Board 8 > opinions on the new pokemon game?

(+) Yeah! (+)

i've played gens 1, 2, 4, and 5. how does sw/sh (gen.... 6? 7??) compare?
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it's fun
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Mediocre

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It's pokemon so it's still fun

It could and should be so so so much more. Honestly feels like a slightly upscaled 3DS game with a ton of cut features and the added features don't even close to make up for it.
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It's pretty incremental as all Pokemon games are, but you will probably like it since you skipped the 3DS games if you just really want to play a Pokemon game. Unless it's important to you that every single Pokemon is available, because they cut half of them.

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thanks guys

i'm assuming it's the same old, eight gyms/elite four/couple of legendary guys?

is the dialogue any better/worse/more involved than black/white?
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There are 8 gyms, but in terms of the other things you mentioned it's definitely lesser than the previous entries.

The characters are good as is most of the dialogue, but are barely there at all. You get some nice potential but no payoff because the game basically doesn't have a story. Towards the end especially it feels like large swaths of the game were cut. It's the shortest game in the series.

I did like it well enough, but if you're the kind of person who just plays a Pokmon game until you beat it and then stops, it's probably the worst one. Definitely the worst value on that front at the console game price tag, too.

There's potential in the characters yeah, but since there literally isn't a story, there's hardly even a point for them existing.
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A great idea but rushed and feature incomplete, plus with terrible internet!
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MichelBollinger posted...

It's the shortest game in the series.

if you completely ignore the wild area, sure
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SeabassDebeste posted...

thanks guys

i'm assuming it's the same old, eight gyms/elite four/couple of legendary guys?

is the dialogue any better/worse/more involved than black/white?

There's actually no Elite Four in this one. There are 8 Gyms, though.
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Hbthebattle posted...

if you completely ignore the wild area, sure

No. Messed around in wild area. Still short.

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

it's fun

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It's a great game. Very addictive to try and complete everything.
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Nowhere near the DS era overall but makes some good strides to match other gens in some ways whilst falling far short in others. The cast is actually pretty damn great but the almost comically weak story execution undercuts them on multiple occasions. (Its telling that the post-credits story quest harbors several of the scripts best moments here, at last, we can enjoy multiple characters with visibly clashing and/or complementary personality traits spending real time in a scene together for the first time.)

The good: Terrific new set of Pokmon. Very few duds here. Best new group possibly ever. Also, much of the soundtrack is banging. There are excellent quality of life updates galore and the gym challenge feels suitably epic despite the weakness of the plot. Battles are snappy and despite some well-documented rough patches theres actually plenty of surprising prettiness in this game too. Also, mainline Pokmon on a 52 HDTV. Is really. Damn. Neat.

The bad: Again, the plot is just not good at all. But a lot of people dont care so heres some more universally damning stuff most of the routes are so linear that even Kalos is blushing and youll spend maybe ten minutes tops in most of the cities. The game is visibly rushed especially toward the end and youll be fetching badges 5-8 at a hilariously swift pace.

Again, Sword and Shield do not hold a candle to the golden age overall. And the story is a tremendous step down from Gen 7, which actually gave a fuck again after the lack of fucks in Gen 6. I have acquired and will soon play through both Platinum and HGSS because I missed those two and I need deeper and more free roaming Pokmon games in my life again. Its not a great sign that Galar has made me want to retreat into Sinnoh and Johto immediately.

But Gen 8 is still comfort food with some pleasant albeit brief flavors and a wholesome monster-raising texture that just cannot be found to the same degree elsewhere. Worth playing? Yes. Keep expectations in check? Double yes. Do I regret my $60 purchase? Nope.


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thanks!

less plot and dialogue to me sounds like a good thing, so i feel pretty excited about buying it eventually! and yeah, one of the coolest parts will be real pokemon on the big screen
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SaveEstelle posted...

I have acquired and will soon play through both Platinum and HGSS because I missed those two and I need deeper and more free roaming Pokmon games in my life again. Its not a great sign that Galar has made me want to retreat into Sinnoh and Johto immediately.

For Sinnoh I would wait until the inevitable D/P remakes next year.

