Pokemon Sword/Shield developers talk about the National Dex decision and what led to it; discuss development difficulties and Pokemon Home

[BassForever]

So lets ignore everything else and pretend like the devs haven't worked hard. Yay??

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The person you responded to said nothing about the devs work ethic. They simply expressed disinterest in a new feature over the cut feature the thread is about. I see a lot of people who criticize the "toxic part of the fanbase" who literally take any form of criticism or disinterest as some form of "lazy dev/incompetent gf/etc" comment.

It's on gf and their marketing department to sell people on why these new features as worth it over the content that was cut. If someone doesn't find the curry, max raid battles, or camping features compelling from trailers why should they be happy that they got those while their favorite pokemon got cut? Heck they could be excited about some of these, but if your favorite pokemon are cut how excited are you going to be for new bonding with your pokemon mechanisms?

 

[sultrines]

Sun and Moon were better than more than half the 2D generations

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Aside from the qol improvements, its pretty meh when compared to most 2d mainline games

 

[AllChan7]

The person you responded to said nothing about the devs work ethic. They simply expressed disinterest in a new feature over the cut feature the thread is about. I see a lot of people who criticize the "toxic part of the fanbase" who literally take any form of criticism or disinterest as some form of "lazy dev/incompetent gf/etc" comment.

It's on gf and their marketing department to sell people on why these new features as worth it over the content that was cut. If someone doesn't find the curry, max raid battles, or camping features compelling from trailers why should they be happy that they got those while their favorite pokemon got cut? Heck they could be excited about some of these, but if your favorite pokemon are cut how excited are you going to be for new bonding with your pokemon mechanisms?

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The person literally implied that the only thing that the devs cut the Pokemon for was curry. There's no other way to interept that comment besides how it reads. If you're gonna criticize Gamefreak at least acknowledge the fact there's other features that have been added in the place of cut Pokemon besides curry.

I understand being disappointed at missing Pokemon but it seems unfair to ignore whats being added to the experience such as Wild Area, Poke Jobs, Max Raid battles, new Online battle features, new ways to train your Pokemon, etc. They have marketed all of that while still keeping things like the number of new Pokemon and post game content under wraps. However, I personally prefer that approach as I don't want everything revealed too early but at least reveal enough to get people interested.

They don't have to be happy about it but acting as if there aren't additions being made to the game is silly imo

 

[Everywhere]

They chose silly gameplay stuff like Dynamax over National Dex? Eek.

 

[BassForever]

The person literally implied that the only thing that the devs cut the Pokemon for was curry. There's no other way to interept that comment besides how it reads. If you're gonna criticize Gamefreak at least acknowledge the fact there's other features that have been added in the place of cut Pokemon besides curry

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The person sarcastically thanked gamefreak for adding a feature they didn't want at the expense of one that mattered a lot to them. Nothing about that post implies the user thinks it's a 1:1 pokemon were cut for curry, curry is just an easy target because it's a feature that got a lot of time in the last direct. People who criticize this game shouldn't need a disclaimer about acknowledging every new thing gf added while saying none of that offsets the loss of all the pokemon for them.

 

[AllChan7]

The person sarcastically thanked gamefreak for adding a feature they didn't want at the expense of one that mattered a lot to them. Nothing about that post implies the user thinks it's a 1:1 pokemon were cut for curry, curry is just an easy target because it's a feature that got a lot of time in the last direct. People who criticize this game shouldn't need a disclaimer about acknowledging every new thing gf added while saying none of that offsets the loss of all the pokemon for them.

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Then he can articulate that if thats what he meant because its hard to tell who's sarcastic and who's serious when it comes to their personal criticisms of this game. After that tree controversy, I wouldn't be shocked if someone seriously wss implying they cut the Pokemon for curry.

Regardless my point still stands. I understand the disappointment at cut Pokemon but acting as if the new games aren't adding new features is unfair criticism.

