Official Pre-Pokémon Sword & Pokémon Shield Speculation & Leaks thread

[Oriden]

We've already been waiting since July 2017 when they first mentioned the games, what's another 5 days?

Inb4 its fucking nothing

Or 19 days =P

 

[Pokeshopper]

Just to state, I've now got the merchandise listings confirmed for summer releases. We'll 100% get Gen 8 news before E3. Don't listen to anyone saying otherwise.

'If you have any questions you wish raise so I can answer in videos, go ahead'

 

[Dorothy]

Knowing the titles of the games would give us an idea about the main themes.

So far, we have:

Red and Green (JP)/ Red and Blue (US) - None(?) (the begining)/Nature and Genetics maybe?
Gold and Silver - Dawn and Dusk/Day and Night/Rebirth and Collapse (?) (falls)/Peace and Catastrophe (?) (In fact, as said in some interview, this duo - Lugia and Ho-Oh - referred to many dualities at once);
Ruby and Sapphire - Land and Sea
Diamond and Pearl - Time and Space
Black and White - Ideals and Truth
X and Y - Creation and Destruction(?)/Life and Death
Sun and Moon - Meetings and Farewells (confirmed by Ohmori)

I wonder what the next main themes would be.

I've always thought Pokemon games with themes of change and resistance to change/progress and reaction, or technology and nature (an expansion on the ideas floated in Opelucid City's designs) would be interesting.

 

[Player Jables]

Knowing the titles of the games would give us an idea about the main themes.

So far, we have:

Red and Green (JP)/ Red and Blue (US) - None(?) (the begining)/Nature and Genetics maybe?
Gold and Silver - Dawn and Dusk/Day and Night/Rebirth and Collapse (?) (falls)/Peace and Catastrophe (?) (In fact, as said in some interview, this duo - Lugia and Ho-Oh - referred to many dualities at once);
Ruby and Sapphire - Land and Sea
Diamond and Pearl - Time and Space
Black and White - Ideals and Truth
X and Y - Creation and Destruction(?)/Life and Death
Sun and Moon - Meetings and Farewells (confirmed by Ohmori)

I wonder what the next main themes would be.

I still say tradition vs innovation (progressive change). Especially seeing as that GF themselves are having to confront those very ideas in transitioning into their first core RPG console title. LGPE was a trial run to get used to the development kit. Gen 8 will be their first true foray into consoles for their games.

 

[Oriden]

Just to state, I've now got the merchandise listings confirmed for summer releases. We'll 100% get Gen 8 news before E3. Don't listen to anyone saying otherwise.

'If you have any questions you wish raise so I can answer in videos, go ahead'

Thank you for the update, Paul!

Anything looking interesting for the summer? And is Sun and Moon gonna be dead by then? Because I saw you mention something about UBs on twitter. XD

 

[Pokeshopper]

Thank you for the update, Paul!

Anything looking interesting for the summer? And is Sun and Moon gonna be dead by then? Because I saw you mention something about UBs on twitter. XD

UB's got a Pokémon Center Japan promotion earlier which looks lovely, however - after 3 years of reporting on it, it has taken its toll. Thankfully the end is nigh and we're closing on in!

 

[Poke Dragon]

Glad to hear the days of silence are almost over.

 

[dvor]

Just to state, I've now got the merchandise listings confirmed for summer releases. We'll 100% get Gen 8 news before E3. Don't listen to anyone saying otherwise.

'If you have any questions you wish raise so I can answer in videos, go ahead'

Does any of the listings/merch hints something will get revealed this month ?

 

[prog rocker]

Good to know we'll be able to speak about something concrete soon.

 

[SodiumChloride]

If you have any questions you wish raise so I can answer in videos, go ahead'

What do you think they will reveal in the first gen 8 trailer?, Nothing like sm or alot like x and y?

 

[multiingbe]

Good to know we'll be able to speak about something concrete soon.

