If anything eeethat they described is... a very logical flow for a game? I mean, this rumor almost shine by how it hints at what seem to be very traditional rather than radical unlike many other rumors were with ton of "wishlist" like feel.
Whereas here... "clear Hyrule region by region of a toxic miasma" isn't only just traditional... it's literally been done bernier in Twillight Princess to a similar thematic almost?
Plus as they say there IS indeed no need for Link to prop up more towers anymore. So that would be a VERY logical way to handle the sequel's world.
More than others, I think this one is into something because it's that... humble in it's suggestion of you look at it in terms of gameplay?
This is just me randomly musing but I wonder if what I'd like of the Smash Bros 'franchise' after Smash Ultimate would truly be "a new Smash Game".... or "a Subspace Emissary spiritual successor as a full blown metroidvania building in that meeting of worlds crossover theme".
@Blizzia it was confirmed for ages but the likes of Directs are still a good way to go "hey not only is this coming here, it's coming soon" and thus to renew awareness of it in the fans' eyes.
Which ultimately is the sort of thing Directs are about. And probably why nindies might generally come before the "main" Directs because fans are always hungry for "any" Directs and using that hunger to actually promote indies games before the "real" Direct come to sate it is a nice way for Nintendo to REALLY support indies in ways so many other platforms... don't.
@bones indie direct likely always come first anyway because otherwise people would automatically ignore it if they'd anyway gotten the "bigger" Direct first.
In a way, and especially considering how fast the eshop moves these days, it's a very nice way for Nintendo to continue showing true commitment to supporting indies.
Plus if you want to think about it, Direct are like concerts. It's always newer/smaller bands serving as the "opening act" to warm up the crowds before the main gig. But often some of them can be very much chosen because they are very decent acts on their own.
Because at the end of the day people will come to the concert for the main gig... but if it came BEFORE the smaller bands people would leave as soon as the main gig was over and potentially miss on what might have been a surprising discovery for them in the form of these smaller bands.
So having nindies before "real" direct might be a really smart move from Nintendo since re: people will be hungry for ANY Directs thus the appeal of Directs will still draw people to pay attention for the Nindies one to whet their appetite before the "main" gig... and perhaps because a nice discovery or two along the way.
@dougphisig tbh the nindies Direct always came before full blown Direct.
It's a way for Nintendo to show they're still committed to indies which were probably some of the ONLY third party support for Switch in 2017 for the most part, and giving indies their own Direct allow the "full" Direct to better focus on the bigger releases.
And having the nindies Direct first percent it from being immediately overshadowed by the "bigger" which is re: a way for Nintendo to show it's still committed to indies because of a bigger Direct will never be overshadowed by a Nindies direct coming first... a Nindies Direct would risk being utterly ignored(even when it has sizable surprises with the potential to become fan-favorite) by a bigger Direct coming first.
Hate it or not, having the Nindies direct coming first when fans are hungry for ANY Direct is a good way to let potential indie "gems" the chance to shine at all when, as many stated, the pace of releases on the eshop can bury many among them so very quickly without a signal boost provided by the likes of a Direct.
@mesome713 honestly Animal Crossing is big enough that it is by itself likely the biggest reason for the "delays" in this year's Direct. Plus the only "know" mid-big release with a known release date is SE's Trials of Mana which releases only in April so having Directs with blurbs about it would have been a bit too early before March.
Also, it's a possibility that coronavirus and how much it forced companies further into remote world could have delayed a little bit something like a Direct which makes uses of film crew/etc to prepare after all.
@Kalmaro basically my own thoughts ... though I had an inkling this gap existed ever since picking up Dragon Quest 7/8 on 3DS and enjoying the convenience of handheld play for my schedule but just wishing at times I could just... plug the thing into my TV so I could lean back on my couch, controller in hand rather than held up in front of my face, when having time to really relax at home.
Similarly the points raised in the interview confirm my hunch about handheld gameplay: by making the Switch a handheld console with decent performance it answered the things that remain a huge weakness of smartphone and mobile games: the lack of standardized dedicated gaming controller and hardware(where phones are so varied they're running into the same issue than PC gaming's lack of standardized hardware for performance/compatibility) but also how many mobile games are bound by data cap/etc... which is a non-issue for the great majority of Switch games.
And unless somehow phones ever answer this, and to do so they'd have to cease to be phones imo, the Switch just showed why dedicated hardware remains more than relevant.
Incidentally it also show why streaming won't be overtaking consoles anytime soon imo even if it does make it's own niche someday... but I suspect that niche might be smaller than we think.
@Crockin perhaps though I note a lack of confirmed holidays releases though. And the truth is THAT is the biggest releases of a year for Nintendo.
Mario Odyssey, Smash Bros, Pokemons. Every years this far had their Fall/Holidays juggernaut lined up close to the holidays rather than before. So, considering it's releasing next month because of delays I would not really think of Animal Crossing -as this year's big release because pre-delays it was more likely planned to be a 2019 juggernaut for a double-whammy holidays knockout with pokemon.
Which is to say that 2020's "juggernaut" is actually probably simply unrevealed yet. So who knows what Fall/Holidays will bring us to try and be in the Odyssey/Smash Bros/Pokemon grade if sales(all of them being 10+ millions copies games).
@Crockin and tbh I wouldn't even be surprised if it somehow released this year in the holidays. Though this said March 2021 would be a very nice timing for BotW's 4th anniversary AND a way to skew trends again with a massive grade release during a time of the year that is usually somewhat of a dry spell for Nintendo (the post-holidays of January-March since generally it's smaller releases that time if the year since people still recover from the holidays rush's expenses)
Either ways i'm almost glad there isn't too many releases in the near future yet as i'm still playing some of the 2019 releases having just started Astral Chain and FE3H study were acquired this year while I now have a second playthrough of Builders 2 ongoing(and my island of Awakening hub is now REALLY benefiting from the accumulated creative experience garnered during my first playthrough)
@Crockin honestly the last decade of gaming with trilogies with releases only 1-2 years apart and the like make me feels like they REALLY skewed up players expectations vis a vis the pace at which games "should" release that it sometimes make me uneasy tbh.
I'm still catching up on getting some of the 2019 releases I was interested into but couldn't get right away because there was such a massive glut of releases that year for me, especially in September alone.
Dragon Quest Builders 2, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Astral Chain, Dragon Quest XI S, Daemon X Machina, Luigi's Mansion... to not mention Pokemon either. And i'm probably forgetting others I was interested into but also had to let pass for the meanwhile
It would have been impossible for me to get all of that on the days they released so much it was a chain gun fire pace of releases.
Some of these I only even got this month in fact despite them releasing last summer.
I've not even gotten the Switch port of Ni No Kuni yet either X_X
@Manah plus "entire library" means having the storage capacity for it anyway.
Either way the Switch was actually a returning appreciation for physical media for me. On one end it's tiny storage means that physical media allow me to biiit bored as much of a SD card just to play my games.
But on another hand of things I feel that having a physical collection actually drive better home the scope of this collection for me? In multiple aspects I mean.
If I have a thousand digital games, can I truly realize how many games that is? And more importantly... what does it means if I never play even just 25% of it all? I'll have a digital library I can't even prune to make it easier to browse whenever I feel like downloading an older game. In fact, just the mess that browsing my Steam library has become has influenced my dwindling use of my PC gaming in general.
In comparison with my Switch retail games, I can very much gauge just away a glance how many games I have. And sometimes just physically browsing the collection allow me to better gauge how I -still feel about a particular game or another.
This has led me to literally just replay(and enjoy doing so) old games of mine instead of jumping straight on the latest release or sale... or inversely decide which games I felt I was truly unlikely to replay ever again, including ones that I loved in the first place and still loved but feel might not be as easily replayable for future playthroughs (an example was Owlboy which I really loved but also was linear and hard enough that I felt it was sadly unlikely I'd ever replay it, leading me to give away my physical copy of the game). After all just like with books there's the ones we likes and thus read over and over just as much as the books we can utterly love but still only read the one time ever because it was that emotionally rough a story or any other reasons.
Either way, all of this has further influenced my decision to stick with physical wherever possible, which weirdly enough make me feel like it make it easier for me to keep that hobby "grounded" as well perhaps because I can physically see when a time of the year saw me add perhaps a bit too many titles to my collection at once and thus when I could perhaps benefit from taking a step back a bit.
In that regard i'm almost kind of glad i'm never "carrying my entire games library with me".
@The-Chosen-one honestly I'd expect future games might trade off less character for the return of something like subspace emissary or something of the like again at least.
Unless Subspace Emissary style experience became it's own crossover game. Honestly I could see potential for a "true" RPG/metroidvania building from its concept of different franchises worlds clashing into each other
@SpicyBurrito16 the big issue might just be the price for bank transfer and extra storage.
