SwSh Post Game Speculation

[StandbyForBattle]

I know it's too soon to tell what the post-game are in Sword/Shield, but it wouldn't hurt to talk about it. Post game could expanded by either two things. Post-Story or Second Region. In new gen games such as (Red/Blue, Diamond/Pearl, XY) we have bland post-game, with nothing just fill up your pokedex, sidequest, and rechallenge rivals and elite four. We want at least Post-Story Episode (like Delta Episode and Rainbow Rocket episode) or Second region. I know we don't want to talk about Kalos, and it's highly unlikely to have a second region, but since Galar region is based on UK and France (which is Kalos) are right next to each other, it could be a case of travel to Kalos in the post-game, especially there's a boat outside of the lighthouse on the right by this picture:
View: https://twitter.com/Nintendokusou/status/1100916572036714501
, it could either of those choses, or it could be another sidequest mission with no story, what's your opinion?

UPDATE: Let's just focus on the Post-game at hand, instead of the Post-region (Kalos), we can talk about Battle Frontier, Sidequest, and Delta/RR episode like post-story instead. There's no purpose on returning to kalos anyway.

 

[Esserise]

after defeating the champion, you will be able to experience:

• a postgame storyline
• a standard battle facility

we hope you enjoy

 

[PurplePopplio]

I feel that post game episodes are going to be the 3DS era's post game feature. It's like Battle Facilities were the big focus in the DS era.

So with the more capable hardware, might second regions be the Switch's era of focus?

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I do kinda hope we can take a boat to the Kalos Region. The console is more than capable of handling it. I doubt we will be able to though.

 

[Rocket Zigzagoon]

Most likely Meltan/Melmetal Sidequest.

 

[Johnny Boy]

I do kinda hope we can take a boat to the Kalos Region. The console is more than capable of handling it. I doubt we will be able to though.

Same here. It would be a huge missed opportunity if they didn’t. Not to mention a post game in Kalos would be a good chance to tie up some loose ends from XY like the ghost girl.

 

[godiego]

So with the more capable hardware, might second regions be the Switch's era of focus?

hardware has long since been the problem that's prevented multiple regions. the games just aren't designed to be played across multiple regions.

 

[techitisJ]

At the top of the map there is this huge city right behind what looks like it could be the Pokemon league. That is a big city, and I can imagine our postgame might take place in that grand city. It will probably be something along the lines as a short postgame story, like it has been in previous generations.

 

[BTuesdays]

I know we've been disappointed by this multiple times, but I still can't help but think that the large "city" in the North is actually a battle frontier. The huge tower looks like it would be perfect for a battle tower, and even the other buildings in that area look unique enough that I could imagine them being different battle facilities.

I think that the Elite 4 is going to be in that dark building in the center and that we'll have access to the post game facilities once we beat them. It's a long shot, but that's what I'm hoping for.

If I'm wrong and that city up top is the elite 4, then I feel like we're going to get a post-game episode similar to the rainbow rocket stuff - it takes place in areas already on the map but provides an additional challenge.

 

[Almonds]

I'd love to see battle facilities aside from the traditional Battle Tower/Maison/Tree.

 

[Celery]

I hope we would get to travel to Kalos, would be cool to have that.
Most likely, I am assuming that post game would most likely be bunch of stories

 

[Kallyle]

I personally just want new areas to unlock and explore in the post-game and at least one non-standard Battle Facility. The initial pair of SM in Gen 7 had the non-standard facility part down, so I hope Sword and Shield can give us something similar.

As much as I’d like some sort of Battle Frontier, I’m not holding my breath for one.

 

[Esserise]

I feel that post game episodes are going to be the 3DS era's post game feature. It's like Battle Facilities were the big focus in the DS era.

So with the more capable hardware, might second regions be the Switch's era of focus?

I don't think I'd say that battle facilities were "the big focus" of the DS era. The concept of the Battle Frontier just happened to have a bit of mileage to it, so they decided to bring it back in Platinum to give that game another selling point (and then they copied it over into HGSS because, well, why not?), and then for B2W2 they decided to try a different approach with the PWT and the Tower/Treehollow. But it's really just ORAS that are the outlier within the 3DS era in this regard, because USUM included a new battle facility as well (the Battle Agency), which brought it up to B2W2's tally due to already having the Battle Tree and Battle Royal Dome (and you could still argue that it's just kinda backwards in Gen 6 because XY had the Battle Chateau and the Lumiose restaurants; granted, those don't use the Battle Tower programming, but then, neither did the Black Tower/White Treehollow). Facilities aren't really a "DS era" thing so much as they are an "enhanced version" thing. Outside of those, the formula has remained exactly the same across all primary versions - they just invent some new Battle Tower clone.

And anyway, we already know that the move away from extensive battle facilities has less to do with "the DS era" in particular and more with their overall view of how people tend to play the games nowadays, especially with the much more accessible/substantial PvP scene.

