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

Wouldn't Raids and Wild Area also fall under the non-too-subtly-cherry-picked list of game mechanics they are testing out? But then again those are much more substantial and harder to rag on than currydex and photo club.
We don't know much about those features to really say. So far the wild area in the demo has texture issues and is just a giant empty land. Raids fall under the "they got big" category that GO also has that they took over.
 
Why do we need wild area obstacles? They’ve stated in the past that you can go wherever in the wild area (which is already seen to be varied environment-wise) but you’ll be stopped by higher level pokemon.
Eh, in my opinion it kinda hurts exploration. Let's see how they'll avoid the pitfall of a massive open world with nothing to do in it.

On the other hand... I hope they put a lot of TMs and valuable stuff like them in the Wild Area.
Why?

*Adjusts headband*

 
So the "multiple difficulties" question is interesting, and the answer is pretty much what I was thinking - that the difficulty is meant to be customizable.

Also, the fact that Morimoto and Iwao are the competitive guys in Game Freak explains why they are the ones to get trainer NPCs.
 
So the "multiple difficulties" question is interesting, and the answer is pretty much what I was thinking - that the difficulty is meant to be customizable.
So basically RIP Challenge mode. You can set your own "difficulty" based on your playstyle. So we can expect more of the same in terms of difficulty.
 
So basically RIP Challenge mode. You can set your own "difficulty" based on your playstyle. So we can expect more of the same in terms of difficulty.
To be fair, Challenge mode was not a good implementation of difficulty modes anyways.

Considering Pokémon strength is all over the place, you can get more of a challenge by choosing weaklings or heavily-stacked weaknesses (I lost to Hala in SM because nothing in my team could take any of his Hariyama's moves) than by raising the opponent by 5 levels.
 
To be fair, Challenge mode was not a good implementation of difficulty modes anyways.

Considering Pokémon strength is all over the place, you can get more of a challenge by choosing weaklings or heavily-stacked weaknesses (I lost to Hala in SM because nothing in my team could take any of his Hariyama's moves) than by raising the opponent by 5 levels.
It was an attempt. Sure, it could've gone so much better, (Beat the game in Normal mode to unlock Easy mode brehs) but it was an attempt.

It wasn't just the levels, trainers had more mons and better movesets too. I think it should be refined a bit instead of just abandoned, but it's obviously not happening. I liked the idea of getting a harder version of the game without resorting to things like Nuzlockes or picking the Grass starter.
 
Hmm, im gonna watch and bullet some points

  1. Exp.share doesn't seem to be togglable after all (oops, sorry Rapti)
  2. Hard deconfirmation of multiple difficulties: Its up to the player's playstyle to make their own difficulty
  3. Bundled with above, they want the games accessible to everyone.
  4. If Zamazenta stole Zacian's sword "he would become the most powerful pokemon"
  5. Dynamax is actual a visual projection of sorts, and the real pokemon is inside. Less Godzilla, more Power Rangers esque with the pokemon still using the attacks to control the projection.
  6. Iwao and Morimoto are the most competitive of the people on staff.
  7. On a scale of 1 to 10, SwSh has been a 9 to develop.
  8. When asked if we'd see atarter evolutions pre release, they said "its probably best id you dont see it", so it seems they are keeping that under lock this time!
  9. Pokemon SwSh story theme in one word is "Aspiration"
  10. When asked about the meat in the Curry, they dodged the wuestion of whether it was pokemon or not, and just said its a "pokemon world sausage" and that not even they know whats inside
  11. Apparently one of original marketing taglines for Pokemon was "Catch Them If You Can" (YIKES), But neither were aware and said thats a question for Nintendo of America.
  12. Discussion of making the starters different types other than water fire grass was discussed in the past, but the tried true formula always made the most sense.
  13. Darkness is under Tangela's vines.
  14. They dont know who to talk to about getting a Pokemon Snap 2 up and rolling.
  15. When asked about XY's trainer AZ, they laught and say they dont know what his deal was.
  16. When asked what developer they look up to the most, Ohmori replied Masuda and they both share a laugh.
 
Hmm, im gonna watch and bullet some points
  1. Exp.share doesn't seem to be togglable after all (oops, sorry Rapti)
  2. Hard deconfirmation of multiple difficulties: Its up to the player's playstyle to make their own difficulty
  3. Bundled with above, they want the games accessible to everyone.
  4. If Zamazenta stole Zacian's sword "he would become the most powerful pokemon"
  5. Dynamax is actual a visual projection of sorts, and the real pokemon is inside. Less Godzilla, more Power Rangers esque with the pokemon still using the attacks to control the projection.
  6. Iwao and Morimoto are the most competitive of the people on staff.
  7. On a scale of 1 to 10, SwSh has been a 9 to develop.
  8. When asked if we'd see atarter evolutions pre release, they said "its probably best id you dont see it", so it seems they are keeping that under lock this time!
  9. Pokemon SwSh story theme in one word is "Aspiration"
  10. When asked about the meat in the Curry, they dodged the wuestion of whether it was pokemon or not, and just said its a "pokemon world sausage" and that not even they know whats inside
  11. Apparently one of original marketing taglines for Pokemon was "Catch Them If You Can" (YIKES), But neither were aware and said thats a question for Nintendo of America.
  12. Discussion of making the starters different types other than water fire grass was discussed in the past, but the tried true formula always made the most sense.
  13. Darkness is under Tangela's vines.
  14. They dont know who to talk to about getting a Pokemon Snap 2 up and rolling.
  15. When asked about XY's trainer AZ, they laught and say they dont know what his deal was.
  16. When asked what developer they look up to the most, Ohmori replied Masuda and they both share a laugh.
1 and 2 seem kind of contradictory. Using the EXP Share was a major part of being able to choose your own difficulty. This may kill the Nuzlock.
4. Ah, so the Unbeatable Spear(Sword) and the Unbreakable Shield thing. Nice.
5. This must be the work of an enemy stand! Also it does give a reasoning for Dynamax Levels and why only certain ‘mons capable of Gigantimaxing can do so.
11. I think that slogan appeared on a few advertisements and commercials (i wanna say it appeared in that (in)famous Bus commercial, but can’t recall for sure), so it seems like it was used briefly at least.
Edit: Wow, looks like I was wrong. Maybe i remembered the Berenstein Bears universe or something?
 
