Nintendo Switch Era Pokémon Retrospective

[@GireumRed]

Please come back to comment "YOU WERE WRONG IDIOT" if the gen 5 remakes come out on Switch at end of 2024. (Dual release with Switch 1 and 2 doesn't count)

[@Themasktrooper]

I worry about the Gen 5 remakes something tells me that they’re going to mess up the Gen 5 remakes like they did with the Gen 4 remakes

[@Clemehl]

Even if I find it very unlikely that Generation 5 remakes come to the Switch, and I agree we have too much Pokémon games on the Switch... I can't help to draw some parallels with the 3DS era. I do have that belief they purposely scrapped Pokémon Z so they could launch Sun and Moon on the 3DS just in time before the Switch comes out. The idea was to shove a new game on the already-knew console, because they knew they were not ready to create a game on this new game engine. (I will be mean: I would argue they still don't). I don't know if people remember, but some fans almost wished for Pokémon Star (the fan-name of Sun/Moon sequel) to be on the Switch. Instead we got USUM on the 3DS, and fans really didn't like it: a cash grab that didn't add much, except things that should have been in Sun and Moon. Your video about their employees points of view showed that Gamefreak is too small and heterogeneous team for what they want to achieve. It has great ideas but short on time and very lacking on the technical department. Which explains why they ended up outsourcing the development to ILCA for BDSP. I don't think they will stop outsourcing at their first failed try. So a remake or side-game isn't totally out of the picture. Now we know why they wanted to delay as much as possible before having a game on the Switch: the technical team isn't up to date to make a game work on it. We are at the end of the Switch era and... they still are unable to do this. I end up thinking that *Gamefreak is capable to throw a third generation on the Switch* just by greed, and the knowledge they wouldn't be able to handle the new software in time anyway. Joke aside? The next game was... HG/SS, and not Black and White? Does that mean we would end up with... a Let's Go Entei / Raikou? I guess? Maybe? The worst is... I cannot really joke about this. Even if LG Entei/Raikou is absurd in concept... my exasperation and my low expectation makes me think that Gamefreak could come up with this move.

[@gamewriteeye769]

No. I don't think pokemon is going to break their tradition as it's too hardcore at this point. I think they're going to do a “Let's Go” Johto version as they've hinted at it but merely tease Unova games with the new DLC. Meanwhile, we've always had remakes come out on the arbitrary: Gen 1 remakes in gen 3, Gen 2 remakes in gen 4, Gen 3 remakes in gen 6, Gen 4 remakes in gen 8. This cycle will continue and we won't see gen 5 remakes until gen 10-aka sometime between 2026-2027. Also, Triple adn Rotation Battles were removed since Gen 7 as they couldn't handle it. If the Switch can barely run SV, the chance of one of Nova's defining battle gimmicks aren't going to see a return until the new hardware can do it.

[@aliastheabnormal]

I saw Detective Pikachu and its the other way around. The game ripped off the movie. It's literally the back half of the movie with DP being Tim's dad and the villain hijacking a legendary to become a God.

[@UnwantedGhost1-anz25]

​@@gamewriteeye769 I don't realistically see triple & rotation battles ever returning, unfortunately.

[@TheAntlionGuard]

Oh god, the BDSP concepts actually hurt me. They look so good…

[@MemeRaider]

I'm glad Pokemon scrapped those ideas for the simpler ideas and designs. The resources would be too much for the Pokemon company to handle. Would have lead to the company losing stock value.

[@heroicgangster9981]

@@MemeRaider ...............................................

[@shantaehalf-geniehero4318]

@@MemeRaidernice bait boot licker

[@thatpigboss]

​@@MemeRaideri cant even- what.

[@Banazama]

@@thatpigbossIt's obvious bait. Nothing worth taking seriously.

[@ramenpower8097]

Switch era Pokemon has made me retroactively appreciate the 3DS Pokemon games. As did the 3DS games made me appreciate the DS games. I wonder how terrible the Switch2 games will need to be in order for me to look back at SwSh / BDSP and think “hey maybe those weren’t THAT bad?” 😂

[@SuiteLifeofDioBrando]

What is crazy is that the 3ds and ds games had far better online that was free

[@unofficialmeme5972]

@@SuiteLifeofDioBrando It was back before Nintendo cashed in on the paid online subscription trend that every company was doing.

[@MarvinPowell1]

Same here. I used to hate Diamond and Pearl until X & Y and the Hoenn remakes came out. Then I started appreciating gen 4 more. Same thing happened with gen 6 when LGP&E and Sword and Shield came out. It's like Pokemon uses every even numbered generation excluding Johto, to take a vacation, then make a half-assed attempt again with the odd numbers. Except I'd say Scarlet and Violet are just as bad as Sword and Shield, and to some people, maybe even worse. I wouldn't know; I'm not wasting a dime on any of the trash on the Switch. I can see by the reviews, gameplay, cut features, and bugs how horrible they all are.

[@piranhalettuce]

@@SuiteLifeofDioBrando The DS & 3DS games also had GTS built into the games and not exclusive to Pokemon Prison- I mean Home.

[@bugonboris6681]

Oh, wait until you see the modern mascot horror games and mobile games and you'll see how truly awful games can be!

[@bigchungus7870]

It's crazy to think that kirby got out of its slump faster than pokemon is and actually succeeded in making a 3D kirby game in addition to that.

[@piranhalettuce]

At least the 2.5D Kirby games were actually good unlike the 3D Pokémon games that made me wish I never liked Pokémon to begin with.

[@cubedmelons876]

I mean, Kirby's slump lasted for a grand total of 1 game. Star Allies was a fluke.

[@FTChomp9980]

Kirby Games r always fun and always good.

[@naturn3]

@@cubedmelons876yeah, it was one blunder in between two of the best games on the series

[@sylvyboi]

​@@FTChomp9980Right u r my friend

[@compatriot852]

The worst aspect about Pokemon on the switch is that there's still glimpses of quality showing that most of these games like Legends Arceus could have been great if given some proper development time Then there's soulless games like BDSP that are broken at the core and a complete slap in the face to fans

[@sylvyboi]

Tell me about it being a slap to the face... Still remember watching the direct with a friend, and when I saw those chibified faces on the screen my smile just faded As a long waiting Gen 4 fan my hopes were crushed. Never bought it

[@MarvinPowell1]

@compatriot852 It's even worse when you look at the Diamond and Pearl concept MillenniumLoops made in his spare time with no money and how Pokemon as a franchise is worth almost *$100 billion* with a B! How TF is the fan-made game AAA looking and the "official" game worse-looking than a fan concept?

[@maramba32]

soulless yes, but definitely not broken.

[@zjzr08]

​​@@maramba32BDSP can be broken at parts, and the fact you literally need a Day 1 patch to get like 40% of the base game data makes the game misleading as a physical game.

[@maramba32]

@@zjzr08 oh that update part. Forgot about that one

[@Hiruma_]

Whenever I played one of the recent Pokémon games I felt like the decisionmakers and directors have never played a contemporary video game. They must be so out of touch with their audience. Every aspect in those games feels like game design from 2006. I desperately want to love this franchise but it’s so hard man.

[@shadowmarauder6033]

That might not be too far off. In s vid by Didyouknowgaming on retro studios, a formerly independent company that worked for Nintendo before being bought by them, they did various pitches for great video games ideas but almost none got chosen mostly due to it not being like their own games. One specific time a member from Retro tried to give a nintendo employee a copy of the game Portal so that he could see the type of game he was gonna pitch but the employee couldn’t accept it due to company rules. WTH?!

[@jiyanmehta7250]

Can’t agree more. They are so behind the standards of the gaming industry, that it is almost shameful for how much resources they have. As for me personally,I have just stopped caring about Pokemon…SV was the last straw.And I do recommend others doing the same,at this point all we can do is accept the fact that Pokemon will not improve and speak with our wallets.

[@admiralstone2456]

I mean, Junichi Masuda, one of the former devs of the mainline games, literally said "Rather than any actual feedback from players, it's more about accepting the realities of modern life. Kids these days, or even people who grew up playing Pokémon, everyone is a lot more busy. There are a lot of things competing for a person's time than there were back then. For example, there's so many free games you can play on your phone now, there's so many entertainment options, so making it a little easier to play is the reason for that." Given that Masuda was passing down his teachings to another guy, Ohmori, I think his name was, I'm very concerned with how the series will end up from here. That quote from Masuda really puts me off from him and the mainline titles.

[@GameFreakSucks]

@@admiralstone2456yep if they don’t care about their games then why should I care either

[@luckerooni1153]

@@admiralstone2456 Same. Like, here's an idea, maybe make your game the most entertaining option and people won't choose anything else...

