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

[Moonlight~]

I can't wait any longer. I need anything

 

[Bullet Club Master]

Well, he would not necessarily need to have gone to a gym before to know how one looks like. And if there were gyms in his region, why did he cross the ocean to face one? "...I came all the way across the sea here to Alola to challenge the Pokémon Gym!" - If he had said "to challenge the Alolan-Pokémon Gym", then it would mean that there are Gyms in his region, imo

But about Ryuki possibly being a hint to the next region, I remembered of this theory:

Spoiler: Ryuki and China Theory

• The Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon codename was Pokémon "Niji" (Rainbow). We had a rumor that said of a Sun and Moon port being made for the Switch, and according to the rumor, it would be called Pokémon Stars. "Stars" could be the codename of the new generation, and not from a port of Sun and Moon for Switch. That idea gains more relevance knowing that Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon had already been released for 3DS;

• The next generation is called by the fans as the 8th generation, and the number 8 is a lucky symbol in the Chinese superstitious imaginary. As a example, we had the 7th generation, that was based in Hawaii, a place whose culture has a strong relationship with the Rainbow symbol, which was named as Pokémon "Niji" in the early stages of development (Rainbow also has 7 colors, being related to the 7th generation);

• The Chinese flag feature stars;

• The presence of the character Ryuki in the games Pokémon Sun and Moon and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. The character reveals that he is not from Alola, but from another region, but not tell which. His appearance resembles a kind of red dragon, besides being a Dragon-type trainer, and China being known as the "Red Dragon of Asia";

• The character mentions that he "crossed the ocean" to Alola. China and Hawaii are separated by the Pacific Ocean;

• Pokémon Sun and Moon were the first games of the main series of Pokémon to be translated into the Chinese language, Mandarin;

• The character Ryuki has a very long "braid" that almost reaches the ground, resembling an old style of hairstyle, which was widely used in Manchuria, China;

• The Ryuki character's name is apparently based on a plant widely used in Chinese culinary, the "Solanum nigrum";

• The character Ryuki calls himself as a "star" several times;

• The Yungoos Pokémon is described in the Pokédex as being native to a region other than Alola. Yungoos is based on a mongoose, an animal with native species of Asia, which was introduced in Hawaii in the 19th century, with the intention that the animal would decrease the population of rats in the place, that caused problems in planting sugar cane.

Sources: Pokémon community/Pokémon Millennium

I believed in this theory until a while back, but today I'm very skeptical about it. I'm aware of all the flaws it has. 1) Pokémon Stars was probably a fake rumor. 2) The fact that Hawaii was the region chosen to represent the seventh generation may just have been a coincidence, or a exception. 3) Several other countries have stars in their flags. 4) Ryuki's appearance may refer to other parts of Asia than China. 5) The Pokémon world and the real world are different. So perhaps a China-inspired region would not be separated from Alola by an ocean in the Pokémon world. 6) The addition of the Chinese language may have meant only their desire to profit from the large market that exist in the place. 7) Ryuki's hair and name could be referring to many other places besides China, after all. 8)Corphish is also theoretically from another undiscovered region, and that had no influence on the regions after Hoenn, so perhaps with Yungoos may be the same case.

But it wasn't because of all those flaws that I stopped believing in the theory, but because how the development works. In the case of XY, an NPC was added (with a re-used in game model), and makes that generic reference to some other region. And also the Strange Souvenir. that is just a generic tiki, something quick to produce and to think about.

But Ryuki is a completely original character, with concepts and inspirations considerably more produced than the generic NPC of XY.

So knowing that developers usually complete the development of the physical game that will be delivered to the players about 2 months before the release, so that it gives time to mass produce it and send to the stores around the world, and knowing that the character has a concept and artwork that should take a long time to produce, and knowing that Ohmori said he was left alone finishing the trials, since the rest of the team was already busy with other works, Ryuki seems too much developed for be just a hint. Unless Ohmori decided a long time before the launch of SM that the next region would be based somewhere in Asia, and have planned it from the very beginning.

Ryuki can also be from the UK. Dragons are pretty good over there as well as rockstars thing, Ryuki's theme could be the whole brittish invasion rock culture. I wouldnt be surprised if Ryuki is the dragon type gym leader for generation 8 and his ace is a red dragon.

 

[Myth]

This is likely tbh.

It would be curious. The place is usually chosen to match the theme of the game. Ohmori said in an interview that Hawaii was chosen because of its relationship with the Sun and the Moon, and the sense of the living world that he wanted to present.

Masuda said that France was chosen to XY because it was the first main series game to be totally in 3D, because of the beauty of the place.

If Ohmori already had the place of the next games in mind by that time, it means that he probably also had the themes and titles. It would be interesting, would mean that the time of conceptual development of the games begins before the 3 years pre-launch that we imagined.

 

[Silktree]

Ohmori was working on ORAS at the time the Plus/Minus rumor circulated. I am not sure why he would have been thinking about a 2019 game.

Jesus at the all movie thing, it's the first time we didn't get the tease trailer in the first half of december.

