>>32810220>honeymoon phaseThere is no such thing. Bad games can't fuel themselves with hype alone, and most of the former Pokemon fans have moved on. There are better, more up to date, less milquetoast games whose framerates don't shit themselves when there's more than two models on screen, and it shows. Sales have been steadily declining as early as RSE (and that was back when the games were relatively good)
More likely that the "hype" is helped along with viral marketing and astroturfing. It's common knowledge that shills are paid to post on /v/, and by extension, they would do so on /vp/. Why do you think all the "ZOMG HYPE" posts are made immediately after an installment is released? I guarantee you that after USUM gets released, the board will be full of posts ignoring the likely major glaring flaws that will cripple the game.
