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Well, I hope they don't play it too safe in the future and I sure hope they still have it in them to bring back old IP's like they did with Kid Icarus, or create new ones like Splatoon and ARMS.

I think I'm not alone when I say that what hooked me as a lifelong Nintendo fan is their unique quirkiness, so I hope that they let it shine through more than they are now.
With the success Switch is raking in, I sure hope devs are given chances to experiment a bit more.

I'd really like to see some older DQ titles (for example I never got around to playing 8 and many say it's the best one), or the SNES FF games, but I'm not holding my breath for neither.
It's probably some more recent FF I guess, since that's the big moneymaker.

@GC-161 well, you raise some really good points, and I definitely agree that some are always gonna ruin the majority's perception.

Just like some trolls undermine my points, some overly enthusiastic fanboys are gonna undermine yours, and that's really unfortunate.

Regarding the criticism, I'm sure that if the games were not the same copy/paste job over and over, people would be way less critical of the graphics.
I mean, we're playing on Switch so certainly graphics are not anyone's priority in here.

But if a new gen brings new creatures, a new gimmick that won't last beyond the current one, and basically nothing else, what are we expected to comment about these games?

The problem is that people are way more complacent with this series than others because this series never had any meaningful deviation in its history, so people are hard pressed to imagine a different type of Pokémon game.
But like with BOTW, I hope that GF someday comes out with a game good enough to be "the Pokémon game we didn't even know we wanted".

Is it a lot to ask? Yes, of course it is. Game development is incredibly hard.
But we're talking the biggest franchise in the world with a monstrous budget (potentially), so if I cannot ask this of Pokémon, why would I expect any other game to go the extra mile?
And it's especially frustrating when so many indie games do, and maybe were developed by a handful of people.

Also, I don't think it's unfair to compare GF to other studios.
Sure, they got to 3D way later than most other devs, but again, TPCi and Nintendo have huge resources to put into this franchise.
If GF is not good enough, get rid of them and have someone else develop these games.
Why should their apparent inadequacy be an excuse for poor quality?

Unfortunately, as you said, until people lap these games up it's pointless to expect meaningful shakeups.

@GC-161 you're absolutely right my friend, trolls are gonna troll regardless of which side of the fence they dwell.

That, though, certainly doesn't excuse lumping all those who have legitimate and thoughtful criticism with those trolls.
What does my head in is making an articulate point about the quality of a game just to be dismissed as a mindless hater; just because one disagrees, doesn't mean they don't have anything meaningful to say.
And it might just be my warped perspective, but I certainly see way more articulated and thought out points being made by those who are critical, than those "defending" the games.

As I said to Primarina as well, you're obviously free to disagree with anything I say, but at least you're listening to my reasoning, raising a valid point and having a discussion with me about it, rather than dismissing me outright.
That's what we critics get upset about, that a lot of people just do that simply because they like the games, so of course we have to be haters.

Btw it's not even all doom and gloom on my part; as I said earlier I'm mildly hyped about Legends, as that might just be the next step the series has needed for such a long time.

@Anri02 kinda fair point, but the context is fans who lap up everything attacking anyone with any semblance of criticism.

What I'm saying is don't @ me for criticizing a game you like, ask more of the company making it; not the other way around.
I don't have a personal problem with those people, but they seem to have it with me when I criticize Pokémon.
The problem I have is with the toxic climate they generate, which makes expressing a negative opinion about a franchise you'd like back in full shape a cardinal sin.

Point still stands, but certainly I could've made it clearer 👍🏻

@Primarina see, that is why I didn't single out you or anyone else, as that would've been definitely snubbish.
I simply said that I see a pattern every time Pokémon news come out.
I'm sorry to say this, but it's you who projected yourself onto my comment; as I said before, your point of view is a lot more moderate than many others I've seen here and I have no problem with you or you opinion, far from it!
I'm just saying that a lot of people are quick to jump up in arms at the mere mention of a slight criticism, as if Pokémon was some holy grail of distilled game design perfection, which it absolutely isn't by any stretch of the imagination.
That is called being partial and defending a thing just because they have an emotional stake in it, it's not analytic, critical thought.

