Pokemon Stars Discussion Thread (Speculation)

[PkmnTrainerV]

Okay... Anyone would like to shift the topic? *looks at the thread* We've had lots of conversations on whether Stars will be profitable or not, but if it becomes a reality, what would be the shiny new content in it to entice gamers?

I could see GF banking onto Nostalgia value, unlocking a revisit to the Kanto region. Lillie could take over as the rival, picking up a Kanto Starter, and the player could pick one as well, having the respective mega stone (Charizardite X for the Sun-Related version, and Y for the moon related version I guess?).
It would also provide a way to get the Kanto forms of Raichu, Marowak and Exeggutor.

Now to Switch's features. Maybe HD rumble could be utilised for moves? As in- a high rumble for earthquake, and a comparatively lower one for dig.
HD rumble could also improve the refresh experience by a lot. Battle Royal and doubles would be smoother as well.

Thoughts and additions?

 

[Boss1708]

Masuda has openly spoken against the 2 region formula, saying it was a one time thing for Johto/Kanto, but that they prefer to focus on only one region for newer games.

 

[Silktree]

If they want to re-design Kanto, they won't just shackle it to the post-game of a third version. They'll use it as the main setting of separate games. The question is what they'll do with Johto in such a case.

Or you can read some reviews on the internet, or watch some let´s play videos on youtube, before wasting 40 bucks

The average player is going to buy a Pokemon game just because it's the latest or one of the latest ways to get the main series experience. At their core, the games are all similar to each other.

Go and the anniversary augmented the sales of not only SM, but also XY and ORAS since back in July SM were still four months away.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

The question is what they'll do with Johto in such a case.

Maybe make Johto the post game Region? I'd also like them to give out a Johto Starter as we enter in the Region, along with mega stones for them.

 

[Silktree]

Use this thread for Kanto/Johto discussion.

 

[Lyrebird]

Use this thread for Kanto/Johto discussion.

Eh. It is fine. You can press on but try to relate to the the speculative game.

 

[Boss1708]

Go and the anniversary augmented the sales of not only SM, but also XY and ORAS since back in July SM were still four months away.

True, but both XY and ORAS were selling very consistently even before the Go mania started, so that´s not the reason of their consistency in sales. It shows the games were successfull and liked among fans, outside of the first weeks initial hype.

But I personally think both games (XY and BW) are solid for initial pair standars, anyway.

 

[Silktree]

True, but both XY and ORAS were selling consistently even before Go, so that´s not the reason of their consistency in sales.

XY's sales were pretty stagnant in Japan since early 2014, and elsewhere between ORAS and Go's release dates. So if that's what you mean by consistent...

Go barely affected Japan, though. But overseas it made a hell of a difference.

 

[Boss1708]

XY's sales were pretty stagnant in Japan since early 2014, and elsewhere between ORAS and Go's release dates. So if that's what you mean by consistent...

Go barely affected Japan, though. But overseas it made a hell of a difference.

XY was about to outsell BW even before the Go mania, I think, and Go just accelerated that process. That is what I meant.

But anyway, this discussion is beside the point I was making. The fact is that XY outsold BW, despite BW having a lot more fans tahn XY around the internet.

 

[Silktree]

XY was about to outsell BW even before the Go mania, I think, and Go just accelerated that process. That is what I meant.

But anyway, this discussion is beside the point I was making. The fact is that XY outsold BW, despite BW having a lot more fans tahn XY around the internet.

Nah. Back in late March their combined sales were 14.7 million units, and if it hadn't been for Go, I can't fathom how they would have sold nearly an additional 1 million while new games were being promoted.

And as for your point... I am not sure what it is you're trying to prove. Just because XY outsold BW (due to exterior factors, but I digress) doesn't mean that more people enjoyed them.

 

[Morningstar]

What would be the Shiny New Content huh?

I predict the standard typical 3rd version fluff.

