OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire

Most likely canceled in favor of SM and Gen 7. GF saw the 20th anniversary coming up and felt that a new generation would be far more fitting for the occasion than a Kalos retread. They also probably realized that there wasn't a single thing they could do with Zygarde that hadn't previously been done with Rayquaza, Giratina, and Kyurem, leaving less room for a third version or sequels to expand on XY.

The two unused blue pentagon games in XY and ORAS' coding were likely meant for the Zygarde games. The Zygarde forms in SM were likely also intended for these canceled games.

Admittedly, there's a pretty big distinction between Crystal and Yellow/Emerald that made it easier for GF to incorporate it into the remakes. Crystal's the only third version that didn't have significant story changes from the paired games. The only thing it added was a sidequest centered around Suicune, which was more an expansion of GS' story rather than an alternate version of it.

Yellow, on the other hand, gave you a completely different Starter, while Emerald combined RS' evil teams and recentered the story to focus on Rayquaza.

Notice that the Gen 2 games are the only games in which all three of the gen's mascots (Ho-Oh, Lugia, Suicune) can be obtained in all three games without trading, just at different times and levels. On the other hand, you can only get Pikachu and one Kanto Starter at a time in RB, so Yellow's the only game that lets you get all four Gen 1 mascots without trading. Similarly, Ruby only has Groudon/Rayquaza, and Sapphire only has Kyogre/Rayquaza, so Emerald's the only game that lets you get all three.

Suffice to say, the Sinnoh games are more like Gens 1 and 3 than Gen 2. The paired mascots are version exclusives in DP, and Platinum has a different story that's recentered around the third mascot. In fact, Platinum goes the extra mile and has an entire area (Distortion World) and Legendary form (Origin Forme Giratina) unique to its story.

Maybe GF would pull a surprise, but after how ORAS turned out, I'm not holding my breath.


I don't know about you, but I don't want any more remakes (including third versions). HGSS were the only ones that even turned out decently, IMO, and I'm just so tired of them. I'd rather see new things done with past regions, and it annoys me that GF seems so reluctant to do sequels. Even B2W2 were only made because of Nintendo's interference, and we would've otherwise gotten a boring, standalone Grey.

Sinnoh was the first time, though, that the third game had a different Pokédex than the initial pair. And, remakes have had a poor track record of acknowledging third version content. Just look at what happened with ORAS. They didn't even give Wattson his Manectric.

If Gen 8 comes out in late 2018 (which I've read is a possibility), that will make Gen 7 the shortest-lived generation ever. Was Gen 7 ultimately just a "filler gen" made to celebrate the 20th anniversary and close out the 3DS Era? :(

Fat chance of happening, but it'd be cool if Gen 8's main games were GSC-style sequels to DPP that let you travel to Sinnoh in the postgame. It'd be a nice surprise after years of single-region games and no sequels besides GSC/HGSS and B2W2, and an expansive two-region game would be a great way to show off the Switch's greater capabilities. I think it'd also be a much better way to revisit Sinnoh than HD retreads of DP that would inevitably ignore Platinum, including its non-awful Pokédex.

(Seriously, even the biggest Sinnoh fans think DP are garbage compared to Platinum. And, after 2 out of 3 remakes ignoring third versions, odds strongly favor Sinnoh remakes following suit. Better to have sequels that take three steps forward than remakes that take two steps forward and one step backwards, ala. FRLG/ORAS.)

Saw that, too. They are most likely talking about Gen 8, which would confirm my theory that USUM are nothing more than a stopgap being thrown together on the cheap to hold fans over until then. GF is now devoting resources to developing new games for the Switch, so they can't give us anything better than a rehashed Alola to close out Gen 7 and the 3DS Era.

Hopefully, Gen 8 doesn't follow Gen 6's lead and ends up being a watered-down standalone pair + watered-down DP remakes that ignore everything from Platinum. How boring and disappointing would that be? I'd much rather see more sequels and fewer remakes going forward.

GF seems to be extremely hesitant about making games exclusive to "upgraded" versions of handhelds. They only ever did it with the GBC-exclusive Crystal, and that ended up being one of the worst-selling main series games. :( Otherwise, GS (and Yellow) were merely GB games with GBC enhancements, while BW/B2W2 were merely DS games with DSi enhancements. SM aren't even N3DS enhanced games, let alone full-blown N3DS games.

