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

I certainly have ideas how they can do Amiibo, though the question with Amiibo is how would they do with it making new ones? Who would they base the Amiibo on? The obvious answer would be the Pokemon, but with their being SO many Pokemon they can't make an Amiibo for all of them, even doing the most popular might be a bit much. They could maybe do some of the human characters though they generally aren't are marketable as the Pokemon (unless they maybe do a combination, having a notable Trainer with their ace Pokemon).

As for ideas what would Amiibo do: unlock special battles, insert a special Pokemon into the wild/make it easier to catch a certain Pokemon, unlock customization items. Though they do need to be careful not giving the player too much of an advantage, I would say not giving them a way to make a lot of money or gain massive amounts of experience would be something to keep in mind.
The number of pokémon Amiibo figures is not even an issue if we consider the Amiibo cards, much like was done with Animal Crossing series.
And since we are talking about pokémon, TPC already have the perfect excuse to make comemorative TCG cards that works as Amiibo cards.
This is not even some breaking news, because we already had some special e-cards that was compatible with GBA e-reader. Those give access to exclusive berries, rare pokémon, alternative battle arenas in Colosseum and new, special trainers with quite strong teams in both overworld and Battle Tower.
 
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Also, I'm interested to know if they'll actually provide cloud save support. It's one thing with bank but it's another if I lose my save data with all competitive items. Thoughts?
Cloudsaving would render half of Pokebank's purpose pointless so I highly doubt it.

Also just realized that unless Gamefak pulls some coding magic we should finally be getting mutltiple saves like with Let's Go.
 
Cloud save support is almost impossible as they'll certainly want to support offline trading, and the moment you do that you can clone Pokemon.
Then they should improve bank as a way to compensate. Right now if I lose/break my 3Ds that has my bank on it I have very few options to get it back. Cloud saves allow me more freedom and I can actually take my console outside without fear of something bad happening to hundreds and hundreds of hours of work.

They are afraid of hacking, then they should try to improve it so that it doesn't lead to more hacking. Can't get cloud saves? Guess I'll try to powersav everything to compensate. Shouldn't have to do that though.
 
Then they should improve bank as a way to compensate. Right now if I lose/break my 3Ds that has my bank on it I have very few options to get it back. Cloud saves allow me more freedom and I can actually take my console outside without fear of something bad happening to hundreds and hundreds of hours of work.

They are afraid of hacking, then they should try to improve it so that it doesn't lead to more hacking. Can't get cloud saves? Guess I'll try to powersav everything to compensate. Shouldn't have to do that though.
The Switch is massively more hack-secure than the DS.
...not cause it's harder to hack, but cause right now going online with a hacked switch is a near istant ban.

Anyhow, Let's Go allowed multiple saves per multiple accounts, so there's a good chance Sword&Shield will also follow the same.

In same fashion, if the Switch Pokebank is linked to the Switch account, it'd be perfectly fine to access it from a different device if logging with same Nintendo Switch account.
Plus being online, it'll require the payed Switch subscription anyway, so it's relatively hackproof in current scenario.
 
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AquaticPanic

Intentional Femboy Penguin
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Does anyone have predictions for how the final evo of the starters might look like?

I was looking around for extinct monkey species for a possible Grookey evo and found one named Gigantopithecus:

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So with this in mind, Grookey will likely grow to be bulky and somewhat slow.


Probably some back-sailed dinosaur such as this
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I got nothing for Scorbunny


As for the legendaries, I sort of doubt both are wolves, rather that could be the Rayquaza or Kyurem of this gen. I do find it interesting that they're facing away from eachother tho
 
I finally found the time to write down my initial thoughts about these games in more detail.

I have not read through this thread beyond the first page, so apologies if I'm repeating things that others have already said. This also became rather long so I put it in a spoiler.
Like last year, they had to reveal the games on a Wednesday. I understand it this time around since Pokémon day happened to be on a Wednesday the year, but it was unfortunate since I'm always so busy on Wednesdays. I still managed to make some extra time in order to watch the Direct, and it aired at a quite good time in my time zone too, so it was okay.

Either way, I'm mostly positive towards these games so far.

As said earlier, I'm very happy that they showed an actual trailer immediately. I definitely prefer this over the nothingness they initially showed us with OR/AS, S/M and US/UM. This way, we know at least a little regarding what we can expect from these games.

I like the graphics and the graphical style, but I'm not exactly blown away by it. I think the games look great, but not absolutely stunning. They do look good though. Some areas are really impressive, I really like the foggy forest, the snowy city and the mining cave with colored lanterns in the walls. But I think the Pokémon models really look amazing. And I'm happy that they are using full-scale models for the trainer characters instead of chibi models, the full-scale models are something I have come to prefer after playing Gen 7.

I'm also going to keep some things in mind regarding the graphics. I have found that for the main series 3D Pokémon games, the graphics tend to look better in the actual games compared to how things look on images and in trailers. That has been the case for me regarding all games from Gen 6 and 7. And Game Freak have never been super amazing when it comes to the technical level of graphics either, so things don't need to look perfect. They also tend to become better over time at improving in terms of graphics, so I think things are just fine. Graphics aren't that important for me in video games either, and to the extent I do care about graphics, I care much more about design than the technical aspects. These games look neatly designed, which I appreciate.

I'm also happy that they are keeping the cartoonish style for Pokémon. I had some fears that they would try a more realistic style like in the Detective Pikachu movie, but I'm happy that it's not the case. I hope they will keep the cartoonish style for the games forever.

I like some small details such as the Fletchling wind vane at the beginning. The player character designs seem pretty good as well.

It seems like Gyms are back in these games. I don't mind. Trials were fun in Gen 7 but I like Gyms too so it doesn't matter much which these games have. In fact, it might be fun to go back to Gyms again after having a generation of Trials.