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  • When asked about the meat in the Curry, they dodged the wuestion of whether it was pokemon or not, and just said its a "pokemon world sausage" and that not even they know whats inside
  • When asked about XY's trainer AZ, they laught and say they dont know what his deal was.
You know, I've never cared for the typical Masuda "oh we don't know if people eat pokemon even though you've seen dishes made out of pokemon both in the pokedex and depicted in-game" non-answer that Gamefreak always gives in interviews, but this is getting old
this and the "we don't remember what the shrine in GSC was for, it's not as if there're NPCs both at the entrance and the exit of Illex forest that specifically reference it" it's really starting to piss me off

If your producers either don't know or don't care about the lore of your own games, and you know people will ask them about it since they done so before several times, try having a writer alongside them
 

Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
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Page 105:
-Snorlax's menu sprite is identical to his Let's Go menu sprite, confirming those will be re-used.
Hopefully they update every Pokemon's menu sprite to to match the style.

Hopefully they'll do that right instead of the Bottle Cap system that was not encouraging to begin with.
Nothing is wrong with the system itself, just how they executed it. As Kurona mentioned, if they lower the Hyper Training level to 50 (or dropping it altogether would be even better) and made Bottle Caps easier to get (like selling them in the BP Shop for a reasonable amount) I don't think there would be much complaints about it.

Still, I'll be surprised if they make it possible to Bottle Cap ingame Pokemon before the E4.
Champion Cup as there's no E4, but I get what you're saying. And honestly it all depends where they place these "competitive making" mechanics. For all we know it's someplace post game or restricted to post game. "Sorry, but only the Champion can use our special services".

If they're serious about this accessibility thing to the point of adding some kind of way to change natures, there's no way they won't simplify the IV grind as well in a substantial way.
At this point they might as well give us a way to permanently increase IVs. Like maybe for each level the Pokemon has you get to increase one of its IVs not at 31 by 1 point. And even if by Level 100 that's enough there's Bottle Caps to get them the rest of the way (also another thing Bottle Caps can do is make it so a stat can be "set" at 0 IVs; for slow Pokemon who want to be as slow as they can for Trick Room or Special Attackers who would want a low Attack incase of confusion or opponent using Foul Play).

About bloody time we got a Dark gym, there’s been enough Elite 4 members who used it. They could call it the Night Badge. Although going with the stadium theme they could end up being cups instead.
Well in the E3 Demo we saw the Badges aren't going to be how they usually are. This time the Badges fit onto an inside of this ring and are oddly shaped. Like this is what Nessa's Badge looks like on the ring:

Now, the Gym Badge could all have traditional names (like I can see Nessa's being named the "Lake Badge"), but since they're so different they may have a different naming convention.
Also, while I can see how 8 Badges can fit around the ring, don't see how 8 more can. So would the Minor Leagues be getting its own ring, maybe a silver colored one? Or maybe the Minor League Badges are smaller and met to fit inside the gap that the Major League Badges will leave in the middle.

I just thought of something. If there are 18 separate gyms, does that mean there'll be 18 different, unique cities to explore? Usually gyms are found in the next city you find. My hopes might be a little too high, since this is Game Freak we're talking about, but again, just a thought.
Sounds like the idea is the Major League and Minor League share Gyms, so main game in one League and post game you go through Galar again for the other League. If you'll look all the Gyms look the same with the only difference being Type-based banners and colors that can easily be swapped out.
Of course this does raise another question: how often do the Leagues switch out? Every month like Seasons did in Gen V? Also would the Major League and Minor League line-up always be the same or is there a chance of them switching around?
Also, while the stadiums themselves are easy to change, what about the puzzles needed to challenge them? Are the Gym puzzles only for the initial Champion Cup? If the Minor League will have puzzles, would they re-use certain puzzles the Major League Gym for that stadium use? Like I'm thinking of Nessa's Gym where the puzzle is a maze underneath the Gym. I suppose the puzzle could just take place out of the Gym but that would mean creating a completely new puzzle.

In all likelihood I think it’ll be 9 stadiums and you can compete in a Major/Minor battle at different times.
Unless they include an extra Gym for the heck of it, it's mentioned for the Champion Cup you need 8 Badges so I think each League will probably keep to 8 Gyms each.

What Pokemon really needs, is to make their cloud service, like HOME, give you the ability to spec your mons however you what for competetive battling, AND have ALL pokemon available for that so you can battle through HOME or something like that.
I can't see them doing that as that would be a MAJOR slap in the face to players who spent a lot of time breeding. There's a difference between making things easier to do and just giving us a Pokemon Editor.

What if you gotta beat all the gyms in the minor league with a final knockout stage between the player and rivals and whoever wins gets to advance to the Major league?

In this scenario, the Major league would be similar but with the knockout stage leading to the E4 and Leon.
While I don't think that's how it'll work (I'll explain my reasoning later to a response to my yesterday's post), that does bring up the question what would be the reward for doing the Minor League Gyms? Infact, when it's not the Champion Cup, what's the point of battling through the Major League Gyms again? Are their Vice Champions for each League?

(Responding to complaint about Exp. Share giving out equal experience)

I don't get it either. I greatly appreciated it with my 17-Pokémon party in Let's Go.
Though there is one thing to remember about that: you had the PC Box with you in those games. You could easily switch out a Pokemon in your party with a Pokemon in your box. However it's likely SwSh won't have this so between Pokemon Centers you'll be stuck with the same party (and from the looks of it, unlike Alola, Gyms would be kept to the cities/towns so likely there would be a gap of time between Pokemon Centers). You can certainly try to raise a team of 12+, but without the LGPE portable PC Box I can't see most players training more than maybe 3 or 4 spare Pokemon outside their core team.

