Soapbox: Pokémon Legends: Arceus' Release Date Worries Me, But Hopefully I'm Wrong

How many times will we keep doing this? Did people forget that the first time we saw games like botw/mario odyssey they looked blurrier and less detailed than what we got on launch?

Nintendo has a track record of showing things (clearly labeled btw) as in progress... Ultimately the launch package looks better regardless of how you feel about it.

"The truth is we'll likely never know how early that build was, and we may never know how long the game's actually been in development."

Thanks! This comment just killed the authors argument and should be directed to all the armchair developers in the room.
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I mean, Game Freak said that it would be released in early 2022. It's not like there's much of a difference between January and March.

Looks like a tech demo. Pass

@ObeseChihuahua2 Did they? I was under the impression they just said "2022'"

@Rika_Yoshitake I imagine people are thinking of what Game Freak's Sword/Shield games looked like the first time they saw them, rather than the early (mostly non direct-feed) early versions of games internally developed at Nintendo?

I feel like the reveal trailer was an old build definitely. The early 2022 launch date has me actually suspect that the Switch Pro is coming very soon

Why are people so worried about a 1 year gap between announcement and release? It's going to look a little better than what we saw and that's about it. You gotta manage expectations with pokemon or any other gamefreak titles. No matter what, they will always feel like 80% finished

SWSH had very little changes (or none) at its release compared to earlier trailers. With GF, mostly, what you see is what you get. I have zero confidence in this game mostly because it looks empty (and that won't work in Pokémon) and, at least for now, they haven't shown any noteworthy plotpoints.

Compare it to the lush and rich environments of snap. Give me a linear Pokémon game like that: a world that is not too big but full of character and surprises at every turn. GF was once very good at that.

I thought we were getting Diamond/Pearl remakes so they had the time to make Legends: Arceus good, but how much can realistically change before January?

I would have been willing to wait, but it looks like we'll be getting two doses of Pokémon this winter...hopefully they're not underdeveloped

Not getting my hopes up for this one...

@Kimyonaakuma

Two different teams worked on each Pokemon game.

ILCA for BD/SP
GameFreak for Legends

For all we know this game could of already been in development the same time as sword and shield

@Crockin It needs more than ''a little better'' to be fair. I really hope they delay it if they need to, rather than rush it out because TPC demands it. There's a lot of potential here, and it would be a shame if it ended up feeling like a rushed tech demo.

It looks really good but also really rough. I’m looking forward to it but won’t get my hopes up after, well, Gen 6 and later.

I'm not worried about this game being rushed or bad because after Gen 7 and 8 I expect it. I have rock bottom expectations from Gamefreak. I hope this game is good but unfortunately I don't think it will

@roz061 No, they said "Early 2022".

Pokémon has been a stagnant series for ages, so I’m hoping this game spices it up a bit.

It makes no sense to release so close to diamonds Pearl remake? I’d push it back and take the time to make a decent game. We’re not in any hurry to get this as sword and shield is still alive and kicking, d&p at Xmas then Arceus?
It’s all too much quantity over quality!

GameFreak isn't nearly as bad as a lot of people tend to pretend they are, but they do have a track record of pushing absolute bare minimum content into high speed content mills, and games that perform terribly on a technical level, and feel completely cookie cutter on a creative level tend to pop out. It's Japan's Call of Kawaii. I fully expect it to be minimal content to make it work and a bit shaky technically with the early release date just on account of the series/company history. But I also believe what is there will be fun. But will leave us wishing it were more polished.

Although, maybe working on this for years is why we got the oft complained about half-hearted entries we've been getting. SnS really could have been much closer to this, and for some reason fell short. Maybe work on this behind the scenes is why.

@JuiceMan_V I know, but they both seem rushed. I'd never underestimate their ability to mess up two projects

@Rika_Yoshitake
But the biggest difference is that those games never got a set release date, with Breath of the Wild's case only giving us the year of release. Plus, Nintendo shows off their gameplay within maybe 3 or 4 years of development, and even though it looks unfinished, it's nowhere near as unfinished as Pokémon Legends, which has likely only been in development for 2 years.

