"Should I buy Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon?"

[IkePoR]

Lonely_Dolphin said:

IkePoR said: 

The changes to formula in Sun/Moon weren't because GF gave a shit.  It was because Yo-Kai Watch blew up in Japan. Pokemon is a worldwide hit but GF and Nintendo still care most about the Japanese market.  They will be the most loyal the longest should Pokemon implode and die off elsewhere, or perhaps some other competition takes the world by storm with a monster friend RPG.

Is there proof the changes were because of Yo-kai? Seems like a stretch that they would make such changes just because a game with a similar concept sold really well.

Pokemon had very little changes from gen to gen and was coasting on new creatures and small new features to the series here and there.  Then, suddenly, with SuMo, there are sweeping, huge changes(these are well documented and obvious if you played it).  Most were quality of life changes, but for GF to go so far as to maximize the 3DS' capabilities by using higher quality models in the overworld - when the chibi style would have been just fine - is telling. 

All of these changes right after a few Yo-Kai Watch titles explode in Japan.  It was the first real competition Pokemon had in years.  Like StarOcean said in this thread - Pokemon changes slow -  as it's magic formula so strong that even GameFreak probably doesn't understand what makes it so potent.  They don't change much for years and years, then suddenly - no gyms, no HM's, much snappier UI's, etc.  Things they didn't even care about touching before are suddenly ditched.

So there's no causation, but there's certainly correlation.