Pokémon General Thread

That cartoon was adorable. I want 10,000 more, please.

SWSH have substantially less content, even excluding dexit, than games prior despite having, at minimum, a 50% higher cost.

Frankly, even if SWSH had just as much content as SM, it still would not have justified the 50% price hike. Those games needed to be a big leap forward in terms of quality. Prior to Gen 6, they used to make whole new sprites for all of the Pokemon, but we've had the same exact models and animations since Gen 6, and they're starting to show their age. What would have made SWSH worth the $60 price tag would be if they really DID update all of the models and animations, like they said they were going to.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jun 4th 2020 at 7:44:20 AM

The reason why they're not going to lower the price is because they would literally get diminishing returns on the profits. Pokemon, regardless of how you feel about it, is considered a AAA, flagship title for Nintendo, and is priced as such.

This is not justifying the quality of the games mind you, just explaining the business side of it. The second the games jumped from handheld to home consoles, they were inevitably going to be charged at full retail.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

Honest question but who was expecting this? I saw a lot of worries that SWSH would be easy or that it would have as many cutscenes as the Alola games but not once did I see any complaints about what we'd seen in trailers (Aside from the worries that Scorbunny would evolve into a Fire/Fighting type.) until the Dex Cut was revealed. I saw a lot of people saying that Dynamax wasn't impressive but that's not the same as the usual complaints about SWSH. I also saw a lot of people saying SWSH should have more content due to the price hike but I saw just as many people shutting them down because Pokemon isn't and never was trying to be the same as other games. So who exactly was expecting SWSH to be made with console standards in mind?

Edited by Chariot on Jun 4th 2020 at 11:21:14 AM

Dexit kind of caused people to hyper focus on how little Game Freak have actually innovated the games.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

Why would the price change just because it's Pokemon, though? Regardless of what people think, these are STILL Nintendo, AAA (technically) games. They're going to be at full price regardless of your thoughts/feelings on the matter. Hell, some Pokemon games are STILL being sold at full price years later without a sale. (HG/SS being more infamously expensive due to the Pokewalker being bundled with it.) Most people already go in knowing that this is a console game so it's going to be more expensive. They were never going to make a special exception to begin with. I don't know why people thought that would be the case here because that didn't change with the console spin-offs either (at least from what I recall).

I'd like to remind others that games like BOTW got news of going on sale 3 YEARS after the game came out. Nintendo is very picky with their first-party titles.

https://www.destructoid.com/rare-nintendo-sale-alert-breath-of-the-wild-is-40-this-week-586141.phtml

If anything, used copies are your best bet if you do not like the price as those tend to be a bit more fair, but considering certain price hikes for older games on sites like Ebay, maybe something secondhand is better. Or getting it lent to you by a friend.

Edited by Ducolamia on Jun 4th 2020 at 11:26:46 AM

Well that was a cute fan video—(notices that it was a main Pokemon video) WHA?!

Jason has come back to kill for Mommy.

The games are worth as much as people are willing to pay for them. That's how capitalism works.

Where there's life, there's hope.

I agree with @Chariot

I think the frustration of the Dex Cut brought a lot of peoples initials frustrations with the franchise to light. Some good, some bad. However, while it is good to critical, we should also admit there has always been some patterns we've seen with GF. Some broken, some not, some left to the unknown. It usually takes the 2nd game for a console for them to improve drastically and even then it's NEVER been super big. Previous games like R/S/D/P shows this in comparison to their third versions or future games. Playing D/P compared to B/W in terms of management, speed, and general QOL improvements is like night and day. Now this isn't to say the previous games were bad, but they're called "vanilla" for a reason. Standard games that don't have much to them, but still have their charm, but many people usually refer to the improved versions as the "true" ones because of it. Some even waiting for those to come out knowing it's going to happen anyways.