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platinum is the best pokemon game so best to just jump in now
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next year gonna be Let's Go! Marill and Let's Go! Togepi
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Honestly, with the way the series is going, I don't want Sinnoh remakes, because there's no way they'd hold up compared to Platinum.
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Mewtwo59 posted...

Honestly, with the way the series is going, I don't want Sinnoh remakes, because there's no way they'd hold up compared to Platinum.

Why? They did a reasonably good job incorporating the third version stuff into HGSS and they don't have the version issues that they did with ORAS (which I also think they did a good job with despite that).

They'd probably cut the Battle Frontier again but using ORAS as a model I don't see why they wouldn't keep most of the other third version improvements and turn the Giratina stuff into a postgame story.

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HGSS was 10 years ago. That's not who Game Freak is anymore. I also didn't feel like ORAS held up to Emerald, and the games have only been on a downward slope since then, so I'm expecting even less out of a DP remake.
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Mewtwo59 posted...

HGSS was 10 years ago. That's not who Game Freak is anymore. I also didn't feel like ORAS held up to Emerald, and the games have only been on a downward slope since then, so I'm expecting even less out of a DP remake.

This exactly
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I don't think the old Pokemon games have aged well at all so the QOL and mechanical updates alone make ORAS better. There is much less of an upgrade going from Gen 4 -> now though.

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One of my friends told me I should get it for the story

was I correct to call bs on that

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Uh, yeah. This game has no story. Even if you like the characters like me that just makes it worse because there's no story for them to be in.

@Tom_Bombadil Pokemon game having a good story? Yeah sure.

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Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee is legit tbqh
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Sounds like another hard pass
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It's kinda annoying how there's almost no modern Pokemon game that has a new region and a slightly fresher feel, AND is full of good content

Every game is compromised in some obvious way. So ORAS and HGSS have a hell of a lot of content but they're remakes. BW2 is a sequel that reuses almost the entire region. XY is almost laughably by-the-numbers (I still like it because Pokemon is generally fun for me, but apart from the graphical upgrade/new region it's a very basic Pokemon game). SM is missing a lot and USUM fixes that by adding some good content, but has the same problem BW2 has.

BW is the last great Pokemon game, but BW2 added so much good stuff that going back to BW is a little frustrating in some ways (BW2's bigger region and postgame, Join Avenue, Black Tower, "would you like to use another repel?" - aka the greatest QoL change in history).

Sounds like this is almost the same as XY, which is annoying because I thought that by using LGPE as a trial-run they'd be able to make a longer-lasting experience here. I imagine the third or fourth Switch game they release will have a really good amount of content but by then it'll no longer feel fresh and exciting to have a home console Pokemon game, and it'll likely reuse a region too (whether it's Sinnoh or like BroadSword and KiteShield or something).

I still like it but I'd really like that one Pokemon game that's both a new region w/ new Pokemon and story, and also has all the stuff.

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HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

I don't think the old Pokemon games have aged well at all so the QOL and mechanical updates alone make ORAS better. There is much less of an upgrade going from Gen 4 -> now though.

I agree with this 100%. Outside of missing the Battle Frontier, I definitely prefer ORAS to the originals.
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To me ORAS is a significantly better game than RSE, though the battle frontier is a big loss. But the excellent Delta Episode is a decent trade-off to me. Moments matter more sometimes than entire experiences, and the ending of the Delta Episode had one of the best moments in any Pokemon game. While it might occupy less time and be less satisfying to finally beat than the Battle Frontier, it was far more memorable to me.

I really hope they nail the DP remakes if and when they come...and give us catchable Arceus.

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Grimlyn posted...

Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee is legit tbqh

But like, for real though. That game had no business being as good as it was. They did a great job revamping the music and story in particular; it felt great to play a Pokemon game whose story was sweet and even genuinely funny on occasion. I also felt like the Go mechanics were implemented in a surprisingly tasteful manner.

I won't consider it mainline, no matter what Game Freak says. But I thoroughly enjoyed it with the "spin-off mindset". I'd give it like an 8/10 or so.

