Unpopular opinions

[Bakugames]

I mean the only reason gen 7 dex is like that is Because of dexit. Like i get your point but that was a thing that was gonna happen and got delayed. Wouldn't be surprised if they decided on it as soon as they finished working on XY

thank god they didnt tho because alola is peak and i dont have to defend it from dexit bros

 

[Worldie]

Honestly instead of replying with the same thing for the millionth time, I'll just link a decent summary Wolfey made about SV which had me agree with more or less all he said. (Funnily, even "first impression" vs "replaying through it a year later")

TLDR: Pokemon games are just a relatively minor part of pokemon franchise income. They just need to work, and be cute to introduce kids to the game. They don't need to be good to sell, thus they don't put more money into them.

 

[Ironmage]

I'm currently missing third versions rather than DLC. Yes, it's more total expense for the extra content if you already had the original games, but that keeps seeming like a larger and larger if. Now that I can't call the first release sufficiently complete to justify getting the base version, the balance starts to swing in the other direction: I would be waiting until there's good content (if any shows up) regardless, so I'd much prefer having a single package at 100% game price than two totaling 150%.

 

[Samtendo09]

Honestly instead of replying with the same thing for the millionth time, I'll just link a decent summary Wolfey made about SV which had me agree with more or less all he said. (Funnily, even "first impression" vs "replaying through it a year later")

TLDR: Pokemon games are just a relatively minor part of pokemon franchise income. They just need to work, and be cute to introduce kids to the game. They don't need to be good to sell, thus they don't put more money into them.

That doesn’t make it any less exploitative, as it comes off as taking advantage of children’s love of Pokémon with little return and slow improvements. Worse is that there are fans who defended flaws that are difficult to deny, such as inconsistent graphic qualities, because “the games are for children”. Being a kid’s game should not excuse poor quality.

Aiming for young children also contradict Game Freak’s, or TPC’s, push of turning their VGC into Esport since that audience is older than young kids on average. In turn, there is a lot of references to past games, even the one not from Kanto considering Let’s Go, that children may not get, though it does have an advantage of making them more curious of past regions.

Let’s not getting into the exploitative gacha elements or microtransaction in Pokémon GO, which is also partially aimed at children.

It’s a good thing the Pokémon games have strong replayability despite the incessesant cutscenes, especially Gen 6 and Gen 8-today, but the moment replayability becomes jeopardized, even children might only play it once and never again.

I'm currently missing third versions rather than DLC. Yes, it's more total expense for the extra content if you already had the original games, but that keeps seeming like a larger and larger if. Now that I can't call the first release sufficiently complete to justify getting the base version, the balance starts to swing in the other direction: I would be waiting until there's good content (if any shows up) regardless, so I'd much prefer having a single package at 100% game price than two totaling 150%.

There’s no incentive for GF to get back to third versions, especially after USUM, despite financial success, proved to be a disaster in terms of content differences (too little for what are promised) and a hot mess of debate if it justifies being third version or not even today. Going back to third versions would not improve the situation that is happening to the mainline games, especially since games costs 60$ if not 70$ in America as of this writing.

But! I will say that the base game must be sufficently loaded to justify DLC. Both Gen 8 and 9 seems to have too little content other than main story to justify DLC, making it look like GF deliberately held off some potentially great stuff behind a paywall.

 

[Worldie]

That doesn’t make it any less exploitative, as it comes off as taking advantage of children’s love of Pokémon with little return and slow improvements. Worse is that there are fans who defended flaws that are difficult to deny, such as inconsistent graphic qualities, because “the games are for children”. Being a kid’s game should not excuse poor quality.

Oh don't misunderstand me, I fully agree that it's exploitative. And I've made my stance pretty clear on how much I despise the fact that not only they made gen 9 VGC P2W, but didn't even fully fix it with the 2nd DLC (due to some hisuians and the genies still being locked behind owning other games)

I'm just saying that there's no way to fix it.

It works and gets the effect they need. And since this is capitalism we're talking about, it aint changing until they actually lose money.
Which let's be honest, it's Pokemon. They will never lose money unless they do a fuck up SO huge that the entire franchise gets murdered for it.

 

[DetectiveDaikon]

It was never about the tree.

It was about how so many Pokemon fans lost something significant for no apparent reason, only to receive nothing in return

despite even being promised they would receive things in return.