While I wouldn't want a portable PC Box like in LGPE, I wouldn't mind if we were allowed to carry around an extra 3 or so Pokemon that we can swap out with our main party outside of battles (and when doing a Gym challenge or challenging the Pokemon League they can lock it so you stick with the 6 Pokemon in your party).

By the way, more information has popped up (likely through the subscriber-exclusive news posts of Gameinformer), this time about Dynamaxing. From what I've noticed, the most interesting bits are:
- Game Freak considers Mega Evolutions, Z-Moves and Dynamaxing as "equalizers" (funny, considering the former two were closer to breaking the game).
- They held an internal tournament to see if Dynamaxing was nice.
- It confirms Dynamaxing does not require an item. According to Ohmori, it was made this way to provide unpredictability (especifically mentioning the possibility of Z-Crystals being easy to "discard" if another item is activated).
- They were undecided on whether to make Dynamax last three turns or just two.
Equalizers: "Problem" with Mega Evolution they were limited to fully evolved Pokemon and only a handful of Pokemon got them, many who were already competitively good thus only assuring they keep their competitive dominance. Z-Moves I would say were more Equalizers in this case as every Pokemon could use it. However, since you needed to use the Pokemon's item slot, while all Pokemon could use it there was probably only a batch who could use it to its full potential. With Dynamaxing not needing a held item and only lasting one turn I can actually see it being the most accessible of the "equalizer" mechanics so a Pokemon doesn't really need to compromise itself to use it. At most they may want to have a certain attacking Type to activate a certain effect (especially for Weather and Terrain summoning).

Unpredictable Giant Pokemon: Not so sure about that. I'd imagine as soon as one trainer Dynamaxes the other trainer would follow next turn. And because of that the one to second Dynamax will have that last turn being Dynamaxed while the other trainer's Pokemon shrinks back down (if they didn't faint). Infact the first one to Dynamax would be taking a big risk as they'd essentially be then locked into their choice while their opponent can then adjust their strategy and send out a Pokemon that'll resist/be super effective.
Also, even with every Pokemon able to use it and you don't need to hold an item to use it, I still think there would be a select batch of Pokemon who are considered "prime" Dynamax choices. Oh, wait, silly me, I forgot they completely overshadowed the Dynamax concept by also having the Gigantamax mechanic. Which means if your opponent sends out a Pokemon that can Gigantamax they may predict that's what's going to happen.

Three Or Two: Two turns? Feels that would be short. As soon as you done it it'll be over just as fast, your opponent wouldn't even have time to respond. Glad they chose three.

There are other bits of info, such as that the games' names come from the legendaries, and not the other way around (apparently they had no idea how to name them until the cover legends where designed), and that Zacian and Zamazenta's names do come from Cyan and Magenta, as speculated (lorewise, no one has really seen them so they are only known for their coloration).
Title Names: Huh, that feels a bit strange. So they had a concept for a Sword and Shield Mascot Legendaries but didn't decide also at that moment that'll be the name of the games? That's how it always felt how it was done, the Legendaries designs had some slight basis on the version names. What names or codenames did the games go by until then, and did they have like a list of possible suggestions (and was Sword & Shield not on it)?

Color Names: ... GF, have you ever seen something colored CYAN and MAGENTA? Because Zacian I would BARELY say is cyan colored and Zamazenta is blue, yellow, and red; no magenta. Heck, even the Sword & Shield icons I would barely call those colors.

(Should have been named Zazuer and Zcarzet)

Dunno who posted it, but I like the idea of a Shakespearean actor NPC changing natures by teaching mons how to act.

Would be better than the other... Alternatives I've seen lately.
*Raises hand*

As The Shadow Knight said, if they give us a method to change Natures it could at least mitigate the main issue many are having with auto-saves (they can make it an addition to Hyper Training, you take your Pokemon to a Shakespearean actor who will teach your Pokemon how to act differently during battle; thus you're not changing its Nature which would have unfortunate implications but rather your Pokemon is now acting).
also with multiple pokemon you're not getting your whole team close to each other without rotating, if you try to rotate weaker pokemon it'll be hard to not overlevel your stronger ones without turning off the Exp. Share which you can no longer do
Eh, sorta? Sure your stronger Pokemon will also get stronger, but lower level Pokemon will level-up faster than higher level Pokemon because the experience requirement to level-up will be lower until they start catching up. And don't forget a Pokemon will get full experience credit for being in the battle even if you just sent it out and immediately swapped it out. Also let's not forget they're adding tons of ways to get experience like with Curry and Poke Jobs. If you really want a Pokemon in your party but it's low level it shouldn't be too hard to grind its levels up.


Caught up to my last post so responses to my comment or other comments made since then:

I like your breakdown/predictions of how the 18 gyms could be structured, but I don't get why you would fight the Major League leaders first with the Minor League trainers reserved for postgame. It just doesn't make sense: Why go from the big championship tourney to a smaller-scale arrangement? The postgame trainers will obviously have to be a lot stronger, so that also raises the question of why the Minor League gym leaders would be stronger than the Major League ones. The other way around just makes much more sense: Spend the main game battling through the Minor League before your road to the championship gets interrupted by whatever shenanigans Zacian, Zamazenta and possibly Eternatus get up to, then spend the postgame facing the revered Major League gym leaders, allowing you to finally qualify for the Champion's Cup before facing off against Leon himself.
It's mentioned Bea and Alister are Major League Gym Leaders for their respective versions, thus for the Champion Cup (and main game) you're battling the Major League Gyms. Also would be odd for the Champion Cup it's the Minor League you faced instead of the Major League.

"But wouldn't that mean the Minor League Gyms would be stronger than the Major League Gyms and Champion if saved for post game?"

You mean like how many of the Kanto Gym Leaders were stronger than the Elite Four & Lance in the Johto games? Or how most games in the series, after becoming Champion, in the post game there's suddenly a batch of random trainers that show up/can be rebattled who'll have Pokemon levels higher than Elite Four/Champion.

