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

[Diamond & Pearl]

I wonder if Megas have been retconned out of existence.

What I don't get is why Mega Evolutions are going to be a thing in Masters but not in SwSh...

And why are Mega Evolutions a thing in LGPE whereas Z-moves aren't?

 

[Scruffyjay]

Purging shouldn't be a manual process, though. You can tell the system to wipe accounts after x many days or tell the system to just purge everything that hasn't been renewed. The former would be a better system if any purging is to be done at all.

I know this probably isn't relevant, but I read that as purugly and was so confused and trying to figure this out.

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

What I don't get is why Mega Evolutions are going to be a thing in Masters but not in SwSh...

And why are Mega Evolutions a thing in LGPE whereas Z-moves aren't?

A leaker who said something about Masters recently, I can't remember, actually said that the game have been worked on since 2016, and is supposed to focus on characters from Gen 1-6. It is a Gen 7 game, not a Gen 8 game.

 

[Diamond & Pearl]

A leaker who said something about Masters, I can't remember, actually said that the games have been worked on since 2016, and is supposed to focus on characters from Gen 1-6.

If that's the case, I also don't get why they would release a game that's heavily inspired on Gens 1-6 when SwSh is around the corner. I think I'm right about GF having an identity crisis...

And the fact that the erasion of Mega Evolutions in SwSh has caused some anger will make fans eventually question and be mad at why it is a thing in Masters. Timing-wise that's honestly a not so smart move from GF.

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

If that's the case, I also don't get why they would release a game that's heavily inspired on Gens 1-6 when SwSh is around the corner. I think I'm right about GF having an identity crisis...

And the fact that the erasion of Mega Evolutions in SwSh has caused some anger will make fans eventually question and be mad at why it is a thing in Masters. Timing-wise that's honestly a not so smart move from GF.

In Gen 6, Pokemon was trounced in Japan by Yo-Kai Watch when it became big during that period, which lasted until Gen 7.

 

[Silktree]

And why are Mega Evolutions a thing in LGPE whereas Z-moves aren't?

Because they add flavor to Kanto Pokemon and give more content for merchandise. Z-moves are just about competitive edge and had already been marketed in this generation, anyway.

Dynamax doesn't suit a smartphone. It isn't surprising that Mega Evolution still exists in Masters.

 

[Diamond & Pearl]

Because they add flavor to Kanto Pokemon and give more content for merchandise. Z-moves are just about competitive edge and had already been marketed in this generation, anyway.

Dynamax doesn't suit a smartphone. It isn't surprising that Mega Evolution still exists in Masters.

Bringing up the smartphone is honestly a weird excuse. As Megas and Z-moves are going to be a thing in Masters, that means the player already has a Mega Ring and a Z-ring to their disposal. Dynamaxing also gets triggered with a ring-like gadget, so I don't see why you differentiate it. And please don't come with scaling, as most smartphones have a big enough screen nowadays. And tablets exist as well.

About Mega Evolutions, that does make sense after I learned just a moment ago that Alolan forms do appear in LGPE.

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

Because they add flavor to Kanto Pokemon and give more content for merchandise. Z-moves are just about competitive edge and had already been marketed in this generation, anyway.

Dynamax doesn't suit a smartphone. It isn't surprising that Mega Evolution still exists in Masters.

Also, the people working on Masters didn't know a thing about Dynamaxing when making them at the time.

 

[team-aerialace]

I think that dynamaxing was made to be some sort of a fusion between z moves and megas, but it includes all of the pokemon in galar, and is more limited when it comes to time. according to what I've heard from the demo it seems to be sort of overpowered, and pokemon moves automatically get boosts no matter what while a 'mon is dynamaxed. I want megas to return eventually, but I guess this is it's replacement, for now

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

Game Freak is the real Team Rocket around here if you think about it. or Team Freak as they should be called with the slip-up they've just done.

 

[Lunala]

Will Dynamax/Gigantamax Pokemon, Mega Evolutions, and Z-Moves eventually appear side-by-side?