For the record, Nintendo isn't directly to blame for the crappy showcase of Pokémon Legends. Remember, The Pokémon Company does most of their announcements independently from Nintendo, and Nintendo only owns 1/3 of The Pokémon Company.

@Kimyonaakuma

How do you know they seem rushed? 🤔

There's nothing to indicate that.

Yeah they really should have delayed this to summer 2022. It makes me less hyped for both BDSP and Arceus due to both games coming out right next to each other. It's too much pokemon at once.

I honestly don’t get why they won’t push it back to give it more time. Even if they push it back to late 2022 at least, they can get the Christmas market! The game looks great so far to me, but eight months? eight?

I thought this would release in November of 2022, so it can be Nintendo's big holiday game.

Nonetheless, I think GF has enough time to make Legends, like every other past Pokemon entry, decent and passable.

I think some people forget that as Nintendo/Pokemon fans we scrutinise the games so much- but according to the latest sale figures Sword and Shield sold over 20 million copies! So I don’t think there are a lot of people who are disappointed with GameFreak, maybe hardcore fans and players but Pokemon is going to sell and yes, I agree it is rough right now but this game is going to sell and at the end of the day GameFreak is a business.

Personally, I think people are getting way too concerned. I believe folks are getting hung up on the trailer based solely on when it was aired. However, one thing we need to consider is that the airing date is not indicative of the recording date. Even short videos like a Pokémon Presents can take several months to fully edit, and post-production usually only occurs when all filming for a video has completed. Heck, Sakurai himself has even stated that he has filmed some Smash presentations several months before they air. Plus, given how the pandemic affected timetables last year, I wouldn't be surprised if the build of the game we saw was one from late 2020.

Granted, the concerns mentioned in this post are worth noting, but we got a look at a game that was still very much in development. We should give the benefit of the doubt and actually see more of the game (or get it in our hands, preferably) before we pass it off as beyond saving or as "rushed".

On top of that, this game doesn't seem to meet the same deadline criteria that a new generation game would have to fill. I doubt this game is going to tie as heavily into other Pokémon products like a new generation does. It feels like this game actually has the development window it needs, so I think they'd be much more comfortable delaying this game if they felt it really needed improvement.

Lastly, in my opinion, a good majority of people wouldn't have given a piss about the graphics of Sword and Shield if the Dex didn't get cut and a certain distant someone didn't make a slander video all about a stupid effing tree.

For all we know, it runs like a dream on the Switch Pro and they only showed footage on a standard Switch. There are just too many unknown variables at this time to freak out about the game like some people have.

I only surprised that they releasing it almost month before 26th birthday of Franchise, because when they revealed Early 2022 the first date that would suite that in my mind was the birthday. But knowing next birthday is Sunday and first Friday after birthday is March 4th, because big releases for NS goes now Fridays, so then would been best in my mind.

@Rika_Yoshitake,

Because some will love to be negative no matter what the developer does, personally I love the art style for this, needs some polish but I am sure it will be fine.

"Pokémon Sword and Shield were heavily scrutinised for what fans believed was a lack of overall polish and quality, with aspects like re-used animations and that blimmin' tree generating much discussion. Personally, I actually thought Sword and Shield ticked all the boxes and if it weren't for all the negativity online beforehand, I'd never have given things like these a thought while enjoying my playthrough."

Glad you don't review games, then.

I agree with your main point, GF had a unique chance to put out a game on their own terms (or at least, less shackled to merchandise than usual), and are likely gonna squander it by releasing this so soon.
I just don't get why, BDSP come out just two months earlier.

Anyway, I'm expecting a very rough game with a couple interesting ideas and bad execution, let's hope they can surpass them.

