"How Gamefreak forgot the Dream - Expectations with Sword and Shield"

The company that clearly can:Pokemon Red and Blue stands to this day as the example of a formula that captured players all over the world. I think the intro sequence in Red and Blue is today as important as it was back then when I played it as a 7 year old kid in germany when it got released.The intro sequence introduces us to the basics of what Pokemon is about, Monsters battling each other. The other thing what made Pokemon so worthwhile was the open world structure of the game and the amount of value you get out of one gameboy cartridge. Becoming the best Pokemon trainer, catching all the available Monsters, and fighting the evil corporations and teams and beating the best trainers in this world. This stands to this day as one of the best games produced.Pokemon introWe had a Dream: Now we are debating very enthusiastically how we feel about the new Pokemon games on the Switch. I can only say there is a dream which got lost over the years. I feel that the focus shifted and the significance of the dream got watered down little by little. This dream was also fueled by the Anime too, and the way it was presented and was revoking at least for me the Intro of Red and Blue.Pokemon Red on the big ScreenWatching a friend play pokemon for the first time on the big Screen back in the days was the start of a promise to play the games one day on a TV. The games itself were already made for the big screen. Playing those at first on the normal gameboy without backlight was the way I started out, but seeing the color fidelity of the game coming to life was just a different world. Pokemon Red was already for me such a big game and for the child eye it was a game with no end. These games are obviously a big adventure and made for the big screen.​Pokemon LeafgreenPlaying Pokemon Gold a few years later was even a bigger shock to the system. This game blew the vision even more forward. When I played through Gold the very first time and thought how good this game was too and so different and even more refined, a friend on the schoolyard asked me if I found the other world, and I couldn't understand what he meant. He took my gameboy and 5 min later he handed it back and I was in Kanto. I couldn't believe it, there was the old world in the new game. This was back then at least for me just one of the biggest treats. Having another world to explore, even if it was the old game, was just even more replay value. Red and Gold got refined again later as FireRed and HeartGold. And the shifts to the new consoles or handhelds really gave us more refined games, with much better visuals. The way they made every Pokemon unique, and even you as a trainer had your own ID bound to your Pokémon. They just perfected the Formula.​Pokemon Black and WhiteLater after playing through Ruby and Diamond we got Black and White and the sequels. I think thats the turn I loved the most. The new introduced Pokemon were really amazing, and fit to the overall Pokedex of the series. But little things like battling in Tournaments, or whether changes depending on the Seasons, really gave the world a living and breathing vibe. I really loved the games, and they reminded me so much of the Anime series. But every fan still dreamed of a Pokemon on the big screen.Game Freak, The company that clearly won't:Game Freak and the Forgotten DreamNow we are it seems on the turn of the tide. The franchise is at this point the most succesful and expensive franchise in the world. Bigger than Star Wars and bigger than the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The old games got rereleased for the 3DS and with a huge success which just shows how much people like the old games and that the system holds up. The games were also connected to your Pokemon Bank which just renewed the whole experience. I always recommend playing the old games again and just to see for yourself how well structured they are. What changed over time is the whole perception of the video games. Pokemon designs got much cuter due to the change of the eye designs. The danger of the world itself and the Pokemon as dangerous monsters is much more in the background. With all the success the whole trajectory of the company changed. The most recent survey was directed towards the age group of 7 years to 15 years. The company at this point has shareholder meetings, thats one big indicator that the focus on a stable cashflow and revenue is very important to satisfy. It seems that with all the Money involved they lost the focus or were maybe even forced to make more money due the growing size of the company itself.​Pokemon Lets Go​One of the biggest indicators for me that something is happening or things will change, was the announcement of the Let's Go titles. This was for me at least the biggest tease in the Pokemon history. Fans from the old days even could only dream of a Kanto remake on the big console. For me this was a big surprise to see the Company bring those games to the big screen with mechanics mostly introduced in the mobile game Pokemon Go. From a business standpoint it makes sense. Let's get the Go players on board, let's sell more Switch systems, and when the new mainline Pokemon games come out we have a wieder range of players buying the new games. Now we just move forward in time and set our eye on this years Pokemon games on the Switch. Let's just set an eye on the forgotten dream. What this release stands for and where we locate the disappointment.​Pokemon Sword/ShieldHow Gamefreak forgot the Dream - Expectations with Sword and ShieldSo what was the dream exactly? Many years passed since I saw Pokemon Red on the big screen for the first time. Seeing Colosseum games on the various platforms over the years, and now with Pokken Tournament gave us a glimpse of what we could have in a mainline pokemon game. I am not saying its easy or its something we can expect, but it just fueled fans how Pokemon fights could be animated. Having moves for all Pokemon in that detail is for sure very tough, but that is not even the discussion for me. But having a main line Pokemon on the console which stands tall over the whole franchise was the dream. Something what really hits home, and just shows that company which fulfilled with Red so many dreams, and had an amazing game design, that they still remember the dream of the fans.