Pokémon (Not-So) Griefing Thread - Scarlet and Violet Released with 10 Million Copies in First 3 Days in Buggy States

[Archeops]

I've been considering if things could get better at this point or not cause technically sun and moon are an improvement over X and Y, so it is possible that SwSh is clunky cause they aren't used to making a main series game for switch and their next attempt could be better.

However, and I might've said this here before but I don't remember cause I say this a lot in other communities too when pokemon comes up, with the way the franchise is now gamefreak probably isn't even allowed to actually take their time with the main series games cause they need to keep the content machine machine going with new merch and anime episodes and cards. Compare this to animal crossing getting a delay cause it wasn't up to standards and metroid prime 4 still being delayed for the same reason. At this rate they may have no other choice than to keep shitting out a new game every year like Ass creed did for a while.

The real kicker is that TPCi has lost the point behind HAVING those things in the first place. Sales involving merchandise, animation, card games, and spin-offs should be done to help BUFFER the time between new main series entries in addition to helping promote the main entries.

I lost my love for this once beloved franchise. When I first fell in love with it at age 11, it was a much different time. Now today with cellphones being a thing, I'm not a fan of Pokemon spending the majority of it's efforts and time on a mobile game(I hat emobile games). But I guess the times change and companies have to adapt to that change. So it's with great sadness that I have to put Pokemon behind me. The days of yore where they would release quality games is behind us. I'll remember all the games up until Sword and Shield fondly. RIP Red and Blue, Gold and Silver, Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, Diamond and Pearl, Black and White. RIP Pokemon Colosseum, Battle Revolution, Pokemon XD. RIP Pokemon Stadium 1 & 2, Pokemon Snap. RIP Heart Gold and Soul Silver and RIP Pokemon Yellow.

Fs in the chat.

The thing that really killed the series IMO was Pokémon GO. Its immense popularity spooked TPCi (especially considering that it wasn’t developed by GF) SO badly that they felt the need to make LGPE to help bring GO fans over to the main series despite the issues with bringing over casual mobile players over to the more specialized and competitive main series entries. Casualizing those same games to help keep those new players attached is also an issue that I feel will bite TPCi in the ass later.

 

[Dopey Cunt]

The thing that really killed the series IMO was Pokémon GO. Its immense popularity spooked TPCi (especially considering that it wasn’t developed by GF) SO badly that they felt the need to make LGPE to help bring GO fans over to the main series despite the issues with bringing over casual mobile players over to the more specialized and competitive main series entries. Casualizing those same games to help keep those new players attached is also an issue that I feel will bite TPCi in the ass later.

Pokemon was just turned into a mindless cash grab to reel in casual mobile players and younger generations of kids who spent the entirety of their childhoods staring at an ipad or a cellphone screen. They don't really care about the older generations of fans who've followed them since the beginning with their only effort to keep us invested is hamfisted nostalgia attempts. Sorry, but even putting Cynthia in a mobile game isn't enough to get me to stay as much as I love her.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Pokemon was just turned into a mindless cash grab to reel in casual mobile players and younger generations of kids who spent the entirety of their childhoods staring at an ipad or a cellphone screen. They don't really care about the older generations of fans who've followed them since the beginning with their only effort to keep us invested is hamfisted nostalgia attempts. Sorry, but even putting Cynthia in a mobile game isn't enough to get me to stay as much as I love her.

Pokémon is one of the few childhood IPs where just sticking to the past still works since you can literally ignore everything else past a certain point in time and you can still call yourself a fan. And as long as you don't constantly shit on the younger fans, nobody will care if you haven't been with the series since BW(2) or sooner. You can be left alone with your favorite plushies/merch in peace.

I've made my peace with my favorites after playing through Y and feeling disappointed it wasn't fully realized. Never cared about the mobile aspect since I didn't get a phone until recently (and still haven't downloaded GO because meh), Sw/Sh was just my "strike three" moment, so I can go back to my Johto homies and still feel at home. And will probably become a skeleton waiting for the Hoenn and Sinnoh line-up of the Sitting Cuties plushies to come out.