This is sadly a confusion that's caused by Levels. Level is a game mechanic that both exists but doesn't exist in-universe. It exists because mechanics within the game uses Levels to decide things, however no character in-universe really talk or treat Levels are a thing. If that was the case it would make no sense to have those characters who go "Mwahaha I have stronger Pokemon than you" only for you to send out your obviously higher level Pokemon. Infact if Levels was an in-universe thing why doesn't the villain team boss use his higher level team for the times you battle them early or why isn't the Elite Four/Champion using the levels of their post game team for the initial battle with the League?

It's because Levels are not meant to be a direct gauge of strength but rather showing you progression of skills being displayed. Another way of looking at it is that, it's not that your Pokemon it at Level 50, but rather the level is an indicator how skilled and experienced a Trainer needs to be to successfully control that Pokemon. In a way it's saying YOU'RE at least Level 50 because you can command a Level 50 Pokemon. Your start your journey as a newb thus only able to command Level 5 and lower Pokemon, but as you battle with your Pokemon to level them up and catching stronger and stronger Pokemon you also train up you're building up your own experience with handling Pokemon registered at higher Levels.

I have a theory on the Elite Four, following the news of there being 18 gyms. My theory is that there is no actual Elite Four, and the final part of the game is instead a full-fledged 16-man tournament. You're put up against 15 other gym leaders at random (with stronger teams ofc) and the winner gets to challenge Champion Leon. This would fit very well with the sports theme, and it would even fit in the structure of past Elite Fours, as you go through 4 matches (16 trainers -> 8 -> 4 -> 2), then the Champion. This would add a whole new layer of difficulty to the game, because it is no longer possible to predict the 4 trainers you'll face and therefore prepare for their type specialization.
Now while I could see maybe having some Gym Leaders participating in the Champion Cup as they want a shot to be Champion just as much as anyone else, I don't think it'll be just a Gym Leader gauntlet. Your rivals will be thrown in there too plus other trainers we'd probably see here and there.

The real problem with the Exp Share is how you are forced to give the EV to all Pokémon. My usual routine when EV training is turning the Exp Share off, battling a couple of wild Pokémon until my considered Pokémon are infected with the Pokérus, then turning the Exp Share on so I know exactly how many EV I get each time.

Guess I'll have to either KO them first, or to finally learn wether or not I get double EVs on the battle when the infection occurs. Or (most likely) I'll just drop the Pokérus part of EV training.
GF probably thinks for the main game the EV distribution doesn't really matter and if you're making a team for competitive you're either starting with a fresh Pokemon thus drugging it up with vitamins once hatched or, if using an old Pokemon, lowering its EVs via the EV-lowering Berries and then drugging it up (though would be nice if they bring back something that resets EVs back down to 0 like they had in Super Training with the Reset Bags).

Here's the thing though: The Wild Area *needs* natural obstacles besides Surf.

Imagine this scenario. The wild area, a massive place to explore and meet new pokémon. It's also about as flat, boring and plain as Ocarina of Time's Hyrule Field.

No deal. Rotom powers and a bike aren't exactly inspiring me to believe that obstacles like waterfalls and climbable cliffs are coming back and I think this will hurt exploration a lot.

Hoping I'm wrong tho.
I can see what you mean. They mentioned the Rotom Phone will give you other skills in addition to the Water Bike so it could be they replaced HMs with Rotom Phone power-ups.

They could also just have certain areas inaccessible with no way around it (like separated by a valley or high-up) but later on you meet NPCs who have skills that will progressively get rid of these "obstacles" (like there's a bridge maker who would make a bridge over the valley or there's a rock climber who'll leave climbing ropes/ladders going up cliffs).

They could also have the changing seasons create/clear obstacles like they did in BW. Like in winter it'll freeze the lakes thus freezing a waterfall that had a cave hiding behind it. In both winter and autumn they could have snow/leaf piles block certain paths but you can climb up them to reach cliffs you couldn't before. In Autumn the plant life shedding their leaves reveal a pathway through them you couldn't get through otherwise. In Summer & Spring the sprouting plants can create new paths to go like vines on a cliffside growing strong enough to climb. In Summer the water levels lower revealing paths and caves that were underwater you can now travel. In Spring the water levels can rise creating new surfing areas.

They could even use certain Pokemon being active at certain times/seasons that will reveal secrets you otherwise couldn't get.

So one of the biggest criticism thrown at Sword & Shield is that when you look at the big obstacles of GF's inexperience with the Switch and needing to bring out a new game every year; why are they tackling it with such a small number of workers? Why not hire on more people to help?

... turns out that's precisely what they did.

Oh, well then... I guess that just now means our complaints can go strictly towards bad decisions/directing via the upper management. Instead of not having the people or time, now it's they chose to not do something. I kind of liked it better when I thought they just didn't want to hire more employees/outsource work... Guess this is a case of "be careful what you wish for".

Stopping here for now. Tomorrow I'll start with page 109 and the 100 questions video (hopefully, wouldn't be surprised if I decide to save that for the weekend... along with whatever they reveal on the Live Camera...).
 

Yung Dramps

awesome gaming
Page 105:


Hopefully they update every Pokemon's menu sprite to to match the style.

Nothing is wrong with the system itself, just how they executed it. As Kurona mentioned, if they lower the Hyper Training level to 50 (or dropping it altogether would be even better) and made Bottle Caps easier to get (like selling them in the BP Shop for a reasonable amount) I don't think there would be much complaints about it.



Champion Cup as there's no E4, but I get what you're saying. And honestly it all depends where they place these "competitive making" mechanics. For all we know it's someplace post game or restricted to post game. "Sorry, but only the Champion can use our special services".



At this point they might as well give us a way to permanently increase IVs. Like maybe for each level the Pokemon has you get to increase one of its IVs not at 31 by 1 point. And even if by Level 100 that's enough there's Bottle Caps to get them the rest of the way (also another thing Bottle Caps can do is make it so a stat can be "set" at 0 IVs; for slow Pokemon who want to be as slow as they can for Trick Room or Special Attackers who would want a low Attack incase of confusion or opponent using Foul Play).