[@rowlet4ever]

The BDSP concept art looks so good, it makes me want new Sinnoh remakes so bad. too bad that's not going to happen. Hopefully ILCA can fulfill their vision with Unova but probably not.

[@conza1989]

Luminescent Platinum. Tell your friends.

[@e94youtube]

Unova is literally perfect so they can't mess it up except for the chibi graphics

[@baronsionis6855]

@@e94youtube or bugs upon release

[@YourMomsAltAccount]

I despise how much ignorant hate ILCA gets, they did fantastic with the limitations they had forced on them and would have done SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER had they been allowed to follow their vision for the remakes.

[@ahmedouldzenagui4584]

@@YourMomsAltAccount what limitations? Chibi charactar aside they made a gamed LITTERED WITH BUGS (more than the original) and mindlessly didn't include features like the up/down button on the watch, the level scaling was all over the place, using the "DP" limited dex as opposed to platinums (which is the definitive sinnoh experience) , an oversight that they fixed with platinum. AND THE "PLATINUM MONS THEY DID INCLUDE UNDERGROUND HAD NO DEX DATA wtf and WERE STUPIDLY OVER-LEVELED. NO CAPTURE THE FLAG. These games weren't even good at being "faithful", they were just a bad summary of diamond and pearl. They're the ONLY GAMES I CANT GO BACK TOO AND THATS SAYING SOMETHING> don't get me started on all the extra content they didn't use frin platinum, the post was garbage. At least ORAS had the DELTA EP!!!

[@number3766]

The Switch Pokemon era isn't the dark era for pokemon. It's the unfinished or rushed era.

[@M64bros]

Exactly, Not just pokémon but also other video games are doing it as well. Deep in my soul, I still have faith in pokémon and in gamefreak they just need to get their game up, We also got some cool TV series, magma comics and other media Pokemon stuff we got this year as well so not all Hope is lost for the franchise.

[@GameFreakSucks]

It’s both lol

[@thatonenoobkid2342]

@@GameFreakSucksyeah, when pokémon switched to the switch, the game became more rushed edit: 2:57

[@danielebowman]

Legends and Scarlet and Violet was two of the best Pokemon games. yes S&V had bugs, but it was great, really great. Great story, characters, lots to do, Tera raids were great. I had so much fun. Legends Arceus is my favourite game. I don't get half the criticisms of either game.

[@number3766]

@@danielebowman The main issue is comparing the current games to the past games. Even relating SV to Let's Go dosen't look good. Let's go had following pokemon with unique animations and consistent pathing. Some pokemon were even rideable with even flying gameplay. The artstyle helped make up for the lower poly textures quite well. Pokemon were scaled correctly and didn't run terribly. We didn't have common save corruption or cloud save bugs. Megas were re-added briefly which was cool too. Let's go still had issues with the lack of abilities, postgame and other systems, but it was all around decent. PLA seems like a game Gamefreak WANTED to make which was held back by a mandatory release date. Hell, they delayed PLA for three months and the performance jumped dramatically from the 2fps trailers. Still, it's suffering from incredible crunch as it's got it's share of bugs and glitches that can be overlooked due to the fun factor. SV was just unfinished. Like SwSh dexit still exists and ya still can't transfer all pokemon outta home. The textures look like an n64 game. The game runs like a slideshow. Constant game crashes and save corruption are rampant. Pop in and render distance is even worse than before. Environmental geometry isn't correctly defined leading to pokemon oftentimes spawning inside or under the environment. Shiny sounds were removed. Plenty of QOL options were removed. Player model warps into eldrich beings and fall through the floor. Flickering lighting and triggers for cutscenes being visible. Raids occasionally not giving a captured pokemon or displayed rewards. Raid HP bug that makes raid bosses immortal. Falling through the world. It's all an unfinished, unoptimized mess to meet a deadline. The gameplay is fun, dear god the performance is awful. The only time I care about graphics and performance is when it effects gameplay. It's effecting gameplay even more with each passing generation.

[@thiagoagostinho8793]

In a way, the 3DS era was the calm before the storm

[@3dsfan2002]

Overhated just like 3ds Mario

[@d4c_reznor470]

I wholeheartedly believe that if scarlet and Violet were given the time needed to fix the bugs, load times and other performance issues, they would have stood among the greatest Pokémon games. It would be the start of a silver age for Pokémon

[@zjzr08]

It would still have problems like lack of Badge Scaling (meaning there's only 1 ideal path to make) though and also missing favorite post-game content.

[@AkaiAzul]

TPC: Bronze is good enough. 🤡

[@JDoradoTube]

I'm in the minority but I enjoyed Sword and Shield so much more than Scarlet and Violet. Way less glitchy, the graphics do not hurt my eyes like S/V, the music is superior, the gyms battles are epic. The only thing I prefer in S/V is Terra and some mechanics like making it easier to raise Pokemon competitively.

[@ainzer2903]

Bro, I feel the same way. Yeah they might be linear but I already used to it since my first time playing pokemon is Platinum (I always feel the gen 4 slow, but i found out that DP is worse than Platinum). Also SwSh allow you explore NPC houses like previous gens did and they allow us wearing something besides ugly looking uniforms.

[@ainzer2903]

And TMs are infinite use so no wasted time on grinding TM mats. Well, there's TR but we can always battle wild pokemon using money making moves and grinding for EVs at same time.

[@ainzer2903]

The only decent look uniforms are behind paywall and DLCs and not many of them exist.

[@pavelgvozdev9953]

I'd like to argue pokemon has been buggy from day one but it's more noticeable the more technologically advanced pokemon gets

[@theamazingspooderman2697]

yeah this is an objective fact

[@UnwantedGhost1-anz25]

Even the Pokémon anime is affected by the "every three year release curse."

[@cakeustakeus3487]

And the manga apparently

[@zjzr08]

I'd argue Journeys got that pretty bad because of that when I felt such ambitious buildup for Goh and Ash's storylines should be like a 9 season package at least IMO.

[@GameFreakSucks]

Pokémon Journeys was also crap

[@absolutezerochill2700]

What's strangest is that Monster Hunter exists... a pretty similar series in terms of hundreds of creatures with unique movesets, animations and (post gen 5 pokemon) 3d models. And both release pretty darn frequently. And yet Monster Hunter mainline games have never felt rushed or buggy at release, and each one improves on the previous in ways that almost the entire community agrees on. Meanwhile Pokemon, the older franchise with a way bigger budget, is floundering

[@MrVentus1012]

The only franchise that didn’t peak on the switch is Pokemon. Not only were the main games not that good, but the only good spinoffs were ports or maybe one remake.

[@zjzr08]

New Snap was a great step up from Snap at least.

[@christianmckee2116]

Not counting Pokken DX since that's just a port, the only good Switch Pokemon spin-offs have been Rescue Team DX and New Snap. Everything else sucks and doesn't even compete with previous consoles of Pokemon spin-offs, especially the Wii, DS, and 3DS. Even the Wii U had a better track record than the Switch did.

[@TangyNav]

I really hope Takato Utsunomiya keeps his word, and really meant it when he admitted GF has had lack luster quality, and either needs to slow development, or hire more people to give Pokémon games the time they need. Maybe that means there’s at least a LITTLE bit of hope for the future, even if it’s just a shred of it. I genuinely enjoyed Violet, and it’s the most fun I’ve had since ORAS personally. It at least has a some effort put into it, so, hopefully in the future, things start turning around.

[@Nando75549]

SWSH was the starting point for me to branch out from Pokemon to try out other monster games and didn't regretted it since. Games like DQM3 and SMT5 were legit more fun that I once had back in the DS days. ... Now I'm just hoping for the new Digimon Story game to be revealed this year, but totally doubt it.

[@benkapowarctic2249]

Man of culture right here I love dragon quest! Everyone should give dqm3 a chance but most pokemon fans are stubborn and never try anything new

[@DelArcadia]

Give Fossil Fighters and Fossil Fighters Champions a shot, genuinely really fun Monster Collector/Battle Games with a fun sense of humor and fun story. Those games really deserve more attention.

[@MetatronsRevenge613]

SMT 3

[@benkapowarctic2249]

@@DelArcadia I love fossil fighters i already played both amazing games

[@Ale-Y]

Going from pokemon to smt is crazy, i tried playing persona 3 one time and i just couldn't lmao

[@bradensmith8682]

Legends Arceus is the best tech demo I've ever played. A shame the catching mechanic didn't go forward to SV.

