Pokémon Sword and Shield announced. Coming Late 2019

[DiceyRobot]

My main hope is that much of the gameplay will be streamlined, for example: transitions into battle encounters are quick and snappy, options to skip/fast forward attack animations, smarter menu design (please don't make us have to do multiple clicks just to use "fly" or "cut").

The reason I dropped Sun/Moon is that it felt forever to get anything done. I just wanted things to go along faster. I was actively avoiding encounters the best I could because even if I intended to run, it would still take forever just to get to that option.

 

[Armite]

Might have been posted already, but we've probably seen Grookey's final form before:

 

[Deleted member 36622]

I think the biggest issue with Pokemon is that the fan base has grown up and matured but the games haven't and are still aimed at children.

It seems their focus is still children who don't care or know better and don't want more.

Simply put, Pokemon isn't made for us anymore, and with not being the target audience we either have to accept that or move on.

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If the rumors about Scorbunny-Cantona are true, how is this for kids only?

Kids don't know who he is.

 

[Rand a. Thor]

Im not so sure what you think is there will actually be there. Look at the unnecessary hills to guide the pathway.If you can go over those hills then yeah.

But I doubt it

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You probably gain access to the lake from the fields on the other side, this is just a route leading to that purple house.

 

[Galava]

Now time to wait for each month's trailer just before CoroCoro. Next trailer should be end of march start og april.

 

[diakyu]

One thing that needs to be kept now that random encounters are back us how in sun and moon it was easy to progress through routes and avoid the grass or take the most optimal way through a patch so you wouldn't see as many encounters.

Now time to wait for each month's trailer just before CoroCoro. Next trailer should be end of march start og april.

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What makes you think this? If the past is anything to go by we will get barely anything before May.

 

[Deleted member 38573]

I think the biggest issue with Pokemon is that the fan base has grown up and matured but the games haven't and are still aimed at children.

It seems their focus is still children who don't care or know better and don't want more.

Simply put, Pokemon isn't made for us anymore, and with not being the target audience we either have to accept that or move on.

Click to shrink...

But the games have gotten easier, more restrictive and hand holdy due to some misguided belief that kids of today are somehow less able than we were!

 

[Deleted member 2793]

If the gyms really act more like Battle Facilites from the Battle Frontier, I think there would be room for a lot of cool stuff now 4 gens after the last time the Frontier showed up. Would be needed to tone down a bit in weirdness to let people use most of their team at least I guess.

Gym 1. Normal Battles -- Yeah, well. You have to start from here.
Gym 2. Double Battles -- The official competitive mode needs to be the second one and you may teach the player about having team synergy.
Gym 3. Battle Dome-like -- Basically a tournament in brackets where you pick 3 different Pokémon from a team of 6 and in the end you fight the leader. Pretty traditional stuff. Could have your rival(s) and other named NPC characters joining in just to give it more flavour.
Gym 4. Rotation Battle -- Add this mode back. Basically rotation battles from XY. They're pretty fun and strategical.
Gym 5. Pyramid-like -- Actually a castle this time. You have to explore a castle, try to not get KO'd and defeat the leader with whatever you have.
Gym 6. Factory? -- I don't know if they would actually go for a gym that makes you pick 3~6 random Pokémon instead of your canon team, but it was always a lot of fun in Emerald/Plat-HGSS.
Gym 7. Triple Battle -- Another returning battle mode.
Gym 8. Set Pokémon Battle -- Basically a normal battle but without giving the player the option to change their Pokémon. The way actual Vs play is. It makes the last gym leader feel more like a serious battle.

Are these too hard or too weird for a SP campaign? I think that they would come up with new things and new battle modes. They did in SM with battle royal. But yeah, it's hard to imagine what they could do.

But if they do thematic gyms, I hope post-game has the option to rematch the leaders and have level-equaled challenges too.

 

[jerk]

It's an anime thing. Their canon cries are more like real life animals.