Personally, I believe all dexit did for the Switch era was give Gamefreak opportunities to cut out more content and rush games harder than ever before, only to repackage their missing content for an extra $30-35 as DLC. It literally did nothing else during this era. Competitive is more broken than it ever was within the past several generations, graphics look ugly this time around, the animations are worse than any 3D Pokemon game prior to dexit, sure it made completing the dex is somewhat more appealing, but it could've easily been like Gen 7 where you could use all the existing Pokemon while still just having a regional dex. In regards to playability of metagames, National Dex Anything Goes is virtually unplayable now, yes. That's not because we have too many Pokemon. That's because Gamefreak made many of their stupidest mechanical decisions in the history of the series throughout the Switch generations alone and they've taken a massive toll on the entire premise overall. Dexit also did not give Gamefreak less overall work. It just gave them opportunities to blitz through game after game now to send them out in shorter durations than ever. It's giving Gamefreak more room to maximize their profit by exploiting the trust of the playerbase. I'm sorry to get nasty here but I genuinely cannot see it any other way. The Switch games even have every single Pokemon in the series programmed in them, but with wiped stats in Gen 8, and completed stats in Gen 9. Their priority isn't to make the best game they could, but to make the most money they can get, which right now is by spending less time and money on the resources of one game, and pushing out as many different games as possible.

To me, this is why I believe Scarlet and Violet dropped the way they did, and why Gamefreak has been dodging any promises to spend more time on the games, despite acknowledging their schedules were an issue. It's confirmed by some of Gamefreak's dissatisfied staff through company reviews, that they know Pokemon games will still get a lot of sales no matter what state the game is finalized in, by virtue of being a main series Pokemon game. Thanks to this, a lot of the higher ups in Pokemon don't really care how the final product ends up.


I made this sometime ago and posted it somewhere, but was proud of it so I want to share it somewhere else.

Bingo, everything you said is what I was saying 2 years ago and is on point, its all simply Gamefreak selling out for more money and turning Pokémon into a pure live service grift, Sword and Shield selling over 5 million copies in its first week represents that big issue cause they know they'll keep doing it, there isn't any excuse for no National Dex, its just all corporate greed, they don't care about the players one bit or the kiddos who don't understand buying DLCs and their parents giving them a flatout no towards borrowing their credit card,

I feel like im going insane and I grow concerned for Gen 10, there so many fan Pokemon artists creating 10/10 Fakemon and are never hired by gamefreak, now Gamefreak is rehashing older mons in the form of Paradoxmons huge headache

 

[Yung Dramps]

It was never about the tree.

I mean... Yeah? I don't wanna be a smarmy nitpicker or anything, there's plenty of valid things to be frustrated about concerning Pokemon right now, but like... Nobody's really denying these problems? Did you actually think that the SWSH Treeposting was anything other than goofing on a very flawed game and later goofing on the reactions to said very flawed game? Have you personally encountered people online who genuinely think Pokemon fans harbored a grudge over a janky bit of geometry?

 

[Bakugames]

This is how we radicalize pokemon fans into communism and [i am shot point blank by the mods before a discussion can happen]

I don't know if i'd call it low expectations, but i do have deattachement to big company games and them maintaining quality nowadays, so its hard for me to care when a franchise like pokemon goes down in quality because I'm just like... well yeah? Of course it's gonna happen, that's what's been happening to almost everything under capitalism in years lol. And my takeaway just goes into that line of logic and politics etc, which is cool and all but just leaves the current discussion of the games themselves, so its pretty useless in this context.

My real answer is uuuh follow up the "stop expecting things from pokemon" with "interact with small projects and indie games to keep yourself slighly sane" instead of "so i'll just buy whatever game and accept the tragic fate of most big franchises and products"

 

[Ironmage]

My real answer is uuuh follow up the "stop expecting things from pokemon" with "interact with small projects and indie games to keep yourself slighly sane" instead of "so i'll just buy whatever game and accept the tragic fate of most big franchises and products"

I've used Showdown as comfort gaming when dealing with despairing about society before. Even when my lack of competitiveness doesn't align with the main purpose, even though it's stripped to the bare essentials, I still find the project inspiring. The sheer number of formats it contains is capable of taking game design decisions that do not care about singles into a genuine attempt at "your favourite mon, whatever it is, has a place somewhere." Natdex dispenses with one of the series' biggest controversies. Showdown feels like it's not pokemon as it is, constrained by businesses doing business decisions, but as the playerbase has collectively decided it should be.

