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

[Icy Wind]

Found something to discuss on 4chan:

Spoiler: Small "Leak"

>Will feature a lot of sinnoh Mon including its legends as post game
>a rival like character appears half way through the story with a celebi it's implied she's a time traveler
>Megas for both gen 4 and 2 starters
>The themes for the box legends are fear and love
>Amiibo support to unlock outfits but you can purchase them in game
>starters are shafted for gen 2 and 4 starters like in x and y
>Depending on game you either get to choose a gen 2 starter or 4 starter early on
>Evil team looks happy and unbeat but are very vicious and treat pokemon bad kinda like a circus??

Time travel? Guess that's the next big topic after multiverses. I think that HGSS had time travel with an event. So maybe it'll be something small.

Uhh I don’t see why they would give out the gen 2 and 4 starters at the beginning of the game, much less replacing new starters. That seems very random and arbitrary, much more so than the Kanto starters in XY.

 

[PurplePopplio]

Uhh I don’t see why they would give out the gen 2 and 4 starters at the beginning of the game, much less replacing new starters. That seems very random and arbitrary, much more so than the Kanto starters in XY.

There also seems to be a heavy emphasis on Johto and Sinnoh. Also, why have Amiibo support if what they unlock can just be purchased ingame?

 

[TechSkylander1518]

It sounds like loads of fun, and a lot of that's on my wishlist, but two parts stand out to me as fake:

• The time traveler having Celebi when the storyline supposedly involves Dialga already. It just seems odd to me that they'd double up on time-manipulating legendaries.
  
• As cool and creepy as an evil circus sounds, I feel like the implication that all circuses are abusive could be a problem. (unless "like a circus" was the poster's comparison and not the theme?) There's definitely abuse in circuses, but there's some where animals are treated correctly, and I'd hate for those circuses to deal with bad publicity (or, even worse, people freeing animals because they think they're being mistreated) as a result-though I suppose that's an irrational fear, seeing as the Aether Foundation didn't cause fans to hate wildlife reserves. (It also feels ironic, because a big force behind the idea that all circuses are inherently abusive is PETA-known for the parody game that claimed Pokemon supported animal abuse, among other things)

 

[nickdt]

Found something to discuss on 4chan:

Spoiler: Small "Leak"

>Will feature a lot of sinnoh Mon including its legends as post game
>a rival like character appears half way through the story with a celebi it's implied she's a time traveler
>Megas for both gen 4 and 2 starters
>The themes for the box legends are fear and love
>Amiibo support to unlock outfits but you can purchase them in game
>starters are shafted for gen 2 and 4 starters like in x and y
>Depending on game you either get to choose a gen 2 starter or 4 starter early on
>Evil team looks happy and unbeat but are very vicious and treat pokemon bad kinda like a circus??

Time travel? Guess that's the next big topic after multiverses. I think that HGSS had time travel with an event. So maybe it'll be something small.

100% fake if we go off the last 2 generations each giving us their own gimmick. Gen 6 gave us Mega's, Gen 7 gave us Z-Moves. Until we officially know Mega's are returning as the main gimmick in gen 8 (Which i doubt, since that isn't GF style), every leak that gives us New Mega's, is fake without any doubt.

 

[Envoy]

I’d be hella down for Johto Megas.

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I’d also be okay if they didn’t make a new Dex/region/characters and instead revisited the last seven gens and made a game fine tuning all those features/Pokémon/characters.

 

[Bolt Strike]

While positive traits, these aren't requirements to make something a console game. There are several successful Switch games that didn't have this at all-Splatoon 2, Arms, Mario Rabbids, and Mario Kart, which outsold BotW. And as mentioned before, past console RPGs like Earthbound, Paper Mario, and Undertale don't have open world features and are still popular console games.

They're not required, but those traits are strongly associated with the console market. Many of the highest selling and most influential games in the console market have those kinds of traits. Mario 64. Ocarina of Time. Grand Theft Auto. Skyrim. And now BotW and Odyssey. Yes, you don't necessarily need those traits to be successful, but there's clearly a strong desire to have those kinds of traits in a console game.

Also, Earthbound, Paper Mario, and Undertale haven't sold as much as BotW and Odyssey. They're actually kind of niche sales wise.

That's because it's a platformer, and there's more alternate challenges to make with one level. It'd be like Pokemon letting you battle gym leaders in different battle formats. Good gameplay for sure, but it's not a massive improvement to Pokemon in terms of world restriction.

