Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet

[darksnowman]

Ludiculous, @Ashley.

[Jonnas]

As per usual, Reddit has cracked the code, and also I'm hungry.

9 hours ago, darksnowman said:

If they really want to lean into the animal cruelty aspect then sure... Look out for characters wearing all white and a red bib in future trailers to see if "The Running of the Tauros" will be present. Maybe a Hemmingway NPC. Pokémon Gyms could be bull rings.

The bull run of Pamplona and the typical bullfights are two separate things. The bull run is just an event where a bunch of bulls are set loose on the streets alongside some young brave human souls willing to run beside them. To my knowledge, it hasn't been associated with animal cruelty the same way bullfights have (I think. I'm not from Pamplona)

That said, modern-day bullfighting (in Portugal at least) is not quite the bloody mess that people usually think of. The "fighter" intentionally provokes the bull and gets gored by it. The goal is to grab it and hold it without being thrown off. There are still valid concerns over animal cruelty (if something goes wrong, horseriders distract/subdue the bull with lances), but it's the tamest form of bullfighting nowadays (and possibly the only one that's legal, but don't quote me on that).

Not making excuses or anything, I just think there's a legitimate chance that we'll see a regional variant of a Tauros in a similar role, like you suggested.

9 hours ago, darksnowman said:

Maybe this team will be trying to bring back the glory days of the armada.

...Now that you mention it, I truly hope the evil group this time looks nothing like ETA. That's a can of worms nobody needs to open.

9 hours ago, darksnowman said:

They can leave out the Harry Potter bookshop in Oporto because that franchise is deader than a dead thing from deadland to me

Hey now! The Lello Bookstore was there long before any spectacled wizards came along and pretended it was theirs! If anything, I hope Pokémon uses it, because then at least we can say "It's been referenced multiple times" instead of leaning so much into the tired Harry Potter angle.

*grumble* I used to be able to casually peruse that store before it became an attraction *grumble*

....

I feel so called out right now.

[darksnowman]

11 hours ago, Jonnas said:

As per usual, Reddit has cracked the code, and also I'm hungry.

No doubt there will be a whole range of croqueta Pokémon and I'm sure they're working around the clock trying to work out how to put in Pokémon based on tortilla de patatas and francesinhas rather than focusing on the game itself.  

Pimiento de piquillo is from Navarra which is where Pamplona is located so maybe that starter is all they will draw from that region but if not...

11 hours ago, Jonnas said:

The bull run of Pamplona and the typical bullfights are two separate things. The bull run is just an event where a bunch of bulls are set loose on the streets alongside some young brave human souls willing to run beside them. To my knowledge, it hasn't been associated with animal cruelty the same way bullfights have (I think. I'm not from Pamplona)

The bulls that run every morning never see the light of day again. The destination of the course is the bull ring and every evening those bulls are sliced with methodical precision by pirouetting toreros so they bleed out slowly in the name of putting on a show. It may well be considered an honour for those noble creatures to meet this fate but I'd say there's no need for something like this to be cutefied and glorified in a game that will be played by millions of kids. 

But that's just what I think. And Pokémon is already about battling animals you capture so who knows. 

11 hours ago, Jonnas said:

...Now that you mention it, I truly hope the evil group this time looks nothing like ETA. That's a can of worms nobody needs to open.

No, no, I wasn't referring to ETA and their IRA buddies. I meant the Spanish Armada of yore. Conquistadores! World domination! All that stuff they can't let go of and face that nowadays all they offer is tikitaka and a place to go on holidays.  

11 hours ago, Jonnas said:

Hey now! The Lello Bookstore was there long before any spectacled wizards came along and pretended it was theirs! If anything, I hope Pokémon uses it, because then at least we can say "It's been referenced multiple times" instead of leaning so much into the tired Harry Potter angle.

Must've been nice to go in without needing a ticket!

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, darksnowman said:

No doubt there will be a whole range of croqueta Pokémon and I'm sure they're working around the clock trying to work out how to put in Pokémon based on tortilla de patatas and francesinhas rather than focusing on the game itself.  

You don't need to worry about that.

By this point, every new Pokémon for this game has been designed and likely already has a 3D model ready courtesy of Creatures Inc.

Edited March 2, 2022 by Glen-i

[darksnowman]

On 02/03/2022 at 9:07 AM, Glen-i said:

You don't need to worry about that.

By this point, every new Pokémon for this game has been designed and likely already has a 3D model ready courtesy of Creatures Inc.

