SwSh Sword & Shield: Expansion Pass

[Phosphene]

probably won't bring back following pokemon or customization

Eh... I think there's a decent possibility that those will be present in the Sinnoh remakes. LGPE had following Pokemon, and had customization to some extent (granted, it was highly limited). Isle of Armor has following Pokemon, and though part of me thinks that's just a marketing ploy, I do think it increases the possibility that we will see more following Pokemon in the future.

 

[nickdt]

I can see Let's Go Johto this year, with DP remakes in Fall 2021.

I don't.
However: Lets Go Johto early 2021 (February/March, which also falls perfectly in line with the marketing cycle of at least 8/9 years before every game), with Sinnoh remakes late 2021 (Which then also perfectly fall into that 8/9 month marketing cycle).

 

[BackSet]

part of me thinks that's just a marketing ploy

I don't see how it can be a marketing ploy if they didn't even bother advertising it.

Sorry if i seem negative, actually i am not.

My dude, that was literally the most negative post I have ever read bar maybe some posts from another user who I shall not name.

 

[bulbasaur99]

Eh... I think there's a decent possibility that those will be present in the Sinnoh remakes. LGPE had following Pokemon, and had customization to some extent (granted, it was highly limited). Isle of Armor has following Pokemon, and though part of me thinks that's just a marketing ploy, I do think it increases the possibility that we will see more following Pokemon in the future.

Following Pokemon returned in Isle of Armor because it is a whole open-world area. That's the reason it is still unable in the mainland Galar. I am %100 sure they will leave Sinnoh grid based and in a SwSh style game I don't think Sinnoh cities and routes can handle following Pokemon. Let's go games has more chibi style so they can do that easily.

 

[prog rocker]

In my case, I want Sinnoh remakes because I feel they will fix the three things that really bothered me about Gen IV, which were the slowness, the HMs and Stark Mountain. Okay, maybe the last one won't be fixed, but I can hope.

 

[BackSet]

I want them in part because Gen 4 is one of my favorite gens, in part because I was incapable of finishing Platinum for a multitude of reasons, and in part because it will really get on the nerves of the people who not only don't want Sinnoh remakes but are profusely negative about it and kill any and all discussion about it by arguing why it won't happen every time it's brought up even if the topic was something like "parts of Sinnoh that need improving" as opposed to "will Sinnoh remakes happen."

 

[Phosphene]

I don't see how it can be a marketing ploy if they didn't even bother advertising it.

Maybe marketing ploy wasn't the right term there. It just seems... suspicious, for a lack of better words, that a highly requested and desired feature whose return was widely celebrated when it was revealed in LGPE, and whose infrastructure already seems to be in the game, is only included in the DLC. It just seems like it was given to the expansion pass to encourage people to buy it. Yes, it wasn't advertised, which kinda weakens my theory, but it still seems odd how GameFreak couldn't implement it at the very beginning.

Following Pokemon returned in Isle of Armor because it is a whole open-world area. That's the reason it is still unable in the mainland Galar. I am %100 sure they will leave Sinnoh grid based and in a SwSh style game I don't think Sinnoh cities and routes can handle following Pokemon. Let's go games has more chibi style so they can do that easily.

Eh, I disagree here. LGPE was the opposite of open-world yet still had following Pokemon despite the small, cramped environments, and I don't think the chibi style had anything to do with that. There's nothing about said style that inherently lends itself to following Pokemon. There's really no reason following Pokemon couldn't have been in mainland Galar, which is already decently wide and open even though it isn't fully open world. Plus, if following Pokemon only worked in true open-world environments, why didn't GameFreak enable following Pokemon only in the Wild Area then? Surely they knew how desired the feature was. And besides, Sinnoh being grid based would make it easier to implement following Pokemon, no? I figure a grid-based system would simplify the following Pokemon's interactions with its environment.

 

[Nicolas721]

We have Keldeo, Genesect, Magearna plus the legendary Pokémon.

That didn't stop the other gens.

Magearna and Genesect's forms are recolors so they don't need any new models, and Keldeo was included in the base game where they likely had more time to code the forms (which could be why they also coded Kyurem and Necrozma's forms back then).

Also, legendaries have priority over mythicals because all of them will be available naturally on November, as well as Keldeo according to the leaks.

 

[Defiant]

I don't see how it can be a marketing ploy if they didn't even bother advertising it.

Exactly, they wouldnt drop hints to something not happening, what would be the logic

 

[SerenaToAlola]

I'm actually surprised to see Sentret and Furret excluded from this list.

With this leak, 44 of Sinnoh's Pokemon are unavailable. 44 of Johto's Pokemon are also unavailable. 48 from Hoenn are still unavailable as well.

This is in contrast with 34 from Kanto still unavailable, 31 from Unova, 21 from Kalos and 11 from Alola. Considering the size of these 4 dexes, this isn't super surprising.

So, as of the Crown Tundra, 233 Pokemon are unavailable in Sword and Shield.

But I would say, whatever the next game's focus is, expect a lot of Gen 2, 3 and 4 Pokemon in the regional dex.

Of the Gen 1 to 3 pokemon, how many of them were available in the Sinnoh-dex or in Platinum?

 

[AngryBinacle]

Of the Gen 1 to 3 pokemon, how many of them were available in the Sinnoh-dex or in Platinum?