[@christianr.5868]

Honestly though, like the bones were there for a really great game tbh

[@jd61215]

It was the best Pokémon game since Black and White 2. (I never played USUM but heard they were good to be fair)

[@zjzr08]

You should play Sonic Frontiers...IMO it's better than PLA while the developers actually acknowledge it basically was a tech demo. 😂

[@Zeptus1488]

I wish it wouldn't have forced me to catch Pokemon in order to continue the story, I never finished the game and sold my Switch afterwards cause the only reason I got one was for Pokemon lol.

[@bradensmith8682]

@@Zeptus1488 Yeah. They could've instead locked rewards such as the trade Evo items, side quests, the Sinnoh starters, and other things that were behind that "find satchels points" pay wall.

[@cullbear55]

The chad Sonic Team trying to adapt and improve vs. The virgin Pokémon Company embracing mediocrity The last six or so years have been crazy, watching as two of some of my favorite video game franchises of all time handle their downfalls in the late 2010s so differently. (Sonic Forces and SwSh.) I'm way more optimistic for Sonic and have pretty much given up on modern Pokémon.

[@MagillanicaLouM]

Forces wasn't even terrible either, its nowhere near on the level of a low point in its own series, let alone now Pokemon has been. It's just... Unabashedly mid. It's like the first video game i ever played that perfectly felt just middling.

[@veggsbacon1891]

Yeah. I despise Forces more than Shadow and 06 for many reasons, including unnecessary nostagia bait crap (classic sonic). At least Shadow and 06 *tried* despite having big flaws. Frontiers is pretty solid, but still pussee out with the generations assests (cyberspace). Amd the characters have gotten better thanks to that game. Shadow still freaking sucks, though (not in frontiers, i know).

[@m2kspichu144]

Oras and hgss slap so hard, thought the sinnoh remakes would too. Bdsp the most disappointing game ever

[@chouyuugoureplays3546]

even original d/p was a rush job, but they covered that up nicely with world design, good ost, a buttload of new features, good competitive new contenders and more. look at d/p beta, which is ugh. even then some optimization problems remain (surf speed, saving time, etc.)

[@PapaJohnsPie]

Us kids that grew up with gens 3,4,5 that didn’t grow up with pokemon being a giant franchise and being an awesome Nintendo franchise don’t deserve this fate

[@a.x.x8184]

Gens 1-3 fans are lucky they have cool remakes gens 4 remakes suck A** and the inevitable Gen 5 remakes bc Gamefreak now only cares for money 😢

[@PapaJohnsPie]

@@a.x.x8184 true. To add on to my original comment during the original two generations Pokémon was such a huge phenomenon but by gens 3-5 it was still widely popular but not as big as it was back then until pokemon go. Pokemon go ruined the franchise for sure now they love money nothing else. Gens 3-5 and parts of 6 was peak even though it wasn’t as popular.

[@mrtrollnator123]

​@@PapaJohnsPieby gen 3 pokemon was one of the most popular franchises in the world what are u on about

[@PapaJohnsPie]

@@mrtrollnator123 yes, but the Pokémon games were on a sharp decline (in terms of sales) and so was the merch from gens 3-6, until Pokemon go came out. Which is why those games actually had effort put into them. Gens 1-2 encompass what was the late 90s early 00s “pokemania” while gen 3 didn’t come out until 2003 when it was mostly faded. From 2016 to now we are in mega corporation biggest franchise ever that only cares about money mode now.

[@chouyuugoureplays3546]

@@PapaJohnsPie so pokemon developer made games interestingly good when the sales were down... hard times makes for tough men argument here i guess... it makes sense to me.

[@Fabio-lq7wb]

Not having a national dex, was never an issue for me personally, however, not being able to have access to ALL the pokemons released so far on the mainline games was (and still is) the biggest problem. Since the GF developers team are still releasing the bare minimum, despite adding less than half of the pokemons the quality of the newer games is not getting better. Yes they did add an open world approach in SV, but they barely worked with the concept, it is very unpolished. Pokemon Legends Arceus, despite not being perfect in any considerable way, it is the closest thing we got to a real evolution of the formula and for what? Just to go back entirelly in Scarlet and Violet!? Really?

[@xlbthedemigod5662]

I wouldn’t mind updates over time to make all Pokémon transferable. If they can do 200 Pokémon back then they can do the same but they won’t for being incompetent and greedy and expect people to pay for Home constantly

[@Fabio-lq7wb]

@@xlbthedemigod5662 "and expect people to pay for Home constantly". You hit in the nail with your coment, perfect point you added. The whole point of not having all the pokemons in the data of their newer games is not because they want to focus in the quality of their games, the quality ship already sailed. The real reason is that, if they did add all the pokemons data in SwSh/SV, the Pokemon Home would be pretty much pointless. Since we are able to create multiple users in the Nintendo Switch console, we are also would be able to create our own Pokemon storage system in our own system.

[@MasterJongXG]

I have also the feeling that Iwata had also a big influence on the Pokemon Games. He managed to compress Gold Silver memory, that we could have 2 regions in it and as well to localise the games world wide and was always there to step his foot down when he noticed that TPC went in the wrong direction and worked/helped on many other Nintendo Games as well. Black 2 and White 2 were the last games where he was actively involved before he had to retire cause of his cancer to be with his family. Ever since than, the game started to fall in a sownward spiral of low quality games.

[@Mrfinch9999]

That is the biggest issue with Nintendo. All the good developers left are old or already gone. When they are all gone, what is left? Just another corporate monster.

[@M64bros]

​@@Mrfinch9999 The biggest problem I have about the situation is a bunch of toxic people are going to start weaponizing his death against Nintendo and blaming his death won't make a difference and I know for an absolute strong fact there were DMCA strikes and fan takedowns when he was still around along with Reggie. Keep in mind I'm not saying you used his death, I'm just telling you about the situation and what's been happening and how the negative people are handling it in a toxic way.

[@Elchinodawn]

Iwata was on Nintendo all the way to xy, and probably most of sun and moon development as they were released in 2016, also pointless topic as Nintendo doesn't really control how gamefreak develops the games

[@Leee275]

@@Mrfinch9999 How much control do they really have on the development of these games? The ownership of the Pokémon IP is a very complicated as it's owned by 3 different companies. The fact that people have been mainly complaining about the IP ever since X and Y shows that this has been an issue even before Iwata passed away. I have a hard time believing they would let Pokémon be in the way it is if they had more creative control over it seeing as every other IP they own are in much better states.

[@christianmckee2116]

@@Leee275 People only complained about XY to the extent they do nowadays when it was revealed in 2016 that Pokemon Z wasn't happening and Gen 7 was gonna happen that year. During XY's hayday, they were extremely well-received by most Pokemon fans and casual gamers. If anything, Z not happening along with Iwata's departure from the series led to most of the hate that Pokemon (rightfully) accumulated.

[@backupschmliff1156]

The Pokémon Company probably sees the Switch Era as the golden age, having numerous best selling Pokémon games. Pokémon fans really need to start buying second hand if they want stuff to change.

[@xlbthedemigod5662]

We all that won’t happen sadly. Brand royalties are a curse in the fandom

[@danielebowman]

Bugs aside Scarlet and Violet and Legends Arceus were two of their best ever games.

[@backupschmliff1156]

@danielebowman Legends Arceus was a tech demo and Scarlet is just an embarrassment all around. Genuinely bad gamss.

[@danielebowman]

If by genuinely bad, you mean they gave most players hours and hours of fun, then you'd be correct.@@backupschmliff1156

[@theamazingspooderman2697]

​@@backupschmliff1156 way better than Gen 1 to Gen 4 and Gen 6

[@Omar_ZX]

I aint gonna pretend like I watched the whole thing in under a minute

[@keeysOST]

If you told 15 year old me that Sun and Moon would be the last pokemon games i would ever buy, I would have called you crazy. On the bright side, pokemon sucking took me out of my "The only rpg game I play is pokemon" mentality, and I actually started getting into good series.

[@ahmedouldzenagui4584]

I hope to get there eventually, any recommendations?

[@chosentoaster6626]

​@@ahmedouldzenagui4584 just play anything else please! Being a pokemon fan right now is like being in an abusive relationship. I left the franchise after playing sword and shield I never regretted that decision.

[@danskfilmforgamer2993]

​@@ahmedouldzenagui4584 Dragon Quest 11 is a great start

[@mrtrollnator123]

​@@ahmedouldzenagui4584any other rpgs like final fantasy dragon quest persona literally anything

[@rullocompressore1550]

Same I started trying many different games since SwSh disappointed me. Mainly the Fromsoft titles, Horizon Zero Dawn, Botw, Final Fantasy 16 and I still have Red Dead Redemption, Persona 5, God of War and others to play

[@joshuakolton9955]

It’s definitely been a crazy ride. We’ve got a few highs but the vast majority are lows which is extremely unfortunate. I still can’t get over how badly optimized S/V is. Edit: “Pokémon has become too mainstream.” That’s actually a great way to put the situation we’re in now.

