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Glen-i

Pokémon Direct - June 5th: 2pm

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Love the new Pokemon but hate the new gimmicks aka Dynamax and "Gigantmax" which is yet got announced for now. The game look like it's still designed for handheld gaming experience with some console gaming elements like Pokemon Snap-ish photo mode in the wild area, POGO's PVE raid mechanics which should be focus on strongest/final evolution/legendary rather than a giant diglet lol.

In a way, I kinda want Game Freak's own spin on BOTW. Don't have to be setting in modern time. Could be around a thousand years ago when the villages/towns have a war with etc. 

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15 minutes ago, DriftKaiser said:

In a way, I kinda want Game Freak's own spin on BOTW. Don't have to be setting in modern time. Could be around a thousand years ago when the villages/towns have a war with etc. 

That is exactly what you’re getting with the Wild Area.

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Oh, so Dynamax changes the moves you can use as seen here:

6_05_dynamax_10_2x.jpg

 

Quote

MAX MOVES

All the moves of a Dynamax Pokémon will turn into special Max Moves. Max Moves pack a punch, but that’s not all! Some of them can even trigger powerful additional effects!

It sounds like z-moves won't be returning as this sounds like the same concept expect can be used for 3 turns and doesn't restrict your options.

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Giant Pokémon huh...? Deviantart did it first. :p

But for real, this trailer hasn't hyped me very much, the legendary Pokémon look really meh. BUT, I know for a fact that Grookey and Corviknight are absolutely going on my team.

Also, the champion has Iris hair, it's purple and BIG, and both have pretty warm eye colours. I think there's a chance they could actually be related, especially when you consider that this is Poké-UK, and Iris is from PokéUSA. But it's not a theory I'd stake my life on, just something I think could be possible. Maybe. Who knows!

Edited by Sofiz
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If Swordo drops his sword and Shieldio picks it up, does he Digivolve into Ultimate?

Also, Dynamax predicted by the anime years ago

latest?cb=20111207231801

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3 hours ago, Vileplume2000 said:

It still baffles me that The Pokémon Company/Nintendo who are make a ton of profit, and considering Pokémon is one of the biggest franchises in the world, don't invest more in Game Freak and let them hire some extra staff to finally get a proper running game out.

Dynamax is not really my cup of tea. I wished they would have continued on the Mega Evolutions path, that was a cool new addition. This is indeed like Z-Moves, and doesn't feel like it adds something of interest. Other than that the game looks fine, could have looked better but you know you cannot expect that from Pokémon. Not hyped though, then again it's been a while since I was hyped for a Pokémon game anyway.

What are those extra staff going to do?  Create a more powerful console to put it on? :p 

1 hour ago, Ike said:

Oh, so Dynamax changes the moves you can use as seen here:

6_05_dynamax_10_2x.jpg

There's a lot of little bits in the in-battle UI that bugs me...

I liked Let's Pikachu's moves had icons representing the element (and perhaps that dates back further, my memory isn't great) and the leaf I guess indicates that hear but the rest are...normal? 

The male/female symbol is too close to the pokémon name.  The Pokéball icons are too small. The name boxes are diagonal, the moves rounded edge (with a diagonal inside, granted).  It's just lots of little things rather than anything huge.

And as an aside, why is Max Guard there twice with two different PPs?

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32 minutes ago, Ashley said:

What are those extra staff going to do?  Create a more powerful console to put it on? :p 

2 hours ago, Ike said:

That or do some optimisation so they don’t actually need a more powerful console. :heh: 

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Are these “Raid battles” the first main feature to come over from Pokémon Go? They are pretty much them in a nutshell. Take more then one person to beat and appear larger then normal Pokémon. 

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2 hours ago, Ashley said:

What are those extra staff going to do?  Create a more powerful console to put it on? :p

In no way do they need a more powerful console. Look at Breath of the Wild. The Switch hardware isn't the problem, Game Freak are just lagging behind in terms of development muscle. A lot of Japanese studios seem to be a generation behind western ones. They just look dated compared to what the Europe/the US can put out. Pokemon games even more so.

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I don't understand Japanese so I can't judge the tone of those in the videos, but that Jamie art dude... he does not do well in front of a camera. Dude couldn't look any more uncomfortable if he tried. 

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8 hours ago, Ashley said:

And as an aside, why is Max Guard there twice with two different PPs?

Yo, Pokémon nerd here. Ready to answer your nerdy questions.

Simply put, the Max Moves a Pokémon knows is determined by it's moveset before it gets huge.

For example, in the picture above, Vine Whip would become Max Overgrowth because it's a Grass type attacking move. Meanwhile, Scratch becomes Max Strike, a normal attacking move.

The reason why Max Guard appears twice is because that Grookey knows 2 status moves. (So, like, maybe Leer and Leech Seed) Status moves will become Max Guard.

