Pokemon Sword & Shield GENERAL DISCUSSION Thread [Spoilers]

[DSDark]

On the official website.
If I'm not mistaken, it was also demonstrated during the E3 treehouse presentation.

I'd like to think that these Wild Area Pokemon are locked behind gym badges.

In the e3 treehouse thing they showed a machoke that was a very high level

 

[shoz999]

On the official website.
If I'm not mistaken, it was also demonstrated during the E3 treehouse presentation.

I'd like to think that these Wild Area Pokemon are locked behind gym badges.

I like your attitude!

 

[Pikasaur]

I remember a high level Vespiquen being unable to be Caught, i think.

 

[DannyDark]

On the official website.
If I'm not mistaken, it was also demonstrated during the E3 treehouse presentation.

I'd like to think that these Wild Area Pokemon are locked behind gym badges.

"In the Wild Area, there is a chance that you’ll run into powerful wild Pokémon! These Pokémon are constantly on their guard—in fact, you won’t even be able to throw a Poké Ball at them when first starting your adventure."

Thank you! Huh, you're right! I suppose I just didn't take it literally, more so in the sense that you can't shake a stick at them.
It's been a while since I've watched the E3 gameplay obviously, and I know they ran into the Machoke, I just can't remember if the ability to throw balls was mentioned then.

Yeah, just gave it a watch over, and despite the Machoke in the E3 demo being level 26, and the player's Scorbunny being level 12.. Since the Machoke wasn't introduced with the following message..

I can only assume that it's got to be either a really good amount stronger, or is a specific area-designated "boss" Pokemon perhaps? (Image taken from Pokemon site)

 

[LilligantLewis]

And GameFreak leeching off an extra game copy sale to players just so they can trade evolve without risking to lose their shiny or their EV trained mon with egg moves and IVs is just scummy.

What Ophie says in my next quote essentially responds to what you said here. There is a 99% chance that GameFreak has no idea that people are buying two games just because that's the only way they have to trade, and there's a 100% chance GameFreak didn't make version exclusives to be "scummy"

From the perspective of a westerner, yes. In urban Japan, though, where Game Freak is located, the majority of trading actually happens in person, as Pokémon is such a cultural cornerstone there that it's not hard to wander around the streets and find someone else who has a Pokémon game and would like to trade/battle/etc. It's ethnocentrism, but it's something they probably don't even fully realize.

Then again, ethnocentrism is usually something people don't realize. A European who thinks it's a short trip from Dallas to Houston just because they're both in Texas isn't necessarily stupid; they just never gave thought to the differences in scale in the land size. Same with Game Freak. Most people in Game Freak have never stepped foot outside of Japan, and of those that do, most probably have no idea how people play Pokémon in other parts of the world. I would bet you that most of them think non-Japanese trade and battle in person because that's how they do it in Japan--and that most people in Japan think that too (no matter how much folks like James Turner and Lee HyunJung say otherwise).

It's happening!!!!!

I don't think I've been this excited for a Pokémon game since X&Y. I am so ready to head into the Wild Area!

Call it by its proper name, my friend! It's the Breathofthe....WildArea!

 

[Creyk]

Honestly, I hope we will get the datamine around this point in time

Same. I know I will be checking all the sites very frequently from November 4 onwards anticipating the leak.

 

[Julia Artemis]

Weird we have a decent amount of that you can make videos for while some poketubers are doing videos about obviously fake starter evolutions. Been critical of aDrive but he's been mostly moving away from covering most of the fake rumors

 

[janejane6178]

Same. I know I will be checking all the sites very frequently from November 4 onwards anticipating the leak.

Why November 4th in particular?

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

What Ophie says in my next quote essentially responds to what you said here. There is a 99% chance that GameFreak has no idea that people are buying two games just because that's the only way they have to trade, and there's a 100% chance GameFreak didn't make version exclusives to be "scummy"

I don't buy it. Maybe 20 years ago that was true, but if they still don't realise it nowadays after selling pokémon games for over two decades that would just be wilful ignorance on their side. They obviously wouldn't label it as scummy, but let's be real here. The only reason version exclusivity is a thing is to get people to buy what is essentially the same game twice. No other franchise does this because no other franchise would get away with it, pokémon only gets away with it because that's how pokémon has always been. GTA doesn't sell two versions of the same game with 90% the same missions and 10% version-exclusive missions, 90% same cars and 10% version-exclusive cars. Fans would consider that scummy. But that is essentially what pokémon does, and has always done. Other franchises might hold back a titbit of content and release it as "premium" or "deluxe" content, or as DLC, but it's rare that relatively small amounts of additional content cost the same as the base game.