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My favorite animal, the screeching distorted rogue computer out to kill you. I'd prefer anime style. Preferably with a new company doubling it. Because the Pokémon company would do an absolute garbage job as they have been for a long time now.

 

[brinstar]

But the games have gotten easier, more restrictive and hand holdy due to some misguided belief that kids of today are somehow less able than we were!

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There is no way in hell Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon is easier than Red/Blue

 

[Cyclonesweep]

But the games have gotten easier, more restrictive and hand holdy due to some misguided belief that kids of today are somehow less able than we were!

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Kids aren't less able, just far less patient

 

[jerk]

This is native 1080p

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Was a joke mostly about the 3DS games and let's go from what I hear (but I'm not so sure on it) chugging a lot.

 

[Deleted member 38573]

There is no way in hell Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon is easier than Red/Blue

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Come on dude, they've explicitly stated that they want to make these games easier!

I'd be glad to be proven wrong. But other than the final USUM boss (Necrozma???) It was easier!

 

[WestEgg]

So... can we talk about how my boy Dugtrio apparently has a giant shrine in Galar?

 

[jerk]

There is no way in hell Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon is easier than Red/Blue

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I don't know. I got away with pretty much just pressing a in battle repeatedly and not doing anything else for almost every encounter. Maybe it would be harder for someone absolutely new to the series.

 

[Fredrik]

I think the biggest issue with Pokemon is that the fan base has grown up and matured but the games haven't and are still aimed at children.

It seems their focus is still children who don't care or know better and don't want more.

Simply put, Pokemon isn't made for us anymore, and with not being the target audience we either have to accept that or move on.

Click to shrink...

That likely very true, goes for many Nintendo games to be honest, it's not like they just make kids games but they're often going with asteics and themes that suits everyone.
But I honestly can't say it's bad. With growing up comes family, and today I have to play Sony and MS exclusives late at night when the whole family is asleep because there is no way I can play those when the kids might look, racing games excluded. Which gives me about 1-2 gaming hours per day, max. Violence and darker themes in games is honestly an ever growing problem for my gaming interest.

 

[Galava]

So... can we talk about how my boy Dugtrio apparently has a giant shrine in Galar?

Click to shrink...

 

[Deleted member 32018]

So... can we talk about how my boy Dugtrio apparently has a giant shrine in Galar?

Click to shrink...

Dugtrio's Cave maybe? :P

 

[WestEgg]

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Unironically my favorite Pokemon. Before his Alolan Form was revealed, I was really, really hoping he would get a Flying/Ground type Alolan form, and would look the same except he's embedded in a cloud instead of the ground.

 

[Xavi]

Dugtrio's Cave maybe? :P

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That would be a great throwback.

 

[Stat]

Really interesting reading a lot of comments. I can't believe people don't want Pokemon in the overworld and want random encounters back. Its still random what spawns, its just none of this "every 10 seconds a terrible Pokemon" crap.

 

[brinstar]

Come on dude, they've explicitly stated that they want to make these games easier!

I'd be glad to be proven wrong. But other than the final USUM boss (Necrozma???) It was easier!

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I remember Masuda (?) saying they simplified the maps due to kids getting lost in D/P, I don't remember him saying they specifically made the battle scenarios easier. Do you have a source on that?

And difficulty in Pokemon is obviously all down to team composition, but I found fights like Hau on island 3, the last Guzma and Lusamine fights, Totem Togedemaru and Komm-o and Necrozma to be pretty tough

EDIT: Hell, Giovanni in the Rainbow Rocket castle was giving me that smoke too lol

 

[pokéfan]

The grass textures are so poor in the battle mode. Oo

 

[Jonneh]

I'm still waiting for the Super Mario Maker 2 analysis...

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Sword & Shield will probably be today and Mario Maker is stiiiiil being edited

 

[Deleted member 38573]

I remember Masuda (?) saying they simplified the maps due to kids getting lost in D/P, I don't remember him saying they specifically made the battle scenarios easier. Do you have a source on that?

