Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield

[Mr EliteL]

Ah, you got this out. I was halfway through mine and previewed it, and noticed the post.

Actually enjoyed this direct, glad there is roaming as well as grass encountered wild Pokémon. Dynamax looks fine as a new feature, and like it as the focus for the co-op battle against wild Pokémon. :3

Leon looks like a worthy champion, Milo too as a gym leader, plus Magnolia and Sonia as our help. I'm not so interested in Hop though.

New Pokémon look better than I was expecting. Cottonee/Whimsicott over Gossifluer/Eldegoss though. Had no idea what to imagine for the Legendary Pokémon, so these are acceptable for me. They look like rivals, but also help each other as in their video they turned back-to-back after their quick duel to whatever was around them (assuming it was an enemy they sensed). Was it simply a camera shot for them, or something to the story I wonder?

Is this the first time gyms don't have a puzzle like obstacle to get to the gym leader?

No sure which version I want yet.

[Karo]

Moony you forgot to show our Welsh friend!


As traditional for all Welsh people is that they have no nose whatsoever.

Overall I think his design would been cool it just strange that they didn't give him a nose.

I believe Moony basically covered everything, but he did forget to mention that it seems trainer customization is set to make a return not directly stated, but from the raid battles we can confirm the other trainers have different clothes and skin tones. Oh and raid battles are able to be played both locally and online!

champion

The beloved champion sadly he isn't the queen that we were all expecting, but he does seem to be a king!

Friendly Rival Hop

I actually really am enjoying the new Pokemon designs they are all appealing to me at least I'm definitely going to try to get them all!

New Pokemon

Wooloo


Dreadneaw


Gossifleur


Eldegoss


Corviknight

Cover legendaries

Zacian


Zamazenta

Also the Pokemon website is giving us details that wasn't in the direct for example the rotomdex is now a rotom phone:
https://swordshield.pokemon.com/en-au/ga...tom-phone/

[Moonface]

I'd be fine with no puzzles for gyms. If anything I'd rather there be some sort of qualifying stuff to get in, and that could take the role that encounters in gyms had in previous games before you reach the champion. I'd be totally into gyms being this mini-tournaments to really sell the public event side of it.

Corviknight is my favourite new reveal. I like how it's a crow with a little hint of a knight and gets used like a London black cab.

Not overly impressed with the legendaries. They're OK, but the sword in the mouth thing feels forced to me. I would have rather seen the sword integrated as part of the body like the shield is on the other one.

Dynamax to me is just their answer to Mega Evolutions without the need of doing a design for every Pokemon or having the problem of Mega Evolutions being tied to the top evolution of a Pokemon. It doesn't impress me because it's just larger models, but I do like that you can't just use it for entire battles nor be restricted on who you can use it with. I absolutely want to Dynamax a Wailord.

Thrilled that wild Pokemon are in. The Wild Areas would feel too dead and barren if everything was only in the tall grass.

Not really sure what version I want yet. Normally I based it on the legendary, but I don't care for either at this point so guess it might come down to version exclusives this time around for me.

Ugh...Rotom. I swear if that thing talks all the time like the Rotom Dex I'm going to be annoyed by it. Since it's based on a phone give me a mute button for the sodding thing.

[Karo]

I would love it if they were mini tournaments, but my only thing is I wish that they make sure their a challenge.

Covriknight is definitely one of my favorites too, but I really do like the sheep Pokemon too! Its too adorable dude!

Here the funny thing IMO the legendaries are the worst new design, but I really am digging the new Pokemon, but frankly I would take good looking regular pokemon over subpart legendaries they aren't ugly, but not really interesting. I also kinda wonder if it actually the same Pokemon just taking different forms?

Dynamaxing a Wailord is the true way of Pokemon Gym battling! I did read somewhere their another version that changes their form like in mega evolution...though if I'm honest I kinda wish they worked on perfecting a gimmick before jumping onto a new one and I understand they want each game to have something special and unique to their region and that cool and all...but mega evolutions were a fun concept imo.

I actually love how they are pulling it off they have both wild Pokemon in the field and in the tall grass! I'm really looking forward to seeing how it works when we get to that area and I do love how it changes day by day! The only thing I am concerned about really is the raid battles...with four players aren't these giant Pokemon going to be a cakewalk? I honestly am worried that raid battles will be a neat thing you try once, but never again.

I didn't mind Rotom too much mainly because I just kinda looked at it like a character in the story. If they do decide to give it talking lines again maybe you should just be given an option to talk with it in the menu. That way if your interested in hearing what it has to say you can. It actually does now provide a boost to your bike and will apparently help you get over water.

[Moonface]

I hope Raid Battles aren't easy, but also not super tough. Just make it that if the team doesn't work together properly, then they will lose. You shouldn't get to win if your team is bad, because that just defeats the purpose of team work. I do however worry that once people have all the possible Raid Pokemon that they won't have any need to go back unless they want to be a good samaritan, so I want to see what the draw is other than just catching Pokemon. If there's nothing else to it, I would just play raids until I have everything and then probably never touch it again except to help out a friend.

