I'm posting this because of the release of Pokemon Black and White in Japan next month. Pokemon Black and White seemed to come out of nowhere when they were announced. It was hard to believe that Gamefreak had been working on this game at the same time as Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver. What was even harder to believe is that the game is coming out less than a year later from the aforementioned games. This has got me worried.
 
Why? Well, for one, I'm an odd one and enjoyed Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. When HeartGold and SoulSilver came out, I was hit by a huge wave of nostalgia while playing it. Obviously, I've enjoyed the more recent releases. But now it seems that Black and White might end that good track record Pokemon has in my heart.
 
Why? For one, I have no idea how long Gamefreak has taken on the new games, and the timing seems to be too soon. While Gamefreak promised that the game will "take Pokemon in a new direction" I honestly don't feel 3on3 battling is that important of a development. Not only this, but has anybody seen the new starters?  I don't like them. 
 
To keep going on my rant, Gamefreak finally decided that online random battles were a good idea. It seems to be an extremely late development ESPECIALLY after we've had 5 games with online capability. 
 
What does look good in this game is the High Link, in which you can go to another friend's game and either help or hinder them on quests, and explore the whole of Issun. This seemed needed for a while, if you ask me. And, along with Day/Night coming back, we're going to see seasons in which certain Pokemon come out. The only problem I have with this one is that it's been confirmed that certain Pokemon only come out during certain seasons. I dislike having to mess with my DS calendar in order to catch a Mareep.
  
The new legends look awesome. I guess that's a plus?
 
Overall, it doesn't seem like the game will change too much. Me, being a Pokemon fan, will buy it no matter what. I'm just worried about the potential amount of disappointment I might feel. Guess I'll found out later in September...
 
Pokemon Black/White...what do you all think?

I'm posting this because of the release of Pokemon Black and White in Japan next month. Pokemon Black and White seemed to come out of nowhere when they were announced. It was hard to believe that Gamefreak had been working on this game at the same time as Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver. What was even harder to believe is that the game is coming out less than a year later from the aforementioned games. This has got me worried.
 
Why? Well, for one, I'm an odd one and enjoyed Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. When HeartGold and SoulSilver came out, I was hit by a huge wave of nostalgia while playing it. Obviously, I've enjoyed the more recent releases. But now it seems that Black and White might end that good track record Pokemon has in my heart.
 
Why? For one, I have no idea how long Gamefreak has taken on the new games, and the timing seems to be too soon. While Gamefreak promised that the game will "take Pokemon in a new direction" I honestly don't feel 3on3 battling is that important of a development. Not only this, but has anybody seen the new starters?  I don't like them. 
 
To keep going on my rant, Gamefreak finally decided that online random battles were a good idea. It seems to be an extremely late development ESPECIALLY after we've had 5 games with online capability. 
 
What does look good in this game is the High Link, in which you can go to another friend's game and either help or hinder them on quests, and explore the whole of Issun. This seemed needed for a while, if you ask me. And, along with Day/Night coming back, we're going to see seasons in which certain Pokemon come out. The only problem I have with this one is that it's been confirmed that certain Pokemon only come out during certain seasons. I dislike having to mess with my DS calendar in order to catch a Mareep.
  
The new legends look awesome. I guess that's a plus?
 
Overall, it doesn't seem like the game will change too much. Me, being a Pokemon fan, will buy it no matter what. I'm just worried about the potential amount of disappointment I might feel. Guess I'll found out later in September...
 
Pokemon Black/White...what do you all think?

well one thing to keep in mind is that GameFreak is, at this point, a rather large studio and they most definitely have resources.  Nintendo already had the assets and engine to make HeartGold and SoulSilver so that's actually the game that was released rather quickly. Black and White have probably been in development since Diamond and Pearl because this is actually the newest engine they've made so knowing Nintendo they should have had a lot of time. It all comes down to release dates, Nintendo probably has some kind of planned schedule for every new Pokemon game they release. 
 
Don't forget that Square had Final Fantasy's IX, X, and some of XI in development at about the same time but Square had a release schedule for each of those games. If they pulled there resources they could have made X a PS2 launch game but the way they distributed their resources gave each game the dev time needed to meet quality and launch date. It's the same with Nintendo, they need to have some sort of Pokemon game in the pipeline each year. This means that as I write this, GameFreaks already has plans for the next Pokemon game although it will probably be a combination of both B and W like Platinum did for Diamond and Pearl (Pokemon "Grey?".    
 
I know it seems crazy when they change or add something like the seasons cycle buy they've been using the same formula for years and they need to keep the series fresh in some ways. 
 
I'm probably not as big a fan of Pokemon as you (heck I barely played Pearl recently) but don't worry, GameFreaks knows what they're doing.

Pokemon is dead to me.
 
