A new generation is coming this year

Whether as part of a surprise strategy, out of respect for current events or a mix of both, the weekend's Pokémon Presents broadcast had very little publicity and build-up. The main English-language social media channels didn't even promote the event, with live stream pages only going live in the final hours before its start time. As a result we were suggesting keeping expectations low beforehand in the live blog, but it's just as well many of us tuned in.

With a trailer that seemed designed to make everyone think it was teasing Detective Pikachu 2, what we got was Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which will be the first games of generation 9 and are coming this year. Of course this time of year is normally when the big November (presumably) games are unveiled, but with the recent release of Pokémon Legends: Arceus some had assumed gen 9 would have to wait until 2023; that's not the case.

Intriguingly, too, it seems that the foundations of Arceus will very much be visible, with confirmation that it'll be an open-world experience.

There's naturally been a lot of buzz and excitement, with the new starters in particular getting plenty of attention, but we've also seen some bemoaning that it's coming relatively soon. We've seen talk of fatigue, and some fans eager to see Game Freak take more time to develop and enhance their output.

We can see both sides; it's true that the relentless release schedule will limit Game Freak's opportunities to improve the technical side of their output. On the flipside, though, with Arceus introducing a different approach while also luring in new fans, it makes sense to capitalise and snappily bring a mainline 'gen' game into an open world and modernised approach.

We're curious as to where you stand; are you excited, concerned, a bit of both? Also, for those that weren't around on Sunday, we'll repeat the question of which starter is the most awesome (it's a tough pick).

So let us know what you think, as always, in the polls and comments below.

To anti-quote Shulk, I'm really not feeling it.

I tend to hold judgement till it releases with Pokemon.

Mostly cause we get Pokemon on a yearly basis I've grown numb to it so I don't get excited like I would with Mario, Zelda or Metroid.

Would be more excited if the performance weren't so aweful

But the first PLA trailer had an aweful resolution and aweful framerate too and in the end it ran at 1080p/30fps so there's hope

These last few pokemon games seem like randomly/ai generated churn-ware. Nothing like pokemon games of the past.

@mariomaster96 Thats my number one turn off tbh.

More than anything, I'm excited to see what new Pokémon we'll get. I loved Pokémon like Cursola because of the tragedy of what Humans are doing to the Earth. I hope they make more Pokémon like that. I can't wait to see what prehistoric Pokémon they come up with as well.

I won't buy the game, of course, but I'm still eager to see what we get.

It's open world Pokémon, of course I'm excited! 🌟

Just hope it has most of the stuff from Legends, maybe not the dodging stuff and Pokémon trying to kill you, not that I didn't like it, I just think it doesn't fit modern era Pokémon, but other than that, I would like pretty much everything to come back.

I hope the world is interesting and has a lot of cool towns, the big town in the trailer already looks so huge and amazing to explore.

@Ironcore It's the art style. I have no idea what happened between gen 5 and now with the art, but the designs are more "anime" than they used to be, if that makes sense. Like that cat Pokémon looks like a chibi anime character more than a cat.

Anime characters go through the same process these days. There is a way to AI generate anime character faces nowadays. Crazy.

@Royalblues I gave up on Pokémon designs since gen 6, to me, most of them look really stupid and ugly, in XY and especially SM I wasn't even able to get a full team with local Pokémon I like, gosh I hate the Alola Pokemon.

In SWSH it was a little better, I ended up with a team of "kinda cool" galarian Mons.

So I'm not hopeful for Gen 9 mons, don't like the starters at all, they all look like fakemons.

Both copies, because I give the one I not plan main it to my youngest brother.

The open world is stated to be seamless, so hopefully a step up from Arceus.

If it's like Arceus but with multiple towns, gyms, 100+ new Pokemon and a seamless open world (where I can hop on a bird and fly directly from one town to another without any loading screen) then I'll be really really excited. Knowing GameFreak they'll mess this up somehow so I'm not letting myself get too pumped just yet. I love the new style for the characters, hopefully it's a sign that everything from the dialog to the body expressions will all be a lot less "anime" than before, maybe a bit more mature in general.

@Royalblues Every gen has had a different artstyle, yo can compare them side by side and see a slow transition. The designs were always "anime" it's just that each gen matches the stylistic conventions of the era they were made in. Also the ai thing has no reflection on quality. You absolutely could create an ai that generated 90s style anime characters, for example, its just that nobody has bothered to (at least high profile).

Also why are so many people making sweeping generalisations about the games quality/lack of when we've seen a minute of cutscene footage? There is basically no information in the trailer, but people are already casting their final judgements.

