A Pokémon-Inspired RPG More Than 20 Years In The Making Is Finally Heading To The Switch

Looks like this could be a fun romp! Colour me interested! I love the pixel art style.

Love the earthy color pallete they used. Makes it look like the pixelart was printed on wood or parchment. I also like the style quite a bit. Definitely gonna keep an eye out.

Nintendo: Congratulations! Except... we already trademarked whimsical Japanese fantasy worlds... checks watch 15 hours ago. Please understand.

Great style and interesting yokai designs. I am very interested.

Looks like a lost GBA games which is a good thing. Will definitely check it out once I get through with all the other RPGs I had to get through first.

So glad this is a japanese game. I'll probably get it day one.

I am one of those people who haven’t played Pokémon for awhile. This seems different in a good way and the artwork is captivating.

The art style reminds me of Metal Slug.

Looks fantastic. Love Pokemon, love Yokai, love the SNK style pixel art. Will definitely preorder or day one (especially if they release a physical copy in JP).

That game looks beautiful

Looks like a Metal Slug game, turns out it's made by the same team. Neat.

This looks so much better than anything GameFreak has done in the last 15 years or so. Honestly, I unrealistically wish they would go back to pixel art since it's become clear that their 3D tech is (politely said) kind of rubbish. They could even partner with Square-Enix to create HD-2D remakes of the gen 1-3 games. One can always dream...

Not my thing really, but glad it got finished!

@KoopaTheGamer I like your partnership idea! That’d be neat indeed. I’d like to play the new ones but the graphics turn me off badly - and I wouldn’t call myself a graphics snob.

@infostormerdotcom lol, not sure if you’re trolling but that was still funny. What are the ”manly games” of yore that you refer to?

@molkom somebody tell him that Cho Aniki Collection is available on Switch!

/grabby hands
All monster collector games are welcome, now I can't wait 🥲

The exact kind of thing I fw. Day one

@infostormerdotcom Name them

This could be good.

Hopefully there are kitsune/youko...

Gotta wonder, what are the odds that this ends up primarily compared to some cheesy Pokémon-wannabe franchise centered around the usage of ghost watches? One that the actual Pokémon fans weren't too thrilled of back in the day and still aren't now...one whose fourth mainline installment fell into limbo as far as localization is concerned and is unlikely to ever emerge from said limbo (partly due to sales figures being lower than anticipated due to the games releasing on Pokémon's turf)...

@infostormerdotcom You got it, give me some examples of manly Japanese games they were once mass producing.

@Kingy
As @infostormerdotcom can’t seem to follow his own conversation, a quick google search shows the top 5 Japanese games by revenue are,
Mario
Pokémon
Final Fantasy
Resident Evil
Zelda
As a man I can confirm all very Manly.

@OneArmedGiant As a fellow man I am inclined to agree

I wonder for how many patent infringements will Nintendo sue in this case?

@infostormerdotcom So for the most part you want them to return to action/arcade design.
A lot of those games have the same cutesy anime style that I assume you're dismissing other games for though.
Like I can't really see what distincts Knights of the Round as being "manly", where Zelda is "not manly". When both games are about anime-style protagonists battling the forces of evil to save a kingdom.
Another example being Shock Troopers and Sunset Riders. Shock Troopers is my favorite Neo-Geo game barring anything from Fatal Fury / KOF, and it has the aesthetic of a super-macho guerrilla game - but it's more like a parody. The player and enemy sprites are extremely silly and it revels in creating as much cartoon violence in its scenarios as it can. Not a game that I'd say takes itself very seriously (same with Sunset Riders and westerns).

At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, even Super Mario Bros. is a game about two working class immigrants getting isekai'd into a fantasy kingdom, and selflessly rescuing its monarch from a warring nation. Sounds pretty ***** manly to me lmao.

Graphically it looks amazing, but that main character... Doesn't do it for me at ALL. So... Not sure if it is for me.

@N64-ROX 🤣

@Kingy I was thinking the same thing about the arcade angle. Most of those are classic run-and-guns and arcade action titles.

As I see it, those games really flourished before the arcade business declined. Arcade games demanded people understand them within about 5 seconds and be mechanically driven rather than story-driven, so big investments into that kind of design made sense from a business perspective. The same design DNA still exists — there was even a new Contra released recently — but it’s mostly in AA and indie titles now. So no longer mainstream and less likely to be mass-produced or the focus of the biggest teams at large companies (apart from possibly some fighting games like Street Fighter).

I’d argue this style has declined globally rather than being a Japan-only thing and feels more like a state-of-the-market. I also don’t really see many new “Rambo”-style movies coming to cinemas anymore either.

Wow! Highly interested in this game. Like others have said, it's a great mix of earthy colors and GBA-like pixel art. Pokemon gameplay is a great hook, and the yokai theme is a good staple for monster design. Definitely am going to wishlist/preorder this on my eShop right away!

Buy it quick before Nintendo's lawyers hear about it.