@Rika_Yoshitake Nintendo is not developing it though. Game Freak doesn’t have such a good track record.

@Rika_Yoshitake my toughts exactly. Nintendo actually improves the game's visuals once they launch, not like other companies, were they actually downgrade the visuals.

I've been following Pokemon games almost from the very beginning and feel pretty confident about my ability to see through Gamefreak. This game will be a trainwreck, but hardcore fans and journalists will defend it nonetheless.

Love the way the article suggests this game will be a hit, if treated with respect, I would suggest it will be an awesome seller no matter how the developer treats it.

I'll be getting this game, it sure looks like the type of reinvention the Pokémon franchise needed after a long time. It will play like butter when it comes out. Mark my words.

"Pokémon Sword and Shield were heavily scrutinised for what fans believed was a lack of overall polish and quality, with aspects like re-used animations and that blimmin' tree generating much discussion. Personally, I actually thought Sword and Shield ticked all the boxes and if it weren't for all the negativity online beforehand, I'd never have given things like these a thought while enjoying my playthrough."

Totally agree. Genuinely my favorite core entries in the franchise since Gold and Silver, always got a bit of a laugh out of those that thought the game to be unplayable simply because the entire pokedex wasn't in there.

Stop making drama where there is none. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 looked rough when it was first shown, but it did improve a lot. And look at MP4, AC and BOTW were delayed, and they turned out great and MP4 will more than likely be great. If the game is coming out January, it is ready.

Do you honestly think, with all the rabid fans complaining "there is only 1995 Pokemon in SwSh,and not all 2000, I hate this game, they betrayed us. The graphics look like a N64 game. Some Pokemon fans will never be satisfied, no matter what it looks like. Even if it was running on a high-end PC. They would still complain.

As for me, as an adult gamer I trust the Pokemon company. I think the game will be fine. It is ready to come out, and it will be great. Please Nintendo Life, stop with the drama.

@Octane tbh I think initial footage is pretty decent. I wouldn't be surprised if it was just the same assets from SwSh retextured. A tech demo would imply that it shows off the best of what the console has to offer, and this is nowhere near that. I'm just saying that anyone expecting a visual masterpiece from gamefreak is going to be sorely disappointed again and again and again.

@tntswitchfan68 I’m not sure if expressing mild concern over a release date really qualifies as ‘drama’.

My thoughts upon seeing the trailer were also very positive regarding the concept and art direction, but I also found myself thinking, “I hope they take the time to get this right”. I don’t need the game ‘soon’. I just want it when it’s done, and done well.

The early 2022 release does feel worryingly ‘soon’, and soapboxes are exactly the sort of place where that concern can be expressed. I don’t feel anyone is under any illusions that the article is expressing anything more than that, but neither do I believe the author is alone in their concern.

Still, we’ll see. All anyone can really do is wait at this point. I really, really hope it turns out well.

@tntswitchfan68 fanboy alert lol

I don't really get anxiety over Nintendo games. I'm sure it will be fine as a spin off. I get the feeling some hope this usurps the mainline series and takes over lol.

I feel like the primary Pokemon titles will never escape their 'for handheld' stigma. Nintendo and Game Freak will never push the graphics (even on the Pro) because they will want to make sure the game can run well on the Switch Lite. That is their bread and butter audience.

@Crockin And that's a shame, because Pokemon is the most profitable franchise of all time, so it's not like they can't afford it.

I'm not concerned, Nintendo have a certain level of quality and polish standard that they'll reject publishing games that don't live up to the standard (Metroid Prime 4, Project H.A.M.M.E.R).

So to have the go-ahead for January it must be meeting Nintendo's quality expectations. Honestly I'd be more worried if they focused on a pre-rendered trailer than some rough gameplay. Worry about the games that hide stuff, not the games that
are willing to show off early footage.

I sort of hate the tendency for people to jump on and spread FUD about the companies that demonstrate their game, by actually demonstrating the rough early footage, Rather than the ones who just show off some flashy cinematics.