How many alternate challenges are available isn't really relevant to the progression, it's just a matter of whether or not you can choose between them. In Odyssey you can and Pokemon you can't. You do bring up a good point about filling the worlds with alternate challenges to make them worth exploring, but that's what sidequests are for. Look at what BotW does with its sidequests, in addition to having the 4 Divine Beasts, it has 120 shrines to complete, which makes exploring the rest of its overworlds much more satisfying. The equivalent of that would be if they had Master Trainers that you could battle throughout the main game in addition to the gyms. But in Pokemon's case, they could go even further than that, having actual sidequests to do that could reward you with things like Mega Stones, Z-Crystals, special Pokemon, etc.

 

[Poke Dragon]

While time travel is a cool idea, I just can't get behind the idea that there will be a lot of Sinnoh Pokemon in the Gen 8 games since it is extremely likely that Gen 4 remakes will happen in Gen 8. The main reason for a remake is to focus on availability of a certain region's Pokemon. Either way, I don't think they will make many Sinnoh Pokemon available, that would devalue a Diamond and Pearl remake's Pokedex. It's just like if 100 Pokemon from Hoenn's Pokedex is available in Pokemon X and Y, see how it devalue's the remake's Pokedex? In conclusion, I just don't think Game Freak will pull something like this especially if they are already making a remake that will allow those specific Pokemon to be accessible. Also, I don't believe it for one second that we will be able to choose an old starter before a new one.

 

[nickdt]

While time travel is a cool idea, I just can't get behind the idea that there will be a lot of Sinnoh Pokemon in the Gen 8 games since it is extremely likely that Gen 4 remakes will happen in Gen 8. The main reason for a remake is to focus on availability of a certain region's Pokemon. Either way, I don't think they will make many Sinnoh Pokemon available, that would devalue a Diamond and Pearl remake's Pokedex. It's just like if 100 Pokemon from Hoenn's Pokedex is available in Pokemon X and Y, see how it devalue's the remake's Pokedex? In conclusion, I just don't think Game Freak will pull something like this especially if they are already making a remake that will allow those specific Pokemon to be accessible.

TBH, you can even make the argument that Pokebank also devalues a remakes pokedex, especially with 2 versions.

If we don't get Pokebank on the Switch, then i really don't see any issue with more Sinnoh Pokemon appearing in gen 8, since then whats the difference, because they can make them trade-locked for example. In SUMO and USUM i only caught regionals anyways, because most of the Pokemon that were obtainable in the game, i could transfer over via Bank anyways (Which is why i never used the QR codes, since i already had those Pokemon in Bank, which for me made that feature pointless).

The only way remakes or new region game pokedex isn't devalued, is if they don't have pokebank anymore, but also just stick to the new region Pokemon for the region, but i doubt GF will do that after the massive BW backlash.

 

[Poke Dragon]

TBH, you can even make the argument that Pokebank also devalues a remakes pokedex, especially with 2 versions.

If we don't get Pokebank on the Switch, then i really don't see any issue with more Sinnoh Pokemon appearing in gen 8, since then whats the difference, because they can make them trade-locked for example. In SUMO and USUM i only caught regionals anyways, because most of the Pokemon that were obtainable in the game, i could transfer over via Bank anyways (Which is why i never used the QR codes, since i already had those Pokemon in Bank, which for me made that feature pointless).

The only way remakes or new region game pokedex isn't devalued, is if they don't have pokebank anymore, but also just stick to the new region Pokemon for the region.

My point is, why make a lot of a specific region's Pokemon available the first time if the remake of that region is going to come out in the same generation anyways? That just doesn't make sense to me at all.

 

[Silktree]

It's just like if 100 Pokemon from Hoenn's Pokedex is available in Pokemon X and Y, see how it devalue's the remake's Pokedex?

XY featured 108 Hoenn Pokemon if you count the Friend Safari. The problem lies in the starters and legendaries; everything else is fair game.

Not that any of this matters if the remakes are part of the Let's Go series. USUM feature most Kanto Pokemon, including the starters and legendaries.

 

[PurplePopplio]

I wonder if the leaker thought: "Let's Go is in Kanto. So next is Johto. Sinnoh remakes are next. So let's focus on these two regions."

 

[PocketMonster]

unless they are going to try to have the sinnoh remake kinda like a continuation or something to this one. i too find it odd that alot of sinnoh pokemon would be thrown in as sinnoh doesnt have a very large dex. however I could see them throwing in a few.

