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

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Yeah the only Gen 5 pokemon part is the part that I don't want being repeated ever again.

I get that, I personally loved it as I liked being able to find and use new favorites, but I do understand that sometimes you want old favorites to rely on as you explore the new region and locking them out can be disappointing.

Speaking of old favorites, I'd like to see the regional dex of Galar have a few more underused Pokémon pop up. I understand that those like Zubat are easy to insert into any dex, but we haven't seen those like Cacturne, Shiftry, Luxray, Sawsbuck, or Eelektross, show up in a regional dex that's not their debut generation. I'd love to see more of Pokémon like that, particularly since a number of them tend to be fun options.
 
I'm alright with every gen getting a nod in gen 8. No need to be aggravated about it. Gen 1, as well every game thereafter is great. They should all get recognition so that all fans, new and old may get to know them. ^-^
 
How would you feel if each gym presented a different sport-like game (like the ones from Pokéathlon) before each gym leader traditional battle challenge?
I'd love this TBH but I wonder if they'd for through the effort instead of having one big Football league
 
About the encounter rates I think that hoenn was the best region. Everything felt new but the old mons were still there. They could follow that direction.
That's true.

For example, in my head, Slugma and Magcargo are Hoenn Pokémon. They were introduced in Johto, but they were better used in Hoenn. I remember them as the Pokémon you encounter in Jagged Pass, and which Flannery uses.

Hoenn does a really good job with integration of previous Pokémon.
 
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That's true.

For example, in my head, Slugma and Magcargo are Hoenn Pokémon. They were introduced in Johto, but they were better used in Hoenn. I remember them as the Pokémon you encounter in Jagged Pass, and which Flannery uses.

Hoenn does a really good job with integration of previous Pokémon.
This is probably the most exceptional example. I don't think it's necessarily a good thing though. It means Slugma was way too rare or out of the way in Johto, which is known for having this problem (see Sneasel, Misdreavus, and Murkrow). I don't think there's any odd cases like that anymore, which is a good thing, in my opinion. I'd prefer choosing underrepresented in previous games as the palette for common encounters in new games, though, so I do like that they made up for Slugma in Gen 3 and the others in Gen 4, especially since all of them got evolutions and were featured prominently as in-game ace Pokemon.

Of course, I'm all for an entirely new Dex of ~150 new Pokemon because I like to use only new Pokemon on my first playthrough and it really makes it feel fresh, in my opinion...but I'm fine with the way Hoenn and Sinnoh mixed up new and old in a way that there was still a lot of new Pokemon.
 
Apparently, Gen 2 was suppose to have ALL of Japan as one big Region, having Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh as well as Kanto in it. Hence why there was scrapped desert and snowy areas. Even Lake Rage was suppose to have a town on the other side of the lake. As seen in this video.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXCXcRNNVq0


Unfortunately, due to file space for the GBC, it cannot be done, and instead just focus on Johto and Kanto. And the left overs were used for Gen 3 and 4.
 
Apparently, Gen 2 was suppose to have ALL of Japan as one big Region, having Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh as well as Kanto in it. Hence why there was scrapped desert and snowy areas. Even Lake Rage was suppose to have a town on the other side of the lake. As seen in this video.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXCXcRNNVq0


Unfortunately, due to file space for the GBC, it cannot be done, and instead just focus on Johto and Kanto. And the left overs were used for Gen 3 and 4.

Yup. Although I do find that concept interesting, the way they handled Kanto was... messy, to put it simple. When I used the debug menu to explore Johto I got lost there and I didn't know where to go. Also, Kanto only had one Gym, with Red (then called Blue) as the Leader.
 
Ok, just throwing some speculations and my map analysis.

About the gyms: I don't think the gyms will be traditional gyms only with the traditional battles we are used to. Otherwise, I would not see a reason for the stadiums and the uniform. I think that just like with Alola, they'll try to do something different in this regard now.

The trailer shows the interior of the "grass" stadium, and it looks like a soccer field. Based on that and the player's uniform (and also on the game titles, which may be or not be a reference to defense and attack), I think we will have a sport focus at these gyms.