A similar thing happened in Sun/Moon when you had two different moves that both matched the Z-Crystal a Pokémon was holding.

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8 hours ago, BowserBasher said:

Are these “Raid battles” the first main feature to come over from Pokémon Go? They are pretty much them in a nutshell. Take more then one person to beat and appear larger then normal Pokémon. 

Nope, the catching mechanics in Let's GO was first.

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9 hours ago, RedShell said:

That or do some optimisation so they don’t actually need a more powerful console. :heh: 

 

7 hours ago, Ronnie said:

In no way do they need a more powerful console. Look at Breath of the Wild. The Switch hardware isn't the problem, Game Freak are just lagging behind in terms of development muscle. A lot of Japanese studios seem to be a generation behind western ones. They just look dated compared to what the Europe/the US can put out. Pokemon games even more so.

It was kind of a joke but the amount of Pokémon each with their own models, animations, the character animations etc has always been intense for whatever console they're working on.  I don't think they're pushing it to the max, but they've certainly got a difficult challenge in that regard. BotW didn't have ~900 different creatures to contend with.

At least the humans look less like bobbleheads this time!

50 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Yo, Pokémon nerd here. Ready to answer your nerdy questions.

Simply put, the Max Moves a Pokémon knows is determined by it's moveset before it gets huge.

For example, in the picture above, Vine Whip would become Max Overgrowth because it's a Grass type attacking move. Meanwhile, Scratch becomes Max Strike, a normal attacking move.

The reason why Max Guard appears twice is because that Grookey knows 2 status moves. (So, like, maybe Leer and Leech Seed) Status moves will become Max Guard.

A similar thing happened in Sun/Moon when you had two different moves that both matched the Z-Crystal a Pokémon was holding.

Thanks nerd.

I skipped Sun/Moon so didn't realise that.  I just assumed it was prepending 'Max' to the move name.

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3 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Nope, the catching mechanics in Let's GO was first.

Well yeah. I should have said main line games. 

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Really enjoyed both Pokemon Directs so far! Pokemon SwSh seems to be what I've been hoping for. 😀

All of the new Pokemon introduced have great designs, including the legendaries.

I skipped Gens 6 and 7, although over the years I've completed games from Gens 1-5 many, many times. Looking forward to the giant Pokemon/Dynamax thing, as it will mix battles up a bit. But, saying that hopefully it won't take over the game too much, and there will still be plenty of "normal" battles.

Open world wild areas replacing normal routes is a really nice improvement. It resembles Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which was fantastic, so it will be great to see how it works out in a Pokemon game.

Edit: Woops, wild area(s) don't replace classic routes!

The Golden Steelbook dual pack is really tempting, depending on price I might just get it. Combined with Pokemon Home it will certainly make completing the regional dex easier. It will also mean I have a second save I can start over on without deleting my main save, if I feel like another playthrough.

Edit: It may be possible to use the Switch's multiple profiles to achieve this with a single game!

The only thing that's still bothering me is there's still no confirmation that the games are Pro Controller compatible. I just want to play in TV mode with a Pro Controller. But, looking at the videos in the Pokemon Directs, there doesn't seem to be any emphasis on motion controls. Usually if there is, they announce that early and make a big deal out of it. So if I were to guess right now, I'd say the games will be Pro Controller compatible.

Can't wait till November 15th! ⚔🛡

Edited by Sckewi
Because I always have typos no matter how many times I check before I post xD

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Is Dynamaxing anything like that bit in the Detective Pikachu film where they supersized the terrapin Pokémon?

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6 hours ago, Glen-i said:

The reason why Max Guard appears twice is because that Grookey knows 2 status moves. (So, like, maybe Leer and Leech Seed) Status moves will become Max Guard.

Leech Seed was considered a status move? Never thought of it that way before

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8 hours ago, Ashley said:

It was kind of a joke but the amount of Pokémon each with their own models, animations, the character animations etc has always been intense for whatever console they're working on.  I don't think they're pushing it to the max, but they've certainly got a difficult challenge in that regard.

Game Freak aren't doing themselves any favours though by using such high poly models, it always seems to be one extreme or the other when it comes to 3D Pokémon titles: :blank:

aX6h4F0.jpg

Not that they should go with super low poly Pokémon Ranch/Rumble style models for a mainline title like Sword & Shield, :hehe: but there undoubtedly has to be some middle ground where performance isn't compromised and the character models still look good. ::shrug:

8 hours ago, Ashley said:

BotW didn't have ~900 different creatures to contend with.

Still quite a lot though, probably around 300 when you include all of the different wildlife that's in the game.

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6 hours ago, BowserBasher said:

Well yeah. I should have said main line games. 

Still applies. Let's GO is a mainline game. Game Freak said so.

6 hours ago, Sckewi said:

Open world wild areas replacing normal routes is a really nice improvement. It resembles Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which was fantastic, so it will be great to see how it works out in a Pokemon game.

