Topic: Pokemon Legends Arceus

Then you didn't pay attention, or can't notice it for some reason. However, it's a fact.

The game goes between 60pfs and 30fps. In the swamp, it tends to stay on 30, but it does go up and down depending on where in the swamp you are, which can make it quite jarring.

Yeah, LA definitely had some performance issues, but it wasn't too annoying.

Yeah. It's only really prevalent in that small area of the game.

The other dips can be noticed, but they're usually quick enough.

Honestly, the fact that this game is single player only.. doesn't really mess with me. I don't really play online pokemon anyways. Honestly, what matters to me is if the game itself is good.

If I have one complaint about Link's Awakening on the Switch, it would indeed be the frame rate drops. They aren't game-breaking by any means and personally don't bother me much, but they're certainly noticeable when the game is loading a new area. I picked up on this when I was usually leaving a cave.

@Octane That timeline would mainly depend on how many people are working on the various aspects of the game. Too, I do share your hope that it isn't a rushed product, that they'll delay the game as needed if there are any glaring issues. Though I also foresee the release not sliding past late 2022.

As much as I like the Pokemon series and can ignore some of its faults, the fact that they do seem to be rushing more recent games (can't speak for Sw/Sh yet as I haven't played them) does bother me. Sun/Moon, while decent with a better plot, felt unfinished in some aspects. I feel like they could've taken an extra year to add a lot of the extra content in US/UM into the base games, or at least implement the DLC approach that was so wisely taken with the Gen 8 titles.

@Tyranexx I think SWSH faced similar issues as SM, though I haven't played the latter a lot. Little Town Hero faced also similar issues. It was a quite shallow and repetitive game.

I can’t even bring myself to play sun and moon again honestly.. I just hate those games with a burning passion. They’re extremely linear, with the routes feeling like halls, and the story halts you every few steps. Not to mention how most of the game just feels like a really really slow tutorial.

I played Ultra Sun recently, and honestly had a good time with it.

It's worth nothing that I originally played Ultra Moon when they both came out, and I remember having to force myself to play it after a while because it was just so... Like playing Moon again? I think this time I waited enough between playthroughs, and I was able to play at my own pace without wanting to rush to get to the new stuff, enjoying the game as it is, and it was good that way.

I really like Sun and Moon myself, it's probably my favourite from the last few gens. The adventure felt worthwhile which I can't say about most Pokemon games and the region stands out to me too.

This game excites my because it seems like a really fresh experience, but the world looks quite empty as of yet. This is something that worked for BOTW, I don't see it working for Pokémon. I hope they go all out with the story and this first Pokédex thingy is just an excuse to get the story started.

I'm so happy they fixed cindaquil's animation though. Now fix Typhlosion's pretty please.

@Suicune Yeah, I personally never saw pokemon working as an open world game honestly. However, gamefreak managed to make it possible, so maybe they'll manage to make it work.

I always thought pokemon was always meant to be open world, and gf really starved pokemon of that, especially in the newer games. Take gens 3 and 5, gen 3 had a non-linear story structure, and had you returning to a lot of areas. While there were roadblocks, it was made up for by the expansive world. Then in gen 5, the story was as linear as ever, but the routes were so expansive and had so many secrets, that it hardly ever felt that way. Those two gens are beloved by fans, and the newer games sort of took the worse aspects from both games and combined them. Not hating on the newer games, gen 6 and 7 were pretty alright, but there is a clear contrast between the less linear old games, and the more linear new games. One of the main reasons the newer games aren't held to standards as high as the old games is because of the more linear nature imo.

@Ceivel The main reason I never thought a true open world pokemon could work was mainly due to the level system, and the fact that they want to control what pokemon you can catch, and when you can catch them. I could've seen them doing a non-linear game where you could do the gyms in any order, but I could never see them doing something like BOTW. However, here we are, so they must've figured out something with the levels.

@Ceivel the Gen 5 routes were indeed fantastic and expansive. And I do agree the linearity of the later games has been boring, but Pokémon always stood out for me for its charm. Up until gen 5 every town felt unique and fresh, and I remember every single thing of them. In gen 6 and 8 they felt like afterthoughts, just there as decoration. When I think of Pokémon, I think of a somewhat closed and linear story and gameplay, but just oozing with charm and personality. The prospect of the one town as a 'base' doesn't particularly excite, but I'm keeping an open mind. I just feel GF have bitten off more than they can chew, and that has been the case for a while now.

@Suicune I mean, we don't know what else is in store. That one town could be massive for all we know, since we really only got a glimpse of it.

This pretty much encapsulates what I hate most about a lot of "modern" games...

Bloody cut scenes.

