Festival Plaza

[Hikamaru]

So, this feature has been under huge criticism from players in S/M due to its instability with connection for trading and battling, sometimes causing people to log out when their internet goes down, which can happen during the worst times like in the middle of a trade.

Festival Plaza does have other features like the shops that can be used for stuff like dying clothes, raising Pokemon's stats and levels, and even obtaining items. Every "enhanced" version has improvements from the first paired version, and here it will be no different.

That said, do you hope to see improvements with Festival Plaza in US/UM? Would you like to see the shops upgrade as you collect FC, akin to B2/W2's Join Avenue? Do you hope the connection issues could also be improved?

 

[pkmin3033]

Take. It. Out.

Seriously, this was the most convoluted bullshit in the entire game. It was a massive downgrade from the simple, user-friendly interface that the P.S.S. had, and I want it gone. They won't touch it at all in all probability, unless they add a QR code function for player-designed clothing, which might be included in it if they do. But I can't see this changing at all. Which is a shame, because it's by far the worst thing about Sun and Moon. It's so inaccessible its ridiculous.

 

[Nah]

Connection issues isn't really the fault of the feature, but rather people's internet connections and/or Nintendo's servers I would think.

What Festival Plaza looks like to me is an attempt to fuse B2/W2's Join Avenue and Gen 6's PSS, which were two well liked features, so in theory this sounds like a fantastic idea. The execution however wasn't exactly well done and we got this kind of user-unfriendly thing instead.

Would love to see it improved/fixed, because it could be something great, but my expectations for everything in regards to these games are low, so....

 

[Hikamaru]

I can definitely get you there, Nah. I probably won't expect Game Freak to change it much but I still hold out hope they'll at least put effort to make it slightly better.

 

[pkmin3033]

If nothing else, they could make it more user friendly. So many button presses just to exit the damn thing...I know it seems like a small, petty thing, but these things should not be so inconvenient. I'm sure if it took as long to save now as it used to in the older games there would be an outcry, and Pokemon is perhaps the only series I can think of outside of Dragon Quest that puts you through so much unnecessary text every time you want to do something you have to do a lot of...like heal your Pokemon. In a way it's worse than the cutscenes, and Festival Plaza was like...all of that, all in one place. If they can't make it more economic and user-friendly, they can AT LEAST make it faster.

 

[fenyx4]

Take. It. Out.

Seriously, this was the most convoluted bull**** in the entire game. It was a massive downgrade from the simple, user-friendly interface that the P.S.S. had, and I want it gone. They won't touch it at all in all probability, unless they add a QR code function for player-designed clothing, which might be included in it if they do. But I can't see this changing at all. Which is a shame, because it's by far the worst thing about Sun and Moon. It's so inaccessible its ridiculous.

If nothing else, they could make it more user friendly. So many button presses just to exit the damn thing...I know it seems like a small, petty thing, but these things should not be so inconvenient. I'm sure if it took as long to save now as it used to in the older games there would be an outcry, and Pokemon is perhaps the only series I can think of outside of Dragon Quest that puts you through so much unnecessary text every time you want to do something you have to do a lot of...like heal your Pokemon. In a way it's worse than the cutscenes, and Festival Plaza was like...all of that, all in one place. If they can't make it more economic and user-friendly, they can AT LEAST make it faster.

Yeah; ideally, I would hope that the Festival Plaza is replaced with something superior in Pokémon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon... I haven't even used it, but the fan consensus seems to be that it is utterly horrible. And I've skimmed some of the mechanics of it, and they seem really convoluted (Generation 3 seems way simpler in comparison).. Game Freak should just bring back Join Avenue functionality as it was in Pokémon Black 2/White 2 and just use the works-anywhere Player Search System of Pokémon X and Y.

And did they really make dyed clothing/color options version-exclusive? -_->:(:|{D:}o_O Like, my gosh - that is just nonsensical; there are enough "version-exclusive" things in the game already!

 

[jombii]

I'm not really fond of festival plaza as it is too much of a hassle when I just wanted to trade. But I don't think it's going away as it is packaged as Sophocles' baby project.

 

[clbgolden]

I'll be ok with the Festival Plaza if the PSS is still an option.

Legit, the Plaza itself is fun but making it the main source of internet connection wasn't really the best.

 

[Hikamaru]

I know I hate to admit it, but PSS returning seems very unlikely. Next generation it could be a possibility though.

 

[tokyodrift]

They should just remove it, and bring back the PSS. It was simple, and WAY LESS steps to have to go through just to do something as simple as trading. I mean third versions seem to fix things that really didn't work out in the first iterations, let's just hope they actually listen to the consumer.

 

[-Nonsense-]

Like a lot of other people said having the PSS system back would be best thing ever (though I dont dislike the Plaza).

 

[Radiating]

Honestly I don't care if it goes away or gets replaced. I never had any issues using it and it's easy to navigate. My only complain is that it takes a bit more to get started than the old PSS.

 

[Hikamaru]

I thought that the reason I made this thread was made to spotlight on Festival Plaza features being improved because of how much it's been complained about, not a "I want PSS back" thread. PSS will not be returning in this generation because of compatibility issues with S/M which is because I know Festival Plaza will be carried over to US/UM.

