Julius

Yeah, I think this is fair. I’ve been trying to spoiler tag any leaks that I’ve posted here, but apologies if I’ve missed any. I’ll add a note at the top of the original post

I think that might have been me I’m not worried about next year’s game at all (I think things are actually shaping up for them to potentially hit it out of the park), but I’m worth you in being worried about what comes beyond that. Now, if Let’s Go becomes a spin-off series and we get one every other year between the traditional core series games, I’m fine with that: so long as I’m kept busy with high quality spin-off Pokémon titles worked on by third parties, like in the heyday of the DS, with series like Conquest, Pokémon Ranger and Mystery Dungeon potentially making a return, alongside complete new and original series. These were great because they still felt immersed in the Pokémon world, and gave another look at the world from the perspective of people who aren’t trainers. What I’m not fine with is potentially remaking every single core series Pokémon game as a Let’s Go title, especially if it means that we don’t see a return to Sinnoh in the traditional remake sense that we saw with FRLG, HGSS and ORAS, and instead end up with Let’s Go Riolu! and Let’s Go Bidoof!. Also, what happens when Let’s Go inevitably takes a sales knock, like every other remake compared to main series titles, or GO slowly starts to fade away? Do Game Freak just drop years of groundwork? I’m happy that they’re taking risks - though, compared to what many have been begging for with Gen VIII, this seems a relatively safe one, at least on the business side of things - but I am worried that they’ll spread themselves to thin. Last I checked, Game Freak had ~170 employees, which isn’t enough to sustain a title a year for a prolonged period of time by any stretch of our imaginations. While it’s certainly possible that this isn’t too much of a stressor for the team, and that they’re getting some help from Niantic and Nintendo proper, and considering that it’s “only” a remake, the fact that Masuda-san is directing these games is kind of worrisome to me because of the lack of directors around Game Freak to swap in and out for the traditional core series games (and, selfishly, that he’s made my favourite Pokémon entries and I’d rather he be spearheading the traditional core series games). As much as I enjoyed SM and ORAS, the Lovecraftian/sci-fi undertones that Ohmori-san is going for in his games is going to take a while to get used to, at least for me. Morimoto-san and Unno-san have other roles at Game Freak too, I’m sure, but they could certainly be in a position to spearhead some games too. As someone who mainly plays for the main story, Pokédex completion and the post-game content, this new direction doesn’t bother me too much, as I only spend ~50 hours with a given core series title these days. But I can understand your concern, @Glen-i, and that of others who have hundreds (if not thousands!) of hours invested in the competitive scene; I’m relatively confident that things will return to normal with Gen VIII next year, and not change too drastically as a result of Let’s Go, but I can appreciate how one with so much time invested in the series would be worried about this new direction, given how it leads to questions about whether your time investment - and, more importantly, enjoyment of the series up to this point - could become watered down or invalidated. I still err on the side of optimism for the future of the series, and I’m happy for those who like what they see in these new titles, I genuinely am. But I do think that those whom currently lean towards worry or pessimism have every right to do so at this stage, both with regards to this pair of games and to the future of the franchise. I do think that there’s been a lot left unsaid, which puts some unnecessary pressure on next year’s title/s.

More info coming during Bethesda’s E3 press conference.

They’re on an absolute roll this year. Did Emily Rogers or someone upset a Walmart employee or something?

