Pokemon Direct announced for January 9th 2020

[Vodacixi]

Hiku said:

Vodacixi said:
In fact, I think third versions are much, MUCH better than the DLC Game Freak is offering us. Even if you already played the original games.

First of, it's been 12 years since we got a third version (Pokémon Platinum). Black and White had a sequel (it's a big difference), XY had nothing and Sun and Moon got... a copy paste? Honestly, I wouldn't put US/UM on the same boat as Emerald, Platinum or even Crystal (which is the less beefy game). US/UM is the obvious bad exception.
So this whole "Finally we got rid off third versions" is nonsense. It's been three full generations (four if we count Sword and Shield) without them.

Second, people have seemingly forgot what kind of games Emerald and Platinum were compared to R/S and D/P. Yes, they are based on those games. Yes, they are very similar. But the amount of changes in every department, additions and improvements were huge. So much I would legitimately call them new games. I played Ruby back in the day, then years later I played Emerald. And I never thought: "Whoah, it's just the same... boring". No, I enjoyed it for what it was: a new game in which I spent hundreds of hours on top of what I spent on the original Ruby.

What do we get with this DLC? We don't get major changes to the core games. They are not gonna fix the broken Dynamax. They are not going to fix the lack of dungeons on the main story. They are not gonna fix the framerate issues and poppin of the wild area. The game will remain the same, with all its flaws.

What we get is... what, two or three hours more of gameplay for each part of the DLC? Then what? Gotta catch em all again? Go back to the competitive? Give me a break. I don't want to pay 30 dolars just to play Pokémon a little longer and be able to catch more Pokémon.

If I can choose, I want a third version. Not a DLC.

My reason for liking a third version is different than yours, in that I liked having the option of buying just one game that's like a definitive version. After playing Emerald I didn't feel an incentive to play Ruby or Saphire. So that saved me time and money.

Though I can't determine how I feel about the content of the expansion itself, or how it compared to the original game before they announce more details.
Why are you so certain that the difference won't be as big as between a third version and its original?

I think this expansion will be a more unique experience than the third versions, because you're (seemingly) not going through the same journey again here.
Instead the developers can focus on creating a new journey with new trainers, dungeons, towns, etc. Which in the third versions were more of an occasional bonus addition rather than the core of the game.

I will be very brief, because I already have a very extense explanation on the topic in this thread. If you want to know more, please read my previous comments. But essentially: The expansion pass is just a post game. Emerald/Platinum is a post game + a crap ton of changes, fixes, additions and improvements to the main story/game. To me, that sounds better and more than what we could potentially get from the DLC. Especially when you look at the Direct and realize that they seem to be creating mostly a story based DLC. That kind of thing has a very limited duration. You go through it, you beat it, you are done. The famous "two hours" I said and that the other user keeps throwing at me was just a random number I came up with, but what I wanted to say with that is that a story content (especially a Pokémon story) has a limited duration. Maybe they will add a new Battle Tower with different rules based on what the art they shown, but nothing compared to the Battle Frontier 7 different buildings.

The problem is that if I see the main game... I can't have hope for new towns and dungeons. Because the base game has NO dungeons at all and towns are a window-dressing: they seem big, but they are empty and you can't access most of the buildings. Do you think they are gonna make actual towns and dungeons when the base game had none of those? Wouldn't it feel weird for a new player to go through the entire main story without finding a single dungeon and encountering empty towns... and then they jump to the DLC and is filled with those? I don't know, I think the DLC is gonna be more of what we already got.

Let's put it this way: With Emerald and Platinum, Game Freak fixed most of the issues that R/S and D/P had, being of design or technical. Granted, those generations were better than Sword and Shield and didn't have that many things to fix. But let's imagine we had a third version of Sword and Shield. We may have hope for new and better animations, adding dungeons to the main story, fixing the mess that is the Wild Area when connected to the internet, improved and expanded main story (not refering to the post game), etc... All of that would be almost granted, because that's what third versions do. But with a DLC that takes place after completing the main game... well, you know what I think.

But, really, I'm tired of this topic. When the DLC comes out, we'll see how it is. If it ends up being as good as a third version, I'll eat my words.

Last edited by Vodacixi - on 11 January 2020