Sword & Shield **Official news only** DLC Crown Tundra 22nd October

[earl]

My personal way of playing Pokémon is pretty low sentiment- I tend to full wipe my games if I want to replay the game rather than go thru the effort of paying a subscription for mons I’ll likely never use for any real purpose again.

So yeah, I’m kind of hyped for this type of limited approach. At the least it will be an interesting meta to watch

 

[Rapti]

Welp, unless all pokemon are transferable by the time Home is available

I'm not buying your damned game Gamefreak

 

[DrPumpkinz]

"Reasons about Junici Masuda not bringing back all the Pokémon are on the 25:40 mark of the video".

> The reason is not to make players wait and to bring the game before finishing all the mons

> More details soon.

It literally says that Pokémon are not 100% ready yet, whatever that means.

This is promising. The past few generations have seen some drastic buffs to existing Pokemon, from new moves and abilities to even straight stat changes. Saying that Pokemon "aren't ready yet" sounds to me that there's going to be some even more drastic balance changes to old Pokemon.

 

[AquaticPanic]

My personal way of playing Pokémon is pretty low sentiment- I tend to full wipe my games if I want to replay the game rather than go thru the effort of paying a subscription for mons I’ll likely never use for any real purpose again.

So yeah, I’m kind of hyped for this type of limited approach. At the least it will be an interesting meta to watch

A more restricted meta could be interesting but this is the dumbest way to do it. This doesn't restrict them from battle, it removes them frpm the game. People who don't care for competitive won't be able to use their old pokempn even in-game.

If they wanted the metagame scene to be more restricted, do what VGC did in only allowing regional dex mons. Meta would change but if you want to have your mon on game you still can

 

[porneon]

I hope Showdown update with the new mechanics as soon as possible, because just like LGPE I will not pay for this game. Not without the National Dex available.

 

[no-games]

So the thing that finally killed Landorus-T was technical limitations, what a shitshow lmao.

Masuda is so fucking full of shit I swear to god. How can't a console with 4GB of ram and 1600 MHz frequency not handle the entirety of the pokedex when the 3DS with 6MB and 134MHz could? Holy fucking shit

 

[LordHelix]

All the pokemons stats in the demo as shown (at level 50)

Sobble: 149 / 53 / 53 / 114 (wtf)/ 53 / 83

Scorbunny: 149 / 115 / 53 / 53 / 53 / 82

Grookey: 149 / 85 / 79 / 47 / 69 / 78

Wooloo: 141 / 53 / 68 / 53 / 58 / 61

Corvinight: 177 (dam) / 100 / 106 / 76 / 98 / 88

Yamper : 158 / 58 / 63 / 58 / 56 / 39 (rip)

 

[Vengeance417]

Stat Pages for demo Pokemon

This has me a bit confused. For Level 50 Pokemon, these numbers are extremely low. Are we actually seeing Base Stats other than HP?

Edit: This also references a "Dynamax Level". Not sure what that means.

 

[Charisma]

If balancing was a desired outcome of this; couldn't they start nerfing base stat totals, abilities, and even change a few abilities? They've given random increases to underused mons between gens. Decreases could be implemented as well.

 

[Worldie]

If balancing was a desired outcome of this; couldn't they start nerfing base stat totals, abilities, and even change a few abilities? They've given random increases to underused mons between gens. Decreases could be implemented as well.

You can easily realize how difficult it is to do that when you're factoring in 900 mons, many of which have overlapping kits or types.
Buff one, and it takes another one's place, which in turn becomes worse.

While I can see wanting to limit the Pokedex of future games for easier balance reasons, I am quite confident that there's better ways to do so than arbitrarily removing a % of the Pokemon from each game.
The Pokedex bloating was a problem, there's no denying it, but you can still keep them off VGC by forcing regional pokedex for all years, not including them to me with the excuse models aren't ready feels just lazyness from a *huge* company like GameFreak.

And the way the announcement was done, which is extremely ambiguos without really letting the buyers know if it's a permanent thing or they Pokemon will just be added later on with updates, dlcs, whatever.

