Topic: Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee!

@YummyHappyPills lol, like the wise Eagles said; Take it easy!

@Octane Maybe you should fully read a post before commenting? Just a thought. I keep having to explain half the things I post because of minor ambiguity.

@YummyHappyPills Maybe you shouldn't take everything so seriously. Not every comment is an attack or trying to start an argument! Or even a disagreement for that matter!

False. Pokemon has forests and caves that have similar designs to Zelda's dungeons.

If games like Federation Force, Sticker Star, and Color Splash are any indication, that won't happen regardless of how long the game is out there. If the game doesn't satisfy their preferences, they'll just not buy it and keep complaining on and on until the developer caves in and makes the game they want. This basically isn't going to end until Game Freak finally DOES make a Pokemon game worthy of a console.

To be fair, Federation Forces and the 3DS/Wii U Paper Mario games are radical cases. A console Pokemon being like the 3DS Pokemon games would not drive out the frustration that those games have, because the FF and the Paper Mario games are much more than just merely slightly disappointing entries to their franchises.

No doubt there'll be people like you and I who expect more from Pokemon, but unless GameFreak screws up Pokemon like Nintendo did with Paper Mario or Federation Forces, the amount of people disappointed will be too small to care.

I already see they've made poor decisions with Generation VII, but regardless of that the games sold a fortune. Pokemon is such a popular series that it really doesn't matter whether GameFreak is ambitious or not. Heck, with that Pokemon Stars rumor (which thankfully fell to the wayside), people were WANTING a Generation VII Sun/Moon game on the Switch.

Not enough people care about seeing Pokemon Switch be a real console experience. I do not know why. But rest assured we will be in the minority to be disappointed if it's just more baby steps.

I think you'll catch monsters so you can battle other monsters.

The 3DS games don't really disprove that notion since the 3DS isn't a console, the jump to the Switch presents a different circumstance. It's a console capable of much more than the 3DS was and appeals to a different market. So even fans that would've been okay with what the 3DS games did would expect more out of a Switch game. Especially after BotW, that game has had a profound effect on Nintendo fans' expectations to the point where there's constant requests for other franchises to receive a similar treatment including Pokemon. Game Freak had to come out and address the demand for BotW because there were so many people asking for one. So yes, I can easily see 3DS scale games on the Switch having a similar negative effect. The bar has raised significantly with the Switch to the point where what may have worked on the 3DS wouldn't go over as well now.

And speaking of Game Freak addressing demand, they've been paying attention to fan demand for a console Pokemon game since they seemingly had no idea what people wanted out of a console experience. And again, they got a lot of people asking for BotW to the point where they had to say something about it. That should tell them right there that they need to be ambitious, otherwise it defeats the purpose.

@DarthNocturnal I'm not sure, I think Gamefreak are in the precarious position of bringing a big name title to the Switch following Mario Odyssey & Breath of the Wild.... both games that if not completely reinventing their gameplay, certainly made it fresh again (Odyssey with it's story & mechanics, Zelda with it's everything). I think releasing Gen 8 looking like a Pokémon Colosseum remake would be a dangerous mistake.

While I don't see Pokémon being completely reinvented, I certainly see the battle system changed up (new Typing, equip items, specials gauge etc.) and a much more interactive (possibly guided sandbox) world.

As for when it's out... I think Gamefreak has been working on the game since part way through Sun/Moon development, hence Sun/Moon's controls literally being optimised for the Switch. This would make a holiday 2018 possible without compromising the quality of the game.

@DarthNocturnal There are few different ways Gamefreak can go without ruining the "by the numbers" way most RPGs work... in fact they already do that in current open world games & even existing Pokémon. You can explore where you want, but certain events & plot details are unavailable until you've completed the current request/badge... think of it as having a much larger world to play around in, but you can't ACTUALLY take on a certain gym until you've helped out that "very thirsty" guard. Or maybe a certain island is inaccessible until you've earned a ticket on the boat.

As for the "turn-based RPG", that's not guaranteed if the rumours are true.

@DarthNocturnal Lol, I'm not sure I understand what this modern generation see as an open world game then, without prerequisites or barriers you're pretty much left with crafting games as far as I can tell.

An action RPG (or an RPG with an active battle system) isn't too hard to imagine - a party of six pokémon with only one set to active & it attacks using moves assigned to each of four buttons. Imagine Digimon, but with [i[recognisable[/i] monsters.

I doubt we will see SUCH a huge change to Pokémon's battle system, personally I see that rumour as speculators trying to play on sources stating Gamefreak was looking to freshen up Pokémon in a similar way to BotW refreshed Zelda. Not by doing the same things, just adopting the same kind of "lets try it" idea.

@DarthNocturnal Yeah, what those open world people are after is something like you can take on the gyms in any order, you can even challenge the Pokemon League before you earn your first badge, you can explore the entire region at any point and finally the combat is changed to action format so that all of this is possible with no limits (turn based combat would still force a specific way you'd explore the region).