And difficulty in Pokemon is obviously all down to team composition, but I found fights like Hau on island 3, the last Guzma and Lusamine fights, Totem Togedemaru and Komm-o and Necrozma to be pretty tough

Click to shrink...

I might honestly be going off of that statement

Or it was to do with kids of today having less patience?

Looking at how many pokemon gym leaders have, handing us powerful pokemon, healing options being everywhere, rivals teams being easier it just screams that they are trending towards making battle scenarios easier

 

[mute]

Like y'all. Imagine the anime going like this:



Like, it's a 0% chance of it happening just imagine

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Posting again because it is hilarious:

 

[Banamy]

I bet the patches on scorbunny are magnets

 

[Sub Boss]

Really interesting reading a lot of comments. I can't believe people don't want Pokemon in the overworld and want random encounters back. Its still random what spawns, its just none of this "every 10 seconds a terrible Pokemon" crap.

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Wait so there are no random Pokemon fights?
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy 😃

 

[UnMajete]

I'm sure it's been brought up already, but when I saw that in the trailer, I didn't think of NAZCA LINES at all, it did make me think of the Cerne Abbas - but even more so these:

I suppose it doesn't matter which one or ones inspired this one in Pokemon though, it's just super cool that we have something like this in Pokemon, I really love it. Now I wonder if we'll get an 'Angel of the North' style structure in Pokemon somewhere.

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I thought about Nazca Lines because I had never heard about the Giant or the Horse, maybe cause I was only at London and I have not a deep knowledge of the british culture actually hahaha

But yes! You got the point! It's really interesting how they've been working to add cultural and historical references all across the region. We will have a really cool ingame experience I guess :)

 

[Ex-Psych]

Can't wait to see Ash embarrass himself and somehow lose again in this brand new region

 

[Velezcora]

Couldn't GameFreak just include a hard mode for veterans? That way kids can still enjoy an easy experience. Everyone wins.

 

[Xavi]

FeMC cursing is my headcanon now

 

[Deleted member 48897]

Complaining about Pikachu in Pokémon is like complaining that there are too many Mario games or that Mickey Mouse has more own series than Goofy.

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Well gawrsh Trubbish, looks like the haters are out in full force today, a'hyuck!

 

[Deleted member 2618]

I remember Masuda (?) saying they simplified the maps due to kids getting lost in D/P, I don't remember him saying they specifically made the battle scenarios easier. Do you have a source on that?

Click to shrink...

Oh god if they dumb down Sinnoh in the remake, Im gonna be furious. I loved how interconnected Sinnoh was.

 

[Deleted member 36622]

I'm sure it's been brought up already, but when I saw that in the trailer, I didn't think of NAZCA LINES at all, it did make me think of the Cerne Abbas - but even more so these:

I suppose it doesn't matter which one or ones inspired this one in Pokemon though, it's just super cool that we have something like this in Pokemon, I really love it. Now I wonder if we'll get an 'Angel of the North' style structure in Pokemon somewhere.

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There is another one with a man which looks more similar to the one in Sword/Shield.

 

[Egida]

This is great lmao. My dream is every cutscene playing like this:

 

[808s & Villainy]

So... can we talk about how my boy Dugtrio apparently has a giant shrine in Galar?

Click to shrink...

I posted how I noticed a bunch of things in the map come in 3s a few pages back

 

[PokémonSpears]

But other than the final USUM boss (Necrozma???) It was easier!

Click to shrink...

I hear all the time about Ultra Necrozma, and I really didn't have much trouble with it. My cousin beat the game first and warned me about it, but by the time I fought against it, my team was already at a high level, at least high enough to defeat it. I think I probably only used a couple of full restores, maybe one revive, but only because he was faster, not because I wasn't making him lose HP.

 

[IzzyRX]

I refuse to belive that all that walking/running Pokémon animations from Sun/Moon won't be used in this game.

 

[JoRu]

I don't really care much about the visual fidelity; for me it's that it'd be nice if they really lean more into building atmosphere in these environments. I want dynamic weather and a big focus on sound- and music ambience.