"I like Sword and Shield...despite its numerous flaws. I can acknowledge it has a lot of issues. But there is fun to be had."

This is exactly how a reasonable person sounds like, so again, absolutely no problem with you!
You can't deny, though, that many people in here equal criticizing Pokémon to being a hater, and that does betray a lack of critical thinking, which your statement up here clearly doesn't.
The fact itself that we're having this discussion shows that you're not the person I was describing in my post; hope it's all clearer now.

Edit: @#68 well, if you ask me there's literally nothing to praise about the latest few games.
What real innovation is there gameplay-wise? One-generation-only Gimmicks don't count of course, as they're not substantial shakeups.
What leaps forward have the games made technologically?
How do they compare to contemporary RPG's and games in general?
I personally don't think a 1-to-1 retread of a 15 year old DS game has any business being on the same plane as BOTW, SMO, DQXI, and so many other games.
And I'm limiting myself to the Switch library here; if you have any other platform I think it's really hard justifying full price for a 15 year old DS games.
Look at other remakes like FFVII, Spyro, Crash, and so many more.
It's abundantly clear how much more effort went into those, and the latter ones are not even full price.
In light of all this, it's really hard to get excited for these incredibly cheap looking nostalgia cashgrabs, sorry.

@Primarina I don't see your comment anymore, hope you don't mind me replying nonetheless cause you raise some good points.

1) I wasn't referring to you specifically as your comments don't seem too extreme compared to some other users, but your point that "some fans will never be satisfied" is just a way to justify liking the game, which is unneeded.
It's simply not true. Look at any other franchise and tell me if people really seem that impossible to satisfy. It sure doesn't happen with series like Zelda and Mario, because they have a level of quality that is consistent, and they manage to reinvent themselves over time in order to not become stagnant.

2) it might be elitist, sure, but that's certainly more realistic than expecting everyone to have the same level of expertise about everything.
It's a fact that some people have to be less knowledgeable than others, otherwise we would all be medics, astronauts, or whatever.

The fact that I bring up such an "elitist" point is because I'm knowledgeable enough in one or two things to realize that I'm infinitely ignorant in one hundred thousand subjects.

And, like clockwork, those who refute my points and call me elitist usually are those that betray a pretty shallow understanding of videogames. It's normal for a person to react badly and refute the opposing argument when they feel ignorant, but hey, recognizing once ignorance is the only way to learn something.

So when you say I'm elitist, maybe I am, but only because I'm talking about something I know.
If I were on a forum about, I dunno, painting, I would take notes from those who are knowledgeable and shut up, cause I don't know the first thing about it and I know it's not my prerogative to talk about something I don't know.

Edit: as @Ardisan said, we're talking about the biggest multimedia franchise in the world. That sets certain expectations.
Certainly you don't expect a Marvel movie to look like an indie student film, right?

@Munchlax I'm with you on this one, I too have never completely clicked with this game and I don't know why!
I know I got stuck at the hookshot eye boss when I was a kid on my GBA, but even years later I just can't bring myself to complete it...and so I never did!
It's a bit of a stain on my Zelda megafan CV ahahahah

What's weird is I really really liked ALBW when I didn't expect to, since I'm not a fan of ALTTP and I wasn't sold on the wall merging thingy initially (spoiler: it would absolutely captivate me once I started playing).
I guess I'll have a lot of time in the future to try again!

It really does my head in seeing fanboys act like it's the critics' fault all the time.
Sure, the biggest media franchise in the world has been getting flak for 7 games in a row (this reamke included), but I'm pretty certain it's those pesky haters that just can't resist and can't wait to tear down the poor, poor Game Freak and Pokémon Company.
Certainly expecting them to match the quality of other popular franchises is too much to ask.

I mean, I get the fact that people might still like them and buy them, it's unfortunate that it sends the wrong message to the devs, but there's no problem with that; if you like a game and want to buy it, by all means have the time of your life!