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

Will Dynamax/Gigantamax Pokemon, Mega Evolutions, and Z-Moves eventually appear side-by-side?

two words... ''Time Constraints''

 

[The Haymaker]

As far as my own argument goes, this isn't just about "oh, they cut Pokemon". This is about them having made such cuts in order to make way for "better graphics and gameplay", as they stated, and then they showed up at E3 with model pop-in, sliding and pivoting models, and re-used animations from 2013, 5 months from release. From what they have presented, the cuts they made for the reasons they stated were for nothing. This isn't a blanket issue of "muh pogeys". It's what the cut entails about the rest of the production. This game had sacrifices made just to make it stay on par with the 3DS games from what I have been seeing of these press releases, and now I am expected to pay extra money for it, to which many others are welcome to do, but for me, I say no. This game needed more time, and so do future ones.

If they spent a lot of time on it, I'm glad you see that, but I don't, and that's not a condemnation. It just seems like they had more work on them than they realized they could handle with this new console, and it shows. I'll even give them the benefit by saying that the cutting of Megas and Z-Moves and merging them into Dynamax streamlined the "power-up" tier of mechanics.

I'll agree to disagree about Pokemon not being able to be all in one game, because the points for and against it have been belabored many times in this thread. I say it's possible, especially if they cut those redundant gendered forms.

They can't keep pushing out yearly releases like clockwork, repeating the same gym and act structure, having the same average game experience year after year, then cut content on top of that, and have people pay extra for the pleasure. They need more time, and a restructuring of how they design, balance, and code. And for heaven's sake, they need to commit to a mechanic and refine it instead of starting and stopping mechanics with impunity. Megas, Z-Moves, seasons, Furfrou/Sawsbuck/etc., time based encounters, following Pokemon, and so on.

They may have a lot of peripheral material riding on the game's release, but that doesn't magically make it ok, or erase everything I mentioned. Sonic the Hedgehog went downhill for the same reasons. It was popular, and the devs were under pressure to crank out more games in a format they weren't familiar with. Suddenly Sonic-R, and the series took forever to recover from the loss of momentum. Merch/peripheral push does not excuse the flaws of a game.

I'd like to trust that GF will expand SwSh beyond the scope of the 3DS games as they said, but they haven't been able to be trusted when it comes to that for about 3 generations now, so I'm skeptical right off the bat. I haven't seen anything in these games that sells me on this being a more immersive, bigger scale experience. I see the big, flat Wild Area and the return of a multiplayer feature they cut from gen 6. (Raid battles are cute, but I'm not a multiplayer person. I'm looking for more depth to the story and single player.)

I was really close to throwing in with my point about the extra features that even if one doesn't personally like the new features, it doesn't detract from the simple fact that they spent the time and effort to add them and make it look good and run smoothly. Not everyone will like the features that GameFreak chooses to add, and that is why GameFreak is trying a couple new and different approaches for new features. The Wild Area is something for people that wanted the open world area above everything else, but a compromise so as to not scare off too many people with an entirely different look and formula. It's similar to the reason that there are both overworld wild encounters and random ones. GameFreak realizes that they have a diverse fan base with varied preferences, and so it seems they're trying to figure out a happy medium on some aspects of the game and adding features that appeal to different groups. That said, with this approach, there's always going to complaints about people wanting more of what they like instead of insert other feature here. As with any good compromise, no one is completely happy. It comes down to design decisions and approaches, not time constraints. It's also important to remember that the footage we've seen so far isn't final, and we've already seen some improvements between the first trailer and now. It's just really harsh to say at this point that there aren't more animations without a finished game to see if that's really the case.

As far as release times, we're due for a gap year, which happens roughly every 3 or 4 years for mainline Pokemon games. I don't think GF feels like they're on a strict schedule in that regard.