 

[pkmin3033]

I think the point is that Festival Plaza could be improved if its accessibility was more akin to PSS, not that PSS should replace Festival Plaza outright, which we know probably won't happen. As a feature it has some interesting ideas, but as far as online connectivity goes, its clunky, slow, and frustrating to navigate. It doesn't really matter how they expand it, they NEED to make it more user-friendly...like PSS was. It was a colossal step backwards where it wasn't necessary; they HAD a working system, and these online features it had could have easily been separated, or more accessible than they were.

It's a badly designed bunch of good or interesting ideas, basically. The design is what needs to change. The ideas, not necessarily.

 

[Hikamaru]

I think the point is that Festival Plaza could be improved if its accessibility was more akin to PSS, not that PSS should replace Festival Plaza outright, which we know probably won't happen. As a feature it has some interesting ideas, but as far as online connectivity goes, its clunky, slow, and frustrating to navigate. It doesn't really matter how they expand it, they NEED to make it more user-friendly...like PSS was. It was a colossal step backwards where it wasn't necessary; they HAD a working system, and these online features it had could have easily been separated, or more accessible than they were.

It's a badly designed bunch of good or interesting ideas, basically. The design is what needs to change. The ideas, not necessarily.

I think the main reason why Festival Plaza was a menu feature in S/M was because the bottom screen's primary feature was Rotom Dex's map, which I do admit was lame because it literally kept showing where you were meant to go. I saw no appeal in that other than to please newcomers, much like the hand-holding through the entire Melemele Island portion.

 

[pkmin3033]

I think the main reason why Festival Plaza was a menu feature in S/M was because the bottom screen's primary feature was Rotom Dex's map, which I do admit was lame because it literally kept showing where you were meant to go. I saw no appeal in that other than to please newcomers, much like the hand-holding through the entire Melemele Island portion.

Those two things together are one of the primary reasons I think that Sun and Moon were rushed out for the 20th Anniversary - neither the RotomDex nor Festival Plaza were features of the quality that we have always been able to expect from Pokemon titles.

However, where the RotomDex was painfully limited but had a relatively simple (albeit rather static) interface, the Festival Plaza had a host of features but the shittiest interface I've seen in the games since the first generation titles...and they have the excuse of being limited by the technology of the time. Given that XY had the better interface in the PSS, despite being lower-tech titles, means there was no excuse for Festival Plaza to be as badly designed as it was, unless it was a technical issue.

I think this is why the focus is on the interface itself rather than the features - the features were fine. It was just...everything else. That's where it needs to be enhanced or improved upon. Expanding Festival Plaza with new features but still having it be dismally inaccessible is essentially wasted effort.

 

[Mawa]

I like the Rotom Dex, but please bring back a better way to battle and trade!! :o I can't believe how awesome XY was for that and how awful SuMo were for stuff like that... I don't battle and trade as often now and I am pretty sure this influence me... In XY I could make my eggs hatch while waiting for a battle opponent or trade offer. Now I can't do that. They had a good formula imo and they ruined it.

 

[RedJ]

I didn't want to add to the wall of "get rid of it", but I restarted Moon and just went in to the Festival Plaza to do some trading... but I have to sit through a long tutorial before it lets me do anything, including trading.

So yeah, I say get rid of it.

 

[smocks]

Was this just me but for a good amount of time, I didn't understand how the point system worked. Not knowing how to collect those points really did make the Festival Plaza seem sooo useless.

+ I agree it was just a whole step down from the P.S.S., routing for the P.S.S. to come back but since its following SM, the Festival Plaza will most likely come back.

 

[Ducolamia]

It needs to be gone honestly, if not, fixed up. There are so many questionable decisions that are made here that I don't even know where to begin. I don't understand why in order to trade online you have to log into the Wifi everytime. Why is there no type of Hot Key for this? And even worse, I can't even see my own Pokemon when I'm in there? I have to log out EVERY. SINGLE. TIME just to see what I have?! There's a PC for my Festival Plaza records but no PC for my Pokemon? What kind of nonsense is this? Oh yeah, the facilities give you the same items you can get at a Pokemart only instead, they're better here because they're technically free? Why am I going through such a hassle with facilities when I can just buy it at a Pokemart with less time and effort?

I get it honestly. They wanted some sort of Joint Avenue system. I agree that the ideas they have for it are pretty nice, the problem is the execution and man did Gamefreak screw up on it. I feel this could've worked better if they had some more time to go over and polish it, but instead this is what we got.

I wouldn't be so salty about the Festival Plaza if it wasn't the only way to get dyed clothes a certain way or having facilities that basically give out items I can already get in-game via Pokemart. Seriously, why are clothes separated by games? Why should I have to get lucky with a facility to get the clothes I want? (If I don't have a generous friend to help me). At least with Kalos they only seperated the clothes by gender. smh.

Overall, I feel that if they can't fix it, they should axe it or at least make it less annoying to use. If US&UM make the festival plaza bearable, I might like it more.