Relying on the symbol of the stadiums (the red and blue symbol), and its seeming importance (since it's even present in the Japanese titles), I believe it will be an important and huge feature, so I don't think that all the gyms would be the same soccer-themed thing, I do think that each gym will address one different sport each, with games similiar to the ones from Pokéathlon, and the player will have to win these sports games first and then have the chance to challenge the gym properly (with Pokémon battles).

Which would be those sports, and how these mini-games would work is something that I wonder. But I think that, obviously, they would have to involve the Pokémon, and I also think that it would be possible to play online matches of these sports later in the post-game (I will talk more about it below), with some of them accomodating up to 8 players, which is the limit of the Switch online capabilities, I think (?).

Many sports originated in England, so I think some of those may be the chosen ones.


About the map:

QFvaui0.jpg

I think these will be the gyms (yes, only 6 of them):

HmybJuO.png

Through the trailer we could notice that the first arena (the one from the supposed first city) also presents the symbol of the japanese logos (the red and blue one). Because it is located in the very first city (if you check the map, you can clearly see a train connection between the initial location and that city), and because it doesn't show any type symbol (like the later arenas do), I believe that it can be a kind of a tutorial. With the other five presenting five different sports-like mini-games before the tradional gym leader battle challenges.

2vqLWuI.png

About the building with a dragon head at the entrance, I think it's the Elite 4 (or whatever it will be called in these games). Judging by the art on the map, I believe that just as in Alola, it will have traditional battles and nothing more.

About the whole area to the north end, I believe it will be post-game related only.

p6deo2T.png

About this building, judging by the symbol at the top of it, and by the absence of elemental symbols, I think this building will be where the player will be able to play any of the sports games online in the post game. I don't think it's the League.

This location (below) closely resembles the Piccadilly Circus, as @A Wild Luxray quoted earlier on other thread. I believe that this whole area (of the post-game) can be a huge online hub, that works in real time. Like a Festival Plaza, but with players interacting in real time. With the panels serving to show off game announcements like new Global Link competitions etc., this area could end up being very similar to the Splatoon hub, but working totally online.

EqaaLiw.png
jXCUubx.png

About these two buildings (below), I think that at least one of them will work as the traditional Battle Facility of this generation (the Tower would end up being repetitive, so I hope it's the Ferris wheel.)

YNEWetD.png

The others buildings (like the "Big Bang", and the one from the previous two that not be the battle facility) should have different post-game uses, but I could not thought of anything.


About armored forms: I do not think it will happen. For these reasons:
  1. We just came from two generations with "burst-like" gimmicks: Mega Evolutions and the Z-moves. It would become a bit repetitive;
  2. I don't find the idea of introducing armors into Pokémon to be interesting to Game Freak (at least not in the way people are speculating; literally armors). The Pokémon battles themselves are like a kind of a sport-thing (there are rules, there are referees, and all that sort of thing), they aren't literal battles, and I don't think they want to convey anything other than that. Introducing armors into Pokémon (at least in the way people speculate) doesn't seem interesting to me, and I don't think it would be interesting to Game Freak either. I think we can have similar concepts being introduced later (like and old Pixelpar's idea or like Necrozma's Dawn and Dusk forms), but not now, and not the way fans speculate;
  3. The environment doesn't seem much favorable to the idea. A text from Joe, posted on ResetEra, sums up well what I think about:
Serebii said:
People are really winding me up haha.

Let me preface this once again by me saying at time of writing I do not know for sure if Armored Evolution is a thing or not.

Here's a timeline and explanation of events

1. Armored Mewtwo was in the movie in 1998 and the name アーマードミュウツー (Armored Mewtwo) was often used to describe it since. Despite being the height of Pokémon, there wasn't that much merchandise for it so the trademark wasn't filed.

2. The first Armored Mewtwo merchandise was listed publicly online on February 14th 2019.

3. In December, the general consensus was UK for the next region. Following that, DuncanCantDie (a YouTuber) made the claim and even put a money bet on it as he was so sure. So many names were then thrown around including Crown & Scepter, King & Queen and Sword & Shield all being posted many times prior to launch. There was even one Sword & Shield and UK list back in April of last year.

