Game Freak, Pokemon Company, was there any reason you couldn't have released this Friday, Saturday, or yesterday?
International Video:
0:09: Interesting there's multiple trainers coming out onto the field. Now, yes, this looks to be a cutscene where Rose is welcoming everyone to the start of The Gym Challenge, but something that happens in the Japanese Trailer makes this stand out more to me.
0:44: Oh, wow, the fan recreation on Youtube of the Gym Leader theme is spot on to how it actually sounds.
Japanese Video:
0:42: Odd the international trailers took out the text boxes (and while this doesn't confirm there's no voice acting... well we hadn't heard any voices yet). Is there anything interesting being said?
1:07: And this was what I was talking about in the international trailer. Now we know from the demo (and the leak) that each Gym Leader has a puzzle for the player to go through and that has Gym Trainers. HOWEVER the Gym Trainers were in their normal clothes, but here this Gym Trainer has a uniform themed on the Gym. After we complete the puzzle could we then need to battle a few other Champion Cup competing trainers before challenging the Gym Leader? This would allow for more Dynamax/Gigantamax battles instead of it just being with the Gym Leaders (and let us have some with the Rivals).
1:19: Um, wait. Does anyone notice something about these Gyms? Like how they seem to exist in the SAME place? VERSION EXCLUSIVE GYMS?!
1:59: What's this music for? It sounds way more intense, possibly when facing the Gym Leader's final Pokemon?
With there being a batch of new content, best to go through one-by-one
on the website:
STORY:
Uniform Numbers: So the three numbers you see on everyone's uniform? They mean nothing. You can pick the three numbers you want to be on your uniform. So what will your number be? I guess you can't guess what mine is going to be ;).
BTW, remember when I mentioned the numbers of the Gym Leader's uniforms could be related to Japanese word pun? Well, I was right! It's called
Goroawase, basically since Japan has all sorts of ways to pronounce numbers you can combine them together to make other words. Milo's "831" can be read as "yasai" which means "vegetables". Nessa's "049" is "oyagu" which means "to swim"; Bea's "193" is "ikusa" which means "fight", and Allister's "291" is "nikui" which means "hateful".
Already Endorsed: Leon has endorsed both you and Hop, so I guess the Gym Puzzles isn't about trying to get an endorsement (which I think would have been a neat way to justify having Gym Puzzles) but rather just a requirement to challenge the Gym Leader.
The Champion Cup: You know how in the anime, before taking on the Pokemon League, trainers who collected all eight Badges have to compete in a knockout tournament? Looks like that might be the case in Sword & Shield too! After completing The Gym Challenge you're then entered into The Champion Cup along with all the other trainers who did the same. Now this is really interesting as how are they going to handle things if the player loses a battle? But, hey, this is something I and many others personally had wanted to see done in the games at least once so this actually has me hyped!
Corporate Sponsors: I hope they actually tell us who all these sponsors are, would be neat to learn about all the different companies that exist in the Pokemon world and the products/services they offer.
I also wonder if this might be a mechanic. As we beat Gyms sponsors will approach us to have their logo on our uniform. And depending on which sponsors we support we get certain benefits like discounts on certain items in the PokeMart, discounts on certain services, given free gifts or money, etc.. We could even have to be forced to pick between rival sponsors and the one we don't pick will have a negative effect like an item/service being more expensive (okay, they probably wouldn't do that, but would certainly make your choices feel like they mattered if there's bad consequences connected to them).
CHARACTERS:
Chairman Rose & VP Oleana:
EVIL!
"Oh come on, you said the same thing about Leon!"
Leon is
The Dragon, their "top enforcer" who acts as the charming face to distract everyone as whatever evil cooperation thing Rose and Oleana are doing is kept out of the public's eye.
Rose is the president of a large business conglomerate, how can they pass up him NOT being the big bad?
"Okay, then what evil thing are they doing?"
No clue. Well, it mentions Rose made the Galar League famous by implementing the Dynamax phenomenon, which is kind of shady if you think about it as it's something that's currently being studied so who knows what effects it's having on Pokemon subjected to it. It's as if a cooperation saw a way to exploit something to make quick money not caring about the long term effects on the affected individuals and the environment
*COUGH*.
Outside of that don't really have anything to say about Rose or Oleana in particular. Rose is a businessman and Oleana is his sexy secretary.
Champion Leon: More info on Leon, though nothing that we didn't know from elsewhere or could have guessed. Leon became Champion after his first Gym Challenge and hasn't been beaten since... obvious set-up. However they do confirm his partner is Charizard. We'll talk more about that when we get to Gigantamaxing which is probably why his partner is Charizard.
Raihan: One of the screenshots on Leon's page has him talking to someone named Raihan, looking like he's ready to battle. The picture comes after mentioning you can watch broadcasts of Leon's Championship and exhibition matches. Does this also confirm there's a way for players to save battles they've had for later viewings like with the VS Recorder?
Version Exclusive Gym Leaders:
This is a surprise, mainly because it took them so long to do! Sure, in BW you battled either Iris or Drayden, but both ran the Dragon-type Gym and used the same team. But now we actually have two Gym Leaders of different Types! I wonder if they're going to address how parallel dimensions have two different Gym Leaders taking the same spot and if the other Gym Leader even exists. Easy way they could explain it is that they all exist but it's just that, since there's more possible Gym Leaders than Gyms, they compete against each other to see who gets to be Gym Leader this year. In this case, Bea beat Allister in Sword while the opposite happened in Shield. This way they can also let the player battle the other versions Gym Leader but just as a normal trainer/secret boss.
