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

[Silktree]

Also, consider all of the cutscenes that we're likely to see - it would be a higher priority to make the Pokémon in those look good than it would be to worry about fixing up the texture on Arceus, no?

Also, while it's not strictly pertinent to animations per se, I am curious to see how much personality each Pokémon has in the Wild Area. Like, in Let's Go, one of the details I loved was that wild Abra have a behavioral trait wherein they will teleport away unless you sneak up on them from behind. Engaging with Pokémon in the Wild Area looks even more dynamic than in Let's Go, so like, they talk about making the Pokémon as expressive as possible - could part of that be them going and finding ways to make each Pokémon behave in a more unique way when they're walking around? That's possibly giving them too much credit, but for now, I'm interested to see.

The thing is that cutscenes (which barely involve Pokemon) and wild Pokemon dynamics (which don't seem to involve unique animations - Machoke just walks towards the player and uses its entry animation) shouldn't need to be done by motion designers. The Pokemon 3D modelers are also a separate team.

"We need to do this rather than that" just doesn't work for me when different people have different roles, and there isn't a firm cap on the size of the staff.

 

[9tiefly]

Lilly had different models for every scene?! o____o

 

[PocketMonster]

Serebii posted today,
Some further details about Pokémon Sword & Shield were revealed in Famitsu. Within the interview with Masuda and Ohmori, it was confirmed that there is currently no decision to bring the existing Pokémon that can't be in Sword & Shield back into the game using patches, but those that don't will still have an active role in Pokémon HOME. It also stated that Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves will not appear in Sword & Shield

 

[Beer&Nyquil]

lol

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

I wouldn't, though again, I'm coming at that from a very particular angle that I'm sure not many people would have been at - I've always wanted a more cooperative kind of battling in the games (I have never had any interest whatsoever in PvP, but I really enjoy Raid battles in Go), I'm not particularly attached to Megas or Z-Moves, and I was already going to reboot my collection anyway. It feels very odd to be in a position where GF are actually catering to me quite a bit... at the expense of so many others.

I do actually like the raid battle concept going main series, but it’s the part of any trainer being able to achieve it with a Fitbit that feels weird.

 

[Knightwolf09]

Except Dynamax only lasts 3 turns, and you can only use it in very specific areas. Although, the credible leak does claim that we are getting another new feature called Gigantamaxing that actually causes the Pokemon to change form. I believe that they intend on having Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing permanently replace Mega Evolution and Z-Moves.

The certain areas seem to be stadiums and raids, and honestly at least it's in place that matter, rather than have them be spammable in every battle making you breeze by. Honestly this'll be something that people have been asking for the games. Something to make them less easy.

 

[swiftgallade46]

Omg some people are being so overdramatic. I hate the decision as much as the next guy, but it absolutely does not spell the end of Pokémon as we know it or anything close. Please stop fear mongering and talking about how Pokémon is “dying/dead/going to die/going to be the next insert struggling franchise/fandom here” It’s been around for over 23 years going strong and that isn’t going to change quickly or easily.

Look at all the positive things in SwSh. The Wild Area, great-looking characters, some adorable and badass Pokémon designs already, great music, beautiful locations and more. Plus there’s a lot of potential for a whole lot more; we’ve barely even had much of the game revealed to us yet.

And while I realize the above is all subjective, I can say with relative certainty that there are more than enough of us who are still excited by these features to keep the Pokémon community alive and thriving.

 

[Sakuraa]

I'm really surprised that Megas and Z-Moves aren't in this game at all. I can kind of get Megas being dropped since they haven't made new ones since ORAS and tbh, I don't really mind that, but we only had Z-Moves for 2 games. As someone who preferred Z-Moves to Megas, I'm a bit disappointed, but at the same time, it looks like Max Moves are meant to act as super moves and the Dynamax boost is basically the mega boost for everyone. So they're basically combining the 2 and removing the original ideas. And I stated before that I think overall Dynamax has the potential to be better than both of those power-ups, so I'm not too torn up, just surprised.

 

[Icy Wind]

Omg some people are being so overdramatic. I hate the decision as much as the next guy, but it absolutely does not spell the end of Pokémon as we know it or anything close. Please stop fear mongering and talking about how Pokémon is “dying/dead/going to die/going to be the next insert struggling franchise/fandom here” It’s been around for over 23 years going strong and that isn’t going to change quickly or easily.

Except no one is saying Pokemon is going to flop or struggle...

