Topic: What do you think is the future of the mainline Pokemon franchise?

With all the controversy surrounding sword and shield release what do you think will be the future of the mainline Pokemon franchise?

Will they perfect and bring back some fan favorite to sword and shield?

Do you think they'll add some DLC to Sword and Shield instead of the upgrade release they usually do down the road? (like ultra sun and moon, will it be DLC or go with a ''new'' Pokemon Bazooka and Bulletproof vest)

Do you think they'll simply jump to the next game?

And how relevant will Pokemon home to that future, I mean how interesting is a paid service if your Pokemon are stuck in it because they're simply not added to new games? It's one thing paying for a service knowing you'll be able to get your collection in the next game, but paying and hoping to use your favorite in the future seems like another thing.

I'm kinda new to the franchise, did Game Freak had past disappointing release? Did they patch/add thing to lease the buyers? Did they rebound and learn from it or are they pretty much making their own thing and people just follow along?

Game Freak needs younger blood injected into its veins

I also believe Pokemon should stop being annualized, it really shows how little time the developers have to fully realize their vision when they have to sacrifice in areas such as omitting the good majority of mons that were easily available in prior title.

Pokemon games ideally should release every 2 or even 3 years imo.

A full on Pokémon world like in Zelda BotW with exploration and revamped battle system. Not linear and you choose what gym to challenge first like you are in the anime Pokémon Generations.

Gamefreak have already said they aren't doing DLC or updates.

@jump so basically they pretty much play deaf? The game is not out yet and it might turn out to be excellent but it always bother me when a company play the I know best card...

I think branching out into the online aspect would be quite interesting. It'd be cool if gyms an online hub full of other players who want to battle.

@RunGMhx Actually this is good in a way. I don't have to wait for GotY edition. I don't have to spend more money on Expansion pass or updates.

I know that when I purchase the game I will have everything in there to experience the whole thing given to us by the developers

That is why I love the God of War series. They know how to make them complete.

@Zuljaras sure but don’t they patch and update the game and just try to sell it like a new one? Like ultra sun/moon or yellow? I agree with you if it’s a real end as I usually hate DLC (I think BotW is the only that I ever bought) but I would much rather pay a small fee to get the complete treatment than v.1.1 game here

I want to see Gamefreaks dare to change into these :
1. 3 vs 3 Battle like other Monster franchise games
2. Pokemon can be injured and cannot participated in battle until fully healed from hospital.
3. Tag Battle 2 vs 2 and can do Team Attack
4. Keep ALL the abilities and we can customize the abilities in specific rows.
5. MP point to show the usage of Special Ability. Attack command is available as default command.
6. We can really train our Pokemons with real gadgets, not by feeding them with candies or other items. We can train our Pokemon to increase specific parameter.
7. Pokemon can be equipped with accesories to enhance their performance such as HP + 20% or Immune Sleep or Half MP cost, etc
8. The trainer can jump, climb, interact with objects.

They need a new team that would daring enough to drastically change the formula, exactly like what happened with BoTW.

They also need a team to make a graphically superior game. I know graphics isn't everything, and I know the Switch isn't a powerhouse, but after all these years of waiting for a proper Pokemon on a home console, it's just so damn disappointing with what we got.

I give this no National Dex thing 2 years. Maybe the Switch generation at most.

Game Freak with a friendlier schedule is capable of making solid mainline Pokemon games that don't need to cut corners to meet a date. In the immediate future though, I don't see anything changing from the Pokemon Company regarding game schedule and so I expect Game Freak to produce more titles like Sword & Shield that cycle and cut the series' existing content for them. There will be no updates to Sword & Shield, Masuda has said twice I think now that updates aren't happening, and I think the next game in 2020 will be Let's Go for Generation II. Pokemon Home doesn't have much value until they either share details on the service or have all Pokemon out across multiple, modern games so transfers can happen for every Pokemon.

Problem is that pokemon being that huge franchise it is, anime, gaming cards and all, game freak just need to launch games to set dates. Full modern pokemon game would need 3-5 year development cycle.

So, I don't believe that anything big changes is coming, UNLESS pokemon game bombs totally in sales (very unlikely).

Isn't that when they faint already though? I'd prefer if the games don't go into full details of beyond simply being poisoned, paralysed etc, it'd be really depressing if the game keep stating "your Pikachu has a torn rib cartilage" or "your Chimchar has a broken spinal column".

@jump
I was thinking the reference from Monster Rancher 2 / 4 by TECMO.
In Monster Rancher series, your monster can be injured during Battle due to Overkill damages. And when it happened, your monster will be hospitalized for several weeks.
I have played a lot Monster Rancher 4 PS2 and if i can tell the way of Monster training, diet, Battle system were more appealing to me than Pokemon games.
Beside, in anime it shown injured Pokemon will be hospitalized until they were fully recovered. The serious injury still can be occured.

The future of the Pokemon franchise is not set. There is no fate but what Nintendo makes for ourselves.

I think that going forward the limited Pokedex will become the norm with a mixture of new and returning Pokemon in each yearly entry, similar to how card games like Magic the Gathering, Hearthstone and the Pokemon TCG work. Pokemon Home will function as a hub of sorts allowing you to bring Pokemon forward to compatible games in the future.

I think Sw/Sh will remain controversial and be the point where a lot of fans quit (in my opinion out of stubbornness) however the series will keep going strong. In a couple of years the national dex issue will finally be forgotten and with each new entry people will speculate endlessly about which Pokemon will return in the new game.

Then, after a decent chunk of time, Game Freak will pull a Pokemon Ultimate and drop everything in the game again - and it will be a chaotic, unbalanced mess with 1400 species + another 150 variations of Pokemon, Megas, Z-moves, Dynamax, Gen 9 gimmick, gen 10 gimmick and every competitive format being nothing but legendary, mythic and pseudo legendary Pokemon that overshadow everything else with power creep completely out of control. Oh and in a failed attempt to balance it, a bunch of Pokemon will be so nerfed so that they are the same Pokemon in name and appearance only. Which will cause a repeat of the sort of angry and endless arguing that we are seeing now with Sw/Sh.

Pokemon is need of a reinvention of the franchise. They've been selling the same wheat toast since the 90's. That's ultimately why people are starting to get bored of the series.

Pokemon has people upset for many reasons
1. Environments are super bland and look nowhere near current gen quality
2. They obviously didn't add better animations to the pokemon and it has been debunked that the models have the same triangle count as previous models.
3. National Dex exclusion (Which might have been okay if they actually did improve the animations)
4. The pokemon formula is dated, and it's lazy to see the same games being produced over and over

Gamefreak needs to figure it out. They really are coming off as lazy, but I know that they are under strict time constraints. They need to take an extra year or two to develop a quality game. If they take the time Mario, Zelda, and smash bros to make a quality game they totally would. I believe that if they would add some decent story elements they would be good to go. I mean look at Persona 5, that's a downright incredible experience that is also a turn based RPG. I mean add some stakes for once, have team rocket actually steal your best pokemon and you have to go save them. Or have a reason for a ton of random battles, half the time they are just standing in a random hallway and it looks goofy. How about an area where the trainers are twice as high in level and you have to use some stealth to get around. I don't know but all pokemon games feel the same and I stopped buying them because they haven't done anything to reinvent the franchise.

Tbh I don't understand why they don't split the mainline games into the casual complete the adventure game for kids and then have the meta battling version for hardcore fans something along the lines of Stadium.

@jump That would honestly be a great idea. I feel like pokemon is in a box honestly. I mean they've always targeted kids, so I feel that will always limit it's growth.