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

[Cainhxrst]

I think the only side features I've liked in recent memory were dexnav and mantine surfing

I don't expect mantine surfing to return at all, but something similar to dexnav would be nice.

Contests or something to focus on during your journey through the region that isn't the main story would be nice. I liked what they did in USUM with adding minor sidequests here and there and would love to see more of that as it makes the world feel more lived in. If they're gonna go the more linear/story heavy jrpg route, might as well go all the way

 

[Scruffyjay]

Omg yes, I want super training back. It was an easy way for both competitive and non-competitive players (me lol) to strengthen their pokemon and the mini game was pretty fun.

 

[Juizel]

Tutorial Island, oops I mean Melemele Island, was especially bad because they felt the need to stop you to explain literally every single thing. It wasn't that we're told for the hundredth time "This is how you catch a Pokemon." In reality it was, "This is a Pokemon Center. Let's step inside. By the way, there is Poke Mart here." "This is a clothing boutique. Let's stop here so Lillie can buy some new clothes." "This giant school teaches everything about Pokemon. You need to complete your exam here." "This is where wild Pokemon are found. Go crawl in the grass." It was just a constant, right-in-your-face tutorial after tutorial. It was never this bad.

If it was only that.
"So, here you can heal your Pokemon. Why don't you try that right now? Come on, heal them. HEAL YOUR DAMN POKEMON."
I feel like the further we got in time, the more annoying the beginning of Pokemon games become; and I only really notice it because I tend to restart my games a lot (Nuzlocke runs, etc.)

As a side note, I liked how in gen 1 and gen 2 you were just a kid who wanted to be a Pokemon master and did your thing and just so happened to stop criminals because they kinda were in your way anyways, whereas since gen 3 it's the typical "You are the hero we all need to save the whole world!" which is a bit overdramatic for my tastes but eh

 

[KiranTheWitch]

Mantine Surfing was one of my favorite things to do in USUM, so I definitely would like to see some kind of similar minigame being available in SWSH.

Although Rotom returns, I do hope that its involvement in our daily tasks and lives in game is minimal. As a smartphone, I know we will be using it frequently, but I hope it stays quiet more than it did in SMUSUM. It's a cute feature, but gets old.

Will taking pictures of Pokemon return? I hope so. The concept was great in USUM, but felt lacking and one dimensional. It also wasn't particularly easy to use. So if it does make a return, I hope it's more fleshed out.

 

[FlashFire926]

Features that should return? Here's just a few my list:

• Triple Battles, Rotation Battles, and Hordes return. Sun/Moon removed them to prioritize putting trainer models during battles , which I also liked. Now with the power of the Switch, I cant see why they can't pull off both simultaneously this time around.
• Trainer rebattles. This was a series staple for three gens, and was removed for some reason in Black/White. ORAS brought it back, but only for one game.
• Seals. This gave a cool effect when your pokemon came out of the pokeball in gen 4. With todays hardware it would be even cooler.
• Regional variants. Cool concept that really worked well. Cant see why they cant do the same for Galar.
• Seasons. It's a cool feature in gen 5, sad that it never came back.
• Bases/house you can customize. It was awesome in gen 3 and 4. Again ORAS brought it back and did it exceptionally well, but it was never brought back after that.

And this is just scratching the surface. Havent even gotten to some of the bigger things that were removed, such as a competent post game.

 

[Joker901]

I have this feeling that we already know all the biggest features of the games: wild area with free camera; dynamax; gygantamax; raid battles; return of cross gen evolutions. We just need to see what some of them look like.
They may reveal some other feature, some new things (like the poke camping or how they will replace other HMs) but imo the last really big thing that may be in these game is whatever the last city in the north is meant to be.

 

[NealIRC]

They said this is the policy moving forward not just this game but every game from here on out

Definitely seems to be on purpose

I'm surprised nobody caught this. Maybe nobody cares to reply, because this person was replying specifically to me, right?

