Topic: Pokemon Sword & Shield

@nintendobynature With online trading, I'd argue it doesn't really matter which version anyone chooses. At this point, I'd say it's more a matter of tradition than anything.

I do like how the main player characters seem older than the ones in Sun/Moon, they're more similar in age to the Black/White ones and X/Y ones. Hopefully that translates to an interesting and more mature/nuanced story.

That kid entering the stadium has 227 on his back. Is that how many new Pokémon there'll be?

@gcunit 2/27 is the day that the original Pokemon games launched in Japan (and today's date!)

@Dogorilla D'oh! Haven't even bothered to check the date today

I think an open world Pokémon, or at least open-ish type world, could be amazing. That said, one step at a time. I’m just happy to see Pokémon finally get a proper console entry with a nice leap forward in production value.

After this they’ll probably release the next Let’s Go Remake, perhaps gen 2, and after that maybe we’ll see them start flexing their muscles with design choices. I imagine the feedback from Let’s Go will affect the next core entry to at least show Pokémon on the maps. This one was probably already well into development, so by the time they got those positive reactions the game was halfway finished.

i know this a likely long shot. but, here it goes.

i would love to see

• Local & Online Coop
• customize the pokemon (clothes and hair.)

i'm not sure how likely those are. but it would be neat to see these two features return from Let's Go into Sword and Shield.

@Dogorilla Wow, I didn't even catch that.
I'm willing to learn more about the game, for sure. I'm disappointed that it's back to random encounters after playing Let's Go, but in all fairness that was probably going to stay random anyway. I really enjoyed playing Let's Go on my tv, so I may be able to bear with a traditional title again. I got bored with Ultra Moon after not having played one since Diamond/Pearl

I never understood why people care that much about the character design. It’s just an avatar for me, so why should I care how old he/she looks.

So, now we got all the complaints out of the way, I want your attention on the map. It's clearly the UK, but it's rotated 180 degrees. With the big City (London) at the top, and the Thames flows east instead of west.

The ''gyms'' are interesting as well. I can spot five of them, they're the stadium looking buildings. But they're located in the north. The south seems pretty empty in comparison. But maybe that's the theme, who knows (there's even a big GOT wall in the middle of the map dividing the cities in the north from the grasslands in the south). There's a railway on the left side crossing the wetlands, but it doesn't go anywhere. So maybe there's more to the south and they're not showing everything. Because if it's an island, you can't see the southern border, trust me, I know my geology.

My quickfire impressions, in no particular order. Some of these may be unpopular:

Graphics: I wasn't expecting anything nuts and thus wasn't disappointed. It's a definite improvement over what I've seen of the two Let's Go games (still need to play one) and the 3DS games IMO.

Region: Galar looks pretty cool! It seems more industrialized than some of the previous games when comparing each region overall. I'm pleased that they went with another European country this time around.

New Pokemon: Eh....We haven't seen much yet to be honest, but I'm not impressed with the designs of the starters. We do have yet to see their evolutions, plus it's likely that one or two of their designs will grow on me. I'm not thrilled at the fact that there's yet another monkey though.

Game Names: I can get behind Sword and Shield. It'll be a crime if the Honedge line doesn't make an appearance though. I'm not sure which one of the two I'll get yet. That decision will require more info.

Edit: Just saw the large-scale map @Octane linked. There's even a Big Ben type of structure in Galar's London equivalent!

@Octane It's interesting as the far north city we see is clearly what in the UK is referred to as "The City", and yet towards the center of the region is what is clearly based on Westminster Abbey.

Also of note is once you get past the wetlands, which is based seemingly on my home in the Lake District, we get a LOT of different paths at once.

Also of note seems to be how it resembles the economy of the UK. The City is service and finance based, often referred to as the financial capital of the world, then towards the midlands or so called "Black Country" due to the state of the air in the Industrial Revolution, you have mines and the locales for the steampunk aesthetic, very IR era. Then in what is the north of England, you have the very rural areas, with the lakes, peaks and valleys. Only its the south here.

Also of note is this map actually curves, unlike other Pokemon region art, the perspective shifts as you travel up, perhaps indicating north of the City there is more to see, or this region is just REALLY tall, akin to Sinnoh.

I think the animation bugs me more than the visuals. They feel stiff.
Wish we had more fluid animations like Battle Revolution: https://youtu.be/28CgyvTu_-U?t=85

I'm glad the world isn't made out of tiles like Let's Go.

After today's Direct, I'm hoping for a Let's Go take on the Johto region more now. Sword & Shield look very ambitious in terms of environmental details, but it seems like the Pokemon aspect of the game has taken a step backwards. I was hoping that Pokemon were going to appear in the wild and that the follow feature would stick around, but both appear to be taken out for the next generation. Both made Let's Go a very personal and convenient experience. Being able to pursue the Pokemon that I want is the ideal experience.

I'm concerned with shiny hunting as well, and hope that they didn't remove the method hunting of the Let's Go games. Shiny hunting made Let's Go my most played Pokemon game and I hope to shiny hunt in these games too with more accessible odds. If shiny hunting is as accessible in Sword & Shield as in Let's Go, I'll likely be getting the new generation near release. If not, I may just wait to see what happens with Pokemon in 2020.

Gamers: complain Let’s Go isn’t like traditional Pokémon

Gamers: complain traditional Pokémon isn’t like Let’s Go

😉

doing a big change like moving to open world is also a potential risk and gamble, both financially and gameplay experience. It could either work really well like BOTW or flop like Mass Effect Andromeda. Human beings tend to go for something that's more familiar than to risk change and it's important to note that a majority of people who play games are mostly casuals who don't really care about specific stuff in games

I was fine with Let's Go when it was revealed, since it was a combination of the traditional and Go. Before Let's Go, Go was the game keeping my interest in Pokemon. I didn't care much for Gen. 6 or 7.

Where do you live in the Lake District? Keswick is one of my favourite places in the UK.

That's just globist propaganda.

Open world hurt more games than helped, especially lately. Games like Final Fantasy XV suffer from not taking advantage of its open world at all. And that's a huge AAA game and that doesn't have close to the same amount of enemies Pokemon has.

If that's the "evolution" I'm getting with an open world game, count me out. Something more along the lines of Xenoblade 1 and 2's scale with linear areas but more open off-shoots? Sure. No open world though.