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Official Pre-Pokémon Sword & Pokémon Shield Speculation & Leaks thread

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With the comment about how people "like phone games nowadays" why not have post game missions?

They can either be monthly or weekly missions and can be stuff like:
  • battling X amount of trainers
  • catch X amount of pokemon
  • use the GTS or Global link X times
  • trade X amount of pokemon
  • Get a level 10 Bidoof through wonder trade
  • find a shiny
  • find a trainer with a pikachu in an online battle
  • find a pokemon that's been traded from Go
  • Re-battle every odd number gym. They have level 95 pokemon now.
  • Make it to the last round in [new battle tower mechanic here]
  • Find a hidden [random overworld pokemon] hidden randomly somewhere in the region.
  • talk to a gamer kid NPC.
  • Find all gamer kid NPCs.
Every time you complete a list of random missions you're score gets uploaded to your online stats. They can keep cycling through endless possibilities until they inevitably shut down the servers for gen XI.

It's not much but it's still something to keep people busy while they wonder around aimlessly/look for shinies. This is also a great way to incorporate the medals again.
A sizeable list of in-game achievements to complete sounds like a pretty good idea. =D Pokemon GO even has the medals that you can rank up for catching so many of a type of pokemon and other numerical goals, some of which grant you bonuses or unlock outfits, so like... that kind of thing being in the main series wouldn't be bad at all. I'd rather it be a permanent list, though, rather than a monthly or weekly thing- so it doesn't get shut down when support for the games ends.
 
So... what do we think would fix this post game-issue? There are some glaring things that don't make a remotely good post-game- complete the pokedex and cuddle your partner being top of the nope list.

I think having several different activities available could be a good start- a Battle facility of some sort and a mini game facility like the Pokeathlon. And Contests, maybe.

I wonder if a greater separation of the League and the plot would be a decent way to extend gameplay- like drop hints at the plot while you make your way through the gyms just to keep things interesting, but don't heavily involve the player in the plot until they've become Champion, after which the difficulty level could just keep rising as you go to save the world from whatever. Make saving the world feel like an actual challenge instead of part of the course of becoming a Pokemon Master.

Another thing that extends play for some people is... shiny hunting- which I see @KiranTheWitch mentioning as I type this- but they keep making that easier and easier to the point of feeling less challenging. Which I kind of think is okay to an extent? Like the idea of completing a living shiny dex is more tempting now because it isn't as insanely difficult as it used to be. But they're also starting to feel a lot less special, so it would be a good time to introduce a new even rarer alternate coloration for people to pursue as well. That way you get a reasonably feasible challenge of capturing every pokemon in its alternate coloration... and then you get the actual super bragging rights of finding a pokemon with an even rarer coloration. And if you decided to make a living dex of that too... welp. That ought to keep some people playing for a long while.

I actually really like cuddling Eevee so I don't think you and I will ever agree there. I go out of my way to keep using Pokemon Amie and Pokemon Refreshe even after I've maxed out all the benefits as well. I enjoy pokemon as virtual pets as well as battle pets. So I hope whatever we have they expand on these features.

As for post game content as one of the few people on these forums thay doesn't hate LGPE. I didn't think its post game was that bad. You can rebattle all the gym leaders, and I'm having fun with the master trainers even though it takes forever to grind up those pokemon. The pokeball plus makes it a little easier.

That being said I would be down for the return of something like a battle frontier, or something like Pokemon Stadium based content as well. Part of me wonders how many people who play Pokemon really care about those kinds of things. Whenever I bring up battle frontier stuff with my friends they either don't know what I'm talking about or just roll their eyes at me.

What I really like about the battle frontier is the cooperative elements. It was so much fun to challenge some of the facilities with my brother back in the day. I would really like to see that kind of co-op expanded.

I liked the Tree Hollow/black tower. If they could expand on that but maybe add more to it so it could hold more people's intrest. Like branching paths or some kind of ongoing story with it. Like a daily challenge thing, just they they do in those cellphone games.
 
Hey, I have something that could be interesting to share.

So this might seem unrelated, but please hear me out for a few moments. I play a game called Splatoon 2 competitively, and every month the game is usually given a patch (around the start of every month). However the last patch given was in Decemeber-- this is very unusual given that we have received a patch every month, and the developers have confirmed that we will continue to get patches until about June 2019.

The official Twitter has announced exclusive magazine-related gear that will be added to the game around March 3, meaning that a patch must drop before then.

Anyway, I'll get to the point: the last time we had a patch delayed for so long, we got an update/patch announced in a Nintendo Direct: it added a bunch of new content to the game and had it's own little trailer.