 

[Knightwolf09]

I think that dynamaxing was made to be some sort of a fusion between z moves and megas, but it includes all of the pokemon in galar, and is more limited when it comes to time. according to what I've heard from the demo it seems to be sort of overpowered, and pokemon moves automatically get boosts no matter what while a 'mon is dynamaxed. I want megas to return eventually, but I guess this is it's replacement, for now

It's not really op at all, a guesstimate is that by default Dynamxing just boosts all pokemon stats by 1 stack. And not all max moves give a boost, they can effect the weather and even summon terrain yes, but even then that can benefit a whole team in a regard.

 

[The Haymaker]

They hardly ever mess with stats and many pokemon still suffer from dismal learnsets (coughFlareon) so I'm not sure that there is much argument for "balancing pokemon." The animation argument, I could buy, but they have made no notable changes to any of the animations and the only visible change is just texture work, which couldn't take more than a year to finish updating.

So yeah, I think the next generation should be allowed a little more time if it means that animations and textures can be completed before release.

GameFreak tweaks stats and movesets pretty often now actually...they finally gave Flareon Flare Blitz for that reason. However, from what I understand, they meant balance more in the sense of sheer volume of options to consider when creating new Pokemon and mechanics. Teambuilding is more difficult as the number of options increase, and even more Pokemon start to become obsolete. There is some validity to simply the idea that simply having more Pokemon causes greater imbalance in the game, which is what I believe Masuda was getting at.

 

[Silktree]

Bringing up the smartphone is honestly a weird excuse. As Megas and Z-moves are going to be a thing in Masters, that means the player already has a Mega Ring and a Z-ring to their disposal. Dynamaxing also gets triggered with a ring-like gadget, so I don't see why you differentiate it. And please don't come with scaling, as most smartphones have a big enough screen nowadays. And tablets exist as well.

About Mega Evolutions, that does make sense after I learned just a moment ago that Alolan forms do appear in LGPE.

I was referring to scaling. Masters should be compatible with all smartphones released in the last 3 years (arguably more). I'm looking at my 2019 phone right now which is pretty long, and I find it hard to imagine a giant Pokemon alongside 5 others (especially if there is another giant), 3 trainers and the UI.

But hey, for all we know the feature does exist in the game. By the way, we're supposed to get news about Masters this month.

There is some validity to simply the idea that simply having more Pokemon causes greater imbalance in the game, which is what I believe Masuda was getting at.

Then just impose the Galar Pokedex for Battle Spot and VGC, and let players decide on a ruleset for casual battles (this exists in the Alola games).

 

[Lunala]

Do Dynamax Pokemon still have Abilities?

 

[Diamond & Pearl]

I was referring to scaling. Master should be compatible with all smartphones released in the last 3 years (arguably more). I'm looking at my 2019 phone right now which is pretty long, and find it hard to imagine a giant Pokemon alongside 5 others (especially if there is another giant), 3 trainers and the UI.

As Masters shares similarities with core Pokémon games, it would be weird to play it on a vertical screen as the GB(A)'s, (3)DS's and Switch's screens are everything but vertical. If you ask me, Masters should only be playable horizontally, and that would also erase the scaling issue almost entirely...

 

[Knightwolf09]

If there's one thing that makes me hopeful all this will blow over and people will give the game a chance, is that some people did say if they got this transfer info earlier the craziness would've boiled down by now. While I do respect everyone's opinion on the matter, and they have every right to choose what not to bye. I just kinda wish people didn't tear people to shreds over it. Whether it'd be the devs, fan site mods, or even just regular people. That side just shows the worse toxicity of us fans and I don't anyone including the devs think it's all we are, just people who riot, attack, and harass if we don't get everything we want. It's all I can really think of to say at the moment

Do Dynamax Pokemon still have Abilities?

Yes they do, and still have held items.

 

[Silktree]

As Masters shares lots of similarities with core Pokémon games, it would be weird to play it on a vertical screen as the GB(A)'s, (3)DS's and Switch's screens are everything but vertical. If you ask me, Masters should only be playable horizontally, and that would also erase the scaling issue almost entirely...

Well, it is played vertically. Have you watched the trailer?