 

[DetectiveDaikon]

I mean... Yeah? I don't wanna be a smarmy nitpicker or anything, there's plenty of valid things to be frustrated about concerning Pokemon right now, but like... Nobody's really denying these problems? Did you actually think that the SWSH Treeposting was anything other than goofing on a very flawed game and later goofing on the reactions to said very flawed game? Have you personally encountered people online who genuinely think Pokemon fans harbored a grudge over a janky bit of geometry?

This is doesn't ignore the fact that Pokemon has turned into a live service grift

This is how we radicalize pokemon fans into communism and [i am shot point blank by the mods before a discussion can happen]

I don't know if i'd call it low expectations, but i do have deattachement to big company games and them maintaining quality nowadays, so its hard for me to care when a franchise like pokemon goes down in quality because I'm just like... well yeah? Of course it's gonna happen, that's what's been happening to almost everything under capitalism in years lol. And my takeaway just goes into that line of logic and politics etc, which is cool and all but just leaves the current discussion of the games themselves, so its pretty useless in this context.

My real answer is uuuh follow up the "stop expecting things from pokemon" with "interact with small projects and indie games to keep yourself slighly sane" instead of "so i'll just buy whatever game and accept the tragic fate of most big franchises and products"

Its insane how we think alike cause I was almost about to make a joke about communism but I've gotten in trouble before but I don't wanna ruffle the scales of Finch and the Tantrums in the back

If you catch my Drift Blooming in the Delta Stream

Damn that rhyme was good!

 

[Imperial Magala]

I was extremely disappointed by the removal of Megas, so you know what I did? Took a break from recent games, played a ROM hack for the first time to get my Mega fix, then accepted Sword and Shield for what it is. If there's something connecting stereotypical Pokemon fans to stereotypical Nintendo fans, it's that they point at non-Nintendo games doing things, ask why isn't Nintendo doing this, then never play those games and wait and complain for their Nintendo games to change. If Pokemon isn't going in a direction you like, play another game, you might find new passions, and just wait until the tides turn back in your favor. One day you might get a subpar remake of your first Pokemon game, another you might get a prequal game that breaks new ground for the franchise while tying your two favorite regions together.

 

[Ironmage]

I was extremely disappointed by the removal of Megas, so you know what I did? Took a break from recent games, played a ROM hack for the first time to get my Mega fix, then accepted Sword and Shield for what it is. If there's something connecting stereotypical Pokemon fans to stereotypical Nintendo fans, it's that they point at non-Nintendo games doing things, ask why isn't Nintendo doing this, then never play those games and wait and complain for their Nintendo games to change. If Pokemon isn't going in a direction you like, play another game, you might find new passions, and just wait until the tides turn back in your favor. One day you might get a subpar remake of your first Pokemon game, another you might get a prequal game that breaks new ground for the franchise while tying your two favorite regions together.

Can't say I'm embolded from that example, seeing as the new ground felt sufficiently un-pokemon-like that it lowered my standards enough for the subpar remake in question.

 

[CPU]

I'm of the opposite mind regarding Dexit, I think it was a good thing, but because they allow forward transfers for Pokémon that are in future titles, it just makes people angry that they can't use all of their favorite Pokémon in every game. Home is probably a huge moneymaker, so I can see why they're proceeding the way they are, but it still bothers me. At least blanking out moves from transferred Pokémon in Gen 9 disincentives people from trying to push old Gen 3/4 event moves into each new generation. At this point, the only gameplay benefit to transferring Pokémon forward is that you shouldn't need to train/re-optimize the Pokémon you send forward (ability, nature, EVs, IVs). Of course, there's also the matter of obtaining Pokémon that otherwise can't be accessed in the game, which is a bad practice and is especially egregious with legendaries/Hisuian Pokémon (regional forms are their own kind of a blotch when it comes to cross-gen compatibility).

As an explanation for me liking Dexit conceptually, I guess I never had any major attachment to the specific Pokémon I used in-game. Don't get me wrong, I have good memories of my original playthrough teams, but I never felt like I had to bring them up to each new game. I only ever kind of cared about shinies that way (and my Birth Island Deoxys). Even then, I lost my drive to transfer things forward sometime around Gen 5 when I realized the hassle it would become. So I don't fully understand the obsession the fandom has with wanting to bring all of their old favorite Pokémon into each new game.