What I really cannot stand is fanboys without an ounce of critical thinking acting all smug just because they can't discern the actual quality of what their playing, and acting like those at fault are those that criticize a franchise they love, not the money-grabbing pieces of work who churn out the same thing over and over and still can't get a grasp of current day 3D development.
By all means support a corporation who only cares about the bottom line, not the consumers who care about quality 👍🏻
What they probably don't grasp is that a better product is gonna be beneficial to them as well, so it really sounds like being stubborn for the sake of it. But if we gotta sti k it to someone, it's not other fans, it's the company making the games.
That is the point that gets misconstrued every time I make it.

When these people understand that criticizing a thing they like is not a personal attack on them, maybe we as consumers can band together and demand some quality; until then, Pokémon games will be held hostage by these passionless devs delivering the bare minimum cause people will still lap it up without a hint of critical thinking.

I sure hope Legends delivers on its potential so that we can finally see a meaningful jump forward in Pokémon mechanics and for once be finally all happy with the game.
But remember, it doesn't depend on us fans, it depends on the actual quality of the game.

Edit: I've rewritten the comment because a lot of neglected franchises occurred to me so I'm gonna list them here:

Advance Wars
Another
Chibi Robo
Custom Robo
Duck Hunt
Eternal Darkness
F-Zero
Golden Sun
Hotel Dusk
Ice Climbers
Mother
Rhythm Heaven
Starfox
StarTropics
The Legendary Starfy
Wario (Ware or platformers)

I'm torn cause I really like weird games, but at the same time I really despise musicals...I'll put it on the list and see in the future.

@nessisonett now that's an incentive!
I derived great pleasure from shagging murder suspects in Paradise Killer whilst investigating said murder, why not try as a medic? 😄

@Northwind if you say I misinterpret your point, I apologize, but I also think it wasn't as clear as it could've been.
The two points you brought up in rapid succession seemed to indicate the intention of "defending" the games by attacking those who complained about these and Swoosh, reducing them to a vocal minority that doesn't emerge when people are voting anonymously, as if there were the Pokémon hate brigades doing the rounds and convicting everyone who doesn't agree. I'm exaggerating here of course, but it can be argued that you are as well.

It's my bad for getting it wrong, but you might want to take a look at your comments as well and see if their point is clear enough, not just shift the blame on the reader; it's hardly ever only one party's fault, whenever there's a misunderstanding.
There's something to learn for the both of us here, I believe.
Nonetheless, I absolutely own up to my part of the blame and apologize for unwillingly misconstruing your points.

Also, I reread my comment and I can see where you're coming for, I apologize for that as well.

@Northwind yeah, by all means ignore that almost 40% combined of people in the first poll said that either "they expect more from a Switch game" or "they can't stand this art style".

You really believe that 52% of consensus is a lot?
Noone ever said that the majority dislikes Pokémon games, that would be madness seeing how well they sell, but if these percentages don't point towards a heavily divisive game, I don't know what does.
That's what we who complain about the current status of Pokémon get at, that these games are highly divisive, while they have all the resources in the world to not have to.

2D would've been better still.
3D Pokémon games still don't look half as good as the 2D ones, and I cannot help but feel that a lot was lost in the transition.

This is a graphical downgrade through and through. I know people are gonna act like 3D is always a step up but no, it's not.
The 2D art was genuinely good, the 3D one is not.
If they had gone all-in with a Link's Awakening style, I would've had no issue whatsoever, as that game has a fantastic art direction.

Edit: also, the poll is super confusing and bundles together a lot of option that are not in the same ballpark, rendering this whole endeavor pointless.
I'm looking at the results and I still have no idea what kind of conclusions I'd have to draw from these results.

@Letzg077 agreed.
It's absurd that the best looking games in the series are still the ones from Gen V.
Seriously, since they switched to 3D they never got it right once.
It could be excusable on 3DS given the hardware, but now it's just ridiculous.

I'm not one to care that much about graphics, but I'd say they're a pretty good indication of the general degree of polish and care that went into a game.

Lots of random and ugly picks I would never have guessed, to be honest.

To be honest I never understood why people go mad for Groose.
Why?

Wow I see that NL's firing on all its sleuthing cylinders! What a breakout story!

And then they wonder why we don't take their reporting seriously...