Bea:
How appropriate her name is Bea, as I'm sure many have already declared her their bae (or boo). :P
Century-old Galar karate... GameFreak, would it have killed you to find a more European fighting style? Like how about boxing, savate, wrestling, fencing, or stick fighting. Or since she uses Hitmontop make her expertise in dance fighting.
Also, there's some odd design choices going on here. She mostly looks fine, but you then notice her stomach and feet look a bit more realistically drawn. I get wanting to show she's in-shape by having her stomach and feet more muscular, but they end up looking like a different art style that clashes if you look too carefully. Maybe the 3D model will make things look better.
Allister:
Ah, the creepy masked kid, guess it was time Pokemon got one of them. Like how he has his glove on his left hand to mirror Bea's being on her right. Otherwise I don't really have anything to say as he's sounds like your typical character of this type: he's shy so he hides his face, rarley makes public appearances, hangs around ruins & cemeteries, etc.. Whether the game shows he has more depth or keeps him mysterious we'll have to see. Guess it's neat he uses a Mimikyu, though I'm going to guess it and Bea's Hitmontop aren't going to be their Dynamaxed Pokemon.
POKEMON:
Surprised they didn't tell us about Impidimp. BTW, the thread closed before it came out, but check out what
the JAPE judges had to say on the Legednary Mascots, Yamper, and Impidimp!
Infact, another JAPE is on the way! Because of this, I'm not going to talk about Pokemon's-take-on-a-slime-girl Alcremie and Rolycoly Olie, but I will talk about the newest big boy:
Duraludon:
First off, what are you supposed to be? A futuristic castle tower? What's that red cannon on your head, can you fire from it? I'm just saying I think the concept of a Steel/Dragon could have been done more clearly and less blocky.
Going to guess it's a mighty glacier: slow, high Defense, good Attack. This looks like the final stage so maybe will have a prevo or two (though I don't think it's the pseudo Legendary, even if it competes with Tyranitar; though I have the sudden feeling the Aron family might not be in Galar).
It having both Light Metal and Heavy Metal is strange, and a bit pointless. Why? Because there's no reason not to have Heavy Metal. With Heavy Metal it increases the Power of STAB Heavy Slam. Only benefit from Light Metal is less damage from Low Kick, woo hoo. Unless they add something to the Abilities to make them better or do more with the weight mechanic, these are disappointing Abilities.
It mentions its body is weak to corrosion and rust easily. While could be flavor text, actually probably is, I have always thought that it would be neat if the acid-based Poison moves (Acid, Acid Spray) were actually super effective against Steel- and Rock-types, like how Ice-Type Freeze-Dry is super effective against Water. Just a random thought.
Version Exclusives: Deino & Jangmo-o are confirmed for Sword while Larvitar & Goomy confirmed for Shield. All of them are good so I guess there's no downside here really, maybe Shield slightly gets the better deal as Larvitar and Goomy don't share Types (and aren't quad weak to Fairy).
MECHANICS:
Gigantamax: And here it is, what we've all been waiting for. And after reading about it, I have this to say: Thanks Game Freak, I
HATE it!
I just don't get it. I don't get Game Freak. Game Freak didn't like Mega Evolutions because it was limited to only final stage Pokemon, okay. In response they made Z-Moves which all Pokemon can use, fine. And then they also made Pokemon specific Z-Moves, wait what? Like, sure, all Pokemon can use Z-Moves, but making ones that are specific to certain species of Pokemon feels like it's going back on your complaint that with Mega Evolution certain Pokemon were getting special treatment by giving them more powerful tools other Pokemon don't have.
But Megas and Z-Moves are no more, now we have Dynamax that everyone Pokemon can use, fine once again. And then you introduced Gigantamax which is not only limited to certain species but even within the species only certain individuals can use it! YOU MADE THE PROBLEM EVEN WORSE! And you keep making it worse by giving them a super powerful exclusive move! Oh, and the only way to get one is a very rare chance through Max Raid Battles where only ONE of the four Trainers can catch it. WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?! Are they purposely trying to alienate players? I can't imagine anyone liking this.
I'm going to end this post on a positive note. As mentioned above, Leon's partner is Charizard. So, much like how Diantha's partner was an older generation Pokemon because it got a Mega Evolution, one would then assume Charizard is getting a Gigantamax form. But, maybe, just maybe, and if they do I'll give them kudos for a change, they'll reveal that while the Mega Pokemon mechanic are gone the Pokemon who had Mega Evos will now have them as their Gigantamax form. It would be an easy way give more Pokemon Gigantamax forms and show they're not just throwing out good ideas. In addition this would also mean that some if not all the new Gigantamax forms could be brought back as Mega Evolutions or whatnot later. It could also give some world building, that these forms are the Pokemon's "super forms" and a Pokemon can access these forms in various ways be it Mega Evolution, Pokken's Synergy Burst, Master's Sync Moves, and now Gigantamaxing. Of course, there is the issue of Charizard having two Mega Evolutions so how about we just call it here and see what happens.
