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

[TheElderKing]

In regards of the gyms, we should keep on mind that in then industrial city there’s also one. I do wonder if that one is the first, or if there’s freedom in the order, you can decide when to tackle.

 

[JFrombaugh]

Thoughts on the E3 stuff I've seen so far:

-Wow, so far the leak has been really accurate! They correctly predicted not only the Electric-type corgi Pokémon, but also the name of the Water-type Gym Leader!
-I can't believe I forgot to comment on this in the original Direct trailer, but yay for the return of the Bicycle! I like the water tires it gets too for riding over lakes.
-I like the idea of the open world area, as it makes it feel more like an actual region rather than a maze of linear interconnected routes like past Pokémon games.
-So relieved that puzzles with Trainer battles are still part of Gyms, as Nessa's water puzzle confirmed. I was afraid that the Gyms would end up being just a series of glorified Pokémon Stadium-style tournaments.
-So the female Trainer's name is apparently Gloria. Which I guess makes sense as it's based on the word "glory", to fit the knight theme of Sword & Shield.
-Out of the starters, I liked Scorbunny the best at first, but the more I think about it, the more I feel like the Sobble line will probably end up being my choice, especially if Scorbunny's final evolution ends up being yet ANOTHER Fire/Fighting type. A gecko with a spy theme sounds really cool, and if the rest of that leak is true I can see it having some pretty involved personality changes as it evolves (like the Rowlet line), although I'm hoping it'll be Water/Ghost rather than Water/Dark like Greninja.
-From what we've seen so far, I wouldn't be surprised if these games ended up having a somewhat more "teenage" vibe to them like BW & B2W2, in order to help set them apart from the Let's Go games which were so obviously aimed at a somewhat younger audience.

 

[Poneto]

I wonder if they chose to restrict the number of pkmn in SwSh to save money/time animating the models, which could be spent making the rest of the game better.

 

[TheTsarOfSarcasm]

I don't mind on the dex pokemon being transferable in Sword and Shield, but I'm also a person who doesn't save pokemon at all and every new game is a fresh start. Never saw the point of catching them all.

tbh it isn't about catching them all for me. i just want my pokemon from all of my old games together

 

[Cresselia92]

So why not restrict transferring to the postgame?

And, again, the Galar dex is including numerous old Pokemon that aren't new at all. It makes no sense to say that this change is being made to let people focus on the new when the old is still clearly present.

Nothing wrong with not letting people use the Pokemon they have in the newest game, a feature that's been implemented for decades?

So why not remove all the Pokemon from past games for fear that people will gloss over the new?

An incentive is a means of encouragement. This is just flat-out refusing to give someone the option.

And, again, keeping old Pokemon in the postgame is a perfectly viable method of including old ones without overshadowing the new. Removing old Pokemon is not

As if datamines, hackers, and speedrunners don't exist?

And, again, by only letting players transfer from old gens after becoming Champion, as they did in Gens 4 and 5, this wouldn't be a problem at all. There's no reason this couldn't be avoided without removing Pokemon.

And, you'll notice in your example, these are still games where you can transfer Pokemon. The fact that you could transfer a Pokemon from an older game didn't stop you from catching them in your game. So why should transferring be removed entirely for some Pokemon?

So, again, why not just take SuMo's method of not having the National Dex? There was no obligation to complete anything, but people could still transfer the Pokemon they want.

It looks like you’ve missed my edit, so I’m going to reply to this by posting this Twitter info once again:

“Reasons about Junici Masuda not bringing back all the Pokémon".

The reason is not to make players wait and to bring the game before finishing all the mons

More details soon.

Focusing on the Galar Pokémon for now to give them top treatment and focus seems like a valid reasoning. Maybe by the time HOME will arrive all Pokémon will have been fully polished and rebalanced and will be slowly released as DLC — kinda like what GO does with the generational releases.