This is the first Pokemon game I've been excited for in a long time. I have hopes, but am keeping them in check.

Only time will tell.

i cant help but keep my hopes on hold. i dont expect gamefreak to pull an odyssey or botw with this, and instead just have this be a prototype for a new idea that provides very minimal content outside its open world gameplay. but it does have me excited for a polished up sequel (that they dont make in just a year without hearing proper fan feedback)

"and I'm left wondering just how much can be done in that time"
A lot. Like a very, very lot can be done. All of those things could be ironed out and optimised in 8 months, without crunch. The only issue they may have would be the limitations of the engine and how it works with Switch.

The question is whether or not they prioritise doing those things or have other areas to focus on.

I figured the low-frame-count wild pokemon were a part of the art style. I'm still fairly confident this is the case. Many Japanese studios have been doing that for a while to capture some of the "charm" of anime.

Yeah, my biggest concern is content size. What's the point of a pretty looking package if there's no substance? Will the region be full of things to discover or will it also have a lack of dungeons and stuff like SwSh did? Is the home base the only town? Will there be some sort of gym challenge or a substitute for that? An evil team? We know nothing about the gameplay loop and I wanna know more before I consider buying.

There are games further than a year away from release that looks closer to a final product than Legends does, such as Splatoon 3, or even the December 2014 showcase of BOTW compared to the final product. A year isn't that long in game development.

I'm waiting for further announcements regarding the game, but the current trailer doesn't sell me on the game.

@Rika_Yoshitake you forgot this was gamefreak. People said the same thing in the early trailers for Sw/Sh saying that it would not end up that bad. Once it released it did ,like many suspected that it would, ended up just as bad.

This is gamefreak we're talking about. I'd be very surprised if the game turns out good.

I am so sick of the doom and gloom and hate this site/community gives Pokemon, all while claiming to be fans. You guys aren't nearly as critical of any other franchise.

@UndoControl I disagree. The amount of year of development will impact on a game is dependent on more than just the scope of the game, the size of the team is also important.

Gamefreak is already noticeably smaller than even other "small" Japanese companies that develop JRPGs, such as Atlus or Level-5. Larger projects from those companies still take more than three years of development, and are still by no means "AAA Games". Also like those companies, Game Freak still splits their teams to works on multiple projects. There was clearly a different team working on this while another team worked on Sword/Shield's DLC, for example.

I apologize for saying it, but seriously there is still a lot of sadly 'pathetic' resentment to Game Freak, yes, Game Freak is the main developer, and they are not released from their responsibility for the results of the games, but they create all the characters and Pokémon, they develop the history of each region and the theme with the whole world of Pokémon, they have a lot of work and need time, time that they do not get thanks to the launch windows that other 2 companies, Nintendo and The Pokemon company, have in control.
or do not remember that Pokemon shield and sword was planned to come out together with Animal Crossing, however, Nintendo knowing the development situation of both games, Animal crossing was the only beneficiary of suffering a delay which was beneficial and we saw the results, in Instead, Pokemon ended up paying the cost of being rushed, a price that people cruelly blame on Game Freak, and for me that is very unfair.

I hope that this new Pokémon proposal is not overshadowed by bad decisions from the companies and the cruelty of the fans ...

But, well, I will not discuss more why unfortunately, and I apologize for saying it, but on this subject, people are 'stubborn' to talk (well, in several), so I will not say more.

They might have released it in November/December, but yeah there's already something called Botw2!

As for roughness: By then the game might be mightly improved. You shouldn't expect the world though, baby-steps and all that. But at least it looks like a interesting step forward.

I think this will be a Sun & Moon situation. Where the game runs pretty smooth on the ‘New’ Switch and struggles on the original.

The performance dips of Sun & Moon on the original 3DS were horrendous.

I can understand the concern, but as Ryan himself stated in the article...