Now, assuming there is a bigger patch coming for Splatoon 2, it is possible that it would once again be announced in a direct. I cant remember the exact details of the last direct Splatoon 2 was in, but I think it was lumped together with Smash news...

It wouldn't surprise me at all if a Splatoon Update was announced alongside some Pokemon news, and I would expect to see this around late Feburary or early March.

I know it is a bit of a reach, but with the lack of relevant leaks, I thought this bit of speculation could be neat to share!
 
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I noticed in resetera, a few people pointed out, the nintendo direct is usually within a week or two after the previous indie direct which we just had a few days ago, so we should have a general nintendo direct by early Feb, once thats out of the road, we could expect a dedicated Pokemon Direct by late feb / early march for the reveal. Although a Fire Emblem direct may be in that spot, hard to tell which series will get their specialised direct soon.
 
Hey, I have something that could be interesting to share.

So this might seem unrelated, but please hear me out for a few moments. I play a game called Splatoon 2 competitively, and every month the game is usually given a patch (around the start of every month). However the last patch given was in Decemeber-- this is very unusual given that we have received a patch every month, and the developers have confirmed that we will continue to get patches until about June 2019.

The official Twitter has announced exclusive magazine-related gear that will be added to the game around March 3, meaning that a patch must drop before then.

Anyway, I'll get to the point: the last time we had a patch delayed for so long, we got an update/patch announced in a Nintendo Direct: it added a bunch of new content to the game and had it's own little trailer.

Now, assuming there is a bigger patch coming for Splatoon 2, it is possible that it would once again be announced in a direct. I cant remember the exact details of the last direct Splatoon 2 was in, but I think it was lumped together with Smash news...

It wouldn't surprise me at all if a Splatoon Update was announced alongside some Pokemon news, and I would expect to see this around late Feburary or early March.

I know it is a bit of a reach, but with the lack of relevant leaks, I thought this bit of speculation could be neat to share!
You are very misinformed.

They confirmed long ago that the last content patch would be in December 2018. Content updates are over.

They also confirmed that splatfest and balance updates will continue until July 2019. After that the game won't be updated anymore.

 
You are very misinformed.

They confirmed long ago that the last content patch would be in December 2018. Content updates are over.

They also confirmed that splatfest and balance updates will continue until July 2019. After that the game won't be updated anymore.


Yes, I am aware. However, Kelp Dome has been datamined to be recieving a revision, which we have yet to get. They may have planned for content up to Decenber 2018, but the lack of a balance patch is fairly odd, so I thought perhaps a bigger patch might be coming(which is to say, maybe it is a surprise/not planned thing that is happening)... it is true it isn't a likely case, but I am not convinced it is impossible either.

Also, couldn't remember if it was June or July :(

I wonder if there are any other games except Splatoon that could hint the existence of a direct. Sadly Smash already has their patch & plant was announced for Feburary as well, so I dont see that happening (although maybe they could reveal the next character after plant as an addition to whatever direct is coming up?)

EDIT: didnt mean to derail the thread, so I will finish speaking about splatoon now
 
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Yes, I am aware. However, Kelp Dome has been datamined to be recieving a revision, which we have yet to get. They may have planned for content up to Decenber 2018, but the lack of a balance patch is fairly odd, so I thought perhaps a bigger patch might be coming(which is to say, maybe it is a surprise/not planned thing that is happening)... it is true it isn't a likely case, but I am not convinced it is impossible either.

Also, couldn't remember if it was June or July :(

I wonder if there are any other games except Splatoon that could hint the existence of a direct. Sadly Smash already has their patch & plant was announced for Feburary as well, so I dont see that happening (although maybe they could reveal the next character after plant as an addition to whatever direct is coming up?)
That a direct is coming is obvious. But the next one won't feature any Splatoon update because... There won't be more. As I said content updates are over, don't expect anything or you will be disappointed.
 
While I certainly also expect a different approach from the next generation, I think it's good to take these statements with a grain of salt.

About what Ishihara said at the Let's Go conference, he was certainly saying those things because he foresaw the possibility of part of the core community reacting badly to LGPE (something that Blizzard wasn't able to do when they announced Diablo for mobile, for example). Regarding what he said later in interviews (about being a game for longtime fans, not an entry point, etc.), he could also be saying that just because of the community's reaction. Being a game "for longtime fans" and "not an entry point" could be also just referring to being a game like XY and SM were.

And about the King Zell's statement, he even said that "sometimes with Nintendo, going to HD is already a big deal".
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I also personally believe that the representatives of TPC and Nintendo in general don't have the same yearnings and wishes regarding the games that the community has.