Minnale101, Masuda was stressed out about and saying that "due to time constraints" and making the models for over 800 pokemon from scratch is going to be super time-consuming and due to deadlines. Even Serebii has stated why can't they just import the designs from Sun/Moon into Sword/Shield and use the same 3-D model instead.

 

[NealIRC]

Are we really still talking about Dexit 200 pages later? Can we not change to some other topic?

I agree. Give GameFreak a chance to see what they'll do in the next game after Sword/Shield. Hopefully there will be a national pokedex in the DP remakes.

 

[Joker901]

I'm surprised nobody caught this. Maybe nobody cares to reply, because this person was replying specifically to me, right?

Minnale101, Masuda was stressed out about and saying that "due to time constraints" and making the models for over 800 pokemon from scratch is going to be super time-consuming and due to deadlines. Even Serebii has stated why can't they just import the designs from Sun/Moon into Sword/Shield and use the same 3-D model instead.

It was going to happen at some point. Somehow I knew this decision was on its way, probably this is why I'm not that shocked or angry about It. I can truly understand that 900 pokemon is not an easy thing to manage gen after gen.
But I would have preferred the truth rather than saying that they had to focus on the animations, which is something I actually care about and that, for what we've seen, are clearly not that special (let's not talk about wingull or double kick).

 

[Oriden]

I'm surprised nobody caught this. Maybe nobody cares to reply, because this person was replying specifically to me, right?

Minnale101, Masuda was stressed out about and saying that "due to time constraints" and making the models for over 800 pokemon from scratch is going to be super time-consuming and due to deadlines. Even Serebii has stated why can't they just import the designs from Sun/Moon into Sword/Shield and use the same 3-D model instead.

They didn't make the models from scratch. They're the same exact models we've had since 2013. All of the framework is already done on them and no changes have been made except to the textures, which can be a bit time-consuming but to a far lesser degree.

Not sure what it is about textures that makes people think that the models have changed any since X and Y. Pokemon GO also uses them. They are all the same exact models.

 

[Juizel]

They didn't make the models from scratch. They're the same exact models we've had since 2013. All of the framework is already done on them and no changes have been made except to the textures, which can be a bit time-consuming but to a far lesser degree.

Let's not forget that for gen 6, all the models actually had to be created from scratch (wasn't gen 6 at about 720 Pokemon, not counting the forms?) and it worked, too. It's also not Game Freak who made them, which isn't a bad thing (outsourcing is a common practise) but it's not like you could say Game Freak spent time on making the models they didn't make.
But with these arguments we're kinda going in circles anyway.

 

[Oriden]

Let's not forget that for gen 6, all the models actually had to be created from scratch (wasn't gen 6 at about 720 Pokemon, not counting the forms?) and it worked, too. It's also not Game Freak who made them, which isn't a bad thing (outsourcing is a common practise) but it's not like you could say Game Freak spent time on making the models they didn't make.
But with these arguments we're kinda going in circles anyway.

Main point just being that the 800+ models very much weren't the issue. XD

I'm kinda frustrated by how often people call the models for X/Y, S/M and GO different when they're not. Same goes for SwSh now- they're the same damn models, just a different skin.

 

[Knightwolf09]

Let's not forget that for gen 6, all the models actually had to be created from scratch (wasn't gen 6 at about 720 Pokemon, not counting the forms?) and it worked, too. It's also not Game Freak who made them, which isn't a bad thing (outsourcing is a common practise) but it's not like you could say Game Freak spent time on making the models they didn't make.
But with these arguments we're kinda going in circles anyway.

Actually.....that brings up a good point. They redid models for multiple characters in sun and moon.....when you think about it it wouldn't be surprising if the redid the existing pokemon models.

 

[Oriden]

Actually.....that brings up a good point. They redid models for multiple characters in sun and moon.....when you think about it it wouldn't be surprising if the redid the existing pokemon models.

They clearly didn't, though? Like... very clearly didn't.

