[Let's Go] [THEORY] Were these games supposed to be released on 3DS

Ever since the reveal trailer, I had a bad feeling that these games were supposed to be the 20th anniversary games. I brushed it off at first, but after thinking about it more and more, it just started to make sense. I think I revealed the biggest Pokémon conspiracy to date. So put on your tin foil hats and read on! But don't take it too seriously... it's just small funny theory.

20th anniversary

As you may know, Pokémon had 20th anniversary in 2016 and we were all expecting new games. We got new generation, but wouldn't it make more sense to make something that defines the whole franchise? You know, remake of games that started it all 20 years ago?

Graphics and stylization

Let's compare XY, SuMo and LGPE style:

XY - chibi style
SuMo - realistic style
LGPE - chibi style

Why would GF return back to chibi, after putting an effort to make good-looking graphics of Alola? They pretty much created graphics that 3DS could barely handle - but that would make sense on Switch. Compare LGPE and SuMo to SMO or BotW and you can notice that SuMo is much more like the two Switch games.

Mechanics

Let's start this with obvious one: 2016 was year of Pokémon GO. Wouldn't it make much more sense to release game with same mechanics from GO same year, when people were interested in playing Pokémon GO? Unlike now when the playerbase is so much smaller? Of course it would probably kill GO, but it would also transfer players to main series games, instead just losing them.

Now look at Sun and Moon and it's distribution of tall grass and overworld Pokémon. Tall grass is even in the cities. And each patch of grass has different encounters. Doesn't this call for the wild Pokémon to appear in overworld more that the encounters in Kanto?

Now let's talk about GO catching. It's made for touchscreen. Both 3DS and Switch have touchscreens, but Switch doesn't use it for this mechanic. I can imagine that if LGPE was released on the 3DS, you would use touchscreen to spin the Pokéball and throw it exactly like in GO.

Other

Last few things I would like to address in this theory...

You can get Alola Totem in XY, which means SuMo were in development at that time... But 3 years are too much for 3DS game, right? On the other hand, if GF wanted to, they could wait with its release few moths until Switch came out.

We never heard about LGPE until now. Not even a word on the last year's E3, where they announced 2019 games. Because of that, I think GF planned to have this game for 20th anniversary, but had problems with either GO connectivity or were just afraid that GO won't be successful, so they scrapped that version of LGPE and remade SuMo for 3DS - that would explain why is SuMo so rushed and empty. They had no time to do them properly, but still wanted to release something to 20th anniversary. Some time later, they wanted to have more time on 2019 games, so they decided to take LGPE back and released it now.

Last thing... If you had brand new console, would you like to deliver your fans brand new game with new region on the launch or would you wait more that a year and then give a remake of older games?

Well, that's probably all... What do you think about this small silly theory?

It's possible. I think GF is just lazy but this is plausible considering the hype of GO in 2016.

I'd also prefer delivering a new region on a new console than remake something to have modern graphics that I've already played many times.

Absolutely possible....

As strangerhypno said though, GameFreak tends to be extremely lazy with some things!

Interesting theory. When GO was at it's most popular they could have cashed in so much more.

I too thought the chibi was odd, but I thought well maybe they are going back to that. I personally like the chibi better than the full anime looking art of S/M but that art I dont necessarily dislike either.
Chibi is friendly and cute.
Good Thought. I bet you are correct :)

Very possible.

There was talk of US/UM being released on Switch just after the release of Sun and Moon. But, back on to the topic. Sun and Moon didn't offer anything that really celebrated the 20 year anniversary, there were a few references here and there, but it's not in your face like LGPE.

The "It all comes together" thing was obviously a cash grab slogan (Sun and Moon and from what I have played of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, are great games and probably my favorite in the whole series), because no mysteries were solved or plot holes from previous games were filled up. And we were left with even more plot holes after Sun and Moon. Lillie's departure to Kanto, Lusamine's current state, Hau's father, etc. It is all left unsolved.

I'd say if they gave us Su/Mo in 2015, maybe LGPE would have worked for 2016 and we still would have gotten US/UM last year. I am still peeved that we got nothing in 2015, especially since "Pokémon Z" was all the rage.

And let's not forget how barren Alola was after post-game.

When I saw the title of this thread I thought it was kinda ridiculous, but after seeing where you're getting the idea, it does make a lot of sense. Something like LGPE would have been absolutely perfect for the 20th anniversary and the 3DS, and yet they didn't make it for that. Making SuMo for the Switch also would have made more sense since the hardware would have handled that style better performance wise. Really interesting theory, I'm glad you came up with this.

Games usually spend a lot of time in development, so for them to expect GO to be a big success and make a new game riding on it they would have taken huge financial risk.

So to me it makes more sense this started development because of the success of GO. Which makes sense in the timeline.

If that's true then the games could've ended up being Gen VI games... which would make sense as Gen VI saw Hoenn remakes that Gen, so they might've considered remaking the Kanto games again alongside them.

Then there's also the thing about GF having worked on Stars for Switch, but supposedly that was a tech demo... but who gives a tech demo a unique name like that?

Yeah, it does make sense. They probably were originally conceptualists for the 20th anniversary but we're scrapped, and then revitalized again for later.It also makes since with mega evolutions being in the game, which would be a better addition for a game placed immediately after their introduction, instead of after one that tried to downplay megas