Besides, I’d rather have the possibility to play a Pokémon game earlier with “restrictions” than having to wait extra months to get a more “full” experience. glares at Kingdom Hearts III and its 13-years wait

 

[TechSkylander1518]

I wonder if they chose to restrict the number of pkmn in SwSh to save money/time animating the models, which could be spent making the rest of the game better.

It was stated that it was done to save time, but there wasn't any mention of whether that was to add more features/graphics/etc or to prepare the game for a set date.

 

[bulbasaur99]

I wonder if they chose to restrict the number of pkmn in SwSh to save money/time animating the models, which could be spent making the rest of the game better.

They are not a poor company. They could easily hire more people to work on pokemon sprites. There is no reasonable explanation for it.

 

[godiego]

I wonder if they chose to restrict the number of pkmn in SwSh to save money/time animating the models, which could be spent making the rest of the game better.

haven't they already explained that the primary reason for them not being included is that their models and animations haven't been touched up and they wanted to rebalance their movesets before putting them in the game?

They are not a poor company. They could easily hire more people to work on pokemon sprites. There is no reasonable explanation for it.

neither money nor talent grows on trees.

 

[Sakuraa]

The gym footage looks nice. I was wondering about the gym puzzles and where they'd be, considering the main battle takes place in a huge stadium, but it makes perfect sense that they're just in 2 separate rooms. The female PC looks too adorable in the soccer uniform. I also like the cute little cheer the trainer and Pokemon do when they win.

 

[Silktree]

seems to me that that points to them eventually releasing patches that allow for non-Galar-native pokemon to be transferred it. because this isn't a decision that they completely blindly made and are surprised by the backlash; they would have to have their plan in motion.

There would be little backlash if Masuda had confirmed patches to begin with, so this reasoning isn't very convincing. Not to mention that the models/movesets barely require updates, so I doubt that their "creative decision" is just about needing more time.

I wonder if they chose to restrict the number of pkmn in SwSh to save money/time animating the models,

Do the animations seem all that better than SM's did? There are barely any species-exclusive animations.

Maybe by the time HOME will arrive all Pokémon will have been fully polished and rebalanced and will be slowly released as DLC — kinda like GO does with the generational releases.

If that were the case, they wouldn't even need to say anything about this. Be reasonable.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

Focusing on the Galar Pokémon for now to give them top treatment and focus seems like a valid reasoning.

Again-the regional dex is not focusing on the Galar Pokemon. We've seen gameplay, and we've seen countless old Pokemon displayed in the Wild Area and in battles. The Champion's ace Pokemon isn't even from Galar.

Besides, I’d rather have the possibility to play a Pokémon game earlier with “restrictions” than having to wait extra months to get a more “full” experience.

Just a few months? We've known about a new gen on the Switch for a few years now. I don't think a few months is that bad.

 

[Zeta]

Focusing on the Galar Pokémon for now to give them top treatment and focus seems like a valid reasoning. Maybe by the time HOME will arrive all Pokémon will have been fully polished and rebalanced and will be slowly released as DLC — kinda like GO does with the generational releases.

I almost wouldn't mind that if we were getting 150 new Pokemon for Galar like Black and White. But . . . from the ratio we've seen it'll be far closer to XY - something in the range of 50-70. Which means that there's not many new Pokemon to focus on in the first place.

 

[Joker901]

I think you'll be able to challenge Grass/Fire/Water in any order, looking at the map.

Also interestingly, after it was speculated that they had run out of names for gym badges (Psychic badge) that then led to Z Crystals taking their place, now although these are called Gym Badges, they don't seem to have individual names and are just pieces of 1 larger puzzle.

So this is the way you collect them. I was thinking that maybe they are different in shape. The ring seems too big for just 8 badges or maybe the central part will remain empty (or will be covered by elite four/champion badges).

 

[Kallyle]

After giving this whole debacle some more thought, I decided to take into account everything Game Freak has said regarding the future of Pokémon and the Nintendo Switch. So far we have

1. The exclusion of old species due to apparently taking too much time
2. Trying to model everything from scratch
3. A comment about how LGPE would be the engine basis of the new games rather than just reusing older stuff
4. A interview about Game Freak wanting to focus more on other games.

