Pokémon Sword and Shield announced. Coming Late 2019

[chrisPjelly]

Looks alright. As far as backgrounds go, it's pretty good and colourful like Town. In battle models look about the same as Let's Go, which is fine, but I would've really liked Pokken levels of shading and lighting. It doesn't have to be Detective Pikachu level of textures, but I'm honestly a little tired of this cell shaded look.

Gotta agree with a lot of people here, those starter Pokemon don't look very good. They look like those parody "leaks" we've from places like deviantart or reddit, and some those even look better than these. All of them have a round heads and are bipedal. We've seen a monkey, a spunky bipdal creature, and a reptile before. None of them bring anything interesting or new to the table from the looks of it. Real shame too, considering I thought the last two gens of starter Pokemon were some amazing designs.

Weird trailer cut, too. I know countryside UK isn't particularly exciting, but couldn't they have chosen a more hype-inducing song? Also, shouts out to developer who wasted a minute explaining what fucking genre Pokémon is in.

Best thing to me is honestly the titles of these games. Pokemon Shield and Sword are some quality names.

 

[Bundy]

Finally more Pokemon, but holy.... does it look bad (graphics-wise).

 

[60fps]

Glad I'm not the only one who is seriously underwhelmed.

I guess we should all just be happy that Pokemon has finally arrived at Playstation 3 level graphics.

WHY cant i get my open world pokemon mmorpg man, i've been asking for this for 20 years now or something.

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Seriously, of all games on this planet, Pokemon would be THE perfect choice for the Open World MMO genre. But maybe Gamefreak just has to get accustomed to working with HD assets or something.

 

[Calamari41]

Fingers crossed this is a giant, open route.

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Looks like a golf course

 

[Xavi]

Add ":orig" at the end of the twitter images to have the full resolution (for the map for example).
I think it works when inserting it in the page too:

Edit: yep, Resetera recognises the data even if it doesn't end in ".jpg"

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Fixed, thanks.

 

[SuperFakerBros]

Odyssey's changes were mostly superficial. It was just bigger Mario 64 level design and costumes. The only new major change in that game was the capture mechanic.

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That's absurdly reductive. The game is designed and structured fairly differently from Super Mario 64, despite also having large open environments to explore, with it also taking a lot from the more linear Mario games with it's more closed off sections. The capture mechanic adds a lot of variety to how the game is played and designed so it's not exactly a minor or simple addition to the game

 

[MetalBoi]

Graphics look like they came from a up-resed 3DS game, with slightly better lighting.

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nonsense

 

[Rhomega]

And my Pokemon Axe!~

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This should be the OT subtitle.

 

[foxuzamaki]

 

[Hikari]

clearly running out of quality designs for pokemon lol. They haven't been good since like Gold/Silver

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Looks like you aren't very Knowledgeable huh?

 

[DMVfan123]

Holy crap what is this? Is it on Switch? WTF

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...
No, it's not

 

[IceFireTerry]

It must be horrible trying to force your creativity like that.

Probably why one of the Pokemon is a literal ice cream I guess.

Fans will always be hungry for more new stuff though, so can't really level it as a criticism against GF.

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tbf Vanilluxe is very cute & creative (Change My Mind)

 

[Buff Beefbroth]

How is a game titled Pokemon Sword and Shield not a fantasy medieval RPG setting with Pokemon?

 

[Cyclonesweep]

Era is the most toxic community when it comes to post direct discussion I have ever seen. I swear people want to be disappointed and revel in it and attack you for not being as miserable as them. It happens after every direct.

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Its a good foil to the other Nintendo fans that literally think everything in a direct is solid gold and 10/10 no matter what

 

[Deleted member 36708]

I have always been amazed by Pokémon and it's fan base.

 

[Umbrella Carp]

please people, keep posting your shitty hottakes.

my ignore list needs a fillup

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I really don't get why people make threats like these as if they're supposed to care that they're on some randoms ignore list

 

[Deleted member 30151]

Wow, the Direct really left me with a mixed bag. First things first, this was absolutely solid stuff, but it is clear they've gone the most safe route possible. Shield and Sword almost feel like a huge paid DLC for Sun/Moon from what they've shown so far.