@COVIDberry thanks for the kind words my friend.
Positive human interaction really is the only thing that can keep us afloat, when society fails us as hard as it constantly does.
Have a fantastic one mate ❤️

The umpteenth example of how broken and depressing the world we live in is.
You're a multi billion company trying to get children addicted to gambling?
No worries, just settle it out of court by giving back a tiny fraction of what you earned in the first place via your vile machinations.
No justice done, no damage for the grifter company, and a measly, borderline insulting consolation prize for the average consumers who got duped.

A standing ovation for all of this please.

@Kilamanjaro sounds like you missed a lot of crucial information.
He's not designing and launching his product, he's just reselling already existing (and already illegal) Chinese bootleg consoles with unlawfully obtained ROMs installed.
So no, it's absolutely the opposite of the uplifting passion project you're painting.

Oof does this one look unpolished.
I guess that's why it got such mixed reviews everywhere.
I read that there's even typos in it.

We're stretching the definition of RPG by quite a lot, eh? 😂

Jokes aside, that's quite a cool selection! I already grabbed a couple of games so I'm gonna stop there cause my backlog is pretty huge!

100% agree.

I think people should stop pre-ordering games if we want to actually be heard by companies, otherwise it's pointless to complain that they make money using shady practices that we as consumers legitimize with our hard-earned cash.
The same goes for MTX and everything else.

Yeah seeing them all here cements my feelings about this Direct.

@Ghostchip hey, thanks for the detailed explanation!
Cheers!

Nope it isn't.
The art style is gorgeous, the Water Basin (not sure it's the actual name) was a great dungeon, the whole "prequel" thing was pretty cool, and I also like the desert area.

Other than those, it's a mediocre Zelda with an identity crisis.

Nice, this game looks super intriguing!

@Ghostchip yeah agreed.
I like anime and anime games, there's obviously nothing wrong with those, I just hope Atlus keeps SMT and Persona as separate series with their own individual identities.
Regarding P5S I can't comment as I haven't played it nor any Persona game, but that's definitely a series I'd like to tackle someday!

@Ghostchip yeah I absolutely agree, I'd love for SMT to break into the mainstream like Persona did.
I just hope that Persona's success doesn't mean they'll "personify" SMT, as I don't want anime students getting into whacky situations like in Apocalypse lol

Btw I think both Ninty and Atlus should push the series more, since V is an exclusive.
If Nintendo doesn't care, who should?

To be honest I don't like being this vitriolic, but as a major Direct after 500 days it absolutely sucked.
I wasn't expecting much, but I really didn't think it could be this bad.
The fact that they said "focus on the first half of 2021" only to announce another two 2022 games is taking the p*ss, considering we're still waiting on Bayo 3, BOTW 2 and MP4. At least NMH3 is a thing.
No SMT V is just a joke. It's been 4 years and we still know nothing FFS.
No new major games, and the worst 3D Zelda in HD.
Really terrible.

Let's hope for a single player campaign!

Also, the Instagram page is releasing new tidbits like new mobility options, you might want to take a look!

@Angelic_Lapras_King sorry if I sound rude, but you're not saying anything new, nor does any of that factor into Pyra being a DLC character at all, nor is it a justification for it after the fact.

Laughably bad pick.
I could think of so many characters that are more worthy of the spot.
Seriously, this game came out 3 years ago, and we already have a XB rep.
XB is not big enough to warrant another one, imo.
Shulk is more relevant than Pyra in 2021.
This second pass seems like it's out to disappoint people on purpose lol

@Giygas_95 yeah Part 1 is brutal, I tremble at the thought of Part 2 lol

I beat it on UV right after my first playthrough of the campaign (also on UV), and it had some of the most stressful gaming experiences I've ever had 😂
The Holt is just crazy.
Pros complained that the Slayer's Gate was too easy, so they added a possessed Marauder at the end 😂
That was definitely the most stressed I've ever been playing a game lol

Going back to the campaign on Nightmare is almost a cakewalk now 😂

Yeah DOOM Slayer for me too, please!
That'd make the whole second pass for me!

Good review, but why put controls in the cons in a game that lets you freely remap them as you like?
Unless the feature is absent from the Switch version, of course, but that would be super weird!

