EricTheGamerman
Smash Master
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2014
- Messages
- 3,197
I think it's entirely possible that Game Freak overestimated their abilities and didn't give enough consideration to working on a mainline Pokemon game on home consoles. They've exclusively worked on such games for handhelds and they have next to no experience working with HD hardware, something that has plagued every single Nintendo developer on their first big HD project. Nintendo has a wonderful reputation for failing to realize how difficult HD development would actually be, and I don't see Pokemon as any exception. Now I don't say that to absolve Game Freak, because it most certainly does not, especially when Nintendo has shown how to navigate that space over the past 7 years, but I do think it's entirely likely that some of the issues with Sword/Shield do come down to management's overestimation of their developer's abilities within a comparable time frame to previous entries in the series. Which would potentially explain why the games look in such rough shape and potentially even Dexit as a whole. I agree with you that it falls on Game Freak's shoulders (at least the management) and they should have been more prepared, but I don't think Sword/Shield as a whole exist solely as an "inferior product" designed to continue removing features from the games.
And I'm sorry, the video is bull****. Like I said, this particular Youtuber goes well beyond the scope of a demo they would have played and lazily loops footage while he argues points without offering more immediate examples to provide compelling evidence, and most of that is just ripped wholesale from Nintendo's footage and reveals as opposed to any of his own footage. He makes a commentary on areas of the game he hasn't played because no one publicly has played the open areas of Pokemon Sword and Shield, yet he still presents himself as someone who has demoed such features. There's a weird footage slow down when he talks about performance that seems a little too convenient to be completely coincidental. I've seen many good videos on the Sword/Shield situation that I agree with and see genuine evidence or discussion of the games' issues, but this isn't one of them. It's just a bad video.
And no, Pokemon has not taken dips in sales between each generation. Every new generation dual release (the first set of two to kick off a new generation) since Ruby/Sapphire has sold in the 15-17 million range. There's nothing resembling a trend line of falling sales between generations and here's the data from Nintendo on that: Nintendo DS Game Sales - https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/software/ds.html, Nintendo 3DS Game Sales - https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/software/3ds.html, and a ResetEra post that has done a very good job of compiling data from a number of sources and kept this directory up to date for some time: https://www.resetera.com/threads/ni...ardware-sales-data-from-1983-to-present.2725/.
I'm not trying to defend Game Freak. Like I've said before, I agree with you on the fact that Game Freak should have taken greater measures to ensure Sword/Shield turned out spectacularly as the series' first foray into the home console territory... but I have to acknowledge the realities of the fan base, Game Freak's overall MO and prior development history, and the fact that despite all the negative press of these games so far, we have no idea what the final release will look/play/be like and our full judgments should be reserved until then. There are many issues worth discussing right now and that we can voice our disappointment in... but it's also a bit early to be saying that these games are truly un-redeemable too.
And I'm sorry, the video is bull****. Like I said, this particular Youtuber goes well beyond the scope of a demo they would have played and lazily loops footage while he argues points without offering more immediate examples to provide compelling evidence, and most of that is just ripped wholesale from Nintendo's footage and reveals as opposed to any of his own footage. He makes a commentary on areas of the game he hasn't played because no one publicly has played the open areas of Pokemon Sword and Shield, yet he still presents himself as someone who has demoed such features. There's a weird footage slow down when he talks about performance that seems a little too convenient to be completely coincidental. I've seen many good videos on the Sword/Shield situation that I agree with and see genuine evidence or discussion of the games' issues, but this isn't one of them. It's just a bad video.
And no, Pokemon has not taken dips in sales between each generation. Every new generation dual release (the first set of two to kick off a new generation) since Ruby/Sapphire has sold in the 15-17 million range. There's nothing resembling a trend line of falling sales between generations and here's the data from Nintendo on that: Nintendo DS Game Sales - https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/software/ds.html, Nintendo 3DS Game Sales - https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/software/3ds.html, and a ResetEra post that has done a very good job of compiling data from a number of sources and kept this directory up to date for some time: https://www.resetera.com/threads/ni...ardware-sales-data-from-1983-to-present.2725/.
I'm not trying to defend Game Freak. Like I've said before, I agree with you on the fact that Game Freak should have taken greater measures to ensure Sword/Shield turned out spectacularly as the series' first foray into the home console territory... but I have to acknowledge the realities of the fan base, Game Freak's overall MO and prior development history, and the fact that despite all the negative press of these games so far, we have no idea what the final release will look/play/be like and our full judgments should be reserved until then. There are many issues worth discussing right now and that we can voice our disappointment in... but it's also a bit early to be saying that these games are truly un-redeemable too.
I don't really see anything convincing on the point of it's "very likely" that Joker was finished in February. We just don't really know a ton about Joker's development at all, and I can really see that would point to such a fact would be the model being shown off in February, which. as I said before, is not in of itself indicative of completion given what Smash requires and the fact it was a more straightforward tease with nothing else to go on. A "fully playable Joker" may still have been a full two months from completion in terms of balancing, tweaks, and play-testing.