"The truth is we'll likely never know how early that build was, and we may never know how long the game's actually been in development."

This is why I'm not too fussed about it. I was thinking The Pokemon Company probably put out this footage too early, considering they revealed it back in February, the game still needed about a year's worth of work. None of the framerate issues were that bad to me, especially for a game that's not even done.

@UndoControl An open world adventure game is SUPPOSED to be a high-end high-budget AAA game. That style of game appeals to people that want to get immersed in large, immersive game worlds for hours, days, even weeks. If they don't understand that and adapt this will just be SwSh 2.0.

Why does this article exist 😂😂😂 Good grief, let them develop the game.

This just shows a complete ignorance to how not only Nintendo operates, but to how any big company with multiple verticals operates.

"Nintendo" isn't making this game. Like 2% of Nintendo is. The other 98% is working on other titles, many of which we've never heard of given Nintendo's tendency to ditch projects after 2-3 years of work if they are not completely satisfied with the direction it's going. It's different for a developer who only has 1 or at best 2 projects on the go at a time, which absolutely must be released by X date of people don't get paid. While they develop games, Nintendo is not a developer, they are a publisher. They have a complex release map of dozens of games lined up at any time, and the release dates are based on market factors, not "polish".

The idea the "more time" means "most polish" is not just unthinkably stupid, we KNOW it isn't the case because we SEE it happen all the time. They didn't just delay Animal Crossing, they delayed it AND moved 100s of people to the project from other games, including the entire Squid Research Lab. If Nintendo thinks this game needs polish 8 months before release, they can put more staff on it. They are big. They are also rich ... they can hire new staff. Or buy a studio and use their staff, like, random example, Monolith.

Nintendo often sits on games, completely finished, completely polished, and doesn't release them because people are still buying what's on offer. Why would you? If your market data tells you people are still buying enough Animal Crossing and Mario Kart to pay for your operations, why cannibalise on that? Wait until it dips, then release. My guess? This game was scheduled for a release right around now, but they moved it back when Animal Crossing unexpectedly outside the entire franchise in 3 days.

That's why we get the "available today" drops from them and basically no one else. They release games when they have to, and they give us release dates when they have to. Look at Metroid Prime 4. They gave us the release window to counter a stock drop due to the delay of Animal Crossing, and had NO problem updating it to "haha, just kidding". The shareholders wanted more hype and to be reminded there are other projects in the works, so we got a trailer for a game where Nintendo didn't know a solid release. But barring situations like that, we see Nintendo trailers when they are confident they can release the game on time and are happy with it's current state.

Even in the case where they HAVE to release a new game because of market conditions, remember ... publisher not developer. They just buy a completed game to publish, or depending on the exact market conditions, buy a freaking studio and release their finished game as first party.

I am completely, 100% sure, you and millions of others are going to hate this game and think it's the worst thing ever made. But that has nothing to do with Polish, it's because outside of Japan, there is absolutely nothing Pokémon fans hate more then Pokémon.

I can't wait to see the comments after this game releases. I'm predicting a 7 or 8 game (always hoping for a 9 or 10, obviously). Regardless of the reception of this game, there's entirely too much negativity around it. It seems like most of the hostility is just carrying over from SwSh. People are so set on hoping Game Freak will fail rather than looking at GFs track record. A few previous Pokemon games have been underwhelming or somewhat disappointing, but they've never developed a bad Pokemon game before. 🤷🏾‍♂️

@NikHogan No, common sense alert. Try it sometimes. Can you all act like adults?

@Snaplocket Uh, false. The textures, colors and lighting got better. I can show you a video comparision if you want.

@Maxz Well, it is drama when Gamefreak, and TPC have not released a buggy, choppy mess, but I hope we see it soon to ease our concerns.

@LUIGITORNADO Because IT WAS A TECH DEMO. A preview of what is to come.

The preview we have is from more than a year from the launch of the new game. (Even at the date it's shown, these previews usually aren't from the latest alpha). I'm 100% sure the finished game will look a lot better.