I feel like they won't revisit the Let's Go concept, since Sword and Shield are utterly curbstomping LGPE's sales. It's kind of a shame tbh.
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Leonhart4 posted...

Sounds like another hard pass

@Leonhart4 For you, yeah, Id say so. But you have missed several terrific Pokmon games through the years that Ive little doubt you would enjoy, and you still own the hardware for them all.

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Hot take: by deleting the HMs and "saving a lot of data", a DP remake will be automatically better than the originals.
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Hbthebattle posted...

Hot take: by deleting the HMs and "saving a lot of data", a DP remake will be automatically better than the originals.

Oh god, yes

I remember later games (particularly XY) saving in like less than a second and being flabbergasted that that could happen.

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Hbthebattle posted...

Hot take: by deleting the HMs and "saving a lot of data", a DP remake will be automatically better than the originals.

I had blocked Rock Climb and Defog from my memory and reading this was like a code word that awakened them.

SO awful. You basically needed to carry around a Bibarel loaded with 4 HMs for huge chunks of the game.

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Defog was used in like 2 areas and Rock Climb was decent enough that you could just stick it on your worst Pokmon and be fine.
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Nah, HMs are just plain bad. No reason to defend them.
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HMs are not great. From what relatively little I remember of Diamond (my only experience with Sinnoh up til I begin Platinum shortly) it was kind of wild just how many were being thrown at me at a certain point.

For the rec, since I was too tired last night to reply to the suggestion that I wait for the Sinnoh remakes rather than playing Platinum -- I can definitely see where you're coming from but I'd like to experience the non-truncated version as well. That's putting the cart before the horse, of course, since we don't know for a fact that the remakes will remove content; but looking at OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire -- which I quite enjoyed but did not enjoy as much as Emerald -- I'd really like to be able to engage in stuff like the Distortion World (I think?) before it vanishes and the Diamond/Pearl storyline is presented as canon instead.

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Mewtwo59 posted...

HGSS was 10 years ago.

...whoa
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If ORAS is any indication Giratina and the Distorion World will be important to the postgame
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Drakeryn posted...

Mewtwo59 posted...

HGSS was 10 years ago.

...whoa

Well, it dropped on the day of Bowser/Charizard in the 2010 contest, so yeah, pretty close.
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I feel like Platinum is more special to Gamefreak than Emerald is; just look at how Looker pretty much became a series regular. So the remakes might be more faithful to Platinum than ORAS was to Emerald.
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SaveEstelle posted...

Again, Sword and Shield do not hold a candle to the golden age overall. And the story is a tremendous step down from Gen 7, which actually gave a fuck again after the lack of fucks in Gen 6.

It feels like a lot of people don't seem to care much about the story in the mainline Pokemon games. It's starting to become like the Mario platformers in that regard - you don't play Mario for the story (what little it has), it's all about the gameplay for Mario platformers.

With the mainline Pokemon games, people seem to play those for the gameplay, exploring a new region, or trying out the new Pokemon introduced.
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I don't care much about the story because it's bad. If it were good, I'd care. Like I cared in White.
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LusterSoldier posted...

SaveEstelle posted...

Again, Sword and Shield do not hold a candle to the golden age overall. And the story is a tremendous step down from Gen 7, which actually gave a fuck again after the lack of fucks in Gen 6.

It feels like a lot of people don't seem to care much about the story in the mainline Pokemon games. It's starting to become like the Mario platformers in that regard - you don't play Mario for the story (what little it has), it's all about the gameplay for Mario platformers.

With the mainline Pokemon games, people seem to play those for the gameplay, exploring a new region, or trying out the new Pokemon introduced.

I agree with you. It felt like Sword/Shield had too much story as is. I was constantly just skipping through dialogue. Luckily it was less than the previous games.
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i told someone tonight i wouldn't be buying SwSh because I don't think it's worth the $60 price tag and I was told 100% seriously that that's a "very alt-right opinion to have"

what the fuck
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lmao
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Drakeryn posted...

I don't care much about the story because it's bad. If it were good, I'd care. Like I cared in White.

Again: BW was the last great Pokemon game

XY was such a regression

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