Bank transfer in itself is not bad because I assume there's server to server stuff to deal with, so in theory you could get just the one month to transfer anything that's compatible to SwSh but the issue is if you want to KEEP more than the one boxes of pokémons in Home itself where you'd need to continue paying for the extra storage.
For people who were always fine with their in-game storage though, Home's free Basic plan might have a ton of potential though because it still allow transfer from Let's Go and I assume perhaps Pokemon Go as well once integrated while still letting you use wonder box and the GTS got case-by-case transfers using that one free box as temporary "transit" storage before moving stuff to the game itself.
@Razer I think he was talking about the games on Playstation if you read the full article. And I assume that by "lonely" players and "depressive" games he specifically singled out the popularity of the primarily single-player RPGs games Nintendo had just lost access to when Squaresoft and Enix both jumped on the Playstation train without any single N64 releases.
If you think about it the N64 did had plenty of games but the loss of entire genres for Nintendo was not to be underestimated.
And let it be known that if Yamauchi could be known for something, it was apparently being capable of being quite the sore and cranky bitter loser.
To put it simply, that SquareEnix games are back on Nintendo platform is really a feat of the current console generation which shouldn't be underestimated in my opinion.
I mean, Sword and Shield DID sell 16 millions copies in only 2 mere months. While some might see an excuse to be lazy, others might see that much more reason to make sure future works aren't skewed up... or at least reason to make sure future works are indeed a true improvement over what came before.
@Agramonte ironically i'm kind of both unsurprised by there being less high level third party support than other consoles but also still just how much it's getting compared to both the Wii and WiiU?
Third party support on Wii was frequently downright horrible (I mean, Carnival Games shudders. I -still- recall those days??).
@RudyC3 honestly that you said there is a good point regarding software sales because that's perhaps the one area i'm surprised by just how much the Switch keep knocking it out of the ballpark? Like just the latest Pokemon is mind boggling amount of sales in only two months??
@RadioHedgeFund honestly you just summed up my thoughts about aut I feel streaming can barely be considered even a "stopgap" to being an "handheld" replacement.
I don't even dare to imagine the amount of mobile data it gobble up??? Like something tells me my 2gb data plan would beg for mercy before a single week would be over.
@RadioHedgeFund I think they'll still do somewhat okay when those consoles release even if only from just the amount of people who frequently play in handheld.
Sure I can play a PS5 at home but I can't bring it on the bus for my commute to work... which I can for the Switch
@JayJ tbh it's why for me the i improvement of the Switch wasn't as a successor to the WiiU that could be played on the go... but as a successor to nuit 3DS I could finally connect ti my TV(as I often wished I could have done when playing the Dragon Quest 8 remake on my 3DS upon coming home from my commute back from work).
@Grumblevolcano I feel similar though I'd say I still expect "a" Direct sometime in February. However since Byleth only release proper at the end of January, I don't expect a February Direct to be shown until mid-February or even late February. Or rather... there MIGHT be one sooner than that but my own expectations are for later.
@johnvboy tbh we had the pokemon and Smash Direct already this month so if there's anything I suspect it'll be in February.
January's kind of the slow news month since a bit now and tbh it kind of make sense when you think how many people are probably still tapped out from their holidays expenses just last month.
@Andrew5678 tbh I could see nintendo -still getting that in-between game effect simply but later(2021? Holidays 2020?) printing copies of Sword+Shield bundled with the DLC.
Kind of like all those later Skyrim releases including all the DLCs for the same price than when the game first released.
@ShadJV on the two gens per handheld bit I'll also add: did you also notice that the two main gens without remakes getting released(outside of the gb/gbc era of course) were also the last gen of their respective consoles?
Black2/White2 were not only the last games of gen5, but the last games of the DS gens altogether.
Same with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon if you think about it. It does make me wonder if GF had difficulties with console transitions even back then because such games were probably being released while the next gen was probably already in the work(that might even explain areas of SwSh graphics looking like they're out of a 3DS game if one recall how frosty the Pokemon Company's CEO was about the Switch)
@ShadJV honestly regarding re:DLC the potential they add is for the entire gens to be a single pair of games in fact with the rest being multiple DLCs passes stretching a single game that much farther , and still capable to satiate the retail market with "definitive/game if the year/etc" bundled rerelease 1-2 years after which in themselve can give the game a second breath without invalidating the original release because they're the same. One just just come with the DLC included after enough time has passed to justify the price drop for the bundle to that of a standard release.
Interestingly if you think about the fact that the Jotho games also included Kanto as their post games, there even is the (light) possibility of even "remake regions" becoming DLC("Diamond Sword"/"Pearl Shield" expansion pass in 2021?). This could be interesting since this would mean the potential for the first game since the DS era to have two regions... if they decide ful go that route in 2021+ for any reasons.
That's just an example but it shows fire further it could be interesting if another expansion pass released in 2021. Though the national pokedex has 890 pokemons in it now, only 400 were featured in Sword and Shield. But with the expansion pass this year, that number should raise to 600+. Not only the largest the regional dex in the entire franchise, but close to 66-75% of the entire national dex.
If, as an hypothesis, they decide to have a second expansion pass in 2021... they could well decide to push things such as to make this(with DLCs) the first game in the franchise where players could catch the ENTIRE national dex if they felt they could pull it off. And that would be a first because in no games before could one fill the national dex without even needing a transfer from a past game.
Of course SwSh aren't there yet. But it's just to say that the doors of possibilities now opened by the pandora box of finally supporting DLCs means it's actually well within the realm of possibilities now for 2021+.
@mrmememan a decent point. I guess what I meant is I see home less rejuvenating sales than actually helping current players active a bit longer and this likely continuing to talk about the game which could get more to hop in that were still on the fence?
This said it's not like these games have been lacking in sales at all. Plus once those DLC will be out these will be officially the games where a player will be able to catch the most pokemons in the game itself without requiring them to be transferred from a past title(the biggest regional dex to this day was Kalos' at 457 but with the DLCs we now know Galar's 400 will rise to 600+ pokemons that will players will be able to catch).
@Coolie Yup. Plus the 30$ isn't even "per" pack, but for both expansions. So technically if they were sold separately it'd be closer to 15$ for each DLCs regions.
But honestly it's not a bad turn of thing for pokemon. Even at only s single 30$ to get both new region, the actual staggered releases of both region is an advantage not just in time given to complete the content but also specifically in "time the game remains visible" since the release of such DLCs and content updates gives gaming news sites/etc more time to discuss said upcoming content, thanks to which the game remain continually in a measure of spotlight rather than being immediately eclipsed because of other games releases. In a way I think it's the thing that surprise me from Nintendo is how they've thus really adapted to the current gaming environment where there are so many fast-fire releases it can be hard to remain visible at all past the release day.
Which is to say, I'm not sure if Splatoon 1/2 would have been such successful games if they had released with more content at release but had none of these plethora of post-release content updates to remain visible at all past their release. I wouldn't be surprise if it was their success in doing so that helped inspired other nintendo titles, be it in the additions of DLCs or even just smaller post-release content updates themselves(like Mario Odyssey for a while, leading up to Luigi's balloon world minigame/online scores and all).
Edit: Also another Sword and Shield Pokemon; while there's still the matter of "no full national dex" yet, the Galar dex is rather interesting if you compare it to regional dexes of past games. Like even at release, at 400 pokemons the Galar dex was basically the third biggest regional dex in the franchise(Biggest was XY Kalos' at 457, followed by USUM's Alolan dex at 403... even SM's was smaller at 300ish).
By the end of DLC, however, with 600+ total pokemons as it sounds it will be like just thanks to returning pokemons alone, Galar will have THE biggest regional of the entire franchise in terms of pokemons that can be caught in a single game rather than having to be transferred by past titles. And that doesn't get into if they decide to add more DLCs in 2021. With the national dex currently at 890, an hypothetical 2021 DLC expansion pass could well make Sword and Shield potentially the first game in the entire franchise to come close to allowing players to "catch"(rather than transfer) the entire national dex in a single pair of games. Something unseen before in the franchise due to how many pokemons could only be acquired through transfers from other titles.
@mrmememan The way I see it, it's streak is already excellent. And it doesn't have to remain a "best-seller of the week" every week to still produce a trickle that will continue to add up.
The way I see it, Home(especially if handled remotely well but not every "neccessarily" so as long as it provides the needed functionality) might add a bit more longevity since it'll allow to transfer likely not just existing pokemons but also the likes of Alolan(and "regular" for Galar formes) formes of current pokemons. I could even see some current players using this as an excuse to start a new save altogether using low level alolan-mons for a different early team composition(since we get Alolan Vulpix among others, for example, thanks to being in the data). I know that's my own plan ^^;
Otherwise, what I can see is the DLC themselves giving this a second-wind sales boost in June and Fall.
Perhaps even a "third-wind" if they ever release a base game+DLCs bundle at retail come holidays at the end of the year.
