Official Pokémon Sword and Shield speculation thread (Updated June 5th, 2019)

[PkmnTrainerV]

Also let’s not forget that they completely remade gens 2 and 3 as well. There’s no greater callback than an entire game dedicated to the region.

I do not really agree with the logic of using the existence of remakes as equal treatment of all regions, but even that logic has holes in it since Kanto has 2 remakes and featured in GS and HGSS.

 

[PinkIceFox]

Honestly, sometimes I see the "pandering" of gen 1 pokemon sort of like this... these pokemon were introduced to us over 20 years ago. What happens to things over time when new ones are introduced? They old ones are usually forgotten or pushed to the side.

Part of bringing them back in new ways is how they're making sure old mons have some relevancy. This only really started in X/Y (hell, Black and White didn't have ANY old pokemon until post game and people threw a fit over it) with the move to 3D so it's unsurprising that the pokemon at the very beginning are getting shown off. "Don't forget these guys!" If anything, I feel like different pokemon have needed attention out of gen 1 for the most part. Like, I'd love for the Nidos to get something special. I love them to pieces. Hopefully soon they'll start adding gen 2 and later 3 to the list of special features for old mons to give them new life. Of course they're pulling out old pokemon from the pile. They've been buried at the bottom.

Mega Evolution was decently distributed amongst the generations, Gen 1 was far from the only one to get mega evolutions. They gave us Kanto Starters in the game to more easily show off the feature with the first three pokemon most trainers of Kanto games ever met. Regional Variants only covered 7 evolutionary families plus the final stages of 3 others. Personally I'd have either tossed out the 3 that have only the final evolution variants or given the whole damn line variants for it to make more sense. But yeah, in the grand scheme of things it doesn't quite feel like a huge number to me. If anything I feel there should be more variation with pokemon from regions with different climates and geography so I'd say they've done LESS than they could have. But I understand why they chose gen 1 pokemon. They want to show off a new thing for older pokemon so the best place to start is at the bottom with the older designs.

 

[EternalPKMNfan]

Why do some people we’ll get something in April when the only SwSh news we’ll most likely have this month is the name contest for that Steel-type move?

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Why do some people we’ll get something in April when the only SwSh news we’ll most likely have this month is the name contest for that Steel-type move?

Because people are allowed to be hopeful since we don’t know if the Steel type move contest is the only thing this month.

 

[EternalPKMNfan]

Because people are allowed to be hopeful since we don’t know if the Steel type move contest is the only thing this month.

Of course, but I doubt the contest isn’t going to be the only thing this month.

 

[Oriden]

Other than Pikachu. Because Pikachu obviously has to exist in every region.

If only that was false...

It is false, though? Pikachu isn't in Johto or Unova. And it's only found in Hoenn's Safari Zone and Sinnoh's Trophy Garden. The only regions that it's actually found in the wild are Kanto, Kalos and Alola.

A Pokemon game without Pikachu in it somewhere does feel wrong, though. Like playing a Zelda game without Link in it (though the irony there that Zelda could be missing and who would notice).

Why do some people we’ll get something in April when the only SwSh news we’ll most likely have this month is the name contest for that Steel-type move?

It's more so that people were giving up mid-month and acting like April was already over. Doubt anyone is confident that we will get anything this month, but we're just staying open to the chance that we might because we still have over a week left.

 

[PinkIceFox]

Huh.. you're right. I never thought about it before but Pikachu really is only native to Kanto, Kalos, and Alola.

 

[Matleo]

maybe armors will give every pokemon something like "Z-moves" did but with some it will react like a mega-evolution sort of kind and be personalized? some may get type and ability change, then we would get something like megas maybe or they will make some get armors and some get new megas?
A armor is used for protection?
what if armors would make a pokemon immune to Z-moves?
This year they play it more secret with giving us things...

 

[Poke Dragon]

I prefer if armor changes the form of a Pokemon before a battle starts, this way, it won't be a copy of Mega Evolutions, plus, many cool designs should be able to be kept rather than seen temporarily anyways.

 

[swiftgallade46]

I do not really agree with the logic of using the existence of remakes as equal treatment of all regions, but even that logic has holes in it since Kanto has 2 remakes and featured in GS and HGSS.

I never said it made them equal, but I doubt we can expect GF to represent every generation 100% equally. Just pointing out that there were at one point huge focuses on regions other than Kanto.