 

[Sonicfan1373]

I do think having a national dex is something they should prioritize. It was kind of a downer to hear that I cannot bring all of my previous Pokemon into the game. My other complaints would be the Pokemon just popping-in in the wild areas (and there are some that don't really blend in well with the environment, like there was some footage with a Gyarados in water and its movements didn't seem to have any impact on the water), the NPCs still not being very lively, and lack of some modern touches like voice acting. With that being said though, I guess I am not quite as pessimistic about Pokemon Sword and Shield as a lot of others here have been. I feel like the wild area is a great step forward for the series and it does seem quite expansive. The customization features for the characters and being able to interact with Pokemon I think is well done. Dynamaxing looks interesting. Raid battles are a great feature to bring from Pokemon Go. I guess, I might be disconnected because a lot of fans disliked ORAS and Sun and Moon, but I really enjoyed them (despite their flaws, and lets be honest every game has flaws in the end). I see Sword and Shield particularly being held up in a negative light by some through comparisons with games like Breath of the Wild, as if those games did not have to make any compromises (in BoTW's case that amazing open world and its mechanics came at the expense of enemy variation, more traditional thematic dungeons, and even some story elements; and that game had a longer dev cycle than Sword and Shield).

I do not really blame the dev team for some of short-comings here. They are likely given a strict timetable for these games due to other media tie-ins, so I don't blame them for playing it safe. Honestly though, I would not mind the GameFreak taking a 2-3 year development cycle to work on the next game (especially since they have just gone through a major transition from 3DS to the Switch). I feel like that will give them much more time than they have been given to take the series forward. In fact, while they work things out, I would not mind to see others take a hand with developing Pokemon spinoffs (especially now that Pokemon Home will connect everything together). We have yet to see things like Mystery Dungeon and Pokemon Rumble on Switch, and I would love for Pokemon Company and Nintendo to allow Monolith Soft (provided they want to take on such a project) to develop a Pokemon spinoff in the same vein as Xenoblade (I feel that that series' battle system, especially the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 variant of it would work quite well for Pokemon); this would also given Game Freak more time to experiment and develop with less pressure.

 

[MoonToon]

The person you responded to said nothing about the devs work ethic. They simply expressed disinterest in a new feature over the cut feature the thread is about. I see a lot of people who criticize the "toxic part of the fanbase" who literally take any form of criticism or disinterest as some form of "lazy dev/incompetent gf/etc" comment.

It's on gf and their marketing department to sell people on why these new features as worth it over the content that was cut. If someone doesn't find the curry, max raid battles, or camping features compelling from trailers why should they be happy that they got those while their favorite pokemon got cut? Heck they could be excited about some of these, but if your favorite pokemon are cut how excited are you going to be for new bonding with your pokemon mechanisms?

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Yeah, I got on the train a bit late for this ride.
I didn't care much at first when news of the Dex cut kinda just ... tumbled out there. I was still riding the open world high from the trailers and Pokemon Camp looked fun. Best new feature they added was Amie and they kept it and expanded on it. Surely this is gonna be that big juicy game, it's console Pokemon.

But then I realized beside Pikachu my favorite Pokemon has yet to be seen. It didn't really hit me til then and wow, this must be what everyone upset is feeling. Ok, may not be able to find my fav mons ANNND I can't bring over my fucking huge pack of Shiny bros I hunted before. What did we get for this? Why did this have to happen?
We start seeing more and more of the game and I'm just waiting for them to show me something that warrants this cut ... camp is just amie animations plus the runs and walks that were already made for all Pokemon like 6 years ago. Battle animations are the same. They focus on curry ... aka poffin making. This feature that's replacing Z-Moves that placed Megas? Seems super lame and it wont mean shit. "More customization"? We had that already, it makes sense for the console version with better looking humans to have some better dress up so that's pretty moot. Wild area vids? I see tons of not good in the game play vids I see of the area, from janky textures and animations to shit draw distance that makes People- Pokemon and the trees you can shake vanish when you're more than 20-30ft away and pop into frame as you approach.
Group raid battles is the only thing of true intrigue that is new to me and that doesn't seem like the type of thing that would affect the Dex.

The marketing for this game hasn't sold me on anything being a worthy replacement for my old favs returning and these recently interviews make it clear that this aint that big juicy Pokemon game, it's gonna apparently have about as much content as the others and the team hasn't even grown considerably. They still haven't given a reason for the cut besides "We decided to do it". If it's gonna be as much "business as usual" as past steps in the series then I can accept that if we had the full dex ... if not I feel like I need to see something much better than what we have seen.

I'll buy the game cause it is something I have to judge for myself and I AM excited for a new Pokemon game as it's been a staple in my life since I was 8 ... but this dex shit has actually driven my interest in the series to low I never thought possible and may be that last strew. What's even the point of getting attached to new Pokemon when your favs are prob gonna be tossed into the void? And Pokemon Home just sounds like some Go connected micro-transaction monster waiting on the horizon to collect on the 2bill + profits they got from GO and prey on the desire for Old Cut Mons.

Sadness