4. On February 21st, a list got posted on 4chan which combined both the last points. It listed Sword & Shield, obviously with the UK and then used Armored Mewtwo (which was known albeit not widely at the time) and used it for an Armored Evolution rumour.

5. For some unknown reason, on February 27th when Sword & Shield were officially revealed, people jumped on this one as likely over the dozens of others.

6. In early March, some more Armored Mewtwo merchandise was shown with the design being hidden. This caused even more people to believe it as this was when the Armored Mewtwo merchandise became more widely known.

7. On February 18th, the アーマードミュウツー trademark was registered and this became public on March 9th. This caused people to go into overdrive over the Armored Evolution rumour. However, this is notable to the discussion because no Mega Evolution or Alolan Form got registered like this. Instead, the base name of the Pokémon was trademarked such as Blaziken, Charizard etc. and Mewtwo is already registered. There is one exception to this, Alolan Vulpix, which got registered on November 7th 2018 for use in the Snow Festival in Sapporo in early 2019. There is no other trademark for any Alola Form or Mega Evolution indicating that this is one of many anime related trademarks used for merchandising which includes プニちゃん (Punichan), the nickname Bonnie gave Zygarde Core in the anime which was then used on a myriad of merchandise.

8. On April 6th, Pokémon GO Version 0.139.3 was released on Google Play. This version is interesting because, along with the forms of every other Pokémon, it lists "Mewtwo_A" in the form list. This made many people think it'd be Armored Mewtwo, which is a safe bet. However, if it is to be the Armored Mewtwo then this would in fact disprove Armored Evolution as they'd hold that off for the entire Armored Evolution mechanic when GO implements it rather than just include this one, indicating it is however a movie tie-in akin to the Sky Attack Lugia Raid Battles that existed in April 2018 to tie in with The Power of Us' promotion and probably an exclusive GO element like the Love Heart style Spinda (listed as Spinda_9 in the form list) and the various hat Pikachu, sunglasses Squirtle and flower crown Eevee.

9. On April 10th, the latest trailer for Mewtwo Strikes Back EVOLUTION was released. This trailer showcased the first look at the redesign for Armored Mewtwo. Why a redesign? It's hard to say but the leading theory is that it's to make it more marketable. However, the interesting thing about this is that it passes without The Pokémon Company saying a thing about Armored Mewtwo. With Zeraora, Marshadow, Hoopa Unbound and Mega Mewtwo Y in their respective April trailer reveals, despite perhaps only being in for mere seconds, they were followed by lots of talk about it. New forms and Pokémon would get their own page on official sites. They'd get unique artwork, either in the movie style or the Ken Sugimori/Yusuke Ohmura official artwork style. They'd get lots of teases and questions about it on the web pages and on social media. They also received a near simultaneous official reveal from The Pokémon Company International. We have none of that.
This indicates that this is presently unlikely to resonate beyond the movie and respective tie-ins.



With all this, I can't see that Armored Evolution rumour being true. It could be, sure, but things aren't looking good for it despite what people are inexplicably saying today. At best, we'd get this Armored Mewtwo in Sword & Shield but even then I'm not convinced.

If Armored Evolution becomes a thing, I'll be surprised. It is of course possible, but every new element is making it less and less likely at this time

Remembering we had things like these when Mega Mewtwo Y was revealed:




4PeALHT.png

This is from the older version of XY's official site


About the release date: I still believe that the game can be released in December personally, although there is no indication of that happening. Ohmori said in the announcement that they were "hard-developing" the game at that time, so I think a December release would make the calendar a bit more comfortable for them, but on the other hand, only a month doesn't make that much difference either way. Well, I also think they could be not as predictable, and break the November releases once.


About the next batch of information date: Like almost everyone else, I also think we'll have a new trailer at the beginning of May. I believe they can show a new trailer before the live action release date and take advantage of that to show it in theaters too, or show the announcement trailer in theaters before the live action, and then days after that, show a new trailer worldwide. I'd bet on the first option (I think that the second week of May, the days before the live action release specifically, would be a propitious time to give us a brand new Pokémon Direct, with a new SwSh trailer, a live action release date reminder, and some spin-offs announcements, like a Detective Pikachu's game port to Switch as some people have suggested months ago), but who knows.

