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

[PocketMonster]

maybe soul songs have something to do with starter pokemon rather than just a general new mechanic.

 

[Velvet]

Hau never really grew on me as a rival; but at least he wants to be a better trainer so there's that?

 

[Knightwolf09]

Development is very important, as long its done well. I did not think that XY's and SuMo/USUM did well in terms of character development.

Edit: Urgh waifu material bleh.

I say quite the opposite for Sun and Moon. If anything I felt more attachment to the characters there than in any game

 

[prog rocker]

Oh, I forgot another thing I wouldn't like: Please, don't make another Calem/Serena. While I consider Blue to be a complete jerkass, Calem/Serena were too nice. I felt like I was stepping on a kitten each time I beat them.

 

[Oriden]

Just had a bit of a thought since I came from the Gen IV thread but how would everyone feel about a jerk/rude female rival character instead of a male rival?

I would like to see a badass female rival... maybe a bit jerkish but not too jerkish, just far from the obnoxiously carefree that was Hau and very very far from the bland nobody that is Let's Go's rival. Make her competitive and spirited. She doesn't have to be needlessly rude, but she can actually feel like a rival and not just some annoying kid you happen to keep running into.

I mean, that goes for male rivals too, but a female would be a nice change.

 

[Velvet]

In fairness, we don't really know much about Trace or his personality, it's still a bit too early to comment. But a badass female rival would be wonderful! A rival with actual energy, competitive and spirited; with personality to boot.

 

[Oriden]

In fairness, we don't really know much about Trace or his personality, it's still a bit too early to comment. But a badass female rival would be wonderful! A rival with actual energy, competitive and spirited; with personality to boot.

We do know at least that he's not a jerk, though, because Masuda has commented on it- Game Freak on why rivals in Pokemon aren't jerks anymore - Nintendo Everything

Which... what he says kind of feels like another case of "missing the point" to me. I mean sure we don't need our rival being the jerkiest of jerks, but going the way opposite of the spectrum just makes for an annoying kid who is only "rival" on a technicality. I hope we can move away from the super friendly "rivals" and get some rivals that actually feel like rivals going forward.

 

[KrspaceT]

The female default rival concept is possible, I am fully convinced that Pokemon CO is fully aware of the strength of the 'Nintendo Waifu' recently, and the fact they could get additional attention with a more prominent character of that template as opposed to being more side waifu like Olivia.

With Lillie's popularity I suspect they are aware that we don't mind female side characters of high prominence we don't play as. Plus Masuda dropping down in focus levels will have an effect on things going forward, including some of the cobwebs we dislike.

I refuse to believe Pokemon co Is absolutely tone deaf to what the fandom thinks of things. They are not the people who thought Command Conquer mobile and Diablo Eternal were good ideas.

I often am among the least doom and gloomy around, probably because I didnd't suffer the Zelda effect on the SM games.

We do know at least that he's not a jerk, though, because Masuda has commented on it- Game Freak on why rivals in Pokemon aren't jerks anymore - Nintendo Everything

Which... what he says kind of feels like another case of "missing the point" to me. I mean sure we don't need our rival being the jerkiest of jerks, but going the way opposite of the spectrum just makes for an annoying kid who is only "rival" on a technicality. I hope we can move away from the super friendly "rivals" and get some rivals that actually feel like rivals going forward.

...Though I will admit that it is amazing the crossed wires that can come up sometimes. Masuda, may you have a nice step away from active management of game development and be the guy people go to for ideas, not the one managing them.

 

[BackSet]

Pokemon Salt and Pepper

 

[Knightwolf09]

I never cared if the rivals were jerky or nice to me, they challenged me because they want to see who's better. That's how rivalry works. It also exists as friendly competition. Howman games do people play with their friends have fun beating someone that's nice to them? Answer, none. Because there's no hard feelings about it. You just want to see who's better. You don't need to have a sense of satisfaction from someone you are bound to beat in order to progress the story. This is why friendly rivals exist, they don't need to be jerks about wanting to make themselves stronger, they can be decent people who just wants to improve themselves, character progression. Maybe that sense of guilt does exist, but if anything that's more insulting to the character, cause that just means you see them only as weaklings you believe you're better than them. Honestly, it means you are the Blue.

 

[MegaPod]

Cover legendaries for new versions leaked:

Spoiler

 

[Knightwolf09]

Cover legendaries for new versions leaked:

Spoiler

View attachment 114236

Allo!

 

[Myth]

When will we get new information about the next movie? There may be some hint about gen 8 there.

Has anyone memorized the latests movies dates patterns? If I'm not mistaken, we should see something related in December's Coro, right?