 

[X-Shaped Weeaboo]

To me, it feels like Game Freak is desperately trying to avoid their past despite being so dependent on it. They'll do everything in their power to remind you that Kanto exists, but they won't throw a bone to the people who played the OG games by not hindering the experience of the region. No, they have to water down all the adventuring you made there, they won't throw back to old mechanics such as overworld poison or refine the bizarre early installment balancing to have a flash in the pan for gameplay nostalgia, and they certainly won't leave old character designs alone without making them 100% more marketable, watering down the original designs of the Pokes and characters even further.

Oh sure, they'll remind you of the 8/16/32-bit era games with references to sound effects, visual effects, menu navigation...what's that? The 3D is putting some of the fanbase off because they think it looks bad? Return to sprites and pixel art? No no no, you guys just want janky walkcycles for Pokemon in the Wild Area! That's what you really meant, right?

How about Mega-Evolutions for old Pokemon! A bump to the power-levels of some classic 'Mons who need the buff! Great mechanic, right? Oh but they won't buff Pokemon that need it, no, Lucario and Salamance take priority. Not other classic Pokemon that need it like Tauros, not iconic gatekeeper Pokemon like Miltank or Spiritomb, no, only the Pokemon that most remind you of the older games get a buff. Nobody cares about Flygon anyways, look! Metagross gets one! Isn't that cool, we gave Steven a cool final boss Pokemon!

Remember the stuff we can sell back to you and stop remembering the stuff you played. We don't care about your gameplay experiences, we've made that abundantly clear by continuing to push baby-brained mechanics and absolutely have not relented on the hand-holding despite the games getting easier and easier. Don't ask for stuff that takes effort to redesign, don't ask us to adjust the gameplay, just keep buying games so we have a reason to sell you merchandise and accessories. Let us bank on your nostalgia without actually catering to it outside of the most barebones level.

They're so damn controlling over what Pokemon looks and plays like nowadays that it's no wonder people have started regurgitating the "It's the same so it sucks" argument that used to be hyperbolic criticism from non-fans ages ago. That's not a good look, old fans have become the people they hated back in the day, that's genuinely not a good look for your fanbase.

 

[Disc]

The problem is, it's very likely that Game Freak is experiencing creative burnout hard.

Compared to like... literally every other massive series, Pokemon never changes that much. Mario's been on tropical islands with a water-jetpack and gone through space, Final Fantasy is wildly different every time, Zelda's had adventures as a dog and sailed seas, Digimon's never been able to settle on much of anything, and all of the Pokemon spinoffs are made by other companies, which creates a sort of illusion that Pokemon is being refreshed with new ideas constantly when the core doesn't and can't change. And their other games just don't go anywhere - you'll never see someone go 'Hey, you heard about Drill Dozer?'. At most, they briefly become notable for their quirkiness and then fade into obscurity.

And they kinda have to. Pokemon's very ability to transfer mons from game to game means that they can't really dramatically shake up the formula for long, even by limiting the dex for a game.

Both gen 4 and gen 7 have a lot of stuff that is clearly meant to be a climax for the series. I wouldn't be surprised if game freak just wants out.

 

[Ledian]

I think what GF needs right now is another company to help co-develop the next game with them. Despite wanting to branch out, they also lock themselves in as the developer for Pokemon despite plenty of other studios proving that Game Freak has plenty of competent replacements. Hell, considering how buddy buddy Bandai-Namco has been with Nintendo lately, even developing the new Snap game, I've said before that I'd be okay with them lending help to the next iteration of the series. They have the talent and resources to make large scale games, and ironically, but also fittingly, they also develop the Digimon series. They know how to make an RPG and their graphical talent is impressive when you look at something like Ace Combat.

I also think what Pokemon needs is a game that really encompasses adventuring, just like how BOTW did. The wonderment of discovering a land filled with unknown creatures to your young 10 year old self. Doesn't have to be fully open world but should at least be way more open than the whole Wild Area. Whole forests, towns, cities, and cave systems to explore. Physics puzzles that use your Pokemon to get farther in the game instead of arbitrary things like badges or moves, making it so you can truly go anywhere so long as you're willing to put time into it.

What we have now is a railroaded JRPG slog that, while sticking to the core of the series, is constantly putting forward half-baked ideas and rather meager gameplay elements. I still think they should have kept Mega's and refined it but I realize now that Nintendo's core idea of finding new ways of play means that Game Freak is forced to innovate new gameplay elements instead of sticking with ones that work and riding along with it. What has made other Nintendo properties great has been a detriment to the Pokemon series.