Though that might be held back for 2021 instead so it's not "too close" from the original DLCs' releases so early adopter don't complain about "newcomers" getting DLCs for cheaper through that bundle than the "early adopters" who would have bought them separately.
Either way, it's an interesting they've done. Because even if cheaper than a fullblown releases(like Ultra Sun was a full priced gameeven though it's content might as well have been DLC for Sun)... the staggered release of the DLCs themselves are a perfect mean to keep the games in the spotlight over a much more drawn-out fashion than traditional releases(in fact, this is why DLCs/post-release content updates have become so popular. It's not just about "couldn't include it at release" but rather that with how FAST releases go in this era, the continual flow of updates/etc after release is a way for a title to remain visible AT ALL past it's release date, so that new players keep seeing the game in news/etc... and thus continue to buy it rather than immediately jump on whatever is the latest release instead).
I don't want to make any bet we WILL get such titles but on the other hand the timing would be good for it. All the biggest core franchises of the current era got their titles(even pokemon and Fire Emblem got their latest title last year) so the timing could be perfect to reintroduce franchise such as Paper Mario and others since the Switch is very much well established now.
@Dijita honestly if that rumor somehow prove true, I feel that people expecting a portable PS4 are indeed going to be sorely disappointed.
At BEST I just see this as the equivalent of a New 3DS will be just, once they likely realized that those "New"-exclusive titles didn't catch on, faster load time/etc and more consistent framerates under -existing- FPS caps of games and ultimately extremely few to none graphics improvement.
I.e. performance boost under current goals for games, maybe , but people shouldn't expect higher resolution or additional shaders/etc.
And that's assuming these rumors ARE somehow true.
@JayJ not without another Fire Emblem game in the first place. I could be wrong but there is no FE game that got more than a single full character except Awakening with both Robin and Chrom. And Chrom's an echo fighter so technically he doesn't count as a "new" character(which is why the fighter pass hasn't included echo fighters. And though I could be wrong, I suspect that if we get more echoes it will be as part of the free content of updates than paid dlcs who will likely continue to focus on fully new characters)
And honestly was Byleth that surprising? They had Three House since July 2018 but without a lead character in Smash yet.
Honestly I thought we could perhaps get a pokémon rep because of Sword+shield but as said that was forgetting Three House had been released much earlier and still didn't have "its" rep.
So take it as you may but my prediction for Fighter Pass 2:
no fire Emblem character unless a new game or port gets released before the pass is over
-a pokemon representative before the end of the pass. Likely one of the current starter or a new trainer character based on a franchise npc(the easy guess would be Hop or Leon if they make the effort of going the trainer route instead of just a token pokemon again. A wildcard might be the new fighting type l legendary from the upcoming dlc story )
@KryptoniteKrunch Crash or Rayman might be doable but i'm still unsure about Doomguy. Tbh I HAVE been surprised by some of the inclusion but so far even most of the characters included nonetheless have their own silliness that still fits the wackiness of Smash?
The closest I can think of for Doomguy is basically that small mini-Doomguy doll he can fist bump which COULD make a decent in-game taunt. But otherwise something like the Dragonborn might be more doable as a Bethesda rep.
However even with that considered I think the biggest issue facing Bethesda reps and many western developers in general is that too many of our characters are made with a "realistic" texturing style that might not mesh as well in the Smash bros environment?
Currently even some of the more realistic human characters in Smash still have either an anime edge to them or similarly unrealistic aspect that can be almost cartoon-like(Snake carton box "stealth tool" for example). Some of them louve Bayonetta even go outright with unrealistic proportions that add to such(Bayonetta's head to body proportions are even directly based after the standards of fashion designer sketches which uses an unrealistic "10 heads tall body" instead of realism 7-8 heads tall body).
To a degree it's why I often feel that you have more chances of seeing a full playable representative from indie devs than your average AAA franchise.
Kind of why we got Banjo & Kazooie but not Master Chief from Microsoft, for example.
@Arnold-Kage perhaps echo fighters could be fighter pass 2 but honestly I wouldn't be surprised that IF écho fighters then might be part of the "free" content of an update
@Arnold-Kage tbh considering Smash 4's last DLC was Corrin and that Three House was still without a rep, I kinda expected this. This said except for Chrom(which sidestep this a bit as an echo fighter) nd Robin... I don't think there's ever been any FE game with more than a single Smash character?
So short of a new Fire Emblem game I think you're safe to think FP2 will be FE-free so to speak
My own prediction:
*these rumors about Dante could make him a decent pick for FP2.
*There's also technically room for a gen8 pokemon or even trainer again(which could be fun tbh with a decent selection)
perhaps more of a mix of third and first parties this time around(FP1 was 80% third parties until that Byleth combo breaker)
The length of the direct make me think of a couple of possibilities:
1: basically, a new "multifighter" like a pokémon trainer(Leon or others from gen8?) ... or an Astral Chain rep(combining eithet fighter switch or dual active "fighters"... or both), the length being used to better describe every characters included in the fighter
2. Fighter reveal but also hints of the next season pass. Perhaps in depth detail about the current fighter because of a release this month rather than February
3. Not only a new fighter but new content might be outright on the way this time will be spent to discuss the new content/ modes.
Eithet way, such a long stream feels unusual to introduce a fighter? So I feel there must be indeed something special such as either a fighter that's multiple characters and/or a release date that's sooner rather than later and thus they would get into more details on the fighter so that players can immediately "jump in" as it were.
Perhaps moreso since really only the islands/etc are DLC exclusive.
The pokemons, once added, can be used by all through trading or transfer from old games.
This specific details(that you don't even need to pay for the actual pokemons) is what make me feel there really was logistics issues trying to cram them all in the game.
@Bobb honestly I kind of hope this approach is indeed here to stay because it might mean games with longer lifespans before new titles or even generations releases now too.
For all we know "Duliamond and Oearl" could well e 2021's "Expansion Pass 2". After all, if DLCs can remove the need for separate "Ultra/Platinum" release within a generation... why not have them introduce new old regions in DLC form as well for full dual region games for the first time since the Jotho/Kanto duo of gold/silver/crystal?
It certainly made me think about how "Diamond Sword & Pearl Shield" expansions wouldn't have a bad ring to them, if anything(perhaps a perfect title for the late2021 or 2022 game of the year editions to be later aimed at late adopters who missed the initial release of both game and dlcs?) :3
@LUIGITORNADO and it'll probably just be exactly the game+doc at the price of just the game when it released in 2019 instead of the price of the game + the price of one year's worth of DLC
And since it won't release until 2021 at best it won't be aimed at current players but instead simply just making it easier for late adopter to join in.
@Dr_Corndog fortnite also has tons of microtransactions driving up its revenues in the billions now rather than mere million. So that kind of help in allowing Epic to dump 100 whopping millions in mere prize money rather than holding everything back for game development.
I'm pretty sure no one would be ready for "Smash Bros the microtransactions edition" if that's what it took for nintendo to give away better prize money themselves. You already get enough people still grumping about the fighter pass released in 2018 with the game(we're now in 2020 and it's - finally- about to see the end of that first fighter pass cycle) as it is. It's already a surprise there'll be more fighters than but even then they still ran that first pass from 2018 to 2020 before starting to introduce more. Like most people who will get that fifth dlc fighter this year technically bought them in 2018...
@mariomaster96 gen1 starters are already confirmed by a datamine. Ditto all gen7 starters.
Formes for current pokemons are also all in. All of these also have (currently inaccessible as Mew has shown, but they exists in data) all new pokedex entries description, but no pokedex number yet.
Main Gen5+7 legendaries and mythicals are also there + Mewtwo as well.
And as there is no gen8 mythical yet in the data(a franchise first), there's a faint possibility of more being added over time(maybe a job for interns being trained as future staff for the next games or stuff like that? Though that's just a random thought from me )
@The-Chosen-one because pokémon was the hit seller of holidays 2019 AND was already known to banne upcoming content through Pokemon Home releasing in 2020(and likely very soon with ranked battles series 2 having to specify "only pokemons obtained in sword and shield")
@alexybubble another thing I noted: the two main gens WITHOUT a remake taking place(other than gen 1-2) were specifically both gens that were the last to be featured on a console with multiple gens.
literally gen 5 and B2W2 was the last DS gen and gen 7 and USUM was the last 3DS gen(and existed in parallel to the Switch to boot).
Gen1-2: first gens so there was nothing to remake. Gen3: was the only gen on gba and needed the remakes to get older pokemons at all Gen4: gen 2 remake. First DS gen Gen5: no remake. Last DS gen Gen6: tech jump. First 3DS gen. gen 3remake. Gen7: no remake last 3ds gen.
Gen8: first Switch gen. Gen 4 remake? "Gen9": last switch gen? No remake?
@ToonStuff probably Home but I suspect that the direct will still end with something going like "but that's only the start and Home will become only bigger in the future" with future Directs announcing not only more features but stuff like Virtual Console-style releases of more classic titles(either individually or within a GB/GBC/GBA Online app or even a "Pokemon Classics Collection", in which case they might get tied to a Nintendo Online Services subscription to add further appeal to the subscription beyond online play and NES/SNES games).