Cannot decide yet between Scarlet and Violet as I want to know the Legendaries looking and the final evolution of the starters looking.

I remember saying to myself that I would be happy with anything but Gen 9. It was the one thing that I didn't want to happen after Legends blew me away. However, this reveal shut me the hell up.

It's in the style of Legends, it's apparently seamless and the country the region is based on is rich with culture and potential. It's looking like the best one yet and that's what I thought Legends would be and look how that turned out! Very, very, VERY excited to play through this and see how it pans out.

Also, if you've seen my previous posts, you know which starter I'm picking.

@Ironcore I disagree. If they were randomly generated, most Pokémon would look much better

To be honest, they worked on quantity over quality for 7 generations before restricting the Pokédex. Let's hope they improve the design of new Pokémon.

Btw anyone from Germany here that also thinks "Karmesin" is an awful name? lol

Although "Scharlach" is also kinda awkward.

@Munchlax Well, I just theorized why the other commentor might not like the designs. I made no implication of a decrease in quality. But you're right. Each gen is indicative of the times in terms of art style. Anime art has become more simplistic and stylized since the 90s (well, since the 80's, but still). But even amongst anime, there are some that look more "anime" for a lack of a better term.

Like if you compare Attack on Titan to My Hero, one looks at home with Western comics (AoT) and the other looks like very stylized and crazy even though the art style is simpler (MHA).

While I always anticipate the latest main series Pokémon game, for better and for worse, this is looking like the best one in years, and could quite possibly be the best Pokémon game ever made.

What I wouldn't give for Johto to be reimagined in this way...

@Royalblues @Ironcore Moving to 3D past gen 5 changed the feel. But also and especially nostalgia effect. Recent gens are not hated by recent audiences as shown in most popularity polls.

I think I've been burned too many times now to be outright excited for Pokemon, and I kind of think it's happening too soon, but I am curious to see more about it. My big game priorities for the year though are Nirvana Initiative, Three Hopes, WWE 2K22, and Xenoblade.

@Royalblues I thought Pokémon always looked very anime. I think up until gen 6 all the designs had been aiming for a cool, hip anime aesthetic that appealed to young boys. I think now the demographic has changed a little, and all the character and Pokémon designs are more cutesy and adorable, possibly to appeal more to the growing female demographic.

Meh. It’s too similar to Arceus and too close in terms of release dates

@Kamalen For me, I think it's the shading. It never sat right with me once it went 3D.I expected it to be a little more stylized. Don't know how to phrase it correctly because I'm not an artist lol.

@HenHiro Me too, my friend. I bought Shield, played through it, and still don't remember most of them. They stopped making an impression on me after gen5. Even gen 3, which I skipped completely back in the day, has more memorable Pokémon to me, and it's not just because they've been around longer.

Of course I am. I love the series, Arceus is a GOTY contender, the franchise is on an absolute high right now.

Imho, only a miserable fool gets upset at any of this news.

Some people are acting like Gamefreak started development on this game when Arceus shipped. Like they are a 20 man indie team instead of a multi-multi billion dollar behemoth that understands project management.

Sword/Shield was a great game a good many people got 200 hours out of. shrug

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

I will absolutely play it but it's tough to get too excited until a few key details are shown. Namely, I want to know what the situation is with trainer battles (it made sense that Arceus had only a few but I don't want that to be the norm) and the general structure of the adventure (while I'm open to new structures, I want something akin to an adventure, not a repeat of Arceus' scouting missions which worked for that game but not a mainline). I'm a little worried that a consequence of the open world will be an axe taken to both of those elements.

@Abeedo Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I think that's a really good thing, otherwise, you'd get stuff like Monsuno (remember that?) or Kaijudo, or one of the trillions of Pokémon knockoffs we got in the 2000s.

@MostHandsieBoy Right?! Gamefreak gets shade (and often it's deserved), but this is a very calculated brand. If they are incorporating much of the Arceus mechanics and gameplay, they made this decision long ago.

@Silly_G I personally want Unova to be reimagined that way, but I'm pretty sure they're going to go the Brilliant Diamond path. Please don't do that, Pokémon company...

Pokemon fatigue/burnout . They need to slow down, space out releases, and give them more development time to be better. 3 Pokemon titles in a year, too much .

I really, really, really, really wish they would stop rushing these games out every year. The quality of these games has not been good for years now because of it.

I'm hoping to be genuinely surprised. I'll be happy to be proven wrong on my lack of hope for this company. I can't even be carefully optimistic about their games anymore, they've pushed me away that far, unfortunately.