And even then, GF ALWAYS been behind other games. There are plenty better games out on the current system. However, they've cultivated their niche so well that they don't really need to compete. Because what monster collecting game is beating out Pokemon easily in the millions? I can't think of a major threat really. As a result, they don't feel the need to go super above and beyond because people are more than willing to accept what they got. I know that might suck to hear for others, but it's just a major factor in that (that and Pokemon is a huge multimedia franchise). I won't claim it's sustainable for the longrun (if anything the dex cut showed it wasn't with the yearly releases) but it's always been a thing.

Edited by Ducolamia on Jun 4th 2020 at 11:37:31 AM

Jim Sterling said it best: they have literally been cutting corners with these games for over twenty years. You can make all of the justifications and exceptions all you want, but that's the fact.

People treating this as some huge betrayal or failure on Game Freak's part are kind of behind on the 8 ball, because so many people, myself included, realized this shit years ago.

And in the end, all of that protesting amounted to nothing because the games still sold and are close to becoming the 3rd best selling games in the series.

That's not to say that I don't have any issues with Sw Sh and don't feel Game Freak needs to step it up mind you, that Dexit protest was doomed from the beginning.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

In regards to Pokétoons, it seems to be based of the cartoons from Max and Dave Fleischer. You can tell by the Cinecolor scheme (Red and Green) and the Rubber-Hose Limbs on everything, especially with the train bouncing up and down and the slapstick. The music in particular sounds like jazz, another trait of the Fleischer brothers.

Edited by Shadao on Jun 4th 2020 at 9:14:25 AM

But Tex Avery tho.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

I do want to point out that they DID have brand new models and animations for all the pokemon: stuff from lets go flat out will not work, and same for the 3ds stuff. As for the animations, theres dozens of animations for every pokemon in the game...and you can see them in Pokemon Camp, which is why a lot of people tend to miss them.

No, Tex Avery's animation isn't that rubbery.

everyone else: CUPHEAD!
me: Heh, Tom and Jerry.

It's a bit janky but it's more in line with 50's animation than the 30's.

Edited by Ookamikun on Jun 5th 2020 at 1:44:08 AM

speaking of pokemon animations

"Have a good day. Have a good week. Have a good month. Have a good year. Have a good life." ~Civia

No they definitely didn't remake all the models. Though the camp animations throw in a lot of new ones, as far as I've noticed.

The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.

If they went through the time and effort to make new models so as to look exactly the same as the subpar old models then that would be even worse.

Should have been in the game. Humanizes Oleana a lot.

Wasn't it later revealed that the models in SWSH are actually updated because direct porting from the 3DS games would render the models badly?

Edited by Ookamikun on Jun 5th 2020 at 1:53:19 AM

The models in swsh are fresh, as the old ones arent compatible with Swsh. Hell, even then, the dynamax models are all seperated too. The reason they look so similar isnpurely attention to detail. Some models have even had minor touch up like noibat, who i believe had its nose adjusted or something?

The new models are clearly based on the older ones, just updated to actually work in Sw Sh's updated engine.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

Yeah there's no denying that, just pointing out that they werent copy pasted like many seem to believe.

So will that headcanon about Oleana being groomed by Rose go away now?

Why are you saying that the Let's Go models are incompatible with SWSH when, within days of SWSH's launch, people were already successfully modding in the Let's Go models with no problems? Reality is the exact opposite of what you're saying.

"Successful" aint the word id use: they were able to import it somewhat, but several animations were straight up broken and flawed. Its been months since then, but it takes more than a few walking animations in camp to be a fully working model in game.

Im fact, of the few articles on the subject, it outright admits that several animations are missing or broken completely because there are a lot more animations to account for like dynamaxing, camp, and others. And they also admit that those who do aren't already on the swirch would need brand new models as well. So again, new models and animations are needed even for the lets go mons.

Edited by CountofBleck on Jun 5th 2020 at 5:54:31 AM

Why would they need new models? Let's Go is on the Switch and uses the same models as SM.