@WolfyWardark I think it's already use for those digital editions exclusive Kommo-o(?)/Tyranitar(?) dynamax raids?
But even that might this just be an hint of it being indeed a location for future unique event raids(such as legendary or even mythical pokemons dynamax raid events).
Considering that all the legendaries within the game's data are from older gens however, that is something for which they are indeed waiting for Home to be released before they start any such major thing(that -way- veterans might already be able to import their own in parallel to newcomers catching them for the first time).
@Bon_Kurei the fact that Ranked Battle Series 2 in Sw&Sh kings of already indirectly hint that pokemons that can be obtained outside Sword and Shield will soon be a thing(which was text that wasn't presents in Series 1's rules) tells me that Home is coming very soon(before Series 2 is over) and a 20min Direct is exactly the length I'd assume a Direct announcing Home and it's features at release will be like.
MAYBE with hints of future features that might come later when if it's just a single line going "but that's just the feature at release and expect Home to change and grown within even just the next year" with future Directs or announcements being made throughout the year to announce those features(my prediction: interaction mechanics. PokePelago/Hammerlocke University/Nursery-style mechanic. Support for future Virtual Consoles-like classics release. MAYBE a battling environment within the confine of Hone but unlike other stuff that might clash with the "home" theme. Perhaps pokeamie-style minigames eventually. But any of that would only happen later and not at release).
@westman98 basically my own thoughts. One thing I noted of most mobile games is how much Nintendo is NOT involved in them. We might hear of GO at Pokemon Company events but I certainly don't recall hearing of it at a Nintendo event at all.
The closest I can think of is only when Let's GO was revealed and thus only in indirect fashion because it was lewdly a Switch game meant to interact with Pokemon Go in the first place.
I kind if feel that people who think the entire national dex will return to Sword and Shield are... kinda optimistic.
And I say that as someone who DO think there will be more pokemons added to Sword and Shield in future updates throughout the next 1-2 years that will take us beyond the 435-ish(regional formes not included) that were datamined already. I just don't think we'll get the whole national dex necessarily for the same reasons even Pokemon Go doesn't have it yet after so many years now.
This by predictions in order:
1. Pokemon Home's release date will be revealed. Considering Sw&Sh's Ranked Battle Series 2 specifies that allowed pokemons include "pokemons obtained in pokemon sword and pokemon shield"(text that wasn't present during ranked battles series 1), I suspect that Home will thus be released before Series 2 is over. Perhaps sooner rather than later.
2. The Direct might thus be focused around Home's features and how they can benefit Sword and Shield. Since early announcements already confirmed trading between users, I suspect a decent bit of the direct will focus on how the Home environment will support this. This could(but not necessarily) reveal the presence of GTS-style systems within Home's cross-games storage which would explain such a system missing from Swird and Shield. Potentially also bits about how interactions between users within Home will be handled to explain how direct trades could take place at least. Perhaps even confirm nonGalardex pokemons as being able to evolve when traded to another users within Home as they would within an actual game.
4. Probably won't happen but remain possible: the reveal of additional features within Home. Strong contenders in my opinion would be a Poke Pelago-style environment. A slight possibility might be a nursery, allowing pokemons from Galar to be bred with pokemons from outside Sword and Shield(and thus allowing offsprings of compatible species to be exported back into Sword and Shield with appropriate resulting egg moves). Perhaps other similar mechanics close to minigames but honestly anything beyond poke pelago/home hamnerlocke university/nursery feels like a stretch.
5. Most unlikely to happen but sits within the realm of possibility? : an online battler or battle generator allowing classic style battles with 2D graphics or something that can similarly be done on a lower budget. Other similar mechanics that could further justify porting over older pokemons not find within Sw&Sh.
And finally:
6. Actually likely but might just not be ready to reveal yet(and this might be held back for future Directs): Virtual Console-style releases of older games. Such as GBA's RubySapphireEmerald. With support to export(perhaps import compatible ones even?) pokemons into Hpme of course.
Could be done in one of three fashion:
A: As individual eshop purchased(simple but practical and still appealing in itself).
B: As part of a collection app accessed from the Online Services subscription. This could be done either through apps related to their original console(like the NES and SNES current apps) or, in a twist, as part of an outright "Pokemon Classics Collection" app that could, in time, cover multiple consoles generations.
C. A variant of B, but were the "Pokemon Classics Collection" app turns out to be Pokemon Home itself as the very "home" of these games from which we wed acces then in the first place. This one feels like a bit of a stretch but could game strong appeal if this mean players could play the classics games on their own smartphones through the mobile Home app as well.
Finally for the "hypothetical Direct closing bonus":
This one is actually unlikely but a potential reveal at the end of the Stream of Smash Bros's 5th DLC fighter being a 8th gen pokemon(or even trainer with their team of signature pokemons but this one is very much a stretch unless it had begun works soon as Smash had been released in the first place since that would be basically a 3-characters-in-one deal after all).
@Dang69 my dream myself would be for a named trainer fighter.
The franchise has enough of them in it's games, each with enough signature pokemon for a dual/triple fighter switch deal, that it feels like it would have a ton of potential?
Like just from this last gen if potential ones:
Leon: Aegislash/Dragapult/Tyranitar(this last one a maybe?)
Final Smash: gigantamax charizard(he does keep it as his very least pokemon in the champion battle)
Hop: Dubwool/[insert starter]+a third one(a common one I saw him use was corviknight but being a bird body feel unlikely).
Alternatively, being a starting rival, Hop is a good candidate to have a named trainer with all the gen8 starters(Grookey/Raboot/Intelleon?).
Marnie: Morpeko/Toxicroak/Grimmsnarl? Or Obstagoon thrown in instead of one of these. Either way she has a good mix of agile pokemons and bruisers ones.
Bede: perhaps a combination of combination of Galarian Rapidash/Mawile/Hattrenne since iirc Gardevoir is already a pokeball in Smash(I don't know if Mawile may already be as well however).
And of course if they don't limit themselves to gen8 there's always of cross-franchis favorite villain Giovanni with a speedy Persian/charger Rhydon/bruiser Nidoqueen.
Mind you, it'll never happen I fear but there's definitely potential there if they ever decided to.
Comments 1,229
Re: Rumour: New Info About The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild 2 Emerges
@BitLounger I dunno.
If anything eeethat they described is... a very logical flow for a game? I mean, this rumor almost shine by how it hints at what seem to be very traditional rather than radical unlike many other rumors were with ton of "wishlist" like feel.
Whereas here... "clear Hyrule region by region of a toxic miasma" isn't only just traditional... it's literally been done bernier in Twillight Princess to a similar thematic almost?
Plus as they say there IS indeed no need for Link to prop up more towers anymore. So that would be a VERY logical way to handle the sequel's world.
More than others, I think this one is into something because it's that... humble in it's suggestion of you look at it in terms of gameplay?
Re: Masahiro Sakurai Says "It's A Total Blank Slate" After He Finishes Smash Bros. Ultimate's DLC
This is just me randomly musing but I wonder if what I'd like of the Smash Bros 'franchise' after Smash Ultimate would truly be "a new Smash Game".... or "a Subspace Emissary spiritual successor as a full blown metroidvania building in that meeting of worlds crossover theme".
Re: Rumour: Two Nintendo Presentations Expected To Air Before The End Of March
@Blizzia it was confirmed for ages but the likes of Directs are still a good way to go "hey not only is this coming here, it's coming soon" and thus to renew awareness of it in the fans' eyes.
Which ultimately is the sort of thing Directs are about. And probably why nindies might generally come before the "main" Directs because fans are always hungry for "any" Directs and using that hunger to actually promote indies games before the "real" Direct come to sate it is a nice way for Nintendo to REALLY support indies in ways so many other platforms... don't.
Re: Rumour: Two Nintendo Presentations Expected To Air Before The End Of March
@bones indie direct likely always come first anyway because otherwise people would automatically ignore it if they'd anyway gotten the "bigger" Direct first.
In a way, and especially considering how fast the eshop moves these days, it's a very nice way for Nintendo to continue showing true commitment to supporting indies.
Plus if you want to think about it, Direct are like concerts. It's always newer/smaller bands serving as the "opening act" to warm up the crowds before the main gig. But often some of them can be very much chosen because they are very decent acts on their own.
Because at the end of the day people will come to the concert for the main gig... but if it came BEFORE the smaller bands people would leave as soon as the main gig was over and potentially miss on what might have been a surprising discovery for them in the form of these smaller bands.
So having nindies before "real" direct might be a really smart move from Nintendo since re: people will be hungry for ANY Directs thus the appeal of Directs will still draw people to pay attention for the Nindies one to whet their appetite before the "main" gig... and perhaps because a nice discovery or two along the way.