So the ball is in your court, developers. I dare you. PROVE ME WRONG! PROVE ME THAT YOU STILL HAVE WHAT IT TAKES!

If they fail to bring me back in with these games, I may just be done with pokémon forever. Not counting the old games which I can still play just fine and actually have fun with.

Looks good, at this rate GameFreak are going to become the most prolific developer on the Switch, the amount of games they have churned out is amazing.

Definitely excited for these! My fiance' and I have a bit of a tradition going with Pokemon games where we will each buy a version on release, take the day off, build a blanket fort, and spend the entire three-day weekend playing Pokemon in our PJs (in the fort, obviously) like the 10-year-olds we still are not-so-deep down, so I always get really happy whenever a new gen is announced.

@Royalblues : Ugh. I'd rather have a straight port than a BD/SP style remake of Gen V.

Hell, I would have preferred a HD port of Platinum over BD/SP (and with battles sped up a fair bit).

@sisodinr imo if Arceus was a bust, which is clearly wasn't, they might have gone back to the drawing board. But instead everyone is falling over themselves to praise it.

It's a hit and they want to capitalize on it. I have two little kids and Arceus resonated with them much more than Sw/Sh. The gameplay will satisfy the olds and bring in a new generation of players. Then they will release an OG rpg on top of it. $$$ rains

@Silly_G LOL. Man was I disappointed when I saw what we got with those games. Especially coming after the main gen 8 games. You'd think they'd make the Sinnoh remake look the same, but yikes.

I normally go graas type starter. Grookey was awesome, but this time I think I have to go with Quaxly. He's just too darn adorable not too.

My cautious optimism was rewarded with the end of the Presents. I look forward to November which is usually when they like to release and also happens to be my birthday month! #PokemonBirthday!

The games look good, they just need to work on the player characters, they look like those bug catcher kids with 3 metapods or something.

If they hadn't shown the starters too, i'd have thought the starters were Caterpie, Weedle, and Wurmple!

It's going to be amazing, I'll get both versions and I'll have duck on one and apple crocodile on the second one

It's a new Gen so I'm excited as always. I play the games since Pokémon Red and yes some are better than others, but at the end I enjoy them all.

Trailer looked great, but I am taking a wait and see approach. If it really is open world, I will be excited. If not, meh. Not into more of the same. Felt a little hoodwinked by Sw/Sh.

For the first time in 24 years I will be passing on new gen pokemon games. I am not a fan open world games but these should do fairly well.

I am playing through Legends Arceus now and I am probably more excited about Pokemon in general than I have been in years. The promise of a traditional Pokemon game with an open world is definitely exciting. It should definitely be an improvement over the wild area in Sword/Shield. I'll definitely pick one of them up.

Now I wonder what a Dual pack would look like.

Cautiously optimistic is the trend. I want to be excited, but only if this plays closer to Arceus than Sword/Shield. If it's the latter, it'll likely be a skip for me.

Really wish they had waited a bit before showing anything. I don't like the designs of the main characters. The graphics looked horrible at times. I'll make a decision once more has been announced. I do like that the world seems vibrant and colourful though. I hate the palate used in Arceus.

I don't understand with the negativity here. Complaining for being open world, complaining for not having PS5 graphic style, complaining for not having All Pokemons, complaining for certain design, complaining for the sake of insanity. I mean, chills.... I will gladly adapting to new features in this game as long the game is playable and not breaking, that's already enough for me.

The world looks more lively than SwSh and PLA so I'm excited but, the early footage was pretty blurry and pixelated like a 3DS game so Game Freak still has room for some improvement.

@liljmoore maybe they just should call in it Pokemon 2023 and be done with it...

im decently excited, its funny cause i have friends that are twins and both of their names is scarlet and violet i find that amusing

I am absolutely excited and getting Pokemon Violet on release. Sprigatito just looks adorable, with a follow up of Quaxly (though my daughters are both adamant on taking Fuecoco the "derpy apple fire croc" in their words).

I don't really understand those that act like this game is "too early" after PLA. The mainline games come out on a cycle of three years. PS/PV would have started creation right after SW/SH. Both BD/SP and PLA were made by other teams than then mainline Pokemon games. In my opinion, PS/PV started development, what would become the PLA team saw the direction and open world aesthetic they were going with, and used it in PLA as a test run to see how the purchasing audience and fans would react to an "almost open world" Pokemon game. PLA was more the beta test for how the format would work in the mainline PS/PV games. With the overwhelming positive reaction to PLA, Game Freak then knew they were going in the right direction for PS/PV, and it was full steam ahead.

