Video: Three Pokémon Games In One Year? Game Freak, Slow Down

I still want to complete Brilliant Diamond before I even buy Legends and then I gotta complete Legends before buying Violet which by then we'll see another spinoff and so forth. I also want to play Sword and Shield and Pokemon Snap. I already have enough catching up to do.

I really, really, REALLY wish they would actually slow the bleep down. They need to give these games more time to develop so they can actually shine like Pokémon games deserve to shine. This feels like they're tossing out soggy bread just to feed the people, but everyone loves the baker so everyone jumps in to buy the soggy bread anyway. Well I for one don't want soggy bread.

I truly, very much hope they can make good games out of these. I'll keep an eye out for 'em, but they haven't exactly wowed me since generation 5. Please let these games be the ones to return the wow for me, I still love Pokémon and I want to jump back in but they're making it really hard to do so!

Scarlet and Violet are actually opposites. On the color spectrum, the two are on totally different ends.

More like "TPC, slow down" since BDSP wasn't made by GameFreak

Are X and Y opposites? Is A the opposite of B? Is C the opposite of D?

Yes! PLEASE! For the sake of the franchise! Slow down! Sword and Shield were already a rushed disaster, and Legends Arceus just came out a month ago! They're Pokémon games! Not dialysis treatments! We can survive a few years without getting one!

I never understand these arguments
No one is forcing everyone to buy games, or watch movies.
Come out with as many quality entries as you can. I can play 2 games a year with plenty of time for lots of others.
Drown me in Pokémon please

@chipia I guess they are in terms of chromosomes. And the whole Zygarde thing tied into DNA.

Well... Arceus doesn't count as a full game really...

I didn't know Diamonds were opposite to Pearls.

Hmm... our biggest criticism was rushed games... what should we do....

RUSH MORE GAMES OUT FASTER!!!

@VoidofLight but they've already DONE red! Now we have Pokémon Red and Pokémon Scarlet? That's just flippin confusing!

As much as I enjoyed Legends Arceus I really wish they had waited a little longer to release it. They could have spent the rest of this year refining it and it would have been a great end of year release. Then make Gen9 the end of 2023 release. As it currently stands my fear is none of what worked well in Legends Arceus will carry forward. They really need to take more time for these things.

My guess is it was going to be ultraviolet and infrared but they decided against it.

@nessisonett X and Y aren't really opposite chromosomally. There's a heck of a lot of essential stuff on the X that everyone needs. And Y barely even qualifies as a chromosome, it's titchy and codes hardly anything.

With Arceus out, I really want time to relax and enjoy exploring the Pokemon world. It is definitely too soon to get excited about any other release.

The other thing I agree with, is that the Pokemon textures look good! I love scrolling through the Pokedex in all Pokemon games and studying the models in there.

Who knows, half a year is still plenty of time to get enthusiastic.

I just keep reading violet as violence.

Largely agree with the consensus here, GameFreak really needs to slow down and Gen 9 is feeling totally rushed. Even if you discount all the other games, it's only been 3 years from Sw/Sh and graphically, there is barely an improvement from those games. Yes open-world is nice but we just had that revolutionary moment like a month ago with Legends Arceus. I would have been much more enthusiastic for another high quality spinoff like Pokken Tournament or a Mystery Dungeon game instead (sadly those games did not sell well enough) or even a Let's Go Johto game, the timing would have been much more appropriate.

@oatmaster Well yeah but more in the sense that X and Y are a binary choice when it comes to chromosomes. It’s either X or it’s Y. I’d assume that’s where it comes from.

I mean it's been 3 years since gen 8, this seems pretty standard for pokemon.

I think the reason people are making such a huge uproar right now or why this feels too soon is because Legends just released and it's only a month old.

Scarlet and violet are opposites they’re color compliments. Color compliments are always opposite. But really the people in the comments don’t know if the game needs more development time or not, it’s not about the time of reveal to release date it’s about how much closed door time it has already had and no one but them know that for certain. These have probably been in the making since arceus. Weird way to show that you care and want a quality game then saying yeah this needs more time after seeing or knowing nothing. If they want to release it then it’s their right to do so. Disrespecting their decision to do so by saying oh this definitely needs more time slow down is just insulting. It can come from a place of compassion but it comes off rude. They develop games for a living they’re fine.

I do not mind, I enjoy the games. However, Nintendo should provide them people from Zelda team to optimize the game and polish the technical issues.