Re: Rumour: Two Nintendo Presentations Expected To Air Before The End Of March
@dougphisig tbh the nindies Direct always came before full blown Direct.
It's a way for Nintendo to show they're still committed to indies which were probably some of the ONLY third party support for Switch in 2017 for the most part, and giving indies their own Direct allow the "full" Direct to better focus on the bigger releases.
And having the nindies Direct first percent it from being immediately overshadowed by the "bigger" which is re: a way for Nintendo to show it's still committed to indies because of a bigger Direct will never be overshadowed by a Nindies direct coming first... a Nindies Direct would risk being utterly ignored(even when it has sizable surprises with the potential to become fan-favorite) by a bigger Direct coming first.
Hate it or not, having the Nindies direct coming first when fans are hungry for ANY Direct is a good way to let potential indie "gems" the chance to shine at all when, as many stated, the pace of releases on the eshop can bury many among them so very quickly without a signal boost provided by the likes of a Direct.
Re: Rumour: Two Nintendo Presentations Expected To Air Before The End Of March
@mesome713 honestly Animal Crossing is big enough that it is by itself likely the biggest reason for the "delays" in this year's Direct. Plus the only "know" mid-big release with a known release date is SE's Trials of Mana which releases only in April so having Directs with blurbs about it would have been a bit too early before March.
Also, it's a possibility that coronavirus and how much it forced companies further into remote world could have delayed a little bit something like a Direct which makes uses of film crew/etc to prepare after all.
Re: Miyamoto Says The Success Of The Switch Was All Thanks To The "Good Timing" Of Its Release
@Xjay you KNOW a Switch ad just started on TV before you even look at it the moment you HEAR that 'click' sound, seriously.
That was such a brilliant decision even if i'm not really one who enjoy as in general ^^:
Re: Miyamoto Says The Success Of The Switch Was All Thanks To The "Good Timing" Of Its Release
@Kalmaro basically my own thoughts ... though I had an inkling this gap existed ever since picking up Dragon Quest 7/8 on 3DS and enjoying the convenience of handheld play for my schedule but just wishing at times I could just... plug the thing into my TV so I could lean back on my couch, controller in hand rather than held up in front of my face, when having time to really relax at home.
Similarly the points raised in the interview confirm my hunch about handheld gameplay: by making the Switch a handheld console with decent performance it answered the things that remain a huge weakness of smartphone and mobile games: the lack of standardized dedicated gaming controller and hardware(where phones are so varied they're running into the same issue than PC gaming's lack of standardized hardware for performance/compatibility) but also how many mobile games are bound by data cap/etc... which is a non-issue for the great majority of Switch games.
And unless somehow phones ever answer this, and to do so they'd have to cease to be phones imo, the Switch just showed why dedicated hardware remains more than relevant.
Incidentally it also show why streaming won't be overtaking consoles anytime soon imo even if it does make it's own niche someday... but I suspect that niche might be smaller than we think.
Re: Hideki Kamiya Says The Development Of Bayonetta 3 Is "Progressing Smoothly"
@Crockin perhaps though I note a lack of confirmed holidays releases though. And the truth is THAT is the biggest releases of a year for Nintendo.
Mario Odyssey, Smash Bros, Pokemons. Every years this far had their Fall/Holidays juggernaut lined up close to the holidays rather than before. So, considering it's releasing next month because of delays I would not really think of Animal Crossing -as this year's big release because pre-delays it was more likely planned to be a 2019 juggernaut for a double-whammy holidays knockout with pokemon.
Which is to say that 2020's "juggernaut" is actually probably simply unrevealed yet. So who knows what Fall/Holidays will bring us to try and be in the Odyssey/Smash Bros/Pokemon grade if sales(all of them being 10+ millions copies games).
Re: Hideki Kamiya Says The Development Of Bayonetta 3 Is "Progressing Smoothly"
@Crockin and tbh I wouldn't even be surprised if it somehow released this year in the holidays. Though this said March 2021 would be a very nice timing for BotW's 4th anniversary AND a way to skew trends again with a massive grade release during a time of the year that is usually somewhat of a dry spell for Nintendo (the post-holidays of January-March since generally it's smaller releases that time if the year since people still recover from the holidays rush's expenses)
Either ways i'm almost glad there isn't too many releases in the near future yet as i'm still playing some of the 2019 releases having just started Astral Chain and FE3H study were acquired this year while I now have a second playthrough of Builders 2 ongoing(and my island of Awakening hub is now REALLY benefiting from the accumulated creative experience garnered during my first playthrough)
Re: Hideki Kamiya Says The Development Of Bayonetta 3 Is "Progressing Smoothly"
@Crockin honestly the last decade of gaming with trilogies with releases only 1-2 years apart and the like make me feels like they REALLY skewed up players expectations vis a vis the pace at which games "should" release that it sometimes make me uneasy tbh.
I'm still catching up on getting some of the 2019 releases I was interested into but couldn't get right away because there was such a massive glut of releases that year for me, especially in September alone.
Dragon Quest Builders 2, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Astral Chain, Dragon Quest XI S, Daemon X Machina, Luigi's Mansion... to not mention Pokemon either. And i'm probably forgetting others I was interested into but also had to let pass for the meanwhile
It would have been impossible for me to get all of that on the days they released so much it was a chain gun fire pace of releases.
Some of these I only even got this month in fact despite them releasing last summer.
I've not even gotten the Switch port of Ni No Kuni yet either X_X
Re: Feature: Super Rare Games On 2 Years Of Switch Releases And The Future Of Physical Media
@Manah plus "entire library" means having the storage capacity for it anyway.
Either way the Switch was actually a returning appreciation for physical media for me. On one end it's tiny storage means that physical media allow me to biiit bored as much of a SD card just to play my games.
But on another hand of things I feel that having a physical collection actually drive better home the scope of this collection for me? In multiple aspects I mean.
If I have a thousand digital games, can I truly realize how many games that is? And more importantly... what does it means if I never play even just 25% of it all? I'll have a digital library I can't even prune to make it easier to browse whenever I feel like downloading an older game. In fact, just the mess that browsing my Steam library has become has influenced my dwindling use of my PC gaming in general.
In comparison with my Switch retail games, I can very much gauge just away a glance how many games I have. And sometimes just physically browsing the collection allow me to better gauge how I -still feel about a particular game or another.
This has led me to literally just replay(and enjoy doing so) old games of mine instead of jumping straight on the latest release or sale... or inversely decide which games I felt I was truly unlikely to replay ever again, including ones that I loved in the first place and still loved but feel might not be as easily replayable for future playthroughs (an example was Owlboy which I really loved but also was linear and hard enough that I felt it was sadly unlikely I'd ever replay it, leading me to give away my physical copy of the game). After all just like with books there's the ones we likes and thus read over and over just as much as the books we can utterly love but still only read the one time ever because it was that emotionally rough a story or any other reasons.
Either way, all of this has further influenced my decision to stick with physical wherever possible, which weirdly enough make me feel like it make it easier for me to keep that hobby "grounded" as well perhaps because I can physically see when a time of the year saw me add perhaps a bit too many titles to my collection at once and thus when I could perhaps benefit from taking a step back a bit.
In that regard i'm almost kind of glad i'm never "carrying my entire games library with me".
Re: No Smash Ultimate DLC Expected Beyond Fighters Pass 2, No Future Smash Games Planned
@The-Chosen-one honestly I'd expect future games might trade off less character for the return of something like subspace emissary or something of the like again at least.
Unless Subspace Emissary style experience became it's own crossover game. Honestly I could see potential for a "true" RPG/metroidvania building from its concept of different franchises worlds clashing into each other
Re: Animal Crossing Direct Announced for 20th February
@mariomaster96 tbh even if the general direct is only in March, getting the big franchises Directs out of the way first isn't a bad idea either
Re: Poll: After 24 Hours, How Are You Getting On With Pokémon HOME?
@SpicyBurrito16 the big issue might just be the price for bank transfer and extra storage.
Bank transfer in itself is not bad because I assume there's server to server stuff to deal with, so in theory you could get just the one month to transfer anything that's compatible to SwSh but the issue is if you want to KEEP more than the one boxes of pokémons in Home itself where you'd need to continue paying for the extra storage.
For people who were always fine with their in-game storage though, Home's free Basic plan might have a ton of potential though because it still allow transfer from Let's Go and I assume perhaps Pokemon Go as well once integrated while still letting you use wonder box and the GTS got case-by-case transfers using that one free box as temporary "transit" storage before moving stuff to the game itself.
Re: Random: The Real Reason N64 Lost To PlayStation? Depressing Games And Lonely Players, Apparently
@Razer I think he was talking about the games on Playstation if you read the full article. And I assume that by "lonely" players and "depressive" games he specifically singled out the popularity of the primarily single-player RPGs games Nintendo had just lost access to when Squaresoft and Enix both jumped on the Playstation train without any single N64 releases.