Yes; should there actually be new Pokemon reveals for February 13th, that is in basically four days at this point!!

 

[SodiumChloride]

View: https://twitter.com/firstdates_tv/status/1093958896220164096?s=19

hmm


what?

 

[prog rocker]

Translation: "Next week is going to be very special and it's not because of St. Valentine. Something's going to happen that we recommend you should not miss out. The countdown starts now!"

 

[UltraInstinctPirateKing]

Just to state, I've now got the merchandise listings confirmed for summer releases. We'll 100% get Gen 8 news before E3. Don't listen to anyone saying otherwise.

'If you have any questions you wish raise so I can answer in videos, go ahead'

Hey Paul, been following your work for a while, Just wanna say you do some great stuff and I watch your channel with great interest, looking forward to seeing it grow as this gen progresses.

It's almost a sure thing to me that we'll get the reveal this month, likely on Pokemon Day with a Pokemon direct.
But what else do you think we'll get? In the XY pokemon direct, we got the reveal of the games themselves, other directs gave us the reveal of Pokemon Bank, the Mega Evos for the starters, the announcement of the virtual console games, etc.

I think on the 27th, we could see a variety of things such as a formal reveal of Pokemon Bank on the switch to coencide with G8, as well as whatever's going on with Mewtwo, New updates for PoGo, A new spot for Detective Pikachu, etc.
(And in a perfect world, the Sevii Islands annonced as DLC for Let's Go this Spring to hold us over until the new games, Lets Go could be a good chance for GameFreak to experiment with dlc as a concept)

 

[CyberKnight1994]

Just to state, I've now got the merchandise listings confirmed for summer releases. We'll 100% get Gen 8 news before E3. Don't listen to anyone saying otherwise.

'If you have any questions you wish raise so I can answer in videos, go ahead'

I was told the man with a shiny Meltan asked for questions, so I fought through my pain and sufferings from my Migraine attack to ask him these VERY specific questions:

1. Do you think Game Freak will embrace DLC similar to other popular RPG's now, or stick to the Mystery Gift method that works, or an equal balance of the two?
2. If Follow/Ride Pokemon make a return this generation, what Pokemon are you looking most forward to seeing?
3. We discussed this earlier, but whats your opinion or take IF Game Freak decides to add in voice acting to Pokemon Gen 8?
4. What non-Pokemon game is your favorite?

And now back to me recovering and my pain and suffering. Thanks for the replies Paul, Love your videos, and also love updating the mates here when they go live. Cheers!

 

[UltraInstinctPirateKing]

Hey all, I thought I'd share this little analysis article I wrote up following the development of Generation 8, from when it possible began, to now covering everything from old rumors to modern speculation. It's a pretty long read, but I hope you find something worthwhile within!

Spoiler: Full article here

For this I’ll be referring back to two episodes of the Game Informer Show podcast, detailing their Pokémon coverage, where they visited and interviewed with GameFreak about Pokemon on the Switch and they pretty much predicted Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee from that a year before they were announced, and gave some more insight on what we can expect for the Gen 8 games. (youtube.com/watch?v=qi4bxT_Bb4c&t=200s,
youtube.com/watch?v=HGoWMHLWFG8)

Development of Gen 8, An interesting old rumor:
So in 2013, GF were working on XY for release that year and Sun/Moon for 2016.
We can tell they had the 2016 date in mind since back then thanks to GameInformer clarifying that GF does indeed like their format of 3 year cycles, thus 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 were always the plan for new generations. We know that X and Y were probably being worked on by atleast by 2011 with the release of Pokedex 3D on 3DS using the 3D models that all games have since featured.
We know that Sun and Moon were atleast conceptualized by the time XY were released, thanks to the Hiker and Strange Souvenir. Theres even an interview with Masuda where he says he had Diamond and Pearl in mind when creating Ruby and Sapphire, so it seems they've always been working on gens with their next generation in mind.