@Dcubed, yeah, I definitely think that this is reusing the engine of Gen VII. At this point, judging from the Gen VI-like Chibi character designs, to the camera angle in the overworld, and to the walking animations that were in Sun and Moon, I definitely think it’s a project which has been stop-start and in the works for quite some time, and there are even some jagged edges to the Pokémon and character models on show. Like I said before, maybe it wasn’t always intended as purely a GO-meets-core series game, but perhaps as a fully fledged one for the 20th Anniversary. I’m genuinely not worried about Gen VIII at this point, because I’m already seeing a handful of things with these games that I want to see carried over to the new games. Pokémon in the overworld is something that I’ve been harping on about for a while, and, assuming that this game was in production prior to next year’s title/s, I think we could see it evolved further with the main series titles. The much more vibrant colour palette that I feel went missing after Gen V in favour of a washed out watercolour shaders is also on show in what we’ve seen with these games, so I hope those carry over too. Throw in a controllable camera and some of the stuff that we always want to see in a core series Pokémon game in next year’s title/s (a half decent narrative, some smart evolutions in gameplay and game design features added in previous game - looking at you, Totem Pokémon) and I won’t have much, if anything, to complain about come next year. I’ll remain optimistic until I have a genuine reason to become pessimistic, but as someone who was born at the peak of Pokémania, I’m just glad we might get some more people on-board for the next year’s games. I don’t think these games were an absolutely necessary stepping stone to draw people in, and I understand the distaste it might leave some fans with, but it’s Pokémon; I’m sure I’ll find some level of enjoyment in it, as I always have done.

Well, I’m in. We didn’t have Mario Kart on the Wii as kids (I know, shame on us), but Sonic and SEGA All Stars Racing more than made up for that, and me and my little brother and sister must have sunk hundreds of hours into the game over several summers.

While I’m sure that some resources were taken away from Gen VIII to make these games, I have my doubts that it was anything to the point of detriment. These games look like 3DS ports, or even, as @Dcubed has suggested before, mobile games. I won’t place any bets, but just looking at it, do you know when I think this game - with it being a RBGY reimagining, only having the original 151, etc. - was intended for? 2016. The 20th Anniversary. I have the genuine feeling that this is a shelved product, which has been worked on longer than we thought. I think the plan might have originally been to remake the original games for 3DS using the new engine (or, at the very least, as an in-house tech demo), but I think they shelved that to see how the world reacted to GO first - after all, that originally only catered to the original 151 too - and, more likely, also probably figured out that it would save them a lot of time and money to just put the old games out on Virtual Console. The Pokémon following you, the GO additions, etc., all seem like Pokémon GO pandering, and that’s exactly what it is - GO was a huge success, and so they’ve probably retrofitted a shelved game to make profit from that, or “phase new players to the franchise into the core series”, as I’m sure any PR team would spin it. USUM were made by the younger dev team because the older team probably had so much on their hands, juggling both the Gen VIII games and supposedly working with Niantic and some other devs (it wouldn’t surprise me if Nintendo’s first party teams got in to help on this, at all) on the game. I can understand the hot takes. And I can appreciate the genuine confusion about what this means for the future of the franchise. But do we really think that Game Freak are going to let the future of “real” core series games be inspired by the successes of GO? After they’ve so stubbornly stuck to the original formula for 22 years? I honestly doubt it. I think there’s reason for concern with this game, and whether or not this spin-off series becomes a mainstay for the franchise, but I’m not concerned at all by Gen VIII, and I don’t think that you should be, either. At the very least, just because the same leakers who were so right about LGPE were also adamant that these games would have a mixed/divisive reaction, and that the game/s really worth being excited about are coming next year, in 2019. Chin up, @Glen-i and co. who are worried about the future of the franchise. I think next year’s World Championships will shine a light on whether these really are to be considered core series titles or not.

@Sméagol (or a mod), might be a good idea to copy these tweets from my comment earlier this morning into the original post? It’s got everything that we officially know about the games. Might be a good idea to add the release date (November 16th), too

Pretty much where I’m at, though I do want to give the games a go, if anything just to have a better understanding of what TPC are going for with this exactly. Pokémon is great because it has a relatively low entry barrier but a high mastery barrier, so I’m struggling to see how this will entice GO players to make the switch to the main series games. Unless, of course, Let’s Go is going to become a spin-off series which is here to stay. Thank goodness that they’ve declared that this isn’t the game that they announced back at E3 last year, or the Internet might just have melted into a nervous breakdown. On the downside, with the knowledge that this game will have presumably been in production for at least three years by the time it releases, and with initial reception to Let’s Go proving somewhat divisive, at least amongst those whom seem to care most, I think we’re going to see more and more outlandish wishlists for Gen VIII. Which makes me worry that Game Freak has just put even more pressure on themselves to match fan expectations with the next main series title/s.