Sad, too, since Crystal clearly benefited from being a GBC-exclusive. The larger cart meant more features and content compared to GS (ie. female protagonist, Battle Tower, story expansions, etc... not to mention all the JP-exclusive mobile features), and it even meant things like animated sprites and nicer tilesets in places like Burned Tower and the Ice Path. Crystal was, by far, the most complete and widely-featured of the early gen games, and many of its enhancements likely wouldn't have been possible had it remained a regular GB game like GS.

I can only imagine how much more we might've gotten out of SM had GF similarly taken the leap and made them N3DS exclusives. Unfortunately, I don't think either the DSi or N3DS sold enough to justify exclusive Pokémon games like the GBC did.

There's also the added hurdle of the Switch not being compatible with 3DS games at all. Remember that Crystal's GBC-exclusivity was partially about promoting the GBA. Those who still only owned regular GBs were encouraged to go out and buy the brand new handheld to be able to play Crystal. There's no way to similarly use N3DS games to promote the Switch, making N3DS-exclusivity a dead end.

Think CoroCoro is having USUM info this month? Would make sense with the timing of the reveal, but no leaks year. What are your thoughts of the games?

The current situation with the 3DS/Switch is somewhat comparable to what happened with the GBA/DS. Back when the DS first came out, it was seen as a separate console that would exist alongside the GBA rather than a clear-cut successor. Then, the DS took off in popularity in 2005/2006, and the GBA (and the GameBoy line in general) was accordingly phased out.

Same thing seems to be happening here. The Switch isn't initially being treated as a clear-cut successor to the 3DS, and Nintendo even recently announced a new edition of the 2DS, just like how we got the GB Micro shortly after the DS came out. However, you can't fight the future, and this is likely the end of the road for the 3DS (and the DS line in general).

YMMV, but I haven't been entirely impressed with the 3DS Era of Pokémon. The transition to 3D graphics (which still aren't even close to being on par with what Colosseum/XD had on the GameCube 12-13 years ago) seems to have come at the cost of features and content. GF has had to spend more effort on graphics and overworlds, and the games themselves have become far more bloated. It's painfully obvious that XY, ORAS, and especially SM were all streamlined and cut down just so the 3DS could handle them, and the end result is three games that look nice, but feel very empty and barren compared to games like HGSS and B2W2.

At this point, moving to the Switch would only be a massive boon for the series, as there just isn't any room left for it to grow on the 3DS.

The delays with GS were also why the Orange Islands arc happened in the anime. The plan was to have Ash finish Kanto and move on to Johto as soon as GS came out, but GS got unexpectedly delayed, and the Kanto arc was finished a year too early, so they made up a bonus filler arc to buy time until GS were released.


This is just a theory, but I strongly suspect that GF originally planned DP as GBA games, and after the DS started taking off in popularity, Nintendo made them switch to the DS midway through development. That would not only explain why DP were so delayed, but also why the games themselves were buggy and full of glitches.

Hope you're right.


Just as Emerald and Platinum expanded the Battle Towers of RS and DP into Battle Frontiers, I suspect that USUM will expand SM's Battle Tree into a PWT equivalent. We'll likely get the rest of the Champions (Lance, Steven, Wallace, Alder, Iris, Diantha), and the presence of Grimsley and Anabel potentially opens the door to the other E4 Members and Frontier Brains (who had infamously been left out of the PWT).

Since Wally's there, we may also see other rivals, namely ones than can be included without canonizing a certain starter (so no Silver, Barry, or Hugh, but Cheren, Bianca, Shauna, Tierno, and Trevor are possible). Of course, protagonists besides Red are a no-go, but if these are sequels, they may let you see your old SM protagonist via a Memory Link-type feature.

I don't think we'll see any Gym Leaders, however, as SM seemed to go out of their way to not bring back any past Gym Leaders. This may end up being an alternate PWT that swaps out Gym Leaders in favor of E4 Members, Frontier Brains, rivals, and various other characters who had been excluded from the Gen 5 PWT.


Well, one look at the mascots should tell you that Necrozma will somehow be involved, and the "ultra" in the games' titles likely points to the Ultra Beasts playing a larger role, too. What remains to be seen is whether not these are sequels like B2W2 or another third version like Emerald/Platinum, although the wording of the Direct suggested the latter.


Looking further back, it's somewhat known that Yellow was released to buy GF time to finish up GS (which were suffering delays). Crystal was likely also put out to buy time for RS, while Emerald was almost certainly meant to be buy time for DP (although GF severely underestimated just how delayed DP would end up being).