 

[Juizel]

Main point just being that the 800+ models very much weren't the issue. XD

Personally I'd actually believe that modelling (and animating) 800+ Pokemon, might be less work than doing the whole rest of the environment (including human characters, buildings, bushes, grass, trees, outfits, ...) if both are done with the same quality standards, so I guess if one'd say "we made a really big, filled overworld and all our time went into that" that's more believable.
Then again, I really only know the basiciest basics of 3D modelling related to gaming because it's nothing I really specialise in, so take my opinion/assumption with a grain of salt.

Actually.....that brings up a good point. They redid models for multiple characters in sun and moon.....when you think about it it wouldn't be surprising if the redid the existing pokemon models.

The character models had to be redone, because SM had a different less-chibi style than XY. The Pokemon models weren't redone because they were created to be future-proof from scratch. And even if they were...
Think of it like this: draw any Pokemon you want, in any pose you want. Let's make it Bulbasaur. The first time, let's say it takes you 2 hours to finish it. If you keep the picture and redraw it later on, you'll need much less time than you did the first time, not because you gained so much more experience, but because you can just copy/trace something existing. Yet, they weren't redone, if Pokemon models really had been redone, then letting another company make future-proof models for you to use for the next couple of games was pretty much a scam if you have to redo them just like...what, 3 years later?

 

[Lanstar]

Trending not on /r/pokemon:

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/c1uyvi/just_imagine/


Ever since the Dex-it, I sense that the fanbase will have really high standards in a good Pokemon game - and those standards will just add more fuel to the flames for the fanbase against bad pokemon designs and features to be introduced in the future.

 

[Knightwolf09]

They clearly didn't, though? Like... very clearly didn't.

If we couldn't tell with Lillie till someone actually looked, I doubt we could tell the difference between the pokemon. For all we know only the animation rigs were the only thing untouched.

 

[Juizel]

If we couldn't tell with Lillie till someone actually looked, I doubt we could tell the difference between the pokemon. For all we know only the animation rigs were the only thing untouched.

Just for the record... you find it more believable that Game Freak (or rather, Creatures Inc.) made "future-proof" models for XY, to then redo the exact same looking models for SM/USUM to keep the animation rigs, to then redo them from scratch again for SW/SH to use slightly more polished animations for them than that it's just the very same models with improved textures/shading/etc.?

I don't mean to sound any condescending here, I just really wonder why that sounds so much more believable to you that you'd defend that (in my opinion unlikely) possibility

 

[TechSkylander1518]

If we couldn't tell with Lillie till someone actually looked, I doubt we could tell the difference between the pokemon. For all we know only the animation rigs were the only thing untouched.

What do you mean "couldn't tell with Lillie"? What we couldn't tell with Lillie was that they created new models of her each time, identical to the last ones. We couldn't tell that they were new because it was totally a code thing. The idea of them updating the models is a graphics thing. (Also, the reason why we couldn't tell was because they looked identical...shouldn't that show that we're able to recognize similarities in models?)

 

[Knightwolf09]

Just for the record... you find it more believable that Game Freak (or rather, Creatures Inc.) made "future-proof" models for XY, to then redo the exact same looking models for SM/USUM to keep the animation rigs, to then redo them from scratch again for SW/SH to use slightly more polished animations for them than that it's just the very same models with improved textures/shading/etc.?

I don't mean to sound any condescending here, I just really wonder why that sounds so much more believable to you that you'd defend that (in my opinion unlikely) possibility

Not saying they redid models to sun and moon, but do to the fact they don't know how to exactly be efficient since the transition to 3d it'd be no surprise that they still have issues getting stuff right. such as their so called future proof models migh not be as prepared for systems like the switch like they thought.

What do you mean "couldn't tell with Lillie"? What we couldn't tell with Lillie was that they created new models of her each time, identical to the last ones. We couldn't tell that they were new because it was totally a code thing. The idea of them updating the models is a graphics thing. (Also, the reason why we couldn't tell was because they looked identical...shouldn't that show that we're able to recognize similarities in models?)

That's kinda what I'm pointing towards. That they LOOKED identical. Yet not the same models