Some Q&A stuff going down. Now, this doesn’t bother me too much, seeing as it’s been rumoured for a while... ...but this does: Eh... UPDATE ...but then they say this and I get excited for a Dragon Eeveelution... YAY BOO This is a real emotional rollercoaster you’re putting me through, GF. After what I’ve heard about USUM, this is a very necessary clarification to make. So I guess I’m (very) excited for what next year’s Pokémon title will bring, because I’m kind of on the fence with LGEP right now. ...

Well, you won’t have to wait too long these tweets felt like they were sort of intended for you Honestly, I think I’m in on a return to Kanto. It probably helps that I haven’t played through the entire region in its original form in a very long time - the only time that I completed a journey through Kanto the save file got corrupted, and I haven’t really felt the urge to play the VC versions of the originals, despite owning them - but yeah, I think I’m ready to choose Bulbasaur again. While, of course, I’m waiting for Gen VIII proper to kick off next year one of the leakers that got this stuff right, including the timing of today’s reveal, did tease that we should be much more excited about next year’s game than this one, so I think we can remain (somewhat) hopeful that next year will bring the changes that we want to see.

Yeah, I think I’m in on Quest. Definitely seeing a lot of the negative reactions (seriously: why, Internet?), but I like how quirky it is; I think a lot of that wave of initial negative reactions is due to impatience over the Let’s Go titles. Anyways, it’ll hopefully keep me somewhat busy until I can get a Switch at the end of summer! As for the main games, I was expecting nothing more than Citra HD Gen VII graphics (not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind), so I was very surprised when the first images came through in the seconds before the trailer launched. There was definitely a moment of hesitancy with regards to the main character models, but I think the Pokémon models and environments look absolutely fantastic. And yep. Seriously, Nintendo are going all out in the final third by the looks of things, as they should be: Smash, Pokémon, and we still don’t know what exactly is going on with Yoshi, Fire Emblem or the recently rumoured Star Fox. The former two alone would be enough to cross the 20M units sold mark though, surely? Q&A session coming up, so we might find out some more morsels of information on the games shortly.

Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee and Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu are official! Coming Friday 16th November! Worth noting that other core series Pokémon RPGs are set to be released in H2 2019, too. So, if this isn’t your cup of tea, don’t worry: it seems like Gen VIII proper will be on its way shortly! Going to try start trying to move the official Pokémon livetweets into this post regarding the Let’s Go titles so that all of the info pertaining to these games are in one place.

And so it begins...I think I’m just going to quote livetweets of the event as it unfurls, and I suppose some of my reactions to the news, just to save anyone having to search extensively for the livetweet feed in the morning/later on. Wait. Wait. What?! What the... Okay. This looks strange, but I’m actually somewhat interested. Also... That would explain the event’s length. Guys, I think I might be in on Pokémon Quest. Maybe. Let’s see what else they announce first...

I don’t want to get too hyped, because I’m actually pretty well armed for some disappointment right about now, but... And, speaking of the media event... UPDATE (01:38) AHHHHHHHHHH UPDATE 2 (01:41) I don’t know why, but seeing this in English makes it seem so much more tangible. I need to learn some Japanese...

Over 100,000 people currently watching a Twitch livestream of a Fallout bobblehead. A lot of talk seems to be about it being a huge deviation for the franchise. Could be a smart move for Bethesda to get this out of the way before E3 too, if that is the case. Looking at people’s reactions to what this might be (that is to say, supposedly, a hero shooter?) makes it seem potentially divisive, and I don’t think that they want much, if anything, to get in the way of their focuses at this year’s E3. Which, let’s be honest, is probably whatever BGS have been cooking up as of late (and a consequent deep dive), Doom 2, and some Prey DLC.