TPC, maybe, Nintendo, not so much. Nintendo's been extremely ambitious with their IPs on the Switch, with many of them overhauling their game mechanics to feel fresh and modern and stuffing in plenty of content. If Nintendo were in charge of developing this game, I think we'd be seeing a VERY different direction for the series, probably one closer to the BotW/Odyssey style of play everyone is asking for. I think it's just TPC and Game Freak that's out of touch with the fanbase, they seem to think that mobile is the answer to everything and that they don't really need to do anything but make a quick, cheap game. This really speaks to them having no knowledge or experience in the console market, anyone who's spent significant time with that market wouldn't be spouting this kind of nonsense.

So... what do we think would fix this post game-issue? There are some glaring things that don't make a remotely good post-game- complete the pokedex and cuddle your partner being top of the nope list.

I think having several different activities available could be a good start- a Battle facility of some sort and a mini game facility like the Pokeathlon. And Contests, maybe.

I wonder if a greater separation of the League and the plot would be a decent way to extend gameplay- like drop hints at the plot while you make your way through the gyms just to keep things interesting, but don't heavily involve the player in the plot until they've become Champion, after which the difficulty level could just keep rising as you go to save the world from whatever. Make saving the world feel like an actual challenge instead of part of the course of becoming a Pokemon Master.

Another thing that extends play for some people is... shiny hunting- which I see @KiranTheWitch mentioning as I type this- but they keep making that easier and easier to the point of feeling less challenging. Which I kind of think is okay to an extent? Like the idea of completing a living shiny dex is more tempting now because it isn't as insanely difficult as it used to be. But they're also starting to feel a lot less special, so it would be a good time to introduce a new even rarer alternate coloration for people to pursue as well. That way you get a reasonably feasible challenge of capturing every pokemon in its alternate coloration... and then you get the actual super bragging rights of finding a pokemon with an even rarer coloration. And if you decided to make a living dex of that too... welp. That ought to keep some people playing for a long while.

One big thing that's missing is post game areas. The newer games have very few areas that open up when you beat the game, the better post games usually have large chunks of areas or even entire areas that you can explore further. Beyond that, minigames like Contests and Secret Bases, something with actually depth, would add a lot to the post game.

With the comment about how people "like phone games nowadays" why not have post game missions?

They can either be monthly or weekly missions and can be stuff like:
  • battling X amount of trainers
  • catch X amount of pokemon
  • use the GTS or Global link X times
  • trade X amount of pokemon
  • Get a level 10 Bidoof through wonder trade
  • find a shiny
  • find a trainer with a pikachu in an online battle
  • find a pokemon that's been traded from Go
  • Re-battle every odd number gym. They have level 95 pokemon now.
  • Make it to the last round in [new battle tower mechanic here]
  • Find a hidden [random overworld pokemon] hidden randomly somewhere in the region.
  • talk to a gamer kid NPC.
  • Find all gamer kid NPCs.
Every time you complete a list of random missions you're score gets uploaded to your online stats. They can keep cycling through endless possibilities until they inevitably shut down the servers for gen XI.

It's not much but it's still something to keep people busy while they wonder around aimlessly/look for shinies. This is also a great way to incorporate the medals again.

What IS the difference between this and medals?
 
It's the same thing every time. Just because we got info at a certain time once doesn't mean it will happen again.
 
TPC, maybe, Nintendo, not so much. Nintendo's been extremely ambitious with their IPs on the Switch, with many of them overhauling their game mechanics to feel fresh and modern and stuffing in plenty of content. If Nintendo were in charge of developing this game, I think we'd be seeing a VERY different direction for the series, probably one closer to the BotW/Odyssey style of play everyone is asking for. I think it's just TPC and Game Freak that's out of touch with the fanbase, they seem to think that mobile is the answer to everything and that they don't really need to do anything but make a quick, cheap game. This really speaks to them having no knowledge or experience in the console market, anyone who's spent significant time with that market wouldn't be spouting this kind of nonsense.

I meant, marketing or something else reps (like Reggie), I wasn't thinking of developers, actually. We don't know what kind of "representatives" he was talking about. I didn't interpret it as if they were developers or something like, imo. Because it was an E3 meeting, so I believe they were people not directly attached to the game development (also because I don't believe that Nintendo is helping with this game).

And even if they were developers, while I believe Nintendo has great developers, I'm not sure if they would know what the Pokémon community expects of a Pokémon game (an open world isn't enough. It's just a example, I don't think the game will be open world).

I think Game Freak is ambitious too, and I don't think they do "cheap games". But I agree that they have been following some bad methodologies in the 3DS era (like the smartphone thing).
 
So... what do we think would fix this post game-issue? There are some glaring things that don't make a remotely good post-game- complete the pokedex and cuddle your partner being top of the nope list.

I think having several different activities available could be a good start- a Battle facility of some sort and a mini game facility like the Pokeathlon. And Contests, maybe.