What does mean for Gen 8 on the Switch? We know the Switch was in development for a long time, with dev kits sent out at some point before 2015, and Gamefreak being one of the first to receive them. The idea that the system would be a handheld/console hybrid was known to the public by then (Nintendo’s NX will be console-handheld hybrid) so it’s convivable that it was already through insiders hands by then, maybe by up to a year.

Now there was a very interesting leak around 2014 claiming the games in development were code named Plus and Minus. (Next Gen Pokemon Games Called Plus And Minus? | My Nintendo News)
It gets a LOT wrong, but It detailed some features that were very similar to the concept of the Nintendo Switch before we knew it was a thing, stating

“ GameFreak were one of the first development studios inside Nintendo to receive Alpha-Prototype hardware, now have been upgraded to the Beta-Prototype hardware above. More traditional Pokemon-like gameplay will be on the Handheld controller while an all new gameplay aspect will be on the Terminal unit.

Which is in concept, very similar to the Switch, and some concepts eerily similar to things we did see down the line, for example, it detailed....

TONS of concept art traveling between Pokemon Company and Nintendo Co Ltd.
The development team is “going to put a lot of ideas they have wanted to do for years in this game.
New region, no name yet, is based on South East Asia with one large peninsula and many smaller islands. The “Mainland” is an MMO-like environment that is exclusive to the Terminal and is shared by both versions.Players all over the world online can chat, trade, intermingle and experience new-updated story lines on the mainland. The main legendary for Pokemon Plus is a Shi Foo Lion-looking Psychic/Ground-type that has multiple faces, the Pokemon Minus legendary is a Ghost/Fairy type that has two dashes for eyes and is a hurricane-like appendages with many arms and hands"

While mostly wrong, Some parts of these points actually sound very similar to Sun and Moon. An Island based region, Solgaleo is indeed a Psychic type Lion, and Lunala is a ghost type. The “Mainland” sounds similar in concept to the Festival Plaza (an area outside the main island region where players can interact with each other to battle,trade,etc.) These games would have been in early development by then, as we know from the Strange Souvenir. My theory is that the leaker saw some early concept art of Sun/Moon, mistook it for the Switch game which were also beginning development at the time, and fan wanked the rest based on personal speculation or out of context information or intentionally made up to cover his tracks.
Why is all that important? Because it indicates that Pokemon for the Switch was in development as early as 2014, or at least that GF was hands on with Switch hardware by then. This matches up with what we know of Gamefreak working one gen ahead at a time (SM and Gen 8)

Side note: Another line on that leak claimed
“GameFreak plans to completely overhaul the basic systems of battle, simplifying the process”
We know that’s not true from Gamefreak themselves thanks to the GameInformer show, but it was Masuda who created the catching system from Pokemon GO and Lets Go. It’s likely the leaker saw some early concepts of this as well and mistook it out of context like with Sun/Moon.

Whatever happened to Pokemon Z? Is Postgame Kalos possible?:
So why am I bringing up all those dates and stuff? One thing people are really hoping for is that Kalos is featured in the postgame, normally I would say thats not gonna happen, Kalos is huge, and alone has twice the pokemon that Kanto and Johto had combined. And lets not even get started on the issues of level scaling. But this time, I think its worth a look.

First note, the obvious lack of a Pokemon Z, and the perfect circumstances for a Z to have happened. (A year inbetween ORAS and SM, Perfect Zygarde and a new form for Greninja playing a huge role in anime, conspicuously closed off areas in Kalos, several unobtainable forms and moves in the code, story hints, etc.)
The official stated reason for no Z was that Gamefreak simply wanted to surprise people, but there are tons of indicators like those above that something was planned for Kalos beyond XY. Ultra Sun/Moon are proof that Gamefreak still do love the concept of enhanced third versions making it even stranger that Kalos is the only one left out.