​The Dream (reddit)I am not going to discuss why they did it, but it's clear that this new game was at one point a 3DS game, or was not intended to move on the Switch. I don't say graphics is key, but a design which makes sense, and which meets some expectations is something you can expect from a company which clearly has enough resources to develop the dream. This picture below is clearly the dream. We saw with Breath of the Wild what Nintendo can do and how they reinvent one of the most beloved and intimate games. Zelda is part of the gaming history since Ocarina of Time, and even Ocarina showed the game industry how its done, how you port a 2D game to 3D. Breath of the Wild set new standards for open world games and games in general. The dream was something similar like the picture below. If you look at the stiff animations, the character design with the Beanie and the coffin backpack, you can't tell me or get away with the thought that this is how you imagined it, the dream.​The Dream (reddit)Now they say that we wont have the full Pokedex. It took to much time they say. This game was in development for such a long time. We saw in the past year the Red Dead 2 release, a game as ambitions as it can get. Now I look at the screenshot above which is clearly a Breath of the Wild mock up, but it works. There is life, and movement. I feel the stiff trailer we saw from Sword and Shield didn't gave me a this is the Pokemon World. It was not the dream, it was something else.​Thanks to Nintendo Switch, Pokémon becomes more lively and has better graphics, but on the other hand, it also takes more time to develop. The total number of Pokémon will exceed 1000, including new Pokémon and form changes of existing Pokémon.As a result, it becomes extremely difficult to make new Pokémon play an active part and balance them, in addition to upgrading the graphics and quality for the change in hardware and battle.That is the reason for this decision, and we have decided that it is extremely difficult to make all Pokémon appear in future games.​The Dream (reddit)Just by looking at this fan mashup should make every fan frustrated where the series is disappointing us at this point. The jumps in quality other companies are going for is way different to what Pokemon is giving us. Gamefreak has to meet the expectations of the gamer in 2019. I think it was about time to bring the games forward with an open world fighting system and not with a battle screen but still with turn based fights. Have a new and clear vision. Nintendo manages to surprise us even tough the business practices are not the most consumer friendly, but its easier to forgive if you play Breath of the Wild. Wasn't this a blast?The company that clearly forgot:Now the game is not the dream, and it makes me think how they forgot it themselves. The most successful franchise in the world didn't invested the resources to give us something similar or something that fulfilled the vision of the dream. Something that they can be proud of. I feel I don't need animations for every attack in the game. I don't need the best graphics. There is one franchise which reinvented itself again, and is one of the most beloved franchises in Japan and its last entry did succeed to bring something to us that fans dreamed of for a long time. Below you see 2 screenshots, one is from the 3DS version of Dragon Quest 11 and on the 3DS and the other is a screenshot from the Playstation 4 version. Dragon Quest didn't changed its formula much since the first entry in 1986. The 3DS version is very interesting because it doesn't really strive away from how the game looked way back. They stayed true to all the fans and themselves. They know what they want to show and tell. The word is tradition. The sweetest thing for me is how they developed both games side by side, but they knew what the fans are all about.​Dragon Quest 11 3DSDragon Quest 11 PS4It was a long development, but they captured the essence of the game and by developing a new engine and recreating the hunderts of monsters, enemies, NPCs and other assets they moved their franchise forward and secured themselves an easier workload for the next entires. If Square Enix worked years for this success also in the west by bringing voice actors for westerners, which the Japanese version apparently is missing, how can a developer like Gamefreak not have the same vision? Square Enix took time and money and invested in voice actors for the West. Thats how much appreciation they have for western fans. They wanted to give them a different way to acces the story instead of reading it. They sticked in Japan to the traditional way of representing all through text, but went a different way for westerns, but still kept their old vision since 86. Square even did the impossible and announced Final Fantasy 7 remake. In an interview they said:Square Enix's Rule For Remakes: They Must Surpass The Original​\"They Must Surpass The Original\"How can they put so much love and work and resources into a remake of one of the most beloved games in history and stick to their guns but the company with seemingly never ending resources cant? They thought of getting away with it like usual. If that would be a 3DS game it wouldn't be that insulting, but this was supposed to be the first game on the big screen. Where is the tradition with gamefreak? Over the years and the success it got watered down. The dream is in a bad shape.The vision (reddit)We could have always had something what fulfills our expectations, meets the vision we had. The simplicity and the game design and the open world structure was always there from the get go. It's not just the missing Dex and letting down the people who saved their Pokemon on the Bank. It's about how you treat the dream of so many fans. There is no obligation, but at least there is some certain respekt maybe how you treat your fans which bought the games since GEN 1, and got used to buy 2 games if they wanted to catch them all. There is a certain dream and it could have been fulfilled. The first time we saw the intro of Pokemon Red was the dream. It got burned into my mind. Gengar is since then my favorite and always will be. If Zelda can, and if Mario can, and Dragon Quest and al the old franchises, why can't Pokemon?​The Dream (reddit) via /r/pokemon https://ift.tt/2IWZyAq