Why are they biased against Kalos?

[The Mega Champion]

What I really don't understand is why the company refuses to give an explanation.

 

[Pokemon Fan]

What I really don't understand is why the company refuses to give an explanation.

Probably because only a minority of fans care about this issue, and it hasn't effected the success of the games. Perhaps one day the question will be asked in one of those interviews they do, but I doubt it will be a priority. To say they refuse to give an explanation would imply people have asked those in the know for one and they've refused to answer, which as far as I know hasn't happened.

That said I do recall it being stated in an interview that Alola forms were done and restricted to gen 1 pokemon as a gift to fans of the original games, so its not a stretch to assume that moving to gen 7 likewise had something to do with the 20 year anniversary, as advertisers made a big deal about the anniversary all over the place. To assume bias/laziness with no evidence seems less reasonable than assuming it being a business decision related to making the most of the anniversary.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

There's no way the gaming media isn't interested in why there's no third version or sequel to XY, someone HAS to be wondering this. And if they weren't wondering this last year with SM, they have to be wondering this even more now that they've come back to third versions after skipping it with XY, the decision looks even more peculiar.

 

[Harmonie]

I can't lie, it is pretty annoying.

Alola is not a particularly interesting region to me. I don't really like the Hawaii/tropical aesthetic. Kalos was right up my alley with the European/France aesthetic and the neat areas of the region feeling like they were in different seasons (I loved the autumn section). Plus Sun/Moon are disappointing games to me, whereas X/Y while not being quite as amazing as Generation V didn't particularly disappoint me in any way.

So you can imagine my lack of excitement when Sun/Moon get a rehashed release.

I understand that Gamefreak moved on from Generation VI, but they could have done something more exciting than Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon like Diamond/Pearl remakes.

 

[Pokemon Fan]

That's one opinion, but I think it is far too hasty to say the Ultra versions won't be exciting when we know next to nothing about them.

Honestly, Alola felt to me like a more fleshed out region than Kalos as far as culture and history went (and I liked Kalos) and had a much more engaging plot and more complex characters, so the prospect of those great things being expanded on already is exciting to me.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

That's one opinion, but I think it is far too hasty to say the Ultra versions won't be exciting when we know next to nothing about them.

One of the big things Alola has going against an updated version is the lack of areas to expand to, they're going to be very limited as far as creating new areas. They can't create new areas without new islands, which they probably can't because the four island system is an essential part of Alola's culture and especially the Tapus, and the alternate universe thing is not going to open up the game to a lot of new areas, especially when they've only been working on this for one extra year. So that's one area not to expect much in.

Honestly, Alola felt to me like a more fleshed out region than Kalos as far as culture and history went (and I liked Kalos) and had a much more engaging plot and more complex characters, so the prospect of those great things being expanded on already is exciting to me.

Isn't that more of a reason to upgrade Kalos over Alola though? Alola is fine as is, it can go without an updated version and still feel like a good game in its own right. Kalos though? It's so painfully shallow and barren, so it desperately needed that kind of update. Which makes it a massive injustice then, that it got no help whatsoever.

 

[Pokemon Fan]

One of the big things Alola has going against an updated version is the lack of areas to expand to, they're going to be very limited as far as creating new areas. They can't create new areas without new islands, which they probably can't because the four island system is an essential part of Alola's culture and especially the Tapus, and the alternate universe thing is not going to open up the game to a lot of new areas, especially when they've only been working on this for one extra year. So that's one area not to expect much in.

Yes, but for me exploring wasn't really the main appeal of Alola to begin with, and even when a game adds new areas to an old region you still end up exploring them in a matter of an hour or two.

Though at the same time, they could very well add new, small islands, as having four islands is only important in the sense that there are four "main" islands. Even in the current game there are a number of extra islands, namely Exeggutor Island and the Poke Pelago islands.

Plus, there is a lot of filling in that can be done with the existing islands. There are the many mysterious empty plots of land, some with construction material, scattered about the islands, and the fossil pokemon park plus the various areas that we know exist on the map but couldn't be visited (like the golf course).

Isn't that more of a reason to upgrade Kalos over Alola though? Alola is fine as is, it can go without an updated version and still feel like a good game in its own right. Kalos though? It's so painfully shallow and barren, so it desperately needed that kind of update. Which makes it a massive injustice then, that it got no help whatsoever.

That is indeed a fair point, but in this case it may be a matter of practicality. Updating Kalos would involve basically remaking the entire region (now that the characters and environments are scaled closer to real-world proportions). They seem to have wanted to do an expanded game sooner than the time required for that, and Alola's framework is already done.

It also may have been seen as just too soon to go back to Kalos after putting so much effort into Alola. It could be compared to remaking gen 5 right after releasing gen 6.

