WHAT?! DATAMINES ARE COMING IN! Better post this quick!
EDIT: Actually, there is something interesting. According to this Reddit post I just stumbled upon, it's possible that Gigantamax Meowth is actually based on Monty Python:
AKA G-Meowth is still a meme-y joke how a cat looking long when held up by its front shoulders but with a more British basis.
Game release is inminent and we dont know if lando t is in it. Ill be so mad if lando t and heatran didnt make it alongside toxapex to balance the game.
Question, would knowing them being in the game make you buy it or not buy it? If you'll still buy it, then don't worry about. If so, well:
Question 2, if it's that big of a concern to you why not wait a day or two when someone will no doubt crack the Pokedex and reveal all the Pokemon available in the game. I honestly haven't seen any worth wild pre-order bonus worth pre-ordering it and the G-Meowth is a download that'll be up for a few months.
Just in case you didnt get it, i was being ironic (yes irony, not sarcasm) and I dont care about doubles.
May want to make it more obvious, like adding a "Oh no" at the beginning. Sarcasm (which is what you were doing, sarcasm is "the use of irony to mock or convey contempt") is hard to get across with writing unless you say you're being sarcastic or over accentuate in some ways.
"Oh no, game release is imminent and we don't know if Lando-T is in it. I'll be oh SO mad if Land-T and Heatran didn't make it but Toxapex did, balance in Doubles would be ruined forever.
https://vandal.elespanol.com/notici...esitas-100-horas-si-quieres-completarlo-todo/
"In terms of sheer volume, Sword and Shield are akin to past generations. I think there are lots of interesting activities like, for example, complete the Pokédex or go into the Wild Area and so compromising with this mechanics will add a great replayability value for the players who want to engage deeply."
Expect a post-game similar to post bw2 gens, this is, almost no post-game. From their perspective, fulfilling the Pokédex and going into the Wild Areas are the main post-game traits these games have.
The only way filling the Pokedex would be fun if they made it like B2W2's Habitat List or ORAS's DexNav. Those had a little fun filling in plus some you got a reward for doing so or gave you a useful feature like searching for a certain Pokemon.
And boy, the way they keep on pushing the Wild Area. I hope there is more stuff they haven't told us about that's in it like side quests and/or catching competitions, heck I'd even take some fetch quests and time challenges. Also wouldn't mind for it to be a bit dynamic with the trainers in it, like they made a ton of trainers to encounter in the Wild Area but only a few are out at a time (some following a planned schedule, others random) and all provide interesting interactions.
Is anyone committed to any version yet?
Shield cause everyone else I know is getting Sword so might as well get the version no one is getting so we all can get the version exclusives (as if that's hard to do anyway).
Larvitar's Dynamax Crystal has the download code ★And15
Jangmo-o's Dynamax Crystal has the download code ★And458
What I find interesting is the numbers. Are these their Galar Dex numbers?
I dunno... ...Larvitar's number seems WAY too early for that. #15 in any other dex would be like the regional bird or rodent or bug, not a past-gen pseudo-legendary! The gap between it and Jangmo-o is also way too big. The only possible thing I can think of is Pokedex divisions ie the "regions" in X and Y and the individual Island dexes for Alola, but even then Larvitar's still too early.
Maybe the Wild Area has its own dex then? Larvitar is found pretty early in the Wild Area (which is odd as you'll think it would be located where the desert part of the Wild Area is) while Jangmo-o is found in later parts of the Wild Area.
Larvitar was avalible in 10 Carat hill, which was early in USM.
EDIT: My bad, it was a Diglett's tunnel. Still pretty early.
Bagon was on Route 3... along with Salamence if you got unlucky (or lucky) with the SOS calls (and the Salamence will be between Levels 9 & 12, lol).
It might be best if we shift the discussion onto something else. Given that we might not be getting any more official information before the game leaks/is released, has the marketing been sufficient to make people want to buy the game? Personally I think GF have taken a wrong direction with marketing this year, and they should have released a lot more information than they have. Normally, I would be fine with them keeping their lips tight and allowing us to enjoy the game spoiler free, but not when [REDACTED] has also been announced for the same game. They should have saturated us with information about all the new Pokemon and features in the game, in order to make up for what won't be in the game. As things currently stand, we have no idea if the [REDACTED] risk will pay off or not, and many people like myself won't be buying the game until it has been fully leaked.