Pokémon often feels too static in its adventurousness; I want it to earn it. I want it to start raining and suddenly the music is more muted, and greater focus is placed on background sound. Then only as the rain clears the adventurous music comes back, at which point it feels more earned. Just an example.

 

[TriggerShy]

If the gyms really act more like Battle Facilites from the Battle Frontier, I think there would be room for a lot of cool stuff now 4 gens after the last time the Frontier showed up. Would be needed to tone down a bit in weirdness to let people use most of their team at least I guess.

Gym 1. Normal Battles -- Yeah, well. You have to start from here.
Gym 2. Double Battles -- The official competitive mode needs to be the second one and you may teach the player about having team synergy.
Gym 3. Battle Dome-like -- Basically a tournament in brackets where you pick 3 different Pokémon from a team of 6 and in the end you fight the leader. Pretty traditional stuff. Could have your rival(s) and other named NPC characters joining in just to give it more flavour.
Gym 4. Rotation Battle -- Add this mode back. Basically rotation battles from XY. They're pretty fun and strategical.
Gym 5. Pyramid-like -- Actually a castle this time. You have to explore a castle, try to not get KO'd and defeat the leader with whatever you have.
Gym 6. Factory? -- I don't know if they would actually go for a gym that makes you pick 3~6 random Pokémon instead of your canon team, but it was always a lot of fun in Emerald/Plat-HGSS.
Gym 7. Triple Battle -- Another returning battle mode.
Gym 8. Set Pokémon Battle -- Basically a normal battle but without giving the player the option to change their Pokémon. The way actual Vs play is. It makes the last gym leader feel more like a serious battle.

Are these too hard or too weird for a SP campaign? I think that they would come up with new things and new battle modes. They did in SM with battle royal. But yeah, it's hard to imagine what they could do.

But if they do thematic gyms, I hope post-game has the option to rematch the leaders and have level-equaled challenges too.

Click to shrink...

Having Gyms with varied rulesets is one of my biggest wishes, it's such a shame to me that Liza & Tate are the only double battle Gym in the series. I am all for Triple and Rotation Gyms, but I feel like Frontier-like Gyms are best left as optional. I was thinking more general rulesets like, "you are not allowed to use items, but held items are OK" or "we battle with a permanent weather condition" just general things that could ease the player into competitive play. So I think forcing the player to battle with Set is a good idea, but since there are people who play Set anyway, it might be better to just limit the number of Pokémon used.

 

[Beastie91]

Posting this again

After watching the trailer a few times I really feel the Gyms or Stadiums in this case will have some type of crowd cheer mechanic going on. You can here a bunch of cheers in the trailer when the guy walks through the tunnel. Maybe some type of mechanic that boost your attack or defense depending on what crowd is cheering..

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[GoldStarz]

Really interesting reading a lot of comments. I can't believe people don't want Pokemon in the overworld and want random encounters back. Its still random what spawns, its just none of this "every 10 seconds a terrible Pokemon" crap.

Click to shrink...

1) Overworld Pokemon have no AI which ends up taking away from the immersion
2) It's not random, it's still percentage based, if you want a rare Pokemon, you're still going to be waiting.
3) It totally upends nuzlockes
4) It takes away the surprise of a new encounter from those who want them in.
5) Tall grass becomes meaningless because they're still safe if they can avoid spawns there. Inversely, they're not even safe on roads if they can't.

The best choice here would be to make it toggleable, but that's a lot of work to make a feature that a decent number of people would turn off.

Couldn't GameFreak just include a hard mode for veterans? That way kids can still enjoy an easy experience. Everyone wins.

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That's the dream haha. It's really weird they don't at least try it since it was included (as a post-game thing, admittedly) in B2W2.

 

[Birdie]

We're supposed to get news about the Mewtwo Movie in Japan in a bit and I feel it might feature a New Pokemon or New Mewtwo Forme.

It might be like how Geneaect vs. Mewtwo revealed Mega Mewtwo Y but didn't actually explain what it was till much later. I can see that happening here honestly.