I don't play games to be told stories. A good game should put the player in the driver's seat of the narrative; not the other way around, and I agree with you in that the Gen VII games were extremely annoying in that respect. I still enjoyed Sun and Moon (and their Ultra variants), but I could have done without the frequent interjections of inconsequential exposition.

I know a lot of people complain about the lack of "story" in Breath of the Wild, but I thought that it told just the right amount of story within the game world and left plenty to one's imagination. On the rare occasion that we do get a cinematic during the game, they incrementally enhance the experience rather than overwhelming it as far too many games do.

I'm not in favour of fully-voiced cut scenes for the Pokémon games either as they will likely fill the cast with upper crust vacuous Valley-speak types as is the norm for U.S. dubs, HOWEVER, I do think that they should have provided voiceovers for at least a few of the characters in key cinematic sequences (such as the almost laughably opening scene of Sword/Shield were Rose merely mimes his dialogue where almost any other modern game would have provided voiceovers).

I am in favour of silent protagonists though (perhaps with customisable murmurs/grunts which has become standard in more recent Fire Emblem games, for example).

@Silly_G I enjoy stories in games, but I don't really enjoy it when the game won't let you have room to breath and play the game itself. Past pokemon games had a perfect balance of downtime and story time, where as the modern games just sort of don't let you play the game until the post-game.

Great point, and so like you said, gym battles scaling depending on what order you do them in would be smart. The way I would see an open-world main series game is that you would have a full expansive world to explore, and a few big dungeon/battles, like divine beasts in BotW. Maybe 5 of them, each having unique and long puzzles you have to go through before facing the final battle against the gym leader. Again, more like BotW. Now this would be a big change for pokemon, and they would probably not do this, but they should dump the level system At least for this game. Still have their stats change through training, and have the gym leader scale their pokemon around your team. This also means, no more monotype gyms. I've always hated this trend, and I'd rather have each gym leader have a select number of pokemon (maybe 20 so), which they use in certain combinations to fight you with, just like the anime. The proper way to train would be fighting in small dungeons, like shrines in BotW. But unlike BotW, there are fewer of them and they only raise certain stats, which is why I thought about trashing the level system. Battles don't increase stats, but the main gyms may up your pokemons stats as well once you complete them.

A few extra things that aren't as big would be 1. More water areas cause I actually like water areas 2. MAYBE add real time combat, but that isn't necessary 3. A diverse world that combines elements from all other games

There are probably big balancing issues I failed to address, and I know that this style won't suit everyone, but that's how I think pokemon could truly innovate.

Just to chime in with the discussion of what Pokémon will never do to innovate; when it comes to a "open world" game, I've always envisioned a region made up of several moderately large islands (not unlike Alola) that are unlocked progressively and that the player gets to explore at first, building up a separate team for each section of the game — it would be reset from one island to the next — and eventually make their way to the various gym leaders or whatever. Don't want to drag the discussion off-topic with my dreams, haha, but from what I've seen the recent DLC does a decent job at exploration at least (haven't bought it myself so can't comment).

The difficulty aspect is something that's just impossible for them to get right, apparently. A hard mode toggle would do wonders but apparently that's too hard to program in after gen 5? My best solution for making difficulty somewhat engaging would be to simply implement a super strict level cap that does not go very far beyond the level of the strongest trainer, if at all, which is periodcally expanded after every significant milestone in the game. I've always felt that's what they aimed to do by blocking overleveled traded monsters, just never understood why they never went the whole way... Level caps might seem lame at first but they'd ensure it's impossible to win by overtraining a single monster like in... all the games actually, so the team building aspect is somewhat encouraged in turn too.

Obviously not expecting any of this to happen, haha. In the same way I'd love for them to be more creative with the gym leaders' gimmicks (there was a pretty interesting sandstorm team in the late game of gen 8, that was a good idea!) but I know they'll keep going with monotype challenges or random monsters mashed together with no synergy. I'm currently predicting their solution is what they implemented for the Wild Area; set absolutely everything to the same level, periodically rise that level upwards every time a gym leader is defeated. Which is not a particularly good system, far from it in fact. It should be obvious that my proposed level cap runs into significantly fewer issues than this.

Either way, speculating so early is a tad pointless considering a few leaks have hinted that there's more mechanics than what was shown so far; anything I have said could make absolutely zero sense in a couple months! Still looking forward to more updates even though I am not particularly optimistic.

@Octane I do intend to try either Sword or Shield before too long, but to be honest I'm not chomping at the bit lol. Though I've been somewhat behind on Pokemon games for several years.

Little Town Hero was originally on my radar, but I decided to skip it die to the middling reviews, some footage I found, and the fact that there were other games around its release that I wanted more.