Since I'm one of the folks who really loved the Let's Go announcement and enjoyed the game for all the fresh mechanics it established, S/S will be a huge step backwards for me when encountering random battles again. And I do think that will not be the only drawback since switching Pokemon only in Pokemon Centers will mostly see a return.

Graphics look nice, actually I never cared about graphics when it comes to Pokemon. The games all look nice in it's own way. But damn this looks even more linear than Sun/Moon.

Currently, the world looks pretty empty. Another reason I want free roaming Pokemon back. A lot of the region reminds me of Scotland. The snowy town reminds me of Hogsmeade of the Harry Potter series. But a lot of stuff is really giving me a Scotland vibes, especially the highlands.

There don't seem to be a huge modern city, it's much more rural than I thought the region of the new generation would look like.

Currently, I will wait for the upcoming informations. Trailer was not enough to give me the best impression. A trailer analysis will be my next option here. Guess I've missed many details.

 

[Deleted member 5725]

Is that tall tower in the north going to be Elite Four's tower?

 

[VinylCassette64]

There will be two bad guy teams, and they're rival football club hooligan fans.

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Team Fish and Team Chips

Their villainous plot is capturing all the Pokemon in the region and giving them two cuppas of pints

So they can earn cheated winnings when they enter shitfaced Pokemon into the tournaments

 

[diakyu]

I don't know about that, considering there are no roaming Pokémon, which is a damn shame.

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I'm talking about how everything looks the same there, but it's really a fault of Kanto itself.

 

[Chumunga64]

Today I learned that people don't actually like random battles.

 

[Dernhelm]

I don't get why people are saying this is based on Scandinavia when 1) we had a shot of a football stadium, which is more closely associated with England than the Scandinavian countries, and 2) The Cerne Abbas giant is in the fucking trailer.

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I know, though I do certainly think there can be elements of Scandinavian inspiration, if only a lot of mythos involved with the UK (particularly northern) have a degree of overlap with Northern European ones. Straight up looks UK though.

 

[DrROBschiz]

Preach.

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People still complain about lets go but AFTER playing it and reflecting on the Pros and Cons we have a clearer picture of what we would like to see going forward

Unfortunately it will take a much longer time but hopefully the right kinds of feedback inform the development of either Gen 9 or the Next Lets Go title

 

[Deleted member 2340]

Lol you know I love Greninja too much. I'm going with scorbunny so far. Hope his final evolution is good. How about you?

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Scorbunny as well for now. It all depends on the final evo base stats and design (to a lesser extant).

Pretty hyped for this. No more Pokémon derp'ing their way on the over world annoyingly getting in my way.

I'm hoping for a healthy online.

 

[Jadentheman]

i'mma just leave these here again

Spoiler

I'm hoping they just removed NPCs for trailer reasons and the released game will be properly populated

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A reminder that gen 8 is STILL using the same (albeit tweaked) engine from the last two generations plus Let's Go. And it only looks like they added HD textures. Watch it still run like shit and be sub 1080p docked

 

[Wamb0wneD]

That's true but it at least showed a willingness to change right off the bat from the announcement of Lets Go. Whereas this is the opposite.

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I don't think we saw enough from the game to say it's just more of the same. Will it be more traditional than Let's Go? Absolutely, but that's not necessarily a bad hting imo.

 

[Twenty5Thousand]

This right here is why this game looks lame as hell to me right now. Once again, fucking Battle Revolution on the fucking Wii, nearly a decade ago, did better battle animations than this new game by Game Freak proper.

They're STILL doing the lame crap of Pokémon just doing an animation and causing an attack to happen 5 feet away from them.

 

[Personablue]

You're fighting the good fight, but I think this is a losing battle. Grass starters are pretty much always the least-popular (even when they shouldn't be), they have been cursed that way ever since the international branches of Nintendo decided to go with Blue Version over Green.

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Thank you for the vote of confidence. I guess it's true, grass starters are always underappreciated, but in gen 7, we did win, no?

 

[RedShift]

Era is the most toxic community when it comes to post direct discussion I have ever seen. I swear people want to be disappointed and revel in it and attack you for not being as miserable as them. It happens after every direct.

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I agree with this so much. Not just for directs either, Etcetera is just as bad. The amount of times I've enjoyed a TV show only to check the thread about it and find people acting like the people making it killed their puppy is ridiculous. Reading this website actually ruins enjoying so many things.