How is Nintendo running out of time to reveal characters? They've revealed three of the five Fighter's Pass characters already and they have a full 6, almost 7, months to reveal the remaining two fighters and release them to the public (The general deadline is the end of February). That's plenty of time and Nintendo has multiple venues to debut new fighters that don't necessitate another Nintendo Direct specifically for Smash, namely the September General Direct for #4 and TGAs for #5/Final Smash Presentation akin to what Smash 4 did.
As for EVO, Smash has never played by traditional fighting game rules, so I don't see why it would play by those same rules with necessitating another reveal so soon after revealing the other two fighters. That's the thing, Smash specifically went all out for the announcements at E3 and highlighted what the future holds through the Fall of this year (So at least through September), which is when Nintendo typically has their own announcements. Smash having the Direct announcement at EVO last year was by no means normal, and Sakurai had much, much, much more of Ultimate to detail at the time and Nintendo was pushing the game as basically their only real holiday 2018 title outside of Let's Go. There was much more pressure and need for such a Direct. Now? Most of that pressure is gone, they have plenty of time for more reveals this year of Fighters #4 and #5 before they reach the February 2020 deadline, and they've already got the next two major releases detailed. There's also just objectively so much less content to cover. I just don't see the need to drop something else at EVO when we've already got stuff to keep us occupied through September. Why just continually pull the trigger of announcements like that when it all it really does is satisfy some exceptionally impatient people?
I'm not saying it's impossible, and I admit I've been wrong about reveals before like with me saying there wouldn't be a reveal at TGAs last year given Smash was just releasing the night of, but I'd be honestly super surprised to see something really that big come out of EVO and it seems a little preemptive to continually treat something big happening as a foregone conclusion (and this seems like the only place in the entire Smash community that expects a new character announcement/Smash Direct from what I've seen since most just expect another "New Content Approaching" for Hero). The best I could see is that sort of thing and a tease for #4 because of EVO... but it just feels too soon when Banjo Kazooie is still a month or two out and Hero either just dropped or will be dropping shortly after EVO).
How is Nintendo running out of time to reveal characters? They've revealed three of the five Fighter's Pass characters already and they have a full 6, almost 7, months to reveal the remaining two fighters and release them to the public (The general deadline is the end of February). That's plenty of time and Nintendo has multiple venues to debut new fighters that don't necessitate another Nintendo Direct specifically for Smash, namely the September General Direct for #4 and TGAs for #5/Final Smash Presentation akin to what Smash 4 did.
As for EVO, Smash has never played by traditional fighting game rules, so I don't see why it would play by those same rules with necessitating another reveal so soon after revealing the other two fighters. That's the thing, Smash specifically went all out for the announcements at E3 and highlighted what the future holds through the Fall of this year (So at least through September), which is when Nintendo typically has their own announcements. Smash having the Direct announcement at EVO last year was by no means normal, and Sakurai had much, much, much more of Ultimate to detail at the time and Nintendo was pushing the game as basically their only real holiday 2018 title outside of Let's Go. There was much more pressure and need for such a Direct. Now? Most of that pressure is gone, they have plenty of time for more reveals this year of Fighters #4 and #5 before they reach the February 2020 deadline, and they've already got the next two major releases detailed. There's also just objectively so much less content to cover. I just don't see the need to drop something else at EVO when we've already got stuff to keep us occupied through September. Why just continually pull the trigger of announcements like that when it all it really does is satisfy some exceptionally impatient people?
I'm not saying it's impossible, and I admit I've been wrong about reveals before like with me saying there wouldn't be a reveal at TGAs last year given Smash was just releasing the night of, but I'd be honestly super surprised to see something really that big come out of EVO and it seems a little preemptive to continually treat something big happening as a foregone conclusion (and this seems like the only place in the entire Smash community that expects a new character announcement/Smash Direct from what I've seen since most just expect another "New Content Approaching" for Hero). The best I could see is that sort of thing and a tease for #4 because of EVO... but it just feels too soon when Banjo Kazooie is still a month or two out and Hero either just dropped or will be dropping shortly after EVO).
One of the few things I'll give XY is that it had much more interesting and good starters after the absolutely lackluster Gen 5 starters. Chespin I'm apathetic to, but Fennekin and Froakie both have great evolutionary lines in my opnion.
Well, Gens 3-5 are my favorite of Pokemon, so that should help explain part of my opinion versus yours. I don't particularly care about the regions from anything other than a "feel" and "aesthetic" perspective, so a great region doesn't mean much to me unless it has great Pokemon... and most of my favorites are from those three generations. Black/White were especially great for only showing off new Pokemon until the post game because it made the games feel genuinely new and got rid of Zubat fatigue.
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