 

[Aleh]

I don't know. I got away with pretty much just pressing a in battle repeatedly and not doing anything else for almost every encounter. Maybe it would be harder for someone absolutely new to the series.

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Did you really? It's just so hard for me to believe, I've been playing since Pokémon Blue, I played every single game except Let's Go, and Ultra Sun was the hardest game of the series hands down, to the point I didn't just have trouble with every totem battle but also with freaking normal trainers with a few Pokémon in their teams. That game made me get angry at how many times I kept losing battles.
Comparatively I find gen 1 and gen 2 to be the absolute easiest games in the series with only gen 6 being the exception.

 

[Personablue]

If the gyms really act more like Battle Facilites from the Battle Frontier, I think there would be room for a lot of cool stuff now 4 gens after the last time the Frontier showed up. Would be needed to tone down a bit in weirdness to let people use most of their team at least I guess.

Gym 1. Normal Battles -- Yeah, well. You have to start from here.
Gym 2. Double Battles -- The official competitive mode needs to be the second one and you may teach the player about having team synergy.
Gym 3. Battle Dome-like -- Basically a tournament in brackets where you pick 3 different Pokémon from a team of 6 and in the end you fight the leader. Pretty traditional stuff. Could have your rival(s) and other named NPC characters joining in just to give it more flavour.
Gym 4. Rotation Battle -- Add this mode back. Basically rotation battles from XY. They're pretty fun and strategical.
Gym 5. Pyramid-like -- Actually a castle this time. You have to explore a castle, try to not get KO'd and defeat the leader with whatever you have.
Gym 6. Factory? -- I don't know if they would actually go for a gym that makes you pick 3~6 random Pokémon instead of your canon team, but it was always a lot of fun in Emerald/Plat-HGSS.
Gym 7. Triple Battle -- Another returning battle mode.
Gym 8. Set Pokémon Battle -- Basically a normal battle but without giving the player the option to change their Pokémon. The way actual Vs play is. It makes the last gym leader feel more like a serious battle.

Are these too hard or too weird for a SP campaign? I think that they would come up with new things and new battle modes. They did in SM with battle royal. But yeah, it's hard to imagine what they could do.

But if they do thematic gyms, I hope post-game has the option to rematch the leaders and have level-equaled challenges too.

Click to shrink...

It's a terrific idea. Now I will be really angry of GF doesn't implement this. This is so much better than 1 on 1 battle X 8 gyms

 

[ThisIsBlitz21]

I refuse to belive that all that walking/running Pokémon animations from Sun/Moon won't be used in this game.

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exactly! They didnt make 700 overworld walking animations for nothing.

It's just being saved for a later reveal.

 

[jerk]

Couldn't GameFreak just include a hard mode for veterans? That way kids can still enjoy an easy experience. Everyone wins.

Click to shrink...

It is absurd there isn't a a difficulty option that you can select at the start at this point. Literally no reason not to. If you're worried new players would select it and then get owned and sad you could have an NPC or something that can change the difficulty in game that you can talk to you or something

 

[ClickyCal']

I refuse to belive that all that walking/running Pokémon animations from Sun/Moon won't be used in this game.

Click to shrink...

Right now you should believe it.

 

[Deleted member 2793]

Having Gyms with varied rulesets is one of my biggest wishes, it's such a shame to me that Liza & Tate are the only double battle Gym in the series. I am all for Triple and Rotation Gyms, but I feel like Frontier-like Gyms are best left as optional. I was thinking more general rulesets like, "you are not allowed to use items, but held items are OK" or "we battle with a permanent weather condition" just general things that could ease the player into competitive play. So I think forcing the player to battle with Set is a good idea, but since there are people who play Set anyway, it might be better to just limit the number of Pokémon used.

Click to shrink...

These are nice ideas. Also would give the constant british rain people joke about. lol

Posting this again

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That would be interesting as well as long as it wasn't too easy to abuse.