But then, again, GF and Matsuda expecially have shown lot of times to really not understand how to properly advertise, and this disaster doesn't surprise me.

I do expect no retcon happening, just a % of the Pokedex forcefully forced out of each game, and hopefully added later with updates, but the whole way this was handled and the near complete radiosilence despite the shitstorm it started is just cherry on the cake.


That said, I still think Sw/Sh looks gorgeus, will likely be a great game, and I'm confident I'll have fun playing it, as much as I'm confident the gen 7 Pokemon i'll be moving from my USUM bank are going to be *eventually* all usable.
But hell, they did kill the hype pretty hard with this.

That said...

I am boggled by this bar.

Judging by the demo, you do not need a item to Dynamax, so it appears there has to be some condition, possibly related to this bar in the Pokemon stats.
I do wonder how the Dynamax mechanic works, purely due to both competitive and post-game implication.
In-game isn't a big deal , as you can only Dynamax on Raids and Gym leaders, and you're really going to want to Dynamax your best pokemon anyway.
Being able to just Dynamax whatever Pokemon i decide is worth maxing however, would significally change competitive as well as... you know I'm a facility player, and I don't fancy the idea of dynamaxed Garchomp-3s....

 

[Zowayix]

spend a few more months trying to get everything

This has nothing to do with technical limitations, almost nothing to do with dev time, and everything to do with "lol buy Ultra Sword/Ultra Shield with an expanded regional dex". Everything needed for full compatibility can be literally copy-pasted over from USUM thanks to futureproofed models, and everything Masuda said about "it would have taken us too much dev time" is pure PR BS.

For another piece of evidence, consider the fact that Mew's confirmed to be in the Galar regional dex solely because, once again, it's going to be Poke Ball Plus exclusive. Either you purchase an(other) untouched Poke Ball Plus or you delete it from Let's Go and pay for Home to transfer up. This is the first time/only time any event Pokemon has been in a "non-native" regional dex.

Unrelated question:

• Has anyone tried looking up the base power of Max moves in the E3 demo yet? I'd think the summary screen would only display the original moves, but I also recall it being possible to look up the base power of Z-Moves in SM without datamining.

Miscellaneous observations (sorry if any repeats but don't recall some/most of these mentioned yet):

• Direct confirmed strolling with the Poke Ball Plus; hope there isn't anything exclusive to this feature
• Treehouse confirmed that the Wild Area spans multiple towns and that the player will naturally pass through it multiple times
• Scorbunny's idle animation is very hyperactive
• Demo confirms that the water Max move is "Max Geyser" which sets up Rain Dance afterwards
• Website confirms one of the Wild Area weathers is a thunderstorm, which is a simultaneous rain + Electric Terrain
• Treehouse & website together confirm that the player is allowed to wander "too far" into the Wild Area near the beginning of the game and get KO'd by strong wilds, but you won't be able to sequence break the game by catching these strong wilds
• Demo doesn't display a Bag option for either the Gym trainer battles or Gym Leader battle; no way to tell if this is demo-specific

 

[Worldie]

• Demo doesn't display a Bag option for either the Gym trainer battles or Gym Leader battle; no way to tell if this is demo-specific

Considering the Demo is played with level 50 pokemon in a Gym it's pretty safe to assume it's Demo-specific. They probably just slapped the coding for PvP battles for the Demo (to prevent pokemon from leveling and not reveal the level of the Gym to begin with) and either intentionally or unintentionally left the items out.

 

[aaronarium]

You know Ultimate has every fighter, right?

yes but the past games had to drop fighters and the fanbase dealt with it ok. having to build up assests for 800+ pokemon is far different than including and tweaking less than a tenth of that for smash. we need to see how this will play out before we kneejerk about how this is 100% a terrible decision.

 

[no-games]

yes but the past games had to drop fighters and the fanbase dealt with it ok. having to build up assests for 800+ pokemon is far different than including and tweaking less than a tenth of that for smash. we need to see how this will play out before we kneejerk about how this is 100% a terrible decision.