It's the first CGI trailer and will have nothing to do with any new Pokemon.

 

[Myth]

I don't think he was thinking about the 2019 game by that time either. So I think Ryuki is just a character thought for SM/dragon rep/"scrapped" gym leader/scrapped trial or whatever.


But it has nothing to do with Plus and Minus rumor, tho.

 

[Joker901]

Jesus at the all movie thing, it's the first time we didn't get the tease trailer in the first half of december.

Not really. Volcanion trailer was released on the 17th (we got it on the 16th). We can still get it in the next hour. It's still 6:40 am in Japan. Oha Suta airs from 7:05 to 7:30 on Monday

UPD: Nothing on Oha Suta. Not even a tease.

 

[PurplePopplio]

Ryuki can also be from the UK. Dragons are pretty good over there as well as rockstars thing, Ryuki's theme could be the whole brittish invasion rock culture. I wouldnt be surprised if Ryuki is the dragon type gym leader for generation 8 and his ace is a red dragon.

Red dragon? So Turtonator. Ryuki and Turtonator do look a bit similar.

 

[Poneto]

It would be curious. The place is usually chosen to match the theme of the game. Ohmori said in an interview that Hawaii was chosen because of its relationship with the Sun and the Moon, and the sense of the living world that he wanted to present.

Masuda said that France was chosen to XY because it was the first main series game to be totally in 3D, because of the beauty of the place.

If Ohmori already had the place of the next games in mind by that time, it means that he probably also had the themes and titles. It would be interesting, would mean that the time of conceptual development of the games begins before the 3 years pre-launch that we imagined.

China and the UK would both be cool, but honestly I kind of think China will be next. There is at least some precedent that the English-speaking community of fans want it/are primed for it, judging from the Shanghai/New York debates during Gen V hype, and I'm sure it would appeal to the Japanese fan base too.

 

[PurplePopplio]

China and the UK would both be cool, but honestly I kind of think China will be next. There is at least some precedent that the English-speaking community of fans want it/are primed for it, judging from the Shanghai/New York debates during Gen V hype, and I'm sure it would appeal to the Japanese fan base too.

With already 4 regions based on Japan, I'd rather see Gen 8 not be based on an Asian country and rather an European or North American country such as Canada. That way we'd have 4 Asian-inspired regions and 4 non-Asian-inspired regions.

 

[Poneto]

With already 4 regions based on Japan, I'd rather see Gen 8 not be based on an Asian country and rather an European or North American country such as Canada. That way we'd have 4 Asian-inspired regions and 4 non-Asian-inspired regions.

Personally, my dream choice for the next Pokemon region would be Greenland.

The games need to cover new cultural grounds, which would best be served by choosing somewhere that is as culturally distant from all the previous generations as possible. This basically rules out The Americas, Western Europe, Polynesia, and Asia, and leaves: the Middle East, Africa, Russia, and Greenland.

Most of the past regions have been hot, including the last one, so a cold choice would be even more distinct, which leaves Russia or Greenland. Either would be cool tbh.

 

[Minya_Nouvelle]

Between Russia and Greenland, I'd rather have Russia. Places with very few trees kind of creep me out (although it's possible I've just seen some really bad pictures of Greenland). Plus, Russia has some really cool buildings and architecture that I'd love to see re-imagined into a Pokemon game.

 

[prog rocker]

I prefer Russia, too. At least it would cover an Asian region that's not named Japan.

 

[Poke Dragon]

Just remember, for a Pokemon game to be based on a country we haven't seen yet, the developers would need to know its culture, not just its climate and environment.

 

[dvor]

Not really. Volcanion trailer was released on the 17th (we got it on the 16th). We can still get it in the next hour. It's still 6:40 am in Japan. Oha Suta airs from 7:05 to 7:30 on Monday

UPD: Nothing on Oha Suta. Not even a tease.

Well at they gave a date for the trailer by the end of the first half, we also had pictures from corocoro and the actual poster.
here we nothing but that one mewtwo picture

 

[RC821]

I predict that we would get Meltan and Melmetal without using Pokemon Go as a 2nd option to get them. I also predict that we will get a Dark-type Gym with Nanu's possible relative (maybe his cousin or brother).

 

[SodiumChloride]

Ohmori was working on ORAS at the time the Plus/Minus rumor circulated. I am not sure why he would have been thinking about a 2019 game.

Mabye the 2019 games are being directed by someone else. Not Masuda or Ohmori

 

[Myth]

 

[SodiumChloride]

Hints towards sun and moon

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/Junichi_Masuda/status/700214210483990528

 

[Poneto]

Just remember, for a Pokemon game to be based on a country we haven't seen yet, the developers would need to know its culture, not just its climate and environment.

I fail to see how this is a barrier in any regard.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

With already 4 regions based on Japan, I'd rather see Gen 8 not be based on an Asian country and rather an European or North American country such as Canada. That way we'd have 4 Asian-inspired regions and 4 non-Asian-inspired regions.

I think Japan should be counted as a separate entity from Asia in this context as we’ve literally had zero non-Japanese Asian regions.