GF, Pokemon Company, come on, do these Friday...
Anyway a lot of information, right now going to focus on the ones which would affect the story of Sword & Shield first:
CHARACTERS (New Rivals & "Villain" Team):
Bede: EVIL... okay, I already did that joke two times (though he does have a connection with Chairman Rose). Actually, that is sort of an interesting connection. With Leon's younger brother Hop also participating in the Galar League to become Champion, does it seem a bit strange that, instead of supporting Leon's sponsoring his brother, Rose his sponsoring his own up-and-coming trainer? Like, it feels like Rose has picked a replacement for Leon. If true, then what does this mean for Leon? Is it that Leon may not be involved with whatever Chairman Rose is up to? That Leon maybe knows this so is trying to counter Rose by sponsoring Hop (and the player since we're Hop's new friend)? Or could Leon be with Rose's plan and maybe just humoring his brother and brother's new friend thinking they'll probably not get far enough to get in the way of Rose's plan.
Though not to take things completely away from Bede, it says he has objectives of his own. Are these objectives the same as Rose's or is Bede involved with something else maybe far greater than anyone expects (considering the sinister glare he gives you during battles with him, maybe he's part of another group, the REAL villain team).
Marnie: Now honestly the thing interesting, at the moment, about Marnie are her followers. Like I guess she looks alright, but like with most other characters they're keeping her motives for competing vague thus telling us nothing to be excited about interacting with this character. Like, how did she get to many of her fans/how do her fans know about her? What does she think about her rabid fanbase? She's not bothered having them around yet we see whenever she enters a room they immediately stop being rowdy which would hint she doesn't like that (which if that's the case why does she let them be around her or why do they act like this if they know their idol hate it?).
Maybe her choice of partner is a hint? It's the recently revealed Morpeko which is a Pokemon that has two sides: a cute & lovable side and a dark and ferocious side. Maybe this is also the case with Marnie? At the current moment we're seeing her in her "normal" state, but she has a secret identity where she's just as mean and rowdy as her followers thus explaining why she's accepting of them while normally seeming disapproving of their actions: she actually doesn't, but they're being too "open". Calling it now, if Team Yell has a female admin/leader it's probably Marnie in her alternate personality.
Team Yell:
We've had face an organized criminal organization, environmental terrorists, a space cult, animal rights Knights Templar, military pirates, 1 percent supremacists, and a street gang (being controlled by a corrupt humanitarian organization). But now we face the fiercest villain team yet: FANBOYS!
This is Team Yell, and first off let's put "villain" team in quotes. Yes, they're certainly antagonistic and are going to be a thorn in our side, yet at the same time they don't feel like a threat but just an annoyance. A lot of people are comparing them to Team Skull and, while I can see the comparisons, these guys got nothing on Team Skull. In fact the reasons why I consider Team Skull on the same level as a villain group such as Team Rocket are absent from Team Yell. For one thing, Team Skull was a threat. Yeah, they had silly grunts, but the thing is Team Skull were still causing trouble by messing with Trial sites. Plus with the very violent Guzma as their leader, if Gen VII played it straight with them being the main villains you could maybe have seen ways Team Skull would become a major threat (mostly by messing with forces they shouldn't have, either accidental or purposely). However Team Yell... are just rabid fans of Marnie. That's it. Sure they get in the way of other trainers competing in the Galar League, but I don't see them doing anything that criminal aside public disturbance. Which makes sense considering their goal is to help Marnie become Champion and her having a group of criminals supporting her wouldn't reflect well on her. They can make these guys look as "edgy" as they want, the fact they're fans of a seemingly non-antagonistic rival completely de-fangs them from being any serious threat more than an annoyance.
BUT that's not a bad thing. This new direction gives let's this villain team have more story involvement opportunities than previous teams. While past teams had to keep quiet as they were doing secret operations to further a grand plan, Team Yell can be pretty much anywhere as their goal is a personal one: they want to stop you and the other League trainers. Sure they believe Marnie will win with no problem, but why leave things to chance or make her tire herself out against anyone that isn't required for her becoming Champion? It's a chance for GF to experiment with a different type of villain team, ones where they're not criminals or planning to take over the world.
However, I do have one problem with them: the male grunt. And it's something which not only affected Team Yell but all other past villain teams, in fact it affects most other Trainer Classes as well. Focusing on Team Yell's male grunt first, my problem with them is that their big fat guys... which means ALL of them are going to be big fat guys. "But all Teams had their male and female grunts look the same". Exactly the problem. Now the past teams were able to get away with it because, while they all looked the same, at the same time you can say the grunts just looked like an average guy or girl. But now that they made the Team Yell male grunt an outliner, it's going to really standout now how the grunts are the same model over and over again. And this also applies to Trainer Classes. Why aren't the individual grunts and trainers given even the most limited amount of customization differences? Change their skin color, hair color, eye color, maybe even change up their hair styles and have slightly different body builds (maybe even make different style of clothings)! That was one thing which made the Colosseum games a bit more interesting, in those games they did vary up the appearances of the trainers you fought. As soon as the games moved to full 3D graphics in Gen VI they should have began working on ways to make individual trainers looking different from each other. In a sprite based game it's forgivable as each different appearance would be a different sprite. But in a 3D game it's just a character builder.
Anyway, while not threatening I do give GF points for getting across their annoying by giving the male grunts a two spout vuvuzela. Also, the female grunts with Marnie towels speaks for itself. Actually, why exactly the choice of clothing? I would have no idea these guys were supporters of Marnie as there's really nothing about their design which points in that direction aside some similar color palette (the only dark magenta in Manie's design are her highlights, otherwise she's in a light pink short dress).
Tomorrow I'll look at the new Poke Jobs mechanic, a closer look at the video, and some quick thoughts on the new Pokemon (yeah for the return of region variants!). And of course after that me going on a massive commenting spree (though I think maybe this time I won't be too drastic as a lot of things are being repeated).