Topic: Pokemon Sword & Shield

@kkslider5552000 We'll have to see if there's a decent post-game, difficulty curve, etc. but the more open level design in the Wild Area and charming character animations already put this gen pretty high up on my list.

Pokémon is too simple and cowardly to do a really good story. You can do a great story with happy go lucky characters and happy/simple settings, but they require some semblance of risk or backbone behind them. At best you’ll end up with S/M’s decent/competent family drama or B/W’s strange attempt on morality.

I think my biggest issue with S/M's story was the utter lack of the player trainer's emotion. Older games you couldn't see the trainer's face, so it wasn't a problem. But in S/M during even the climax of the story your trainer is just like . It really broke immersion for me, and contributed to the game feeling like your trainer is just along for the ride in someone else's story. I hope we see something better from Sw/Sh.

@-Green- Honestly BW was sooooo close to being exactly what a Pokemon story should be if it had been a little less heavy handed. It doesn't have to be ground breaking or anything, just entertaining.

Still baffled that we didn't get Alolan Tropius (Mango/Pineapple form?), hula-skirt Jynx, and gelato Vanilluxe. The regional form concept was wasted considering how few of them there were (and they all happened to be from Gen I).

Precisely. They experimented with the concept in Gen V I believe (perhaps with Black 2/White 2), but the Easy and Hard difficulty modes had to be unlocked post-game (both versions holding either one of the difficulty modes hostage) and then transferred wirelessly to another console with a separate copy of either game. The whole process was so comically convoluted that one ponders why the hell they had even bothered pouring resources into it at all if they weren't going to implement it properly.

I believe that I may have played White Version 2 in Hard mode (don't quote me on that though, it's been close to a decade), but I recall that the difficulty spikes quite significantly in the Gen V post-game anyway, perhaps more so than any other generation to date.

I didn't notice this as much in my playthrough of Pokemon Sun but did notice it more in Ultra Sun. Your trainer isn't completely expressionless during a (very) small handful of cutscenes, but this is accurate for the most part. I normally don't mind silent protagonists in games - nor am I against them being fully voiced/fleshed out by the developers, if done right - but at least give them appropriate expressions. The blank did get a bit freaky at times.

It's like avatars in Pokemon games are mindless puppets or something....

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LhWpuBFJE1kfLzRadl6LM...

I got a little bored, so I figured out the percentages of each generation based on that article going around. When you take into account that they've mostly been avoiding showing starters/legendaries/mythicals/ultra beasts (and these groups are the most likely to be cut), Gen VII actually takes the lead in how much of it's normal Pokemon are available, followed closedly by Gen VI. Generation I actually has the second least percentage of it's normal Pokemon available, behind only Gen III.

so, is soft resetting still in?

@BlackTalon2 Yup, autosave exists, but can be turned on and off in the options menu.

Really on the fence on getting this for my kid.

Any idea dea if it has couch co op for up to 4 players? I can’t imagine it being easy to implement for it.

Also why two versions, should I get him both?

@Ruthless4u Main series Pokémon games have always required a system and a game per person for any sort of co-op or competitive play. There's no need to be buying both versions as the exclusives between them (which are pretty much a few different creatures in each, and as of these games the typing of the Gym challenges) aren't worth buying both for just casual play.

The games are proving to be another great adventure for new and old fans alike, so I'm sure your kid will enjoy it.

The old fans you say?

@jump Old fans, yes. Not counting those who are taking the words of Game Freak as some sort of personal insult (which is all I see the controversy over missing 'mon as), most others do seem to want to jump in to the world of Galar.

I've already said Game Freak's incompetency is what's holding the main series back, looking as though the games are about a generation or two behind. As well as the fixation in holding onto the 90s for as long as they can in terms of world design. But the gameplay, the core of what makes the main series so great, is still there. And despite a few... awful graphical decisions, Galar is looking a nice place to be exploring.

Though if Genius Sonority can show Game Freak a thing or two, I'll be happier for it.

I'm old fans and definitely looking forward to romping through Galar! Slowly playing through DQ11 while waiting for LM3 and this game.

I'm one of those old geezers who grew up with the original Game Boy games and I'm really excited for this!

@jump

My first Pokemon game was Pokemon Red on the original Game Boy (when I was 9 or something), and I'm beyond excited for this game.

@Ruthless4u No reason to get two versions. And probably not much in the way of synchronous co-op.

@Snaplocket Let's be honest: unless you're a time traveler or work at GF, you have no idea how good this game will end up being.

He should definitely get DQXI S, though, I agree. Brilliant JRPG.

@Ruthless4u I'm fascinated that you didn't know mainline Pokemon has had two versions for almost 20+ years. Not trying to mean at all I just find it incredible. You are a true unicorn my friend.

That being said, the two game gimmick is pretty unnecessary at this point. Back in the 90s it was an incentive for people to buy a Gameboy link cable and interact by trading or battling because certain Pokemon were exclusive to Red or Blue version. At this point it's just tradition, and one that should probably end in my possibly controversial opinion.

We are a nice community for the most part. I was 6 when the original games came out in the states, it's one of the most important things to me in life. Also I feel like it helps young children learn reading skills. For example Blastoise (a Turtoise that Blasts water) or Cubone (an animal Cub that carries a Bone) most pokemon names are simple but clever plays on words and they work very hard to make them equally clever in many languages. Sorry for the book just wanted to give you as much context as possible because you seem very new to Pokemon games.

That's not really it though, it's the rebooting of the metagame it will cause as well as broken promises that Pokémon Bank paid subscription was for future proofing the games. The excuse from Gamefreak being that they needed to do this due to all of the new animations and models despite the game still using models and animations from 2 gens ago on the 3DS was clear bs and annoyed people. So the hardcore fanbase have valid points as it messes up their game who see it more than a basic collect badges and beat the champion game.

In any case I'm just pointing out it's not actually universal excitement from all fans as this game has had the biggest backlash from fans.

@jump you cant really say backlash when it isn't even out yet. Also you might want to qualify that with "biggest backlash from a mainline game" or something along those lines, because it's hard for me to believe that Sword and Shield will have as much complaints as the Let's Go games. Also Ultra Sun and Moon were an unplayable mess that ran at half speed when you bought a digital version on a New 3DS XL. So those will always be the worst games in the series for me personally because I literally couldn't even play it.

Backlash is precise, it means a negative reaction by a number of people which fits this perfectly. I think you're thinking of critical reception rather than anticipation.