• An expanded Pokédex with a few new lines. Stuff like Oddish, Lunatone/Solrock, and other pokemon to be available. Assuming remakes are not in this generations then it would include the pokemon not found in the Sun/Moon Pokedex, the legendaries (Deoxys is included) and another Mythical a la Deoxys
  • A lot will be found in post game areas based on Hawai'i other islands. But they will be int he vein of Exeggcutor island, with non color names (except maybe where you find Ho-Oh), small in scale and no civilization.
  • Mirage islands or the Altering Cave would make a return, with one of the islands having an daily random selection of Pokemon. All of which with the potential to call for help. The Island Scan Pokemon would be included in this roster.
  • The next mythical to be caught in game would be either Diancie (Unlikely and depending on if they add the Diancite in the game, and even that's not a guarentee given that the gracidia, plates, drives, flower and even an exclsuive Z crystal were included without the respective mon), Shaymin (Gracidia) or Genesect (Drives), maybe Mew as well (Mewnium Z). Diancie might be the most likely as all the others were distributed last year, but on the other hand they are one of the most recent species of Mythicals to be introduced so that might work against it.
• Move Tutors. Which will make certain pokemon (Kommo-o for example) viable but require some hard to get currency (Like shards, to add an opportunity cost) or BP.
• The Megastones not found in game. This one is actually 50/50 since GF broke a lot of trend with S/M and they would likely continue here. But all the Megastones were in ORAS. On the other hand they might not add them to keep the exclusivity Limited time prizes from the competitions but I do not see that happening except for the Diancite and maybe Mewtwoites.
• New clothing options and hairstyles. Whether or not the ...favoritism continues with that is unknown
  
• New Megas (Unlikely but possible) Likely for a few Gen 4, 5, and 6 Pokemon.
• New Z-Moves. Which along with the above would mess with compatibility, and give competitive players a reason to shell out for a Switch and Stars.
• Vs. Seeker!: Because nothing would sell gamers faster than "You can freely level grind on trainers), which might further entice certain people to get them.
• Rotation and triple battles to return.

 

[Soki]

Give me Glameow and following Pokémon and I'm sold

More stuff I'd like to see:

• Gen VII Pokémon being easier to get
• Pikipek/Rattata/Yungoos and their evos not being available on almost every single route
• More Pokémon from other regions than Kanto, especially from Sinnoh and Unova which had the least amount
  
• New areas to explore, maybe a whole new island
• More customization options (though it's already a pro that clothing/colors will not be version exclusive) + postgame options being available during the main game
  
• Move Tutors to make more mons viable
• Vs. Seeker would be great + other ways to make leveling up to lv. 100 easier
• A way to get more Apricorn Balls
  
• PSS back (one can dream)

 

[Esserise]

I think the primary factor in the BW vs. XY issue is probably more to do with which consoles they were for, and what kinds of attention-getting features they offered. XY were able to boast headline stuff like "Pokémon in 3D!" "Pet them!" "Not just new Pokémon, but MEGA versions of your old favorites!" "A new type, even!" and "CLOTHESSSSSS!!!!" And they were the first games on the 3DS, so the first idea of what Pokémon games would be like on that console.

Meanwhile, BW were on the DS, which was certainly popular, but people who'd bought DP, Platinum, or HGSS would have had less motivation to go for them, especially when BW could only offer such crowd-pleasers as "We refined the UI!" "Clunky Internet minigames if you have a Global Link account!" "Lots of new Pokémon, but none of the ones you like!" and "An actual storyline! Wait... who cares?"

Given all that, I'm actually kind of surprised that BW didn't sell less, and XY didn't sell more. I'd imagine that the 3DS's cost may have been preventative to some potential XY customers, and that some of them within that group may have only been able to purchase a 3DS by the time ORAS were out and may have gone for them instead, but I don't figure that those were particularly large demographics.

Anyway. What do I want to see in Stars? Well, I don't really care all that much, because I'm more interested in the games that come after it. But a Dex revision would be nice, although I don't think that we need a huge reworking of it. I'd like it if they made stuff like Mimikyu and Mareanie more accessible. More customization and more ways to train after beating the game are desperately needed - for the record, I support the idea of new Gyms sprouting up, but only after the main game. More Alola Forms is an obvious want. And I'd appreciate it if they could do some editing on the story to make it a little more clear in some areas, namely with Hau and Lusamine. And can they please patch up some of the "frozen in time" dialogue? Like Po Town, or some of the people at the Aether Foundation. They stay stuck repeating whatever they said during the main story. Really, it at least feels like something should happen with Po Town in the post-game.