A very minor thing, but it looks like the character is sneaking before the wild encounter. Does this mean that sneaking and perhaps also the wonderful DexNav is back? I'd love that to happen. And random encounters are back, unlike in LGP/E, it seems. While I would like it if the series were to remove random encounters, there is one positive thing with them in this system as pointed out by a user on another forum. That is the fact that you don't know what Pokémon you will meet until you enter an area. In comparison, the LGP/E encounter system shows exactly what Pokémon can be found as you enter a new area, making it less surprising. I guess both systems have their ups and downs.

Then, we have the Pokémon shown in the trailer (apart from the new starters): Pikachu, Minccino, Wishiwashi, Grubbin, Hoothoot, Zweilous, Flygon, Braviary (though I can't tell exactly but that's what it looks like), Wailmer, Meowstic, Lucario, Tyranitar and Munchlax. All old generations represented! I hope this means that the regional dex will have a good mix of all old generations as opposed to letting Gen 1 get the spotlight once more. If there's anything I want to get the spotlight this generation, it is Gen 8 itself. Other than that, I hope they will have a decently equal secondary focus on all the 7 older generations. And if I'm allowed to dream a little, I hope the National Dex will return in these games.

The starters have grown on me already, but they still feel a bit weird. I am very likely going to pick Scorbunny on my first and main playthrough. It looks so cute and happy. It also seems like it can be fast, which could be great after the slow Alola starters. I tend to like the fast starters either way. For example, Infernape, Serperior and Greninja are my favorites from their respective generation and they are also the fastest starter from each of their respective generations. Then I haven't initially picked the Fire starter since D/P either, which was 12 years ago. So I guess it might be time to do that again. As for the others, I like how Grookey looks happy, while Sobble is kinda cute. But Scorbunny is my favorite right now.

Picking a starter this time will also be a bit different compared to how it was in the past since I likely won't know what they will evolve into unless their evolved forms are among the next new Pokémon they will reveal (which I doubt since the starter evolutions tend to be revealed rather late during the pre-release periods).

As other people have pointed out, there are no following Pokémon in the trailer. I find it a bit surprising as I had definitely expected this feature to return after it was brought back in LGP/E. But I'm personally happy about its absence since I don't like this feature. That said, if I have understood things correctly, LGP/E did not only have a better execution of it compared to the disaster it was in HG/SS, it was optional as well. But if this feature should return, I'm fine with it as long as it is optional. And I might even use myself it if it is executed well enough.

I did not expect the game names. My predictions for what the games would be named were completely wrong. As for which game I'm getting, I'm leaning a little more towards Sword for the reasons I stated in my previous post. That said, I will probably wait and see what the cover legends look like before making my decision. I'm still curious about the wolves in the logos. I wonder if it is two legendaries or maybe just one with two different forms, with the form depending on which game is being played.

Also, I'm likely only getting one of the games this time around. I have previously gotten both games from all previous pairs (except LGP/E where I didn't get either), but I don't think I will continue with that. Just one might be enough this time around. My interest in Pokémon isn't at its peak anymore, it hasn't been since 2014. Getting just one game from here on feels like the natural thing to do. And if I should want to play through the main game more than once, I will have 8 save slots because of how save files and profiles work on the Switch (providing they aren't totally lame and these games doesn't use this feature, but I hope not since LGP/E did have that if I have understood things correctly). So there's no real need to buy both games unless there's some really major version difference that I want to experience. Version exclusive Pokémon aren't very important since those can be obtained through trading anyway. The only reasons I can see for getting both games would be if the first one I play turn out to be the new best game in the series, so I just must get the other one as well. Or if you can't have multiple save files and I want to play through the main game again without restarting. Those are the only two reasons I can think of for getting both games this time around.

Next, the region. I think it can be good. It looks pretty varied from what I have seen, and that's good since I prefer regions with varied environments. But I'm not going to look at the map in closer detail since I don't want to spoil myself too much. I have seen that many other fans are worried about a linear region, but I do personally not mind. I like linear regions as long as they take full advantage of the linearity. I think Alola failed a bit with this though, but I feel that Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos did very well. Those are my four favorite regions and I hope that Galar will follow in their footsteps. Also, the region name. It is the first main series region without an "o" in its name. And it seems to be based on the UK which is interesting, another Europe-based region. I hope it will be great.

I'm not going to look into that much else pre-release information. I spoiled myself way too much for S/M since I looked into almost all pre-release info for those games, and I don't want to do that again. Playing S/M was a bit less exciting since I knew so much about them and their new Pokémon beforehand, I'd rather stay about 90% unspoiled this time around, which is what I'm going to try to do. I almost considered not looking into any more info since I was so satisfied with the trailer, but then I realized that there are a few more things I want to see before going into unspoiled mode. The things things I still want to see are a few more Gen 8 Pokémon, hopefully and maybe including the cover legends, as well as a proper release date. Once we have those things, I will try to go unspoiled for everything else. Though this is going to be very difficult since I spend a lot of time on Pokémon sites and Serebii (which is the main site I use for Pokémon news) just posts all pre-release information directly on the main page without hiding it. Which is understandable, but it makes it hard to avoid. Though, I think Pokémon forums have improved a lot in recent years when it comes to hiding pre-release information about new games. Either way, I'm going to take some kind of break from Pokémon sites and forums once we have a bit more information about the games. Youtube will be a lot harder though, since all sorts of information tend to be visible in video thumbnails and titles, and they will probably appear among my "recommended videos" since I often watch videos about Pokémon. In addition to this, I won't look into any leaks or rumors in case the information they have turns out to be true.

Regarding the release date, I really hope they will have a true worldwide release like with X/Y, OR/AS and LGP/E, the last thing I want to see is Europe getting screwed again. Or any other region for that matter. While it won't affect me personally if that should be the case, I can definitely feel their pain. If I'm allowed to speculate a little on the release date, I guess they will go for November once again since that has been the standard since OR/AS. I also hope these games will be released on a Friday, that's the best possible day for a game release IMO. I hope they won't release them on a Wednesday, that's the worst possible day for me personally. My guess is that the games will be released on November 15th or 22nd. Though I wouldn't mind an earlier release, October or even September would be great. Personally, I think November is a bit too late but I can understand that they choose to release the games then in order to get more money from Christmas and holiday sales.