Also, to those complaining about the graphics...complain away. And I reserve the right to disagree with you...the world looks bright and beautiful. I for one have never cared about "jaggies" or a little "muddy textures". I've grown up with gaming from Atari 2600 to XBSX, and seen every level of graphics between. A game doesn't have to be perfect graphically for me to be spectacular. PLA has its critics for graphics, but they never for once took away from the game for me. I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of PS/PV.

I rarely do grass started. But man, I want that weed cat

I had to stop reading these comments due to the number complaining about the Pokémon designs. You can objectively dislike them, but that doesn't make them bad designs. I was 9 when red/blue was released in the US. The only generation I skipped was gen 4. I've loved(or at least appreciate the thought put in to) the Pokémon designs of every generation. My favorite gen is 5. Again I say, you can dislike the designs but that doesn't make them bad. I'm almost willing to argue in favor of every design you could bring up to me.

That aside, I've "decided" which version I want. Serviper being in the trailer almost 100% confirms Zangoose is in the game. I'll choose which ever version has Zangoose as it is my favorite Pokémon.

PLA made me kinda optimistic for pokémon, seeing as it’s the best game in the series by a pretty wide margin. The starters also left a great first impression. Gen 8 has some of the best designs of any generation but the starters were pretty underwhelming and their final evolutions were awful. Overall, the design philosophy for pokémon designs has really improved recently, with gen 7 and 8 being the ones with the highest quality designs imo. Hopefully James Turner is still art director but either way, this is probably the best batch of starters we’ve had in a really long time, maybe the best ever. I didn’t really want gen 9 yet, but they got me to change my mind pretty quickly with these designs and the fact that it’s open world

I love the way people complain or bash new Pokèmon designs where Gen 1 had some of the worst designs I've ever seen in gaming to date. Yeah man a rock with arms is revolutionary a pile of purple slime magnets and screws along with exploding Pokè Balls that when evolved are literally the exact same except the red and the white change position 😂

its the most promising looking pokemon games since years. although its still technicaly crap looking, the level design looks already SOOO much better than Arceus (actually the whole game does look a lot better)

The first time I read the names of the starters I though they were a joke... omg. I'm surprised the duck is not called Cuaxly instead of Quaxly to keep the Spanish component.

Yes I'm excited for these games. I don't let these people ruin my excitement or enjoyment.

@Highlar As far as how things that are static look. I think look fine, but the framerate on those wind turbines were really bad. Something that is going to be an "important" landmark shouldn't have that bad of a fr. That being said, I think that will be fixed by release. I'm also sure we will see some similar framerate issues with distant Pokémon like what we saw in PLA. I'm hoping they surprise us though since it will be a mainline new gen game.

It depends on how the catching, battling, and exploration mechanics are handled. I understand it won't be 1:1 with PLA, but I also don't want it to be too much of a step back from it, either.

If I do get it, the grass starter is 100% my choice.

Need to see more of the game. Pokemon has been on a downward trend for me since Sun/Moon, so I'm not exactly hyped.

Also, will this game have Vulpix? No Vulpix, no buy.

Seems to be an alpha build, but this looks really good and way more interesting than PLA's world.

The duck looks like it has a pompadour, and the red thing is giving me a really old timey cartoon vibe. Is the grass thing another cat starter? I'll wait and see on the evolutions.

I don't know how to feel yet, will have to wait and see. Will likely pick it up for my daughter, as she is The Pokemon fan in the house

Interesting to see them go back towards color titles.

I'm probably going to skip it. I find one Pokemon game every 3 years or so is enough for me. I'm currently playing Arceus (some of the landscape shots for Violet/Scarlet look straight out of Arceus!) so I don't think I have much appetite for more of that.

But we'll see, I'm nothing if not inconsistent.

The game looks good so far. Sprigatito may have already won my heart, but I'll need to see more before I decide If I want this game.

@Axecon the term you're looking for is 'paraphrase' 😜

Hopefully we'll be able to port all our old 3DS Mon onto it.

Cool they are FINALLY evolving the formula. But for me its about 10 years too late and BOOOOY do those visuals look rough. Looks like a PS2 game. Hopefully they get some good optimization before launch.

It looks cool, but I mean I JUST finished Legends Arceus, and was kind of hoping for some DLC for that. This just feels like too much Pokemon, too fast.

If I know for certain that Pokémon Legends becomes a full sub-series complementary to the mainstream games and the remakes, then I'll consider this.

