In recent days, Game Freak has come under fire for various grievances fans have with the upcoming Pokemon titles, Sword and Shield. Following the controversy of only a select amount of Pokemon being in the game at all, Game Freak was then criticized for reusing animations and character models from previous Pokemon games. However, these claims appear to be untrue, as a previous interview with Junichi Masuda and Shigeru Ohmori confirms that Game Freak has had to create every Pokemon model in Sword and Shield "from scratch". The June 2019 interview, which went largely unnoticed due to its lack of English translation, was also not referenced in the "official response" from Game Freak two weeks ago, regarding the Pokedex issue.

Due to the nature of the Nintendo Switch's better hardware and smoother framerates, the 3DS-era Pokemon models and animations were unable to be directly transferred over to engine that Sword and Shield are running on, so the team over at Game Freak had to remake every Pokemon model. This was apparently especially difficult for the team, who has had their normal amount of developers split between two major projects: Sword/Shield and Town. During the development of Sun and Moon, Game Freak was "barely able to" import all 809 Pokemon into that game with a full dedicated team as it was. This, coupled with the daunting task of balancing each and every Pokemon was what led to Junichi Masuda deciding to "choose quality over quantity", when it came to choosing which Pokemon would make it into the Galar Dex. In the interview he says, "The decision is sad. Of course I wanted to bring all the Pokemon in if I could do it, but this was a decision I had to make eventually".

Masuda even joked about the matter responding that the Pokemon that won't show up in the game are thinking, "This region is too cold. I think I'll stay at home this time."

When it comes to the matter of adding subsequent Pokemon in post-launch updates, Game Freak says that they are considering the idea, but are undecided at the moment. He also further explained that the Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing features require additional 3D models from each Pokemon, and are not simply resized versions of their existing assets.

Source

 

[smile72]

Jesus, Gamefreak just shut the fuck up. Stop digging your grave deeper.

 

[Megadriver94]

Few content creator / influencers of the mass who don't actually have the game nor have played it are calling out something
The devs say no, backed up by different translations.

The followers: "No this must be bullshit"

Because of course, it comes from a company, so it is obviously lies and evil doing.

Seriously. Some people give way too much credit to some influencers to even realize they are ALSO full of shit sometimes and are just surfing on the next general outrage. Hive-minded fanbase 101.

Even if there is no mis-translation, the interviewees(in this case Masuda and Omori) are best not to be taken by their word alone. The same goes for the dummies that believe the words of EA execs and Epic Games spokespeople on the things they are being accused of.

 

[Bedel]

It seems to be a misstranslation:

 

[deinonychus71]

Even if there is no mis-translation, the interviewees(in this case Masuda and Omori) are best not to be taken by their word alone. The same goes for the dummies that believe the words of EA execs and Epic Games spokespeople on the things they are being accused of.

What's dumb is to turn "EA" into a fallacious argument whenever a company doesn't do exactly what "the fans" want. Not every company act like EA.
And I keep putting "the fans" in quote because the amount of sales will show how many "fans" care about this outrage, and how many will care about the numerous new features.

It seems to be a misstranslation:

This would be better to take a source from neutral people, so clearly not this guy.
Here's another translation: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...that_pokemon_sword_and_shield_interview_quote

 

[Dan-the-Rebirth]

Well according to a YouTube video that whole depate is based on a wrong translation. And every gaming site is coping the news without fact checking the original Japanese interview

 

[Enryx25]

I'm not the kind of person to say this but please pirate this game Gbatemp.
I want a BOTW/SMO/Xenoblade level Pokemon game and the only way is to make Nintendo develop the games not GameFreak.

 

[AkitoUF]

Suspiciously specific denial.

 

[Megadriver94]

What's dumb is to turn "EA" into a fallacious argument whenever a company doesn't do exactly what "the fans" want. Not every company act like EA.
And I keep putting "the fans" in quote because the amount of sales will show how many "fans" care about this outrage, and how many will care about the numerous new features.