Most of them. Maybe not in the regional dex, which is very small and even excludes a lot of Gen IV 'mons, but you could encounter most of them if you had the national dex. So, Trophy Garden, Poké Radar, Swarm, the new areas (battle, resort...) and the updated Great Marsh. Platinum also had an updated encounter table compared to DP.

I made a list some pages back.

 

[RileyXY1]

I can see Let's Go Johto this year, with DP remakes in Fall 2021.

I think that they would likely put the Gen 9 games in between the two.

 

[SerenaToAlola]

I kinda have a feeling that the announcement for next week will be DLCs. Not announcing them last week makes sense cause that would distract from IoA which is what they're trying to sell. By announcing that there would be new DLCs, it might also incentivise further sales of the current expansion pass as it shows that they are in fact planning big things for SwSh through DLCs. After all, there are fans like myself that are still waiting for more information of Crown Tundra before buying the current expansion pass. This is definitely something that they would still have to promote in the months to come. If the new DLCs promise something big, it might even get people who doubted the base games to buy the base game for the DLCs so yea.

Alternatively, it might be free patches to bring what was in IoA (particularly following pokemon) into the main game. They probably didn't want to announce it last week so as to avoid spoiling IoA since that was like the big surprise with that game.

Either that or its just something to do with following Pokemon just because they didn't want to spoil following Pokemon. >.< IDK

 

[RileyXY1]

Maybe marketing ploy wasn't the right term there. It just seems... suspicious, for a lack of better words, that a highly requested and desired feature whose return was widely celebrated when it was revealed in LGPE, and whose infrastructure already seems to be in the game, is only included in the DLC. It just seems like it was given to the expansion pass to encourage people to buy it. Yes, it wasn't advertised, which kinda weakens my theory, but it still seems odd how GameFreak couldn't implement it at the very beginning.

Eh, I disagree here. LGPE was the opposite of open-world yet still had following Pokemon despite the small, cramped environments, and I don't think the chibi style had anything to do with that. There's nothing about said style that inherently lends itself to following Pokemon. There's really no reason following Pokemon couldn't have been in mainland Galar, which is already decently wide and open even though it isn't fully open world. Plus, if following Pokemon only worked in true open-world environments, why didn't GameFreak enable following Pokemon only in the Wild Area then? Surely they knew how desired the feature was. And besides, Sinnoh being grid based would make it easier to implement following Pokemon, no? I figure a grid-based system would simplify the following Pokemon's interactions with its environment.

LGPE only had following Pokemon as a way to mimic GO's buddy system, which was itself based on the following Pokemon feature from HGSS.

 

[AngryBinacle]

I think the possibility of a main-series title reveal exists.
- Most people have probably bought the DLC by now. A new title won't bring future sales in jeopardy, either.
- The latest trailer for the Expansion Pass showed as much for the Isle of Armor as for the Crown Tundra, meaning that most of the marketing is probably done.
- Sword and Shield were probably feature-ready way before release, meaning that Ohmori and Masuda could've been working on a new title for over a year now.
- Titles like Pokken and Detective Pikachu would've been shown in the initial round. They're not 'major' enough to receive their own presentation. Kind of like the new Pokémon Snap.
- They don't have to show gameplay for something to get hype up.

 

[Virbank Video]

LGPE only had following Pokemon as a way to mimic GO's buddy system, which was itself based on the following Pokemon feature from HGSS.

(Disclaimer - my intended tone here is friendly and laid back)

Do you think you could maybe start to frame your posts as opinions - which is exclusively what they are - instead of fact? I wasn’t going to say anything but it’s like... every single one of your posts. For the past couple of years, as far as I remember.

In my opinion, Pokémon following you in LGPE was more a nod to Pokémon Yellow than anything else, since that’s technically what they were a remake of. However, I could be wrong.

 

[L87-1729]

I don't.
However: Lets Go Johto early 2021 (February/March, which also falls perfectly in line with the marketing cycle of at least 8/9 years before every game), with Sinnoh remakes late 2021 (Which then also perfectly fall into that 8/9 month marketing cycle).

Seems like 2021 will be the 15th anniversary of the japanese release of Diamond and Pearl games. In the rest of the world they were released in 2007, according to Bulbapedia, so their 15th anniversary would be in 2022. So, a guess could be:

Fall 2020: Crown Tundra
2021: Let's Go Johto
2022: Gen IV remakes

Though they could actually surprise us and release LG Johto in fall 2020 and then go with gen 4 remakes in 2021. But that seems improbable, maybe even more improbable with the virus thingy.

Also, if they actually do Let's Go Johto, will they add the Kanto part (like all johto games) as well? It would seem like buying LGPE again. I mean, if they are to add Kanto to LG Johto it would be better to add Johto to LGPE (maybe as a DLC or something) instead.

 

[AngryBinacle]

I personally don't like the Let's Go games. They have their charms, but are really barebones.

 

[BlueWaves]

In my case, I want Sinnoh remakes because I feel they will fix the three things that really bothered me about Gen IV, which were the slowness, the HMs and Stark Mountain. Okay, maybe the last one won't be fixed, but I can hope.

What was wrong with Stark Mountain?

 

[prog rocker]

What was wrong with Stark Mountain?

Let's just say that going there without Repels nor a Escape Rope was a bad idea. The fact it's the only area where I actually need a map didn't help...