However, it already feels like overkill that we got two major releases within months of each other. I don't know about everyone else, but that's sort of exhausting.

i'm really excited to play the games (and actually have enjoyed all of the switch entries barring Let's Go, which i haven't gotten round to yet) but i hope they polish the character designs for the trainers before release - they seem a lot plainer than the designs in previous games, particularly having come after Sword & Shield which had great character design, loved how people looked in that game.

I don´t have fun with Pokemon Games.

The lack of content in PLA has me worried although it could mean that most of their effort went into Gen 9. I'll need to see a bit more before I am getting excited.

@Royalblues I feel, and I could be very wrong, that they just don't care anymore to make Pokémon that look cool or really cute, they just make them weird so people make a lot of memes about them.

The worst things were the ultra beasts, gosh sorry James turner but I don't like your taste for Pokémon, he also praised Sobble's evolutions, which were atrocious.

@tankymctankus I think they're going with a more westernized style, I think that's just how they look now.

I know I'm in the minority here, but even Arceus was unable to hold my attention for longer than a couple hours. I'm not excited about a new Pokemon game, but I wish everyone who is to enjoy it when they get it. I'm thinking the main games are no longer for me.

After the rushed disaster that was Sword and Shield, and considering GameFreak just released Legends Arceus, I'm not touching these. GameFreak needs to get out of this cycle of perpetual crunch time. It's making both the game quality AND their employees suffer for it!

@BenRK You have more common sense than most Pokémon fans.

Nothing matters but the trees!

Personally I feel they're coming out too frequent. I haven't played a Pokemon game since X/Y on the 3DS.

Pokemon is turning into the non-sports fan's Madden/FIFA!

Recently bought PL Arcerus after a long hiatus from pokemon games, and what a breath of fresh air it is. If they manage to combine open world mechanics with Gym leader battles, its a no brainer. I'll wait until comfirmation of gameplay.

Is it confirmed this game will be open world just like Arceus with a full rotational camera and seamless battles?

The environments obviously look worlds better than Arceus but I didn't see any gameplay showing the player throwing balls and traversing the world the same way. This being a mainline game (Scarlet/Violet) and PLA technically being a spin-off, I would expect this game to go back to the clunky gameplay from Sword/Shield, which may be why the environments have more assets and polish compared to PLA.

It would be great if the storyline was different for each game. Then I'd be more inclined to get both.

I just hope the story is good this time; it was the only thing that I hated about Sword and Shield. But nothing, NOTHING can be worse than Alola (Gen 7) Bottom of the barrel, in terms of both the games AND the anime.

I like the Pokémon trading cards and anime so there’s no reason I shouldn’t like Pokémon games, I like other RPGs, just something about sword and let’s go didn’t grab me like I wanted them to

The people who comment first on these are always so ready to tell you how NOT enthusiastic they are about Pokemon.

I for one am super excited about this gen of Pokemon. I've yet to meet a person who didn't view Legends Arceus as at least of a step in the right direction for the franchise. And my biggest hope for the new generation was that Arceus was the stepping stone to something even greater. Upon initial reveal... It was! Probably most important to me though: having the grit dust/gravel/pebble, etc. system come back from Legends. Or something very similar to it. If having competitive Pokemon can be achieved by simply playing the game naturally, that's all I could ever ask for. Would add potentially hundreds of hours of post game via competitive because I could never be bothered with the high barrier to entry for creating competitive Pokemon to battle with in the past entries.

@moodycat Gen V was great too, what are you on about.

Haven't finished arceus yet (not because I haven't enjoyed it, just taking my time) so I'm probably not as hyped as I would usually would be. Still the open world aspect and locations seem really cool, the Pokémon models look much more detailed (not a fan of the people though). I don't know how similar to arceus this will be but I'm open minded either way, looking forward to seeing more.

Like many, I am skeptical that they will successfully pull off a truly open world Pokemon game that: looks good, runs good, and plays good. Also the fact that they are saturating the market with so many Pokemon games so quickly. They just released Arceus last month and releasing new content for Pokemon Go. My guess here is that its going to look and run just like Arceus with some a few upgrades like less separate load zones. Really they are running squarely into Switches hardware limits and should have maybe held this back for Switch 2 or whatever because that is when you will really see that concept be executed well. That or make 2d open world, each would be great too.

Nah, It's a pokemon game, they are Ok at best, I haven't even finished Legend arceus, I think I have had enough pokemon for this year. Instead, I will be looking fordward to playing the rpgs for big bois such as Elden ring, Starfield, Xenoblade chronicles 3 and Gran blue.