I wonder if a greater separation of the League and the plot would be a decent way to extend gameplay- like drop hints at the plot while you make your way through the gyms just to keep things interesting, but don't heavily involve the player in the plot until they've become Champion, after which the difficulty level could just keep rising as you go to save the world from whatever. Make saving the world feel like an actual challenge instead of part of the course of becoming a Pokemon Master.

One of the fabricated abstract rumors from last year prior to the 2018 game being revealed as Let's Go included the idea of a large area/subregion becoming accessible after completing the main game that would have more of an open-world gameplay format.

I think that including seasons again though might be the best possible idea, even to have them try to match up with the actual time of year (maybe with an option to select which hemisphere one is living?) and to have transitions between each of them! i do also think there is a medium chance that there will be active weather, some being randomized and maybe some being predetermined eg a large snowstorm would make some areas accessible that weren't before, and bring many different Pokemon! A significant storm coming in from the ocean could bring unusual or higher leveled flying sea-dwelling Pokemon!
 
Hi guys I have a theory I'd like to share...Remember when pokemon twitter account(not sure if its really them)announce the new series for the gamefreak youtube channel and they mentioned to stay tuned at the end because there's a suprise on it...we all thought that after ken sugimori's video the suprise will revealed...but what if the suprise will be at the end of the series?as the james turner video ends they announce that the last video(I think)will be at feb 8...so my guess is that they announce either town or pokemon at the end of the vid at feb 8 or the next day
 
I actually really like cuddling Eevee so I don't think you and I will ever agree there. I go out of my way to keep using Pokemon Amie and Pokemon Refreshe even after I've maxed out all the benefits as well. I enjoy pokemon as virtual pets as well as battle pets. So I hope whatever we have they expand on these features.

As for post game content as one of the few people on these forums thay doesn't hate LGPE. I didn't think its post game was that bad. You can rebattle all the gym leaders, and I'm having fun with the master trainers even though it takes forever to grind up those pokemon. The pokeball plus makes it a little easier.

That being said I would be down for the return of something like a battle frontier, or something like Pokemon Stadium based content as well. Part of me wonders how many people who play Pokemon really care about those kinds of things. Whenever I bring up battle frontier stuff with my friends they either don't know what I'm talking about or just roll their eyes at me.

What I really like about the battle frontier is the cooperative elements. It was so much fun to challenge some of the facilities with my brother back in the day. I would really like to see that kind of co-op expanded.

I liked the Tree Hollow/black tower. If they could expand on that but maybe add more to it so it could hold more people's intrest. Like branching paths or some kind of ongoing story with it. Like a daily challenge thing, just they they do in those cellphone games.
I mean, I don't hate the idea of being able to cuddle and play with your Pokémon during the game at all. I just think that it makes for really lame post-game content. If that's one of the only things left to do in the game, you basically just own a virtual pet simulator.
 
even to have them try to match up with the actual time of year (maybe with an option to select which hemisphere one is living?)

It’d be way to stagnant to have it match with real weather. Most players will end up experiencing the game in only one season.

The change could be weekly. A month should be the upper limit.
 
It was also stagnant in Unova since most players finished playing within a month (even if they hadn't completed the game). It was mostly good for replays.
 
It’d be way to stagnant to have it match with real weather. Most players will end up experiencing the game in only one season.

The change could be weekly. A month should be the upper limit.
True. Where I live we only have "Winter" and "Summer", so having the game match real life weather would be extremely boring for me.
 
I know it doesn't directly have much to do with the thread's subject.



But, maybe that's why we haven't had a Direct yet?

Edit
To make it clear, I don't think the Pokémon game would be delayed. I mean that, maybe they wanted to make the decision (about Metroid) first/make this announcement separately first, and then show the Nintendo Direct after?

Hi guys I have a theory I'd like to share...Remember when pokemon twitter account(not sure if its really them)announce the new series for the gamefreak youtube channel and they mentioned to stay tuned at the end because there's a suprise on it...we all thought that after ken sugimori's video the suprise will revealed...but what if the suprise will be at the end of the series?as the james turner video ends they announce that the last video(I think)will be at feb 8...so my guess is that they announce either town or pokemon at the end of the vid at feb 8 or the next day

Did they really said it would have a surprise at the end?
 
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Birdkeepertoby is backing up Duncan's UK claim.

Interesting stuff given Toby is one of the the poketubers that isn't clickbaity or anything like that, and one of the bigger poketubers with a clean reputation. he's also a personal friend of serebii's if I recall correctly. He mentioned that his main reason for backing up the claim is that he's Duncan's friend and just finds him trustworthy, but it's still interesting stuff imo. We'll see I guess
 
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