Well in the E3 Demo we saw the Badges aren't going to be how they usually are. This time the Badges fit onto an inside of this ring and are oddly shaped. Like this is what Nessa's Badge looks like on the ring:

Now, the Gym Badge could all have traditional names (like I can see Nessa's being named the "Lake Badge"), but since they're so different they may have a different naming convention.
Also, while I can see how 8 Badges can fit around the ring, don't see how 8 more can. So would the Minor Leagues be getting its own ring, maybe a silver colored one? Or maybe the Minor League Badges are smaller and met to fit inside the gap that the Major League Badges will leave in the middle.



Sounds like the idea is the Major League and Minor League share Gyms, so main game in one League and post game you go through Galar again for the other League. If you'll look all the Gyms look the same with the only difference being Type-based banners and colors that can easily be swapped out.
Of course this does raise another question: how often do the Leagues switch out? Every month like Seasons did in Gen V? Also would the Major League and Minor League line-up always be the same or is there a chance of them switching around?
Also, while the stadiums themselves are easy to change, what about the puzzles needed to challenge them? Are the Gym puzzles only for the initial Champion Cup? If the Minor League will have puzzles, would they re-use certain puzzles the Major League Gym for that stadium use? Like I'm thinking of Nessa's Gym where the puzzle is a maze underneath the Gym. I suppose the puzzle could just take place out of the Gym but that would mean creating a completely new puzzle.

Unless they include an extra Gym for the heck of it, it's mentioned for the Champion Cup you need 8 Badges so I think each League will probably keep to 8 Gyms each.



I can't see them doing that as that would be a MAJOR slap in the face to players who spent a lot of time breeding. There's a difference between making things easier to do and just giving us a Pokemon Editor.



While I don't think that's how it'll work (I'll explain my reasoning later to a response to my yesterday's post), that does bring up the question what would be the reward for doing the Minor League Gyms? Infact, when it's not the Champion Cup, what's the point of battling through the Major League Gyms again? Are their Vice Champions for each League?



Though there is one thing to remember about that: you had the PC Box with you in those games. You could easily switch out a Pokemon in your party with a Pokemon in your box. However it's likely SwSh won't have this so between Pokemon Centers you'll be stuck with the same party (and from the looks of it, unlike Alola, Gyms would be kept to the cities/towns so likely there would be a gap of time between Pokemon Centers). You can certainly try to raise a team of 12+, but without the LGPE portable PC Box I can't see most players training more than maybe 3 or 4 spare Pokemon outside their core team.

While I wouldn't want a portable PC Box like in LGPE, I wouldn't mind if we were allowed to carry around an extra 3 or so Pokemon that we can swap out with our main party outside of battles (and when doing a Gym challenge or challenging the Pokemon League they can lock it so you stick with the 6 Pokemon in your party).

Equalizers: "Problem" with Mega Evolution they were limited to fully evolved Pokemon and only a handful of Pokemon got them, many who were already competitively good thus only assuring they keep their competitive dominance. Z-Moves I would say were more Equalizers in this case as every Pokemon could use it. However, since you needed to use the Pokemon's item slot, while all Pokemon could use it there was probably only a batch who could use it to its full potential. With Dynamaxing not needing a held item and only lasting one turn I can actually see it being the most accessible of the "equalizer" mechanics so a Pokemon doesn't really need to compromise itself to use it. At most they may want to have a certain attacking Type to activate a certain effect (especially for Weather and Terrain summoning).

Unpredictable Giant Pokemon: Not so sure about that. I'd imagine as soon as one trainer Dynamaxes the other trainer would follow next turn. And because of that the one to second Dynamax will have that last turn being Dynamaxed while the other trainer's Pokemon shrinks back down (if they didn't faint). Infact the first one to Dynamax would be taking a big risk as they'd essentially be then locked into their choice while their opponent can then adjust their strategy and send out a Pokemon that'll resist/be super effective.
Also, even with every Pokemon able to use it and you don't need to hold an item to use it, I still think there would be a select batch of Pokemon who are considered "prime" Dynamax choices. Oh, wait, silly me, I forgot they completely overshadowed the Dynamax concept by also having the Gigantamax mechanic. Which means if your opponent sends out a Pokemon that can Gigantamax they may predict that's what's going to happen.

Three Or Two: Two turns? Feels that would be short. As soon as you done it it'll be over just as fast, your opponent wouldn't even have time to respond. Glad they chose three.



Title Names: Huh, that feels a bit strange. So they had a concept for a Sword and Shield Mascot Legendaries but didn't decide also at that moment that'll be the name of the games? That's how it always felt how it was done, the Legendaries designs had some slight basis on the version names. What names or codenames did the games go by until then, and did they have like a list of possible suggestions (and was Sword & Shield not on it)?

Color Names: ... GF, have you ever seen something colored CYAN and MAGENTA? Because Zacian I would BARELY say is cyan colored and Zamazenta is blue, yellow, and red; no magenta. Heck, even the Sword & Shield icons I would barely call those colors.

(Should have been named Zazuer and Zcarzet)



*Raises hand*





Eh, sorta? Sure your stronger Pokemon will also get stronger, but lower level Pokemon will level-up faster than higher level Pokemon because the experience requirement to level-up will be lower until they start catching up. And don't forget a Pokemon will get full experience credit for being in the battle even if you just sent it out and immediately swapped it out. Also let's not forget they're adding tons of ways to get experience like with Curry and Poke Jobs. If you really want a Pokemon in your party but it's low level it shouldn't be too hard to grind its levels up.


Caught up to my last post so responses to my comment or other comments made since then:



It's mentioned Bea and Alister are Major League Gym Leaders for their respective versions, thus for the Champion Cup (and main game) you're battling the Major League Gyms. Also would be odd for the Champion Cup it's the Minor League you faced instead of the Major League.

"But wouldn't that mean the Minor League Gyms would be stronger than the Major League Gyms and Champion if saved for post game?"

You mean like how many of the Kanto Gym Leaders were stronger than the Elite Four & Lance in the Johto games? Or how most games in the series, after becoming Champion, in the post game there's suddenly a batch of random trainers that show up/can be rebattled who'll have Pokemon levels higher than Elite Four/Champion.