 

[KingMinun]

The new Christmas merchandise for the Pokemon Centre has been announced, do the Pokemon that appear in that merchandise suggest that they’ll be in Sword and Shield? I hope so

 

[Orphalesion]

What Ophie says in my next quote essentially responds to what you said here. There is a 99% chance that GameFreak has no idea that people are buying two games just because that's the only way they have to trade, and there's a 100% chance GameFreak didn't make version exclusives to be "scummy"

Yeah even taking "Creator-Provincialism" into account there's no way that they are that naive. I mean if they weren't aware of that there wouldn't be bundles of the two versions with pre-order bonuses...
Plus if Gamefreak supposedly listened to their western fans about not revealing so much prior to release this time around, then they are aware of how their global fanbase plays.

 

[Auraninja]

I don't buy it. Maybe 20 years ago that was true, but if they still don't realise it nowadays after selling pokémon games for over two decades that would just be wilful ignorance on their side. They obviously wouldn't label it as scummy, but let's be real here. The only reason version exclusivity is a thing is to get people to buy what is essentially the same game twice. No other franchise does this because no other franchise would get away with it, pokémon only gets away with it because that's how pokémon has always been. GTA doesn't sell two versions of the same game with 90% the same missions and 10% version-exclusive missions, 90% same cars and 10% version-exclusive cars. Fans would consider that scummy. But that is essentially what pokémon does, and has always done. Other franchises might hold back a titbit of content and release it as "premium" or "deluxe" content, or as DLC, but it's rare that relatively small amounts of additional content cost the same as the base game.

The Mega Man Battle Network and Star Force Series have done it though.

Mega Man Battle Network 3, in particular, had it to where you needed one battle chip from the other game in order to fight the completion boss.

Now the Virtual Console does alleviate that by allowing you to input a code, but its not like you can enjoy all the content by having one of the games.

 

[dss_live]

Yeah even taking "Creator-Provincialism" into account there's no way that they are that naive. I mean if they weren't aware of that there wouldn't be bundles of the two versions with pre-order bonuses...
Plus if Gamefreak supposedly listened to their western fans about not revealing so much prior to release this time around, then they are aware of how their global fanbase plays.

I mean, in the sobble interview with game informer, they talked about how they didn't know what to expect of the dfans reaction outside japan because they thought the idea of loving something because you feel sad for it was a japanese thing. Even though that is pretty much a thing everywhere. And there's been pokemon like that before, so to still have that believe, kind of shows they're very much "stuck" within their own little box of how things are in Japan and not how things are worldwide.

It feels like these days people should be aware of that, but that alone made me feel like it's definately not yet fully sunk in there yet. Which is understandable, tbh. If you're surrounded by a certain way of thinking or seeing things, even if you've heard some noise about it here and there that could suggest otherwise, it's very easy to write it off as an outlier.

 

[DSDark]

Why November 4th in particular?

Directly 11 days from release. That's when I think USUM leaked

 

[janejane6178]

Directly 11 days from release. That's when I think USUM leaked

But maybe its different for Switch games? Cuz I think LGPE were leaked 6 days perior to the release

 

[LilligantLewis]

But maybe its different for Switch games? Cuz I think LGPE were leaked 6 days perior to the release

There's no set time when things leak.

 

[PrinceOfFacade]

Man, staring at the thumbnail of Shield on my Switch's homepage is so stressful (#firstworldproblems).

I really want to play this game and see how it looks on my tv screen. I am very confident that even with that hellish OoT tree still being in the Wild Area, this game is going to be far more visually stunning than the naysayers claim it to be. So far, the major consensus of all the reviewers is that the game is "absolutely beautiful to look at."

 

[William Antonio Ramírez]

There's no set time when things leak.

That's true. From what I can assume, we'll most likely see the datamined leaks sometime next week.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

That's true. From what I can assume, we'll most likely see the datamined leaks sometime next week.

I’m thinking that too. Some game reviewer is most likely to blab about the game more than GF would like. I doubt that many physical copies would be sold before the official release date and only those who are going to review the game will get copies ahead of time.

 

[William Antonio Ramírez]

I’m thinking that too. Some game reviewer is most likely to blab about the game more than GF would like. I doubt that many physical copies would be sold before the official release date and only those who are going to review the game will get copies ahead of time.

From what I've heard, most people who work in electronic retail stores such as GameStop for example, gets the game approximately a week before the official release date. Think about it, one of the workers can receive a free copy of the game and can start posting whatever he/she experiences in the game days after.