If the reports of Gamefreak receiving the Switch dev kits are to believe, it’s not a huge assumption to think that Gamefreak liked what they saw with the Switch back in 2014 and decided that, instead of releasing a standard upgrade to XY on the 3ds in 2015, they would hold it back and rework it to their big Switch title instead. This would allow them to..

A) Go all hands on deck for their next immediate title, Sun and Moon, and incorporate a few widely known and advertised concepts like Perfect Zygarde and Ash-Greninja to those titles.
B) Give them an additional year to work on an extra title, which could have grown into either Ultra Sun/Moon or Lets Go Pikachu/Eevee or both.
C) Blow everyones mind with their first Gen 8 title being a massive epic dual region game, while essentially easing half the workload as it had already been conceptualized on to some degree without comprising the scope of the planned initial region, and giving them time to figure out how to scale it properly

There’s tons of recent speculation that the region for the next game will be based on either the UK, Italy, or Spain, all 3 having some reasonable degree of hints behind them such as Masuda’s trips to Spain around the Gen 8 development period, the UK appearing in the anime and Pikachu wearing a crown has been popping up a lot, (Note: the games are likely NOT called Crown and Scepter, on account of those names being dumb) and the UK being a huge spot in terms of tourism, history, variety, things to do, prevalence of the market of Pokemon fans, etc. (Personally, of all options Italy would be my dream pick) These hints could all be something or nothing, but there were many clever hints to Gen 7 being Hawaii around that reveal period, so you never know.

All 3 of these regions border France in some capacity and would make for easy links to the Kalos region (UK could be a water route with the Sea Spirits Den connecting it to Kalos Route 12, Spain could be a route connecting to Glittering Cave, and Italy can have an area based on the Frejus Road Tunnel, which was meant to connect Italy and France and pop us off stright in Vaniville town or Kiloude City)
Though even if the region isnt based on any of these locations, Kalos could still be in. Planes are a thing after all.

So thats my speculation on why I think a Kalos region postgame isnt inconceivable, the only real obstable I can see is level scaling, which they could maybe solve by taking the opposite approach from Black/White and slowing leveling up itself way down.


What could Graphics look like?
One big point a lot of people are curious about are the graphics of the game. I'm of a mind that there is nothing to worry about, and a look at the trailer for TOWN is enough to quell any fears I have. Why? Because it's most likley an engine test itself for the Gen 8 Games.
They did the exact same thing before in 2012 with Harmoknight, and look at how that game looks (youtube.com/watch?v=4JiIBikZ0iM&t=342s) compared to Pokemon X and Y, which came out just a year after. Its a world of difference, and this time, they have Let's Go as a full other game before that!
A lot of people look at Ni no Kuni or Yokai Watch 4's graphics as a dream look, but I dont think that's too far out of the realm of possibility, since an improved take on the graphics of TOWN, mixed with the art style of Sun and Moon is very close to how that would look anyway.

So anyway, that's my analysis on Gen 8 with a lot of my own speculation thown in. Let me know what you guys think and thanks for reading!

 

[Bolt Strike]

I still say tradition vs innovation (progressive change). Especially seeing as that GF themselves are having to confront those very ideas in transitioning into their first core RPG console title. LGPE was a trial run to get used to the development kit. Gen 8 will be their first true foray into consoles for their games.

Yeah, I can't think of a more fitting theme for this generation, that conflict has been happening within the fanbase right now and likely within Game Freak as they've been deciding on what to do with this game. It'll be interesting to see what they come up with.

 

[SerenaToAlola]

That Floette also received a pokedex entry in USUM, so strange things certainly going on around that one. I still think it's way too early for a return to Kalos, but a connection to Kalos seems plausible.

What if all they do for Valentine's Day is an Eternal Floette distribution.

 

[Oriden]

What if all they do for Valentine's Day is an Eternal Floette distribution.

=P Wouldn't make for the loveliest Valentine's gift, to be honest.

Besides, I think we're pretty well past getting anything new for USUM.

 

[prog rocker]

Well, that would be underwhelming.