 

[Plubio]

At this point I'm barely surprised at Gen 1/Kanto references because they are the most recognisable games and it is the thing that (mostly) sells.
Anyway I honestly think sometimes people have too much tunnel vision on Kanto — there're a lot of crossgen references here and there in every game (also: Kalos had more Kanto references than Alola (in Sun and Moon) — it's true that Alolan forms exist only on Kanto Pokémon but wasn't SM the 20th anniversary game?).

I remember more Kalos, Sinnoh and Unova references in Gen 7 than the Kanto ones; they still exist and they are pretty numerous as well.

I do agree on the Kanto Pokémon encounter rates buuuut again I'm kinda cautious there.
In Sun and Moon for example there are 11 avaliable Pokémon on Route 1 — and only 3 are native to Kanto (Caterpie, Metapod and Alolan Rattata), 3 from Johto (Ledyba, Spinarak and Pichu), 2 from Sinnoh (Bonsly and Munchlax) and 3 from Alola (Yungoos, Pikipek and Grubbin). And they even added Buneary and Rockruff in USUM. This trend of mixing generations also happens in the other Routes.

Sure, Kanto tends to get some of the spotlight (XY introduced more Kanto Mega Evolutions than other regions) but that doesn't mean the other regions do not exist. I mean, sometimes people act like if Alola doesn't have any sort of "self imagery" or lore because "Kanto and Kanto". It is not true.

Like, I understand the Kanto concerns but does Heahea City being established by Kanto and Johto people really hinder the general game experience?

Also some people love ripping apart every single recently game so ¯\(ツ)/¯, no wonder they use Kanto as some sort of selling point. "The old was better!!!" and stuff like that. Also not true. Period.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

For some people maybe its because there are entire areas designed around Kanto in XY and SM. A treatment which no other regions have got to my knowledge.

Personally, I’m currently indifferent on Kanto references, and it would be foolish of GameFreak to not include any in SS because its the game right after LGPE- they’ll take care to give the newly joined fans something familiar.

 

[Extroth]

Hello Everyone,

I took lent off from looking at these forums so I have no idea what's going on right now, did I miss anything exciting?

Looks back a few pages ahh we're still talking about Gen 1 for some reason well that seems about right.

 

[Saternoir]

So the current discussion on the upcoming games and generation speculation thread is... about gen 1? Fair enough I guess...

 

[Oriden]

So the current discussion on the upcoming games and generation speculation thread is... about gen 1? Fair enough I guess...

It's about Gen 1 because the negativity towards it having any representation in newer games has been getting excessive. =/

 

[Knightwolf09]

I prefer if armor changes the form of a Pokemon before a battle starts, this way, it won't be a copy of Mega Evolutions, plus, many cool designs should be able to be kept rather than seen temporarily anyways.

I'd have to agree. Have them act as a forme change like Shaymin or whatever.

 

[Myth]

How would you feel if each gym presented a different sport-like game (like the ones from Pokéathlon) before each gym leader traditional battle challenge?

 

[Zweilous]

I would rather they didn't- I don't want a repeat of Gen 5. Plus you abandon world building when you make a region into its own pocket dimension with no reference to any other region. References and tie-ins make the pokemon world feel connected.

According to Bulbapedia Gen 5 had a number of references to other regions even in BW. You still had a number of nods to various characters, storylines, items or places that you'd find in any other generations and it even had a major NPC return in another role via the BF's Caitlin, it was only isolated in the sense that you only could use Gen 5 Pokémon in the main story.

 

[Oriden]

How would you feel if each gym presented a different sport-like game (like the ones from Pokéathlon) before each gym leader traditional battle challenge?

Eeeeeegh, depends on the sports, I guess. I can't stand the majority of them so if there was an abundance of ones like baseball, football, etc.- no thanks. I would totally skip this generation if I had to have sports shoved down my throat to progress.

According to Bulbapedia Gen 5 had a number of references to other regions even in BW. You still had a number of nods to various characters, storylines, items or places that you'd find in any other generations and it even had a major NPC return in another role via the BF's Caitlin, it was only isolated in the sense that you only could use Gen 5 Pokémon in the main story.

Yeah the only Gen 5 pokemon part is the part that I don't want being repeated ever again.

 

[emerson.brant]

About the encounter rates I think that hoenn was the best region. Everything felt new but the old mons were still there. They could follow that direction.