I disagree, to me the corr of the mainline games is the Pokedex and region, the actual battles being turn based has always just been a negative to me.
In my opinion saying the turn based battles are critical to being mainline is like saying the saccrin and frankly bad writing is critical, sure it’s always been there but that just makes it a persistent problem not a feature.
I’m kind of confused by that sentiment, because the Pokedex and region are the things that change from game-to-game?
And like, sometimes the writing is bad and saccharine, but not always. It’s subjective, but Gen V is widely considered to have pretty good writing. Gen 1 is pretty understated and well-grounded analog to post-WW2 Japan, with Team Rocket acting as a family-friendly version Yakuza.
I’m also not sure why turn-based games are a negative. Like… From board games like chess, to tabletop games like D&D, to strategy games like Civ, to card games and card videogames like Slay the Spire and Balatro… For me I view turn-based vs real-time as a tool for game designers to wield, not just a strictly positive vs negative thing.
Turn-based has serious positives. It’s less impactful to be interrupted, which is important for handheld games. I find it easier to play when I’m not sober. It’s also easier to play while active - I’ve played through multiple main line games on a treadmill, but even Scarlet and Violet has too much active real-time movement for me to be able to stay coordinated while doing that.
I agree gen V had good writing, it’s a shame they forgot how to do that immediately after (This is part of why I fear them returning to turn based, they have back slid before)
Sure turn based has merits, even if you have to dig to find them, but it’s boring to me.
Board games being turn based are a completely different story, when you play a board game you are playing with a person, you’re talking to them, watching their body language and communicating the whole time.
Turn based in a video game is staring at a screen waiting until you have something to do again. It feels like a relic of a different time, when it wasn’t technically feasible to have live action Pokemon battles like the one in the show.
As for turn based being a tool, if course it is, but the setting and surrounding media and lore keeps claiming Pokemon battles are exciting and fast passed. You know, the opposite of turn based.
The problem is that the battle system is slow. Other games in the genre know how to speed things up. Pokemon insists on providing information one message box at a time. If they fix that, they could make the game feel faster.
Just emulating the old games and running them at 4x speed is an incredible QoL improvement.
Instead of implementing more options to speed things up, GameFreak instead decided to remove the option to disable animations.
I have been saying for years they need to split the franchise. From an anime perspective, before they retired Ash I was calling for them to let him age into a teenager, and for them to create a new character for a show for younger kids. For the games, i want them to split into 3D action RPG’s that play like the Legends games and Scarlet/Violet while the main games stay 2D and turn-based. Right now it seems like they’ve been adding new shit to the main games out of a fear of getting stale rather than to actually serve the games.
They seem to be doing some of that, with Pokemon Champions removing the burden of competitive play from the main games in the future.
My wife said the same thing. She is not a fast gamer, she likes the slower pace of Pokémon. I also have been forgetting the game is not turn based as zoning out during combat, or in a wild zone.
I know that Pokemon is, ostensibly, a children’s game. But there is a niche in my life for games I can play when I’m not sober, and being turn-based greatly facilitates that for me.
The Pokemon game that locked features and Pokemon behind paid DLC released alongside the game revitalized the franchise? Fuck that. I’ve bought every Pokemon game since Red and every console to play them on, but it’ll be a cold day in hell before I give them more money when they’re just going to use to sue smaller developers and while letting fascists co-opt their music and imagery.
I don’t think a Switch 2 emulator will come out any time soon, but I do respect the hustle. I myself am probably only gonna get anything Switch/Switch 2 related from resellers and/or used.
It’s already available, has been for a week or so. I don’t think the Switch 2 version is different enough to really matter; obviously, if you’re buying it and have a Switch 2, you’re going to want the extra performance, but if you don’t have a Switch 2 or are otherwise acquiring it, might as well just get the Switch 1 version.
PLA is definitely the better Legends game. PLZA is absurdly dialogue-heavy for a game that doesn’t have well-written dialogue, and they took out the damned Linking Cord, one of the best parts of PLA.
Also, there are scores of dialogue options, and the only ones that matter are your name and a handful of “are you ready to battle” ones; most have two options that mean exactly the same thing.
To be fair the “DLC” isn’t actually available until 2026, what they have released now is basically a pre-order, still scummy but not as bad as you’re implying. Edit:for clarity, they didn’t cut anything out of the game, they just have a pre-order for the DLC.
If before you’ve even finished a project you’ve already decided part of it won’t be included in the original project unless the user pays extra, that’s the definition of scummy.
Honestly my greatest fear for the game is that it’s just bland. I can live with a flawed game (the original VTMB certainly could be called a flawed game itself after all.), but I think blandness would be the real killer for me.
The combat was honestly subpar (especially guns), but the quest design, character design, conversation and skill/clan system was super well done (I would argue these are critical elements for gameplay).
They do in the show once (Team Rocket) in a throwaway scene that implies pokeballs are fairly uncomfortable and also that humans are too powerful to be contained within ordinary pokeballs.
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