The Golden Steelbook dual pack is really tempting, depending on price I might just get it. Combined with Pokemon Home it will certainly make completing the regional dex easier. It will also mean I have a second save I can start over on without deleting my main save, if I feel like another playthrough.

The wild areas are a separate area from the usual routes. It seems like the traditional routes with random encounters are still there. Game Freak basically said "Why not both?"

Also, I'm pretty sure in Let's GO, you could have multiple save files by using different Switch accounts. So there probably won't be a need to get both if you want that.

Edited by Glen-i
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I'll probably be getting the Double Pack simply because my brother and I have differing views over which versions we now prefer. I'm going with Pokemon Dark Souls version.

 

Also, looking at the Galar map, the trailer is misleading, there is only ONE Wild Area in the entire region. It's this region's equivalent of "Tech demo used to sell the game, the rest isn't like this" that Castelia and Lumoise were before it. Typical Game Freak...

 

Corviknight is my favourite of the new pokemon so far. Drednaw also looks cool but ugh, it's typing is horrible. Water/Rock isn't great so unless there's something really cool then Sobble will probably survive the entire run.

 

I don't want to get too deep into team planning because I want to have a bit more organic playthrough where I don't know my entire team before the game is released but Corviknight is looking cool and Skarmory is no longer the only Steel/Flying type. Corviknight could be a more attacking variant statwise compared to the more defensive Skarmory, though for an in-game team I don't mind. Means for the second generation in a row I will be dropping any plans of using an Aegislash on my team due to a type clash.

 

I know I want a Psychic type on the team. I guess a Ground type would be ideal to counter Corviknight's weakness to Electricity...

 

I think British names is going to take over as the naming theme, I'm not feeling the footballer names for everyone, the only one that could fit could be calling Scorbunny "Will Grigg". But since I'm going with Sobble I'm going to call it "James Bond" with the Psychic type being either "Harry Potter" or "Hermione Grainger" depending on gender.

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6 hours ago, GenericAperson said:

Also, looking at the Galar map, the trailer is misleading, there is only ONE Wild Area in the entire region. It's this region's equivalent of "Tech demo used to sell the game, the rest isn't like this" that Castelia and Lumoise were before it. Typical Game Freak...

The first trailer (and this one) literally had a random encounter happen on a handcrafted route. You were only kidding yourself if you thought the wild area was going to be nothing more than a side feature.

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True. Still though, for a franchise as big as Pokemon I think we all would want more than tech demos confined to singular areas to be used as selling points. I guess after playing games like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Final Fantasy XII on the Switch recently I know it is capable of more. Those games have the kind of structure that could still make Pokemon Pokemon while not being TOO open ended, ie, a bunch of smaller open areas that act as wide open paths to your next objective and in FFXII's case those paths are interlinked with each other to make this expansive world.

 

Given Game Freak's development trends we will probably not see something like that until Gen 9.

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15 minutes ago, GenericAperson said:

Given Game Freak's development trends we will probably not see something like that.

Fixed that for you

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6 minutes ago, GenericAperson said:

True. Still though, for a franchise as big as Pokemon I think we all would want more than tech demos confined to singular areas to be used as selling points. I guess after playing games like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Final Fantasy XII on the Switch recently I know it is capable of more. Those games have the kind of structure that could still make Pokemon Pokemon while not being TOO open ended, ie, a bunch of smaller open areas that act as wide open paths to your next objective and in FFXII's case those paths are interlinked with each other to make this expansive world.

 

Given Game Freak's development trends we will probably not see something like that until Gen 9.

Well, Game Freak are notorious for introducing a new feature to Pokémon games only to drop them immediately in the next generation. So I wouldn't get too attached to the Wild Area idea anyway.

Remember having a Pokédex that could catalogue every Pokémon? Or a huge battle facility that offered 7 different ways to test your battle skills? Or a feature that lets random people trade with you no matter where you are in the game? None of those were in Sun/Moon, despite being really good ideas.

The key difference between Pokémon and the likes of Final Fantasy and Xenoblade are the Pokémon themselves. Balancing an RPG around 900-ish possible party members is a nightmare. Even having a minimum of 6 animations for each one is an excruciating amount of work. There has to be at least 400 moves in the game at this point as well. So you gotta make sure those all work as intended. And every gen sees some stat changes and moveset tweaks to older Pokémon as well. And that's before we get on to the human characters

People often dunk on Game Freak for not having more ambition, when it's precisely their ambition that holds them back in the first place.

Don't get me wrong, Xenoblade 1 and 2 have the perfect balance of open world and linear progression, but you can't apply that reasoning to a game as huge as Pokémon.

1 minute ago, Ronnie said:

Fixed that for you

See? That's exactly what I mean. Unreasonable expectations because other games have done so.

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