[Legends: Arceus] Will you pre-order?

[Sheep]

With this being the first time we're getting an actual open-world Pokémon game, it's no surprise people are excited. Still, there've been a lot of different thoughts and even reservations thrown around on if it'll actually be good from the few previews we've seen so far. Unlike the main series it's harder to predict how good of a game this will be, since it's the first time Pokémon is stepping into this game territory.

Are you going to...

1) Pre-order when you can
2) Wait and just buy the game on/around release
3) Wait until we see reviews before deciding to buy

Or something else?

 

[Nah]

I'm gonna wait and see how things end up going before buying, both Legends: Arceus and BDSP. After how the most recent three generations of the main games have gone, I told myself I wasn't gonna pre-order or buy on release day anymore.

I get why people have some degree of (cautious) optimism regarding Legends. Most criticism about the games in recent years has been about the main series games, and this is not one of those, and on top of that, ILCA being brought in for BDSP means more of the Game Freak staff can focus on developing Legends. But optimism and me don't really go together, so I'm at best expecting Pokemon BotW (which sounds great to most people but I'm not one of those people).

 

[pkmin3033]

Already did! Games are weird - they either start off as cheap early and rise in price later, or are absurdly expensive earlier and drop in price closer to the release date. It's typically major releases that are more expensive to start with, at least in my experience. Legends and BDSP are £42.85 on base.com right now, which is as cheap as it's going to get in all probability...it's around the price I look for when I'm buying new games, anyway. Rather than risk wanting them later and being unable to find them anywhere for less than £45, I've put in a preorder now. They don't charge until day of release, so I lose nothing by doing this and can cancel later if necessary.

 

[FeralLungs]

I'm probably going to buy it if actual game play is shown, and if none is show I'm gonna wait for some reviews.

 

[Hybrid Trainer]

I'll probably preorder it once any cool preorder bonus items get announced. They're normally cheap tat that'll get thrown away after a few days, but sometimes it'll be a cool looking collectable that I can stick on a shelf.
If nothing exciting comes with it I'll probably find the cheapest place and preorder from there.

 

[Lordecoxinha]

4) Buy it eventually, when the Switch doesn't cost a kidney in my country :/

Even if I had a Switch, I wouldn't pre-order. Pre-ordering shouldn't be a thing, how do you buy something that doesn't even exist yet?

 

[Figure]

4) Buy it eventually, when the Switch doesn't cost a kidney in my country :/

Even if I had a Switch, I wouldn't pre-order. Pre-ordering shouldn't be a thing, how do you buy something that doesn't even exist yet?

To make sure you can get it? Also, you don't need to put the full price down, I usually put $5 down on my preorder just to make sure a copy is reserved for me.

As far as the divisiveness, people bashing the graphics should really chill the fuck out for several reasons... One, the games is roughly a year out the graphics will be considerably better than what was show and also, it is probably a Switch Pro release right? Meaning it isn't optimized for the Switch so I don't think what he saw in terms of graphics will be even close to the final product. I only preorder on rare occasions but this game I probably will because I want a hard copy and I want to be able to get it on day one.

 

[IrishAurum]

100% Preordering ASAP. I have high hopes for this game!

 

[fir3princ3ss]

I'll be preordering. This is the first time I've been excited for a mainline Pokemon game in years, so might as well preorder!

 

[Kuzehiko]

Yes.
I'm going to pre-order it as fast as it is available on Amazon. This will be one of the few times that I won't wait for the reviews. It's the first core game that is a prequel settled in the old Sinnoh, not to mention it is an open world game so I think it's worth buying, even more than the remakes. Also I'm a Sinnoh stan.

 

[Lordecoxinha]

To make sure you can get it? Also, you don't need to put the full price down, I usually put $5 down on my preorder just to make sure a copy is reserved for me.

As far as the divisiveness, people bashing the graphics should really chill the fuck out for several reasons... One, the games is roughly a year out the graphics will be considerably better than what was show and also, it is probably a Switch Pro release right? Meaning it isn't optimized for the Switch so I don't think what he saw in terms of graphics will be even close to the final product. I only preorder on rare occasions but this game I probably will because I want a hard copy and I want to be able to get it on day one.