[@luminary97]

Happy to see a new video from you, Gireum!

[@unofficialmeme5972]

It's been a very, very wild ride this era. Still love the Game Freak investigation video you did considering its eye-opening on how the different types of workers at Game Freak feel about working there.

[@victorford5047]

It's sad because there are surely both lazy workers at Game Freak and poor hired people that are working with what schedule and budget they're allowed.

[@xlbthedemigod5662]

@@victorford5047budget they don’t use

[@ilovespicynoodles]

9:33 “And they were lazy,rushing,and cutting corners.” I love how he’s so tired of repeating these words when describing Nintendo with Pokémon games. 😂

[@L7SProductions]

I’m glad you say how lazy boring gamefreak is. There copy paste over and over is extremely nauseating. I’m glad to see there are still contact creators out there that can call them out and really say how bad the progression system is throughout the years. thank you for making this video and actually saying what most people feel about gamefreak.

[@TheWeeabooKid]

I agree, everything I feel is good with pokemon outside of the actual games. Pokemon designs Character designs Music Etc. All amazing. The actual games. Bruh

[@ShadowXeldron]

You know, what's been happening with Pokemon is reminding me of what happened with Sonic in the 2000s. They had a pretty good transition into 3D (anyone who thinks its rough should be sent to the spike pit) but then proceeded to start rushing out multiple low quality games every single year. Nobody liked the games anymore and the fans became a laughingstock. Heck, I'd argue that the Sonic franchise still hasn't recovered. I personally compare Scarlet & Violet to Sonic '06. They could've been good but were rushed out for a Christmas deadline. The one saving grace is that Sonic '06 has essentially been recycled into a good fan game - here's to hope that SV gets its P-06 someday.

[@zjzr08]

For now we only have an enhanced version of BDSP called Luminescent Platinum which you may have already heard...the recent updates with new camera angles, new animations for Pokemon, improved graphics, and the implementation of the Pokemon roster until Gen 8 I think makes it a gold mine of potential for more Switch Pokemon game mods.

[@JessePrower]

"It will sell well despite low quality" is unfortunately working for them. SV has sold like, 24 million copies, one of the best selling games on Switch. I don't see the series changing for the better, sadly.

[@chouyuugoureplays3546]

yep its the iphone curse, eventually we won't even remember what gen number we're on. gen 42 for the win!

[@polishedrelish]

I knew this was the dark age of Pokemon as soon as Dexit hit

[@niteriemcfarlane5285]

the Pokemon manga writers now know how SpongeBob feels when he tried to do his driver's license test gamefreak going too fast they can't keep up 😭

[@MisbegottenFool]

Sorry this is a long essay lol, it's a bit in depth but here's my story with Pokemon as a series. I started playing the series with Platinum, got it for Christmas in 09 and I was only in first grade. I fell in love as kid instantly and had other friends who were into it then, I was so immersed in Sinnoh that i got diamond as well, then soul silver and just like sinnoh I still remember experiencing Johto for the first time, then came the hype for Unova and I still remember how I lost my mind when I got Black. Unova just had this vibe to it that no other region had and I loved it, before b&w2 came out i got cheap fake copies of all the Hoenn games and once again I fell in love with the region, then I got a real copy of leaf green and eventually a copy of blue and gold, all around the time of b&w2. Then came the INSANE hype for X&Y. Pokemon was literally my life as a kid and I really do feel that gen 6 was the end of an era, looking back a lot of us say that gen 6 was the beginning of the downfall, but at the time I was still having a blast with the series, ORAS was the last game that came out during that period of my life, the year that followed was the worst period of my life and by the time Sun & Moon were out I was a different person, and the series seemed unrecognizable. The gym challenge was replaced and while I get that it was stale to some people, it was kind of the core of these games and with it gone as well as the removal of hms, and with how hand holdy the games were, the series started to feel different, it wasn't the same anymore. I still played Gen 7 and enjoyed the games but for more than one reason there was something that felt off about them. And then came the switch. EVERYONE was excited at the prospect of a main series Pokemon game on the main Nintendo console. But boy did they disappoint. Let's go was literally a game that no one asked for, we had just had the anniversary in 2016 and there was PLENTY of kanto content in the tcg, merch, and of course pokemon GO. I was a little burnt out of kanto at the time and was hoping for either a new gen or the holy grail: The Sinnoh remakes. And with Let's Go it really did feel like they were cashing in on the Gen 1 nostalgia and tbh it was kind of annoying. But 2019 comes along and I remember getting excited for the pokemon direct, I remember seeing Scorbunny and losing it knowing that we were looking at gen 8 for the first time and I was blown away with excitement... until e3. I understand that gamefreak themselves weren't completely at fault and the attacks the developers faced were uncalled for, this was an issue with the people up top at Nintendo and The pokemon company being greedy and wanting to ship out products way too fast and they rushed these games. But Dexit Killed the series for me. There had been a snowball rolling down the hill starting with gen 6, it got worse with gen 7, but gen 8 was the final nail in the coffin. Seeing how blatantly rushed Sword and Sheild were, How little content was actually there, the missing pokemon, the AUDACITY to have paid dlc that added some but not all of the missing pokemon and with all the other issues with the games, I just couldn't anymore. I had officially dropped the series. 10 years after I first got platinum, and deep down I still had hope that Sinnoh remakes, the region that started my love with this series as a child might be able to revitalize it.... but no. It did not, I still cringe whenever bdsp are brought up because I know what those games could have been. Then I saw how buggy S&V were and once again I just felt sad at the state of this series that meant so much to me. That being said, a friend has let me borrow their copy of sword, I'm actually going to give gen 8 a proper shot and try to enjoy it for what it is, knowing full well it will not be what I want it to be. That being said, I really hope gamefreak takes a good long while thinking about what gen 10 should be. I hope after this whole era of the switch pokemon games maybe just maybe we can have a Renaissance with the series. Maybe gen 10 will have the effort and passion and polish that the older games had, and I hope the same for the potential of a Unova remake. I want to love this series again the way I did when I was little. And I know I'm not the only one.

[@deejayf69]

I don't think I can stomach a bad Unova remake....

[@Zudovader]

The new pokemon snap is a delight. I have been going back to that every now and then and play a few routes just to snap some photos and see some pokemon. It's definitely my favorite pokemon game on the switch.

[@GAHAHAHH]

To me that game is proof that they are doing massive long term damage to their brand I can fully recognise that it is a good or at least decent game but I wouldn't even play it if it was given to me for free, the sad state of the franchise makes the thought of seeing a single Pikachu fill me with rage and confusion.

[@bluebaron6811]

@@GAHAHAHH go play Unova if you hate Pikachu, they hunted them to extinction.

[@GAHAHAHH]

@@bluebaron6811 Pikachu was a stand in for anything that reminds me of the state of the franchise, I got nothing against Pikachu specifically, in fact cutting Pokemon out of the game is the biggest reason for why I hate the franchise now. Most of the work was already done they just had to not screw it up and if you look at the profits in a vacuum then it appears they made a huge success but for me each game compounds on the failures of the last chipping away at not only my faith and trust in the franchise but also retroactively tainting it's legacy. At this point in order for me to play the next game it can't just be good it has to come across as an apology for all their wrong doings over the last ~10 years. Personally I think they should take a "break" for like 5 years soft reset or hard reset the franchise remake all the models make a new engine and reassess how they do business and what the franchise's priorities are. This is getting too long I am going to stop here. This is why I can't so much as look at the franchise any more I get overwhelmed thinking about what its issues are and how I would fix them. But I feel I have to mention that Scarlet and Violet alone grossed over a billion dollars so the games budget should reflect that, they can afford to hire like 10 teams of 150 people each for 5 years and still have over $500 million leftover for marketing and manufacturing. And that's not even getting into their many other methods of profiting, so I have to ask where is all this money going? I'll stop, I'll stop, I promised myself I wouldn't do this for my mental healths sake.