If you don't like something it's ok not to tell everyone about it. Go find something you do enjoy.

 

[Northern Lights]

Pokémon noob here, is this the proper full fat entry or a side game?

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Proper full entry.

 

[Tzarscream]

The Pokémon community is up there as being one of the most toxic/volatile.

 

[Lord Vatek]

People who were under the impression this was going to be a giant open-world game like (ugh) Breath of the Wild were deluding themselves.

Even if that was the direction the Pokemon games were going to take (it wasn't), Sun and Moon came out three years ago.

There's going to need to be a hell of a lot more time between games for something major to happen.

 

[rochellepaws]

Looks like everything I wanted, absolutely love the European setting. Can't wait!

 

[Knight in Shining Armani]

If you wanna compare visuals, maybe use Dragon Quest XI instead of a 3DS game.

 

[Masterspeed]

This right here is why this game looks lame as hell to me right now. Once again, fucking Battle Revolution on the fucking Wii, nearly a decade ago, did better battle animations than this new game by Game Freak proper.

They're STILL doing the lame crap of Pokémon just doing an animation and causing an attack to happen 5 feet away from them.

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It's hard to animated over 800 pokemon.

 

[JCH33T-]

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Lolling at this

 

[Deleted member 426]

Except it's totally not a step back as let's go was the biggest step back as bullshit gen 1 pandering

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Don't get me wrong, the fact that it was a gen 1 remake was my least favourite aspect of LG in the end because I've played those games already.

But gameplay wise it was such a step forwards and I was looking forward to maybe something in that vein but in a new regions with even more new ideas.

 

[Ignis]

Pokemon must be the most popular IP in the world with the least effort put into it.

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.

Odyssey's changes were mostly superficial. It was just bigger Mario 64 level design and costumes. The only new major change in that game was the capture mechanic.

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Bro I'll have a pound of whatever you're smoking holy smokes lol.

Pretty sure thats on the PS4 and not a switch lol

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right, thanks mate.

 

[Sou Da]

Wow, the Direct really left me with a mixed bag. First things first, this was absolutely solid stuff, but it is clear they've gone the most safe route possible. Shield and Sword almost feel like a huge paid DLC for Sun/Moon from what they've shown so far.

Since I'm one of the folks who really loved the Let's Go announcement and enjoyed the game for all the fresh mechanics it established, S/S will be a huge step backwards for me when encountering random battles again. And I do think that will not be the only drawback since switching Pokemon only in Pokemon Centers will mostly see a return.

Graphics look nice, actually I never cared about graphics when it comes to Pokemon. The games all look nice in it's own way. But damn this looks even more linear than Sun/Moon.

Currently, the world looks pretty empty. Another reason I want free roaming Pokemon back. A lot of the region reminds me of Scotland. The snowy town reminds me of Hogsmeade of the Harry Potter series. But a lot of stuff is really giving me a Scotland vibes, especially the highlands.

There don't seem to be a huge modern city, it's much more rural than I thought the region of the new generation would look like.

Currently, I will wait for the upcoming informations. Trailer was not enough to give me the best impression. A trailer analysis will be my next option here. Guess I've missed many details.

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There are two very large cities on the map

 

[Conrad Link]

There's no rush there cause I can already see it. I have 70+ hours in Let's Go. It sucks. The world does not feel alive with the Pokémon on the overworld, it feels even more manufactured. Some of these Pokémon hunt each other and are supposed to be attacking you since that's the whole reason people needed partner Pokemon and avoided the tall grass, but here they are just waddling around in a straight line and circles waiting for you to run into them and then standing around like morons while you toss pokeballs and berries at them. Shit is dumb.

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Opinions and all that but I disagree completely. I don't see how the I need to wait a few seconds for the fight to start oh nevermind I've seen him run away wait a few more oh a new one! rush any different than walking around in LG and seeing a new Pokemon appear from no where? Both ways give me the same rush I just prefer the 'pop' rush to the random one.

To me walking through a forest that is completely empty is boring. When I imagine a Pokemon world it's a forest full of creatures running around I can see.

They could easily fix that other stuff by having the Pokemon that walk around do more things, you walk into a cave and a Machamp and Golem are fighting each other. Make some of the Pokemon more aggressive when they appear and agro you by running into you cause they're dicks. Some in LG felt that way anyway.

