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

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Wild Style: So seems like when GF said you could customize your style of play the Wild Area may be at least one place this can be done. It's explained you can either explore the Wild Area as much as you want or can just go straight to the next city and story part. This makes me wonder that, if you just keep going straight forward, they designed it so your party would be at an adequate level to face the challenges ahead. However, if you want to level-up your team or maybe find items that'll help you our you can explore the Wild Area for a bit. If true it's an interesting idea though, still, for trainers looking for a challenge BUT also want to explore they either need to know exactly where to go in the Wild Area to get what they want or are just out of luck.

Grrrrrrreat. Looks like the level curve will be a mess again.

Taking into consideration people that will just rush straight to the next city like they were doing a speedrun isn't quite bad design because I know people play these games in their own way and I hate grinding myself.

But here's the thing: I don't like being overleveled on major battles like Rivals and Gyms. I'm going to assume some people don't either because I've seen it happen.

That means I'll either have to run over 10 mons in my party or duck all the wilds.

It's slightly better than USUM because you can at least see some wilds in the overworld, so you get to at least have the experience of exploring the wild area and figuring out what mons are where, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to battle a bunch of them without getting overleveled.

I dunno, it just hurts the experience a bit. Especially on the first run when you just wanna explore the game and don't know where everything is.


Regarding the Dev Team size... I don't even.
Seriously. "It may be complicated to explain dynamax"
What? Are you kidding me? There are so many ways, what are you doing!?
You can write down a full document about what exactly you want out of the feature and how it's supposed to work, or sit everyone down, explain it and let them ask questions.
This fool thinks process is a waste of time, Lord help me. 20 people to design a Pokémon game from scratch. He's straight up neglecting the most important skill in any kind of group project. This is just insanity. I need a minute. Or several. I'm freaking heated.

 

[Buzzer_Error]

Ok, so right now I'm banking on Fire/Fairy for Galarian Ponyta, or part Fire with another typing.

My evidence for this? Ponyta and Rapidash are classified as the Fire Horse Pokemon. No regional variant with the exception of evolutions has changed classification between the base and regional form, and out of the forms/evolutions which don't share types with their bases (Marowak, Ninetales, Sirfetch'd), their classification is generic enough that it can still apply to the new version (Bone Keeper, Fox and Wild Duck Pokemon respectively). The same goes the other way: the Alolan Golem line probably had to keep the Rock typing since Geodude and Graveler are known as the Rock Pokemon.

I guess a possible counterargument to this would be that the regional variants of Sandshrew and Sandslash got retyped to Ice/Steel, despite their names pretty obviously marking them as Ground-types (not just in English, but in Japanese and most other translations too).

That said, I'd be delighted to learn that Galarian Ponyta is Fire/Fairy! I'd be very surprised if it wasn't a Fairy-type, given its design, but then again it's not like we haven't had these kinds of bait-and-switches pulled on us before (thinking in particular of Psychic/Steel Solgaleo).

 

[Siggu]

Fire/Fairy and Fire/Ghost (if the mane turns out to be somewhat purple without the forest affecting lighting) are my two bets for Galarian Ponyta's typing.

 

[Prof. Almeida]

Fire/Fairy and Fire/Ghost (if the mane turns out to be somewhat purple without the forest affecting lighting) are my two bets for Galarian Ponyta's typing.

Fairy Ghost is mine. With Fire/Fairy being a close second.

 

[Sirya]

Fairy/Flying.

 

[DreamPrince]

Fairy/Flying.

Only if Rapidash is based on an Alicorn. ( Which I’m hoping it is.

 

[ChrystalFalchion]

I'm actually hoping for Fire / Grass for Galarian Ponyta. It makes sense as they were seen in a forest area, and of course it's classified as the Fire Horse Pokemon. That typing is pretty interesting as it gives you a Fire type that isn't weak to Water or Ground, and a Grass type that isn't weak to Fire, Ice or Bug.

Hope they give Galarian Rapidash an evolution as well. Hey, it was good enough for Galarian Linoone.

 

[Vengeance417]

My hope is for Fire/Fairy for how much it would benefit both Mono Fire-type and Mono Fairy-type teams. Fire teams would appreciate its Fairy-typing to take on Dragon-types, and Fairy teams would love something with Fire STAB to take on Steel-types and have a physical attacker be immune to Will-o-Wisp.

 

[Wishy]

Galarian Ponyta is a cool dude, I would love Fire/Fairy but pure Fairy or Fairy/Ghost seems more likely tbh (I would like those too, I love regional forms that are radical type changes from the base)

Stream is an interesting idea, but it could've been pulled off better with a few more reveals. There was definitely some highlights like Impidimp trolling the audience by obscuring Ponyta and I hope TPC sees what people liked and disliked about this stream and try an improved version sometime in the future

Now we wait to see if we get a formal trailer for Impidimp and/or Ponyta...