Slow down?? If they turn out to be good games as they’re being developed by different teams then why slow down? I hate waiting years for games. Slow down? More like bring it on

I think since Gamefreak didn’t work on BDSO, and PLA felt like a demo for this game, we won’t have to worry about Scarlet and Violet being “rushed”

Also can we please start referring to it as Pokémon SV or ScVi, I’m too lazy to write all the letters lol!

@Axecon While they may be rushed, Gen IX is a huge improvement from SwSh. Sure it doesn't look great still, but SwSh looks worse than upscaled Sun and Moon at times. These games look almost in the realm of acceptable on Switch.

I would imagine it's difficult to expect them to invest and make their games more ambitious by producing 1 game every so often.

@Axecon Game Freak have two development team/divisions, one could have worked on Pokémon Legend Arceus and the another on Gen 9, in 3 on 3 years, a new Pokemon generation is released.

@chipia yes Y e X is opsosites, oposites of dimensions.

@Giancarlothomaz
GameFreak does a ton of outsourcing - that's how they will be able to release two new open-world/open-exploration Pokemon games this year.

2010: gen 5( DS)
2013: gen 6(3DS)
2016:gen 7(3DS)
2019:gen 8(Switch)
2022: gen 9(Switch)
see on 3 on 3 years, a new Pokemon generation is released.

This and Zelda botw2 point out that Nintendo is going to release new Switch or a new console in 2023

To be fair, diamond and pearl aren't exactly opposites either.

Nor is ruby and sapphire, since their just stones.

Or even red and blue, for this matter!

Go ahead.
I'm sure they can handle their project.

One thing I feel people might not be aware enough is that open world games takes a lot of time to do and this really will be Game Freak 1rst open world game. 3 years since Sword/Shield is not enough. Cautiously pessimistic.

The Pokémon Legends team is separate from the new Pokémon team? Is that true? Because if so, then this could make more sense. I don't remember Game Freak having development divisions.
If the game needs more polish, I wouldn't mind a delay to early next year, as long as Game Freak doesn't remain silent before release! Where have the interviews gone? I hope to see more development videos of their games like SwSh even had one.

@Yosher Chances are LA was delayed a year for Covid and the remakes have nothing to do with gamefreak. So they released two games this year with one likely being delayed a bit. Likely gen 9 has been on development since gen 8 finished. Three years is more than enough time and typically how gamefreak does it. I don't see a problem

@Giancarlothomaz Developing a game on a portable console that is not even HD (gen 5 is not even 3d it’s 2D sprite based) is NOT comparable to developing on a HD console, especially in the case of an open-world from a studio who have no experience making them.

@Duboiss It's definitely enough time. I don't believe they should do an open world game or that this even is one. Could be this is just like swsh with several wild areas instead of one. That would make more sense. It would be pushing the switch to have many towns and dungeons and frankly they look better in the style swsh did. I don't think open world games should be on the switch. The thing is basically comparable to a PS3. Even if that's not strictly true, open world games still look about 15 years old on the switch. It works a lot better with smaller games.

I mean, really, there was two and a half years between swsh and the last two games. I think you can blame Covid for that release schedule. I don't think it ultimately matters. Its not like scarlet and violet started development after LA finished and the remakes weren't developed by gamefreak at all so they wouldn't have any effect on these new games. I'm really convinced that the only reason we're seeing three games this year is that development was slowed down because of Covid and it turns out that this is how things worked out. Given how Pokemon games release on a three year schedule it probably always was the plan for gen 9 to release this year and LA to be a buffer but it got delayed a few months.

I feel like TPC has some behind the scenes thing where they told GameFreak they're making a game each year, and GF doesn't have a choice. And it would be one thing if GameFreak had a lot of devs to handle it, or just had really good ones - but neither is true. They have something like less than 30 game devs that are always split into 2 halves, and those said game devs couldn't even get 3DS games to look and run well. Either TPC needs to chill out, or GF needs to hire more people. Preferably both though, but neither is likely.

I really would've preferred if this was like 2020 - with instead of a new game, Legends got dedicated DLC. The DLC still takes time to develop, but they'd still have gotten a lot more time to work on Scarlet & Violet. If they really wanted a new game for 2022, hire ILCA to make another remake but tell them to stop the 'stick to the originals except when we feel like it to' crap. It's not hard to make a good remake.

I think most people in here need to slow down. Y’all really think they just started developing this game or something? It’s pretty clear it’s been in development for some time.

Arceus was essentially launched a beta test to see how an open world model would work and be received. They made a ton of changes and advancements from swsh, which while lackluster was TPC’s first venture in the the semi open world concept. Just because the release dates “feel rushed” has absolutely nothing to with the actual production being rushed. It pretty obvious the last two game freak titles were stepping stones to get to this point. A fully open world mainline game.

