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

[MineFreak18]

Correct me if i"m wrong, but I just compared bunnelby's intro animation upon entering battle in x and y versus SwSh and it seems that it did receive a different animation. In x and y it just sort of stands there but in SwSh it crys out, looks up and shakes it head a bit after entering battle.

Edit: Looking at Machokes animation from SwSh and Sun and Moon, it seems that that its animation is now held out a bit longer as if its yelling. Goldeens animation has more flailing that it did in Lets Go Pikachu/Evee.

 

[Vyrron]

I don't see how Pokémon Can be a burden for GF. It makes them tons of money. They are never going to give it to another company.

Also, LGPE restricted more Pokémon and it still printed money.

Just because something makes you money doesn't necessarily mean you enjoy doing it. In the end making Pokémon games is a job like all others.

Sometimes it does feel like Gamefreak either lost their passion for Pokémon or they simply got burned out from releasing a new game every year.

 

[Astro Pantherion]

I’m going to assume that this is the case, and the whole drama stems from a case of terrible communication from GF’s part.

Because, honestly, they had made a huge deal about HOME connecting all games and had expressed many times about bringing forth old captures for the “grandchildren”. It would be quite counterproductive with this kind of limitations, which make me think that they’ll release the currently unfinished Pokémon as future “packs”. I just wish that GF clarified that for everybody’s sake.

If this is the case, and its miscommunication (god knows how many times miscommunication has lead to situations like this, only to be fixed much later), I can live with this compromise.

 

[dvor]

Tfw game freak never gonna give pokemon up because it's easy money for them
with square enix for example the games would be much more impressive

 

[Silktree]

Masuda isn't incompetent at getting his point across. Not to mention that it's been 24 hours since the statement was made.

There are new entry animations. Do they seem complex? Not really, and the actual battles are still on the dull side.

 

[Poke Dragon]

I don't mind not having access to all Pokemon the moment the game releases just as long as Game Freak makes updates to the game that include them later on, heck, if they treat Sword and Shield like Nintendo treats the Splatoon games in terms of updates, then it will be the perfect compromise. For those of you who don't know about Splatoon, they basically add gears and weapons through free updates, not every single update adds them, but when they are added, they are usually added in huge chunks.

 

[GiraFragMich]

I really hope they have the plan to use Home for PvP. Just build in a "Showdown" kinda thing and everyone will be happy. That way everyone can use their favs and specially bred Pokémon without them rotting somewhere until a Pokédex comes along which has them in it.

 

[Boss1708]

And I told you what he said. and nothing says they're not

Ok. Now tell me why wouldn't have Masuda instantly reassured fans by saying "but we will add them later on".

It would be counterintuitive not to say it, if they were planning to add the missing Pokémon as DLC, and you know it.

 

[Lunala]

Well likely the sales will still be good, so regardless of the chilly reception among fans they don't have much motivation to do anything. Even if the sales were bad, they'd probably just double down on the casual front or something like that.

 

[Knightwolf09]

I do feel bad for Masuda though. It’s pretty clear that Pokemon not being able to be brought to the next generation is a particularly sensitive topic for him (the was literally hospitalised during the RS era over stress on the topic. I remember reading an interview about that).
And he had to announce this decision, which has likely had influence from other higher ups.

And then all the backlash will be directed at him with him being the face of the company.

Remember when people thought old pokemon weren't going to be in black and white because you couldn't use old pokemon?

Masuda isn't incompetent at getting his point across. Not to mention that it's been 24 hours since the statement was made.

There are new entry animations. Do they seem complex? Not really, and the actual battles are still on the dull side.

He said he was going to give more details at a later time

 

[Synthaphone]

I'm looking forward to when they show off the camping feature- I felt like Amie/Refresh was probably difficult to implement considering that each Pokemon needs its own set of new animations just for that one minigame, but I've also wanted it to be more robust, so I'm hoping that with fewer Pokemon included, they'll be able to give that feature more care.

Like, it always bummed me out that I could high five my starter Pokemon, but only the first stage- once it evolves, unless its Tepig (Pignite is the ONLY starter evolution that can high five, and none of the final evolutions can), it completely forgets how to do it.

 

[Pax Unda]

Remember when people thought old pokemon weren't going to be in black and white because you couldn't use old pokemon?

Did they ever explicitly state that non-regional Pokemon were 100% not in the game?

 

[Poneto]

"you shouldn't be mad"
"I'm not saying you should stop being mad"
wut
not trying to be mean just confused

Saying "I don't think you should be mad" =/= you can't be mad. You can, I just don't get it. You're acting like me expressing a difference of opinion is an attempt to silence yours.

 

[FlashFire926]

If there's a single good thing to come out of this, it's that I wont have to look at Landorus T's broken ass anymore. Thank god.

 

[Knightwolf09]

Did they ever explicitly state that non-regional Pokemon were 100% not in the game?

They didn't say anything. And yet that's what everyone assumed until they finished the game and saw otherwise. And neither did they say they're 100% not in SwSh either.

 

[Poneto]

If there's a single good thing to come out of this, it's that I wont have to look at Landorus T's broken ass anymore. Thank god.

Or Tapu Lele cue horror-filled flashbacks

 

[Ambrose7]

Tfw game freak never gonna give pokemon up because it's easy money for them
with square enix for example the games would be much more impressive

Why do some people think Square Enix would be good for Pokemon? I love many games made by them but they mostly make high fantasy jrpgs. Their best selling franchise has been getting worse over the last ten years and they have had numerous delays.

 

[dvor]

Why do some people think Square Enix would be good for Pokemon? I love many games made by them but they mostly make high fantasy jrpgs. Their best selling franchise has been getting worse over the last ten years and they have had numerous delays.

it was an example
but it's one of the best jpns game makers company so yeah..
also FF7R looks dope

 

[Kallyle]

I don't see how Pokémon Can be a burden for GF. It makes them tons of money. They are never going to give it to another company.

Also, LGPE restricted more Pokémon and it still printed money.

I meant in terms of longevity and creativity. Pokémon takes up a lot of Game Freak's time as a game development company. Because they want to focus on other games, their biggest cash cow will always have something missing due to their insistence on annual releases. The lack of content in their cash cow (Pokémon) combined with their wanting to focus on other titles and the insatiable fan base, are a bit too much. It also takes a lot of good ideas and makes them go to waste as one-off gimmicks as opposed to being used to enhance their other titles. Game Freak's other games presumably haven't been so great because they had to focus more on Pokémon than their other titles. They're being short-sighted, and it's going to to make them more and more complacent and lazy to the point where all of their games won't even have quality anymore.

In other words, Pokémon is burden to Game Freak because they can't balance that and their other projects properly; it's simply become too much for them to handle like they used to. They might be fine at the moment, but this is leading into a downward spiral for them as a company.

 

[Pax Unda]

They didn't say anything. And yet that's what everyone assumed until they finished the game and saw otherwise. And neither did they say they're 100% not in SwSh either.

Translation: At gamefreak we spend a lot of time thinking of what the best way of moving forward was, perserving all the quality of the different pokemon while also taking account the battle balance, all withing a limited development time so we don't keep fans waiting too long for every new entry. After a lot of discussion we decided to come to a new direction. What this means this means for SwSh, palyers will be able to able to transfer their pokemon from pokemon Home, only if they appear in the galar region pokedex. I'll talk more about the details in future opportunities such as media interviews, but I wanted to let you know today.