I'm also not going to have too high expectations regarding these games. They don't need to be the new best games in the series or the new best games ever for me. They just need to be fun games to play. And I think they will be just that. Since most Pokémon games have been like that for me. Except HG/SS. And probably LGP/E, though I don't know for sure since I haven't played them. I also feel that I had too high expectations for S/M, to the point that I got a bit disappointed when I played them. I'm not going to do that again. Instead, I'm setting my expectations a bit lower this time around. I still want the games to be good and fun of course, but they don't need to be flawless masterpieces. As long as they are fun games to play, I'll be satisfied.
These are my thoughts so far. I hope I remembered everything I wanted to say. To summarize, I'm very happy about the direct and the trailer, my first impression of the games is positive. I'm looking forward to them.
 
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As for the legendaries, I sort of doubt both are wolves, rather that could be the Rayquaza or Kyurem of this gen. I do find it interesting that they're facing away from eachother tho
Two wolves kind of screams Romulus and Remus to me.
Roman mythology is obviously not the first thing you'd think of when it comes to a region based on the United Kingdom, but neither are Norse mythology influences in a region based on France.
 

Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
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Hey I wouldn't mind if I got to challenge the 8th gym and my team was level 10. Its options that are nice to have so I don't feel restricted and the region feels more alive and not a colorful single path.
It's not being underleveled and exploring harder parts of the region that I think is that problem, it's the likelihood that if multiple paths were open to us, the difficulty would be scaled down so it's not "too hard." resulting in a bad leveling experience (like Johto).
If they could alleviate this somehow I'd be down for it though.
That could be easy to fix. For example enemy trainers scaling to your strongest level. Maybe introduce more than 2-3 pokemon per person.
An open world region is possible in my opinion. First off the player's starting point (either their home town or the Professor's Lab) would be in the "hub" location of the region (for example Kalos would have been a good example, especially if they had places where the various loops would connect to another loop). Once they got everything settled you let the player choose which paths they want to tackle first, including order of Gyms.

"But how would they handle Level scaling? Or story progress?"

Easy, by number of Badges. At the start there's only trainers who Pokemon are the appropriate Level. As you win Badges, trainers will have stronger Pokemon (new trainers may even appear and trainers you already battled may be battle-able again). And for the story they'll have to do things via event flags, either telling the player they need to go to a certain location or the event that unfolds has any battles be scaled according to the number of Badges the player has.

"But wouldn't this cause an overleveling problem?"

Yes, which is why some I think if they go this route they may also want to have a Level Limit system. You can only train a Pokemon to a certain Level before it stops leveling up (but doesn't lose the experience it gains from a battle; with how I think it works they still "level up" but their stats are kept at the Level Limit, but they may still learn new level-up moves) and you need to get the next Badge in order to increase the Level Limit. That way it not only encourages the player to get a move on with progressing, but maybe also give them a reason to train up more than just six Pokemon as this would make it easier for them to raise newly caught Pokemon. Also it could help set up difficulty level, for example on Normal the Gym Leader's Pokemon will be at the Level Limit, Easy be below the Level Limit, and on Hard be above the Level Limit.

"Speaking of catching Pokemon, how would that work?"

While the immediate routes will have low leveled Pokemon, as you get more Badges you get HMs (or their equivalent) that lets you explore paths blocked off on routes. These paths will not only lead to interesting locations (with trainers to battle and items to find) but they'll have new Pokemon with higher levels. And these paths will also have blocked off paths that require another kind of HM to access. They order of Gym Leaders you battle to determine when you'll be able to access which paths and have access to what Pokemon (and items like TMs and held items).

As you can tell, this would require a LOT of work to do and introduce some major mechanic changes that players would need to be told about and get accustomed to.

IDK about the others, but I think it's time to stop with the floaty fists animation and use real interaction for contact moves. Battle Revolution has made a great job in this aspect back in 2006.
Yeah, even if the Pokemon doesn't make touching contact, at least have the Physical attacker rush forward in front of the target and then attack with a flashy animation.

So the logos are a Sword and Shield with wolf heads yet the Legendaries are a metal snake and wooden horse. Well when we see that come into fruition is when I believe this post. Otherwise counting it as a lucky guess.
 
A very minor thing, but it looks like the character is sneaking before the wild encounter. Does this mean that sneaking and perhaps also the wonderful DexNav is back? I'd love that to happen. And random encounters are back, unlike in LGP/E, it seems. While I would like it if the series were to remove random encounters, there is one positive thing with them in this system as pointed out by a user on another forum. That is the fact that you don't know what Pokémon you will meet until you enter an area. In comparison, the LGP/E encounter system shows exactly what Pokémon can be found as you enter a new area, making it less surprising. I guess both systems have their ups and downs.
I really hope a dexnav feature is re-implemented in these games

the thing about random encounters in Pokemon games is that they work differently that in other RPGs, enemy encounters are usually only obstacles in games so players only fight enemies when if they need exp. and tend to avoid them otherwise (unless they kill every enemy compulsively)
but in Pokemon since you can always capture your "enemies" each encounter is also a prize, potentially at least even a random encounter in a route where you've already caught every species could always be a shiny, so random pokemon encounters are akin to pulling a lever on a slot machine, is grindy yes but the possibility that you might just win big and get a shiny Vulpix or something makes them compelling

An open world region is possible in my opinion. First off the player's starting point (either their home town or the Professor's Lab) would be in the "hub" location of the region (for example Kalos would have been a good example, especially if they had places where the various loops would connect to another loop). Once they got everything settled you let the player choose which paths they want to tackle first, including order of Gyms.

"But how would they handle Level scaling? Or story progress?"