 

[prog rocker]

My thoughts are in bold:

>Will feature a lot of sinnoh Mon including its legends as post game
This sounds suspicious...
>a rival like character appears half way through the story with a celebi it's implied she's a time traveler
Okay...
>Megas for both gen 4 and 2 starters
You get a mega! And you get a mega! Everybody gets a mega! I know people want them but at this point, is it necessary?
>The themes for the box legends are fear and love
I don't know what to think about this
>Amiibo support to unlock outfits but you can purchase them in game
So, why would you use the amiibo?
>starters are shafted for gen 2 and 4 starters like in x and y
What?
>Depending on game you either get to choose a gen 2 starter or 4 starter early on
So like Kalos, apparently.
>Evil team looks happy and unbeat but are very vicious and treat pokemon bad kinda like a circus??
Is the circus the theme or just a comparison.

So, we go from overly explicit leaks that tell you everything to one where don't tell you anything at all. I don't think this is real.

TBH, you can even make the argument that Pokebank also devalues a remakes pokedex, especially with 2 versions.

If we don't get Pokebank on the Switch, then i really don't see any issue with more Sinnoh Pokemon appearing in gen 8, since then whats the difference, because they can make them trade-locked for example. In SUMO and USUM i only caught regionals anyways, because most of the Pokemon that were obtainable in the game, i could transfer over via Bank anyways (Which is why i never used the QR codes, since i already had those Pokemon in Bank, which for me made that feature pointless).

The only way remakes or new region game pokedex isn't devalued, is if they don't have pokebank anymore, but also just stick to the new region Pokemon for the region, but i doubt GF will do that after the massive BW backlash.

What about the people whose first game is the Switch one? You are talking from the point the view of someone who has the previous games, but to someone new, it would be kind of disappointing.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

I know people want them but at this point, is it necessary?

Since the Johto bunch happens to be the least competitively viable set of starters, yes.

 

[nickdt]

Since the Johto bunch happens to be the least competitively viable set of starters, yes.

Which is funny, since imho, they are the most competitive set of starters because they don't have a secondary typing which adds more weaknesses.

 

[Ambrose7]

Which is funny, since imho, they are the most competitive set of starters because they don't have a secondary typing which adds more weaknesses.

That's not how things work. Single typing means no secondary stab. And that's not all, Pure grass and fire are pretty meh. Especially the former.

 

[Envoy]

Since the Johto bunch happens to be the least competitively viable set of starters, yes.

This. Especially for Meganium, though Typhlosion could also use a good boost. Feraligatr is okay, but needs something to set him apart from Gyarados.

 

[Myth]

The point was that a "console game" doesn't have to have these features to be popular. The idea was that Pokemon would have to be more like BotW to do well, but Mario Kart wasn't like it and did even better.

Popularity has nothing to do with quality. It's not enough for me that the game is just popular, I want it to be GOOD too.

And this comparison with Mario Kart is flawed. If you want to measure by popularity and genre, look on the rankings for the best selling RPG on the Switch, it will be there: Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Or you can use Botw, which despite not being an RPG, has much more to do with Pokémon than Mario Kart, as I said previously.

If Pokémon has to follow a model to be popular on the Switch as you suggest, it's much wiser to look at Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Botw, than for a racing game or a third-person shooter, which unlike Xenoblade or Botw , have practically no similarities with the Pokémon games at all.

But on popularity specifically, since we are talking about home consoles and RPG genres, here the top 7 most popular RPGs from the latest home consoles (Xbox One, PS4 and Switch):

Dragon Quest XI
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Bloodborn
Monster Hunter World
Final Fantasy XV
Horizon Zero Dawn
Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Of course the RPG genre splits into several sub-genres, and that most of these games are of different "sub-genres" of Pokémon, but that does not change the fact that they all have something in common: that there is a big focus on exploration.

Of course, as I said, more exploration, even in a home console game, is not a synonym for quality properly. It is also subjective. But certainly, it is something that fit well with home console RPG games at the moment (actually, not only RPG, but also other genres, such as platforms).

Since the third generation the Pokémon series games has been losing exploration, and Sun and Moon was a disaster in exploration, the games were basically a corridor. But I hope that now, with the eighth generation, and with the traditional series entering definitively into home console games, they employ a different methodology, and that the games have more exploration than before. That's it.

Oh, and before you tell me that the Let's Go games are also RPGs, and that they don't focus too much on exploration, and that they will overtake Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in sales on the Switch: I say that's true, and it's really going to happen.

As I said previously, Let's Go is kind of a spin-off of the GO, so I'm not really counting on it, and I guess a lot of other people are not either.

But if traditional games (gen 8th) go that way, going against the flow, and don't fit properly in to a more home console style, I'm sure the series will lose much of it's relevance, first among critics, then among the audience.