If you think about it the N64 did had plenty of games but the loss of entire genres for Nintendo was not to be underestimated.
And let it be known that if Yamauchi could be known for something, it was apparently being capable of being quite the sore and cranky bitter loser.
To put it simply, that SquareEnix games are back on Nintendo platform is really a feat of the current console generation which shouldn't be underestimated in my opinion.
Re: Pokémon Developer Game Freak To Relocate To Same Area As Nintendo's New Tokyo Offices
@RobotReptile tbh that might be the plan.
I mean, Sword and Shield DID sell 16 millions copies in only 2 mere months. While some might see an excuse to be lazy, others might see that much more reason to make sure future works aren't skewed up... or at least reason to make sure future works are indeed a true improvement over what came before.
Re: Talking Point: Switch's Success Vindicates Nintendo's New Hardware Approach, But Does It Have Legs?
@Agramonte ironically i'm kind of both unsurprised by there being less high level third party support than other consoles but also still just how much it's getting compared to both the Wii and WiiU?
Third party support on Wii was frequently downright horrible (I mean, Carnival Games shudders. I -still- recall those days??).
Re: Talking Point: Switch's Success Vindicates Nintendo's New Hardware Approach, But Does It Have Legs?
@RudyC3 honestly that you said there is a good point regarding software sales because that's perhaps the one area i'm surprised by just how much the Switch keep knocking it out of the ballpark? Like just the latest Pokemon is mind boggling amount of sales in only two months??
Re: Talking Point: Switch's Success Vindicates Nintendo's New Hardware Approach, But Does It Have Legs?
@RadioHedgeFund honestly you just summed up my thoughts about aut I feel streaming can barely be considered even a "stopgap" to being an "handheld" replacement.
I don't even dare to imagine the amount of mobile data it gobble up??? Like something tells me my 2gb data plan would beg for mercy before a single week would be over.
Re: Talking Point: Switch's Success Vindicates Nintendo's New Hardware Approach, But Does It Have Legs?
@RadioHedgeFund I think they'll still do somewhat okay when those consoles release even if only from just the amount of people who frequently play in handheld.
Sure I can play a PS5 at home but I can't bring it on the bus for my commute to work... which I can for the Switch
Re: Talking Point: Switch's Success Vindicates Nintendo's New Hardware Approach, But Does It Have Legs?
@JayJ tbh it's why for me the i improvement of the Switch wasn't as a successor to the WiiU that could be played on the go... but as a successor to nuit 3DS I could finally connect ti my TV(as I often wished I could have done when playing the Dragon Quest 8 remake on my 3DS upon coming home from my commute back from work).
Re: Expect Game Announcements "Throughout The Year", Says Nintendo
@Grumblevolcano I feel similar though I'd say I still expect "a" Direct sometime in February.
However since Byleth only release proper at the end of January, I don't expect a February Direct to be shown until mid-February or even late February. Or rather... there MIGHT be one sooner than that but my own expectations are for later.
Re: Expect Game Announcements "Throughout The Year", Says Nintendo
@johnvboy tbh we had the pokemon and Smash Direct already this month so if there's anything I suspect it'll be in February.
January's kind of the slow news month since a bit now and tbh it kind of make sense when you think how many people are probably still tapped out from their holidays expenses just last month.
Re: Pokémon Sword And Shield Dethrones Diamond & Pearl In New Famitsu Sales Chart Record
@Andrew5678 tbh I could see nintendo -still getting that in-between game effect simply but later(2021? Holidays 2020?) printing copies of Sword+Shield bundled with the DLC.
Kind of like all those later Skyrim releases including all the DLCs for the same price than when the game first released.
Re: Pokémon Sword And Shield Dethrones Diamond & Pearl In New Famitsu Sales Chart Record
@ShadJV on the two gens per handheld bit I'll also add: did you also notice that the two main gens without remakes getting released(outside of the gb/gbc era of course) were also the last gen of their respective consoles?
Black2/White2 were not only the last games of gen5, but the last games of the DS gens altogether.
Same with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon if you think about it. It does make me wonder if GF had difficulties with console transitions even back then because such games were probably being released while the next gen was probably already in the work(that might even explain areas of SwSh graphics looking like they're out of a 3DS game if one recall how frosty the Pokemon Company's CEO was about the Switch)
Re: Pokémon Sword And Shield Dethrones Diamond & Pearl In New Famitsu Sales Chart Record
@ShadJV honestly regarding re:DLC the potential they add is for the entire gens to be a single pair of games in fact with the rest being multiple DLCs passes stretching a single game that much farther , and still capable to satiate the retail market with "definitive/game if the year/etc" bundled rerelease 1-2 years after which in themselve can give the game a second breath without invalidating the original release because they're the same. One just just come with the DLC included after enough time has passed to justify the price drop for the bundle to that of a standard release.
Interestingly if you think about the fact that the Jotho games also included Kanto as their post games, there even is the (light) possibility of even "remake regions" becoming DLC("Diamond Sword"/"Pearl Shield" expansion pass in 2021?). This could be interesting since this would mean the potential for the first game since the DS era to have two regions... if they decide ful go that route in 2021+ for any reasons.
That's just an example but it shows fire further it could be interesting if another expansion pass released in 2021. Though the national pokedex has 890 pokemons in it now, only 400 were featured in Sword and Shield. But with the expansion pass this year, that number should raise to 600+. Not only the largest the regional dex in the entire franchise, but close to 66-75% of the entire national dex.
If, as an hypothesis, they decide to have a second expansion pass in 2021... they could well decide to push things such as to make this(with DLCs) the first game in the franchise where players could catch the ENTIRE national dex if they felt they could pull it off. And that would be a first because in no games before could one fill the national dex without even needing a transfer from a past game.
Of course SwSh aren't there yet. But it's just to say that the doors of possibilities now opened by the pandora box of finally supporting DLCs means it's actually well within the realm of possibilities now for 2021+.
Re: Pokémon Sword And Shield Dethrones Diamond & Pearl In New Famitsu Sales Chart Record
@mrmememan a decent point. I guess what I meant is I see home less rejuvenating sales than actually helping current players active a bit longer and this likely continuing to talk about the game which could get more to hop in that were still on the fence?
This said it's not like these games have been lacking in sales at all. Plus once those DLC will be out these will be officially the games where a player will be able to catch the most pokemons in the game itself without requiring them to be transferred from a past title(the biggest regional dex to this day was Kalos' at 457 but with the DLCs we now know Galar's 400 will rise to 600+ pokemons that will players will be able to catch).
Re: Pokémon Sword And Shield Dethrones Diamond & Pearl In New Famitsu Sales Chart Record
@Coolie Yup. Plus the 30$ isn't even "per" pack, but for both expansions. So technically if they were sold separately it'd be closer to 15$ for each DLCs regions.
But honestly it's not a bad turn of thing for pokemon. Even at only s single 30$ to get both new region, the actual staggered releases of both region is an advantage not just in time given to complete the content but also specifically in "time the game remains visible" since the release of such DLCs and content updates gives gaming news sites/etc more time to discuss said upcoming content, thanks to which the game remain continually in a measure of spotlight rather than being immediately eclipsed because of other games releases. In a way I think it's the thing that surprise me from Nintendo is how they've thus really adapted to the current gaming environment where there are so many fast-fire releases it can be hard to remain visible at all past the release day.
Which is to say, I'm not sure if Splatoon 1/2 would have been such successful games if they had released with more content at release but had none of these plethora of post-release content updates to remain visible at all past their release. I wouldn't be surprise if it was their success in doing so that helped inspired other nintendo titles, be it in the additions of DLCs or even just smaller post-release content updates themselves(like Mario Odyssey for a while, leading up to Luigi's balloon world minigame/online scores and all).
Edit: Also another Sword and Shield Pokemon; while there's still the matter of "no full national dex" yet, the Galar dex is rather interesting if you compare it to regional dexes of past games. Like even at release, at 400 pokemons the Galar dex was basically the third biggest regional dex in the franchise(Biggest was XY Kalos' at 457, followed by USUM's Alolan dex at 403... even SM's was smaller at 300ish).
By the end of DLC, however, with 600+ total pokemons as it sounds it will be like just thanks to returning pokemons alone, Galar will have THE biggest regional of the entire franchise in terms of pokemons that can be caught in a single game rather than having to be transferred by past titles. And that doesn't get into if they decide to add more DLCs in 2021. With the national dex currently at 890, an hypothetical 2021 DLC expansion pass could well make Sword and Shield potentially the first game in the entire franchise to come close to allowing players to "catch"(rather than transfer) the entire national dex in a single pair of games. Something unseen before in the franchise due to how many pokemons could only be acquired through transfers from other titles.
Re: Pokémon Sword And Shield Dethrones Diamond & Pearl In New Famitsu Sales Chart Record
@mrmememan The way I see it, it's streak is already excellent. And it doesn't have to remain a "best-seller of the week" every week to still produce a trickle that will continue to add up.