 

[Ambrose7]

Also while I totally agree that swapping Megas for Dynamaxing seems poor since Megas had new forms and all, if that Giga thing is true, then Dynamaxing is not the only battle mechanic for this gen. We also need to take that into account. And unlike the latter, Gigamaxing does change the form of the Pokemon and seems to be closer to Megas.

 

[Cresselia92]

Dynamax looks indeed like a less OP and more widespread version of Megas and Z-Moves. I can kinda see why they opted to merge the two concepts into a more balanced one, as there have been many complaints in the competitive scene about the XY/ORAS era being the Mega Stone Fest, while Z-Crystals were despised by some people due to being horribly powerful and giving a major boost to offensive teams at the expense of defensive ones.

While we still don’t know how Max Guard works, at least Dyna-mon gains a sizable boost in HP, so defensive Pokémon become tankier while offensive Pokémon gain moves with interesting special effects.

Sounds like a good compromise on paper, we’ll have to see if it’s good in practice, too.

 

[zoroarctic]

Omg some people are being so overdramatic. I hate the decision as much as the next guy, but it absolutely does not spell the end of Pokémon as we know it or anything close. Please stop fear mongering and talking about how Pokémon is “dying/dead/going to die/going to be the next insert struggling franchise/fandom here” It’s been around for over 23 years going strong and that isn’t going to change quickly or easily.

Sorry, but in today's hot take culture, every new development must be the worst/best thing ever. No exceptions.

 

[Poke Dragon]

As someone who didn't like Mega Evolution and was meh on Z-Moves, it's still a little annoying that they were removed, I was looking forward to a time in which Pokemon had layers and layers of strategies, but now that can't happen.

 

[TheElderKing]

Dynamax looks indeed like a less OP and more widespread version of Megas and Z-Moves. I can kinda see why they opted to merge the two concepts into a more balanced one, as there have been many complaints in the competitive scene about the XY/ORAS era being the Mega Stone Fest, while Z-Crystals were despised by some people due to being horribly powerful and giving a major boost to offensive teams at the expense of defensive ones.

While we still don’t know how Max Guard works, at least Dyna-mon gains a sizable boost in HP, so defensive Pokémon become tankier while offensive Pokémon gain moves with interesting special effects.

Sounds like a good compromise on paper, we’ll have to see if it’s good in practice, too.

Max Guard’s description mentions that it protects only the user from Dynamoves.

Max offensive moves seem to either generate a weather, a terrain, a Lower of an opponent’s stats, or the increase of one stat of the Dynamaxed Pokémon and his ally on the field, based on the description.

 

[swiftgallade46]

Except no one is saying Pokemon is going to flop or struggle...

You clearly dont have a Twitter or YouTube account

 

[Icy Wind]

You clearly dont have a Twitter or YouTube account

Last time I checked, this site is neither Twitter or Youtube. Your original post made it sound like you were talking about here.

 

[Cresselia92]

Max Guard’s description mentions that it protects only the user from Dynamoves.

Well, that’s disappointing. I would have expected them to become closer to Z-Status moves and have different effects depending from the move, like for example Max Recover healing HP and resetting stats.

I hope that not all status moves turn into Max Guard, then. Give something like Max Heal or Max Boost, so that defensive Pokémon don’t get the short end of the stick (again!).

 

[swiftgallade46]

Last time I checked, this site is neither Twitter or Youtube. Your original post made it sound like you were talking about here.

Last I checked I didn’t specify where I was talking about lol

 

[Limaska]

Personally I've never been a fan of megas or z-moves and I could count with one hand the amount of times I've used them in the past games. I don't like the whole dynamax thing either and probably won't use it if I'm not forced to. I've been very excited about double battles, even triple battles, hordes etc. that kind of battle mechanics they have shown. But I don't like these updates where you somehow supernaturally make your already powerful pokémon even more badass. I'd love to battle with my team without these "upgrades" since I've picked them just for the reason they are powerful and awesome the way they are.

I loved XY-games because the amount of moves which can damage multiple targets were bigger. Like every pokémon in my team had one of these moves and it was awesome to tackle the hordes with these. I just love mechanics like that! Emerald was definitely one of my favourite games just for the double battles.

 

[Limaska]

I just thought that maybe tackling challenges like dynamaxed pokémon without dynamaxing your own makes the game a bit more challenging? Or would it be super hard without dynamaxing or would it be still pretty easy? Is this a feature that could make the game more challenging if want to?

I'm a bit worried that dynamaxing is a "lame" feature with no potential at all even tho it looks really overpower concept.