Sometimes I don’t know what people expect with a new Pokémon game. Gamefreak will shake things up quite a bit as everyone seems to want it open world. Are people expecting amazing graphics with a Switch open world Pokémon game? Kind of unrealistic. The trailer footage is early and the graphics will likely improve before launch. I’m pretty excited and I’ve enjoyed almost every gen since the first. I feel like they’ve done pretty well within the hardware limits.

I didn’t notice any ray tracing so I’m not buying it.

No, I havent even started playing Arceus. Why are they milking pokemon so much? There are many games we can kill our time with. I dont need pokemon every 6 months. Just make a good game once in x years. If nintendo releases Mario this often, people would stop buying the games. Its not very strategic, I think..

Haven't played since Gold. Need to see more of it first before passing judgment. Not really sold on the starter Pokemon.

I passed on every pokemon game since SM and I plan to do so again. There are just too many better looking games for me to care about pokemon.

Unfortunately after Sword and Shield I’m worried it’ll be rushed, especially with Legends Arceus just having released. It may end up being a good game, but we won’t know until it actually releases, so I’m not very hyped right now.

I think its a bit to soon after Arceus, though admittedly that might have been a game for late 2021 (and I know its a yearly franchise, that's one of the reasons I am not big on Pokemon, though very recently I bought Ultra sun for my 3DS). Another open-world Pokemon sounds exciting though, although the graphics should be a lot better. Graphics-wise they have just given up.

People think it will play in Spain. Now that I see the names of the starters I think they are right. If I'll buy it someday, I might go for the Crocodile.

If I hadn't started playing Arceus less than a month ago I would be excited for this.

If Nintendo would do this with Mario, people would still buy it. But luckily Nintendo has dignity (though in the past they released a lot of Mario spin-offs. Nowadays it seems a bit less). Gamefreak doesn't however, seeing as Pokemon is a yearly franchise. However Nintendo won't complain and might actually be the one who ordered it. Gamefreak and Nintendo earn massive money with these titles, and you know sales will go through the roof again, eclipsing sales of Sword and Shield!

I took a break from the series after Sword and Shield so im fully aboard the hype train 😁

Finally, the art style is good, and Pokémon has somwwhat realistic textures that make them feel more alive.

@Henmii The Pokemon Company holds the franchise's moneybag and how the money gets spread around.

@Henmii I dont have any good examples rn but I believe that if the same kind of game gets released this often, people will grow tired of it and while it may sell for a while the gamers will finaly be 'overfed'. Its like eating the same food over and over. It doesnt help that pokemon games are pretty long too. Im just not willing to get into another overwhelming open world game this soon.

Mainline games are roughly once every three years. Arceus is a spin-off in that there are no towns or gyms or puzzles or battling with your friends, nor was there the usual addition of 100+ new Pokemon, etc. It's different enough that it's not going to fatigue most people from a new mainline game, in fact I believe it's going to be an appetizer to get people on board for what's to come. If I'd only had the recent memory of Sw/Sh to go off of I wouldn't be excited at all, those put such a bad taste in my mouth that I nearly swore the series off for good. I think everyone complaining that they're overdoing it with the series aren't looking at how well FIFA, COD, and other yearly titles do and considering, again, this is actually every 3 years at minimum.

This likely pushes botw2 to 2023. Meanwhile Pokémon fans will get three games within a year.

The only way I'm getting this is if they bring over all of the new features in Arceus. If there's no open world throwing pokeballs at flying, running, swimming Pokemon, I'm not buying it. That is the single greatest mechanic Arceus introduced and it needs to be in this game.

@blindsquarel No it doesn't. Two different studios are working on these games. BotW2 is 100% coming out this year.

@kal_el_07241 Why would you have to titles that are going to sell big at the same time of year. I would say Pokémon could come out in September but that is when xenoblade comes out. But we will know for sure come E3

While I say it isn't too soon for a new generation as the average span between generations is 3-4 years and gen 8 was released in 2019 but I would have liked it if they waited till next year for a new generation just because we had the dp remakes last year in November and legends in January.

Why does it have to be every year? What's wrong with every other year? Just make more spin-offs instead of being the CoD of RPGs.

So the next core game is finally here after 3 years. I just hope it will be longer than the previous games. You can usually play the main story within 2-3 days. Also I hope the legendaries will have some interesting story and bigger impact on the game. Mounts would be awesome too. Spain/Portugal is meh for me, I am not a fan.

I'm a bit nervous that the game is releasing too soon, but I like what I see so far. Also very excited that the game is confirmed to be open world.