All of these details tell me something interesting about this whole situation: Game Freak doesn’t want to be known as a one trick pony (only relying on Pokémon) and that the Pokémon franchise has gotten too big for Game Freak to handle. Because of this, Game Freak keeps cutting stuff from the Pokémon games and they’re pouring more of their efforts into other games since that gives them more freedom in regards to what they can do. The only reason we keep getting Pokémon games from them yearly despite this is because it’s their most successful franchise.

I no longer think this is due to laziness, nor do think this is some conspiracy to hold things back for a later title to milk $$$ from the consumers. This is coming across as Game Freak simply spreading themselves too thin due to pressure from the demands of the Pokémon fan base in contrast to what Game Freak actually wants to do. I think it’s time for Game Freak to pass off the torch to either TPCi or another studio, because what Pokémon is at its core and what Game Freak wants to do as a gaming company are becoming incompatible and negatively impacting both the company and the franchise as a whole. Yes, we may lose a little bit of the old Game Freak charm, but it is becoming increasingly clear that Pokémon is more of a burden to Game Freak than a blessing.

The only question is how can we get the torch passed to someone who won’t mistreat the Pokémon franchise…

 

[bulbasaur99]

neither money nor talent grows on trees.

"Pokémon is a media franchise owned by Nintendo, created in 1995 and debuted in 1996. It is the highest-grossing entertainment media franchise of all time, having grossed $90 billion in lifetime revenue."
So you say they can not afford to hire 10 more employee ?

 

[Poneto]

Do the animations seem all that better than SM's did? There are barely any species-exclusive animations.

I was thinking the rest of the game, like story, infrastructure (Home & wireless max raids), overworld graphics, particularly the wild area, and so on. I don't really expect them to make any improvements to the pkmn models for the foreseeable future, considering that they've used the same style since XY.

 

[prog rocker]

Things I noticed from the Gym demo:

• Gym guides now look like referees.
• We got to see the actual the actual Youngsters here, meaning that the boy from the initial trailer is a School Kid.
• Defeat animations are like the ones in XD, but shorter.
• Gym guides now heal! That's a good thing for me (might be demo-only).
• Nessa's stadium looks different from Milo's, so at least they look different from each other.
• Leaders have dialogue during battle. That was last seen in the Unova games, right?
• I think I saw Max Overgrowth cause Grassy Terrain. I wonder if the other moves also have those kinds of effects.
• Badges are now part of a puzzle. Well, at least they are doing something different.

 

[TheElderKing]

I almost wouldn't mind that if we were getting 150 new Pokemon for Galar like Black and White. But . . . from the ratio we've seen it'll be far closer to XY - something in the range of 50-70. Which means that there's not many new Pokemon to focus on in the first place.

I think that regardless of how many there are, they’re purposefully looking to avoid showing too many new Pokémon.

Also, if the leak is correct, shouldn’t there be more then 50-70 new mons?

 

[Poneto]

I almost wouldn't mind that if we were getting 150 new Pokemon for Galar like Black and White. But . . . from the ratio we've seen it'll be far closer to XY - something in the range of 50-70. Which means that there's not many new Pokemon to focus on in the first place.

I really hope that's not the case. That would truly suck, especially if the percentage of legendaries that make up the Galardex is as high as it is in Alola. Was so bad how there were so few new, non-legends introduced in Alola that some types had as little as one new species added and that was it.

 

[Diamandis]

I almost wouldn't mind that if we were getting 150 new Pokemon for Galar like Black and White. But . . . from the ratio we've seen it'll be far closer to XY - something in the range of 50-70. Which means that there's not many new Pokemon to focus on in the first place.

Where are you getting this idea from? Weve seen literally only a handful of the new galar mons. So i dont understand where this number is coming from