From what I've been hearing, gyms will likely be back in USUM. So much for trials and trying different things. :rolleyes2:

After so many years and so many third games, it's really tough for a third version to do something different and "out of the box," as so much has already been previously done by other third versions. Just from the get-go, we have a pair of games with fusion mascots, just like B2W2. If these turn out to be sequels with new protagonists, that's something else B2W2 already did. Old protagonists in new outfits? Look no further than Emerald and Platinum. Emerald also already set the standard for non-sequel third games having an alternate villain plot and Gym Leader/Champion changes. Based on those past three, you can also pretty much assume that USUM will have a large new battle facility in the vein of the Battle Frontier or PWT.

I strongly suspect that GF has started work on a Switch-based Gen 8 and is throwing USUM together on the cheap to buy time and hold people over. These games can mostly reuse assets from SM, so most of the heavy-lifting has already been done, and it shouldn't take long to add extras and polish others.

Ugh, at this fandom. X__X I make a few posts explaining why USUM are a bad idea and why sequels set in Kanto would've been so much more interesting and worth it, and I get barraged with posts from people whining about how they're "sick of Kanto," how "Kanto is boring," and how I should just stop caring about things like "story" and "character" because the games are better off treated as generic battle simulators. :rolleyes2:

Fans like these are why the series is so stagnant and rarely innovates. They blindly accept whatever GF throws at them as long as they can have their online battles with their favorite overpowered critters, so GF doesn't have to put an ounce of effort into pleasing them.

For the record, Crystal is my favorite main series game, and I also prefer Yellow and Emerald to RB and RS, but I also feel like these games shouldn't have needed to exist, especially Crystal. Kris, animated sprites, Eusine, Extremespeed Dratini, and the rest of the things Crystal added are all things that should've been in GS in the first place, and nothing feels more money-grubbing than to put out two "incomplete" versions of a game and then make people buy a "deluxe" version of the same game 1-2 years later.

It's not even great business sense, either. While Yellow and (to a lesser extent) Platinum sold decently, Crystal and Emerald are among the worst-selling main series games, and none of them sold even half of their respective paired games. Yellow is also the only third version that equals or succeeds any of the three remake pairs in sales. You'd think this would tell GF that most people aren't interested in revisiting the same region/game twice in a gen.

We'll see what the deal is with USUM as more info comes out, but I'm not enthusiastic at all. :(

Good luck. GF has shown themselves unwilling to make a dual region game besides GSC/HGSS, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. :(


Just more salt in the wound. :( Many have speculated that Crystal is being held back because of issues with the Japan-only mobile/online features, and there's also the possibility of emulation issues simply due to Crystal being GBC-only (vs Yellow, Gold, and Silver, which are all GB games with GBC-enhanced features). Crystal's different and more advanced internally than the other Gen 1/2 games.

Of course, it could also simply be GF/Nintendo wanting to be greedy. :rolleyes2: They looked at the RBY VC sales, saw Yellow outselling RB, and realized they could maximize their profits by making you wait for the superior third version, just like in the good old days.

Long time, no see. :)

I don't know about you, but today's news really disappointed me. After what happened (or more accurately, *didn't* happen) with Z, I was thinking that GF was done with third versions. But, instead, we're getting a third version that's been split into two (aka. one game for the price of two) with a rehash of Kyurem's fusion gimmick tacked on. And, these are still 3DS games, too, so they don't even get to boast the advantage of being a Switch upgrade of SM.

Like, what's the point of this? Why make people buy an upgraded rehash of games they had just bought less than a year ago?

What makes it worse is that it isn't even good business sense. USUM will be a third version/rehash releasing at the tail end of a console generation, just like Crystal and B2W2 -- the two worst-selling main series games, proportionately speaking. Does GF really want Gen 7 to go out with a whimper?

I may have my biases, but if I were GF, I would've done sequels set in Kanto and Johto (with Lillie as the rival) instead of a SM rehash. We're at the tail end of the 3DS's lifespan, and these are very likely to be the final main series games on the 3DS, so they need to be something more special than a third version. With the 20th anniversary celebrations still going on, revisiting the first two regions would've also made a ton of sense, and many things in SM pointed back towards a Kanto revisit.

Unfortunately, I'm now getting the feeling that those Kanto nods in SM were nothing more than a cheap gimmick for the 20th anniversary, and will never be followed up in any meaningful way. >:(

Well, the silver italics are gone...

Hey, are you still around? How are things going? :)

I actually missed you... but it does look odd seeing your name unformatted

No, i didn't. I haven't really played Sun as well.

My PM is still working, but won't be staying on PC for too long.

How have you been?