And they've had modern 3D models of the old Pokémon ready to go since that Pokédex app came on the scene, or so I remember reading. I've read so many times over the years about the time-consuming work of getting the Pokémon themselves done and animated being alleviated one way or another (wasn't the beauty of Sun and Moon that the models would be easy to touch up and reuse?), and [insert upcoming game]'ll be when the benefit is apparent because they'll be able to devote time and resources to other aspects of the game. Just you wait and see. 

Still waiting.  

Anyway, what's the news on how the rendering and modelling of iffy golden statues and wonky art and architectural restorations is coming along?  

BTW, people from the capital (by birth, not blow-ins) are referred to as cats. So keep that in your back pocket in case it becomes of vital importance with that kitty starter. Although I'm not sure why it would as in Sword and Shield the only English thing that struck me about the starters was the footy reference...? And any other nods throughout to the real world were nothing beyond surface level.  

Well, we all know you'll be there on day 1 for one or both of these whether they've Kecleon up the wazoo or not, but within reason, how are you thinking in your heart of hearts this new generation will turn out? Like, realistically, what are they likely to fix from Sword and Shield (don't ask me what needs to be fixed... because you know ) before going "bleh, they bought it before they'll lap it up again!" and sending it to the printers? Do they still have it in them to show more ambition than just making an expanded/ the entire game a wild area and throwing in some additional trainer clothes...? Maybe that is enough ambition?? 

[Ashley]

1 hour ago, darksnowman said:

Although I'm not sure why it would as in Sword and Shield the only English thing that struck me about the starters was the footy reference

Well that and it was a rabbit and there's hares that are indigenous to England (rabbits and hares are close enough). 

And maybe Sobble is a reference to how wet this miserable island is?

[Glen-i]

2 hours ago, darksnowman said:

And they've had modern 3D models of the old Pokémon ready to go since that Pokédex app came on the scene, or so I remember reading. I've read so many times over the years about the time-consuming work of getting the Pokémon themselves done and animated being alleviated one way or another (wasn't the beauty of Sun and Moon that the models would be easy to touch up and reuse?), and [insert upcoming game]'ll be when the benefit is apparent because they'll be able to devote time and resources to other aspects of the game. Just you wait and see. 

Still waiting.  

You trying to say that visually speaking, Sun and Moon didn't look better then X and Y?

Because it's kinda obvious when you look at the two side by side.

Of course, the downside to having such high fidelity models was that the 3DS couldn't handle it, and the frame rate chugged frequently in battles.

So naturally, we could assume that once the jump to HD happened, that frame rate issue would clear up. And it did. Sword and Shield runs at a very consistent frame rate, and the Pokémon themselves still have really great looking models.

The problem Sword and Shield ran into is that something went seriously wrong in that transfer progress. A lot of the models just flat out broke, so all that time that could've been saved by having older Pokémon be ready to go was spent salvaging just over 300 of them. Mega Evolutions were scrapped to save more time and the game ended up being quite truncated as far as the actual region itself was. Of course this would've been helped with a delay, but welp, TPC gotta keep that merch train chugging.

The thing is, Sword and Shield still went on to become the second most successful entry in the series. Personally, I think that the Switch Effect is what saved that game, but I have no way to prove that. But it did kind of set a precedent of mainline games not needing to have a complete National Dex. You see this with the Diamond and Pearl remakes which don't even attempt to throw in a few Pokémon that were introduced after the original games, and Legends: Arceus with it's absolutely miniscule number of Pokémon you can catch.

But I'll tell you one thing for sure, the battle system still is exemplary! It's got a low skill floor for young children and people who just want to go on a trip with their Pokémon, but a sky-high skill ceiling for those who want to dig into the very deep mechanics of team building and more competitive play. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

And if it ain't broke, certainly don't start stripping away parts in an attempt to simplify it, because then you get Let's Go and Legends: Arceus, which have poor interpretations of the battle system which don't reward forward planning and actively encourage people to avoid battles if possible. This is why I couldn't finish either, I just wasn't getting anything out of the battles, and they're my favourite part of the game.

2 hours ago, darksnowman said:

Well, we all know you'll be there on day 1 for one or both of these whether they've Kecleon up the wazoo or not, but within reason, how are you thinking in your heart of hearts this new generation will turn out? Like, realistically, what are they likely to fix from Sword and Shield (don't ask me what needs to be fixed... because you know ) before going "bleh, they bought it before they'll lap it up again!" and sending it to the printers? Do they still have it in them to show more ambition than just making an expanded/ the entire game a wild area and throwing in some additional trainer clothes...? Maybe that is enough ambition?? 

