It seems like the devs are keeping quiet about whether certain features from DPPt are coming back. All we've seen the characters do is walk around, and battle (without the interface being visible). With the new games resembling LGPE as much as ORAS or even SwSh. And even ORAS cut its Battle Frontier. I am quite concerned that it might cut out a lot in the name of 'accessibility and simplicity', or simply to get the game out by Christmas.
But, RS never had a Battle Frontier. It's just that we were expecting it after HGSS had the Platinum one. It's just that the games left a sour taste with this issue, because they had the model of it and the Battle Maison instead.
- Dungeon puzzles (moving boulders and stuff, possibly with a workaround so that you don't need HMs): as long as it’s faster and less tedious than the originals, I’d welcome them. Sinnoh does exploration the best so I’d say it’s crucial to the games
- Gym Puzzles: IIRC the other remakes kept the same or very similar/fitting Gym Puzzles so I’d expect the same thing here. I like the Gym puzzles here but I don’t think they’re crucial.
- Held Items and Abilities: absolute must. They can’t use the excuse of LGPE with the originals not having Held Items/Abilities so they’re very crucial especially since there’s going to be online aspects
- Contests & Poffins: both are part of the region’s identity (especially Poffins) so I’d say they’re crucial though I think a lot of people wouldn’t care about Contests being cut
- The Underground: already showed to return so it’s clearly crucial enough to them
- Distortion World & Looker postgame: Both definitely should be. DW in 3D sounds so cool and it helps flesh out Giratina . Looker has been in every game from Platinum to USUM so he clearly is in GF’s mind so why exclude him from his debut region?
- Full Battle Frontier: Unpopular opinion but I wouldn’t care if it’s gone. It’s a neat feature but not one that’s vital to my enjoyment. After ORAS, I doubt it’ll return but we’ll see. If it doesn’t, I hope they give us something as plentiful:
- Villas: Not crucial but I’d expect it. The customization and bits of world building from the important NPCs would be welcomed.
- Wi-Fi Plaza minigames: Would be nice but ultimately mot crucial. Could see it coming back but I wouldn’t lose sleep over it being gone.
- Poketch features: The Poketch is still on their designs so they’ve have to had found some work around due to the lack of 2 screens. Getting the Poketch is one of the first things you thing in your journey and the features remain useful throughout your journey so I’d say it’s crucial.
- In-Game GTS: Doubt it. It was a novelty for the series but with Home I could see it being gone:
- Great Marsh Safari Zone: It’s the main attraction to Pastoria besides Wake and his Gym so I’d say it’s crucial. It also has a plot point involving Galactic.
- National Dex: Crucial? No. Should it be in? Debatable. Would it be welcomed? Yes.
Great list!
- Whether or not Sinnoh does exploration the best is debatable, it sure is very good and they should go even further in these remakes, but Unova has many, deep and diverse caves. Especially B2W2 is astounding in my eyes.
- GymPuzzles: Can be redone for all I care. Nessa's was extremely alike to Wake's so maybe there should be a nod there (or a cameo).
- Abilities/Helditems: LGPE didn't have them because of Go-mechanics and them expecting an influx of new players inspired by Go.
- Contests/Poffins: They're going to be in, but count me in the camp that couldn't care less.
- Underground: PLEASE LET US MOVE FASTER. I also wonder how they'll do it with regards to online/offline-play. It's crucial for fossils, etc.
- Looker/Giratina/DW: Definitely should be post-game or perhaps something called the Renegade Episode, akin to ORAS' Delta Episode.
- Battle Frontier: I really want it in. But wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't. Those characters however are among my favorite from Sinnoh.
- Villa's: I never cared for anything remotely to do with customization, from Secret Bases to personal style, it was never for me to be invested in the looks of a digital character like that. But I know people do.
- Poketch: I'm gonna guess it will pop-out from the side if you press Y. But yeah, the features do remain handy (well some).
- Ingame GTS: Please, yes. I hate the current trading methods and want it ingame. Trading in Home feels so clumsy and I'm one of those that refuses to pay a subscription fee for something we've always had for free.
- Great Marsh: I don't even see this being a talking point really. Maybe they'll update the daily mechanics a bit (and if this were fully on GameFreak they'd probably make it easier to navigate where which spawn is).
- National Dex: Agreed, Agreed, wouldn't even care.. I don't need to bring in GenVIII pokémon in my GenIV remakes.
I hope if that does return, that the chains won't break if you accidentally run into another Pokemon. It's why I never bothered to give it another try after having a 42 Pokemon chain break.
Oh jeez! Even with chaining, shinies were still supposed to be hard to get. You're chaining for a certain pokémon, it literally doesn't make sense for a chain for in example a Shinx would allow you to continue chaining if you broke the chain of Shinx, with a Bidoof.
These were the same games where you had a 1% chance of finding a Munchlax in only 4 seemingly random trees (until someone cracked the code) scattered around the region. They gave you a tool to get shinies, but you still had to work for it.
No mandatory moves for traversing, rotom bike was a big improvement
Full National Dex
Access to a seeking system like bank on Switch (with better monitoring against hackers)
All original moves that got removed returning except those Let's Go moves exclusives
Rotombike: Nope, not happening in 2D.
Full National Dex: Nope, not happening.
Seeking system: Whadaya even mean?
All original moves: Yes please. Why in the world did they think that Pursuit and Hidden Power needed to be removed?
Ahh I stand corrected. I sort of brushed off the battle tower as HGSS battle tower/frontier was just a copy+paste of platinum, I actually only did the Unown puzzles I think my first runthrough so I had no idea they were even different. It's unfortunate that those are the games considered the gold standard as they didn't really fix the majority of problems Gen 2 had (levels were abysmal, barely any Johto Pokemon available pre postgame or even given to gym leaders, and Johto being unable to stand on its own without Kanto), I find FRLG and ORAS much more fleshed out in comparison.
Back on topic, I still can't see them designing, modeling and coding an entire distortion world or battle frontier just to please some Platinum fans (How would the Distortion world even happen if Dialga/Palkia are the storyline catches...? It would be odd to go to catch Dialga and then Giratina just pops a "hey guys" outta nowhere).
And to the above post, we don't need all moves returning... Egg bomb, Magnet bomb and Karate chop have zero usage... Move removal was definitely welcome, tons of padding that just didn't need to be there anymore.
HgSs had that peripheral item which I really liked. Johto really got expanded in HgSs to even have its own Safari Zone, it's hard for me to agree with a statement like it couldn't stand on its own, especially considering how barren GenII and GenIV Kanto actually is. Johto has all this richness in its aesthetic and then you go to Kanto and its all incredibly
bland - even in the remakes.
Oh yeah, and one thing I'd like to see them do from here on out is the Remote PC. I went back to Ultra Moon to get an Alolan Raichu I could nickname; I hadn't realized how spoiled I was with the Remote PC until I played a Pokémon game without one.
This should never change. I think the remote PC is the single best quality of life improvement they've made for the players as opposed for themselves. Stuff like changing area-specific evolution methods is just so that they don't have to provide a place for a Moss Rock, Icy Rock or a version5.0 of Mt.Coronet. It was a really fun concept, but I think they realized they screwed up when they made Charjabug and Crabrawler unable to evolve THAT late into the game in Sun and Moon. Sure, they corrected the area for Charjabug, but you still couldn't get an Crabominable until you reached the freaking league.