[REDACTED] aside, there has been many things revealed that I fully support and will enhance the game. The ability to change nature boosts, easy access to the move relearner, regional evolutions, large pool of potential gym leaders and the ability to be destroyed by lv 50+ mons early game (plus egg moves and high IV's) are all things that should have happened years ago. The wild areas also finally give us an opportunity to explore and should hopefully make the games a lot less linear. If it were not for [REDACTED] this would be a very easy day one purchase.
I really think they should have gone in more detail about Pokemon Home, as many people (myself included) are unconfutable continuing with the series until we know what is happening to our older banned Pokemon. If Pokemon Home allows for full battles (including Megas and Z-moves alongside all the new sword/shield features) then I will have no problem with [REDACTED] going forward for future games. But if all we can do is look at them and do online trading, then GF are walking on very thin ice. Unfortunately, GF's silence about Home makes me feel that battles won't be possible, otherwise why would they not announce it at the same time as when [REDACTED] was revealed?
Ugh, it's a mixed bag really. I like how tight-lipped they were but at the same time I feel they're maybe being too vague at certain things. Now this either means they're confident in the work that they did will satisfy us thus them playing coy means why want to genuinely surprise us. HOWEVER if what they done isn't sufficient then them playing coy turns to them hiding they knew they didn't have anything to show which would give them severe backlash for trying to hide lackluster performance.
Let's take Dexit for example. I think it wouldn't been bad if every week they told us one Pokemon family that would be in the Galar Dex and one Pokemon family that wouldn't be included. They wouldn't need to explain their reasoning, but it could be used as a way let the players in a bit and allow them to speculate how those Pokemon's inclusion/exclusion would change the metagame or at least let players who like the excluded Pokemon know not to expect to encounter it (or let a player who likes an included Pokemon know that its still in the game). It's certainly a double edge sword but it would at very least blunt the side pointing towards you while sharpening the side you want to show off. Also them making a video more going into their reasoning for the dex cut and promising & explaining how they aren't leaving any Pokemon behind (probably going into more detail about Home) would have also been much better than Masuda meekly mentioning it in a middle of an E3 presentation that not many would be watching (and then later reveal Mega Evo and Z-Moves are also gone via a magazine interview).
Getting away from controversy, wouldn't mind learning more about what can done in the Wild Area. Like the articles where some people got to play the first two hours mentioned some elements GF didn't touch upon like certain NPCs and the Watt currency. If we just go with what GF told us the Wild Area is just a big empty area where we can see wild Pokemon walk around in... and that's it. Like I said above, tell us what you filled the Wild Area with so it's not Pokemon Hyrule Field. Also learning more about what can be done with Camp and Poke Jobs would be nice. Even if its just Curry recipes and various Job offers you could accept, at least it's some depth we can dive into before game release to get us excited.
Also, maybe take into account last gen you overloaded on the Gen I pandering and don't reveal 5 Gen I Gigantamax Pokemon, 3 being not fully evolved Pokemon, all at once. Like, obviously tell us about Pikachu & Eevee to get those players onboard knowing they'll be getting those special Pokemon for playing those games. Next, you could have kept Charizard a secret until Leon used it as a surprise. Finally, if you just had to have G-Meowth, maybe announce that right before the game's release to mitigate the damage from it as much as possible; before we're done saying "wait, what?" the games would be release. Butterfree I say pair up with maybe some other G-max Pokemon or even a regional variant you haven't shown yet that's NOT from Gen I.
GF seriously needs someone other than Masuda to be GF's PR, someone who actually knows what the fans are thinking and can guide the promotion material in a direction where they don't have fans want to pick up pitchforks and torches.
Shifting the topic is a good idea, and I might as well start with some aspects that, while unlikely to appear, would be greatly appreciated. For instance, trainer nicknaming their Pkm (not counting trade Pkm!).
Yeah, that was something I always felt was a missed opportunity. They could show us a bit of important NPC's personalities by them having a nicknaming scheme to their Pokemon. Or maybe they only gave one or two of their Pokemon nicknames to show those Pokemon are especially close to them (they could do this with the Rival, at first new Pokemon to their party don't have nicknames but the ones who end up staying on their team are eventually given a nickname).
And while I'm at it, I might as well talk about evolutions. If I recall right, trainer start using more evolved Pkm after a certain amount of progress. While this is completely understandable - after all, evolved Pkm are stronger than their pre-evolution - I'd still like to see more unevolved Pkm, just like in the anime. To make up the loss of "power", GF could put these unevolved Pkm on a much more higher level than their evolution parts.