@UndoControl I would be fine with BotW and Odyssey levels of investment, I consider that AAA enough. But Game Freak doesn't even do that much because those teams are still much larger and spend much longer on their games. BotW took a team of 300 people 6 years to develop, and Odyssey took 4 years to develop (not sure how many people, but probably more than Game Freak has). Game Freak's games are taking half as long and devoting half as many people, so the games will only be a quarter as good. That much needs to change. It looked like they might have been learning their lesson by outsourcing DP remakes to ILCA and devoting all of their resources to AAA games, but between the earlier than expected release date for Legends Arceus and rumors that they're still pushing out 9th gen in 2022, it looks like they actually haven't. Actually, the latter is what I'm more concerned about more than the release date, no way they're capable of making both Legends Arceus AND 9th gen high quality if they're working on both at once.

@roz061 No, they did say early 2022.

Optimizations happen late in a game's development lifecycle, so the footage we saw does not worry me at all. Doesn't mean it will be optimized by the time it comes out, but doesn't indicate that it won't be, either.

As a Pokémon fan, I checked out at sword and shield, it was the final straw, I knew that if gen 4 remakes were announced I wouldn't play them, so when they were announced and looked hysterically ugly (imo) I was very happy. Then legends arceus was revealed and I just went "now I have to buy this." Because it looks on paper like everything I want the series to be, but I'm looking at it now and it is ugly looking because it needs time, I'll very happily eat a two year delay to make it the best game it could be, but gamefreak as a company are so greedy and creatively bankrupt, I'm not sure they will. I thought it was a definite, but however, it's also good to mention that Because this game doesn't have a counterpart, it seems like another step in the right direction. But I think other than Silksong (I'm still holding out hope sisters) this will be the game I keep the closest eye in going for

As someone who doesn't know a whole lot about the games...
Which region is shinnoh? Which games does it correspond to?

The trailer was intriguing and I'm so glad that they're at least trying to do something different with Pokemon. However, I'm also worried that the game might still be in a rough state once it releases. With all the merchandising, anime, etc that goes into Pokemon, there's no way they'd delay this game even if it needed it.

I’m getting the game for the simple fact that ma boi oshawott is a starter

This is one of the few rare cases that EVERY gamer agrees that they "take as much time as needed" before putting this one out....similar to Halo Infinite.

@Yorumi,

The same way it's funny when people are overly negative about projects we have seen very little of, people will of course point out that sword and shield did not look that better on it's release, but the visuals were cleaned up a lot, and some were still showing the reveal footage to suggest no changes had taken place at all.

I guess I am always willing to keep an open mind on these things, although I did like the look of legends as soon as I saw it.

@Yorumi,

The reason is that the wider audience will simply see it as a Pokemon game reveal, the wider market just does not look into things the way the core gamers do, even triple AAA games on the uber powerful consoles are bought by people that do not care about graphics and frame rates.

For the love of acrceus, please never use the word “bibblybops” again

I can't help but worry that Game Freak will remain perpetually behind on emergent technologies and mechanics, from 3D models to 3D environments to new 3D interactive systems, playing catch-up on 3DS, then playing catch-up on the Switch, and so forth. Somehow they've got to get ahead of the curve, either with new talent or with outside intervention, like with Monolithsoft's help.

With that said, I've made my peace with the current state of Pokemon, and will probably still purchase a game containing what I've wanted for a very long time: what amounts to a tech demo for real-time interactive systems in an open world, like sending out your Pokemon with a button press and seamlessly switching to a Pokemon battle (according to official descriptions on their website).

Pokemon is still that powerful of an IP, honestly.

Hey @nessisonett, just wanted to apologize for snapping at you earlier over drinking urine in a D&D game. I had a really bad week, and I shouldn't have taken it out on the internet ^^;

@Ulysses No problem, its all water under the bridge! Or should that be urine under the bridge 🤔

@Rika_Yoshitake Yeah, I remember not being impressed with how BotW was looking in the early reveal and we all know how that turned out in the end.

