Ronnie

Looking forward to this but my hype deflated significantly when I realised this is years away from release.

?? The reaction I'm seeing all over online is similar, the pacing was off and the last ten minutes "saved" a poor opening half hour. Started strong with KOTOR though, then lots of filler, GTA5, an Alan Wake port, a second Uncharted collection, Deathloop trailer #58, Guardians of the Galaxy trailer #12, then the PS Studios stuff was great. Just a shame two of the three big hitters are years away.

PS Studios saved the day a bit! God of War 2 looks amazing, though still no date? Wasn’t it supposed to be coming out around now originally? Wolverine a big surprise, looking forward to that. In 2024?

“Let’s look at brand new games” Proceeds to show KOTOR, Alan Wake and GTA5...

Halfway through and this is so unbelievably poor. Hopefully pick up in the latter half?

It looks a bit more back to basics which is nice, after the OTT Reloaded and Revolutions.

They probably picked the 3 most iconic levels from that game, possibly the desert would have been next. That's why those two aren't businessmen (I assume)

Wow, awesome!

Real shame they're all being released in one go, I was looking forward to it being a weekly thing. Probably suggests each short be quite, well, short. Maybe like 5-10 minutes each. Cool poster though!

Nintendo putting out a general Direct for the past five years in September might have tipped them off

...I'm now looking forward to GB/GBC games being added for two reasons. (Also hurry up Dec 31st 2023!)

This was probably filmed months and months ago, they might not have had a final OLED model to use, plus there's the danger of last minute design changes etc

I always struggle to understand the whole 'you can't drop any Pokemon, someone's favourite will be among them'. Just because they get dropped in one game doesn't mean they vanish from that person's memories or from all those previous games. It's ok to move forward and try new things.

You saw the childish outrage when they didn't port all of them to Sword and Shield, the internet would explode if they cut it down to 150. But yeah I agree, a reboot of sorts needs to happen.

They've been doing that for years now, and it's getting really annoying. If you watch all the content Nintendo put out before a big game's release you'll have seen most of what it has to offer. They literally showed all but 3 or 4 of the Kingdoms in Mario Odyssey.

New trailer out From what I saw, looks great!!

If only The Pokemon Company and Game Freak had the same budget as that behemoth of games development, Pearl Abyss.

Quality testing animations? Are you sure about that?

My last post in this debate but I had to reply to the above. No one is saying Pokemon has to compare with the best Nintendo or Sony Studios have to offer, nor are we expecting new instillments to look like God of War or Red Dead 2. Just at least on par with some of the more modest big hits these days. Don't you find it a bit embarrassing that even indie developers are making prettier 3D games, with a comparatively tiny team and shoestring budget? Tequila Works (70 employees) Campo Santo (12 employees) Eastshade Studios (not sure how big but described as a micro team) 1 man and an animation studio Giant Squid (18 employees) And yet one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world create a world where shadows don't exist?

I haven't once suggested that the games aren't fun to play. Obviously people buy them because they're good games. That statement + "they don't need to improve the graphics" aren't mutually exclusive, they can both be true. Exactly. Hence the whole... "they don't need to make the visuals look good" argument. Oh please, enough with this 'graphics don't matter' argument. The best games of the year manage to marry gameplay, visuals, audio, direction and performance. Gameplay is king, but that doesn't mean everything else "doesn't matter". A top quality game is a combination of all aspects.

If only Pokemon earned the respective companies lots and lots of money. Money to be able to staff up, acquire expertise, make better games. That's the entire point I've been trying to make. When Nintendo needed help with Breath of the Wild, they turned to Monolith Soft. Don't tell me that TPC/Game Freak aren't able to get expand their team or get extra help in when developing their games (beyond Creatures). It's not hyperbole to say that Arceus visuals are 2 gens behind. Breath of the Wild is "last gen" and looks far better, The Last of Us is two gens back and looks far better. I'm sure you've seen the Elder Scrolls Oblivion (2006) comparison by now too. The point of this discussion is WHY do compromises have to be made. There are better looking games, with deeper systems, made by studios with more manpower and a bigger budget, that will sell less than what Arceus will end up selling. It's the biggest gaming franchise in the world, isn't it time it started acting like it? The reality is, TPC/GF don't need to, people will buy it anyway.

At no point did I imply the devs were lazy. I implied they weren't good enough, technically. I realise that Pokemon games are good with deep systems, that's irrelevant to the discussion. Because Nintendo allocate priorities so that visuals, gameplay AND all the tiny details that most will never see are all up to scratch. Pokemon nail two out of three, but are 2+ gens behind in terms of presentation. There's a balance to be struck. Don't put in tiny details when 99% of your game's presentation looks terrible.

I realise there are lots of animations. We've all agreed that. At no point did I call the developers "lazy". Your company of less than 200 employees, in charge of one of, if not the biggest gaming franchise in the world, can outsource let's be honest, basic animations to get them done. The higher ups don't, because they don't need to. The games and merchandise sell in eye-watering numbers. I don't care if some nobody Pokemon that 1% of people will ever see flaps its wings slightly differently to Pidgeot flapping its wings. When 99% of the game presentation that EVERYONE sees looks as fucking awful as it does, then somewhere the company's priorities got mixed up. I realise there are lots of animations needed. That doesn't mean it's acceptable to make a PS2 quality game everywhere else, in 2021.

(Somewhat amusing that even with 5000+ animations, they still use the same battle sound effects and status effects. ) Like @MindFreak says, GF makes enough money, let them outsource the animations, and if they themselves are focusing on them then their priorities are all wrong. How can you in good conscious put this out, in 2021: But as @bob says, they don't need to. That's the answer. Arceus will sell a 10-20 million easily. Not sure what the comparison to Odyssey and Zelda is supposed to show. Well done Game Freak for finally broadening the franchise and upping the scope and ambition, but presentation wise, it's indefensible.