@Grumblevolcano @DarthNocturnal Hmm, to be fair in some older versions of Pokémon you could defeat gyms in a slightly different order... though not completely. Though I doubt Pokémon would ever appeal to open world purists. It's more likely Gamefreak would make Pokémon a more gated open world (let's call it open world lite) game which gives a vastly improved level of freedom to new & older fans of the game while getting "close enough" to more "modern" gamers to make it fun.

The tricky thing for Gamefreak is that they can't just graphically update Pokémon or add another 100 Pokémon for this generation due to the huge increase in power the Switch provides & the precedent set by Mario & Zelda. We'll see, I'm sure there will be surprises!

I hope all Pokémon will be included in a single game. I alway hated having to trade with others to get a full Pokédex.

@Thisismycomment Nope, that's pretty much the only thing we can confirm Gamefreak won't include in the new Pokémon. Trading was pretty much the core feature of Pokémon when it was released & it's the only thing they defend more closely than the game's portability.

I think the closest you'll get is a MUCH more comprehensive Global Trade Station... though if you play your cards right it's not too tough to get all the version exclusives within a couple of hours of launch over GTS.

@DanteSolablood I don't think they'll remove the turn based aspect. That's what has been driving this franchise for two decades. Sure, people play the games, but I'm certain that 80+% of the people playing Pokemon Sun and Moon right now (literally) are doing it for the competitive aspect. The difference between turn based and action is huge. Now it's a complicated game of chess, remove that aspect and it'll become an action game like any other. I don't think they need to (or should) reinvent that aspect of the game.

No, no it wouldn't. They can keep the turn based combat if they implement a level scaling system. Make it so the trainer levels scale based on how many badges you have (especially with the major fights like gym leaders, rival battles, evil team battles, etc.) and wild Pokemon start appearing at higher levels. Then the rest of that is possible.

RE: Open world

Open world games can be done in different ways...a game like GTAIV kept players restricted to one island, then opened up the game a bit more once they had reached a certain point in the game - GTAV had the whole map open right from the start, but kept players 'on track' by using mission markers (ie. you could go to dangerous areas right from the beginning, but you had to approach the main missions in a certain order) - Breath of the Wild gave players ultimate freedom, but also had a subtle 'structure' for those that wanted guiding (ie. Old Man -> Complete Plateau -> head to Kakariko Village etc) ..each 'open world' game comes with varying degrees of structure and linearity - if Game Freak wanted to take the Pokemon series in a more 'open' direction, they could do so without compromising the structure.

They could allow players the freedom to explore and allow them to decide what challenges they feel ready to approach and in which order - they could 'do a Skyrim' and allow players the freedom to roam where they like, taking on sub-missions and discovering region-based story threads in any order, but keeping the main storyline heavily structured - or they could keep certain areas 'out of bounds' until a player has unlocked a certain ability, or reached a certain point in the game...there are any number of ways in which they could approach it - they'd just need to consider how they'd want to balance it.

@Tsurii Yeah, the most recent games definitely seem to have addressed the 'lack of content' issue from what I'm hearing - and if you've managed to rack up 700+ hours in the current generation of games, you've certainly got value for money! (..you must know Alola like the back of your hand by now - haha! )

I really like what I've seen and heard about US/UM...my girlfriend is thoroughly enjoying it, there seems to be plenty of content - and I think it looks great too Game Freak will certainly have a lot more power to work with on Switch, which will open up greater possibilities for them going forward - but if the first Pokemon Switch game(s) look and play like a polished up US/UM, I think it'd be a pretty solid entry in the series...of course, that'd represent the 'safe' option - but, if they do just decide to play it safe by just giving us a US/UM-type game with dialled-up graphics, we'll still end up with another pretty looking game with a more-than-decent amount of content - and that's no bad thing at all.

Of course, they may decide to be a bit more adventurous - the hardware certainly gives them the scope to perhaps add in a few elements that wouldn't have been possible until now, maybe even take the series in an exciting, modern new direction - but I'm excited either way!

@Bolt_Strike So if you return to route 1, you'll fight against level 40 Rattata and Pidgey? What if you want to fight against weaker Pokemon, what if you want to catch a Pokemon before a certain level because it'll miss out on a move otherwise?

Equip/unequip badges or with other special items? It would work something like this: all pokemon would have a minimum and maximum level at which they can appear for every route you could encouter them - levels typically increase within these limits if you have more badges - if you unequip badges, the levels of wild pokemon become lower. Something like that? Should probably be refined a bit, but I guess you could make this work.

And still, even though BOTW is as open world as you might get, you'd definitely get blown to bits if you try to fight the Guardians in Hyrule Field with 3 hearts, 1 wheel, a wooden shield and lack of skills

It would be awesome if you could actually ride a flying Pokémon like in the anime, and you could fly across an open world. In older games, flying Pokémon were just used as "quick travel" points.