 

[TechSkylander1518]

Personally, I actually prefer nicer rivals. They don't have to be nice at the start (character development is always fun), and they don't have to be uber-positive (Hugh and Gladion are good examples of that-not cheery, but not jerks, either), but I just don't see the fun of having a recurring character who's main purpose is to insult you. I get the complaint of not being developed enough, but that's not a problem directly connected to being nice or mean-you could have poorly developed mean characters or well developed nice characters. And I do agree that nice rivals have had a tendency to end up feeling guilt-trippy beating them, I think that's something that could be solved by just writing their battles as something friendlier. In real life, people don't usually feel like their dreams are crushed when they lose at Pokemon/Mario Kart/Smash/what have you with friends, so it wouldn't be that hard to write it otherwise.

 

[Greninjaman]

Cover legendaries for new versions leaked:

Spoiler

View attachment 114236

I will admit, that's funny enough that I'm not salty about it.

 

[Oriden]

Personally, I actually prefer nicer rivals. They don't have to be nice at the start (character development is always fun), and they don't have to be uber-positive (Hugh and Gladion are good examples of that-not cheery, but not jerks, either), but I just don't see the fun of having a recurring character who's main purpose is to insult you. I get the complaint of not being developed enough, but that's not a problem directly connected to being nice or mean-you could have poorly developed mean characters or well developed nice characters. And I do agree that nice rivals have had a tendency to end up feeling guilt-trippy beating them, I think that's something that could be solved by just writing their battles as something friendlier. In real life, people don't usually feel like their dreams are crushed when they lose at Pokemon/Mario Kart/Smash/what have you with friends, so it wouldn't be that hard to write it otherwise.

Personally, I don't mind the lack of total jerks, I just don't like this totally opposite route we're going with the super nice rival. Just give us less of these marshmallow kids like Hau- the lack of a competitive personality kind of makes him feel like a non-rival. Give us someone who makes it clear that they see you as someone worth challenging (even Blue fails in this regard with the constant put-downs), who in turn feels like a challenge to you and not like you were just forced to kick a puppy. Friendly competition is great and all, but not if it doesn't feel like they're actually competing.

Kinda feel like removing the jerkdom really just reveals the inherent flaw in rivals- they wind up being just an annoying pointless obstacle on the way to your goals and not something that really feels like it's worth your time. At least when they were jerks, you got the satisfaction of kicking their ass.

I mean the world is in danger in most games, who has time to have friendly matches with a kid who knows you're busy and doesn't care whether he wins or loses.

 

[Knightwolf09]

Personally, I don't mind the lack of total jerks, I just don't like this totally opposite route we're going with the super nice rival. Just give us less of these marshmallow kids like Hau- the lack of a competitive personality kind of makes him feel like a non-rival. Give us someone who makes it clear that they see you as someone worth challenging (even Blue fails in this regard with the constant put-downs), who in turn feels like a challenge to you and not like you were just forced to kick a puppy. Friendly competition is great and all, but not if it doesn't feel like they're actually competing.

Kinda feel like removing the jerkdom really just reveals the inherent flaw in rivals- they wind up being just an annoying pointless obstacle on the way to your goals and not something that really feels like it's worth your time. At least when they were jerks, you got the satisfaction of kicking their ass.

I mean the world is in danger in most games, who has time to have friendly matches with a kid who knows you're busy and doesn't care whether he wins or loses.

Honestly I feel Hau is the best example of what a friendly rival should be. At the beginning of the game, yeah, he's a marshmallow. Had no beef with you, especially since you were the new kid in town, but as the game progressed and Hau could stop Lillie from being kidnapped, that was when Hau felt weak. It was then he realized that if he truly wanted to be a strong trainer, he had to do more than just enjoy the battles, he had to play to win. And when he learned that, he went off to train, and literally next time you see him, he beat Gladion, the Elite 4, the competing with you to be the next Champion in Alola. Making him the second strongest trainer in the region. So in the end, he still considers you a friend, but also an obstacle to overcome. A true rival.

 

[Borjitasstoi]

I think develop female badass character for me its little difficult for understand since these last game i began hate characters because when you created characters with personality its mo easily for fall in favoritism in other characters thats why prefer old ones because when you put much personality and psicology kills me so much the experience and find always the stance judging a simple character after all its a 3d modeled thing but i dont care have the trait for make feelings and i m not sure i want it in future videogame industry

 

[Icy Wind]

You know something that would be cool in gen 8?

Online co-op.

Local co-op is great and all, but it’s nice to also have the option online as well.

 

[Knightwolf09]

You know something that would be cool in gen 8?

Online co-op.

Local co-op is great and all, but it’s nice to also have the option online as well.

Honestly with Nintendo's new online services, I'm not too eager currently -_-'