Well... this is a pretty neat discussion but in the end... are you going to buy this game or not???? I personally think that I'm not going to spend that much money on a game that will make me feel sad about losing a huge bunch of my favourite mons, especially when I could go to showdown and play without basically any restrictions... so, maybe we should stick to make them feel our disappoint and make a difference in the sales department which is what really matters for Nintendo/Game Freak...
https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/du52ka
What. The. F*ck.
I think my mons will stay in Alola forever...
This just made my interest in future games drop to 0.
Was browsing the thread to catch up over the weekend posts, and I love how the two posts above ironically tie together.
I have watched the last few days of development because I was on the fence as well but that no-explanation gave me the last straw to decide against purchasing (for the foreseeable time being, at least). Warning: long rant-but-actually-not-a-rant incoming.
As I said multiple times, there is little to no justification for Dexit that does not imply "convenient yearly cash grab". The little-to-nonexistant QoL changes do not justify how bare-boned the game looks (I know it's always been like that, more on this later) and the constant uncertainty we have to put up with. The ironic implication is that, actually, those QoL changes would actually be best tailored for retro-compatible mons. Have an old Blastoise that represents your first iteration with Pokemon? Now you can finally get those coveted Aura Sphere, Water Sprout cool moves and Hyper train it to be the beast you've always dreamed having! Did you go Legends galore in ORAS and USUM, and now you can play around with natures mints to have different, perfect sets for your Physical and/or Special Entei, Defensive and Offensive Heatran, etc...
Without such interactions, the 3 major QoL improvements that come to my mind as of now (Nature Mints, direct Egg Moves transfer, up-to-252 evs supplements) are just convenience, not a game-changer. They will make life easier, but features to achieve best nature, best egg moves, best training for in-region mons were already there, it just takes longer. The only actionable implication is that now you can actively breed perfect baby pokemon with convoluted egg moves, i.e. Volt Tackle Pichu, Extrasensory Budew, etc... (don't even remember if Budew is in the game lol), and then nature-mint them: that's convenient, but it has little-to-no relevance, once again.
The same-old-game formula, in my opinion, would have worked provided previous conditions, i.e. only handheld, a distinct niche, and smaller competition. When you go to Switch with a 60€ pricetag, you're competing with triple A titles and a much broader spectrum of games. You're competing with The Witcher and Warframe ports, you're being compared to BoTW and you will be compared (God forbid, actually not, it's just a brainstormed example) to things like Cyberpunk. I.e.: this should be your most ambitious project, your masterpiece, the gold standard for all pokemon games to come. It could (and should) make a statement about "we're coming to home consolles as well, with better than ever software and hardware, you'd better watch this!". Instead we get what most loyal fans are deeming the least ambitious, most "let's play safe please", bare-boned product of the series, with the worst ever PR to boot.
Let me elaborate: the Ohmori statement is just the last nail in the coffin of a long series of actions that scream "we are keeping you in the dark, please buy the game out of enthusiasm without knowing what features are in, and what's coming next". First, you announce no retro-content compatibility during a live event that literally sounded like "Psst... keep it quiet, but we're cutting the Dex".
With such a decision, I think that even Dexit supporters can concur on the premise that such a decision should have been straightforward and transparent. For most people, what makes Pokemon attractive is... well, the Pokemon, the huge roster and their loved ones. I'm not saying that they should have released the exact leave/remain roster (no pun intended), but I am strongly confident that they should have disclosed a rough estimate about how many old mons would have been in the games. Without leaks, we would have never known how many of them are being cut, and it really, really looks like blind faith (and blind purchases) is being asked of customers. "Let's not tell exactly how big of an (already huge) deal this is, and hope sales go well before people catch up".
And, to boot, the only tool for compatibility, HOME, is up in the air and just worsen the environment.
“We now have no plans to make the pokémon that are missing in the Galar pokédex in-game available. That is an approach that we want to continue with Pokémon games in the future. Of course, up to now it has not been possible to encounter every pokémon in every game, so people had to transfer it from old games via Pokémon Bank to the new game, for example. ”
And that was absolutely fine! We understand focusing on the regional Dex, giving access to animations, dex entries and such only to the Regional Dex mons: it was a decent trade off that has been proven to work well, more or less. This statement, unless retracted, actively makes SM and USUM the games with the largest roster ever, unless you will make a game with a 700+ old-mon regional Dex plus 120 new mons (very convoluted and unlikely). Thanks for clarifying that I should stay with 3DS and play USUM for the next 10 years. I'm sorry, but I'm not putting my extensive collection in a cloud feature that could potentially kill retro compatibility arbitrarily, and wait for my hard achieved mons to be available whenever you feel like it fits the region because reasons.
On the one hand, that is understandable, because Masuda previously indicated that Game Freak does not have the manpower to animate all pokémon if it also wants to introduce new game play features.
If new gameplay features are what they are (Dinamax and Wild areas, really?), it is not understandable. It's downright pathetic. The manpower to animate? You know you've still got mons that use Double Kick as a simulation of hopping over blazing charcoal in 2019 on Switch, right? There is no disruptive animation improvements that would justify this in Sw/Sh.
As a compromise, however, Junichi Masuda claims that the Pokémon Home app, which will be released in 2020, will be the place to collect pokémon from all games.
"Currently, the Pokémon Home app is under development, where players can collect their different pokémon, and only pokémon in the Galar-Pokédex can be transferred from there to Sword and Shield," he says. "But the way of playing is actually not very different from before with Pokémon Bank: until now you have always been able to meet only the pokémon of a certain region."
He continues: “We encourage people to use Pokémon Home to collect their pokémon from old games there. From there, they might be able to take it to other games in the future. So take good care of your old pokémon, because you might be able to go out with them again in the future. ”
This is not a compromise, it's a request to have blind faith and turn a blind eye.
Retro-compatibility is trimmed by Dexit. Nothing has been clarified about how HOME will work, and it's months away and after release. And now it has been discovered that it's actually like bank, but without its greatest perk. I'm so thrilled, thanks! And thanks for reminding me that I could only meet regional mons in the region (you don't say?), and then transfer others. It's like adding insult to injury and they seem so unaware it could be funny, were we not so emotionally attached to the franchise.
Final remark: do not encourage me to collect everything in HOME so that I "might" be able to go out with them in the future. They're staying in USUM, where I myself can decide to pick them up whenever I feel like and use them. It's like you're actively asking for a ransom to abduct my mons and give them an air hour from time to time. That's the only analogy I can think of.
I have been really tempted because I'm a Pokemon sucker, but I've decided against buying. I will still follow how this will unfold closely given that I follow the gaming industry and I could actually learn something useful for my IRL job.
I'm 29, I travel a lot for work (the Switch is the perfect consolle to use for people like me that spend a lot of time in airports). I've been playing since 1999 (or 98? Can't remember, it's been so long). Congratulations, you've achieved what puberty, university, friend pranks, a corporate job and my fiancée never could.
You've cured me of my Pokemon addiction.