[@lnsflare1]

Considering the stuff that ILCA has worked on before and since, plus the lackluster quality of the first party Pokémon games of this era, I'm willing to get that TPC is the one behind most of the terrible decisions that hamstrung Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. Like, practically every bad decision is just a dumber iteration of a bad decision they made before. ORAS is a remake of Ruby and Sapphire instead of Emerald? Make BDSP essentially an upgraded rom of Diamond and Pearl instead of Platinum. Got a lot of flack for reusing the 3DS models of the Pokémon while saying that you got rid of the National Dex so that you could create new assets? Actually *do* make new assets, but save the good character models for just the battles while you spend the rest of the game looking at a rather cheap mobile-game-style interpretation of the classic chibi art style (on a console that has effin' World of Final Fantasy Maxima and its gorgeous chibi/non-chibi blended look on it, no less). People annoyed that SwSh cutscenes looked extremely janky because the characters were basically stuck to a grid? Have everyone except the player character be stuck to a grid for the entire time, making everything look janky, but also breaking some of the puzzles that weren't designed for a player character who can move in more than 4 directions.

[@calvinmatthews1527]

You speak the truth once again Red. The company that once wanted to give players around the world fond memories of catching, trading, & battling is gone. In its place is now a greedy cooperation obsessed with deadlines, yearly releases, & merchandising. I am so glad I still have my 3DS & never bought a Switch to play Pokémon.

[@ainzer2903]

If you ever wanted to try them, you can play it on emulator and dump the game from catridge that you can get from friends or second-hand

[@joopvanhedel1372]

Mario gets 3 or 4 spin-offs every year, but those games get their own teams that work on them. Mario Kart is almost as popular as the main series games. THE RPG are back from the dead spin-offs, like Princess Peach Showtime. look pretty good and main series are going great mario odyssey and wonder are some of the best games of all time

[@zjzr08]

I want someone to make a PokePark type platformer or a Sonic Frontier's style Pokemon Ranger open world hehe.

[@zjzr08]

@jaretco6423 No offense, but you only realized it now, hehe. I still kinda count Gen 4 and Gen 5 as "3D", while you can still say Gen 6 was 2D game design despite being true 3D.

[@zjzr08]

@jaretco6423 But can you say XY and ORAS are 3D games when the models are 3D but still you move at a grid? DS games still had the environment be 3D which is a signifcant part of the game presentation.

[@joopvanhedel1372]

Pokemon gen 6 has roller skates and bicycles, those things are not tied to a grid. and all Pokemon are 3D models, so that's why it's a 3D game

[@zjzr08]

@jaretco6423 Movement was still grid based, only adding diagonal direction. I mean I guess battles wise they are 3D over the DS games, but as I said many parts of the DS games were still 3D based.

[@nintendolife25]

I find it funny that Super Mario RPG is also a faithful remake but it’s several times better than Pokemon BDSP.

[@zjzr08]

I will say as much as I like SMRPG remake it is quite faithful when a lot of stuff could've been added to enhance the experience (partciularly the ones that got improved in Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi) - seeing the HP after a Psychopa...I mean Thought Peek could've been helpful.

[@rrrr-im9oz]

this video summarizes my feelings so well thank you gireum

[@Cosmic_Espeon]

No One: Girum Red mentions the Battle Frontier Everyone: “Where is it?!”

[@heroicgangster9981]

Pokemon has had a rough transition to consoles

[@misterzygarde6431]

I do wonder what would happen if we end up with a Pokemon game that got negative reviews from critics what with Scarlet and Violet getting mixed reviews (IGN gave the main game a 6/10 IIRC) I know some say that the games would get worse but I myself wonder if Nintendo would get involved at some point given that a huge moneymaker of theres is in a bad spot.

[@Daehpo]

The latest Pokémon game I got was Pokémon Moon, but I've been keeping tabs on the series since. I'm not sure how to phrase it right, but watching the Pokémon series on the Switch has given me a swirl of emotions of disgust, interest, & anxiety. Seeing all the controversies and the mediocre quality of releases from the highest grossing media-franchise turns me off from the games and makes me wish I wasn't so interested in this franchise. However, I still can't help being curious about the latest releases, seeing the new designs & gimmicks... I like newer Pokémon designs like the Applin line & Brambleghast and like the looks of the new NPCs...but the games come out in such a retched state and often really baffling game-play decisions that keep me from ever getting them. Lastly I get anxiety about not getting the games, seeing everyone else enjoy them. A Fear of missing out on the games in their prime, thinking they will only get worse as they loose support and features...but like they're already bad. So what? Anyway, I've gotten to the point where if I'm going to buy a janky monster catching game, I'd rather go Indie. There are a lot of indies out there that could use some love and they may satisfy an itch better than any official Pokémon game can. Bugsnax was one such game for me, a goofy game about collecting silly little critters(that are actually rather sinister) that say their own name. (I suppose it was more so an itch made by the anime...)

[@Karter_Blackpaw]

I've been shouting this into the void for literal years now, but they need to stop making so many new pokemon generations. It cheapens what we have already, and just completely overloads the amount we already have. Just take what we already have, mix up a dex of the preexisting stuff, and people would happily take that. But this won't happen as they know they can keep milking this method nonstop since everybody blindly keeps buying the newest games like sheep.

[@PAP180]

I agree with you. Ppl forget that the reason Pokemon go make billions in profits is bc of the National dữ where the old and young can connect. Now with that gone, the game has disconnected from one generation to the next. How can a company go bankrupt? Slowly then suddenly!

[@PAP180]

National dex*

[@conza1989]

A masterpiece video, I don't have clairvoyance to comment on Gen 5 remakes. Can we stop giving Nintendo money now? Please people, stop, stop it.

[@M64bros]

Bruh, This is all on game freak

[@mrtrollnator123]

​@@M64brosexactly

[@stopit6229]

Nintendo’s still doing just fine with all their other properties. This is a Pokemon/Gamefreak exclusive issue

[@conza1989]

Hang on hang on, The Pokemon Company has 3 owners, Nintendo, Creatures and Gamefreak, however, Nintendo also has a stake in Creatures, so Game freak are making the games, etc, but who is deciding the release cycle and schedule? TPC, who are directed by? Themselves, ok sure let's say that then. So, let's stop giving Nintendo Money to stop then giving TPC, money, agreed?

[@stopit6229]

@@conza1989 just stop giving pokemon money 🤷‍♂️ it’s not like supporting a different Nintendo franchise will funnel the money straight to pokemon. Those games are mostly independent from Nintendo in their development. Not to mention all the pokemon products that have no direct ties to Nintendo. Pokemon is its own superpower

[@golemofwill4728]

Pokemon always has what I like to call the comeback games on a system. They may start off with some weak entries like Diamond Pearl and X Y but they make a major comeback eventually with the last few titles on the systems. Switch never had that. Legends felt like the closest to a major comeback and even that had issues. That being said, I hope Legends brings in a new era of pokemon I can actually enjoy again.

[@MarioSonic46]

PLA might have been a tech demo, but it's sad when a tech demo is more fun than the actual games that are considered to be "finished".

[@kag2576]