Comparing pokemon to smash is nonsense because Smash hasn't been telling you to fight them all for the last two decades. And Game Freak isn't building shit. All the models we've seen from old pokemon are the same used in gen6 and gen7.

 

[Zowayix]

yes but the past games had to drop fighters and the fanbase dealt with it ok. having to build up assests for 800+ pokemon is far different than including and tweaking less than a tenth of that for smash. we need to see how this will play out before we kneejerk about how this is 100% a terrible decision.

It's impossible to copy-paste a fighter from a previous game to a new game; porting over one takes a significant amount of work even completely disregarding game balance. Meanwhile USUM's assets have already been future-proofed; they were specifically built to be copy-pasted into an HD environment.

 

[Einstien74]

Personally, as a very non-sentimental player who didn't even transfer my pokemon from SM to USUM, I don't terribly mind the fact that there is not going to be a full pokedex. I've never caught a single regional dex (not even sub regions), I don't carry over pokemon, I play for two reasons: the *plot* (or whatever passes for it. I'm satisfied by RBY's plot of beat the 8 mcguffin leaders and become the champion), and for the battling. I've spent hundreds of hours breeding pokemon that I like in order to go online and play against other people. I enjoy winning every now and then too.

For people like me, or at least ones who do a single playthrough (and I'll admit, I don't know what percentage of the fanbase this is), this game changes absolutely nothing. I'm not sentimental for my past Garchomps because I'll either get new ones, or they won't be in the dex so it's not worth the effort to bring it over.

I understand that it is extremely upsetting for a lot of people. Missing out on old friends is sad, and not having lando T all of the various pokemon to choose from to battle with is disappointing, but for me, the game stays the same.

-----
Now, personally, I don't think we're entirely understanding what's being said. The translation is somewhat vague in details, but it doesn't sound like a hard "There will not be all x00 pokemon in sw/sh". I think that there are a few reasonable possibilities for what will go down, none original. A) The game will be expanded w/ a free/paid (more likely free for compatibility, they're not as dumb as people think) update including the rest of the models and animations, B) UswUsh will have all the pokemon, C) Gen 4 remakes will fill the rest and SW/SH will be updated for compatibility (again, I think they're smart enough to do this, especially with how easy it is on the switch) or D) there is some miscommunication on the meaning that we're missing entirely.

Overall, the point is moot, we'll learn more about in the weeks to come, especially with everyone complaining. Even if there is no Garchomp in Galar, I see myself buying the game simply because I love pokemon for what it is to me: a story about finding friends who let you take over the world and beat up other people in real life.

 

[Einstien74]

Personally, as a very non-sentimental player who didn't even transfer my pokemon from SM to USUM, I don't terribly mind the fact that there is not going to be a full pokedex. I've never caught a single regional dex (not even sub regions), I don't carry over pokemon, I play for two reasons: the *plot* (or whatever passes for it. I'm satisfied by RBY's plot of beat the 8 mcguffin leaders and become the champion), and for the battling. I've spent hundreds of hours breeding pokemon that I like in order to go online and play against other people. I enjoy winning every now and then too.

For people like me, or at least ones who do a single playthrough (and I'll admit, I don't know what percentage of the fanbase this is), this game changes absolutely nothing. I'm not sentimental for my past Garchomps because I'll either get new ones, or they won't be in the dex so it's not worth the effort to bring it over.

I understand that it is extremely upsetting for a lot of people. Missing out on old friends is sad, and not having lando T all of the various pokemon to choose from to battle with is disappointing, but for me, the game stays the same.

-----
Now, personally, I don't think we're entirely understanding what's being said. The translation is somewhat vague in details, but it doesn't sound like a hard "There will not be all x00 pokemon in sw/sh". I think that there are a few reasonable possibilities for what will go down, none original. A) The game will be expanded w/ a free/paid (more likely free for compatibility, they're not as dumb as people think) update including the rest of the models and animations, B) UswUsh will have all the pokemon, C) Gen 4 remakes will fill the rest and SW/SH will be updated for compatibility (again, I think they're smart enough to do this, especially with how easy it is on the switch) or D) there is some miscommunication on the meaning that we're missing entirely.