Wooloo is neat too, and I didn't take an instant dislike to any of the new Pokemon except the legendaries. Corviknight is just the one out of all of them that I need to catch and will try my best to find a spot on my team for because it looks so badass!

I wonder what the motives are going to be for the evil team in this game now. I expect they'll be wanting to use Dynamax to try and create trouble, and I wouldn't be surprised for some Godzilla shit to kick off with a Dynamax Pokemon appearing inside a town or something (insert meme of a Dynamax Quagsire looking over a wall Shingeki no Kyojin style).

Also, is this the first time we've had the champion of a region interact with the player? I don't recall meeting the champion in XY at any point in the story, and you only meet the champion in FireRed because they're your rival.

[Karo]

Honestly one thing I would love to see them implement make it a good way to catch Shiny Pokemon. This would be a far more interesting way to catch shiny Pokemon and could truly be something quite fun. If you are grinding with your friends over just having to get the same shaking grass over and over again. HOnestly once I catch all the raid POkemon I will probably still play it occasionally cause just being able to battle with a bunch of other trainers sound like a fun time.

I"m actually not sure what bird Pokemon I will be putting in my team yet, but I definitely want to use a Wooloo and Corviknigth is definitely a good contender! If not I might just use the route one bird Pokemon as long as it a new line if it a returning bird Pokemon I probably won't be interested and just go straight to corviknight.

See I was thinking about ATtack on Titans the whole time giant Pokemon were revealed! I do hope the evil team incorporate giant POkemon attacks in someway if they don't it going to be such a missed opportunity!

Actually in other previous game in the series the champion has interacted with previous trainers to name a few off the top of my head:
Cynthia (Fourth Gen)
Lance (Second Gen)
Alder (Fifth Gen)

I honestly would say you had more interaction with them in the fourth gen than the other one though or it might just be the case interaction with Cynthia may have been more memorable. The Lance one is pretty memorable because you join him in investigating a rocket base.

[Moonface]

So this wasn't mentioned in the Direct but wild encounters in grass are different now. Rather than just being thrust into a battle when walking through wild grass, a ! sign will appear. If you walk toward it, then the battle will initiate. I actually prefer that because now I don't have to constantly be running from battles I don't want to deal with but the randomisation of Pokemon in tall grass remains intact.

I'd like it if there were conditions for the Wild Areas that could improve Shiny chances. There's so many Pokemon now that I feel there needs to be some sort of increase to Shiny spawns. Maybe even make it an item so I have a reason to spend the hundreds of thousands of cash I build up and then make them a micro-transaction item too to make sweet cash.

[Karo]

Interesting I like this change so far too. It not annoying like the constant spawning of Pokemon in the overworld and you have the RNG back and it feels more alive than suddenly a wild Pokemon is here!

Oh boy I can't wait for microtransaction to get my Shiny Magikarp! I honestly wonder if there will be there a lot of potential in the wild area concept!

[Moonface]

I wonder how encounters will work in caves where it just uses the air instead of tall grass. As annoying as it is, I hope it just remains the same as it always has been to encourage use of Repel items. Otherwise that item is going to be redundant.

[Karo]

My guess is it probably just going to function the same as the grass. A random ! will appear and if you go forward you get into a battle.

I am actually curious how will repels work in this game when shaking up the formula you do have to think about previous items?

[Moonface]

Eh, my problem with the ! mechanic in caves is that at least with grass, the grass hides the Pokemon so it makes sense for just an ! to appear. It makes no sense for a ! to appear in the middle of an open room and for that encounter to then be random. You would see that Pokemon flying there. The only way it would work is the Pokemon fly out of a hole in the ceiling or there's a dark ceiling so you can't see what's there so anything swooping down is random.

[Karo]

I mean I kinda am like when it comes to game freak they often sometimes will go out of their way to put in little details, but sometimes they won't so we can't really be sure what they are going to do....maybe they'll add a lil animation of something poking up from the ground or flying down, but it in silhouette? That could work honestly!

By the way Moony what starter are you going to choose? Will you be going for th' fire fighting laddie?! :O

[Moonface]

By the way Moony what starter are you going to choose? Will you be going for th' fire fighting laddie?! :O

I'm probably going for Scorbunny, unless its later evolutions aren't appealing to me. I liked Chespin, but I really dislike its final evolution, and that turned me off picking it as my starter for Y.

[Dragon Lord]

Well, so far these early Pokemon reveals aren't leaving much hope for the designs of this generation being any good.

Also nice Sif rip-off at the end there, Gamefreak. Can't come up with your own good designs anymore, so now you're ripping off Dark Souls. Kappa

[queenzelda]

Personally; I love the way the legendary Zachian looks, the shield one reminded me of Hector from Fire Emblem for some weird reason when I first saw it. I suppose I'm the odd one who likes the idea of mega-sizing the Pokemon during battle. *shrug*