The way I see it, Home(especially if handled remotely well but not every "neccessarily" so as long as it provides the needed functionality) might add a bit more longevity since it'll allow to transfer likely not just existing pokemons but also the likes of Alolan(and "regular" for Galar formes) formes of current pokemons. I could even see some current players using this as an excuse to start a new save altogether using low level alolan-mons for a different early team composition(since we get Alolan Vulpix among others, for example, thanks to being in the data). I know that's my own plan ^^;
Otherwise, what I can see is the DLC themselves giving this a second-wind sales boost in June and Fall.
Perhaps even a "third-wind" if they ever release a base game+DLCs bundle at retail come holidays at the end of the year.
Though that might be held back for 2021 instead so it's not "too close" from the original DLCs' releases so early adopter don't complain about "newcomers" getting DLCs for cheaper through that bundle than the "early adopters" who would have bought them separately.
Either way, it's an interesting they've done. Because even if cheaper than a fullblown releases(like Ultra Sun was a full priced gameeven though it's content might as well have been DLC for Sun)... the staggered release of the DLCs themselves are a perfect mean to keep the games in the spotlight over a much more drawn-out fashion than traditional releases(in fact, this is why DLCs/post-release content updates have become so popular. It's not just about "couldn't include it at release" but rather that with how FAST releases go in this era, the continual flow of updates/etc after release is a way for a title to remain visible AT ALL past it's release date, so that new players keep seeing the game in news/etc... and thus continue to buy it rather than immediately jump on whatever is the latest release instead).
Re: Rumour: Prolific Leaker Says We'll Get Paper Mario And A 2D Metroid This Year
I don't want to make any bet we WILL get such titles but on the other hand the timing would be good for it. All the biggest core franchises of the current era got their titles(even pokemon and Fire Emblem got their latest title last year) so the timing could be perfect to reintroduce franchise such as Paper Mario and others since the Switch is very much well established now.
Re: Poll: What Features Would You Want In A Switch 'Pro'?
@Dijita honestly if that rumor somehow prove true, I feel that people expecting a portable PS4 are indeed going to be sorely disappointed.
At BEST I just see this as the equivalent of a New 3DS will be just, once they likely realized that those "New"-exclusive titles didn't catch on, faster load time/etc and more consistent framerates under -existing- FPS caps of games and ultimately extremely few to none graphics improvement.
I.e. performance boost under current goals for games, maybe , but people shouldn't expect higher resolution or additional shaders/etc.
And that's assuming these rumors ARE somehow true.
Re: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters Pass Volume 2 Will Add Another Six Fighters
@JayJ not without another Fire Emblem game in the first place. I could be wrong but there is no FE game that got more than a single full character except Awakening with both Robin and Chrom. And Chrom's an echo fighter so technically he doesn't count as a "new" character(which is why the fighter pass hasn't included echo fighters. And though I could be wrong, I suspect that if we get more echoes it will be as part of the free content of updates than paid dlcs who will likely continue to focus on fully new characters)
And honestly was Byleth that surprising? They had Three House since July 2018 but without a lead character in Smash yet.
Honestly I thought we could perhaps get a pokémon rep because of Sword+shield but as said that was forgetting Three House had been released much earlier and still didn't have "its" rep.
So take it as you may but my prediction for Fighter Pass 2:
-a pokemon representative before the end of the pass. Likely one of the current starter or a new trainer character based on a franchise npc(the easy guess would be Hop or Leon if they make the effort of going the trainer route instead of just a token pokemon again. A wildcard might be the new fighting type l legendary from the upcoming dlc story )
Re: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters Pass Volume 2 Will Add Another Six Fighters
@KryptoniteKrunch Crash or Rayman might be doable but i'm still unsure about Doomguy. Tbh I HAVE been surprised by some of the inclusion but so far even most of the characters included nonetheless have their own silliness that still fits the wackiness of Smash?
The closest I can think of for Doomguy is basically that small mini-Doomguy doll he can fist bump which COULD make a decent in-game taunt. But otherwise something like the Dragonborn might be more doable as a Bethesda rep.
However even with that considered I think the biggest issue facing Bethesda reps and many western developers in general is that too many of our characters are made with a "realistic" texturing style that might not mesh as well in the Smash bros environment?
Currently even some of the more realistic human characters in Smash still have either an anime edge to them or similarly unrealistic aspect that can be almost cartoon-like(Snake carton box "stealth tool" for example). Some of them louve Bayonetta even go outright with unrealistic proportions that add to such(Bayonetta's head to body proportions are even directly based after the standards of fashion designer sketches which uses an unrealistic "10 heads tall body" instead of realism 7-8 heads tall body).
To a degree it's why I often feel that you have more chances of seeing a full playable representative from indie devs than your average AAA franchise.
Kind of why we got Banjo & Kazooie but not Master Chief from Microsoft, for example.
Re: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters Pass Volume 2 Will Add Another Six Fighters
@Arnold-Kage perhaps echo fighters could be fighter pass 2 but honestly I wouldn't be surprised that IF écho fighters then might be part of the "free" content of an update
Re: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters Pass Volume 2 Will Add Another Six Fighters
@Arnold-Kage tbh considering Smash 4's last DLC was Corrin and that Three House was still without a rep, I kinda expected this. This said except for Chrom(which sidestep this a bit as an echo fighter) nd Robin... I don't think there's ever been any FE game with more than a single Smash character?
So short of a new Fire Emblem game I think you're safe to think FP2 will be FE-free so to speak
My own prediction:
*these rumors about Dante could make him a decent pick for FP2.
*There's also technically room for a gen8 pokemon or even trainer again(which could be fun tbh with a decent selection)
Re: Smash Bros. Ultimate's 5th DLC Character Will Be Revealed On 16th January In Livestream
The length of the direct make me think of a couple of possibilities:
1: basically, a new "multifighter" like a pokémon trainer(Leon or others from gen8?) ... or an Astral Chain rep(combining eithet fighter switch or dual active "fighters"... or both), the length being used to better describe every characters included in the fighter
2. Fighter reveal but also hints of the next season pass. Perhaps in depth detail about the current fighter because of a release this month rather than February
3. Not only a new fighter but new content might be outright on the way this time will be spent to discuss the new content/ modes.
Eithet way, such a long stream feels unusual to introduce a fighter? So I feel there must be indeed something special such as either a fighter that's multiple characters and/or a release date that's sooner rather than later and thus they would get into more details on the fighter so that players can immediately "jump in" as it were.
Re: Random: Poor Junichi Masuda Can't Even Enjoy His Birthday Without Someone Moaning About Missing Pokémon
@Duffman92 that's kinda the point of the DLC.
Perhaps moreso since really only the islands/etc are DLC exclusive.
The pokemons, once added, can be used by all through trading or transfer from old games.
This specific details(that you don't even need to pay for the actual pokemons) is what make me feel there really was logistics issues trying to cram them all in the game.
Re: Talking Point: Why Pokémon Sword & Shield's Expansion Pass Changes The Rules For The Series
@Bobb honestly I kind of hope this approach is indeed here to stay because it might mean games with longer lifespans before new titles or even generations releases now too.
For all we know "Duliamond and Oearl" could well e 2021's "Expansion Pass 2". After all, if DLCs can remove the need for separate "Ultra/Platinum" release within a generation... why not have them introduce new old regions in DLC form as well for full dual region games for the first time since the Jotho/Kanto duo of gold/silver/crystal?
It certainly made me think about how "Diamond Sword & Pearl Shield" expansions wouldn't have a bad ring to them, if anything(perhaps a perfect title for the late2021 or 2022 game of the year editions to be later aimed at late adopters who missed the initial release of both game and dlcs?) :3
Re: Talking Point: Why Pokémon Sword & Shield's Expansion Pass Changes The Rules For The Series
@LUIGITORNADO and it'll probably just be exactly the game+doc at the price of just the game when it released in 2019 instead of the price of the game + the price of one year's worth of DLC
And since it won't release until 2021 at best it won't be aimed at current players but instead simply just making it easier for late adopter to join in.
So... not a big deal
Re: Nintendo's President Explains Embarrassing Lack Of Financial Support For Smash Bros. eSports
@Dr_Corndog fortnite also has tons of microtransactions driving up its revenues in the billions now rather than mere million. So that kind of help in allowing Epic to dump 100 whopping millions in mere prize money rather than holding everything back for game development.
I'm pretty sure no one would be ready for "Smash Bros the microtransactions edition" if that's what it took for nintendo to give away better prize money themselves. You already get enough people still grumping about the fighter pass released in 2018 with the game(we're now in 2020 and it's - finally- about to see the end of that first fighter pass cycle) as it is. It's already a surprise there'll be more fighters than but even then they still ran that first pass from 2018 to 2020 before starting to introduce more. Like most people who will get that fifth dlc fighter this year technically bought them in 2018...