First of all, I never buy both versions, because anyone who buys two versions for one person is stupid. And the majority of people agree.

Anyway, as for what I expect? Dynamax will be ditched, it's a fun idea in theory, but it just became too decisive in battles. It'll be replaced by whatever silly idea they come up with next. Whether it'll be awesome (Megas) or kinda meh (Z-Moves) remains to be seen.

Now, we've already had confirmation that Scarlet and Violet are moving to be open-world, which worries the bejeezus out of me. I've played a handful of them now, and none of them felt like it benefitted from having such a humongous place to run around in. Legends: Arceus is already far too big (I swear the Mt. Coronet area alone is bigger then the entirety of Sinnoh!), so ideally, I'd like it to be much smaller, so that some actual good level design can be in there, but that's never happening. Open-world games are far too obsessed with being huge.

Which brings me to you asking me what needs to be fixed from Sword and Shield. Well, originally, I would've said the visuals outside of battle, but I'll tell you one thing, if this region is as huge as most of you want it to be, that's not happening. Most of the effort is going to be spent making big empty fields to plonk Pokémon in and the visuals are going to take a hit as a result.

It's not all doom and gloom though, there are a few things from Legends: Arceus that I hope show up here. The seamless transition into battle is very nice and I expect that to stick around. Sword and Shield did actually have some of these, but they were reserved for Gym Leaders. I want that on a wider scale.

What I don't want is catching hundreds Pokémon by just chucking a ball at them in real time. It's far too effective, and ended up making battles completely pointless. Why bother training a team up when you can just sneak up to a level 80 Infernape and lob an Ultra Ball at it's back? Make me earn each Pokémon by proving that I can handle it in the first place.

Speaking of, I hope they ditch Research Tasks, it's another neat idea in theory, but it gets so grindy. I'm scared this one will stick around and I don't want to have catch 20 Magikarp so I can read the Dex entry. Once is enough, and I don't want mechanics that encourage people to catch the same Pokémon over and over. It's boring. If the game has to implement a "Mass release" feature to not be unbearable, that game is doing it wrong.

Actually, now that I think about it, there's not a lot from Legends: Arceus I want to see. Honestly, if they leave the battle system from Sword/Shield relatively untouched, then it might be enough for me to plod through the open world chaff so I can get some good competitive battling in there. That might salvage it in my eyes.

Or add Battle Frontier back in. That would be great.

[Julius]

1 hour ago, Ashley said:

And maybe Sobble is a reference to how wet this miserable island is?

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought this  also @darksnowman Sobble's final evolution, Inteleon, seems like a pretty clear reference to James Bond/MI6, and I'd guess the entire line is based on newts. Which we have some indigenous species of. 

Don't ask me about Grookey and it's line though: at best I'd guess that they're a reference to drummers, but not a particular one? It's also called the Chimp Pokémon when I think it's clearly a monkey, and I mean, I guess we have those in zoos? 

3 hours ago, darksnowman said:

And any other nods throughout to the real world were nothing beyond surface level.  

There's some neat stuff in there but Pokémon, for me, hasn't had great nuance and design for its regions since Unova in Gen V. Everything since then has very practically been "this country...but in the world of Pokémon!" I mean Unova is an entire region based on a city, and while every region is visually similar in shape to its inspiration, it never felt like it went beyond inspiration - there was loads of space for them to flex their creative muscle and design an awesome place. It's insane how much thought went into extrapolating so much in that region, from the focus on truth and ideals, to the design of many of the Pokémon, to the actual locations in the region compared with New York. Ditto for the preceding four main series regions before that. 

So yeah, Scarlet and Violet I'm sure will have many references to the real world, but in terms of the region, I agree that it will probably be pretty shallow in how it does this if the last few regions are anything to go by 

[Glen-i]

9 minutes ago, Julius said:

Don't ask me about Grookey and it's line though: at best I'd guess that they're a reference to drummers, but not a particular one? It's also called the Chimp Pokémon when I think it's clearly a monkey, and I mean, I guess we have those in zoos?

That infamous Cadbury's advert seems like the obvious inspiration for Rillaboom. At least in my eyes, it can't be anything else.

[Julius]

1 minute ago, Glen-i said:

That infamous Cadbury's advert seems like the obvious inspiration for Rillaboom. At least in my eyes, it can't be anything else.

Oh damn, that's a great shout Glen! I loved that advert but it never clicked before, but that definitely makes the most sense for inspiration. 