Repetition killed it for me, I hope to someday see a full 3d rpg version as many fans want, but other titles interest me little... 
Not sure how Black and White will fair tho. We'll see.

I think B&W will either be the best or the worst generation since GSC. I just get that feeling.

Wait, online random battles are a bad thing?

Put them down? 

@FluxWaveZ: Not a bad thing, persay, just a late development that I don't think will be too spectacular.

" @FluxWaveZ: Not a bad thing, persay, just a late development that I don't think will be too spectacular. "

Pokémon as a series has become really boring and adding more Pokémon into the mix isn't going to change that. I'd been playing the same game with little to no evolution in gameplay mechanics for years and I quit after finishing Emerald. It's kind of sad when you think about it considering that my first Pokémon game was FireRed and I got bored around the time of Emerald!

It may be a bit early to be making assumptions.  3v3 battling is only one of the new features.  You don't know what else is coming.  As for the starters, I have no problem with them.   
 
What will I do with this generation?  I'll play it.

" @Thunderstarter said:

" @FluxWaveZ: Not a bad thing, persay, just a late development that I don't think will be too spectacular. "

Late development?  You could say any and all changes/additions they are doing to Pokémon Black/White are late developments.  That doesn't mean anything.  Infinite use TMs?  Late development, still a welcome change.  Speeding up the battle system?  Late development, welcome change.  Perhaps you're simply tired of the core formula that the Pokémon games consist of, but it's a proper sequel that will bring its share of excellent additions.  3 on 3 Pokémon battles, if you have read what they actually consist of, are going to be fleshed out and actually different from straight up Pokémon battles (be it 1v1 or 2v2).  That may not be an important development in your mind, but plenty of people are interested in it and with reason.  There are several Pokémon designs of this new generation that I have a problem with, but the starter Pokémon isn't one of them.  Why don't you like them?  They evoke the same charm as all of the others and perhaps you're simply clinging to your nostalgia, on this case, all too much.  The majority of the time, games from a same studio are developed at the same time as another.  So having Pokémon Black/White being made at the same time as HeartGould and SoulSilver is nothing special at all, especially given the fact that they were simply remakes with a few notable additions.  Pokémon Black/White, on the other hand, are totally new games.  That's why there's such a quick turnover this time around.  This game will change in all the important minor aspects (along with some major) that it has to to make it feel fresh, at least by a small amount.  It's okay to be sick with the series, but don't claim that it's the fault of the developers. "

" It may be a bit early to be making assumptions.  3v3 battling is only one of the new features.  You don't know what else is coming.  As for the starters, I have no problem with them.    What will I do with this generation?  I'll play it. "

" @DrPockets000 said:

" It may be a bit early to be making assumptions.  3v3 battling is only one of the new features.  You don't know what else is coming.  As for the starters, I have no problem with them.    What will I do with this generation?  I'll play it. "

I said which starters I didn't like, and yeah, I came to that conclusion after reading some the comments. "

I'm probably going to end up getting it anyway.

despite my shortcomings of it, i might end up getting it anyways. i like Zekrom & Reshiram's designs and the teenage protagonists (especually the girl), but otherwise, not much else.

It also doesn't really take a stellar studio fo take a game engine that already exists, a game concept that already exists, a game story that already exists, and bundle them together into a remake. So they probably didn't need a particularly large team, nor a whole lot of time to create HeartGold/SoulSilver, and could put the bulk of their people on making black and WHite. Honestly, the short time between the two games wasn't a surprise to me at all. 
 
I respect what they're doing with Black and White, and that they're actually tweaking a number of things, but tweaking is really all they're doing, and it still doesn't look like enough of a change to make it a totally new game worthy of purchase by all but the most die-hard fan of the series. But as a die0hard fan of the series, myself, I actually have to admit I've been suckered in again and am interested in the game. The fact that it's all new Pokemon in your first runthrough will make it interesting, though I'm skeptical that they won't just be taking the approach they have been for awhile now (I like to call it the "Sims" or "Madden" approach) of releasing a game with some of the more awesome content from previous games stripped away for re-release in the third iteration of the game, or even another re-make. 
 
I'd love to see Pokewalker support, but I don't think that'll be happening since the little LCD device doesn't look like it's upgrade-able for all the new Pokes.

I'm in the camp of people who think that anything after gen 2 is kinda garbage... though I still think I played more Ruby and Sapphire than anything else.

Getting back into Pokemon has been a trip. I'm currently obsessively playing Platinum and ignoring just about every game I've bought in the last few months. I'll be starting Heart Gold Soon and hope to have both finished by the time B/W comes out. Also, your blog was really informative and thank you. I understand your concern but all these new features and additions only make me more excited as a Pokemon fan. So I'd say just hang in there and have a little faith in the developers.