And as for post-game episodes, they've certainly increased in prominence and fanfare, but I think they too have been in development for longer than the 3DS era. I'd say they go back at least as far as Platinum, where you had the sidequest at Stark Mountain that served to tie off Team Galactic and Looker's parts in the story. HGSS don't really have one as such because they've already got an entire post-game region to fill up the back end, but then in BW you have the hunt for the Seven Sages (starring Looker), and in B2W2, you have the "dragon reassembly" thread where you first get alerted by Hugh's sister to go to Victory Road, where you find a Zoroark that leads you to N, whom you must battle in order to earn his Dragon Orb, which you then have to take to Icirrus (which is a new area for you) to revive it at the Dragonspiral Tower, and after that, it's time to return to the Giant Chasm at N's behest, to catch Kyurem so that you can finally claim the box mascot that you were barred from obtaining during the main storyline.

At any rate, I don't see why post-game regions would suddenly become "the" thing. The call for them from the fanbase has never, ever been answered, because the only reason it even happened on the one occasion that it did was a highly contextual instance in which it happened to be a natural fit. But all of the other games have been built around a single setting to keep things clear, consistent, and focused. I don't think it's an issue of whether they have the processing power or not, it's a matter of what makes sense to do from a gameplay and storytelling perspective. Outside of the existing Kanto-Johto dynamic, returning to any previous region would be kind of arbitrary. Kanto and Johto have a necessarily intimate relationship because Johto is designed to build off of Kanto, but Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, and Alola are all much bigger regions (okay, maybe not "bigger" in Alola's case) with much more individually developed profiles. They're designed to be The Setting of RS, DP, BW, XY, and SM in the sense that The Setting is a part of the narrative and thematic scope of each of those games. They all have their own respective cultures that factor into those games' features, and I don't think they would really work when divorced from those contexts. Kalos is constructed the way that it is and has the culture that it does because that provides the right foundation for the ideas that XY were meant to explore. If you just drop it, or any other region, into SS without accounting for any of those features or story elements or themes (which runs the risk of blotting out anything they were trying to do with SS and Galar; you know like how some people talk about the Kanto references inhibiting Kalos or Alola's identities, except this would actually be a significant eclipse), then you're not doing the older region justice, you're throwing it in as a lazy content bomb just for the hell of it. It's padding.

 

[Shrapnel Stars]

Looking at how they removed walking Pokemon and overworld encounters despite being on this new, more powerful system, I'm expecting some minor cleanup of the villain plot, a few old NPC's, and a vanilla battle facility. Unfortunately, I'm not expecting much. I'd like them to do more, but they haven't bothered since gen 5.

 

[Cainhxrst]

I love the idea of Kalos playing a role in the post game. I just don't know how feasible us visiting the entire region would be. It would require them to modify it quite a bit given Kalos was very grid-like, and the graphics have changed so much since then

 

[Nicolas721]

I wouldn't let my hopes up for Kalos. It would require a lot of work from Game Freak to put a recent region in this style, and, for what? It doesn't have the highest amount of fans. Visiting only a part of it would also be very weird, there's no part of West or South Kalos (as in Vaniville, Aquacorde and Kiloude, don't remind me of that) that seems to be worth the tease and that would offers an additional experience to what Galar already offers. Of course, there could be references to it or a town inspired by it.

I think there's a high possibility for gyms or stadiums to have rematches, as that happens with sports in real life.

The train could be a way to get to a new zone, maybe an island to represent Northern Ireland.

 

[colours]

I think the big question needs to be asked here: what would you even do in a Kalos post-game? What would be the goal here? I can't see how it would work from a story-telling perspective unless you were to visit some iconic cities here and there, but if you're going to visit Kalos just to challenge Gyms, then Kalos would be as much of the focus as Galar would be, and I'd argue it might as well (kinda) be XY2 at that point.

 

[prog rocker]

Yeah, there's also the fact that it wouldn't satisfy the people that felt Kalos got the short end of the stick. I would prefer a normal remake in the future over putting it as a post-game for another region.

 

[StandbyForBattle]

We can take the Kalos post-game subject off the table, and just talk about something that may happen in the post-game. Even if we do Kalos region, there would be no purpose there than just challenge the kalos gym leaders, I would rather a post-game with story episode rather than a second region with no purpose, and no story, plus the way Gamereak treated Kalos, we probably won't return to it anytime soon. TBH, I wouldn't mind having a Battle Frontier returning, but least give us another Delta/Rainbow Rocket like episode, I know we won't get anymore third games, at least they should give us a content update on Sword/Shield post-game.

 

[Boss1708]

I think the postgame will be disappointing. As usual. Unless they have finally decided to eliminate third versions as a concept, and have decided to put said "third version content" in SwSh. We'll see.

A second region (Kalos) for the postgame sounds very unlikely. A return of the Battle Frontier is slightly more likely, but I wouldn't bet on it either.