Maybe they want the community to focus on the live action first and to only then see a new trailer after. Remembering that after January, I swore they would not show anything from the game until May. So, it's just speculation, and I may be wrong. I think it's important to think about Warner's interests as well. I don't know how advantageous it would be for them to dismiss the focus from the live action, so that was something I had not thought of before, and we have also to take that into consideration. But like almost everyone else, I think the beginning of May is the most likely time to give us something. Even it be after the live action exhibition.
 
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Ok, just throwing some speculations and my map analysis.

About the gyms: I don't think the gyms will be traditional gyms only with the traditional battles we are used to. Otherwise, I would not see a reason for the stadiums and the uniform. I think that just like with Alola, they'll try to do something different in this regard now.

The trailer shows the interior of the "grass" stadium, and it looks like a soccer field. Based on that and the player's uniform (and also on the game titles, which may be or not be a reference to defense and attack), I think we will have a sport focus at these gyms.

Relying on the symbol of the stadiums (the red and blue symbol), and its seeming importance (since it's even present in the Japanese titles), I believe it will be an important and huge feature, so I don't think that all the gyms would be the same soccer-themed thing, I do think that each gym will address one different sport each, with games similiar to the ones from Pokéathlon, and the player will have to win these sports games first and then have the chance to challenge the gym properly (with Pokémon battles).

Which would be those sports, and how these mini-games would work is something that I wonder. But I think that, obviously, they would have to involve the Pokémon, and I also think that it would be possible to play online matches of these sports later in the post-game (I will talk more about it below), with some of them accomodating up to 8 players, which is the limit of the Switch online capabilities, I think (?).

Many sports originated in England, so I think some of those may be the chosen ones.


About the map:

QFvaui0.jpg

I think these will be the gyms (yes, only 6 of them):

HmybJuO.png

Through the trailer we could notice that the first arena (the one from the supposed first city) also presents the symbol of the japanese logos (the red and blue one). Because it is located in the very first city (if you check the map, you can clearly see a train connection between the initial location and that city), and because it doesn't show any type symbol (like the later arenas do), I believe that it can be a kind of a tutorial. With the other five presenting five different sports-like mini-games before the tradional gym leader battle challenges.

2vqLWuI.png

About the building with a dragon head at the entrance, I think it's the Elite 4 (or whatever it will be called in these games). Judging by the art on the map, I believe that just as in Alola, it will have traditional battles and nothing more.

About the whole area to the north end, I believe it will be post-game related only.

p6deo2T.png

About this building, judging by the symbol at the top of it, and by the absence of elemental symbols, I think this building will be where the player will be able to play any of the sports games online in the post game. I don't think it's the League.

This location (below) closely resembles the Piccadilly Circus, as @A Wild Luxray quoted earlier on other thread. I believe that this whole area (of the post-game) can be a huge online hub, that works in real time. Like a Festival Plaza, but with players interacting in real time. With the panels serving to show off game announcements like new Global Link competitions etc., this area could end up being very similar to the Splatoon hub, but working totally online.

EqaaLiw.png
jXCUubx.png

About these two buildings (below), I think that at least one of them will work as the traditional Battle Facility of this generation (the Tower would end up being repetitive, so I hope it's the Ferris wheel.)

YNEWetD.png

The others buildings (like the "Big Bang", and the one from the previous two that not be the battle facility) should have different post-game uses, but I could not thought of anything.