The only reason I think they would do this is to maybe hint that this Pokemon learns a certain move either earlier than its evolution or only as the prevo. Like have a Trainer with a Shroomish at Level 36, way past the Level it needs to evolve, but then have the trainer say something like "Shroomish just needs to learn one more move before I evolve it". For those who may not know, that may make them wonder "what move is that trainer waiting for?" and they look it up to find its Spore, thus now knowing if they ever train a Shroomish they may want to wait till Level 40 to learn Spore before evolving it.
However, if the Pokemon has no reason to stay at a lower evolution stage I say let them used the evolve form. This brings my mind back to DPPt when you're still fighting Galactic Grunts using Wurmple, Croagunk, Stunky, and Glameow in their high 30s/low 40s in Mt. Coronet as your fully evolved Pokemon are mowing through them.
Apart from that, I hope we'll see some buffs for Pkm who need them.
I hope so, would really justify Dexit... but seeing is believing. I could list a ton of improvements I'll like to see done to certain Pokemon, Moves, & Abilities but GF have this odd sense of keeping the things the way they are even if it's holding back the Pokemon. Stat changes is most of the time only adding +10 or +20 to a single stat while Ability changes are only done if the Ability was too OP. They may a move better but sometimes there's a secondary reason behind making it better (I'm pretty sure Leech Life was only bumped up to 80 Power because of Buzzwole).
Regarding the steel book, one reason why some people go physical instead of digital is because of the collecting aspect of it. Your game collection looks nice. If you have steel books, you can still play the game at launch while having something to put in your collection.
I prefer physical simply because then my game isn't tied to that game system. Also helps I live in the city so there's plenty of places I could go to buy a physical copy of a game.
Well, you can always use the Steelbook for another cartridge.
Wait, no. That would make it confusing.
Or hilarious? Imagine someone who doesn't know opens it up expecting either Pokemon Sword or Shield but instead sees its Monster Hunter, Astral Chain, or Persona 5. If they get the joke it'll give them a laugh.
I think I can count the number of Pokemon I've ever nicknamed on one hand.
I usually never nickname my Pokemon. If my Pokemon has a nickname its because its a traded Pokemon, I'm using Nebby, or I have a Sync Ralts of a specific Nature. Since I don't use more than one Pokemon of a species I never felt I needed to give it a name. My Charizard is the only Charizard I have and so on. And if I meet another trainer using a Pokemon that's the same species as one I have you better believe I do a mirror match because THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE and that one will be mine.
Only new thing is Zacian and Zamazenta in-game.
More then that, it confirms they both have Signature Moves. The most surprising being Zamazenta is an actual attack, slamming the target with its shield mane up (it could have done a Xerneas with Geomancy, a stat boosting Signature Move). Though considering it looks like its sets itself up before using the move, maybe it's something similar to Beak Cannon or Shell Trap where it starts out as a defensive move but if the opponent attacks they'll get counterattacked instead.
Also, these both look like Physical attacks which I think is new as I don't think we've had the mascots ever had Signature moves which were both Physical:
Ho-Oh's Sacred Fire is
Physical, Lugia's Aero Blast is
Special
Groudon's Precipice Blades is
Physical, Kyogre's Origin Pulse is
Special
Dialga's Roar of Time & Palkia's Spacial Rend are both
Special
Reshiram's Fusion Flare & Blue Flare is
Special, Zekrom's Fusion Bolt & Bolt Strike are
Physical
Xerneas Geomancy is
Status, Yveltal's Oblivion Wing is
Special
Solgaleo's Sunsteel Strike is
Physical, Lunala's Moongeist Beam is
Special
There is a small chance that we'll get to hear Megalovania in an official Pokemon game. Arceus has blessed this timeline
(Memes aside congrats to Toby, that's an opportunity most would kill for)
Here's the Toby Fox track, courtesy of the Pokemon Secret Club! Before we begin speculating what it could be for, something important to note: Apparently Toby Fox stated that we'll be able to hear this track "after the main game", so in other words it seems like it'll be postgame-only. What could it be for then?
Maybe we'll find a trainer based on him in the GF Offices and he uses that theme when you battle him! What Pokemon team would Toby Fox use?
Woah woah, what is that building at 0:17?
Entrance to the Dragon Castle city looks like.
That said, the whole “Oh man, I wonder if the Aether Foundation is evil. *winkwink nudgenudge*” bit that didn’t even last until the first cutscene was annoying. Glad they are avoiding that.
Can't say that for sure until we meet Chairman Rose for the first time. Though sounds like Bede may reveal some of Rose's dark secrets (or that he has them) to the player before then.
Do you think Ash is actually going to age bit?
Probably not.
And I think that's all... now off to a possibly dangerous place...