 

[UntimelyDhelmise]

I think what GF needs right now is another company to help co-develop the next game with them. Despite wanting to branch out, they also lock themselves in as the developer for Pokemon despite plenty of other studios proving that Game Freak has plenty of competent replacements. Hell, considering how buddy buddy Bandai-Namco has been with Nintendo lately, even developing the new Snap game, I've said before that I'd be okay with them lending help to the next iteration of the series. They have the talent and resources to make large scale games, and ironically, but also fittingly, they also develop the Digimon series. They know how to make an RPG and their graphical talent is impressive when you look at something like Ace Combat.

I also think what Pokemon needs is a game that really encompasses adventuring, just like how BOTW did. The wonderment of discovering a land filled with unknown creatures to your young 10 year old self. Doesn't have to be fully open world but should at least be way more open than the whole Wild Area. Whole forests, towns, cities, and cave systems to explore. Physics puzzles that use your Pokemon to get farther in the game instead of arbitrary things like badges or moves, making it so you can truly go anywhere so long as you're willing to put time into it.

What we have now is a railroaded JRPG slog that, while sticking to the core of the series, is constantly putting forward half-baked ideas and rather meager gameplay elements. I still think they should have kept Mega's and refined it but I realize now that Nintendo's core idea of finding new ways of play means that Game Freak is forced to innovate new gameplay elements instead of sticking with ones that work and riding along with it. What has made other Nintendo properties great has been a detriment to the Pokemon series.

My theory as to why GF doesn't just hand over the reigns to another dev team despite the very obvious burnout is because the second Pokemon is out of their hands, that's it. They're done for. Finished.

Pokemon is the only reason they still exist as a development company, because every time they've tried to make a game under any other name it didn't go anywhere and especially lately like with Town, it's clear that they can't make a competent game to save their lives period. They only get away with it in regards to Pokemon because it's too big to ever fail at this point no matter how much of a half-assed mess the games turn out to be.

 

[Disc]

My theory as to why GF doesn't just hand over the reigns to another dev team despite the very obvious burnout is because the second Pokemon is out of their hands, that's it. They're done for. Finished.

Pokemon is the only reason they still exist as a development company, because every time they've tried to make a game under any other name it didn't go anywhere and especially lately like with Town, it's clear that they can't make a competent game to save their lives period. They only get away with it in regards to Pokemon because it's too big to ever fail at this point no matter how much of a half-assed mess the games turn out to be.

Another reason why people want Nintendo to buy Game Freak, so they can remodel the internals and put the good with the bad.

 

[Trombonista]

There was an unexpected guest at the Royals-White Sox game last night.

https://twitter.com/whitesox/status/1301905359725113344

 

[Nauseated Courgi]

I have a question. I've playing Rejuvenation for a bit and a thought just occurred to me:

Why didn't Game Freak at any point past the gen the move was introduced not retcon Flame Burst to being a multi-target hitting move instead of what it does now?

 

[Kari Kamiya]

There was an unexpected guest at the Royals-White Sox game last night.

https://twitter.com/whitesox/status/1301905359725113344

I lost it when the lion mascot threw the PokéBall in Pikachu's face.

 

[Canned Bread]

How about Mega-Evolutions for old Pokemon! A bump to the power-levels of some classic 'Mons who need the buff! Great mechanic, right? Oh but they won't buff Pokemon that need it, no, Lucario and Salamance take priority. Not other classic Pokemon that need it like Tauros, not iconic gatekeeper Pokemon like Miltank or Spiritomb, no, only the Pokemon that most remind you of the older games get a buff. Nobody cares about Flygon anyways, look! Metagross gets one! Isn't that cool, we gave Steven a cool final boss Pokemon!

Metagross and Salamence kinda did need a buff honestly. Neither of them has really been all that good since Gen 4. In Gen 5 Salamence was mostly outclassed by Dragonite (Really ironic, since it previous gens it was the other way around) and Metagross was just sort of mediocre all around. The changes Gen 6 brought hurt them a good amount as well, especially Metagross.