 

[Ironmage]

I'm of the opposite mind regarding Dexit, I think it was a good thing, but because they allow forward transfers for Pokémon that are in future titles, it just makes people angry that they can't use all of their favorite Pokémon in every game. Home is probably a huge moneymaker, so I can see why they're proceeding the way they are, but it still bothers me. At least blanking out moves from transferred Pokémon in Gen 9 disincentives people from trying to push old Gen 3/4 event moves into each new generation. At this point, the only gameplay benefit to transferring Pokémon forward is that you shouldn't need to train/re-optimize the Pokémon you send forward (ability, nature, EVs, IVs). Of course, there's also the matter of obtaining Pokémon that otherwise can't be accessed in the game, which is a bad practice and is especially egregious with legendaries/Hisuian Pokémon (regional forms are their own kind of a blotch when it comes to cross-gen compatibility).

As an explanation for me liking Dexit conceptually, I guess I never had any major attachment to the specific Pokémon I used in-game. Don't get me wrong, I have good memories of my original playthrough teams, but I never felt like I had to bring them up to each new game. I only ever kind of cared about shinies that way (and my Birth Island Deoxys). Even then, I lost my drive to transfer things forward sometime around Gen 5 when I realized the hassle it would become. So I don't fully understand the obsession the fandom has with wanting to bring all of their old favorite Pokémon into each new game.

I actually didn't transfer any of my own mons in gen 6 or 7. My complaints come pretty much entirely from the absence of usable mons. It's an issue of repeatable content for me: something like a full Battle Frontier could sustain interest with fewer mons than a plain Battle Tower (though I'll still keep thinking about ways to use mons I can't get), but even then the standard set for 'plain tower' is more than the switch games have after DLC. With SwSh having a sham and SV a conspicuous hole as far as where I'd be normally spending time, they need all mons there to be worth getting.

 

[Samtendo09]

Frankly, while I understand the negatives of Dexit, having all Pokémon and moves available in one game, with 1000+ Pokémon in mind, would only worsen the current situation. I know, “capitalism and all”, but to make it feasible, you’ll need more than four years to program all these Pokémon in one game if they have the same manpower as before. And even with power creep as an issue, it would only make competitive even worse as now all of the overpowered stuff are available from the get-go, as opposed to only a few.

They would need a sidegame that have all Pokémon and moves available for the VGC scene, and updates over for future generations until a new console is released, but knowing GF, they rather keep the mainline games as an all-in-one package with Legends-styled games as exceptions inso far.

Most fangames and romhacks that put all Pokémon (up to Gen 8 or 9) in one single region didn’t even take account for the balancing issues, causing far too many choices to the point the player can be poorly prepared for lesser known Pokémon. Reborn and the likes got away with it due to truly ambitious stories (with mixed results), and also expanded Fields functions, allowing overshadowed Pokémon to shine when used well. And for all of Radical Red’s faults, they did a decent job on rebalancing a lot of bad Mons, to the point even the likes of Volbeat and Illumise are viable picks for cheese and even Mono teams (Bug for both, Electric for Volbeat, and Fairy for Illumise), but those are exceptions.

Pokémon not included in the regional PokéDex can be included in the fangame, but it’s more efficient to put them as post-game materials than trying to put all mons in the maingame, or if you have an ambitious team, have a Reborn-sized story.

 

[Axiemeister]

i am agnostic on the third version vs expansion DLC situation. on the one hand, expansion DLC gets down to what Matters in these subsequent releases while still adding more lore, not to mention it is easier to deal with adding new pokémons ad-hoc, which is much better than the old m.o. of having these mons in the game code and we just had to pretend they didn't exist until GF said they did. on the other hand, they were getting so good at third versions. yellow, crystal and platinum never thrilled me (for their extra content, anyway; god knows original diamond and pearl are unplayable for current standards), but BW2 being sequels was great and USUM were by far their best shot at a different take on the main story. those two are the kind of thing an expansion DLC can't emulate. maybe expansion DLC and then a third version that puts the main game and the DLC together more linearly while also adding content? idk.

i am also agnostic on the idea of dexit (pokémon dexit; move dexit is stupid and entirely pointless). on the one hand, we are over 1000 mons and just making even most of them capturable must be such a chore, not to mention i like a streamlined regional dex. on the other hand... the models are all made. just have the whole natdex programmed, like in alola? without dex entries, just update their TM movesets (which is relatively quick work) and allow them to be transferred in.