Easy, by number of Badges. At the start there's only trainers who Pokemon are the appropriate Level. As you win Badges, trainers will have stronger Pokemon (new trainers may even appear and trainers you already battled may be battle-able again). And for the story they'll have to do things via event flags, either telling the player they need to go to a certain location or the event that unfolds has any battles be scaled according to the number of Badges the player has.

"But wouldn't this cause an overleveling problem?"

Yes, which is why some I think if they go this route they may also want to have a Level Limit system. You can only train a Pokemon to a certain Level before it stops leveling up (but doesn't lose the experience it gains from a battle; with how I think it works they still "level up" but their stats are kept at the Level Limit, but they may still learn new level-up moves) and you need to get the next Badge in order to increase the Level Limit. That way it not only encourages the player to get a move on with progressing, but maybe also give them a reason to train up more than just six Pokemon as this would make it easier for them to raise newly caught Pokemon. Also it could help set up difficulty level, for example on Normal the Gym Leader's Pokemon will be at the Level Limit, Easy be below the Level Limit, and on Hard be above the Level Limit.

"Speaking of catching Pokemon, how would that work?"

While the immediate routes will have low leveled Pokemon, as you get more Badges you get HMs (or their equivalent) that lets you explore paths blocked off on routes. These paths will not only lead to interesting locations (with trainers to battle and items to find) but they'll have new Pokemon with higher levels. And these paths will also have blocked off paths that require another kind of HM to access. They order of Gym Leaders you battle to determine when you'll be able to access which paths and have access to what Pokemon (and items like TMs and held items).

As you can tell, this would require a LOT of work to do and introduce some major mechanic changes that players would need to be told about and get accustomed to.
I like this idea, the question is if Gamefreak would ever implement something even close to it
guess we better keep and eye on Town and see how innovative that game ultimately is to see if Gamefreak has the potential to be innovative or at least "catch up" to modern RPGs
 
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Then they should improve bank as a way to compensate. Right now if I lose/break my 3Ds that has my bank on it I have very few options to get it back. Cloud saves allow me more freedom and I can actually take my console outside without fear of something bad happening to hundreds and hundreds of hours of work.

They are afraid of hacking, then they should try to improve it so that it doesn't lead to more hacking. Can't get cloud saves? Guess I'll try to powersav everything to compensate. Shouldn't have to do that though.
Isn't 3DS Bank linked to a Nintendo Network account? So another 3DS signed in to the same account should be able to access the same bank.
 
Isn't 3DS Bank linked to a Nintendo Network account? So another 3DS signed in to the same account should be able to access the same bank.
You would think that, but Nintendo being Nintendo won't allow you access to another account on a different 3Ds unless you do a system transfer. Or call Nintendo and give them information to try and get that data on to a different 3Ds. Cloud saves I log in to my online account and bam, theres my stuff.
 
Quick reminder:

DO NOT POST MEMES.

I think this is the sixth or seventh time we've deleted the "Fighting/Fighting" starters picture. Please provide your own thoughts instead of reposting jokes made by somebody else.
What if your own thoughts are manifested as memes of your own creation?
 

akaFila

butterscotch love
In regard to the open world aspects;

Honestly I feel like it’ll be “open” in the sense that we’ll have a bit of free choice in where we travel as opposed to being tugged along a specific plot string. Routes and locations will still have the general linearity, but more options as to where/when :blobshrug: Step in the right direction, but not quite the leap people wanted
 

Pikachu315111

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is a Community Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributor
I guess armored Pokemon isn't the worst, better than fusions anyway. I would just really like a gen where we can get a break from the crazy additions of Z moves and Megas and maybe add smaller things that shake up the play ala the weather generation, but I guess once you add those things its impossible to stop since the expectation for some exciting new feature will always be there.
Personally I think it's all how you advertise it. For example, them bringing back Mega Pokemon alone would supply enough material (depending on how many Mega Pokemon they bring and if they make any additional changes). Not sure if Weather would have the same impact, unless you introduce more kinds of weather, improve upon the mechanic, include new ways to use it (though I'd think they'd need to bundle Weather with Terrains, Rooms, and maybe Entry Hazards (and ways to get rid of them) to have plenty of material and really shake things up).
Though if its innovation they're looking for there's really only two things they can do for that: 1. Do what they have been doing by introducing major new mechanics like Mega Evos & Z-Moves or 2. Do what they've been desperately avoiding and actually shaking-up the established formula. Going more into point two, what I mean is doing things like letting us carry more than 6 Pokemon, give each Pokemon more than 4 Moves, have Pokemon gain access to more Abilities, maybe even have a way for some Pokemon to change their Type or even gain a 3rd Type. I guess introducing a new Type would be a middle ground, Fairy has made its impact (some would argue a bit of a too deep impact) so I don't think it would be stepping on its toes to introduce a new Type.

Also, as I said and hopefully today a video I'll show you all, the big new thing in the game doesn't have to be a mechanic but rather a feature. Like the logo we've discussed that's in the Japanese title are for the Gyms and the player gets a special outfit for them, so it seems to indicate that it may be a new feature that's the big thing in these games than a mechanic (thus giving us that new mechanic relief we've been asking for, maybe even giving GF a little room to play with older features).

Unrelated to the map, but I've also done shiny predictions for the starters. Shinies are one of my favourite things to know about new mons, but I'm not sure if that'd derail of the topic of the thread so I'll keep it under Hide as well
Shiny Grookey: I don't think they'd color swap like that (though would be cool, not just for Grookey but for plenty other Pokemon). If its shiny gets a drastic shiny palette probably more go with Autumn colors: green body becomes brown and orange hands & feet become yellow.
Shiny Scorbunny: Would personally prefer the orange to change to blue, hotter flame color.
Shiny Sobble: Eh, maybe make it more teal, if Shiny Grookey loses its green color no reason Shiny Sobble can then become more green color to compensate. Or they can make it purple or red, honestly it can be any color it wants being its a chameleon.