I want things in the overworld and when I bump into them (or they do to me) it goes into the normal battle and catch system.

 

[Cronogear]

i'mma just leave these here again

Spoiler

I'm hoping they just removed NPCs for trailer reasons and the released game will be properly populated

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This just makes me depressed. Playing a Pokemon game that looks like this would be so incredible. There's so many RPGs that look leagues better and more amibitious than Sword/Shield (Granblue, DQXI, Xenoblade 2, Ni no Kuni 2, etc etc.) and yet Pokemon outsells all of them.

Does none of that mountain of cash go back towards development? Does Game Freak just lack the ambition? Or are they going with "Well it'll make money anyway, why even bother" approach? I just don't understand.

 

[WrenchNinja]

You aren't seeing the forests from the trees. Regardless of the flawed implementation maybe there is a glimpse of what could be

The main takeaway of the experimental and simple nature of lets go should be.... Oh man... if only they did this or changed this here. Oh hey they messed this up but man the concept could work if they did this.

Thats why Lets Go resonates. Because the changes opens possible doors that fans want to see change in the main games

Shitting on the first game is in bad faith to what people are actually asking for. We already know Lets go has flaws and shitty parts to it. Thats not even what the discussion is addressing man

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What people want out of the encounter model is not something I want though. Nor does it sound realistic for them to do. I don't want it more complicated than meeting new Pokémon, weakening them, and capturing them.

Like what do you exactly want them do here? How do yoy keep the surprise without ruining it like the did in Lets Go? If they made everything a silhouette before encounter, then cool. Do you want to see Zangoose and Seviper going at in the environment and you running into them as it transitions to the battle arena? Do you want Mankey to constantly target you and Wimpod to run away from you like in Sun and Moon? Like if Game Freak actually did that, and it didn't look janky as hell, then yeah, fine, that sounds alright.

 

[foxuzamaki]

Xenoblade 2 consistently struggled with hitting an even halfway decent resolution most of the time. I'm hoping/expecting Pokemon S/S to be a locked 900p at least by the time it releases

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Xenoblade 2 docked pretty consistently hit its target resolution

 

[Neonep]

Oh, I preordering the fuck out of this.

 

[Alastor3]

I agree with this so much. Not just for directs either, Etcetera is just as bad. The amount of times I've enjoyed a TV show only to check the thread about it and find people acting like the people making it killed their puppy is ridiculous. Reading this website actually ruins enjoying so many things.

If you don't like something it's ok not to tell everyone about it. Go find something you do enjoy.

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Exactly. Also some of ERA think it's so much better than what was GAF when almost the same Community, except the head of the beast

 

[Phantom Theif Bobby]

Broke: "Man they removed roaming Pokémon!!"
Woke: "they removed roaming Pokémon specifically for this trailer so that they wouldn't spoil any new designs"

 

[RagnarokX]

Since people are having trouble seeing the routes, I drew them out:

It looks like the starting area is separated from the rest of Galar by trail travel.

South of the starting area is a forest.

After the train is a huge open field you can probably explore entirely.

After the huge open field is a walled city or a canyon that takes you to stonehenge and other towns.

West from the walled city takes you to more train tracks, possibly the mine and leads to that town with the green stadium and hillside art.

There appear to be 5 soccer stadiums/gyms.

London is in the north on top of a mountain.

 

[TheRuralJuror]

I'm mixed on the game, I'm gonna get it, but gamefreak tends to play it too safe for my taste. Not only is it longest, but it's using fixed cameras reminescent of old tales games. It's good enough and it will sell, but I guess I wanted more personally. As someone pointed out, it's a bummer to see random encounters return. Will wait and see though.

 

[Nax]

This right here is why this game looks lame as hell to me right now. Once again, fucking Battle Revolution on the fucking Wii, nearly a decade ago, did better battle animations than this new game by Game Freak proper.

They're STILL doing the lame crap of Pokémon just doing an animation and causing an attack to happen 5 feet away from them.

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Ding ding ding. Unfortunately, I don't know that Gamefreak can do anything about the animations at this point. There are just too many Poke'mon to animate for. So we will likely never get nice, detailed battle animations. They would have to remove a bunch of Poke'mon first to make it more manageable.

 

[MarsipanRumpan]

Grookey is the best one, fight me