Odds of HGSS's following pokemon feature

[keechy2]

Opinions, what you guys think the odds are that this game will features HG and SS ability of pokemon following you out of their pokeballs, that feature was one of the reasons i enjoyed HG. But anyway what are your opinions on it, should they have the feature and or shouldn't they?

 

[Brock]

I honestly loved the feature but if it does come which isn't likely idk if I would still love it with all the different camera angles come when exploring the gen 6 games it might just limit it. also the sprites would be in 3d wouldn't it look awkward you might not be able to see behind you if there doing it to scale of the trainer and it might look stupis if the poke was smaller then you

 

[Kitgurl66]

I honestly loved the feature but if it does come which isn't likely idk if I would still love it with all the different camera angles come when exploring the gen 6 games it might just limit it. also the sprites would be in 3d wouldn't it look awkward you might not be able to see behind you if there doing it to scale of the trainer and it might look stupis if the poke was smaller then you

I agree with the size of the Pokémon, it should be to scale; I hope to work with Pokémon outside of their pokeballs too.

 

[Martin]

Honestly if they give us the option to choose between sprites and 3D models when we start the game I'd love to see this, although I highly doubt that Game Freak would give us the choice. I don't like the idea of it with 3D models because it may look weird but I'm all for playing the game in sprite form (locked to the grid) and having them follow me about 'cause I loved the feature in HGSS. Its part of why they're my favorite games to date, because it means that the emotional connection between trainer and Pokémon is that much stronger and more meaningful.

Edit: actually now that I've thought about it a little more I take it back. I would love to have my party leader follow me around because I've just realised that it'd look like it does in Dragon Quest IX (I think its IX anyway) and Inazuma Eleven Go: Chrono Stones, both of which I like the feature in.

 

[Element Of Smash]

I think I'm in the minority here when I say I didn't much care for that feature. I didn't like Pikachu following me around in Yellow, and I didn't like it even more when I couldn't do anything about it in HGSS.
HOWEVER, this is not why I don't think it's likely to comeback.
These days, the expectation is for the graphics and world to take full advantage of the hardware capabilities the platform offers. Especially for AAA titles like Pokemon. Now lets consider what goes into the follower mechanic.

• The follower must not be overly detrimental to movement, and cannot create problematic save states
• The follower must represent a recognizable version of a given pokemon in the party
• The follower must be able to access the same pathing as the player

The first is foremost to prevent the player from becoming stuck or clipped out by their follower, obviously. But there was some experimentation in the speedrunning community with the follower mechanics when HGSS came out, which was met with varying degrees of success. Nintendo will probably want the newer, more mechanically nuanced followers to not present many, or if possible any game breaking exploits.
For the second, we can consider the options of sprites, or 3D models. Sprites would be kinda cool to a niche audience. But most people would probably want 3D models. It's possible that the battle models could be recycled (like during the trade sequence), but if they can't for whatever reason, thats over 800 models that need to be redone. Even if they can, think about all the man hours needed to give them all proper walk cycles at varying speeds. Imagine how it would break immersion if they didn't do this, or worse, did it poorly. That's a lot of money out of the budget that can go to other features or aspects of the MDA.
The last part pretty much kills the sprites possibility. Sprites would probably have to be gridlocked. Meaning they couldn't path the same way as the players. There are a ton of programming issues that could result from a lost follower, especially save glitches and wrong warps. The game has to store and keep track of every entity, and all data can be exploited (see: any speedrun with a wrong-warp).
I'm not trying to be a naysayer to something that a good number of people clearly want, but thinking about it from a design perspective, I can't help but think that this would probably be something I'd cut when push came to shove.

 

[desertfreak]

I feel like the only person who didn't care for this feature. I didn't mind it actually, but I didn't care for it. I feel like now with more In Scale Pokemon this feature is pretty much gone. Imagine a wailord as big as the city following you. I'd laugh at it