This is sadly a confusion that's caused by Levels. Level is a game mechanic that both exists but doesn't exist in-universe. It exists because mechanics within the game uses Levels to decide things, however no character in-universe really talk or treat Levels are a thing. If that was the case it would make no sense to have those characters who go "Mwahaha I have stronger Pokemon than you" only for you to send out your obviously higher level Pokemon. Infact if Levels was an in-universe thing why doesn't the villain team boss use his higher level team for the times you battle them early or why isn't the Elite Four/Champion using the levels of their post game team for the initial battle with the League?

It's because Levels are not meant to be a direct gauge of strength but rather showing you progression of skills being displayed. Another way of looking at it is that, it's not that your Pokemon it at Level 50, but rather the level is an indicator how skilled and experienced a Trainer needs to be to successfully control that Pokemon. In a way it's saying YOU'RE at least Level 50 because you can command a Level 50 Pokemon. Your start your journey as a newb thus only able to command Level 5 and lower Pokemon, but as you battle with your Pokemon to level them up and catching stronger and stronger Pokemon you also train up you're building up your own experience with handling Pokemon registered at higher Levels.



Now while I could see maybe having some Gym Leaders participating in the Champion Cup as they want a shot to be Champion just as much as anyone else, I don't think it'll be just a Gym Leader gauntlet. Your rivals will be thrown in there too plus other trainers we'd probably see here and there.



GF probably thinks for the main game the EV distribution doesn't really matter and if you're making a team for competitive you're either starting with a fresh Pokemon thus drugging it up with vitamins once hatched or, if using an old Pokemon, lowering its EVs via the EV-lowering Berries and then drugging it up (though would be nice if they bring back something that resets EVs back down to 0 like they had in Super Training with the Reset Bags).



I can see what you mean. They mentioned the Rotom Phone will give you other skills in addition to the Water Bike so it could be they replaced HMs with Rotom Phone power-ups.

They could also just have certain areas inaccessible with no way around it (like separated by a valley or high-up) but later on you meet NPCs who have skills that will progressively get rid of these "obstacles" (like there's a bridge maker who would make a bridge over the valley or there's a rock climber who'll leave climbing ropes/ladders going up cliffs).

They could also have the changing seasons create/clear obstacles like they did in BW. Like in winter it'll freeze the lakes thus freezing a waterfall that had a cave hiding behind it. In both winter and autumn they could have snow/leaf piles block certain paths but you can climb up them to reach cliffs you couldn't before. In Autumn the plant life shedding their leaves reveal a pathway through them you couldn't get through otherwise. In Summer & Spring the sprouting plants can create new paths to go like vines on a cliffside growing strong enough to climb. In Summer the water levels lower revealing paths and caves that were underwater you can now travel. In Spring the water levels can rise creating new surfing areas.

They could even use certain Pokemon being active at certain times/seasons that will reveal secrets you otherwise couldn't get.



Oh, well then... I guess that just now means our complaints can go strictly towards bad decisions/directing via the upper management. Instead of not having the people or time, now it's they chose to not do something. I kind of liked it better when I thought they just didn't want to hire more employees/outsource work... Guess this is a case of "be careful what you wish for".

Stopping here for now. Tomorrow I'll start with page 109 and the 100 questions video (hopefully, wouldn't be surprised if I decide to save that for the weekend... along with whatever they reveal on the Live Camera...).
-In the various trailers and screenshots they've shown more updated menu sprites. Off the top of my head we've got new ones for Weavile, Ludicolo, Throh, Lucario and Togekiss so far.

-Yeah, guess you're right about levels... Still though, major league before minor league is a bit odd. But hey, more potential postgame content's always good!
 
Equalizers: "Problem" with Mega Evolution they were limited to fully evolved Pokemon and only a handful of Pokemon got them, many who were already competitively good thus only assuring they keep their competitive dominance. Z-Moves I would say were more Equalizers in this case as every Pokemon could use it. However, since you needed to use the Pokemon's item slot, while all Pokemon could use it there was probably only a batch who could use it to its full potential. With Dynamaxing not needing a held item and only lasting one turn I can actually see it being the most accessible of the "equalizer" mechanics so a Pokemon doesn't really need to compromise itself to use it. At most they may want to have a certain attacking Type to activate a certain effect (especially for Weather and Terrain summoning).
I'd argue that Mega Evolution was a much better equalizing mechanic, especially considering that Z-moves fail at being equalizers at their very core. How is giving every Pokemon access to a nuke "equalization"? Sure, the weak Pokemon get nukes, but so do the strong ones. You haven't leveled the playing field. You've just raised the power level.

As for megas, there were three types. There were bad megas given to bad Pokemon, good megas given to good Pokemon, and good megas given to bad Pokemon. I decided to tally them up, using their final Gen 6 tiering as a measure of "goodness", with anything UU or higher being considered good. Pokemon with an asterisk before their name were greatly improved, which I defined as the mega being at least two tiers higher than the base form.
Bad -> Bad
*Abomasnow
Audino
*Banette
*Camerupt
*Glalie
Houndoom
*Steelix

Total: 7

Good -> Good
Alakazam
Blaziken
Garchomp
Gardevoir
Gengar
Gyarados
Heracross
Latias
Latios
*Lucario
Mewtwo
Rayquaza
*Salamence
Scizor
Slowbro
Swampert
Tyranitar

Total: 17

Bad -> Good
Absol
Aerodactyl
*Aggron
*Altaria
*Ampharos
*Beedrill
Blastoise
*Charizard
*Diancie
Gallade
*Kangaskhan
*Lopunny
*Manectric
*Mawile
*Medicham
Metagross
*Pidgeot
*Pinsir
*Sableye
*Sceptile
Sharpedo
*Venusaur

Total: 22

As you can see, of the 46 Pokemon to receive a mega, only 17, or about 37%, were good to begin with. Of the remaining 29 (63%), 22 became good (76% of the part). Additionally, regardless of whether or not the end product was good, exactly half of the megas were greatly improved, but most of the improvement is concentrated in the Pokemon that were originally bad. 71% of bad megas were still great improvements, 73% of good megas for bad mons were great improvements, and only 12% of good megas for good mons were great improvements, with five (29%) actually being considered worse than their base forms.