This would be better to take a source from neutral people, so clearly not this guy.
Here's another translation: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...that_pokemon_sword_and_shield_interview_quote

Okay, here's the thing: I know EA is not affiliated with Game Freak in any way. A company does not have to be either post-2007 EA or modern-day ActivisionBlizzard to be capable of doing things and making decisions that are not all that good. Look at post-2007 Bethesda Studios as well as, more recently Epic games with their constant denial of the Epic games store's spyware stuff about Tencen (company from mainland China) People are different and indeed, emotion does play a part in drama and/or outrage. However, new features, as good as they may be, aren't a valid reason to remove not only the Megastones but also nearly all, if not exactly all, of the non-Galar region Pokemon! If they couldn't delay it further to touch things up further, then at least make Pokemon Sword/Shield a dual cart game (by this, I mean have the game take up two game cards. its been done on optical disc games many times on certain times for the Sega CD, PS1, PS2, 3DO, Sega Saturn, and Gamecube).

 

[deinonychus71]

I'm not the kind of person to say this but please pirate this game Gbatemp.
I want a BOTW/SMO/Xenoblade level Pokemon game and the only way is to make Nintendo develop the games not GameFreak.

Or to convince them to only make mobile games

Well according to a YouTube video that whole depate is based on a wrong translation. And every gaming site is coping the news without fact checking the original Japanese interview

Aren't their followers copying everything the youtubers say without fact checking either?

 

[KyleHyde]

What's dumb is to turn "EA" into a fallacious argument whenever a company doesn't do exactly what "the fans" want. Not every company act like EA.
And I keep putting "the fans" in quote because the amount of sales will show how many "fans" care about this outrage, and how many will care about the numerous new features.

Sales numbers aren't a good indicator about how much people actually care about the situation or not; there's obviously people who are still going to buy it just to rip the models, check out the performance, and dissect the whole thing. Just look at Paper Mario: Sticker Star; it sold a lot of copies, yet most of those people either returned or sold the game right away.

This would be better to take a source from neutral people, so clearly not this guy.
Here's another translation: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...that_pokemon_sword_and_shield_interview_quote

He admitted on his twitter that, like everyone else, he was also misinformed and is currently working on a new video addressing the new translations that have been showing up now.
The video that was shared in this thread was made before the proper re-translation of the interview quote was made.

The video is too misinformed so I have it unlisted. Lots of great new translations have been released recently so I will be addressing those instead : 3

— Jerm D. Kingdom (@DistantKingdom) July 15, 2019

 

[Kioku]

Suspiciously specific denial.

No, the userbase is just not happy with the answer. So, they act like they know better, even though 95% of the people here don't know the first thing about game development. Love it.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Complete bullshit, even the character animations are the same, there are many videos on youtube demonstrating that these are indeed reused, will find them and post those here later.

All that implies is that they used the same skeletal structure so they could recycle some animations. It implies nothing about the models/mesh itself.
Source: I work with 3d models and animation. I know how porting animations works.

 

[Megadriver94]

Or to convince them to only make mobile games


Aren't their followers copying everything the youtubers say without fact checking either?

No, the userbase is just not happy with the answer. So, they act like they know better, even though 95% of the people here don't know the first thing about game development. Love it.

Being a game developer doesn't mean you should expect the fans to universally praise the decisions you made in making the game. Receiving criticism that isn't positive=/=harassment or bullying.

 

[smf]

>SCURP A DERP fans that express any reaction that isn't joy or happiness towards Gen 8 are automatically entitled!
RIIIIIIIIIGHT...
View attachment 173191

No, not automatically. But in this case it's true.

You can be a fan of something and disagree without coming over as arrogant and pompous.

People who won't leave you alone telling everyone that you're lying about what you're doing, when you're not lying, are pretty terrible people.