Overall, the point is moot, we'll learn more about in the weeks to come, especially with everyone complaining. Even if there is no Garchomp in Galar, I see myself buying the game simply because I love pokemon for what it is to me: a story about finding friends who let you take over the world and beat up other people in real life.

Note: I added lando T not because I like it, but for the pleasant and opposite reason

 

[aaronarium]

It's impossible to copy-paste a fighter from a previous game to a new game; porting over one takes a significant amount of work even completely disregarding game balance. Meanwhile USUM's assets have already been future-proofed; they were specifically built to be copy-pasted into an HD environment.

I still stand by what I said. We can't just definitively say that this is terrible for the game when we haven't even gotten a feel for it yet. Maybe a restricted roster has a real profound impact on the metagame, or postgame, or something else entirely. It's ok to not like it. But let's dispel with the fiction that this is a thoughtless decision on GF's part.

 

[Worldie]

I still stand by what I said. We can't just definitively say that this is terrible for the game when we haven't even gotten a feel for it yet. Maybe a restricted roster has a real profound impact on the metagame, or postgame, or something else entirely. It's ok to not like it. But let's dispel with the fiction that this is a thoughtless decision on GF's part.

I mean, restricted dex obviously has impact on the metagame, they've done it with every generation's first VGC which forced regional dex only thus sometimes cut > 400 pokemon out.

It's just the way that it's done this time that's very very inelegant, as people still do enjoy using pokemon non in the pokedex for postgame activities.

Going to kill the game? Nah, as I said earlier, it's still going to be a great game.
Did it kill the hype? It did, definitely.

 

[lost heros]

All the pokemons stats in the demo as shown (at level 50)

Sobble: 149 / 53 / 53 / 114 (wtf)/ 53 / 83

Scorbunny: 149 / 115 / 53 / 53 / 53 / 82

Grookey: 149 / 85 / 79 / 47 / 69 / 78

Wooloo: 141 / 53 / 68 / 53 / 58 / 61

Corvinight: 177 (dam) / 100 / 106 / 76 / 98 / 88

Yamper : 158 / 58 / 63 / 58 / 56 / 39 (rip)

Some calcs on what the revealed pokemon stats are
Sobble 42-89/1-48/1-48/62-109/1-48/31-78
Scorbunny 42-89/63-110/1-48/1-48/1-48/30-77
Grookey 42-89/25-72/20-83/1-47/17-64/26-63
Wooloo 34-81/1-48/16-63/1-48/6-53/9-56
Corviknight 70-117/44-91/65-112/24-56/46-93/28-75
Yamper 51-98/1-47/11-58/12-59/10-57/1-34

I didn't really look too into the pictures so the more invested areas > lower in the range
Edit: Took into consideration natures

 

[sb879]

Minor thing to point out: Yamper has the Slow experience curve, typically reserved for strong Pokemon (of course, there are some exceptions like Carnivine...). So there might be more to it than its dopey demeanor suggests.

 

[Synonimous]

View attachment 179908
I am boggled by this bar.

You need to charge it up in battle, revealed in gameplay in the raid.

 

[Vengeance417]

 

[AquaticPanic]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1138502207916011520

Seems like wild encounters during "thunderstorms" will activate both Electric Terrain and Rain. Also confirms Electrike is in the game

 

[Jerry the great]

Ya know, I actually kinda like the fact that we can't use Pokemon not in the Galgar dex. Now while playing through the main story like I always do, use my favorites, not giving a care in the world about the national dex, I would play gen 8 OU and Ubers on PS like no tomorrow. Because Lot's of mons I had to worry about before are gone. So it's simpler, thanks to less mons to worry about. However when playing through the story, I act like the national dex never exists. I never gave a care in the world about National dexs in general honestly. I just like to use my favorites in casual runs, not mons from other regions. Overall, It'd make my competive life less hectic, and I just don't care about the national dex, no, the whole pokedex thing as a whole. The thing I like about Pokemon is the designs, battles, and story.