Always knew Game Freak and co. were a cultured lot  well, I guess James Turner specifically in this case, have no idea at all how a bunch of Japanese guys and gals might've come across that ad! 

[Glen-i]

3 minutes ago, Julius said:

Always knew Game Freak and co. were a cultured lot  well, I guess James Turner specifically in this case, have no idea at all how a bunch of Japanese guys and gals might've come across that ad! 

I guarantee James Turner designed Rillaboom at least. Or at least suggested the concept.

[Ashley]

Speaking of that ad someone did a really interesting thread on it recently:

 

 

[Ike]

New trailer dropping tomorrow.

That's 1pm for us.

[Glen-i]

I wonder if we'll see what this generation's battle gimmick is here.

Bound to be new Pokémon, sure, but I wonder if Megas will make a return? They were planned for Gen 8 and they're still kicking in Mystery Dungeon and GO. Bet the anime still has them show up now and again as well. If any old, cut feature were to make a comeback, that would be the most likely one in my eyes.

Hell, they could repurpose some Gigantamax forms into Megas. They won't, but they should. Inteleon's one is far too clever to not reuse.

[Dcubed]

Oh PLEASE bring Megas back Game Freak!! I BEG you!!

I miss Beedrill and Kangaskhan actually being viable… Probably best give Mega Rayquasa a miss though…

[Dcubed]

Oh snap! Masuda has just stepped down as head of Game Freak!
 

https://www.resetera.com/threads/junichi-masuda-steps-down-as-game-freak-managing-director-now-creative-fellow-at-tpc.589737/
 

Quote

The Pokémon Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Junichi Masuda as its Chief Creative Fellow, effective June 1, 2022.

Junichi Masuda has served as the Managing Director at GAME FREAK inc., the original creator of Pokémon, until May 31. As one of the founding members of GAME FREAK, he was involved in the development of “Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Green Version,” supporting the development of the subsequent Pokémon video game series for many years. Masuda will utilize his deep understanding of the Pokémon brand to develop new services and products at the Pokémon Company, tapping into his years of experience and creative thinking.

So he has now taken on the same role as Miyamoto at Nintendo.  Essentially a retirement role where he acts as a brand ambassador and general adviser.

This shouldn’t be a massive surprise, as Masuda has been grooming the younger staff (like Ohmori) at Game Freak to take over from him for many years now.  But it’s still certainly the end of an era for Game Freak.

[Dufniall]

I love how "fellow" is part of his official title.  

[Glen-i]

10 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Oh PLEASE bring Megas back Game Freak!! I BEG you!!

I miss Beedrill and Kangaskhan actually being viable… Probably best give Mega Rayquasa a miss though…

Beedrill went from a joke Pokémon that no-one ever uses, even in casual single player play, to this horrific monstrosity!

For reference, that attack is as high as a Groudon! Oh, and it has double STAB power because of it's new Adaptability ability? So, basically, everything that doesn't resist Bug and Poison is super dead. And if something can take a hit? Well, that's what U-Turn is for.

Beedrill is the perfect example for why Megas are better then Z-Moves and Dynamax. Megas gave new life to rubbish Pokémon, while the gimmicks that came after just serve to make already strong Pokémon even stronger, while the Pokémon that could really use the boost get left even further behind.

Mega Rayquaza and other legendaries getting it was defo the wrong idea though. I mean, I like Groudon being dominant, but it didn't need the boost.

[bob]

Masuda has been grooming the younger staff (like Ohmori) at Game Freak

No wonder they asked him to step down.

[Julius]

22 hours ago, Ike said:

That's 1pm for us.

Wait, wouldn't it be at 14:00?

We're 8 hours ahead of Pacific 

Edited June 1, 2022 by Julius

[Ike]

13 minutes ago, Julius said:

Wait, wouldn't it be at 14:00?

We're 8 hours ahead of Pacific 

Yes, I converted it to GMT instead of BST. My bad. 

[Ashley]

6 hours ago, Dcubed said:

So he has now taken on the same role as Miyamoto at Nintendo.  

Telling everyone else they're rubbish?

*Ashley ran away*

[Julius]

18th November, no surprises there. Loving the box art, feels like they're making a bit more use of the space they've got! 

Edited June 1, 2022 by Julius

[Dufniall]

So some kind of 4-player mode, trading happens "over the air", the route 1 Rattata appears to be a pig, and the cover Pokémon look great. Digital Rocket Dragon for the win!

[Jonnas]

Lechonk?

...

Yes