If it hasn't been mentioned yet, fire starter zodiac theory grows stronger.

Charmander: Dragon
Cyndaquil: Mouse
Torchic: Rooster
Chimchar: Monkey
Tepig: Pig
Fennekin: Dog
Litten: Tiger
Scorbunny: Rabbit

Remaining:
Snake
Ox
Horse
Goat

I like all the starters. I don't have a favorite. I'm hoping for a less linear game than usual but otherwise I'm open to whatever. Everything Nintendo-related has really delivered recently so I have high hopes for the new games.

Also, what acronym is best? SS, SnS, SAS, SW/SH, SWISH (last one but using slash as a vowel), or something else?
I'll admit, I'm more and more becoming a believer about the Fire-types representing the Chinese Zodiac theory. At first I was willing to believe it was all coincidence and point out that Cyndaquil (despite its species name) is an echidna (that then evolves into a badger), Fennekin is a fox (while a canine, not exactly a dog), and how Litten would be an odd representation of the tiger... but then again, maybe those three being odd is the point. Yes, they're following the Chinese Zodiac, but that doesn't mean they have to strictly follow it and can have variations thus giving themselves room to be creative. Also, let's remember that though we call it the Chinese Zodiac, it's not only the Chinese that use the Zodiac and there are variations (and translation issues). For example, the goat. The ancient Chinese character used for goat was also used for ram and sheep (sheep in particularly has been more used in other media, two examples I can think of is Digimon (the Devas) and Jackie Chan Adventures (the Talismans)). Similarly, some places use the Cow or Water Buffalo instead of the Ox (also some uses Cat instead of Rabbit but Litten counts for both). So the list is more like Snake, Ox/Cow/Water Buffalo, Horse, & Goat/Sheep/Ram. And as discussed they can be creative, like the snake could easily be made into a winged serpent, ox/cow/water buffalo could be a wildebeast, Horse could be a donkey/mule, and goat/sheep/ram could be an ibex or one of the really interesting looking goats/sheep like the markhor. And that's just the animal basis, there are countless other themes and concepts you can throw on top.

As for acronyms I think it's going to be between SwSh (the more traditional way of doing things as SS is for Soul Silver) or Swish (if the traditional naming convention is too problematic to figure out maybe a fun variation could be used instead).

Also, can we settle on SnS as the abbreviation for these games? It's common lingo for many other genres to refer to sword and shield.
But Pokemon never included the "and" before, it always have been just the first letter(s) of the version title WITH THE ONLY EXCEPTION being Platinum that had to be made Pl (so together they're DPPl). Thus why I think SwSh makes the most sense.

... well, not yet somewhat until I know there's 'vees (then again, Hoen and Unova are the only Eevee-less regions, are they?)

(...)

Oh, and what's with the "bandage" over Scorbunny? I... have bad feeling about this, although....
And Alola (though it did get a signature Z-Crystal and it's own game). As pointed out seems like there's only new Eeveelutions for even numbered generations (aside from Gen I, obviously), which Gen VIII is. Only "Special" Type that's left is Dragon, which would be appropriate for a UK-based region, but question is would after that they dive into the "Physical" Types? OR, maybe they'll surprise us and start doing the Physical Eeveelutions. Being one of the games themes look to be the Industrial Revolution, maybe a Steel- and Poison-type duo?

And the bandage over Scorbunny's nose is probably meant to be a nasal strip, pretty much a stiff but flexible bandage that's meant to go over your noise to open up your nasal passages more for better breathing. They have a few uses like helping people stop snoring, but they're also used by athletes who run to help control their breathing.

Eh given XY and SUMO I'd expect more around 60-100 mons, but more than that would definitely be cool
Hmm, right now we're at 809. I'm going to make a prediction: we're going to get 79 new Pokemon so we end on 888.

No wild pokémon in the overworld + following partners: I saw this one coming a mile away the moment the CEO mentioned last year these games would see no influence from Let's Go. Expected, yet still a bummer for me since it kinda ruins the inmersion aspect.

No island trials and totem pokémon: The presence of traditional gyms kinda makes the former already redundant as far in-game bosses go, so I don't see these ones coming back. They stat boosts might show up if they fell like making catching legendaries even more of a challenge though.

No competitive move tutors: Unless Game Freak is feeling generous, the absence of these is pretty much granted, and while I would love Sword/Shield go for the Gen 2/Let's Go route of making some of these moves TMs, the whole "Gen 8 won't be influenced by Let's Go" argument is a huge hope-killer for me.

Despite all this, there's still some stuff unaccounted for I can't really say with confidence it won't show up:

Poképelago: It relies a ton on gen 7's settings to make sense, and Gamefreak's habit of dropping useful features doesn't really inspire me confindence. On the other hand, the feature fits perfectly with Masuda's "kids ain't got time to play games anymore" talk, since it's pretty useful for grinding for items/EV training when you don't feel like doing it yourself.

Triple/Rotation/Inverse Battles: Since these were missing in gen 7 because of framerate they might come back? Maybe?? The Switch is far stronger than the 3DS so only a deliberate design choice can render these deader than dead.

Festival Plaza: No idea if they will keep it the same like it was in Sun/Moon, fuse them with XY's online interface or just flat out replace it with something else. At this point anything can happen honestly.
No Overworld Wild Pokemon Or Following Partners... Yet: I say we'll have to wait till the next games to see if they decide to bring this feature over (which I hope they do) or decide to keep it to Let's Go. It's understandable, they don't know what from Let's Go will be popular or not so didn't want to risk an unpopular feature in Let's Go affecting the core series. What if people didn't like the overworld wild Pokemon? Having it then would be a major detriment to the game while not having it doesn't really hurt anything as players have come to expect random wild battles. But, now that they see its a popular feature, it would be a detriment to the NEXT games if they exclude it.