Only problem is, Nintendo doesn't develop any of the Pokemon titles.

@Edu23XWiiU why would you wanna play with butter?

A pretty prominent leaker said that they've been working on it since 2018 (SamusHunter). I hope it looks a lot better than the trailer, but they probably want to release it before pokemon day so there probably won't be a delay. Even if it is a little shaky, its nice to see pokemon games try to do something new.

Breath of the Wild looked pretty rough when we first saw it as well, but then didn't Monolith Soft get involved? Maybe they'll be able to help with this game as well.

Game freak doesn't have to try anymore. They already have the hyper casual audience. That's the audience you want. The people that throw money at things and don't really care about what they get.

@Yorumi,

My point was he wider market does not care that much about either graphics or frame rates, now to further expand upon this, they still like the visuals to look pretty, they just do not look that closely into it.

And I do agree with you when you say the core players want frame rate as a priority, but i do feel this has a lot more to do with the fact to attain it you have to compromise graphics, pretty sure they would have both if it was possible

We know the Switch is not all that powerful, but I do agree sword and shield could have looked better, and there are games that make better use of the Switch's hardware by quite a margin, but I still feel the visuals were catering for the younger Pokemon players, but as you stay still no excuse for poor textures etc.

Still enjoyed the games however, but improvements could still be made, and will refrain from judging legends until we see more, but I am preferring the art style thus far.

@nessisonett,

Your comment on the game looking good and bad at the same time hits the nail on the head, the games art style looks spot on and pretty awesome, yet some of the finer details and textures etc look rough, hopefully there will be improvements with the released game.

Breath of the wild has some pretty poor looking textures, but the overall visuals and scope is pretty amazing to be honest.

Gamefreak is putting a lot on the line already in making an unconventional in-house Pokémon game. I thinks it’s fair to say they will put game design at the forefront due to how different all the elements are. Visually, I expect what we’ve seen; but gameplay-wise I’m expecting quite a shakeup (and in mostly good ways).

I like how the main point of the article is that the game doesn't look too advanced for a Pokemon open-world game on Switch yet also acknowledges that the release is only 8 months from now. I know game development isn't easy, but that can't be too short of a time frame

@Rika_Yoshitake Nintendo, not game freak. Pokémon Sword and Shield did not look batter on launch.

@Rika_Yoshitake

The author of the article already gave the example of how the launch package DID NOT looks better in the case of Pokemon Sword and Shield.

And as many have already mentioned, we are talking about Pokemon which is developed mainly by the Pokemon Company, and not Nintendo. And the graphics of Sword and Shield did suck btw.

@UndoControl Maybe, but there's a limit to how much development teams of a certain size can create. AAA games generally need larger sized development teams and long development periods. And there's no real excuse for the short development times, that causes games to be rushed and low quality, which is what's been happening.

If Game Freak doesn't want to be a large studio and make AAA games, that's fine. But they also don't need to make the games $60 retail games, $60 retail games are generally expected to be high end AAA games, so Game Freak continuing to put out low quality games for a premium price makes them look scummy and the masses that support them look foolish for buying in on poor value/quality games.

You should worry, what we were shown so far is no Alpha, this is Game FREAKING Freak, what you seee in the trailer is what you'll get.

@Bolt_Strike Not really, most mid-range games where $60 or full-price, but have largely been forced out of the market by anti-competitive nature of AAA games.

Developers can't self-publish anymore because of how unsustainable it is that mid-range games. And even the biggest indie hits are limited to indie-scale games as their follow-ups as their level of success is constricted by price-point.

Pokemon's lucky enough to get AAA sales without the production values.

Its bad enough the big publishers push the AAA model, don't need the consumers arguing that only games a handful of pubs can afford to create are allowed to be full price, it's not a good thing.