 

[deinonychus71]

Okay, here's the thing: I know EA is not affiliated with Game Freak in any way. A company does not have to be either post-2007 EA or modern-day ActivisionBlizzard to be capable of doing things and making decisions that are not all that good. Look at post-2007 Bethesda Studios as well as, more recently Epic games with their constant denial of the Epic games store's spyware stuff about Tencen (company from mainland China) People are different and indeed, emotion does play a part in drama and/or outrage. However, new features, as good as they may be, aren't a valid reason to remove not only the Megastones but also nearly all, if not exactly all, of the non-Galar region Pokemon! If they couldn't delay it further to touch things up further, then at least make Pokemon Sword/Shield a dual cart game (by this, I mean have the game take up two game cards. its been done on optical disc games many times on certain times for the Sega CD, PS1, PS2, 3DO, Sega Saturn, and Gamecube).

Yes, they can fuck up, they can make mistake. I'm not denying that. But I have a problem with the lot of people here who are simply assuming they don't care or have bad intentions. That's a typical "EA" prejudice being applied to every company as soon as they don't do everything that "the fans" want.

Pretty much all you're saying except for the dex is stuff that they've always been doing. They've always added new stuff and removed old stuff.
It was only a matter of time till they started removing some Pokemon. I might even say, it's potentially a GOOD thing, less monster is more manageable and can (potentially) be beneficial to other aspects of the game.
Not saying they will make it better, but we can't know until it's there

Also, why do people seem to think cartridge size is a problem? I fail to understand this argument.

Sales numbers aren't a good indicator about how much people actually care about the situation or not; there's obviously people who are still going to buy it just to rip the models, check out the performance, and dissect the whole thing. Just look at Paper Mario: Sticker Star; it sold a lot of copies, yet most of those people either returned or sold the game right away.

This goes both ways though. If "the core fanbase" think Gamefreak is out of touch, they also need to look at the numbers of other Pokemon games recently and maybe acknowledge that they too could be out of touch and there's another fanbase building out of more recent games (thinking Go here) that might not care all too much about stuff being removed from games they never played.

 

[Deleted member 388531]

one of the biggest earning franchises folks

 

[A Generic User]

Siliconera translated this interview properly just days after it was reported, and the ones by gengo and Pokejungle support that. Sadly, I guess people are infected with confirmation bias and listened to the mistranslated reddit post instead because it told them what they wanted to hear.

I think the real issue is not mistranslation, but a lack of a translation. Perhaps the reason people are having trouble interpreting this is that it really can't be interpreted at all? It seems as though the original line is causing discord among translators because it doesn't actually mean anything: it's worded so ambiguously that it's impossible to tell what they're actually saying. Stuff like this has happened before, what with the whole issue of interpreting that one line in Kingdom Hearts X about who Lauriam's sister was. That's definitely the impression I get from the people who are trying to interpret it for the western audience.

 

[Chary]

After pouring through dozens of comments sections on multiple sites, trawling through Twitter, and looking at every other reporting site, it seems that the “models from scratch” part is definitively what they said? What comes into question is the why of it, as the team being split/overworked might not have been correctly stated.

Siliconera translated it themselves, with the important parts of their translation showing.

A) GF was pressured during development of Su/Mo to fit all the Pokémon.
B) Dynamaxing requires more production effort to be put into modeling work.
C) There was a “need to redo models”

https://www.siliconera.com/2019/06/...ear-even-in-games-after-pokemon-sword-shield/

PokeJungle did their own translation as well. Their take is that the line of “redoing models from scratch” could be taken as not being able to directly port the character models, and instead having to rework each model individually, while still using them as a base.

https://pokejungle.net/2019/07/12/game-freak-shares-why-galar-wont-have-all-the-pokemon/

NintendoLife via Gengo of course investigated as well, suppositing that it’s:

“Now that we are moving to the Nintendo Switch and remaking the models from scratch, we had to make some kind of choice.“

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...that_pokemon_sword_and_shield_interview_quote

Finally, Joe Merrick (Serebii) got absolutely dogpiled for saying that while the “split dev team” part is incorrect, but that they did say “they had to redo the models from scratch”

https://twitter.com/JoeMerrick/status/1150046237804154881?s=20

The issue absolutely seems to be one big vague cluster of crap, but that’s why this is news. For people to discuss their thoughts and add comments and try to find out what the truth appears to be. Seeing as I’ve done the news for this site for 4 years, I don’t try to post half baked stories, and I am always very vocal against rumors. So any snark is laughable. This seemed important enough to cover, however, as Pokemon discussions are at an all time fever pitch lately.