XY did much worse in storyline

Could we ever realistically expect a Pokémon game's storyline to have a bearing on it's sales? I don't think it's a leap to suggest that most people aren't buying for the story, and never have been. Game Freak could serve up a plate of complete schlock (or better yet, could offer virtually nothing for a story, like RBY), but as long as the gameplay was good, who other than we on the Internet would even notice? Unless it's a knockout mold breaker like BW or SM, most reviews I've seen don't even mention the story aspect all that much.

 

[Soki]

Really, it at least feels like something should happen with Po Town in the post-game.

This though, this was such a let down. I was expecting to go back to find people being back in their homes and talking about how they're happy Team Skull is gone and all that. Maybe even some Team Skull members helping to clean up the mess they made. I would really love to see something like that in Stars.

 

[SUP3RN0VA]

10 million people are irrelevant? LOL okay, those are big numbers you're just glossing over, ignoring an audience that size is completely foolish.

Where could you possibly have gotten that figure from? How would you know the exact amount of people that do not want to play Stars? I mentioned that a lot of people that do not want to play Stars on Switch, wouldn't want to play Stars at all, which means they have pretty much already made up their mind on the matter, so yes, they are irrelevant. The discussion was about who would purchase a Switch to play Stars, and now you magically have a number of people that aren't going to play Stars at all, no matter the console? I don't think so.

 

[Kisu]

@pkmtrainerv the initial run is 2 million the only place it hasn't sold out is Japan.

It's not a success until its a success and that's proven over time.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Where could you possibly have gotten that figure from? How would you know the exact amount of people that do not want to play Stars? I mentioned that a lot of people that do not want to play Stars on Switch, wouldn't want to play Stars at all, which means they have pretty much already made up their mind on the matter, so yes, they are irrelevant. The discussion was about who would purchase a Switch to play Stars, and now you magically have a number of people that aren't going to play Stars at all, no matter the console? I don't think so.

First of all, I got that number from the difference in sales between third versions and new generations, which is ~10 million. Second, that group does matter regardless because the sheer size of that group has an impact on whether we see Stars at all, when you have more Pokemon fans skipping the third version than buying it, it's probably not a good idea to invest that much in it.

 

[SUP3RN0VA]

First of all, I got that number from the difference in sales between third versions and new generations, which is ~10 million. Second, that group does matter regardless because the sheer size of that group has an impact on whether we see Stars at all, when you have more Pokemon fans skipping the third version than buying it, it's probably not a good idea to invest that much in it.

Again, you're assuming Pokémon Stars will be just like any other third version. Considering this is a newly attempted third version done in a very different way, there's no reason to assume this will automatically go down the exact same way. This is a new situation, and is therefore not yet comparable to the others. This can literally go any way.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Again, you're assuming Pokémon Stars will be just like any other third version. Considering this is a newly attempted third version done in a very different way, there's no reason to assume this will automatically go down the exact same way. This is a new situation, and is therefore not yet comparable to the others. This can literally go any way.

Yes it will. Putting it on a new console isn't going to allow them to make it any more different than BW2, and that didn't really do much to increase sales. If that were enough to improve third version sales, BW2 would've amounted to more than a 1 million sales bump.

 

[SUP3RN0VA]

Yes it will. Putting it on a new console isn't going to allow them to make it any more different than BW2, and that didn't really do much to increase sales. If that were enough to improve third version sales, BW2 would've amounted to more than a 1 million sales bump.

It will be much more different on Switch than it would on Nintendo 3DS. There's no point in any Main series title being on Nintendo Switch. A third version is supposed to improve the original versions. How can a third version extend on the original versions that already reached the capabilities of the 3DS. The next games need to be on Switch no matter what it is.