IIRC, Sonia's report is meant to be presented... Next week? So they'll probably let us stew for a few days before official trailers with Galarian Ponyta.

Fire/Fairy would be a cool typing.

 

[Ironmage]

So instead of guessing a pegasus/alicorn evo like apparently everybody else, my first thought was that Irish folklore contains a fairly noticeable version of a headless horseman (sometimes including a headless horse): the Dullahan. Of course, the creature in question is both a fey creature and a reaper of souls, so it doesn't help the whole fairy/ghost debate whatsoever.

 

[BlueRay]

Ok, so right now I'm banking on Fire/Fairy for Galarian Ponyta, or part Fire with another typing.

My evidence for this? Ponyta and Rapidash are classified as the Fire Horse Pokemon. No regional variant with the exception of evolutions has changed classification between the base and regional form, and out of the forms/evolutions which don't share types with their bases (Marowak, Ninetales, Sirfetch'd), their classification is generic enough that it can still apply to the new version (Bone Keeper, Fox and Wild Duck Pokemon respectively). The same goes the other way: the Alolan Golem line probably had to keep the Rock typing since Geodude and Graveler are known as the Rock Pokemon.

I'd also add that while Shiinotic looks somewhat spooky as well it's still a Grass/Fairy type, so the idea of a Fire/Fairy type might not be farfetch'd! Fairy alone could cover the spooky part. Also, it's a new type combo, which was also the case for many Alolan Pkm such as Golem, Ninetales, Sandslash, Raichu, etc.

 

[Count Bleck]

While wveryone else is focused on the typing, im worried about its role in stats. Rapidash stats have been begging for an update for eons, and as a physical attacker there is only 1 standard fairy physical attack in existence, and for ghosts their best option after all these years is Shadow Claw. Even if it swapped physical and special stats, it woukd still have its best attacking stat at an unimpressive 100 with a speed stat of a pitiful 105. It absolutely reeks of being power creeped but outside of an evolution i dont know how to fix it.

 

[Cresselia92]

I think Galarian Ponyta could take the Zigzagoon route and become a three-stages line. It could end up becoming Ponyta -> Rapidash -> ???, for all we know.

Anyway, I really hope it will be Fire/Fairy. That would be a pretty nice typing with good coverage.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

I'm guessing Fire/Fairy or pure Fairy.

Do we even have a Fire/Fairy type?

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

I'm guessing Fire/Fairy or pure Fairy.

Do we even have a Fire/Fairy type?

I don't think so. If Galarian Ponyta/Rapidash retain the Fire type and gain a Fairy-type they'll be the first with that type combo

 

[ChrystalFalchion]

Fire / Fairy typing is pretty good. Resists Fire, Grass, Bug (X4), Ice, Dark and Fighting while being immune to Dragon. The only single type that resists both is Fire, so I’d it gets High Horsepower it’ll have pretty much perfect neutral coverage (I think only Fire/Flying resists that combo).

 

[LordHelix]

Im really scared it might be pure fairy. Id cry if that happened cause fire fairy is such a good typing

Also im not really getting ghost vibes from this, it looks very mythical not spooky, and i think fairy type represents that just fine

 

[CTNC]

Fire/Fairy would be cool, but I doubt it's happening. The mane doesn't always glow and it looks pretty "solid", which makes me think it's just colorful fluff instead of fire or fiery stuff. If it's Pure Fairy and they make Galarian Rapidash or a Rapidash Evolution into a Pegasus, then there's no second type to be swapped with Flying.

By the way, Galarian Ponyta gives the same mystic vibes as Alolan Ninetales and that was speculated to be Ice/Ghost. Just wondering, are the people thinking Ponyta could Fairy/Ghost the someone that thought Ninetales might have been Ice/Ghost?

 

[Siggu]

Im really scared it might be pure fairy. Id cry if that happened cause fire fairy is such a good typing

Also im not really getting ghost vibes from this, it looks very mythical not spooky, and i think fairy type represents that just fine

I doesn't have to be spooky to have a Ghost typing (think Alolan Marowak, Sableye, Oricorio, Decidueye, Marshadow...).

 

[earl]

I doesn't have to be spooky to have a Ghost typing (think Alolan Marowak, Sableye, Oricorio, Decidueye, Marshadow...).

Marshadow and Sableye are both definitely spooky. They're little shadow people!

 

[Kurona]

Where are people getting Ghost from? Fairy I can see, but not that.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

I doesn't have to be spooky to have a Ghost typing (think Alolan Marowak, Sableye, Oricorio, Decidueye, Marshadow...).