I mean I understand were the fear comes from, I mean damn the people were lied to for S&S LOL.

@Yorumi,

If it ends up being a low level mess on release I will agree with you, we need to see more of it, and some actual gameplay real time.

@Rika_Yoshitake Lol, the first trailer of BotW (also a year before release) showed us 2 minutes of new or revamped gameplay mechanics, wild life, and an extra minute of just different environments.

Arceus 2:30 only had a minute of Gameplay, and even then they struggled to probably fill that with content. We see that one village from the same angle three times, only rocky glasslands you can throw together in a few hours with today's terrain creation tools and Pokémon not interacting, just idling... and frame dropping while doing so.

I wouldn't mind about this if this was an early reveal... but it's less than a year to go... and TPC opened preorders with this trailer.

It either means that they didn't have better footage to use for one minute of gameplay (this was not a playable demo or uncommented Gameplay, this was an edited trailer), or they thought the standard was good enough to get Pokémon fans to preorder.

Both is concerning for an Open World Game. Especially one made by the biggest Franchise on the planet.

I think the developers actually know they'd need another year for polish, but just like with Sword and Shield, they need ressources elsewhere because anime/cards/merch need more monsters they can base their desiigns on.

So they release games early because it doesn't matter. People will buy it anyways and they'd lose more money if they had to delay releases for their partners.

I am more excited for bdsp then legends just cause the the trailer didn't look good. The concept is fantastic and is the right direction for pokemon to go in for a spin off title but what I saw wasn't great.

I would have gotten bdsp on launch day but with Final fantasy xiv expanion releasing on that day (early access) it would be pointless for me to get it as my focus would be on xiv.

@dBackLash It's a way of saying that it will run smoothly, but there are other activities that certainly can be enjoyed more with butter hehehe.

Any Pokémon comment section is always a rollercoaster ride. I'm excited for the games as I'm glad they're trying something new. The visuals, while not amazing, look good to me and I really like the concept and story.

I'll still be playing Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl with their release in mid November.
Arceus Legends has a brilliant concept and fingers crossed it turns out to be another gem.

I don't care about the graphics quality, and never will be. I'm just a collector.... so I will catch 'em all. If I was concerned about the quality I wouldn't have clocked up over a thousand hours on diamond. What can I say?, I'm hooked for life.

AM I THE ONLY ONE CONCERNED, THAT THE Azure Flute, WILL BE EITHER REMOVED FROM REMAKES OR LOCKED BEHIND A $25 Amiibo.
Perhaps they should make it a save data tranfer feature. People with save data from Legends:Arceus get the flute.

How curious, I'm also feeling the same way.

Even if this is coming just months after the remakes, they're not being made by Game Freak. Their previous release was Sword and Shield in 2019, and the next year they gave it DLC (which coincidentially, were two fully open-world areas). They've shown before they could handle two main releases at least once a year. And thinking about it, it makes me wonder how Gen 9 will be handled. Would you like the 'generation' concept to be reinvented?

But I'm also thinking on a broader scale this time. The reaction, the expectations, and how the fanbase CAN have nice things.
Oh, the Pokémon fandom... I've known your best side ever since Gen 6, you've shown before you can have a lot of fun awaiting a new Pokémon game. Even after Gen 7 was announced, you still had a lot of fun on social media, art sharing sites, etc... always doing a nice chit-chat about the upcoming games! That kind of strong feeling is almost unreplicable, you don't really know what fans are capable of doing with over 800 creatures. ッ

I've also seen on the past few months since the last year or so, that many journalists are sensationalizing on the latest Pokémon news by adding "popular" internet opinions on their articles. Ask yourself: is this really how you should build positive buzz? Why not simply post the article and then debate about it on some forum? Show YOU are actually competent.

I'm trusting this game as the first real attempt of Game Freak at innovating not only their most famous franchise, but also the way they make games in the first place. Come now, E3!