Totem Pokemon Boosts: While I wouldn't want the Totem Battles as they don't quite fit, I wouldn't mind seeing at least the Totem Boosts (obviously under a different name) return and used by important characters like Gym Leaders, Elite Four, the Champion, villain team, and maybe even the rival. Would be a way to make these battles different from ordinary trainer battles if these important NPCs can in someway effect factors of the battle outside normal means (and doesn't have to be stat boosts, maybe they can have a Weather, Terrian, Room, etc. activate).

Move Tutors: *Sigh* GF, Just have the Move Tutor from USUM be in this game and then in the third version/second paired games rework what moves the Move Tutor offers. Doing this may also have the initial paired games have additional purpose as they may have their Move Tutor teach moves the new Move Tutor doesn't.

Pokepelago: Hmm... maybe instead of a small group of islands they can work on a farm, PokeFarm? Where the hometown is has a LOT of land covered by growing fields (meaning you probably can't visit, just look at the expanse of nothingness... sigh), surely they'd need a lot of hands to help with the field work. Let's take the various parts of Pokepelago and try to translate them over:
  • Isle Abeens: If they don't bring back the Beans easy enough to make a new kind of Pokemon treat which naturally grows. Or they can replace it with a kitchen where you can make something like Poke Biscuits with the berries you gather.
  • Isle Aplenny: Easiest one, you're on a farm, you grow Berries.
  • Isle Aphun: They could do a few things with this. Easiest would just say there's a cave/hole nearby Pokemon can explore and find stuff in.
  • Isle Evelup: Certain farming tasks can be used to help them train up a certain EV. Or there's just training equipment laying around they can use.
  • Isle Avue: While maybe not a hot spring, there's surely places on a farm you can go and relax, maybe like sleeping on a pile of hay.
Also, another idea is that, instead of just one location, as you explore the region you encounter several places which would offer a service/ask for your help and you can leave Pokemon there. So while you'll leave Pokemon at the farms to help grow berries, maybe in the big cities they'll have a place which offers to train your Pokemon, maybe by that lake area they're asking for Pokemon help to explore the lakes and you can keep any treasure they find, etc..

Triple/Rotation/Inverse Battles: Yeah, hopefully now on the more powerful system Triple and Rotation will be back (and not have framerate issues). However the big question are Inverse Battles, a battle style with SO MUCH potential. Personally I say don't have only one trainer that does it, make it into a mode you can activate from the option. If that's going to far, how about a mode you can select for the Battle Tower? They could also make a new room, Inverse Room, that when used makes a battle now act like an Inverse Battle. And maybe even have a few trainers around the region that will request to do an Inverse Battle so it's not just a post game/move gimmick. I guess this also could go for Double, Triple, and Rotation battles now thinking about it.

Festival Plaza: NO! Get rid of it and bring back the Player Search System from XY! That worked perfectly fine. If you want use to have a place of our own to decorate bring back Super Secret Bases, but instead of finding a place in the region to set it we can just have it use the excuse Festival Plaza did with it being a virtual place that can be easily shared with others.

On that note:
Scorbunny: Id
Grookey: Ego
Sobble: Superego
Not sure if Id, Ego, and Super-ego works here as they're not really personality traits. Whenever referring to personality people use the Four Temperaments. Yes, there's only three, but just because one is missing doesn't mean it can't be used to figure out how it acts and relates to the other two:

Scorbunny: Sanguine (enthusiastic, active, outgoing)
Grookey: Choleric (independent, decisive, ambitious)
Sobble: Melancholic (introverted, thoughtful, anxious)

Only one we're missing is phlegmatic, the one who is relaxed, sympathetic, and easy-going. Maybe that will be our Electric Rodent/Pikaclone of this generation.

I'm seriously hoping there will be some elements tying the starters together. Kalos did it the best with the Fighter-Mage-Thief combination. Alola didn't do too much, but there's still fantasy elements particularly on Decidueye and Primarina. Considering this is even named Sword and Shield, they better have this theme tying the starters too.
Kalos: Chesnaught (knight), Delphox (mage), Greninja (rogue)
Alola: Decidueye (archer), Incineroar (monk), Primarina (bard)

Or you can say the Alola Starters Final evos are based on types of entertainers: trick shooter, wrestler, and singer.

As I said in a past post, there may be a sports theme going on with Galar's Starters: Scorbunny is soccer, Grookey is cricket, and Sobble could be water polo.


First thing to catch my eye:
Right. So, the first thing that really caught my eye in the trailer was the female trainer tip-toeing through the patch of tall grass.
ORAS players know what I'm thinking about...I'm pretty excited that we might get a feature similar to the DexNav! No Pokémon was actually sticking out of the grass, though, so it's still up in the air as to what the tip-toeing actually does functionally.
_______________
Golf in Galar
So that large grassy area with the lakes in the southern part of Galar? Yeah, that's definitely a golf course, everyone, with the lakes obviously being the water hazards and with sand bunkers spread about (I'm surprised no one in this thread has yet openly acknowledge it for speculation's sake).
I wanna say that this particular course is in reference to one of the four professional golf majors, The Open Championship (or British Open). This is all assuming Galar is fully U.K.-based, of course. Either way, it looks like we might get to see Kahili here as a cameo!

This means that there's at least two notable sports in Galar, soccer/football and golf. Please make it at least three, though. As someone from outside the U.K., soccer and golf aren't the sporting events that come to mind first when thinking of sports in the U.K.. That honor goes to tennis, with Wimbledon being one of the world's most prestigious sporting events. So yeah, reveal some Pokémon tennis later on just because, please!

More importantly and unfortunately, that whole area is likely private property. Good luck actually roaming through the entirety of that expansive area, unless for some reason it doubles as a public area in the off-season. I guess we just have to traverse around it...
_______________

Initial thoughts on potential of Regional Variants in Galar:
Let me preface this by saying that of all the new concepts and features SM ushered in, if only one concept/feature was adopted from those games it would be the concept of regional variants— and yes, I'd tolerate HMs if they for whatever reason returned (realistically, though, please forbid them in Galar, too).

