25th Anniversary Discussion

I wanted to make this thread just to discuss everyone's thoughts on Pokemon's 25th year so far. Has it met your expectations? Have you been underwhelmed? Please, give me your thoughts!

So far, I think it has been pretty underwhelming for a few reasons. First, the remakes... I am still on the fence of whether I am going to get them just because they just don't look different enough to warrant a $60 price tag. I was hoping we would get some new gameplay footage or something today but we haven't received anything new since February... Pokemon Arceus looks promising but if you don't get the new Switch rumored to be coming out, it looks like it will run like dog shit.

Lastly, for me, is Pokemon Unite. It looks like it could be really fun but, god damn, give us a fucking release date already. I saw today it is slated for a July release in Japan... that's what we know... I think the best part of the year has been Snap, which is fun in small bursts but other than that, I really hope they come through with something exciting for us.

I also think it is appropriate to have higher expectaions for Pokemon considering how huge the IP is, they really have no excuses for doing such a shit job. Why is the best Pokemon game to come out (arguably) in recent memory a fan made game?

Coming from another fandom that celebrated a big anniversary a few years ago, I found that Pokemon's celebration is very lacking. There's not a whole lot going on with it. The various companies seem to feel that they don't have to do much. That releasing games that were probably going to be released anyhow is enough, just because it's the Pokemon brand.

The sheer lack of information is really hurting any excitement for the games that are coming out soon. There also doesn't seem to be a whole lot else going on with the celebration, either. (Though I might have missed something.) There's not a lot to reenergize the fandom, to bring back the ones who left that were fans of Pokemon twenty-five years ago.

my general reaction is "what 25th anniversary celebration lol"

i honestly forgot tpci was even bothering celebrating it... if they are (beyond the weird celebrity partnerships??). cause it sure doesn't seem like it!

Went unnoticed here too. Remembers hearing about concerts. Did not care at all.

Devalue said:

Went unnoticed here too. Remembers hearing about concerts. Did not care at all.

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Crossed my mind but didn't think it was worth mentioning. Never watched it and never care to... Katy Perry, really?

colours said:

my general reaction is "what 25th anniversary celebration lol"

i honestly forgot tpci was even bothering celebrating it... if they are (beyond the weird celebrity partnerships??). cause it sure doesn't seem like it!

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I know, if they hadn't hyped it up I wouldn't have care or probably even realized it was 25 years but to bring attention to it and then make it so lame just takes me out of it. I am really trying to keep my love of Pokemon alive but if it keeps going at the rate it is, at least we have a lot of good old games we can replay and a community that makes great fan made games.

Astinus said:

Coming from another fandom that celebrated a big anniversary a few years ago, I found that Pokemon's celebration is very lacking. There's not a whole lot going on with it. The various companies seem to feel that they don't have to do much. That releasing games that were probably going to be released anyhow is enough, just because it's the Pokemon brand.

The sheer lack of information is really hurting any excitement for the games that are coming out soon. There also doesn't seem to be a whole lot else going on with the celebration, either. (Though I might have missed something.) There's not a lot to reenergize the fandom, to bring back the ones who left that were fans of Pokemon twenty-five years ago.

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This!

I was hoping we'd at least see some more information on BDSP or Legends before they threw the pre-order page at us. x_x Overall there hasn't really been much to hype about. Things like music collaborations were pretty cool though, I'll admit, but that becomes old news fast and by itself isn't really much. Seems like something they only celebrated a little bit initially, and now it's no longer relevant. Not sure if they meant for this to be a long-lasting celebration throughout the year but it doesn't look like it.

Katy Perry's song was good, but had very little 'Pokémon' to it imo. Not much would have changed if Pichu/Pikachu were taken out, I think?

It's about on-par with the Zelda 35th Anniversary. Which is to say, disappointing only in the sense that it feels like any other year for the franchise. Part of me feels like this is because what they have done hasn't been aimed at me - I mean, I'd never even heard of Post Malone before this, and I don't care for Katy Perry at all - but at the same time I think they should be doing more, and there is a lot they could do that would require very little effort.

Retro game collections on the Switch spring to mind, or even just past event Pokemon distribution. I still have my 10th Anniversary Legendaries, and I remember looking forward to getting the next one each month back then. They should be scheduling monthly Pokemon Directs to promote the new games - just because it's not Game Freak doing BDSP doesn't mean the games should be forgotten about - and more anime specials. Amongst other things.

25 is a fairly significant number, and Pokemon is the largest media franchise in existence. Even if it's more about the merchandise than it is anything else, to say that they have the budget to promote the hell out of this year would be an understatement. But this is classic TCPI - why put in any effort at all when the money is going to come rolling in regardless?

I could care less about the anniversary, if I'm being honest. I'm just so immensely excited cited for remakes, that's been my primary focus. Now that they've been announced, I've been gazing at the Pokémon company with rose tinted glasses on ever since.

I wouldn't be surprised if they skipped major celebrations because they had stuff during the 20th anniversary. I remember certain gaming shops being full of different Pokemon merchandise throughout the year. 5 years isn't really that huge of a time to pass, I suppose.

I think it's been quiet because something big is about to happen. And by something big I mean a Pokemon collection with all the previous installments for the Switch

well i think its pretty huge with the 25 aniversery it was every where t game stop and all of the pokemon cards and games were sold out in a day!!!!!

MiamiHeat305 said:

I think it's been quiet because something big is about to happen. And by something big I mean a Pokemon collection with all the previous installments for the Switch

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God damn I hope that happens!

I'd like to see the GBA titles become more easily accessible. Gen 1 and 2 had been added to the 3DS eshop, it would have been nice seeing Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald.

ZeoStar said:

I'd like to see the GBA titles become more easily accessible. Gen 1 and 2 had been added to the 3DS eshop, it would have been nice seeing Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald.

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I agree, a couple of months ago either my Emerald Cartridge or my GBA SP finally kicked the bucket 😢. I am really not a fan of doing emulators either so for now I really just cannot access the games.