Topic: Pokemon Sword & Shield

Hey, a thread for discussing the core Pokemon RPG launching in 2019, announced back at E3 2017.

All we know thus far is it has been in development longer than Let's Go, will appeal to long time series fans, feature plenty of new Pokemon, be visually grander than Let's Go and will have no connection to Pokemon Go.

Oh, good idea, gonna move my last post over here.

Compendium of everything we know so far (let me know if there's anything else to add):

• It's aimed at long-time (core, though not necessarily competitive) players
• Graphics will be improved over SuMo (which considering Let's Go! is typically considered a step down does have me hopeful they look nothing alike outside of Pokemon models)
• Not a remake and contains many new Pokemon (read start of Gen VIII)
• Will not have any influence from Pokemon Go!
• Releasing second half 2019 (read November 2019 most likely)

I'm just gonna say this before this forum is flooded. Would a big open-world game set in the Pokemon universe be great? Absolutely. However, not every game can pull off open world well. Keep in mind this is Game Freak's first real time developing for home consoles. I do expect improvements to an extent but not everything is possible. The next game may not be the next evolution many are hoping for but I don't want this forum to be drowned in negativity and pessimism.

This may not happen with this specific game, but I'd like it if Monolith Soft helped out with creating the world layout. After BotW and all three Xenoblade games, they can pull off a killer, huge world very consistently.

Pokemon doesn't need to be open-world, something like Xenoblade 1 or 2 style is fine. Xenoblade 1 and 2 are not entirely open-world, they're linear JRPGs with just huge optional stuff to find.

@EvilLucario You can also do true open world with a linear influence. Basically make it open so you can go anywhere do anything but the essentially tells you where the next gym is so if you're following the story you're on a linear path. It could give some warnings when you get off. That way it works for both types of people.

i'm sure some of you have seen my comments on the pokemon articles today but with online battles and trades being likely put behind a paywall this game is going to need to do a lot to it's single player to convince me to buy it. At a minimum I need the online battle features put into single player. Basically if they do a special battle format I want it to exist in single player.

Endgame needs to be massively expanded on all fronts. Battle tree doesn't cut it. There needs to be a lot of different formats and battle modes for endgame. I'd like more casual things too, more dungeons to explore, a house to decorate, photography, contests etc.

I don't know how realistic this stuff is but if I'm going to have most of endgame taken away by a paywall then they better make up for it somehow.

@Yorumi Oh yeah, I never said it can't work as an open-world. I'm just saying you don't need to be open-world.

There's a lot Game Freak should be doing, though, that they're probably just not gonna do.

@EvilLucario yeah I have a feeling we're going to get about what sun/moon offered and nothing more. Definitely hope I'm very wrong though.

@EvilLucario I guess I feel the same way. I sort of hate that people think this is the default that all games have to be. As is if it was the natural evolution for every game. It used to be about graphics... well nvm it still kind of is. "Well this is fine and all but when is this going to look like all the other games that I play? Why isn't this taking the same path? I want this to look like that!".

@Yorumi I'm pretty sure there will be more then what Sun and Moon offered at the very least. You're always so negative and pessimistic.

@Snaplocket I've had years of nintendo promising the moon and failing to deliver. Sun/moon gave us less than X/Y what reason do I have to expect much more than what sun/moon delivered?

Let's guess what country will be represent for Pokemon 2019.
X & Y = France
Sun & Moon = Hawaii
2019 = ???

@Anti-Matter

Canada.

@DarthNocturnal
Hm... interesting.
Like we heard rumour about Project Beluga from GameFreaks Twitter.
Something about between Canada & Alaska.

I'd personally like to see a prequel. Maybe get a taste of the omega pokemon that were supposedly the predecessors mentioned in AlphaSapphire and OmegaRuby.

@Anti-Matter Canada could certainly be interesting. I'm guessing it would be a lot of forest. In terms of geography they're kind of running out of environments but in terms of cultures it's endless. It's hard to say with that what exactly I'd like to see. I think two that would be kind of fun to see are an Egyptian one, and a South American ranch/farm culture. For that second one it would be like open fields, farms, ranches, cowboys herding cattle, and a somewhat mountainous region.

@Yorumi
If Generation 8 based on Canada , i guess there will be a lot of Plant / Ice type Pokemons.

@Anti-Matter They should do Morocco or Spain. They won't, but it would be great.

Mexico. With Mario Odyssey DLC.

I'm pretty insistent on a colder region, like a Scandinavian area. These regions are really underrepresented in media, yet they are very gorgeous. I feel like it's even more necessary at this point because we have now had two tropical regions, and to be honest, I wasn't ever excited for Alola.

Of course, whether or not the beauty of a Scandinavian region would shine through is another question, GF really needs to move away from their 2.5D ways to represent the region's topography properly.

Based on previous leaks, Gen 8’s main games should take place in Spain or Italy, of course none of this is guaranteed.

I would personally love to see an Italian region with an updated Kalos post game, we got that easter egg in XY of there being another region that the train station could reach, and based on real-world comparisons, that region should be Italy-based. It would also be a fairly unique region with its shaping.