Surveying the region map and the trailer worried me of the potential addition of new regional variants. Nothing I've seen yet screams to me, "Climate in this area is too unique for you, visiting Pokémon species. Adapt or move someplace more suitable and change!" The climate is fairly normal with respect to each particular location seen in the trailer, unless there are some things unexpectedly unusual within a few habitats that haven't been revealed yet. If someone here from the U.K. could mention if there is anything notable there geographically extreme climate-wise, please do so.
snooPING AS usual: Good eye! Please let this mean the return of the Dex Nav, and hopefully other popular mechanics too. :)

See You On The Green?: Eh... while would be neat to see an explore-able (and maybe playable) golf course (especially after Alola having one locked off), the lake area to me doesn't look like a golf course. The lake takes up too much space.

Regional Variants: Just because there's a location where a Pokemon can live as its normal self doesn't mean unforeseen circumstances can force them to have to adapt to a new one. For example, in Alola there was a desert area BUT Sandshrew still moved to the icy mountains because it was disturbed by the underground earthquakes caused by volcanic activities. There was a volcano for the Vulpix family to live, however they wanted isolation so moved to the icy mountains. Now once again we have plenty of opportunities for some Pokemon to turn Ice-type, though considering that large lake in the middle I think we could have some Water Type regional variants. Also with a possible theme being the Industrial Revolution we also may get some Steel- and Poison-type variants (for example: how about a Poison/Flying Swablu that evolves into a Poison/Dragon Altaria with black smog wings instead of fluffly white clouds?).

Speaking of fossils, will we get new ones? I hope so. Only 2 gens so far haven't had them. TPP needs more members of the fossil pantheon. Maybe the new animation for ancient power from Sun and Moon was hinting at this gens fossils.

Corgis have been mentioned as fitting the new dog Mon. Guesses for the new early birds and rodents?
Later I'm going to check my "Not Yet Pokemon Repository" for the mythical creatures from the UK/Europe but I'll also check the fossil/extinct animals for any that lived in the UK.

Whatever the "early" bird or bug is I hope they make it good. Since XY they've been doing a good job (since they used the older early birds, bugs, and rodents as early filler).

Eevee is near guarantee to be in the game, I assume :p
Was it in the trailer? If not then it's still a question mark even if everyone is predicting an Eeveelution. There's no guarantees when it comes to GF.


Or that lake could be filled with Lapras, that might be a thing instead.
Galarian Lapras, Water/Dragon, loses its shell and looks more fierce. :P OR they could go Water/Fairy, make it look more graceful, and have the ability to turn invisible.

Or it's a plesiosaur Fossil and it's just a more prehistoric looking Lapras, lol.


Since it is based on Great Britain, I need at least 1 Harry Potter reference in the game. Please gamefreak please.
Oh geez, with all the trains I can just picture now all the fanfics mixing Harry Potter and Pokemon together (yes, I'm sure it has already happened, though now they have a real region to place it in).

I wouldn't be surprised at all if there is just a random stationary Lapras chilling in those lakes, waiting for you to come and catch it.
Or they can rent a Lapras someplace to surf the lake. Because that does seem a bit early to get the ability to Surf, so they may offer a way to surf until you can do it on your own.
 

Codraroll

Cod Mod
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In regard to the open world aspects;

Honestly I feel like it’ll be “open” in the sense that we’ll have a bit of free choice in where we travel as opposed to being tugged along a specific plot string. Routes and locations will still have the general linearity, but more options as to where/when :blobshrug: Step in the right direction, but not quite the leap people wanted
I don't think the map is wide open, but it could be that you're given options at certain times. The map has a couple of areas where the road appears to fork. There could be some freedom on which road to take first, but you have to do both before you can progress. Take the two towns north of the southern city, for instance: If you go west out of the city you end up in a small farming town, if you go east you end up in a seaside town. They are both connected by a long, straight route, but neither town has any connection further north. To go north you have to get back to the city, and either follow the valley outside its south gate, or take the train. It could be that you're given the choice between east and west after completing the Gym in the first city, meaning either of the two Gyms could be the second or third depending on the route you choose. Adjusting the levels of trainers in the area (and the Gyms) depending on your choice would be a relatively simple matter too, as there are only two options.

Likewise, out of the middle city there seems to be another east/west split, and each road seems to have a fork. In the west you can either go straight to Dugtrio town or take the northern route to the fairy forest town. In the east, you can either go straight for the town on the cape, or do a detour north to ice town. I don't think you can do all four towns in any order, however. Most likely, you're forced to go either east or west first, and visit both towns before you can go the other way. That would make all your choices binary, and that's a lot easier to program for. Instead of creating eight different teams for each Gym, which would be required in a completely open map, one would only need two options. And considering that your rival has features three sets of teams depending on your starter choice all the way since Gen I, I don't think two teams for each Gym (or even, each overworld trainer) would be much of a technical hurdle.
 

bdt2002

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs superfan
is a Pre-Contributor
I haven't been on here in a while, so why not get back into it by posting my opinions on what we have so far for the new Switch games?

The graphics: Probably the best we've ever seen in the main series, though I do wish in-game battle effects for moves were changed up a bit. In a nutshell, Sword and Shield basically looks like Sun and Moon but in HD and with I guess you could call an "open-world 3D anime-esque" look to it. (But seriously, the female trainer is going to have so much fanart, I can see it now.)

The Galar region: The industrial development and implementation of different environments in the region definitely give off a different vibe than some of the more recent regions, as Galar doesn't really follow the theme I've noticed Kalos and Alola having, if you know what I mean. I do love how expensive Galar looks, and I'm wondering if those trains can be used for fast travel, as they've kinda done away with Fly ever since ORAS.