Not only are Marshadow and Sableye little shadow people, but Marowak has a purple color scheme (fairly common among Pokemon ghosts) and has unearthly green fire at the ends of its bone. Oricorio is a bit less obvious, but it's still purple. I'll give you Decidueye, though.

While looking into possible hints that Oricorio would be Ghost-type, I found this on the Wikipedia page for hand fan:

"Fans are also edible. It is not to well known but famous chefs around the world have tried it."

There's no citation, so I don't believe it, but it's still a very bizarre concept.

EDIT: Upon further investigation, this edible fan thing is the work of a 3-day-old wikipedian troll named Juleskoala8, who is trying to mask their edits by claiming to fix typos. Still doesn't explain how the fuck someone came up with such a weird idea.

 

[RocketSurgery]

Fire/Fairy would be cool, but I doubt it's happening. The mane doesn't always glow and it looks pretty "solid", which makes me think it's just colorful fluff instead of fire or fiery stuff. If it's Pure Fairy and they make Galarian Rapidash or a Rapidash Evolution into a Pegasus, then there's no second type to be swapped with Flying.

By the way, Galarian Ponyta gives the same mystic vibes as Alolan Ninetales and that was speculated to be Ice/Ghost. Just wondering, are the people thinking Ponyta could Fairy/Ghost the someone that thought Ninetales might have been Ice/Ghost?

Ninetales' lore describes it as casting curses on those who pull its tails, and being based on kitsunes.

Marowak-A, who of course did become ghost, had a skeletal theme and the lore of cubone's mother that could have lead to inspiration for it becoming ghost type. (I still think it's odd that they opted not to give cubone a fire or ghost alolan form)

Ponyta doesn't have any lore behind it that would suggest a ghost typing. It sounds like the closest might be the Dullahan as inspiration, though that seems like it lends itself more to a regional evo than ponyta-G's base stage. For ponyta-G, the early glimpses of it might have been interpreted as looking skull-like, although the full view doesn't really look that way. Combined with being in spooky looking woods that are home to at least one ghost, along with the fact that sirfetch'd being fighting and sword exclusive along with Bea suggests a plausible symmetry of a ghost-type galarian form, and ponyta being the next revealed could be that form. Personally I think ponyta-G looks more likely to be pure or maaaybe fire, though ghost is definitely still possible.

I doesn't have to be spooky to have a Ghost typing (think Alolan Marowak, Sableye, Oricorio, Decidueye, Marshadow...).

Alola definitely seemed to introduce quite a few mons with ghost-like powers that seemed less ghost-like than others (in the sense of mons like Gengar looking like "actual" ghosts or mons like Aegislash being possessed objects). I agree with leonard (from big bang theory) and personally think that Marshadow being some sort of shadow-creature grants it ghost-like status (despite ghost being its secondary typing), and Sabeleye is close enough to fit the bill, but I definitely agree on Decidueye and Oricorio. Decidueye being ghost was definitely out of left-field and I'm still not sure I understand its typing; I've seen people refer to an extinct species of owl but that seems to be stretching it a bit. I think Marowak-A on its own could have made sense as a ghost type or zombie, but the thing I find odd about it and Oricorio (and Frosslass) is that they evolve from/are forms of non-ghost types. In a similar vein I will also find it very odd if we get a non-ghost Galarian form of a ghost type... very curious what that might look like.

 

[BlueRay]

While wveryone else is focused on the typing, im worried about its role in stats. Rapidash stats have been begging for an update for eons, and as a physical attacker there is only 1 standard fairy physical attack in existence, and for ghosts their best option after all these years is Shadow Claw. Even if it swapped physical and special stats, it woukd still have its best attacking stat at an unimpressive 100 with a speed stat of a pitiful 105. It absolutely reeks of being power creeped but outside of an evolution i dont know how to fix it.

To be honest, as of now, I'd say it's extremely hard to make a Pkm viable for OU. With every new generation, we get new Pkm, and some of them may surpass others in certain aspects or are simply good at role compressing. That's why a restricted environment would give many Pkm whose stats are not bad at all a new chance to shine. I mean Rapidash's Speed and Attack are not bad at all, and it has access to strong moves such as Flareblitz. It's a pity it has a low bulk, so it can't make use of its recoil moves very well, especially if you factor in Life Orb, which it would likely need to turn 2HKOs or 3HKOs in 1HKOs or 2HKOs.
Fire/Fairy would do wonders as Fire usually has hard time to deal with Dragon. Give it Magic Guard as well, and it would be the first Fire Pkm immune to entry hazards and able to use recoil moves + Life Orb very well. A Fairy/Ghost type would be likely redundant since we already have Mimikyu that too is physically orientated and has access to Swords Dance.
Fairy/Flying might differentiate it from Togekiss, which is more special orientated. So, there's that.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

That reminds me. We need more physical Fairy moves.

We got just Play Rough or am I forgetting another?