Great video, can I just say I really appreciate how this isn't just a rage-induced hate piece, you very clearly illustrate a lot of your passion for the games and I appreciate that. I'd argue the direction that the franchise has taken started in the 3DS era and the Switch being a console was simply the breaking point since the quality expected was substantially higher and GF couldn't get away with continuing to release stuff on handhelds. I mean XY was definitely the starting point of 'modern Pokémon' and when you look at how they released games then it kind of mirrors now: they didn't market BW2 widely and essentially left it to die since the 3DS had just come out, XY were clearly rushed to make it so a game released on the 3DS, they axed a third Kalos game so they could make the seventh gen in time for the 20th anniversary only to release a sequel game that was essentially the same thing one year after (when usually it took around two years; this is coming from someone who loves the Alola games). It is sad that the first Switch game is the one that both runs and looks the best, but things were off to a rough start, not because they're bad games but because for being the debut games for the Switch for the franchise it was such a disappointment relative to the other games we were getting for other franchises. I never owned this one but I have played it co-op at a friend's house since it's mindless Pokémon fun; which is going to become a trend with the switch era. I think the only reason this franchise has yet to crash and burn is because the core formula since Gen 1 is so fun it keeps people coming back. I mean that's why the franchise has rarely changed the formula, it works so well you simply need to refine it. I dodged a bullet with SwSh, being the only mainline games I've never played and honestly I don't plan to. These were the games where the trouble began, between poor graphics, low quality or reused animations, a dull story and a terrible new gimmick that was poorly balanced. And it's a damn shame because a lot of the character concepts, new mons and ideas for the world and story are so cool. The leaks seemed to show they were meant to be so much more ambitious but they were forced to rush it out the door. And somehow, it wasn't the worst we'd get. I don't even want to think about BDSP, cos when I do I'm just sad. I remember the day they were announced I was so excited only to play them and just feel okay at the end. The most excited I got were the Elite4 and champion and I barely touched the post-game. They aren't the worst things ever but put simply they took a lot of modern features people don't like, used DP as the framework without implementing any of Platinum's improvements and as a cherry on top the game was as stable as a Jenga tower made of tissue paper, it crashed so many times for no reason. If the games they were remaking weren't already pretty good they'd easily be the worst thing this franchise had seen. It is so disappointing ILCA weren't allowed to engage with their creative vision and were left to ship out such a hollow product. I am here to report that I am in fact a Legends Arceus enjoyer, as the first Switch Pokémon games I played they were a lot of fun. The criticism that they're practically tech demos is very much valid and if you have no attachment to gen 4 I imagine it doesn't for much for you. But as someone who was first introduced to the franchise when I was 7-8 during DPPt, idk this game just has very simple, fun, good vibes. It might look like a PS2 game but the attempt at the 'paintbrush style' at least makes each locale distinct, the interactions between the player and Pokémon are really engaging and fun to pull-off and the retooled battle system adds a nice twist that makes each battle feel like a samurai duel. Not to mention the Volo + Giratina battle is hecking awesome (though I'm defo biased, that's my favourite Pokémon). It's far from perfect but I think after the disappointment of the last two games it was nice to get a game that worked and provided a different gameplay experience. Too bad it got practically shot behind a shed as soon as GF were ready to move on to the next generation. Speaking of that next generation, SV are so frustrating to me. In general I've warmed up to it a lot more and really appreciate when it hits its highs, but I'm sorry these are by far the worst of the mainline games imo. It's not just that the game is an ugly, buggy mess that 'fixes' the previous games' problems with duct-tape, it's that it was so frustrating to play. I love the 15% of this game where it delves into an amazing cast, has some fun battles and cool lore and where the gameplay clicks perfectly but that other proportion is so miserable. I just remember playing and finding the general experience to be so dull and infuriating. I could spend a while going into the details but to summarise the game feels very inconvenient: in it's map design, the main objectives, terra raids, there's always a little kink that turns an otherwise enjoyable experience into a frustrating nightmare. And the frame rate, dear god you'd think you were playing on the cloud. Overall I'd say I don't hate SV but it was extremely rough to get through, defo the one set of games I'd say I'd never go through again. It's saddening because I knew that was how the games were going to end up when they dropped that first announcement trailer I thought 'how can you release a new generation? We just got through one of your most ambitious titles and you struggled with that.' I just wish GF would learn to take their fudging time, you'd think seeing BotW and TotK take around 6 years of development (I think) to be released they'd follow by example. It's defo a management issue since clearly those who work on the games maintain a lot of passion and creative vision, but the higher-ups just want to keep churning out products for the sake of revenue. SV were the fourth best selling games in the franchise so I doubt that they'll learn from their blunders. If they announce any new games that are coming out this year, be it the next generation or remakes I won't get them, cos I am not convinced they'll be up to scratch. Only once I can be sure they've taken their time to cultivate a game properly instead of releasing the next entry ASAP can I have the confidence to give it ago. Plus I can somewhat handle them tarnishing the core gen 4 experience since it was DP (which i already find not too fun) as oppose to Platinum and Legends salvaged some of that for me. But if they mess up gen 5 it'll probably ruin me, those games are both so precious to me, especially BW2 as my favourite games of all time. This franchise could stand a top alongside gaming giants, they just need to take their time! We can wait!

[@Dark_Side_Productions]

A side note but thank you for including proper captions. Too many KZbinrs just leave shitty auto-generated captions that are impossible to make head or tail of.

[@Jdoesstuff]

The Dex cut is still hurting me to this day. I'm never getting a main series game again without my favorite Pokemon to progress with. I only recently got SV this holiday due to my favorites being added in the DLC. It depresses and frustrates me to no end that fans don't care about this feature anymore. Pokemon is a game all about customization. When you cut out big portions of content we always used to have, it severely narrows that customization aspect. This, combined with the buggy and incomplete nature of the games now really makes me wonder why fans even play the games anymore. They're better off playing another(and frankly better) RPG game!

[@dragoon1090]

What are your favorites?

[@Jdoesstuff]

@@dragoon1090 My top favorite Pokemon is Porygon. I can't go anywhere without my beloved buddy.

[@xlbthedemigod5662]

I’m never letting that crap go and I’m not gonna hear anyone’s excuses for that crap when it’s inexcusable to begin with

[@ainzer2903]

Man, I miss my spinda. I wanna play it in switch games but they even dont allow me to transfer it.

[@ainzer2903]

I dont confident finding exact same pattern of that spinda in BDSP and BDSP is worse than Platinum that I hate despite its my starting game

[@VanessaDMusic]

I’ve been a fan for 14 years and this is so sad to see what the franchise is becoming :(

[@k-8543]

I really loved most of the 3ds games like gen 3 remakes and the sun & moon games. And the gen 5 games. The ultra Sun and moon games felt like they were the last great Pokemon games. After that during the switch games I played all the pokemon switch games and after 5 to 6 years later after the ultra games. I didn't have a favorite pokemon game at all from the switch games. The gen 9 games are probably the closest that they will get to be having a good pokemon game again. Pawmot And Cinderace is my favorite pokemon that came out during generations 8 and 9. That this point I should just make my own pokemon fanmade game because I don't think game freak will ever make a great pokemon game again. I'll have both Cinderace, Pawmot and other pokemon that I really like in it.

[@wemelkuan]

The national dex being cut in the Switch games was pretty much planned for a long time since Sun and Moon since that game didn’t have an actual National Pokedex but the Pokemon were still compatible which was annoying at most. But theres no denying that I just dropped the series entirely on the Switch except for the legends games. GF introducing the incentivizing Pokémon catching tool with the DexNav only to make it useless 2 gens later is a crime.

[@Shyguy2434]

Yes! I was just saying to myself earlier today that I hoped a new gireum video would come out and what do you know! You just made my day by uploading! Although technically there's only 9 minutes left of the day at the time im seeing this video. But who cares!? There's a new gireum video! Woo!

[@AlolanAlomomola]

Oh please do release a video discussing why the Dex cut is completely unjustified and a flagrant display of how lazy Game Freak are. I feel like that controversy has been forgotten and people have kind of just 'settled' for it.

[@readifdumb]

It's not the hardware's fault either. So many Switch games are far and beyond what Pokémon is offering. So when I say Palworld is what Pokémon should have been, or at least a glimpse of what is possible with this genre of game, it's not because of graphics or Unreal Engine. Palworld was basically what if Legends Arceus had real time combat, gym leaders, proper render distance, dungeons, building/automation/multiple forms of progression, etc. Obviously not everything Palworld has done would fit into a Pokémon game, but if they were as ambitious as a comparatively small studio, they would have my good will. I thought maybe I had just grown out of Pokémon, that I was old and jaded, but it's good to see that's not the case with Palworld being so enjoyable.

[@ShaneliusPrime250]

This may prove to be an unpopular opinion, but out of all of the switch pokemon games (I've played all of them) I genuinely believe the only ones I didn't like/wouldn't replay ever would be SWSH, and potentially BDSP. Let's Go, Arceus, and Scarlet Violet, were, in my opinion, good games

[@FlameHricane]

I'm in the same boat, although I obviously skipped lets go and BDSP. They may have their fair share of flaws and missed potential, but I do believe that Arceus and S/V pushed the series forward in a direction it desperately needed to. Remember around Sw/Sh's release where people questioned if pokemon would ever be able to break out of the formula it has been following since red and blue? The reason Arceus was well received was because it was the THE breath of fresh air compared to everything else and actually materialized the dream most pokemon fans had of a game where you're dynamically interacting with pokemon out in the world in real time (and done well at that). This is most of what it had to offer though. S/V, while obviously lacking polish, has an undeniable amount of scope that is far greater than any other mainline game. If they truly didn't care about making the games better, they just would've stuck with the same formula that they've always used. This aspect by itself puts S/V above mediocre in my opinion. Unlike Sw/Sh where you feel the franchise has stagnated, S/V actually gives you room to easily imagine where it could go from here. Hell, the best argument for it is the fact that many people would agree that it would be among some of the best in the franchise if it were actually polished. Even with its problems, it has more going for it than not and enjoyed them around as much as I did with ORAS which I also found to be the last truly good pokemon games. It's still a shame they never reached their full potential, but I do feel that with the next console iteration they'll finally reach an equilibrium where the increased capabilities will make up for their incompetence.

[@staringcorgi6475]

Lets go is a different game and as it’s designed differently it’s meant to be a pokemon game that can be picked up by anyone as proven by the simplified stats system

[@dmv99]

swsh weren't bad games, just not good games either. but that is gen 8 you know?