Donald Is love, Donald is life!

In the Japanese logos there is a star shaped jewel where the mega evolution and Z crystal symbols were in the gen 6 and 7 logos.

Scarlet has a more regal logo design, whera's Violet seems to be sci-fi/space themed.

Make of things what you will.

I'm looking forward to it. I liked Sword and Shield, Pokemon Arceus was fun but not revolutionary for me personally, so I like the traditional way of things.

I need to know a bit more. If the capturing and combat works similar to Legends Arceus then I'm hype! If it's more like random encounters like the other games then I'll probably skip this one.

Absolutely. Pokemon is still one of my favorite franchises out there. Really excited for the new Pokemon and region.

I'm going to be brutally honest here... those starters look like they were stolen directly from the early-mid 90's after school (USA) cartoon lineup. You can't tell me that those aren't taken straight outta the Disney™ afternoon lineup on the non-cable channels. The alligatordile could very well be from some guest appearance on TMNT in the 90's. That duck I have seen on old episodes of DuckTales™ for sure! That cat was from the Batman™ cartoon series as one of catwoman's minions. Weak! But I still wanna play the game as long as it isn't as bleak as the landscape from Arceus.

@Zimon I'm with you on this. Gone are the days of me "enjoying" random encounters and Arceus did away with those in a very tactful way. Hopefully, this will remain in effect for these games as well.

Didn't Arceus just came out? They should have just kept that until next year. Plenty of time to improve it and work on it

As mentioned in the other article my main concern is the Performance since even during the trailer there was some noticeable drops during the town segments.

Im fine with lower resolution texture and the like if it means the game runs smoother, plus there are times when games have still managed to look visually nice through things like art style or by using visual trickery (i think there was a blog or article where the ori devs detailed the techniques used to get the games running so well on switch)

again its more about whether or not the game can work around the limitations of the hardware and not feel like its running into them.

I had an idea in my mind were Game Freak focused on Legends: Arceus as their main game for at least one year, while for the Gen 9 game, they developed a 2D/2.5D with another dev. With that, Pokémon could've introduced its 3D/2D split like the Zelda games did for a long time (the 3D games coming longer while the 2D/2.5D games arrive faster).

Instead, it seems Game Freak had been true to words and wants to gradually releasing very better and better games, like no one ever would.

Does the franchise ever follow a specific release calendar? I don't think that's ever true, if it was, there would be no chance to release a Pokémon game on the scale they deserve. This game is looking like the next-gen main game I wanted, we all wanted and more, but too soon? The graphical quality which is always important in an exploration game, is looking very ambitious. But it still needs some polish in many respects. But my main concern is how long the campaign will be, I hope it's long enough to compare it with Black and White's story and with the added complexity of an open world game

We'll surely see more about this the coming months, in any case the game is released or not on the intended date, Game Freak's absolute mission must be introducing everyone to Gen 9, rather than just showing and releasing it.

I am pretty excited, with a slight bit of caution. That caution surrounding the almost guaranteed return of forced Exp Share and how it interacts with open world. (In Shield, it was a huge balance problem. Just give us the option to turn it off, gosh darn it).

Very excited, but undecided on which version to get obviously as we don't yet know legendaries or exclusives. I would like to get Violet though based on its logo design. My starter will likely be Quaxly unless the final evolution is a mess. Got Sobble in Sword and Oshawott in Arceus, so might as well keep the water streak going.

@Axecon You're in the minority even among this whiny fanbase that we have here. This should tell you something. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but just saying, these games will sell like absolute hotcakes.

@Harmonie Exp share is not an item anymore, it will be like in Arceus, that's simply how the games have been working for a while now, it's a built in feature. Not that I'm against an option to turn it off for a hardcore player, although I don't necessarily see the point. Most RPGs share XP among party members in some manner.

The thing is, people that think Exp share is why the games are easy should not drop their dayjob to pursue game design. You can still have challenge with permanent Exp Share, the two are not mutually exclusive. It's all about how the enemy trainers are designed.

@Troll_Decimator I didn't say that Exp Share = Easy. I never have. I don't think it's an adequate "easy mode" in fact. Didn't help me much in Sun/Moon when I got mowed down anyway.

I brought up my concerns (about balance) based off of my experience in Shield where I took my time to enjoy the Wild Area and my Pokemon inevitably got overleveled (I know you can switch Pokemon out easily, but that wasn't enough, as I always kept at least one stronger Pokemon in my team for worst case scenarios where I'd black out otherwise. That Pokemon got overleveled beyond belief. Ridiculous) and then I breezed through the end of the game (which had some nice emotional movements...ruined by how overpowered I was).