@Yosher couldn’t have said it better. It’s sadArceus was so half baked! If Scarlet/ Violet would end up a DLC for Arceus- that would redeem Arceus a bit for me, since the character would travel back to his time! It would make the game a complete package. I would so much prefer if they actually started caring for their games and put serious effort into extremely polishing them! Or they will burn in hell likeAssassin Creed! Pokemon is not FIFA!

If sales are good, they'll probably keep this pace. If sales are lackluster, perhaps they'll give fans some breathing room. I'm playing through Pokemon Blue and Brilliant Diamond right now, so it's nice knowing I'll never run out of games.

@Xansies If LA was delayed then realistically these games should have been as well. Regardless, the last few generations have just not been fun at all in my opinion, which could be fixed by just giving the games more development time.

Just imagine, if you will. For ONE generation, they take two, maybe even three years of extra development time to ensure they can make them the best they can be. Every pokémon gets proper animations for all the attacks that they do. All characters and pokémon in the overworld are properly animated, including animations where they like, turn around while moving their legs and don't just awkwardly turn around like they're standing on a spinning plate on the ground.

These things alone would be a great way to future proof the series for years to come as they can reuse these much better animations and then focus on other important stuff like story building, battle balance, fun, interesting characters, and God forbid, implement a little bit of proper voice acting. Not to mention polishing up the graphics to actually look like a Switch game (or whatever console the pokémon game at that time would release on).

That is my dream. For them to take their time, to really give the series the attention it deserves. To really future proof the series, to make the games shine again. Make them actually resemble a game that is part of a franchise that is the highest grossing media franchise there is right now.

You may be okay with what they're presenting right now, but you can't tell me you wouldn't love for them to do better. And you know they CAN do better. But they're not doing better because they're rushing things too quickly. And that.... needs to change, if you ask me. They need to change, rework their work flow for at least one generation, and make the greatest pokémon game they can. This would make fans happy, both old and new.

Judge the games, not how soon they are. I am sure you'd be happy if Metroid Prime 4 and Metroid Prime Trilogy all drop within a year of Dread. I loved Pokemon Shining Pearl and Pokemon Legends Arceus even more. Pokemon SV looks incredibly promising.

People can argue separate teams, the mandatory 3 year cycle between generations, or the fact that the previous games are spin off. But these are still full $60 games from one franchise that should last a long time, it feels weird getting another one so soon when something like arceus could've easily satisfied the "big game" of this year

@boxyguy What does last a long time mean? I've put over 135 hours into PLA (haven't touched the update yet). Well and truly got my $60-worth. I don't see an issue with a new Pokemon game coming out at the end of the year.

Why weren't people complaining when Rare was making 4 games in a single year? Oh yes, because people back then were not the self proclaimed Twitter armchair expert generation, they were just playing games and having fun, and if they didn't enjoy one, two or even all of their games, they could gasp not buy them! What a novel concept! It's amazing to live in a world where we have choices! Like a choose your own adventure novel!

One thing I've always harped on the Switch for was having a dry game release schedule filled with mostly ports.

While I understand that these do seem really quick, I'm not going to complain too much. I'm ecstatic to have three exciting games confirmed in one year (Legends Arceus, Kirby, and now Pokemon Scarlet/Violet). My Switch will collect less dust this year. =)

Some people will complain about the frame rate or the graphic fidelity. I couldn't care less about any of that. These are ambitious enough of games going full open world. I'm just going to have fun.

"Scarlet and Violet aren't even opposites" neither are Ruby and Sapphire, Pearl and Diamond, or Red and Blue (notably, the Red and Green Japanese originals could be regarded as opposites as red and green are opposite of each other on the color wheel). Heck Gold and Silver aren't opposites either, but they are a logical pairing all the same.

Regardless, I don't mind the names, but I wish they took it a step further and named them Pokemon Infrared and Pokemon Ultraviolet. Naming the 2 titles for colors that we can't see.

Game Freak actually has production that seems to understand that Nintendo's previous two markets, 3DS and Wii U, has become one under the Nintendo Switch generation. The only other developer that has been cooking with their IP assignment is Monolith Soft with Xenoblade. These two developers actually understand that the Switch's worth comes from its games. The more of them, the better. I don't want them to turn into the Zelda team, no new Zelda adventure game in 5 years (they've fallen off since the Wii/DS era), or gasp Retro Studios, no new game to their name since 2014.