I too loathe R Stick for interacting and melee, and I made my control scheme based on the Knuckles scheme from 2016.
I'm 60 hours into the game and Imm still debating changing some mappings lol

@BionicDodo yeah I gotta say they are really seamless and well directed, the fact that people don't notice them is proof of just that!

It's weird now to remember all the complaints that there were around cutscenes in a Doom game pre-release lol

@BionicDodo I'm absolutely not a tech head so I don't understand the details, but Hugo Martin himself mentioned that the team is very proud of the fact that all cutscenes are made in-engine, allowing for seamless transitions and character customization.

If any of you are interested, he explained it during his playthrough of Eternal on Twitch and the Bethesda YT channel every Thursday. I recommend it, it's an amazing watch!

This game is such a gift from the video game gods, I'm in disbelief at how good everything about it is 😃

Still waiting for a re-release of Extreme 2 😕
Why did they re-release the first but never the second? I just don't get it.

@MorganWhoop indeed he is.
In Italy at least, kids basically only listen to trap and pop.

@a1904 I don't know where you love but here in Italy you only hear pop, rap or trap on mainstream radio.

Edit: to all those complaining: I hate trap as much as you do, but it's not so hard to understand that this kind of promotion is aimed at the clueless general public (and mainly kids) who are into trendy things, not at enthusiasts on fan sites.

@BradT you might want to pick up a dictionary and learn the meaning of "literally", before making such bold statements and failing to provide any concrete source.

Funny how a Mario scoring a 7/10 has people up in arms, but a 9.6/10 for Pokémon from the same outlet is a badge of honor.

In any case IGN was never a good source for reviews, as no mainstream outlet is.

Why won't they localize these for once? 😭
I'd play the hell out of this and the first one if they did, instead of the crap we get in the West.

@Kuhang yeah I'm fine, thanks!
Not sure where you got the anger from, though, I didn't put one emoji or anything.
I get that internet comments are not as clear as we would like, but don't you think I would've put some clear markers if I were that upset?
I personally tend to read messages neutrally if there's no bold, upper case, emojis and such.

I simply wanted to put out some people's inability to comprehend what was a very clear statement properly.
Have a good one 👍🏻

Kamiya: "I cannot talk about games not published by Platinum because I wouldn't want to break an NDA, or do anything that would make our partners funding our games mad at us, for obvious reasons."

Dumb fans: "The game is done and ready to ship!!!"

"I told you it's not coming out in 2021!!!"

Seriously, how do people get through all those logical hoops?
Is it so hard to read what he says and take it at face value? Or have we come to a place where the norm is to never trust anything that was said ever?
It's so sad to see people jump straight to conspiratorial conclusions all the freaking time about everything.

@Dr_Lugae this is just conjecture, but it makes sense that Swoosh would sell more, seeing as it's widely adopted by 25-35 y.o. with disposable income, as opposed to the DS being bought by children mainly.
So I guess a lot if people bought a Switch as adults and got back into Pokémon due to nostalgia as a result.
Think about it like the Disney remakes: how many people saw the originals as children and then took their own children to the cinema for the remake?
I think this is a plausible explanation, but it's obviously just a conjecture of mine so take it with a grain of salt.

@HeadPirate ah yes, you pull facts out of nowhere, another guy replies showing that you're wrong, so you attack him even though he never said anything negative, just (correctly) pointed out that saying only NA is complaining doesn't make any sense.

Congratulations, that's peak debating! 👏🏻
See, that's what I mean when I say that the Pokémon defenders are way worse than those complaining; those who complain at least have some point to make about quality, while people like you just argue out of spite with absolutely no argument to make.

That said, if you enjoy the games that's great and I'm happy for you, just don't strawman people.

That's a terrible idea.
I can't wait for Hollywood to brown nose Wall Street and paint a bunch of Reddit nerds as some kind of terrorist cell.

Edit: the title "Antisocial Network" is already some kind of giveaway.

A shame, even if I'm not a StarFox fan. I'd really like to see a Nintendo show made with claymation or stop motion, regardless of the series.

If I were to choose a series to adapt, though, I'd pick Kid Icarus.