 

[Team Volt Grunt]

One of the big things Alola has going against an updated version is the lack of areas to expand to, they're going to be very limited as far as creating new areas. They can't create new areas without new islands, which they probably can't because the four island system is an essential part of Alola's culture and especially the Tapus, and the alternate universe thing is not going to open up the game to a lot of new areas, especially when they've only been working on this for one extra year. So that's one area not to expect much in.

On expansion: they can easily add any number of man-made islands to make space for the pokemon league and/or anything post game, including the Battle Tree, which frees up space where the pokemon league and/or battle tree originally were. Because they keep calling this an alternate story, they could even add another main island and change the story. Also, there is a lot of open and unused space on Poni Poni Island.

On development: Game Freak often splits into two teams and works on 2 projects at once. We know from interviews that XY was being worked on already when BW2 were released, and I'm pretty sure the same was true for ORAS when XY released. It might have even been in the interview at the front of the ORAS guide. It's unlikely they weren't already working on USUM before SM were released. They probably started working on the next games (most likely gen 8 for the switch based on the employment ads they put out) once SM were released and already have half a year into it.

They likely looked like this:

Team A: BW, XY, SM, Gen 8
Team B: BW2, ORAS, USUM

 

[The Mega Champion]

Yeah.

Sun/Moon wasn't the greatest Pokemon game to be honest. The trials weren't great and got old quickly. Gyms were better. The new pokemon weren't all that great and I barely used any of them. The game was also too hard. My pokemon were fainting way too much.

About the only thing I liked was the story. That was about it really.

For me... it was an underwhelming game.

It makes absolutely no sense for Sun/Moon to get a second version and for X/Y to not get one at all.

 

[Tropios]

Yeah.

Sun/Moon wasn't the greatest Pokemon game to be honest. The trials weren't great and got old quickly. Gyms were better. The new pokemon weren't all that great and I barely used any of them. The game was also too hard. My pokemon were fainting way too much.

About the only thing I liked was the story. That was about it really.

For me... it was an underwhelming game.

It makes absolutely no sense for Sun/Moon to get a second version and for X/Y to not get one at all.

For me Sun and Moon were pretty much one the greatest pokemon games (and generations in general) yet, while I consider XY some of the worst, so for me it does make sense.

To each their own man, but how we feel about the games doesn't mean much when talking about why XY didn't get followups.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

They're not biased, it would just make more sense to start a new generation to celebrate the franchise's 20th anniversary over a 3rd game for gen 6 since 3rd games are pretty much usually remakes of the first two games with some modifications.
Imo Kalos/gen 6 was one of the worst gens so I'm glad we didn't get a 3rd Kalos game for the franchise's 20th anniversary.

 

[Harmonie]

Yeah.

Sun/Moon wasn't the greatest Pokemon game to be honest. The trials weren't great and got old quickly. Gyms were better. The new pokemon weren't all that great and I barely used any of them. The game was also too hard. My pokemon were fainting way too much.

About the only thing I liked was the story. That was about it really.

For me... it was an underwhelming game.

It makes absolutely no sense for Sun/Moon to get a second version and for X/Y to not get one at all.

Just our luck, isn't it?

Well hopefully the Switch game will leave Sun/Moon rehashes and Alola in the dust.

 

[The Mega Champion]

Someone needs to ask GameFreak or someone that works on the games what second Kalos game wasn't made.

 

[Team Volt Grunt]

Someone needs to ask GameFreak or someone that works on the games what second Kalos game wasn't made.

send them a letter then. you aren't going to get an answer here.

 

[Frozocrone]

Someone needs to ask GameFreak or someone that works on the games what second Kalos game wasn't made.

Go on then.

 

[SinnohEevee]

They wanted to release a new generation for the anniversary. It makes more money.

But I am still wondering what's the point of USM.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

They wanted to release a new generation for the anniversary. It makes more money.

But I am still wondering what's the point of USM.

It's the same as yellow, Crystal, emerald, Platinum, and bw2

 

[The Mega Champion]

It's the same as yellow, Crystal, emerald, Platinum, and bw2

Yet there's no second Kalos game.

So it's a bias right?

 

[TWN]

What do you even mean by biased? Why would they be biased against their own game?

I don't know why they didn't make another Kalos game, but it may be because they don't want to oversaturate the market with Pokemon games (in other words, release them so often that people get tired of them). They may have decided to limit themselves to two releases per generation for this reason. If that's the case, then we may not have gotten a second Kalos release because Game Freak decided it would be more lucrative to make a Ruby/Sapphire remake instead. Which is fine with me, I'd much rather have a remake than a minor revision to a game I already own.

I honestly don't feel like Game Freak owes us an explanation for this. I feel like they more owe us an explanation for charging a full $40 for a minor revision to games they released the year before. Downloadable content would suffice. Get with the times, Game Freak.

 

[Kristaok]

I admit sure Z would have been nice, I love Kalos but them going to another gen wasn't a deal breaker for me.