The more I think about it, the more I think that the Let’s Go! titles were probably going to be 3DS titles all along. They’ll probably be “enhanced” in the same way that we expected to see a potential Stars be “enhanced”...which means in the same engine, and not so “enhanced”. If those come this year, I think there’s a chance we see Gen VIII next year. This, I hope, is just to tide us over - and give the Switch a momentum boost - until next year, when the real differences will be seen with a new engine, region, Pokémon, etc., taking advantage of the Switch’s power.

Huh, that is odd. Sorry, I didn’t mean to potentially mislead anyone. I wasn’t aware of the SFAC pricing, nor Capcom tax seriously though, what’s up with us paying considerably more, at least when one considers current exchange rates? I know that the £ has been somewhat volatile since the Brexit vote, but still, it’s been on the rise as of late. At current exchange rates, we’d effectively be paying 50% more than them for SFAC at those price points definitely seems like Capcom taking advantage of the situation.

Huh, all versions have an RRP of $29.99 in the US. Probably means £25 for us?

Yeah, I think that’s true. He was playing as a right back for them a few seasons ago before he got phased into the role of defensive midfielder, and he’s fairly interchangeable, so I think he got played there a few times this season? So I suppose that’s another plus for Liverpool, seeing as he can play in a couple of positions, and it’ll be good to give Trent Alexander-Arnold some competition with an older and more experienced player. As for Henderson, I’m not too sure; I could see him playing as a central midfielder in a midfield trio with two of Keita (central midfielder), Fekir (attacking midfielder) and Fabinho (defensive midfielder). After his knee injury a few seasons ago, which kept him sidelined for a whole season, Fekir is a lot slower than he once was, but he’s since evolved his gameplay to work around that, becoming much more of a box-to-box playmaker; that being said, I don’t see him being used as a winger in the Prem due to his lack of pace. I think it’ll be interesting to see who United sign this summer, too. Guardiola got a lot of flak last summer when he signed a few fullbacks, but I think you have to do the exact same come this summer, and, at least from my point of view, there’s still a lot of deadweight at the club. They’ve needed an overhaul since before Fergie left.

Todd Howard’s interview with Geoff Keighley during YouTube Live at E3 2016 is the main reason for my stance that it’s still a while away. One of those two other major projects seems likely to be Starfield, and if we’re only just going to find out about that game at this show, then I think there’s a good reason to believe that it might still be quite a ways off. From the sounds of it, they might want to build a new engine for VI (if I recall correctly, they were looking for people to work on an engine as recently as 2016) and I feel like - with how Bethesda games seem to continuously leak, and have for a while now - we would have heard the tiniest whisper that VI was in development prior to it being shown off as a tentpole game at E3. Also, @Ganepark32, did you mean Pete Hines? Because he clarified some of what Todd said shortly after that E3 interview with Keighley, stating that the game was not yet in development (as of August 2016); links aren’t working for me right now, so: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/elder-scrolls-6-not-in-development-right-now/1100-6441274/. And then, in an interview with Gamespot (https://www.gamespot.com/articles/bethesda-e3-2017-exec-explains-why-elder-scrolls-6/1100-6450988/) last year:

Yeah, that’s what’s expected at the moment, but there are still a lot of question marks about what the game will actually be if that does turn out to be the case, and what it might mean for the future of the franchise. We’re supposedly returning to Kanto, but which Kanto? Is it an alternate take on the original games, or a sequel? Could it really only contain the original 151 Pokémon in the main story? Or, a big one for @Glen-i: will we see new Pokémon, whether new lines entirely, evolutions/pre-evolutions of past Pokémon, or even Kantonian forms for some Pokémon not native to the region, as we saw introduced in Sun and Moon? There’s been a lot of hearsay about what we’ll be getting, but having that all put to rest with some official information about the game should calm things down a bit.