It's one thing to have it in a game like BD/SP where capacity to explore is limited (although it should always be optional) but in an open world game I worry. I feel like I was 'punished' for taking my time to enjoy exploring and checking out the Wild Area. I fear that the same thing will happen here.

@Harmonie In Arceus, the last few bosses were quite challenging and it was open world, and to fight them you had to finish most/all the endgame content, meaning you were very leveled by default. It can definitely be done, it's just a matter of if they will opt to do so or not. Open world games give you the opportunity to have lots of optional post completion content that is extremely difficult, while still keeping the main story fairly easy for newcomers. Of course, grinding too much can always be seen as an "easy mode", but it's nice that the option is there. Just like it is in Dark Souls. Hence no difficulty level needed. You either get good, or you grind more.

I've never really been into Pokémon, until Arceus. That game was exactly what I've been needing.

And now, seeing these new games with much better graphics and textures (finally they're stepping up their game), and the fully open world, I'm all aboard.

I just hope we can still throw Pokeballs in some capacity to try and catch wild Pokémon. If it is all battles, at least ensure they're seamless without a separate loading screen.

Will get it only if it’s DLC to Arceus! If they push out 2 major games cca 8 months apart it only shows they just care for money- if they truly care for quality-and make amazing dlc to half baked Arceus-it will prove they care for fans and polish their games. But seeing how they didn’t even bother with EXP share off switch- what a simple task- it just proves they do not care for their games and fans!

@Troll_Decimator do you work for Gamefreak? How can you defend the lack of Exp share switch? Yes games have it- but games that are balanced! Platinum was made without it in the beginning- which forced you to carefully pick the Pokémon you want to level up first-If I have to avoid fights not to get over leveled when I 1HKOeverything for hours- that’s a huge design flaw! If I have to constantly move Pokémon to the box and keep only 1-2 that will make it even worse! Play the original or Black 2 and you will see what is a well balanced combat- there was a thrill, but not in their remakes that I had to stop playing because they were no fun after a few hours. If I don’t need to even check the typing of the Pokémon- for offense and defense since I kill everything in 1 hit even before 3rd gym,it takes the strategy out and that’s not how Pokémon rpg should be/ not fun!

Am hoping it looks different to Sword/Shield and Legends Arceus. One thing I'm worried about us they could all start looking too similar on the overworld.

we're getting both because I have to share with my kids. I'm very excited because I like the direction that Legends went in but it's just not for me. I tried it and got frustrated with the missions lol not saying it's a bad game or anything. my boys love Legends. anyways I'm picking the grass starter because I love cats. The other two are cool too. the game I will be playing is Violet because it's my fav color.

I gave up on pokemon since B&W. The games just havent been fun to me.

For the first time since gen 6 I actually am excited for this. Pokemon games have been disappointing for the past decade (Legends Arceus aside) but gen 9 feels like this is everything the series has been building up to and I can't wait. Also this is by far my favorite trio of starters since gen 3.

Then you are out of luck since the new Zelda will probably be gigantic too. And Xenoblade 3 of course. But there are also other games of course. At the end of March there will be the new Kirby, wich will be a more modest game I think (though I hoped for a big, free-roaming 3D world. It doesn't have to be 200+ hours though).

While I think its nice to see that the new Pokemon continues the "open-world" route started with Arceus, I can see why you aren't in the mood for maybe another gigantic game. Everything is open-world nowadays and they take a awful amount of time to finish.

@Anti-Matter I can't even begin to think of what the legendaries could look like, and the typings.

A new gen allready? Im gonna start with the grass starter this time around. Im always go for fire or water, but this time i will go for grass🤗

@Witch84 The grass starter is so cute! 💚

@KryptoniteKrunch Me too! 😍 Which starter are you picking?

Probably going with Fuecoco myself.

@dkxcalibur They've actually regressed since X&Y too. Alpha Sapphire and Ruby I quit 20 hours in. I liked Sun & Moon enough to finish the main content, but played it way less than X&Y. And all the great improvements made in X&Y were ripped out in Sun & Moon and Sword/Shield. They don't even have the online trading exchange anymore... Sword/Shield was so bad that there is no way I'd even consider buying Scarlet/Violet.

@ArcticEcho Thanks for the heads-up! No online trading? That was a good feature.....at least I thought so!

@DreamlandGem yes, and i hope the grass type will stay awesome when changes form too☺️

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