 

[Slowpoke Fan]

I was extremely disappointed by the removal of Megas, so you know what I did? Took a break from recent games, played a ROM hack for the first time to get my Mega fix, then accepted Sword and Shield for what it is. If there's something connecting stereotypical Pokemon fans to stereotypical Nintendo fans, it's that they point at non-Nintendo games doing things, ask why isn't Nintendo doing this, then never play those games and wait and complain for their Nintendo games to change. If Pokemon isn't going in a direction you like, play another game, you might find new passions, and just wait until the tides turn back in your favor. One day you might get a subpar remake of your first Pokemon game, another you might get a prequal game that breaks new ground for the franchise while tying your two favorite regions together.

That is really not the case for Sinnoh fans though. All of the bolded is just a painful reminder of how you should never shit on Gamefreak's pet projects - for more 'modern' remakes, ORAS might not have been the greatest games ever, but had a ton of content and heart put into them while we are getting Unova references in generation 9.

The generation that was constantly brought up when Gamefreak didn't quite get the reception they wanted for their baby in 2010 though? Thoughtless 'faithful' remake and an interesting but flawed game that will be improved on when it is time for Gamefreak's golden child to be revisited (not to mention zero references in the mainline games of the generation the remakes were in, much less the mainline games of the prior generation).

Side note: this is not an Unova rant, I am happy that fans of the region are receiving a proper remake. I simply think that it is a tragedy for one of the franchise's most beloved regions to get absolute manure for likely petty reasons, and that 'finding new passions and wait until the things you like come back' is just dismissive of the treatment it got (not to mention that Gamefreak is likely more than happy to never touch the region again unless it is an incredibly scuffed LGPE 'remake').

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

That is really not the case for Sinnoh fans though. All of the bolded is just a painful reminder of how you should never shit on Gamefreak's pet projects - for more 'modern' remakes, ORAS might not have been the greatest game ever, but had a ton of content and heart put into them while we are getting Unova references in generation 9.

The generation that was constantly brought up when Gamefreak didn't quite get the reception they wanted for their baby in 2010 though? Thoughtless 'faithful' remake and an interesting but flawed game that will be improved on when it is time for Gamefreak's golden child to be revisited (not to mention zero references in the mainline games of the generation the remakes were in, much less the mainline games of the prior generation).

Side note: this is not an Unova rant, I am happy that fans of the region are receiving a proper remake. I simply think that it is a tragedy for one of the franchise's most beloved regions to get absolute manure for likely petty reasons, and that 'finding new passions and wait until the things you like come back' is just dismissive of the treatment it got (not to mention that Gamefreak is likely more than happy to never touch the region again unless it is an incredibly scuffed LGPE 'remake').

You're reading a little too much into it I feel, I'm definitely not reading that much active malice in what Sinnoh got. And I'm saying this as someone who is both a Sinnoh fan and a Unova fan and grew up with both gens.

Sinnoh got plenty of love in the past two years. BDSP may be pretty ass but Legends: Arceus is really fun and a great and interesting way to revisit Sinnoh by being a Sinnoh "pre-make" and is by far the biggest risk they have ever took with mainline Pokemon, and we're talking a series that more often than not takes very minimal risks with its mainline games.

People forget Legends: Arceus was the real "Sinnoh remake" from Game Freak's POV and is actually indicative of a new direction they want to take old region revisits. BDSP was basically a "safety net" because PLA was by far the biggest risk they ever took, and while not perfect as it was using the flawed Sword and Shield engine it took off very well and is a great way to revisit an old region. It may not have been like HGSS and ORAS in every way, which in my eyes both peaked the "remake" concept in different ways, but it was a good way to revisit Sinnoh and was very deviant from classic mainline gameplay in fun ways. BDSP was basically the safety cushion they needed financially because PLA was both super different and was delayed two months due to COVID and couldn't make it to Holiday/Black Friday so BDSP covered both of those from a commercial standpoint as something that was guaranteed to sell while also incentivizing new players to buy PLA.

Teal Mask in SV also made some nice Sinnoh shoutouts with the Sinnoh starters being available as an egg from Jacq, and all three of them getting great buffs to make them better, Ursaluna getting a new form in the Bloodmoon form, and Perrin being Adaman's descendant and the PLA Wild theme being there as well.