@I-U
The production of Breath of the Wild (and it's sequel) likely required more effort than every single Wii + NDS Zelda game combined, and it's not even close.

Covid doesn't help either.

@I-U @Edward_J_Grug_III idk yearly games just sounds exhausting to me. It's the kinda thing games like asassins creed and call of duty got criticism for

I can appreciate when games like mario and Zelda take their time with mainline games, they really feel like events that shape their genre. For Pokémon it just feels like a quota to reach, and that honestly pushes me away from the series

i get pokemons not trying trying be that, and for fans its great that there will always be new games to look forward too, but I've seen some just as critical and concerned. But that's not my battle to fight

Thought CoD was bad, but they start to slow down and Pokemon goes overboard.

It's more like 7 games if a year is 365 days, kinda ridiculous.

@I-U Yeah, but it's fine for some games to take longer, while smaller titles fill the gaps. This keeps more people satisfied. There is a certain crowd that will pick up a Switch only for games like BotW2. I think Nintendo has found a good balance. Besides, Zelda has often taken a very long time in the past too, look at WW to TP to SS to BotW. On the other hand, Mario taking 5 years plus is mad.

@UglyCasanova All of them different genres by different developers except for Arceus and Scarlet/Violet. And GameFreak themselves have released games even closer to each other before. Play what you like and ignore the rest, very easy to do.

@westman98 I don't know what games took more effort. I'm sure it was an accomplishment for the team to provide a Wind Waker style experience, which had been on superior technology with the Gamecube, twice with Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks on DS hardware. I do know that Breath of the Wild's game size, if managed under the limitations of the Nintendo DS, would've been enough data for a library of quality DS experiences in itself. I'm not expecting that kind of value from any single Switch game, because they would never remotely get there. I did expect to see more original Zelda adventures on the Switch though. Releasing one, original Zelda adventure developed completely for the Switch isn't that impressive of an output.

Meanwhile, Tecmo Koei releases exactly how many Warriors games a year? There’s got to be about 15 of them on the Switch alone by now. And about 13 Atelier games.

At least the Pokémon games are distinguishable from one another (whatever their commonalities may be). And I quite enjoyed Sword/Shield. My only issue was the paid DLC, which they made up for with a complete physical release upon completion of The Crown Tundra.

BD/SP was a stinker (still incomplete!), but was developed by a less experienced team. And I think most weren’t expecting Legends Arceus to be as good as it is, and Scarlet/Violet looks to be the best main series game since Gen II, possibly of all time, and that’s based solely on the strength of the reveal trailer. Bring it on.

@Troll_Decimator With the Switch being the successor to both the 3DS and Wii U, that's what I was expecting from the Zelda team and all teams under Nintendo. There would be that game like Breath of the Wild 2 which could take nearly the entire generation to develop, but along the way an original, HD top down Zelda game or two gets released. Mario has had issues too, but I'm giving them some credit for Bowser's Fury.

@I-U
I'm speaking in terms of the scope of the games and the budget/manpower required to develop them. Breath of the Wild far exceeds all the Wii + NDS Zelda games combined in that regard.

You also mentioned Monolith Soft as a developer who "cooks with their IP assignments" like GameFreak, but Monolith Soft has only made one original game this generation (Xenoblade Chronicles 2 + its Torna DLC) so far with a sequel coming this year, similar to Zelda.

@I-U Did you forget about Link's Awakening? Those games were never done by the same team anyway, but the thing is, Zelda on Switch requires so many more resources than Skyward Sword, that it's basically gonna take all the people you throw at them. They probably have everyone working on Breath of the Wild 2. That said, I do agree that I'd like to see more top down Zelda, absolutely. I bet we won't have to wait too long for one, been a while since we heard what Grezzo is doing.

I guess they wanted to name em Orange and Grape versions but I guess they will keep those for the remakes.

@kalosn THey had the main team working on SwSh while the other team worked on Ultra games or Let's Go games.

@westman98 It is still one game. I do not think Breath of the Wild offers as much value as that collection of games that were released on the Wii and DS. You could make the argument that Breath of the Wild's scope, budget and (maybe?) manpower are more than all previous Zelda adventures combined, but does that translate into an experience equal to the experience you can get from an entire series of games?

Monolift Soft has Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Torna and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. All are exclusive to the Switch. Game Freak has Sword/Shield, Legends: Arceus and now Scarlet/Violet. All are exclusive.