I mean, sure. I can understand the hype and wanting to get it as soon as possible. I'm just saying, pre-ordering is literally spending money on something you don't even know is gonna work properly.

Exhibit A: No Man's Sky. Exhibit B: Cyberpunk 2077.

Personally, I'd rather wait a little to make sure I'm actually paying for something worth my money. Odds are the prices are gonna go down a little after some time, so there's that too.

 

[pkmin3033]

I mean, sure. I can understand the hype and wanting to get it as soon as possible. I'm just saying, pre-ordering is literally spending money on something you don't even know is gonna work properly.

Exhibit A: No Man's Sky. Exhibit B: Cyberpunk 2077.

Personally, I'd rather wait a little to make sure I'm actually paying for something worth my money. Odds are the prices are gonna go down a little after some time, so there's that too.

I agree with you that spending money on games before they're out is perhaps not advisable in this day and age - especially when stock is practically guaranteed to be around for some time to come, as it is with major titles like this - but a lot of places don't actually charge you anything until day of release, so it's more about securing a copy early for a better price than it is anything else. I mean, the games are up on Amazon right now for £59.99 (!) and I put in a no-charge preorder elsewhere for £42.85. Smaller retailers will often up their prices closer to release or go out of stock entirely, so it just makes sense to preorder it now at literally no cost and guarantee I don't get stuck spending an obscene amount of money further down the line. Just as an example.

Don't count on a price drop, though - first party games on Nintendo systems literally never drop in price, outside of digital discounts once in a blue moon. You may be able to get them second hand for a more reasonable price though.

 

[Lordecoxinha]

I agree with you that spending money on games before they're out is perhaps not advisable in this day and age - especially when stock is practically guaranteed to be around for some time to come, as it is with major titles like this - but a lot of places don't actually charge you anything until day of release, so it's more about securing a copy early for a better price than it is anything else. I mean, the games are up on Amazon right now for £59.99 (!) and I put in a no-charge preorder elsewhere for £42.85. Smaller retailers will often up their prices closer to release or go out of stock entirely, so it just makes sense to preorder it now at literally no cost and guarantee I don't get stuck spending an obscene amount of money further down the line. Just as an example.

Don't count on a price drop, though - first party games on Nintendo systems literally never drop in price, outside of digital discounts once in a blue moon. Pokemon Sword and Shield have been out for a while now and are still going for the same price...and so are Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee, for that matter. These games will not drop in price...in fact, if past trends are anything to go by, physical copies will go *up* in price after a few years.

That makes sense.

Still, I'd rather wait to make sure it's worth my money. More often than not the price plummets in Brazil after some weeks due to tons of stores buying a lot of copies but not having enough demand. In fact, I bought Pokémon Moon simply because it was cheaper than Sun for whatever reason. Also, I got the game at almost half the original price barely a month after it was released.

 

[Red1530]

I am going to wait until the reviews are out before deciding to buy it. I am optimistic that this will be a good game.

 

[Fairy]

I'm probably going to wait and see what the reviews look like tbh. The game seems cool but honestly I'm not 100% sure I'm ready to jump into a commitment like this.

 

[Meister_anon~Master_o f_None]

I don't really trust reviews much either though, until it gets to the tipping point where a good amount are saying about the same things.

I'm definitely not pre-ordering, but I wouldn't do that for any recent pokemon game. Well except snap, I'd pre-order that, but they've actually shown enough of that for it to be known to be good.

From what little they've shown of the upcoming games, there's a lot to be worried about on both of them.
But Arceus atleast has me willing to spend money on it, but I'll be waiting for more updates.

More trailers, feature leaks etc. But I'll still probably pick it up used instead of buying new, so I can get a refund if its still not worth it.

 

[Pokedream.su]

I only pre-order smaller projects that need my money to get off the ground. I pre-ordered the Adventure Zone graphic novel for example. Pokemon is a huge company, they don't need my money in advance.

 

[Janp]

I'll wait for reviews and even after them, I don't really see myself paying full price for the game.

 

[~Dill~]

I know this may sound odd but I might wait to see what the preorder bonuses are before I decide.

 

[pkmin3033]

I'm just going to quietly express my surprise that people are willing to trust in reviews in this day and age...