[@somerandomfatguy.3384]

I remember some one saying " Can we stop trying to make Pokemon looks like ultra 4k hd max unreal Engine 5" Its a god samn cartoon based game and it was Working well in 3ds and 2d version". And i have to say i cosign with it.. Pokemon is a game where ultra realistic or even semi ultra realistic graphics looks bad. Tbh, pokemon should follow curby graphics and colour design.

[@thefreshvince879]

"pokemon is an indie company" yeah by the definition their publisher isnt funding them, but they have TPCi to get around this. They arent independent when they have a massive company on top of the umbrella

[@zjzr08]

Precisely, GF part-owns 1/3 of TPC, which means they just need their cut of those sales, and they'd have a budget of something like Monolith Soft as a whole already from that IMO.

[@M64bros]

Such an interesting breakdown video of the pokémon situation, One of the problems I had about the pokémon criticism situation is some of the toxic complainers can take the situation way too far and send the developers death threats, However, that situation has already been exposed and has already been talked about. However yes, Gamefreak really needs to get their crap together cuz they can't. Just keep doing this all the time, Maybe from my point of view or probably some ideas to help them fix up. Their mistakes is to release a pokémon collection for the switch so you can play a bunch of retro games in one package and Imagine trading in your pokémon and sending them to the modern era from that collection if it's possible. I really hope gamefreak sees this video and knows what they are precisely doing and hopefully they can improve. Other than that this was a really great interesting breakdown!

[@zjzr08]

I wonder where the so called death threats come from because I genuinely don't know where that comes from as someone whose very active in Pokemon discussions during Dexit.

[@M64bros]

@@zjzr08 It happened 10 months ago during Scarlett and violets launch If I'm remembering correctly. I've also seen some videos mention about it as well

[@M64bros]

@@zjzr08 (btw, sorry for the late response)

[@zjzr08]

@M64bros Well I thought you were talking about before Sword and Shield was released and as I was finding forums and Tweets the worst as I said is about wanting to fire Masuda, no death threats whatsoever. I haven't been seeing much social media during SV, but I think most criticism is how they released the games just less than a year after PLA and BDSP came out.

[@M64bros]

@@zjzr08 totally understandable and I agree with you

[@OmarAlikaj]

"Quality over quantity. That's our lesson here." Nerd's right on that.

[@libramoon1582]

As a longtime Pokemon fan, this hurts...😔 Ever since the Sword and Shield Dexit controversy my faith in Game Freak has started to dwindle which got worse when their later titles have gotten mid in terms of quality that I slowly felt apathetic towards the recent games. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was Scarlet & Violet's disastrous launch (with the glitchy issues STILL not fixed) and Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl being soulless remakes of the DS games. It was these two factors that caused me to drop the mainline games entirely in favor of spin-off titles like New Pokemon Snap (relaxing game, still sour about the fact it had voice acting while Game Freak is too lazy to hire voice actors in their mainline games) and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX (still have PTSD from the difficult boss fights in Explorers of Time and I SWEAR the enemy AI is out for blood 😰)

[@LuigiTheMetal64]

2D anime graphical Pokémon games are possible. The characters can be like anime characters on cels. Even the Pokémon and item images look really good in SV. Kirby of the Stars Wii Deluxe looks great. Even Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX have the characters being like 2D characters. Being in 2D can allow memory space for appealing characters, and plenty of content that can include the National PokéDex, Exp. Share setting, overworld Ability effects, and others.

[@Monhamd1000]

None of the Switch Pokemon games are masterpieces, sorry, just accept it.

[@ProjectMemeverse]

Masterpieces? Half of them are barely funtional at all.

[@alexlover1619]

Tbh, calling any pokemon game a masterpiece is a disgrace for masterpieces in a world when games like the witcher 3 exist.

[@mek2472]

@@alexlover1619especially when Nintendo has better rpgs. I love pokemon but they don’t compare to mother 3, earthbound, ANY MARIO AND LUIGI GAME, paper mario 64, ttyd, and xenoblade.

[@nunyabizness6089]

​@@alexlover1619 eew, I agree with the premise but THAT'S your point of comparison? Yuck.

[@alexlover1619]

@@nunyabizness6089 Well, we are talking about masterpieces, aren't we?

[@Gh3rkinz]

I miss the days of unlocking a bicycle to get around instead of some kind of giant hydro bike that they’d probably make a Pokémon as well as a hydro bike and you have to feed it berrys or something

[@jgr7487]

The problem is that The Pokémon Company is not making as much money as it could from merchandise: there was no PLA merch cycle & no BDSP merch cycle. Had it given each game a year to shine, it would have made money selling H Zoroark plushes & chibi Dawn toys.

[@autobotstarscream765]

I thought the whole point of the chibis was to make chibi merch, they didn't even maximize that? Are they stupid?

[@jgr7487]

@@autobotstarscream765 I found no BDSP funko pop doll.

[@UnwantedGhost1-anz25]

*"Quality over quantity. That's our lesson here."* - Angry Video Game Nerd

[@Themasktrooper]

You mentioned Yo Kai Watch I miss that series

[@piranhalettuce]

Same, I loved Yo Kai Watch 2, nice to see another Yo Kai Watch enjoyer.

[@FTChomp9980]

Good News Level 5 is doing a Presentation in April and the new Yo Kai Watch will be getting gameplay! And I definitely want to get into it I'm gonna try to find a physical copy of Yo Kai Watch on the 3Ds.

[@Loner098]

​@@FTChomp9980Speaking of Level-5, they're apparently making another Inazuma Eleven entry, but I think the gameplay may be a bit more scuffed than I'd like in comparison to the original series.

[@mowoogee]

@@Loner098Just wondering, do you like Inazuma Eleven? I want to get into the series but I have no idea where to start.

[@mowoogee]

@@piranhalettuceBASED I love Yo-kai Watch 2, one of my favourite games of all time. Glad to see that Yo-kai Watch is still loved. :)

[@M64bros]

Coming back after the Pokémon direct, The new game they are developing seems to be releasing in 2025 thankfully, I have a gut feeling someone at the Pokémon company might have seen the glitches and how people were criticizing the game, If they've learned from their mistakes, hopefully this should be an improvement. Other than that, all we can do now is wait and see and find out for ourselves! By the end of the day the video continues to age fine like wine

[@Roku177]

Really good take on how it's been horrible for the Pokemon Franchise, so many disappointments although I do still feel Legends Arceus was a step in the right direction gameplay wise, but your right still feels incomplete and lacks. So sad with Violet and Scarlet bare minimum should of have had voice acting and WAY better graphics like or at least close to in that trailer concept ugghh Oh what could of been...

[@Darktrooper99]

Had Yokai Watch, the “Pokémon Killer” come a console generation later, it would have definitely put Gamefreak on high alert with all the shitty games they were puking out.

[@ainzer2903]

That might be true, if in the future somehow GF got owned by Yokai watch because of their ignorance😂😂

[@MagillanicaLouM]

I think part of why it didn't stay like folks thought is it turns out Yokai Watch isn't much like Pokemon at all outside of the monster aspect. Which... Idk should be a positive I feel but i guess folks looking for a pokemon killer probably expect something along the lines of like the fan romhacks but on a triple A budget

[@dapichuu]

i doubt they will change. Fans will buy anything that says pokemon even if its unfinished and mediocre. Which is really sad..i used to love it. but after sword and shield, it's dead to me.

[@alexgillespie3402]

I believe all the Pokemon games have a thing they did correctly. We need to combine those things. We need a good story for the main game, like Gen 1-5. The catching mechanics of Legends Arceus were by far the most interactive; we need an updated graphics and animation team not under a crunch, end game content needs to be assured like battle towers, and we need an excellent interactive camera like with Pokemon Snap for a photo mode to use at any time. We need a games corner to bring back mini-games like the old Pokemon party games. An interactive camp to replace Pokemon centers, kinda like Pokemon home, to watch your Pokemon wonder and play around the campsite. We don't need a new mechanic or gimmick but someone to figure out how to make the current gimmicks work together. We have so much potential for a fantastic game if they just slapped everything that's worked before into one fancy package.

[@SuiteLifeofDioBrando]

I think let's go was the best for the local coop it had that was surprisingly fun.

[@mechajay3358]

Legends Arceus is the one good game to come out of the Switch Era, and that's a pretty low bar. It still has managed to hold up, while the rest of the Pokemon games that came before and after it have all been Mid at best. The mainline games are due for an overhaul.

[@kalelalves7118]

I just wanted a pokepark, it was one of my favorite games wheen i was a kid

[@rotomfan63]

I know this was focused on main series but let's not forget the suprisingly really good highlight in this storm of main series shitting the bed of Rescue Team DX

[@christianmckee2116]

And New Snap. It, Rescue Team DX, and Pokken DX were the only highlights in the entire Switch era, which is really sad. A port of an arcade and Wii U game, a remake of games from over 10 years ago, and a sequel to a game from over 20 years are the best games on the Switch Pokemon has to offer.