About armored forms: I do not think it will happen. For these reasons:
  1. We just came from two generations with "burst-like" gimmicks: Mega Evolutions and the Z-moves. It would become a bit repetitive;
  2. I don't find the idea of introducing armors into Pokémon to be interesting to Game Freak (at least not in the way people are speculating; literally armors). The Pokémon battles themselves are like a kind of a sport-thing (there are rules, there are referees, and all that sort of thing), they aren't literal battles, and I don't think they want to convey anything other than that. Introducing armors into Pokémon (at least in the way people speculate) doesn't seem interesting to me, and I don't think it would be interesting to Game Freak either. I think we can have similar concepts being introduced later (like and old Pixelpar's idea or like Necrozma's Dawn and Dusk forms), but not now, and not the way fans speculate;
  3. The environment doesn't seem much favorable to the idea. A text from Joe, posted on ResetEra, sums up well what I think about:

Remembering we had things like these when Mega Mewtwo Y was revealed:




4PeALHT.png

This is from the older version of XY's official site


About the release date: I still believe that the game can be released in December personally, although there is no indication of that happening. Ohmori said in the announcement that they were "hard-developing" the game at that time, so I think a December release would make the calendar a bit more comfortable for them, but on the other hand, only a month doesn't make that much difference either way. Well, I also think they could be not as predictable, and break the November releases once.


About the next batch of information date: Like almost everyone else, I also think we'll have a new trailer at the beginning of May. I believe they can show a new trailer before the live action release date and take advantage of that to show it in theaters too, or show the announcement trailer in theaters before the live action, and then days after that, show a new trailer worldwide. I'd bet on the first option (I think that the second week of May, the days before the live action release specifically, would be a propitious time to give us a brand new Pokémon Direct, with a new SwSh trailer, a live action release date reminder, and some spin-offs announcements, like a Detective Pikachu's game port to Switch as some people have suggested months ago), but who knows.

Maybe they want the community to focus on the live action first and to only then see a new trailer after. Remembering that after January, I swore they would not show anything from the game until May. So, it's just speculation, and I may be wrong. I think it's important to think about Warner's interests as well. I don't know how advantageous it would be for them to dismiss the focus from the live action, so that was something I had not thought of before, and we have also to take that into consideration. But like almost everyone else, I think the beginning of May is the most likely time to give us something. Even it be after the live action exhibition.

Personally I think there will be 8 Gyms. The Second City might have one somewhere, and the 8th is yet to be known. It might be the Wembley one before the large tower of where the E4 and Champion resides. But we won't know until we have more news. So far, nothing until probably mid/late May and E3.
 
Personally I think there will be 8 Gyms. The Second City might have one somewhere, and the 8th is yet to be known. It might be the Wembley one before the large tower of where the E4 and Champion resides. But we won't know until we have more news. So far, nothing until probably mid/late May and E3.

you could use spoilers on that quote


By the second city, do you mean the trailer's one? I think that will be the first city we will have acess to right after the initial village (look at the train stations in both locations). About hidden places, I'd like to think so. I wish there was a part of the map being hidden (like Nothern Ireland or something), or subterranean cities as some are speculating, but by the way it was shown to us ("here it's is, this is the Galar region") and find that unlikely. I don't think we'll have to wait until late May or E3(?). Why do you think so? June would be a bit too late, I guess? And E3 is no longer as important as it was years ago, and Nintendo doesn't make presentations any more at E3, they usually show a Nintendo Direct days before.
 
you could use spoilers on that quote

By the second city, do you mean the trailer's one? I think that will be the first city we will have acess to right after the initial village (look at the train stations in both locations). About hidden places, I'd like to think so. I wish there was a part of the map being hidden (like Nothern Ireland or something), or subterranean cities as some are speculating, but by the way it was shown to us ("here it's is, this is the Galar region") and find that unlikely. I don't think we'll have to wait until late May or E3(?). Why do you think so? June would be a bit too late, I guess? And E3 is no longer as important as it was years ago, and Nintendo doesn't make presentations any more at E3, they usually show a Nintendo Direct days before.
Agreeing that late May/June seems too late (also yeah, put that quote in spoilers! Too long! XD)

But Nintendo still makes presentations at E3 last I checked? I remember they had demonstrations for Sun and Moon and Let's Go.
 
Agreeing that late May/June seems too late (also yeah, put that quote in spoilers! Too long! XD)

But Nintendo still makes presentations at E3 last I checked? I remember they had demonstrations for Sun and Moon and Let's Go.

