Well, it seems like this conversation has covered a lot of points while I was writing my
essay response, but I guess I'll post it anyway in a spoiler tag just to help sum up the points that I agree with.
(Jul. 11, 2020 5:41 PM)freefafnir8 Wrote: (Jul. 11, 2020 5:19 PM)Zeutron Wrote: The release pattern is pretty much the same. The only difference is that we no longer get the accessory sets like launcher grips etc, and that’s because we already have enough of them.
I beg to differ. For starters, until SuperKing, Valkyrie has always been in the first wave, but is now a second wave bey. To follow this up this was the first April release to not have a dragon motif. Not to mention, this year March and April did not have any starters when they usually do. On top of that the May release we got was Fafnir when they usually give us a balance type bey in this slot. Finally we may not get a booster/ starter in August.
I fully agree with Zeutron here.
The pattern is the same in the sense that we know how many releases there are going to be each month, and we know what month the important releases come out. What the Bey isn't a factor except for big releases such as the protagonist(s), antagonists, and evolutions for Beys that had already appeared in the Season's base System. In Sparking, since the launchers are special, TT probably didn't want to make too many Starters, so a Bey with completely new parts could be treated as a Booster like Hyperion and Helios. Then, since we're already in the fifth season, the amount of new Driver ideas TT has left is starting to run low, so some traditional Boosters have taken the place of Starters. I'd like to emphasize that TT running a bit low on ideas for Drivers means they've given us a very big variety of Drivers, not that they're being lazy. The only things we're really missing right now are launcher accessories (which Zeutron already addressed) and Random Layer packs (which can't really be done unless there are only Single Chassis Beys and GT Beys, which so many people would complain about). So, aside from those, we can see that pretty much everything has lined up pretty well. Two Beys that could've been Starters and one that couldn't in March, a Booster that took the place of a Starter and a Random Booster in April, a lone Booster in May because there are no Random Layer packs, another lone Booster in June because they're not selling many Launcher accessories (and it's a Longinus just like last year), a Booster with the antagonist's bey in July with a Random Booster later in the month, and so far we know only of a Triple Booster in August, but you can't say with even a shred of certainty that they're skipping the August Booster, especially since Drum and Shu are gaining relevance in the anime at the moment and neither of their Beys is out yet.