Unova is getting a lot of love but I wouldn't say it's getting a "proper remake" as we don't know what's next after SV's DLC which is now fully out. Indigo Disk takes place in Unova in the future, and you have here an antithesis of what PLA did: PLA had ancestors of DPP characters, Unova has characters who are children/grandchildren of BW1/2 characters, like Lacey being implied to be Clay's daughter and Drayton being implied to be Drayden's grandson, and some BW theme remixes and whatnot and Meloetta, but it's definitely future Unova as opposed to PLA being ancient Sinnoh.

I do think Game Freak is done with doing by-the-number remakes with ORAS remaining the last of its kind. Which is to say, for all we know the next Unova game that comes out this generation could actually be another sequel to the BW series, since Black and White's follow up game was a sequel in Black 2 and White 2, the next game after SV DLC could be yet another sequel story in Black 3 and White 3 that follows up both BW1/2 and Indigo Disk, probably being concurrent with ID since ID is Unova in the future. That's very much something I could see happening.

Which is to say, we've reached a point in the Switch era where you never know what might happen.

 

[Slowpoke Fan]

You're reading a little too much into it I feel, I'm definitely not reading that much active malice in what Sinnoh got. And I'm saying this as someone who is both a Sinnoh fan and a Unova fan and grew up with both gens.

Sinnoh got plenty of love in the past two years. BDSP may be pretty ass but Legends: Arceus is really fun and a great and interesting way to revisit Sinnoh by being a Sinnoh "pre-make" and is by far the biggest risk they have ever took with mainline Pokemon, and we're talking a series that more often than not takes very minimal risks with its mainline games.

People forget Legends: Arceus was the real "Sinnoh remake" from Game Freak's POV and is actually indicative of a new direction they want to take old region revisits. BDSP was basically a "safety net" because PLA was by far the biggest risk they ever took, and while not perfect as it was using the flawed Sword and Shield engine it took off very well and is a great way to revisit an old region. It may not have been like HGSS and ORAS in every way, which in my eyes both peaked the "remake" concept in different ways, but it was a good way to revisit Sinnoh and was very deviant from classic mainline gameplay in fun ways. BDSP was basically the safety cushion they needed financially because PLA was both super different and was delayed two months due to COVID and couldn't make it to Holiday/Black Friday so BDSP covered both of those from a commercial standpoint as something that was guaranteed to sell while also incentivizing new players to buy PLA.

Teal Mask in SV also made some nice Sinnoh shoutouts with the Sinnoh starters being available as an egg from Jacq, and all three of them getting great buffs to make them better, Ursaluna getting a new form in the Bloodmoon form, and Perrin being Adaman's descendant and the PLA Wild theme being there as well.

Unova is getting a lot of love but I wouldn't say it's getting a "proper remake" as we don't know what's next after SV's DLC which is now fully out. Indigo Disk takes place in Unova in the future, and you have here an antithesis of what PLA did: PLA had ancestors of DPP characters, Unova has characters who are children/grandchildren of BW1/2 characters, like Lacey being implied to be Clay's daughter and Drayton being implied to be Drayden's grandson, and some BW theme remixes and whatnot and Meloetta, but it's definitely future Unova as opposed to PLA being ancient Sinnoh.

I do think Game Freak is done with doing by-the-number remakes with ORAS remaining the last of its kind. Which is to say, for all we know the next Unova game that comes out this generation could actually be another sequel to the BW series, since Black and White's follow up game was a sequel in Black 2 and White 2, the next game after SV DLC could be yet another sequel story in Black 3 and White 3 that follows up both BW1/2 and Indigo Disk, probably being concurrent with ID since ID is Unova in the future. That's very much something I could see happening.

Which is to say, we've reached a point in the Switch era where you never know what might happen.

Legends Arceus was certainly an interesting game and I liked what it brought to the table, but my main point of contention is that all of that fun left Sinnoh with...nothing that will be remembered from its remakes besides the fact that it was the guinea pig for a new line that would get a massive upgrade in the region coming after it? ORAS will always be remembered for mega evolutions that turned Hoenn shitters into meta-defining threats as well as how the Nature Trio dominated the competitive scene after getting their upgrades, but PLA will be remembered for...introducing Pokemon where half of that cast originated elsewhere as well as giving two members of the Creation Trio throat cancer and an amputation (not to mention that those two kind of suck ass competitively)? There is obviously more lore introduced in PLA, but ORAS is not exactly lacking in that department either with things like the Delta Episode.