Which of course, as I said, doesn't mean that the games would not continue to sell well. The brand itself can sells anything. But again, popularity has nothing to do with quality.

Legend of Zelda doesn't have the same relevance as Pokemon-its total sales are 92.72 million, not even a third of Pokemon's 300.83 million. Why are we comparing the two? Because they're popular games with some similarities. I'm doing the same in comparing other popular RPGs to Pokemon.

That's not why I am comparing Zelda with Pokémon, but by its approach on the Switch.

And what? Zelda has as much relevance as Pokémon, maybe even a little more. Popularity doesn't mean explicitly relevance. Zelda is a renowned franchise, where some games "revolutionized" in some ways (I'm not even talking about Botw here), for those who understand about video games, the franchise's games speak for themselves.

Maybe that's because you haven't been looking? Because Mario Rabbids was nominated for best console game twice. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was nominated for best Switch game by IGN and Destructoid, and if we include the Wii U version, it's also won game of the year several times.

You're right, they've been nominated for some awards. But they didn't win any. The victory of Mario Kart on Wii U doesn't add much to the discussion, since we are talking about the approach of the series on the Switch. And since the games I mentioned earlier (Mario Odyssey and Zelda Botw) had not even been released at that time to compete with.

Personally, I don't put too much stock into critics' awards, because they're only indicative of a critic's opinion, not financial success. Which is why I'll say again that Mario Kart has over a million more sales more than Breath of the Wild. (and it released after BotW, too)

Again, popularity has nothing to do with quality. It's not enough for me that the game is just popular, I want it to be also good.

And Botw has much more to do with Pokémon than Mario Kart ever does. But if you want to measure by popularity and genre compare it with Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

And going back to the RPGs that don't have the same relevance as Pokemon-Undertale has won game of the year multiple times. Paper Mario Sticker Star won Best Handheld Game of the Year. So if we're not going to compare Pokemon to other RPGs (the same style of game Pokemon is, while Odyssey is a platformer) because they're "not as relevant", even though they won significant awards, why bring awards into things at all?

And yet Undertale and Paper Mario still doesn't have the relevancy of Pokémon.

But that's not the point. You are leading the discussion to another subject. Undertale and Paper Mario Sticker Star are not even home console games originally, to begin with...

If Paper Mario Sticker Star had launched for Swich and won a best Switch game award (overall), I would agree with you.

I expect a bigger focus on exploration and games with even more content in the 8th generation, which will be released on a home console.

Are you sure? I can't find any awards given to SuMo, USUM, BW (apart from a magazine one), BW2, or ORAS. Which, again, is why I don't think critics' award should be the main method of telling a video game's success-SuMo and BW are among the best selling video games of all time.

Pokémon has always been winning and being nominated for best handheld game awards, mostly in Japan. But yes, some of them were from Famitsu.

Edit
I'm going to put some of them here about Sun and Moon:

Famitsu Award (2016) - Winner of Best Game of the Year
Golden Joystick Awards (2017) - Winner of Best Handheld/Mobile Game of the Year
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Awards (2017) - Winner of Handheld Game of The Year
SXSW Gaming Awards (2017) - Nominated for Mobile Game of the Year
Game Developers Choice Awards (2017) - Nominated for Best Mobile/Handheld Game of the Year
BAFTA Games Awards (2017) - Nominated for Best Mobile Game of the Year

I'm sure those others you quoted have also won awards, though some of them were just "awards of excellence".

But of course, I was mainly referring to the generation's starters games (like BW, XY and SM), which are the main and most important ones, and where they put more effort on. Remakes and third versions are mostly cash grabs games.

 

[Knightwolf09]

As a fan of Gen 4 more so than Johto, the region I started into this franchise, I'm okay with more love to gen 4. But this seems to be a bit...random? Granted it seems some of the card games and other mediums seem to focus on gen 4 a lot more recently so I can't say it's too unbelievable. But I like the idea of of the themes being love and hate, and the idea of the evil team being about basically animal mistreatment.

 

[nickdt]

That's not how things work. Single typing means no secondary stab. And that's not all, Pure grass and fire are pretty meh. Especially the former.

No, but being single type also means no secondary weakness your primary typing doesn't add. You can go both ways with the argument.

Imo, dual typings only work if they help eachother and not add more weaknesses, this is why Ludicolo for example works, because the Water typing negates the Fire weakness for the Grass typing and the Grass typing negates the Electric weakness for the Water typing and the most recent example also works: Oranguru. The Normal typing adds one less weakness to the Psychic typing, with Ghost, while Psychic doesn't give the Fighting weakness to Normal.