They have demonstrations, tournaments and that sort of things, I meant, they don't make "stage" presentations like they did before anymore, they usually show a digital Direct event days before or at the beginning of the event for that sort of thing (for trailers, new game announcements etc).
 
They have demonstrations, tournaments and that sort of things, I meant, they don't make "stage" presentations like they did before anymore, they usually show a digital Direct event days before or at the beginning of the event for that sort of thing (for trailers, new game announcements etc).
Oh that is true, yeah. I guess it still coincides with E3's timing, though, so still a sort of relevant timeframe in that regard.
 
Only 6 gyms would be depressing, even Sun/Moon managed 7 trials, and clearly intended for there to be an 8th (which was then included in USUM).
Must confess I'm not thrilled by the whole football theme. Yes England has the premier league and most of Galar is England, but we have so much more than that. 1 gym leader based on sport/football would be fine, but all of them :/
 
If the speculation about armor being a battle-only form mechanic like Mega Evolution and Z-Moves, I can see why Game Freak wouldn't want something like that, they had two gens worth of battle-only upgrades, doing it a third gen in a row wouldn't be something Game Freak would want to do. And besides, what else is there to do with a "burst" form mechanic that hasn't already been done? They already did it with held items (Mega Evolution, Primal Reversion, Ultra Necrozma), abilities (Zygarde Complete form, Battle Bond Greninja) and even moves (Mega Rayquaza). It would be dumb on their part to do it with weather and time of day since that's not accessible in every battle.
 
Only 6 gyms would be depressing, even Sun/Moon managed 7 trials, and clearly intended for there to be an 8th (which was then included in USUM).
Must confess I'm not thrilled by the whole football theme. Yes England has the premier league and most of Galar is England, but we have so much more than that. 1 gym leader based on sport/football would be fine, but all of them :/
I think the field and uniform is football inspired yes, But I think it's just that gym battles are treated more as a sports tournament of anything.

If the speculation about armor being a battle-only form mechanic like Mega Evolution and Z-Moves, I can see why Game Freak wouldn't want something like that, they had two gens worth of battle-only upgrades, doing it a third gen in a row wouldn't be something Game Freak would want to do. And besides, what else is there to do with a "burst" form mechanic that hasn't already been done? They already did it with held items (Mega Evolution, Primal Reversion, Ultra Necrozma), abilities (Zygarde Complete form, Battle Bond Greninja) and even moves (Mega Rayquaza). It would be dumb on their part to do it with weather and time of day since that's not accessible in every battle.
This is why I feel an armor idea would work better as an equipment system, with certain battle held items being separated into 2 categories of armor and enhancements. I'd imagine clothing like held items such as Choice Band will constitute as armor while items like Charcoal will act as enhancements to said armor, giving the item additional effect. Which would mean Choice Band would then boost fire type moves.
 
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This is why I feel an armor idea would work better as an equipment system, with certain battle held items being separated into 2 categories of armor and enhancements. I'd imagine clothing like held items such as Choice Band will constitute as armor while items like Charcoal will act as enhancements to said armor, giving the item additional effect. Which would mean Choice Band would then boost fire type moves.

But the issue is that it seems just like further complication to the system that GameFreak’d rather avoid shoving in LGPE fans’ face right after their introductory game to Pokemon.
 
But the issue is that it seems just like further complication to the system that GameFreak’d rather avoid shoving in LGPE fans’ face right after their introductory game to Pokemon.
Wasn't the point of LGPE to give returning or new fans something simplistic? They already stated SwSh is more for long time fans anyway
 
Wasn't the point of LGPE to give returning or new fans something simplistic? They already stated SwSh is more for long time fans anyway

The point of LGPE was what you said, as well as bringing new people to Pokemon.

And in he SwSh direct they’ve outright said that these games are for longtime fans, new people, as well as people who entered the franchise through LGPE.
 
The point of LGPE was what you said, as well as bringing new people to Pokemon.

And in he SwSh direct they’ve outright said that these games are for longtime fans, new people, as well as people who entered the franchise through LGPE.
Then they already got plenty to catch up on right from the get go in terms of mechanics. Well except megs since LGPE had them
 
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