It’s clear to see that people are incredibly furious about Pokémon S/S, but anger and disappointment by no means gives anyone rights to believe they know exactly what GameFreak is doing. Have they shown lazy tendencies in the past? Yes. Could they be trying to cover their butts by trying to offload a little bit of the ire towards them? Certainly, though this interview existed prior to the outcry of recycled animations. Just don’t let fury cloud your judgement on the possibilities and finer details.

 

[deinonychus71]

Being a game developer doesn't mean you should expect the fans to universally praise the decisions you made in making the game. Receiving criticism that isn't positive=/=harassment or bullying.

When criticism turns into conspiracies it becomes a problem. And this is sadly the era we live in, where people call journalists for lack of "fact checking" while not spending a second to fact check themselves.
And these days, youtubers words are almost gospel, they barely need to prove anything, while journalists won't be trusted no matter what.

I've got that video from that freelancer animator youtuber sent to me multiple times as a "fact" that Gamefreak was being lazy. What's really lazy is people not giving a damn about using their brain and think by themselves. It's not cause you've done a few animations in freelancer that you can grasp all the intricacies of managing a large scale project. It's not because 1 JRPG on switch have better animations that it's on the same scale as a game that would need to have 800+ monster properly animated. Some comparisons just never made sense, but people are unable to being critical over what some influencers are saying.
It's sad, truly sad.

There needs to be a status quo somewhere, some neutrality. I'll be the last one to say game journalists don't have an agenda, but that doesn't mean youtubers don't have one either.

 

[DeoNaught]

After pouring through dozens of comments sections on multiple sites, trawling through Twitter, and looking at every other reporting site, it seems that the “models from scratch” part is definitively what they said? What comes into question is the why of it, as the team being split/overworked might not have been correctly stated.

Siliconera translated it themselves, with the important parts of their translation showing.

A) GF was pressured during development of Su/Mo to fit all the Pokémon.
B) Dynamaxing requires more production effort to be put into modeling work.
C) There was a “need to redo models”

https://www.siliconera.com/2019/06/...ear-even-in-games-after-pokemon-sword-shield/

PokeJungle did their own translation as well. Their take is that the line of “redoing models from scratch” could be taken as not being able to directly port the character models, and instead having to rework each model individually, while still using them as a base.

https://pokejungle.net/2019/07/12/game-freak-shares-why-galar-wont-have-all-the-pokemon/

NintendoLife via Gengo of course investigated as well, suppositing that it’s:

“Now that we are moving to the Nintendo Switch and remaking the models from scratch, we had to make some kind of choice.“

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...that_pokemon_sword_and_shield_interview_quote

Finally, Joe Merrick (Serebii) got absolutely dogpiled for saying that while the “split dev team” part is incorrect, but that they did say “they had to redo the models from scratch”

https://twitter.com/JoeMerrick/status/1150046237804154881?s=20

The issue absolutely seems to be one big vague cluster of crap, but that’s why this is news. For people to discuss their thoughts and add comments and try to find out what the truth appears to be. Seeing as I’ve done the news for this site for 4 years, I don’t try to post half baked stories, and I am always very vocal against rumors. So any snark is laughable. This seemed important enough to cover, however, as Pokemon discussions are at an all time fever pitch lately.

It’s clear to see that people are incredibly furious about Pokémon S/S, but anger and disappointment by no means gives anyone rights to believe they know exactly what GameFreak is doing. Have they shown lazy tendencies in the past? Yes. Could they be trying to cover their butts by trying to offload a little bit of the ire towards them? Certainly, though this interview existed prior to the outcry of recycled animations. Just don’t let fury cloud your judgement on the possibilities and finer details.

Time for a featured post : D