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

[PkmnTrainerV]

Not with how incredibly laggy SM already was..

The lag was due to too many on-screen models to my knowledge.
Every console Pokemon has been on has been capable of two regions, but GameFreak don’t want to do it for anything other than Johto, which was a special case.

 

[Ambrose7]

Solgaleo was Steel/Psychic. I doubt we'll get another mascot legendary with the exact same typing just one generation later.

 

[Esserise]

kalos kalos kalos, marcia marcia marcia

any "leak" that talks about patching up kalos's storyline or otherwise revealing some super complex deeplore for kalos immediately reeks of confirmation bias to me, because it's just pandering to the common fandomthink about those games' story being ""shallow"" despite the amount of story-related screentime in XY being, realistically, about on-level with the average for pokémon core game pairs. BW and SM are the exceptions when it comes to story emphasis, not the rule (and even then, there's a degree to which i think even those two are really just artificially inflated simply by having a greater volume of sheer dialogue; they still follow a fairly traditional formula in terms of story structure, with all the familiar beats in all the familiar places except for the endgame section, like with Dragonspiral Tower/Relic Castle being where you'd normally have your villain team climax, but for BW they just hold the actual boss battles back a bit so that they converge with the Champion fight. SM are cleverer in how they link all the different aspects of the region together to make it all feel more cohesive and organic, but it's still got broadly the same beat flow, and it's certainly not an especially elegant execution what with all those loooooooooooooong dialogue sequences with slow-panning cameras). and with XY in particular i think it feels partially like a deliberate step back from the heavier focus of BW, to serve as a sort of decompression/breather episode; we already know that's why Team flare were written as a more comedic team, because Masuda wanted to try something a bit lighter after the seriousness of Team plasma

still, that being said, i think XY have more going on under the hood, thematically speaking, than they're given credit for (certainly more than bloody diamond & pearl did). obviously you don't have to like the exact themes or even how they were executed (even i don't in particular; it's a little too saccharine and wishiwashi for my taste, i prefer pokémon when it's more mystical à la Crystal or more introspective like BW), but so many aspects of XY are working in unison to communicate a variety of thoughts about class, beauty, extremism, compromise, and building bridges with people. what a lot of the fandom criticizes as shallowness feels more to me like a deliberate sort of brevity and playing in a lower key. whether that was the right approach or not, i can't really say; it definitely doesn't seem to have gone over well with the more dedicated fans, but in general, i do think there are a lot of artistic merits to simplicity and minimalism that get overlooked. a game like LGPE excises 700 pokémon and removes the entire concepts of held items & abilities because the artistic intention is to recapture the simplicity of Gen 1. a game like XY takes a more casual and less overt approach to the story because the director and producers perhaps want the game to feel less overbearing/imposing, and easier to get into, or maybe to show that the previous generation's unusual approach is not necessarily the new norm. there's a host of reasons why such decisions could be made willfully. and i say all that not so much with a specific interest in mounting a defense of XY, but more to encourage a shift of perspective - for as unsatisfied as [insert fan here] might feel with XY, before setting up any expectation of that being "addressed" in a game like Sword & shield, consider the possibility that from game freak's POV there's not really anything to "fix" and that the current project probably has a mountain of higher priorities. for all that we know, the XY and kalos that we got could be pretty much exactly what they're supposed to be

 

[Knightwolf09]

For the legendaries I'll best Steel/Fighting for Sword and Steel/Fairy for Shield. Hecka offensive and hecka defensive

 

[StandbyForBattle]

Instead of revisiting Kalos, maybe GF will throw in some reference from Kalos, maybe some scrapped gen 6 content that maybe reworked into Sword/Shield, even if it's possible, we're not talking about simple copy/paste from Kanto like in GSC, we're talking re-designing the the entire kalos region, maybe throw in the South Kalos theory the fans were speculating, so GF should just save that till the remake, which we won't see anytime soon.

 

[RileyXY1]

Solgaleo was Steel/Psychic. I doubt we'll get another mascot legendary with the exact same typing just one generation later.

You're right. The box legends have never had the exact same typing in back to back generations.

 

[Boss1708]

An other thing to consider is that Kalos is probably too big to function as a secondary region. It's not as big as Sinnoh and Hoenn, but it is still quite a bit bigger than Kanto or Johto.

So, while Kanto and Johto manage to, more or less, form a Sinnoh-sized region when combined, Galar and Kalos would probably be a bit too big if put together.

 

[StandbyForBattle]

An other thing to consider is that Kalos is probably too big to function as a secondary region. It's not as big as Sinnoh and Hoenn, but it is still quite a bit bigger than Kanto or Johto.

So, while Kanto and Johto manage to more or less form a Sinnoh-sized region when combined, Galar and Kalos would probably be a bit too big if put together.

But still, it's not a simple copy and paste like Kanto, Also what can do in Kalos anyway, beside just challenging Gym leaders, pretty sure we won't challenge the elite four and champion there, because in Kanto and Johto, the indigo league is linked. In XY, they already conclude the Team Flare story in the game, so there's no purpose of revisit again until the remake.

 

[swiftgallade46]

But still, it's not a simple copy and paste like Kanto, Also what can do in Kalos anyway, beside just challenging Gym leaders, pretty sure we won't challenge the elite four and champion there, because in Kanto and Johto, the indigo league is linked. In XY, they already conclude the Team Flare story in the game, so there's no purpose of revisit again until the remake.

Firmly disagree here. While I don’t realistically think Kalos will be in the game at all, there are certainly a ton of possibilities of fun and engaging things they could do with the region’s inclusion. SwaSh is going to have its own plot just as GSC did and this plot could easily include the Kalos region if they wanted it to. It’s not a question of “is it possible to make Kalos a fun and interesting part of the game” it’s a question of “can we realistically include it/is it worth including?”

