add anything meaningful to the gameplay when you're just walking around, running up to Pokemon, or finding a random encounter in the grass.

@Octane That is true. But free camera is nice to use to look around though, can't deny that!

At least the free camera's at the important part, the Wild Area where Pokemons roam

@darkfenrir I wonder what the draw distance will be in that case...

@Octane Man, I'm betting at most the pokemon we can see roaming is up to half of the lake xD

The Switch is a tablet. There's a limit to what it can do in big, open games.

Lol yeah I realise I worded that to make it sound rare when it's really not.

Although Dark Souls and Uncharted are both bad examples really because those games both need controllable camera for the gameplay. Whereas in this case, the gameplay of Pokemon doesn't really change with a fixed camera.

fixed camera basically did nothing for Pokemons gameplay anyways. The most you’d get out of it was Gamefreak occasionally trying to hide items behind buildings or trees.

@toiletduck That would make since. If they decide to continue the Let's Go series on "off years" I wouldn't mind honestly.

i hope the rotom drome camera can be used in VR and you can take pics that way

@Heavyarms55 But they already have different titles to make in off-years, the "third versions" and the real remakes (like HG/SS and OR/AS). They're going through generations pretty quickly nowadays, so they don't really have room to fit all three of these into one generation.

I was pretty disappointed in SuMo as well. They exerted way too much control over over the flow of the gameplay. At the time, the advances in character and environmental geometry were impressive, though. Sw/Sh blow them away with an orbital laser on that front, of course. These games look so good.

As to open worlds: the best ones, like BotW, allow the lay of the land and subtle design hints to guide the player naturally. Dark Souls does this as well with intelligent level design. Most open world games I've played aren't this elegant, though: they take a linear plot and a mess of side activities and puke them out over a large, largely non-interactive map. Then you spend the rest of the game chasing after icons on a map.

If a game doesn't allow the player to do their own thing at their own pace, like BotW, then it's usually better if they're linear and more tightly designed.

You know...
Open World or not, i still enjoy Classic style Pokemon games on 3DS.
Sun / Moon (Also with Ultra) were kinda odd one but i still want to play them.

I like it purely because it gives you more of a sense of immersion in the environments. It's nice to be able to look around and notice things.
It's also usually necessary so you can look far into the distance, to get a proper sense of scale of the world. Fixed cams are rarely positioned horizontal to the character so you can see into the distance. They're usually top-down in some way.

And when they are, people complain