[@03bgood]

The 3DS era was way better. Eventhough I didn't like Sun and Moon, at least they had more care put into them than Sw/Sh and S/V. Hell, I don't even understand why people even hated X/Y? They were not that bad and were a lot better than gens VII-IX. I mean sure, maybe if they made Pokémon Z or XX/YY, that could've made it better, but everyone should agree on this; it wasn't rushed and they actually still had the old gameplay staples that were completely abandoned in the following gens. Sun and Moon, unlike X/Y were not fun games, even their own sequels, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon didn't even improve on things, unlike Platinum and B&W2. At this point, just sell the IP to another 2nd party Nintendo developer because Game Freak can't be bothered, anymore. They lost their magic after gen V. Almost all the Switch games have sucked. LGP/E wasn't a bad game per say, but they nearly watered down everything that made R/G/B/Y and FR/LG enjoyable and even a fan remake of the gen I games with 3D visuals would be a lot better than what LGP/E tried. I really don't want Let's Go Johto games because they'll ruin that by somehow omitting Kanto entirely and that's what made gen 2 so special was the fact you could revisit the region from the previous gen and see how much has changed in 3 years.

[@britbongtankie]

I think we will get a good Pokemon game soon. I think the devs do care about Pokemon, as SV has several features that exist just to make things easier for competitive players, which go completely unnoticed by children and casual fans. If they were motivated solely by greed, there would be no reason for these features to exist.

[@CesarTorres61296]

This is why I exclusively stick to spinoffs or fangames.

[@ultimapower6950]

You and me both, you and me both.

[@Loner098]

Don't they usually end up receiving a DMCA/cease-and-desist letter from Nintendo to take said fan game down?

[@waluigiisthebest2802]

Unfortunately, non-mobile spin-offs are a rarity, and if any fangame gets too popular, then it will be nuked by Nintendo.

[@ainzer2903]

I miss the time where we can enter other people house or explore empty house or interesting building but in S/V only MC's and Nemona's homes, academy, professor home-lab and tower....

[@natalimoina]

You're acting like they weren't always insanely greedy. Only pokemon could get away with selling two of the same game but locking you out of a few pokemon and whatnot to get you to incentivize buying the same game again

[@zjzr08]

To be fair the dual versions is to incentivice interacting with other people with another version, as you were only meant to buy 1 version.

[@lukegame4856]

BDSP, Legends Arceus, and S/V were the only Pokemon games I couldn’t finish. Not because of a skill issue but because I don’t have any will or drive to finish them

[@e94youtube]

It's Gamefreak who is to be blamed for the games, not TPC. Masuda said this himself. Moreover GF is the major shareholder, so we just can't defend GF at all

[@AvalosTokyo]

*Nsync or however you spell it rapped the 150 pokemon in Kids WB. It as a craze then that even they jumped on it.

[@Makore94]

People saying ‘Pokemon Legends Arceus is a great game and you should buy it’ is what we get normalizing KZbinr game reviews after having played for only 1 hour and never touching the game again, becoming the echo of a stupid made up thought.

[@zjzr08]

Funny enough PLA may had been a bit of a slog in the first hours as it's very tutorial heavy.

[@slowggles]

yeah it's trash and people act like it's the best thing to happen. what a waste

[@theamazingspooderman2697]

its overrated but better than Gen 1 to Gen 4, Kanto is just as empty in Gen 2 games but no one criticises Gen 2 games

[@alventuradelacruz522]

Its awesome but not for everyone

[@kevinnguyen3389]

I haven't felt truly excited for Pokemon since XY and ORAS

[@KyogresHideout_Vegito2121]

I do remember hearing an interview back in the Sun & Moon era that they were planning Go compatibility for Sun & Moon which as we all know never happened but I almost wonder if maybe that was true at some point and Let's Go was created from the framework from that. 🤔

[@Lahiss]

Sun and Moon have Go origin marks for Pokémon, but since no transfer method was introduced before LGPE, it went unused.

[@ColdEmperor]

In digimons defense it was always superior. It's story was good, it's games varied but fun, and the show was badass. Unlike pokemon, Digimon is remembered fondly. People still love digimon and want more. Unfortunately Bandai is trash but you know. At least it's not scorned and spat on like pokemon. It's better to die a hero than survive to become the villain.

[@Thollis1987]

I agree❤

[@Poyomini]

Never been a Digimon fan, heck I barely even know anything about it, but I did play Cyber Sleuth and Hacker's Memory on Switch after getting them for 5 bucks on the Eshop a few months ago. Best 5 euros I've ever spent, holy hell! Sad that a Vita game was WAY better than all of the Switch era Pokémon games (Maybe exept Legends: Arceus. That game was actually good. Being underbaked as hell aside.)...

[@Oscar_Le_Slouch]

Cyber Sleuth was amazing!

[@staticshock4239]

The fact that Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee are the best looking main games on Switch is insane.

[@xavikortekaas9174]

I would accept the Dex cut if they actually put some effort in the animation. This goes for moves, character animations and Pokemon animations. If the Dex had 400 Pokemon but I would actually see a Ditto transform or I would see a Seviper fight a Zangoose I would be fine with it.

[@squiddler7731]

I feel like for what it is and the circumstances it was made under, Legends Arceus is pretty good. Like compared to any other game yeah it still sucks, but compared to any other pokemon game (including the one that came directly after), it's shockingly competent, especially for how experimental it is. I'm not sure what eldrich horror it is that requires a new pokemon game from GF every 2 years, less it escape and wreak havoc, but I commend them for even attempting a game like legends arceus under those conditions.

[@MagillanicaLouM]

That perfectly sums up Legends i feel. Compared to other games in general its pretty ass. Compared exclusively to mainline Pokemon on the same console, it's on the higher end. I'll add though that compared to other mainline pokemon games in general, it really depends on how far you leaned into the "pokemon needs to shake up the formula" spectrum imo. Me personally, I was never clamoring for any drastic change so Arceus to me is more a "I like the general idea's potential and it could've been something amazing but was executed in a very meh way that makes me not want to give it money" situation.

[@Kniffel101]

Say what you will about it, but if Let's Go _was_ developed for the 3DS initially and only "converted last minute" it wouldn't look this good. It'd be VERY weird if Game Freak didn't have Switch SDKs in 2016.

[@mowoogee]

GIGGUK MENTIONED YO-KAI WATCH?! Jokes aside, Yo-kai Watch is one of my favourite video game series of all time. Yo-kai Watch was one of the reasons I became a fan of Japanese media and the reason I’ve met some great people, lifelong friends even. I’m not kidding when I say… Yo-kai Watch 2 and 3 are some of the most fun, charming, hilarious, entertaining, engaging, emotional, unique, content-packed, and highest-quality games I’ve ever played. Not to mention, the music slaps and is very unique to the series. I’m just really upset that the series didn’t at LEAST do decently outside of Japan because of the stupid media calling it the “POKÉMON KILLER” or ignorant people immediately calling it a Pokémon knock-off JUST because you collect and battle monsters in both games. (though the awful marketing didn’t help…) Does that mean that since you jump and get powerups in Sonic games, that automatically means it’s a Mario knock-off? Or since Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest both are Japanese turn based RPG’s, one is automatically a rip-off over the other? HELL NO. YOU’D BE AN IDIOT FOR SAYING THAT. Just because some games have similar elements doesn’t mean that they’re LITERALLY the same game. With that logic, EVERYTHING is a rip-off of one another. I’m sorry I rambled for a long while. I just find it so infuriating that a lot of Pokémon fans are SO biased to the series, that they either never give other games a shot or give any other games VAGUELY similar to it a shot. I feel like most people didn’t even play Yo-kai Watch JUST because of ignorant people’s bias. You know… because of Yo-kai Watch, it made me open my eyes from being a stupid biased Pokémon fan and I became a fan of other games because of it… Persona, SMT, Phoenix Wright, Professor Layton, and a whole bunch more. I even want to get into other monster games like Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Monster Rancher, Fossil Fighter, and more. Alright, I’m done rambling. I guess the main take away from this comment, TL;DR I should say is… _”don’t judge a book by it’s cover”_ AND PLEASE… JUST TRY OTHER GAMES. Oh and Gireum… I’m hopeful you’ll at least try out Yo-kai Watch sometime. It’s a really good game, especially the second and third game. Thanks for reading. :)

[@LowEffortDoodles]

Finally, A GireumRed vid that isn't a stream