Glen-i

I stopped being furious about 5 hours ago. Now I'm just stating my opinion and worries that I have with a game from my favourite series taking this road.

Eh, I've never been a big fan of the whole "Blocky 3D Models" thing that Minecraft popularised. Pokémon have some amazing creature designs going on and it feels like a bit of a downgrade to depict them like this.

No, not yet. That's the point. I'm worried about the game after that. There's absolutely precedence for this kind of thing happening before. The Triple and Rotation Battle formats from Black and White are nowhere to be seen these days, the post-game variety of battle facilities have been whittled to the most basic minimal version and the people whose favourite Pokémon originated from the DS games are mostly ignored for the same bunch of Pokemon we see all the time. Sure, this means nothing to players like you who have very little history with the games, but there are plenty of people out there just like me who value these things in a Pokémon game. I'm not gonna claim that Game Freak will do what I fear, but no-one can prove they won't in 3 years or so. It's a possibility, and that's scary.

When did I say that people can't enjoy this? Don't put words in my mouth. I also never said my opinion is the only one that matters. Stop trying to depict me as some kind of irrational selfish person. I stand by my "Lowest Common Denominator" remark, not as some way to insult you, but to remark on the focus of this game. Spin it any way you like, this game is absolutely aimed at the people who think Pokémon is too complicated and that there's too many of them, as well as those who stubbornly refuse to acknowledge any Pokémon that didn't exist in the 90's. The "Best of both worlds" angle is perfectly fine in theory. But Pokémon has always been a series that builds off of previous games. If this sells gangbusters while Gen 8 sells more around Black/White numbers, then what's stopping them from ditching the more nuanced mechanics in order to chase that casual crowd? And don't say that won't happen, because it's precisely what happened with Black/White. Almost all of the features introduced in that game are nowhere to be seen these days.

@Dcubed, I think you're on to something with that "cancelled 20th anniversary game" I can definitely see the signs. I will give this game credit for ditching the washed out colour palette of the 3DS games. It does look much nicer in that regard. No, don't even try that "It will have zero impact on the next game" rubbish. Because that's flat out insulting. People tried to tell me the same thing when I aired my greivances about Pokémon GO. Trying to claim that because it's just a spin-off not made by Game Freak, it won't change what they do with their games. And now here we are, a mainline game with heavy GO emphasis, I feel like an idiot for eventually believing what people told me about GO. Well, not this time. If this game sells amazingly well (and with the double whammy of Switch's success and lowest common denominator pandering, I'm 95% sure it will), I'm petrified to think of how dumbed down future games will become. Probably not next year's game, too late to change that massively. But the game after that. What then? I'm a massive Pokémon fan, I dedicate months to playing the games. And I'm not just gonna ignore this worrying turn the series is at risk of taking. I like the random encounters. I like the incredible depth the series has. I like that there's over 800 of the buggers to discover. That you never have to worry about the underlying mechanics if you just want to play through the game. That no matter how much Pokémon from the 90's are shoved down your throat, you always have the option of just going with the ones you like. So don't go trying to dismiss my opinion with "It's fine if it's not for you" and humourous comics. Because that's just aggravating. I love Pokémon games way too much to just be fine with this.

I know you mean well, but Mario Odyssey is not a game I enjoyed all that much. It was OK at best. I'd rather play NSMB Wii.

Courtesy of Ultimate Leaker, Walmart. Thanks, Walmart! No release date yet.

It was described as "Free-to-Start" Don't know if that actually means Free-to-Start though.

That's "Super Nerd" to you.

That's not even the Kanto series song.

It's a very slippery slope. Just like GO. EDIT: Man, I love that episode of South Park. Proper classic that.

Yes, but that means for the past year, resources have been taken away from Gen 8. And I'm more worried about Gen 9 getting influenced by GO.

Actually, you know what? I think I'd prefer there not to be online battling in this. Thinking about how anyone would cope with the utterly unbalanced selection of Pokémon is a place I don't wanna deal with. 5 Alakazams with different moves and an Arcanine, just in case someone is crazy enough to use Scyther. There! I win 90% of matches.

Absolutely skipping it. Easiest decision of the year. For me, there is literally nothing to redeem it. No online battling, gimped catching system. Awful selection of Pokémon (Including Alolan Pokemon, there are only 2 fully evolved Ghost, Steel, Dark and Dragon types) Pokémon like Golbat, Magneton and Scyther are gonna be useless because they can't evolve. Psychic Pokémon will be way OP. Both starter Pokémon are truly awful choices.(Apparently, you won't be able to evolve them) Also seems to go back to grid based movement, given how close the layout of Kanto is to the original games, the regions gonna be as dull as always. And you need to use GO to get that "Special Pokémon" And now I'm angry again. Everything about it is taken straight from my nightmares.

Sure yeah. Reasonable thinking. But what if they do? Back when GO came out and became a huge mega hit. I was genuinely concerned that it's mechanics might bleed into a proper Pokémon game. And now here we are. Now what if this sells way more than next year's game? What's to stop Game Freak from thinking, "Oh well, no-one wants actual battling of wild Pokémon then. Let's ditch it" It's at risk of snowballing and it's frightening.

You tell me. I'll calm down... Eventually...

Look how optimistic I was 2 days ago. What a dope! I have to go work now and I just do not have the motivation.

Looking at the models up close, they managed to out-ugly the Pokémon Rumble Toys. That's legit impressive.

Someone better make a thread for it. Because if they don't, I will. And I will not be kind. Just so you know, these are technically Gen 7's remake games and are considered a core game. Laughable as that is.

"OK, let's check out this little Pokémon Spin-off game... Wait, free-to-start?" God, I am having the worst day.

Woah, woah, woah... There's no online multiplayer? So unless you actually know someone with the other version, you have to use GO to catch them all, right? Gross... And wild Pokémon encounters have no actual battling? It just gets fucking better, doesn't it? Switch has really gone out of it's way to sour me on my favourite series, Zelda was boring, Mario was uninspiring and now we've got a glorified Pokémon GO. 2019 can't come soon enough. I can't believe there's finally a mainline Pokémon game that I'll probably skip.

Oh god, I think I just threw up in my mouth a bit. Not only are there no new Pokémon, but they're gonna pretend that the other 650-ish don't exist? I pretty much hated everything about that trailer, it's presentation, it's focus, it's features. Big middle finger to someone like me who wants a good mix of Pokémon. Someone call me when Game Freak go back to making proper Pokémon RPG's.

And hey, even if it's exactly what the nuttos are hoping for, at least you'll probably get to read me rant my head off. Talk about a Win/Win. Laughing at myself helps me cope with the dread of what could be.

I know the mobile app is a complete joke, but it does have a report player function. So if you do see blatant cheating on Splatoon, you should probably report them.

Is it just me or is that Mega Man design quite close to how he looks in Smash? Obvious height difference aside. I'm thinking they added the rivets and paneled style.