Topic: Pokemon Sword & Shield

I doubt they would go that lazy and just create a shield and a sword as the pair legendaries.

Game looks great - visually a lot better than I was expecting (dunno how you can compare this to a 3ds game...are people forgetting we what SuMo looked like? There is a ton more detail in the environments here)

Starters look okay. Grass and Water are kinda cute, not especially keen on the Fire one but maybe I'll warm up to it.

The thing in most happy about? A temperate region. What a breath of fresh air after Hoenn and Alola. And seemingly based on Britain? Blimey.

VS

People need to get their eyes checked. S/S's environments are way more detailed.

@iKhan Does it really matter? Dragon Quest has remained steadfast in traditions, keeping its basic gameplay relatively the same and doesn't try pushing boundries in the genre. Pokemon can be the same in evolving stuff within its series.

Haven't played Pokémon since gen 3, but this looks really good. Maybe I'll try jumping back in.

Switch's lineup this year is looking really good.

I haven't really played Dragon Quest, so I can't directly comment on that series. But as far as Pokemon goes, I'd say yes it does matter, because the first two generations WERE pretty revolutionary, and because the series concept has so much unexplored potential.

Also, most other JRPGs have a history of storytelling, so that each entry can be kept novel just by telling a new story, almost like a book. Pokemon very much was conceived with a more western-ish individualistic, adventure premise, which is much less amiable to a deep story.

While the series has drifted away from that to a degree, I believe it has largely failed at that, because the gameplay is still all about your trainer, your customization, and your team. Most recent games (including B/W) make me feel like I'm being shoved into a story I don't want to be part of (think about how unnatural all the "friendly" rivals feel). When I think about it, the only Pokemon game that I really believe told a compelling story was Colliseum, and that game broke from a load of traditions to get there.

I think the most suitable comparison is Monster Hunter, another JRPG with an individualistic premise and gameplay. But hey, Monster Hunter DID recently evolve. Even if it hadn't, Monster Hunter had the allure of actually challenging gameplay to keep fans coming back. Pokemon has never been a particularly challenging game during the campaign, meaning the actual fun of the series only can start after you slog through the main campaign.

I love how good the animations are in this game compared to past titles. When the trainer is trotting down the steps it looks great, the running animation looks more fluid, and they can actually crouch down and quietly sneak through the grass.

@Ralizah
What a fantastic post. A much needed comparison to bring actual truth back into perspective.

@JaxonH It's literally insane. This game looks as good, if not better, than most of the big first-party games on the Switch. Visually, it looks like a generational upgrade over LGPE.

Complaints about random battles and the map design are one thing (I mean, it's irritating that after BotW, apparently everything needs to immediately become a vast open-world game, but whatever, people are allowed their opinions), but visually, this game is on point.

Well to be fair, on that last one you see some Twilight Princess-quality geometry in the background. And some unnatural reflections in the water.

@Delibheel Its also a pre-loaded scene for battles in that environment and then can in no way match the world you are currently exploring in because that would result in thousands of backgrounds being made.

Of course, you could argue they should make them more interesting for battle backgrounds, but at the same time, you've also got a lot of stuff happening in a battle, mathematical calculations, rendering attacks, calling and removing data from RAM, and while Pokemon is simple, they still only have 3.1GBs-ish to play with. That's honestly not enough RAM to do all the possible things in a full 6v6 battle, have realistic screenspace reflections, at a full resolution, with a solid 60fps.

Something had to give, and if it was going to be something, itd be the background youre not paying attention to.

So that one background they specifically decided to show can't be critiqued. Noted. My bad~

@Ralizah
So many irrational and unfounded complaints, and over-exaggerated nitpicks are leveled against Switch games releasing nowadays. Reasonable criticism makes for great discussion (such as, Pokémon not appearing in the overworld like Let’s Go, or how Trials Rising analog stick isn’t quite as good as an analog trigger). Unreasonable bandwagon criticism just aggravates the heck out of me (such as Pokémon Sword/Shield looking like “a 3DS game”, or Trials being a “graphical disaster that runs like garbage”... neither of which are even remotely true).

The game really does look good though. There’s a few rough textures still present that I was able to spot. But overall it’s a massive jump over what’s come before.

@Delibheel Well yeah, there are design and technical reasons for the background in battle being the way they are. I'm not saying you cant critique it, just that there is a logical reason why it is the way it is. Its not like its laziness.

I never said it was lazy.

However, when things look a certain way, people will notice, and they're definitely free to comment on it. (And you can bet they will)

I like exploration in my RPGs. Tales of Symphonia is my favorite game of all time in part because there are so many opportunities where players can do events of the game in different orders.

Does that mean it has to be open world? No, but having more open spaces, akin to Ni No Kuni (which also involves monster collecting) would definitely be nice, and would help the feel of exploration (assuming they put stuff to explore)

The world looks lush and vibrant. The Pokémon look bouncy and full of character. It's what you want for a POkemon game. Hope Treehouse reveals some neat dynamics in gameplay.
I...I find it hard to believe people were hoping to find Breath of the Wild 2 in a Pokémon trailer. You guys need Zelda for that in case you are confused.

I’m still gonna play the heck out of these games and will try to enjoy them as much as I can, but I’m sort of like iKhan in that it bugs me a bit to see people say Pokémon doesn’t need to change or give it such a pass on many of its practices/aspects.

It’s like people are such big fans of something that they don’t like the idea of seeing it possibly change even if it could actually be a good and proper development. Just coming to accept Pokémon’s bs at times. Obviously some parts are integral to Pokémon, it’s turn base battling, etc are what define the franchise but that doesn’t mean you can’t take cool steps with other parts of the series.

Execution is key in the end

@GrailUK Well Zelda wasn't open world before BotW, that's why the obsession with turning [insert franchise that isn't open world] into an open world game exists. Hopefully Link's Awakening does well enough to break this mindset.

Did anyone one notice the train to goes to somewhere i bet we are getting a kalos post game due to that there is a train like that in real life also dose anyone eles see only a few cities/towns in the map less than five that must mean there is more some where or this is just combined the regions.
IT looks like the AZOLTH Kingdom too

@Delibheel Sure. I didn't say the new Pokemon games were the best looking games ever made, just that they're visually on the same level as a lot of other big Switch games, and a massive improvement over previous Pokemon games.

Mario Odyssey's humans look like something out of a Dreamcast game, for example.

And BotW... well, it's an amazing game, but a lot of its environmental textures and geometry isn't great.

Both games, in general, though, are also the best looking entries in their series. The same is true of the new set of Pokemon games.