Pokémon Scarlet & Violet - PLEASE TAG SPOILERS/LEAKS

[Salamander]

Kalos.  And this is a gap year after all.  Leakers and speculators in shambles.

[Sonicka]

I'm just happy that they skipped past all the other nonsense quickly. They understood the audience watching really doesn't care about most of this (but they still needed to get through the mobile announcement fluff). I just keep thinking that so much time and budget is wasted on these commercials. 

So... Pokemon Legends Z-A. Ok. Gotta give it to them for subverting every speculation and rumour. XD   

I'm not overly surprised another in this series was announced given the popularity of the first. But this now worries me that we will have yet another split dev team working on this game (with a Gen X announcement next year, just you watch) just give these games time please Gamefreak.

I think it was also probably wise not to show off actual gameplay yet, since the original got torn to shreds back in the day and on release. In any case, I'm going to keep my expectations in check so I'm not really excited either way just yet - the original Legends was incredibly beta and felt unfinished (despite having an addictive gameplay loop), so I hope they can push for something looks and performs better than Arceus and S/V. The idea of constructing the city of Luminose is an interesting one if that's what they are going for here... I do enjoy a good town/ city development quest in my RPG's, gives a nice sense of progression and accomplishment. 

Edited February 27 by Sonicka

[Lorekitten]

22 minutes ago, Salamander said:

Kalos.  And this is a gap year after all.  Leakers and speculators in shambles.

And this is why I don't go on Twitter/X: because I don't even want to imagine the flak that the 'leakers' are almost certainly receiving as we speak. (I'm fairly certain Khu was intentionally trolling with all the Unova hints, and I would say that anything Khu gets for that is justified but this is Twitter we're talking about and I wouldn't be surprised if there were death threats involved and no troll deserves that.)

[ZinogreVolt]

I know they didn't show any gameplay yet, but man that teaser did everything for me.

>Kalos, an underexplored setting that I still always really liked

>an as-of-yet unexplored time period for the series

>Megas are back 

>2025! And we don't even know when in 2025! Actual dev time!

I already like the Legends formula, so for once I'm not that worried about the gameplay. This is the first time a Pokemon announcement has gotten me genuinely hyped in a very long time.

[Lorekitten]

15 minutes ago, Sonicka said:

The idea of constructing the city of Luminose is an interesting one if that's what they are going for here... I do enjoy a good town/ city development quest in my RPG's, gives a nice sense of progression and accomplishment. 

That also gives us a potential timeframe for what era this game is set in, as the Eiffel Tower was constructed from 1887 to 1889, and that's what Lumiose Tower is based on.

Edited February 27 by Lorekitten

[Salamander]

So in the end the reason why they made such a fuss about Blueberry Academy's Unova links was because that was all the Unova revisit we're getting.  Yes, after the response to the traditional remakes of BDSP (terrible) versus the more experimental revisit in Legends: Arceus (most positively-received game in years), I'm pretty sure remakes per se are dead, and from now on we'll be getting region revisits with different concepts which won't be hidebound by the original release order.  Probably Kalos was selected because GameFreak had major unfinished business with it, whereas Black/White got whole sequels already.

All we really need them to do now is make ports of the classic titles available somehow, whether it's on NSO or through compilation rereleases.  I'm a little surprised they aren't running with those this year given that it's a gap year on console otherwise - but if any of the classics are going up on NSO, that might be something they're reserving for a Nintendo Direct rather than a purely GameFreak presentation.

[ZinogreVolt]

On 2/27/2024 at 10:24 AM, Salamander said:

So in the end the reason why they made such a fuss about Blueberry Academy's Unova links was because that was all the Unova revisit we're getting.  Yes, after the response to the traditional remakes of BDSP (terrible) versus the more experimental revisit in Legends: Arceus (most positively-received game in years), I'm pretty sure remakes per se are dead, and from now on we'll be getting region revisits with different concepts which won't be hidebound by the original release order.  Probably Kalos was selected because GameFreak had major unfinished business with it, whereas Black/White got whole sequels already.

I think regular remakes are still on the table, but after the immense backlash BDSP got, TPC/Game Freak want to reconsider their approach to making them. That could be just giving the games more dev time, budget, and scope, or it could be rethinking certain aspects on how to present them. BDSP looked like it got barely even a year of production time, especially considering it literally shipped out onto cartridges half-finished.

Personally, I think something like HD-2D is the endgame of a non-Legends Unova revisit. Be it a remake or the fabled Black 3/White 3, it makes the most sense in my eyes since TPC has still yet to make a modern game marketed with a classic aesthetic, which is all the rage these days. Unova and Gen 5 as a whole is immensely popular in Japan especially, but I think going back to Kalos first is going to generate way more buzz by virtue of it being completely unexpected and XY now being old enough to have plenty of nostalgic backing. Legends Z-A was the right call, but I still think Gen 5 remakes aren't terribly far off from happening too.

[Salamander]

I disagree, but to be honest, it's not worth anyone's time to litigate this one too hard, given that we're unlikely to see the next such game until 2028.