All this to say, Mega Evolution did a better job at leveling the playing field than most people give it credit. Was it perfect? No. Were some of the megas too strong? Yes. Did it succeed in breathing life into bad Pokemon? Absolutely.
 
Is the overleveling of pokemon that worries me 315111, sure there are ways around it but Gamefreak just stated that "make your own difficulty" is the way they want us to play the games, and by making the Exp. Share always on they just made playing with level limits far more annoying (which isn't difficulty, it's just, you know, annoying)
 

Codraroll

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The problems I have with Exp. Share always being on can best be illustrated with my experience playing through Ultra Sun. In that playthrough, I wanted to try using the Exp. Share since I heard the game was better balanced around it, and I was doing a two-team challenge run and wanted to lower the difficulty back towards normal. Among my team members were two Pokémon, Larvitar (which spent most of the game as Pupitar) and the Hawlucha you get in an in-game trade before the first trial. I try to keep my team somewhat balanced when it comes to levels. It feels wrong to leave a low-leveled 'mon in the back of the team when it needs all the Exp. it can get, and when others on the team keep gaining levels ahead of it.

Here's the issue, though: Hawlucha was a traded Pokémon in the Medium Fast experience group. Pupitar is in the Slow group. The result was that Hawlucha would gain levels a lot faster than Pupitar did. Keeping them equal meant putting Pupitar at the front of the team most of the time, while Hawlucha rarely saw action at all.

I don't know if you've used Pupitar in-game before, but let me tell you, it blows, and it especially struggles past level 40. It lacks the power to blow through threats, it's slow as molasses so it will usually take a hit before it gets to attack, its defenses are quite sub-par compared to the offences of the opponents at that point in the game, and a Rock/Ground typing leaves it vulnerable to enemy coverage moves. In many trainer battles, Pupitar would lead, do some damage, then unexpectedly be KO'd without getting any Exp. Some other team member would have to step in, finish the battle, and dish out Exp for everyone - bar Pupitar, who had fainted. Hawlucha was usually kept in the back, rarely used since I didn't want to overlevel it. But with the Exp. Share on, Hawlucha would consistently be two to five levels higher than Pupitar (and by the end, most of the rest of my team). I also had a Blissey I wanted to use, but being in the Fast experience group it always seemed to keep up with the rest of the team from shared Exp. alone, so it rarely battled either. All in all, playing with the Exp. Share on just made me use my worst Pokémon the most, while the better team members rarely saw action yet still reaped the rewards.

When I got Ultra Moon, I made sure to turn the Exp. Share off and never look back.
 
Mixed bag as always. GF has a serious problem with feature optimization though. They have always been like this, but in SwSh case it's egregious.
I'm really starting to ponder the idea of recording a "should I buy or should I go?" ripoff music video with reactions to every reveal (technical reveal, I'm still trying to go in as blind as possible). I'm sticking to Serebii's post to not go over the board with the text wall...
Topics:
1) Autosave
Thank you for providing it. Now at least I can wondertrade in the background, I guess? Should I buy the game(s), I will need to remember to turn it off. I volunteer for the incoming memes "when you catch a Calm Rayquaza and you forgot to turn autosave off". Still, additional features are welcome.
2) HMs not returning
A given, but an ok one. We could have kept them on the premise that they're treated like TMs with overworld impact (like Flash) to implement some roadblocks, but it's still good to not revert back.
3) Automatic EXP share (unclear if turning off is a possibility or not)
What? This is unequivocally beyond stupid.
First of all, I don't need my hands held to know that I must train my party. The first time somebody gets their behind whooped because the team is unbalanced, they will realize that. Secondly, should an SOS/horde convenience mechanic still be present to farm EVs (regardless of how botched SOSes were when training, it's still a fastening tool, and we should demand one), haven't they thought about the possibility that I may need some mons NOT to receive those EVs? All their PR telling they are focusing on competitive is peculiar, given how they fail to analyse all facets of it at every single installment. Thirdly(?), pokemon belongs to different experience curve groups, meaning that in some cases (pseudo legendaries, super slow curve...) I'm better off balancing EXP with my own hands, thank you.
4) "Something we don't like to mention because we're GF that was previously a fixed feature in breeding will be changeable"
Nature changing? Ok, we could finally be able to breed things Volt Tackle Pichu without having to resort to the "IVs or nature inheritance?" conundrum. You may now be able not to breed 4 versions of the same competitive mon (hello, Altaria. Oh wait Mega Altaria is certainly not in the game. Involuntary jab at GF, I realized it as I was typing, I swear). However, if it has been an "either/or" choice, I would have much prefer them to have focused on making Hyper Training more accessible.
5) 18 Gyms with major and minor league
Ok, this is akin to professional non-US sport leagues, where the number of teams varies between 16 (rarely) and 20, with relegation and promotion occuring simultaneously at every season's end. It talks about "years" however, I wonder how often gyms will swap. Still, a neat feature implying rebattles and replay value. It's a welcome addition.

EDIT to include Codraroll's post:
The problems I have with Exp. Share always being on can best be illustrated with my experience playing through Ultra Sun. In that playthrough, I wanted to try using the Exp. Share since I heard the game was better balanced around it, and I was doing a two-team challenge run and wanted to lower the difficulty back towards normal. Among my team members were two Pokémon, Larvitar (which spent most of the game as Pupitar) and the Hawlucha you get in an in-game trade before the first trial. I try to keep my team somewhat balanced when it comes to levels. It feels wrong to leave a low-leveled 'mon in the back of the team when it needs all the Exp. it can get, and when others on the team keep gaining levels ahead of it.

Here's the issue, though: Hawlucha was a traded Pokémon in the Medium Fast experience group. Pupitar is in the Slow group. The result was that Hawlucha would gain levels a lot faster than Pupitar did. Keeping them equal meant putting Pupitar at the front of the team most of the time, while Hawlucha rarely saw action at all.