I have a question. I've playing Rejuvenation for a bit and a thought just occurred to me:

Why didn't Game Freak at any point past the gen the move was introduced not retcon Flame Burst to being a multi-target hitting move instead of what it does now?

I mean technically it does nothing now, since it was one of the moves that got cut. But to answer your question, my best guess would be that if they did that, then move would have gone from being mostly outclassed by Lava Plume to completely outclassed by it.

Another reason why people want Nintendo to buy Game Freak, so they can remodel the internals and put the good with the bad.

For the longest time I thought they already owned Game Freak. I guess not.

 

[Jean Lafitte 1812]

I have a question. I've playing Rejuvenation for a bit and a thought just occurred to me:

Why didn't Game Freak at any point past the gen the move was introduced not retcon Flame Burst to being a multi-target hitting move instead of what it does now?

It took them 3 gens to retcon Eevee's evolution methods for Leafeon and Glaceon, and they still didn't retcon Espeon and Umbreon to use Sun or Moon stone or Sylveon to use a Shiny Stone. One of my eternal irritations is Game Freak being insistent on making everything "consistent" at the cost of gameplay. Friendship evolutions were a gimmick that should be able to be bypassed by an end-game item, same with link trades. Incenses should be removed, chalking new baby Pokemon up to new breeding innovations.

On Flame Burst specifically, they removed it entirely in SwSh. While some moves like Pursuit and Hidden Power should be removed for balance, I'd have rather had moves reworked than removed where possible. Make Flame Burst a combination of Parental Bond and Dragon Darts where it gets a second, weaker hit on the other target.

Nobody cares about Flygon anyways, look! Metagross gets one! Isn't that cool, we gave Steven a cool final boss Pokemon!

Apparently Ken Sugimori had artist's block on designing a Mega Flygon. I don't mind key trainers having signature Megas, and in fact the entire Elite Four should have had them and maybe even Gym Leaders for rematches, but I wish they'd have balanced some of them better competitively. Not restricting Megas to +100 stats would've helped where they could've just given Salamence and Metagross +50 instead. Goes back to my above point where GF forces themselves into corners too often, then gets out of it by ditching mechanics.

 

[Nauseated Courgi]

It took them 3 gens to retcon Eevee's evolution methods for Leafeon and Glaceon, and they still didn't retcon Espeon and Umbreon to use Sun or Moon stone or Sylveon to use a Shiny Stone.

To be fair, friendship evolution, while tedious, isn't as much of a hassel as having to be near a specific object and leveling the pokemon up (granted there are still pokemon like Magneton and Charjabug with their evolution methods).

 

[Pinochet Was Right]

Oh don't get me started on Leafeon and Glaceon. In HGSS they could have perfectly made them able to evolve in Ilex Forest and the Ice Path, and Magneton in Mt. Silver.

 

[Ido]

I want them to finish all the eeveelutions, because they'll only look worse and disconnected the longer they wait. I want a bitchin dragon and poison type.

 

[Nauseated Courgi]

I want them to finish all the eeveelutions, because they'll only look worse and disconnected the longer they wait. I want a bitchin dragon and poison type.

I feel like the eeveelutions are "complete" as far as I'm concerned. What would a dragon and poison one's method of evolution be (although, for poison I can see "level up a poisoned eevee")?

 

[Ido]

I feel like the eeveelutions are "complete" as far as I'm concerned. What would a dragon and poison one's method of evolution be (although, for poison I can see "level up a poisoned eevee")?

that or holding black sludge.

 

[Archeops]

I feel like the eeveelutions are "complete" as far as I'm concerned.

I think that’s in part due to all of evolutions excluding Sylveon cover types whose moves were classified as Special types (barring Dragon because fuck you) between Gens I-III. Ironically enough if Fairy were introduced in one of those Generations its moves would probably be classified as a Special type for balancing purposes.

 

[Picklechu]

I'm so tired of people ragequitting during link battles. It seems like that's literally all I get nowadays. I have been able to confirm that the new team I've put together desperately needs to be able to remove hazards, since sticky web has been wrecking me whenever I encounter it.

I'm also keeping up with what I encounter in singles, and plan to for the next few days; so far, the things I've seen the most is Togekiss and Cinderace, followed by Zacian and Charizard.