The starters: They look very "childlike" in my eyes, very different from most other Starters in all 3 types. I don't have a favorite of the three just yet, and we'll need to see much more information before I can make a decision. Something about Scorbunny looks VERY familiar, though. I don't what it is...I think it's the face. Minus the weird bandage thing and the ear shape, the face looks almost identical to those rabbits in Mario Galaxy. I swear, look it up. Aside from the ears and the bandage. I'm telling you, it's true!

The Galar/Kalos Theory: From a logical standpoint, this theory is very like to be true, so much !o that I actually support the rumors to an extent. My only problem with it is why would Galar be two generations apart from Kalos rather than just one? Alola kinda took that away.
 
The Galar/Kalos Theory: From a logical standpoint, this theory is very like to be true, so much !o that I actually support the rumors to an extent. My only problem with it is why would Galar be two generations apart from Kalos rather than just one? Alola kinda took that away.
(This is a bit off topic, so mods if you want to delete this post feel free.)

I kinda feel like the usual formula for Pokemon was screwed up due to the 20th anniversary. Usually we would get a sequel(s) to a region after remakes, usually two years after the initial release of a new generation. We never got the rumored Pokemon Z for Kalos. Instead, we got SM after ORAS, with the Zygarde cell collection side-quest thrown in randomly (I was surprised how little this was questioned). From a business perspective it makes sense: you want to celebrate a big milestone, and new pokemon will tie in better (and sell better) than a sequel with nothing new to add.

My theory is that shortly after XY was released, someone up top made the decision that the 20th anniversary will be a new gen, so resources got shifted from the sequel game to the new gen, with certain elements that were already developed (Zygarde side-quest) being thrown in as content fodder. A new gen requires a new gimmick focus, so Z moves were developed and replaced any planned Megas for the sequels. And since its a milestone game, you have to pay homage to the start of the series, hence all the Gen I pandering, with some light callbacks to previous gens as well.

Now that the milestone is behind us, Game Freak is circling back to close the book on Gen VI. By picking a region close to Kalos (inspiration-wise, at least) it lets them add elements they might have had ideas for/developed which wouldn't have worked in Alola due to the region/focus of the game. That's why I feel strongly that Armor Evolution is going to work similar to Megas, and why Kalos will be the post-game.
 

bdt2002

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs superfan
is a Pre-Contributor
(This is a bit off topic, so mods if you want to delete this post feel free.)

I kinda feel like the usual formula for Pokemon was screwed up due to the 20th anniversary. Usually we would get a sequel(s) to a region after remakes, usually two years after the initial release of a new generation. We never got the rumored Pokemon Z for Kalos. Instead, we got SM after ORAS, with the Zygarde cell collection side-quest thrown in randomly (I was surprised how little this was questioned). From a business perspective it makes sense: you want to celebrate a big milestone, and new pokemon will tie in better (and sell better) than a sequel with nothing new to add.

My theory is that shortly after XY was released, someone up top made the decision that the 20th anniversary will be a new gen, so resources got shifted from the sequel game to the new gen, with certain elements that were already developed (Zygarde side-quest) being thrown in as content fodder. A new gen requires a new gimmick focus, so Z moves were developed and replaced any planned Megas for the sequels. And since its a milestone game, you have to pay homage to the start of the series, hence all the Gen I pandering, with some light callbacks to previous gens as well.

Now that the milestone is behind us, Game Freak is circling back to close the book on Gen VI. By picking a region close to Kalos (inspiration-wise, at least) it lets them add elements they might have had ideas for/developed which wouldn't have worked in Alola due to the region/focus of the game. That's why I feel strongly that Armor Evolution is going to work similar to Megas, and why Kalos will be the post-game.
I think that you could be right, but we will never know for sure. Everything has been different since as far back as the first Black and White games in terms of releases.

Here's my counterargument, though. You said Game Freak transitioned to Alola because of the 20th anniversary. While this doesn't say anything about Pokémon Z, it also doesn't explain what could stop Galar from having taken the 20th anniversary spotlight. Yes, the Switch wasn't a thing at the time, but I'm talking as if Galar and Alola switched places. That way, Galar would have came immediately after Kalos just like Johto did for Kanto, and there wouldn't be this awkward generation gap in the theory.

I think we're both right here, in all honesty. The only thing I really hope for is for this game's postgame content, whether or not you can visit Kalos (or all the other regions lol), to not be an absolute dud like XY and the Alola games' were.
 
The thing that discourages me from armor evolution being real, is Mewtwo and Charizard getting another "form" which is why I'd prefer it to be more cosmetic. (Which also reminds me about the 1st pokemon movie remake and they'll most likely showcase that mechanic in that movie to tie in)

However Zeraora having thunder-like armor, and anything given to flygon is a big thumbs up. So the whole concept has me torn.

If Kalos does come back, would be the perfect time to bring new Megas (and expand the whole giant crystal thing that mega stones come from)
 

bdt2002

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs superfan
is a Pre-Contributor
The thing that discourages me from armor evolution being real, is Mewtwo and Charizard getting another "form" which is why I'd prefer it to be more cosmetic. (Which also reminds me about the 1st pokemon movie remake and they'll most likely showcase that mechanic in that movie to tie in)

However Zeraora having thunder-like armor, and anything given to flygon is a big thumbs up. So the whole concept has me torn.

If Kalos does come back, would be the perfect time to bring new Megas (and expand the whole giant crystal thing that mega stones come from)
This sounds like a great idea (market-wise), but as a person who tends to advocate towards the older games, I personally think the Armor Evolution rumor sounds as do bit too gimmicky, and honestly I kinda hate the idea. My two biggest issues with Mega Evolution, aside from the friendship thing being a complete lie, are the facts that 1. Only the popular stuff got popular Megas, and 2. They're a bit overpowered. At least that was a sort of original idea, but Armor Evolution would literally just be uninspired and bland. Not to mention warrior-style armor on various Pokémon might look pretty stupid. I'm not against the developers wanting to try something new, but this really isn't "new".

I just don't want Gen 8 to fall into the gimmick trap like the 3DS games all did. Come on, guys. Don't be sloppy.
 

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