 

[IncineROAR]

This thread is too much to keep up with, but I don't think Kalos will physically make an appearance in the game. There's a lot of intertwined moments in British and French history that could serve as inspiration or basis for Kalos to spiritually be in the game. If at the very minimum, a small section of Kalos could make an appearance for post-game content, but I don't see that happening either.

I do want to comment though, that yes combined Kalos and Galar will be a huge region, but we are on a new system and if we are expected or encouraged to pay $120 for a set of games, the region better be the size of Russia to get my money's worth.

 

[Battista]

I did consider the possibility of a "partial Kalos" as some posters and rumors have mentioned. Like if we got the train to Couriway, Lumiose and a couple of others I'd be okay with that.

The tipping point for me wanting some more Poke-France in this game was finding out via some Youtube video that X and Y are all we have so far. No third version, no Ultra/2 games, no remakes, nothin'.

 

[Boss1708]

The idea of partially visiting a previous region sounds highly unlikely to me. I really can't picture Game Freak allowing us to visit only Lumiose City, or only Couriway, half of Kalos, etc.

I guess it could work if maybe they use the excuse of a blocked path, like what happens with Unova's Route 10 in BW2.

But when players set foot in, say, Couriway, only to discover that the rest of Kalos is not in the game, I think they will be more disappointed than happy. People would probably take it like a "the Kalos project has started!" teaser.

 

[Esserise]

and if we are expected or encouraged to pay $120 for a set of games

no one is expected or encouraged to do this other than like, parents with multiple children

 

[prog rocker]

Solgaleo was Steel/Psychic. I doubt we'll get another mascot legendary with the exact same typing just one generation later.

This has happened twice already: first with Moltres and Ho-oh, and then with Hoopa and Lunala.

 

[Synthaphone]

This has happened twice already: first with Moltres and Ho-oh, and then with Hoopa and Lunala.

I think they mean like, front cover Box legendaries, although I think you make a good point with those examples that they might not care as much as we do about repeating typings...

 

[RileyXY1]

This has happened twice already: first with Moltres and Ho-oh, and then with Hoopa and Lunala.

This is different, because one of those Pokemon in those pairs was not on the cover.

 

[prog rocker]

Ah, okay. I skipped the "mascot" part.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

I get that there's a lot to talk about with the idea of Kalos, but there's so much more in this post that marks it as fake.

Point 1 throws in a mention that Grookey's evo is feminine, seemingly just to round out that fan theory. But it ignores the fact that the fan theory was "tough/feminine/cool". A tough Fire-type was already found in Incineroar, and a cool Water-type already in Greninja. (I still don't believe the theory myself, but those were the roles assigned) So Scorbunny evolving into another tough Fire-type doesn't make any sense in the pattern, nor Sobble another cool Water-type.

Point 4 claims that the entire plot of Sword and Shield is totally focused on the third member of the trio, with no mention to the cover legendaries at all. The third member of the trio never gets a story role in the first pair of games. Necrozma just appears at the end of the UB missions in SuMo, Zygarde just sits in its cave in XY, Kyruem chills out in the Giant Chasm in BW, Giratina waits in its cave in DP, and Rayquaza sits on Sky Pillar in RS. And it's a pattern that makes sense-it allows Game Freak to expand on a Pokemon's story in the third version/remix/sequel, and it lets the cover legendary have a starring role in its story. This storyline suggested would make Sword and Shield's plot focus on the same Pokemon, with their cover legendaries not even thought of beyond a coat of arms. So why bother making two versions at all?

Point 8 claims that there's a story based on a mythical in-game. Why bother labeling it a mythical, then? Our only mythicals like this were Deoxys, which was previously obtained through distribution, and Meltan, which is still obtained through playing a side game and transferring it in. There's never been a mythical that you just get in-game, because mythicals were defined officially as Pokemon not found through normal gameplay.

Point 9 claims that the entire dex has already been leaked. I know I say this every time a leak claims this, but I think it's worth harping on-these games were announced less than three weeks ago. We had no leaks with any sort of information beyond "titles are Sword and Shield" and "region is UK-inspired". (which I personally still believe were just lucky guesses-both ideas had been thought up by fans just speculating, and no leak mentioned any details that came out in the reveal, like starters or logos) So how could it be that, in just a few weeks, somehow the entirety of the game's dex gets leaked? (In addition to the plot and development, according to their other points) Even past leaks that were real never got so much details-has Game Freak just abandoned security entirely?

Point 10 claims that Galar has a smaller PokeDex because it was meant to be a split generation. But Galar's dex of 91 Pokemon is bigger than Alola's 81. There's also the claim that SwSh is developed alongside XY, despite the five other games they developed in that time. (ORAS, SuMo, USUM, LGPE, and Town) Ohmori said he went straight to ORAS when XY was done, too. Are we supposed to believe he just left SwSh hanging their for a couple years?

 

[Lunala]

There might be no real leaks this time around.

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

Changing the subject...

What do you think the genders of the Gym Leaders will probably be? It'll have to be 4 men and 4 woman

First City (Manchester) - Fire or Steel
Fields (Kilburn, North York Moors) - Grass
Harbour (Blackpool and Fleetwood/Liverpool) - Water
Second City (Birmingham) - Steel or Dragon
Quarry (Buxton, The Peak District) - Rock or Ground
Fairytale Forest (Sherwood Forest) - Fairy, Psychic or Ghost
Snowy Town (Liverpool) - Ice or Dark (One video speculated that this Gym could be shared by twins with different types)

Eighth one I'm unsure of location as it is hidden somewhere. Snowy mountain path is no doubtably Victory Road with London being the Pokemon League.