I also understand that was Gamefreak's PoV regarding the remakes, but I find it difficult to believe that was not malicious - you are correct that we do not know what is in store for Unova right now, but the fact that it is getting so many shoutouts before the generation that its remakes are supposed to be released in is a pretty obvious sign that Gamefreak are approaching them with much more care than Sinnoh was given.

As for your points about the Unova remakes potentially being something a little different, I don't think they affect my argument - as long as it is in the format of a 'classic' Pokemon game and don't suck like BDSP, that is quite proper in my eyes for a remake.

 

[Shinto7654]

You know, it's not like, that surprising that someone would genuinely think that Gamefreak deliberately and maliciously had a mediocre remake made for intensely silly and dumb conspiracy theory level reasons, but it's still super funny to see it being earnestly believed and argued. Also trying to actually agrue that PLA will only be remembered for uhhh, "bad" design choices when like, the vast majority of the talk we've ever seen around it is that it was a damn breath of fresh air compared to how the series has been overall

idk, maybe i'm not blinded enough by weird dumb stuff to understand

 

[Ironmage]

As for your points about the Unova remakes potentially being something a little different, I don't think they affect my argument - as long as it is in the format of a 'classic' Pokemon game and don't suck like BDSP, that is quite proper in my eyes for a remake.

That's the problem though, isn't it? Sinnoh got a poor showing of its actual revisit because GF were too busy making a game that isn't in the classic format. What is there to indicate that Unova won't follow the same path?

 

[Slowpoke Fan]

That's the problem though, isn't it? Sinnoh got a poor showing of its actual revisit because GF were too busy making a game that isn't in the classic format. What is there to indicate that Unova won't follow the same path?

The fact that it just got a mini-region in a generation 9 game when its remakes are supposed to come out in generation 10.

 

[Worldie]

That's the problem though, isn't it? Sinnoh got a poor showing of its actual revisit because GF were too busy making a game that isn't in the classic format. What is there to indicate that Unova won't follow the same path?

The real question is, where did GameFreak sign a public declaration of "we'll be doing a pure remake of every region"?

 

[Shinto7654]

The fact that it just got a mini-region in a generation 9 game when its remakes are supposed to come out in generation 10.

Oh no, they did something different and neat, this is actually somehow a bad thing that feeds into my persecution complex over a mediocre remake

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Also the "Unova got to be in Gen 9 when its remakes are supposed to come out in Gen 10" is feeding into the mindset of patterns that many Pokemon fans make the mistake of falling into, that Game Freak has to follow a specific pattern of releases, formula, and everything.

Game Freak doesn't follow patterns. The concept of "patterns" is a myth and Game Freak can deviate from any perceived patterns at any time. Unova could very likely be getting its new games this generation as follow up games, especially since we're not even halfway through Gen 9's time yet. There's more room for more Gen 9 games and they can do whatever they want whenever they want. If they want to do a Unova revisit this generation, whether it be a BW3 as I said, they'll do it this generation, it's their series and games and they can do whatever they want.

There is no pattern as to when remakes/old gen revisits come out. HGSS, ORAS, and PLA may have been two generations apart from each other, but FRLG and HGSS for instance were only one generation apart from each other, with FRLG being Gen 3 while HGSS was Gen 4. Before Gen 6 most of us thought Ruby and Sapphire remakes were going to be in Gen 5, but they skipped a generation, and it happened in Gen 6 instead because the 3DS was more appropriate to have the ORAS they wanted to make. Heck, LGPE is considered a mainline game and a remake of Yellow and is between ORAS and PLA as basically a second Kanto Remake and technically took place in Gen 7.

If they decide they want to visit Unova again this generation, they'll do it, and in whatever manner they want. Nothing is saying it has to happen specifically in Gen 10 and on the Switch successor, nor that it specifically has to be a by-the-number remake. The fact that Sinnoh was revisited in Gen 8 is not stopping them.

Patterns are a myth. There isn't, and never was, a pattern to how generations of Pokemon are structured. Stuff like "remakes have to be every other generation" or "every generation has to strictly be three years" or "every base game is followed up by a third version or whatever" are merely fan perception and not actual rules Game Freak abides by. They don't abide by rules as to how they design each generation's games. They do what they want in any given moment.