I don't know if you've used Pupitar in-game before, but let me tell you, it blows, and it especially struggles past level 40. It lacks the power to blow through threats, it's slow as molasses so it will usually take a hit before it gets to attack, its defenses are quite sub-par compared to the offences of the opponents at that point in the game, and a Rock/Ground typing leaves it vulnerable to enemy coverage moves. In many trainer battles, Pupitar would lead, do some damage, then unexpectedly be KO'd without getting any Exp. Some other team member would have to step in, finish the battle, and dish out Exp for everyone - bar Pupitar, who had fainted. Hawlucha was usually kept in the back, rarely used since I didn't want to overlevel it. But with the Exp. Share on, Hawlucha would consistently be two to five levels higher than Pupitar (and by the end, most of the rest of my team). I also had a Blissey I wanted to use, but being in the Fast experience group it always seemed to keep up with the rest of the team from shared Exp. alone, so it rarely battled either. All in all, playing with the Exp. Share on just made me use my worst Pokémon the most, while the better team members rarely saw action yet still reaped the rewards.

When I got Ultra Moon, I made sure to turn the Exp. Share off and never look back.
Thank you, this is one of the points I was trying to make above but you explained it way better than I did.
Tyranitar is my all time favorite, so any time I get a chance to use its family, I do. I experienced the exact same thing, and I was playing without EXP share. I am both a collector, someone who values immersion and someone who abhor wasted resources (i.e. wasting trainer EXP on mons I will not use in the future), a combination that doesn't bode well with pokemon games. In short, what happened is that as soon as I got access to Diglett cave I caught Larvitar, Wonder traded it, and brought over an Adamant (or Jolly, can't remember), flawless, fully EVed Larvitar from bank. And Pupitar was still bad.
In your case, your team risked becoming very unbalanced sans you reviving Pupitar all the damn time.
This would apply to any mon with slow experience curve and brutal matchups mid-late game present in SwSh. I concur.
 
Here's a thought: im not sure if anyone else noticed this but a lot of mechanica from Lets Go seemed to be a betantest for Switch. We've seen the restricted dex, we've seen the overworld mons, and now weve seen the expshare on. Gamefreak already knows how important EVs and IVs are, i doubt they would intentionally butcher something when they already explicitly stated making competitive more accessible. So how do we do that? We bring in a vastly improved version of the Candy System.

Okay whoa, hear me out on this: you no longer gain EVs from battle, but can riase your stats through other means, such as Pokejobs or Curry. There will be a much stricter cap much like the EV system, but without the need to grind mindlessly in the fields for ages. And the boosts would all be clear and immediately understandable.

I know there are people who arent big fans of the system, but I just find it too much of a radical shift in the strengthening process to be a one and done deal. What do you guys think?
 

Yung Dramps

awesome gaming
Here's a thought: im not sure if anyone else noticed this but a lot of mechanica from Lets Go seemed to be a betantest for Switch. We've seen the restricted dex, we've seen the overworld mons, and now weve seen the expshare on. Gamefreak already knows how important EVs and IVs are, i doubt they would intentionally butcher something when they already explicitly stated making competitive more accessible. So how do we do that? We bring in a vastly improved version of the Candy System.

Okay whoa, hear me out on this: you no longer gain EVs from battle, but can riase your stats through other means, such as Pokejobs or Curry. There will be a much stricter cap much like the EV system, but without the need to grind mindlessly in the fields for ages. And the boosts would all be clear and immediately understandable.

I know there are people who arent big fans of the system, but I just find it too much of a radical shift in the strengthening process to be a one and done deal. What do you guys think?
Interesting thought, but I doubt it. I'm pretty sure that when they first revealed Pokejobs they mentioned the kinds of boosts they would give, including their official term for EVs, so those are probably not going anywhere. Shouldn't be a big deal accessibility-wise: If the jobs function like Poke Pelago that part will be taken care of, albeit still a bit slow. That just leaves IVs to be streamlined.
 
Here's a thought: im not sure if anyone else noticed this but a lot of mechanica from Lets Go seemed to be a betantest for Switch. We've seen the restricted dex, we've seen the overworld mons, and now weve seen the expshare on. Gamefreak already knows how important EVs and IVs are, i doubt they would intentionally butcher something when they already explicitly stated making competitive more accessible. So how do we do that? We bring in a vastly improved version of the Candy System.

Okay whoa, hear me out on this: you no longer gain EVs from battle, but can riase your stats through other means, such as Pokejobs or Curry. There will be a much stricter cap much like the EV system, but without the need to grind mindlessly in the fields for ages. And the boosts would all be clear and immediately understandable.

I know there are people who arent big fans of the system, but I just find it too much of a radical shift in the strengthening process to be a one and done deal. What do you guys think?
I don't have Let's Go (hell I still don't have a Switch yet), so I don't know the mechanics deeply, but I think I can get the gist of it.
Be it as it may, I understand that could work, but I don't get why the old model shouldn't stay.
And I know I sound redundant but, as with Dexit and some other features, I am still in the mood of "why the hell you remove a feature to add something and the two don't detract from one another, outside of laziness?"
We already had alternative methods of training EVs (pokepelago, Festival Plaza), I don't get why remove non-shared EXP and in-fight EV training. All points made by Codraroll and myself in our latest post still stands.
Why not open the option pool, instead of changing it removing something?
 
I don't have Let's Go (hell I still don't have a Switch yet), so I don't know the mechanics deeply, but I think I can get the gist of it.
Be it as it may, I understand that could work, but I don't get why the old model shouldn't stay.
And I know I sound redundant but, as with Dexit and some other features, I am still in the mood of "why the hell you remove a feature to add something and the two don't detract from one another, outside of laziness?"
We already had alternative methods of training EVs (pokepelago, Festival Plaza), I don't get why remove non-shared EXP and in-fight EV training. All points made by Codraroll and myself in our latest post still stands.
Why not open the option pool, instead of changing it removing something?
For me, it's because at its core, Pokémon is still a game for 10-year old kids. That's why Ash is eternally 10. That's why this is the general age for Pokémon trainers. So even though there are lots of complicated things, they don't want paralysis by the excess of options for those kids.

They do think of competitive, obviously but we are never going to be their main focus.
 

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