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.