@Troll_Decimator No I didn't. It's a remake of GB game, but considering the technical leap from GB to Switch...maybe it's worth considering as an original entry. I don't know how different the two iterations are personally, as I haven't played either. If you've played them both, do you think there's enough of a difference to look at Link's Awakening on Switch as an original adventure? I do hope we hear from Greezo again soon as well.

Maybe the rush is whats making these new ones look like they are running on the DS.

@KateGray i heard a rumor that they are going to remake all their games at some point into open world games

@Edward_J_Grug_III
There is a difference between metroid( a series which dread was its first game since federation force, but really since other m and the first 2d game since fusion.) and Pokémon which has had 5 games on switch alone.

@Troll_Decimator
Maybe I am wrong, but did rare make 4 games in the same franchise every year?

@I-U
It is the same game just with better graphics. Some would argue the original links awakening is the definitive version.

@MarinoKadame Then I wonder if the Let's Go team was also in charge of Legends: Arceus. If so, then they better be on board with these games too!

@blindsquarel The article/video is about the games coming out too close together, so other Pokemon games previously on the Switch don't seem all that relevant, but regardless, my example included a trilogy of games, so that would also be five for the series (and there are two metroid games in the Nintendo online library too)

@NintonicGamer good luck. I played BDSP and decided it wasn’t worth completing…

My opinion on this doesn’t really count cause I’ve never played Pokémon. Just wanna say that it’s very unlike Nintendo to throw out games of a series in rapid succession.

I wonder (need to look it up) if, all games combined, Pokémon is actually the bestselling franchise on Switch.

@BartoxTharglod red and green are opposites on a colour wheel. Mix pigments properly and you'll get grey, which is true of all colour wheel opposites (aka complimentary colours).

I have no idea why we got Blue version here.

@blindsquarel Absolutely irrelevant whether they are in the same series or not. Arceus is not the same as mainline anyway, it's a spin off.

@I-U Being a remake doesn't make it take much less time, they still made all those assets and code from scratch, the only thing they kept from the original was the design.

@KateGray And then in 10 years they’ll be remade as Pokémon Fire Scarlet, and Pokémon Waluigi Violet and things will be even MORE confusing.

@Ocaz I don’t think scarlet and violet are considered complementary colours (assuming that’s what you meant by “color compliments”) according to either the RGB or RYB colour models.

You can see colour wheels for both models, and in neither are red and violet at opposite ends:

They do, however, lie at opposite ends of the visible light spectrum, as others have noted. Beyond this you have infra red and ultra violet. It’s likely that this is why the two colours were chosen.

But I don’t believe they’re considered ‘complementary’ under any colour system.

@Davzilla As excited as I was to see the Gen 9 reveal, I initially said to myself this might be too much too soon. And part of me still feels that way.

But then I had this same realization that you bring up. I, or anyone for that matter, don't necessarily have to buy these games the day they come out. It's entirely possible to wait and space out your purchases. So you make a great point there.

What even is this? Lol

Who ever said the colors have to be opposites? That's never been a thing. I swear, a game could give everyone who plays it a million dollars and you all would find a reason to cry about it.

Arceus was super it's own thing. It's going to keep being its own thing. Bdsp was a remake of an older game. This game is the next in line after sword and shield which was released well over 2 years ago. There has been completely separate groups of people working on the 3 games. You literally even said that yourself and then proceeded to say they're working too much and locked in their office anyway.

Everyone cries when games take too long. everyone cries when games don't take long enough. everyone cries when games cost money. everyone cries when games aren't perfect. Apparently everyone cries if your color spectrum isn't still what they want it to be.

I deserved this waste of time. I saw the pfp and decided to read anyway... lesson learned.

Maybe they aren't going for opposites at all, and are instead mimicking the 3 original titles outside of Japan: Red, Blue, and later Yellow, to make up the 3 primary colors of the RYB color model. (If they hadn't used Green already in Japan, a second gen of Green, Orange and Purple (secondary colors of the RYB model, made by mixing 2 primary colors together) would have been perfect.)

Now, I'm not exactly sure if Violet and Scarlet really land together in a trifecta of related colors, but maybe they can if not in the RYB model, than in the RGB model, and if so maybe they're leaving it open for a possible third entry to drop later to complete the trifecta.

@Davzilla You can play as much as you want but GF can't develop as much as they want without quality inevitably suffering. To quote The Simpsons "do you want it done right or do you want it done fast?"

@FireRabbit Check metacritic and the sales - the quality is strong and the majority enjoy these games, There's just a very vocal group of complainers.

Maybe they should put all their efforts to create one outstanding Pokémon game instead of 3 good games with below average graphics.

@oatmaster Those would've been much cooler names.