Re: Play Pokémon Twitter Account Shows Off Form Not Available Yet In Sword And Shield
@mariomaster96 gen1 starters are already confirmed by a datamine. Ditto all gen7 starters.
Formes for current pokemons are also all in. All of these also have (currently inaccessible as Mew has shown, but they exists in data) all new pokedex entries description, but no pokedex number yet.
Main Gen5+7 legendaries and mythicals are also there + Mewtwo as well.
And as there is no gen8 mythical yet in the data(a franchise first), there's a faint possibility of more being added over time(maybe a job for interns being trained as future staff for the next games or stuff like that? Though that's just a random thought from me )
Re: Play Pokémon Twitter Account Shows Off Form Not Available Yet In Sword And Shield
@The-Chosen-one because pokémon was the hit seller of holidays 2019 AND was already known to banne upcoming content through Pokemon Home releasing in 2020(and likely very soon with ranked battles series 2 having to specify "only pokemons obtained in sword and shield")
Re: Play Pokémon Twitter Account Shows Off Form Not Available Yet In Sword And Shield
@alexybubble another thing I noted: the two main gens WITHOUT a remake taking place(other than gen 1-2) were specifically both gens that were the last to be featured on a console with multiple gens.
literally gen 5 and B2W2 was the last DS gen and gen 7 and USUM was the last 3DS gen(and existed in parallel to the Switch to boot).
Gen1-2: first gens so there was nothing to remake.
Gen3: was the only gen on gba and needed the remakes to get older pokemons at all
Gen4: gen 2 remake. First DS gen
Gen5: no remake. Last DS gen
Gen6: tech jump. First 3DS gen. gen 3remake.
Gen7: no remake last 3ds gen.
Gen8: first Switch gen. Gen 4 remake?
"Gen9": last switch gen? No remake?
Re: Poll: What To Expect From The Pokémon Direct - Post Your Pokémon Predictions
@ToonStuff probably Home but I suspect that the direct will still end with something going like "but that's only the start and Home will become only bigger in the future" with future Directs announcing not only more features but stuff like Virtual Console-style releases of more classic titles(either individually or within a GB/GBC/GBA Online app or even a "Pokemon Classics Collection", in which case they might get tied to a Nintendo Online Services subscription to add further appeal to the subscription beyond online play and NES/SNES games).
Re: Poll: What To Expect From The Pokémon Direct - Post Your Pokémon Predictions
@WolfyWardark I think it's already use for those digital editions exclusive Kommo-o(?)/Tyranitar(?) dynamax raids?
But even that might this just be an hint of it being indeed a location for future unique event raids(such as legendary or even mythical pokemons dynamax raid events).
Considering that all the legendaries within the game's data are from older gens however, that is something for which they are indeed waiting for Home to be released before they start any such major thing(that -way- veterans might already be able to import their own in parallel to newcomers catching them for the first time).
Re: Poll: What To Expect From The Pokémon Direct - Post Your Pokémon Predictions
@Bon_Kurei the fact that Ranked Battle Series 2 in Sw&Sh kings of already indirectly hint that pokemons that can be obtained outside Sword and Shield will soon be a thing(which was text that wasn't presents in Series 1's rules) tells me that Home is coming very soon(before Series 2 is over) and a 20min Direct is exactly the length I'd assume a Direct announcing Home and it's features at release will be like.
MAYBE with hints of future features that might come later when if it's just a single line going "but that's just the feature at release and expect Home to change and grown within even just the next year" with future Directs or announcements being made throughout the year to announce those features(my prediction: interaction mechanics. PokePelago/Hammerlocke University/Nursery-style mechanic. Support for future Virtual Consoles-like classics release. MAYBE a battling environment within the confine of Hone but unlike other stuff that might clash with the "home" theme. Perhaps pokeamie-style minigames eventually. But any of that would only happen later and not at release).
Re: Poll: What To Expect From The Pokémon Direct - Post Your Pokémon Predictions
@westman98 basically my own thoughts. One thing I noted of most mobile games is how much Nintendo is NOT involved in them. We might hear of GO at Pokemon Company events but I certainly don't recall hearing of it at a Nintendo event at all.
The closest I can think of is only when Let's GO was revealed and thus only in indirect fashion because it was lewdly a Switch game meant to interact with Pokemon Go in the first place.
Re: Poll: What To Expect From The Pokémon Direct - Post Your Pokémon Predictions
I kind if feel that people who think the entire national dex will return to Sword and Shield are... kinda optimistic.
And I say that as someone who DO think there will be more pokemons added to Sword and Shield in future updates throughout the next 1-2 years that will take us beyond the 435-ish(regional formes not included) that were datamined already. I just don't think we'll get the whole national dex necessarily for the same reasons even Pokemon Go doesn't have it yet after so many years now.
This by predictions in order:
1. Pokemon Home's release date will be revealed. Considering Sw&Sh's Ranked Battle Series 2 specifies that allowed pokemons include "pokemons obtained in pokemon sword and pokemon shield"(text that wasn't present during ranked battles series 1), I suspect that Home will thus be released before Series 2 is over. Perhaps sooner rather than later.
2. The Direct might thus be focused around Home's features and how they can benefit Sword and Shield. Since early announcements already confirmed trading between users, I suspect a decent bit of the direct will focus on how the Home environment will support this. This could(but not necessarily) reveal the presence of GTS-style systems within Home's cross-games storage which would explain such a system missing from Swird and Shield. Potentially also bits about how interactions between users within Home will be handled to explain how direct trades could take place at least. Perhaps even confirm nonGalardex pokemons as being able to evolve when traded to another users within Home as they would within an actual game.
4. Probably won't happen but remain possible: the reveal of additional features within Home. Strong contenders in my opinion would be a Poke Pelago-style environment. A slight possibility might be a nursery, allowing pokemons from Galar to be bred with pokemons from outside Sword and Shield(and thus allowing offsprings of compatible species to be exported back into Sword and Shield with appropriate resulting egg moves). Perhaps other similar mechanics close to minigames but honestly anything beyond poke pelago/home hamnerlocke university/nursery feels like a stretch.
5. Most unlikely to happen but sits within the realm of possibility? : an online battler or battle generator allowing classic style battles with 2D graphics or something that can similarly be done on a lower budget. Other similar mechanics that could further justify porting over older pokemons not find within Sw&Sh.
And finally:
6. Actually likely but might just not be ready to reveal yet(and this might be held back for future Directs): Virtual Console-style releases of older games. Such as GBA's RubySapphireEmerald. With support to export(perhaps import compatible ones even?) pokemons into Hpme of course.
Could be done in one of three fashion:
A: As individual eshop purchased(simple but practical and still appealing in itself).
B: As part of a collection app accessed from the Online Services subscription. This could be done either through apps related to their original console(like the NES and SNES current apps) or, in a twist, as part of an outright "Pokemon Classics Collection" app that could, in time, cover multiple consoles generations.
C. A variant of B, but were the "Pokemon Classics Collection" app turns out to be Pokemon Home itself as the very "home" of these games from which we wed acces then in the first place. This one feels like a bit of a stretch but could game strong appeal if this mean players could play the classics games on their own smartphones through the mobile Home app as well.
Finally for the "hypothetical Direct closing bonus":
This one is actually unlikely but a potential reveal at the end of the Stream of Smash Bros's 5th DLC fighter being a 8th gen pokemon(or even trainer with their team of signature pokemons but this one is very much a stretch unless it had begun works soon as Smash had been released in the first place since that would be basically a 3-characters-in-one deal after all).
Re: Pokémon Direct To Air Thursday, 9th January
@Dang69 my dream myself would be for a named trainer fighter.
The franchise has enough of them in it's games, each with enough signature pokemon for a dual/triple fighter switch deal, that it feels like it would have a ton of potential?
Like just from this last gen if potential ones:
Leon: Aegislash/Dragapult/Tyranitar(this last one a maybe?)
Final Smash: gigantamax charizard(he does keep it as his very least pokemon in the champion battle)
Hop: Dubwool/[insert starter]+a third one(a common one I saw him use was corviknight but being a bird body feel unlikely).
Alternatively, being a starting rival, Hop is a good candidate to have a named trainer with all the gen8 starters(Grookey/Raboot/Intelleon?).
Marnie: Morpeko/Toxicroak/Grimmsnarl? Or Obstagoon thrown in instead of one of these. Either way she has a good mix of agile pokemons and bruisers ones.
Bede: perhaps a combination of combination of Galarian Rapidash/Mawile/Hattrenne since iirc Gardevoir is already a pokeball in Smash(I don't know if Mawile may already be as well however).
And of course if they don't limit themselves to gen8 there's always of cross-franchis favorite villain Giovanni with a speedy Persian/charger Rhydon/bruiser Nidoqueen.
Mind you, it'll never happen I fear but there's definitely potential there if they ever decided to.