Pokemon Sword & Shield GENERAL DISCUSSION Thread [Spoilers]

[Sαpphire]

So apparently Sword & Shield are not only the fastest-selling Pokemon games. It's also the fastest-selling Switch games beating Zelda, Mario, Smash. Crazy right?

They’re possibly the second-fastest selling games in the franchise actually; Sun and Moon sold about 7.2 million copies in the same period of time as reported sales for Sw/Sh. EDIT: I’m actually not finding a good source for this claim, which was featured in a single Eurogamer article and has propagated in today’s stories from there. Research suggests that the 7.2m figure is actually with multiple weeks of data in some territories. Sw/Sh may in fact have sold more.

Granted, the Switch has a much lower overall sales total right now than the 3DS had at the time of their release, so the overall attachment rate for these has almost definitely exceeded Anything in the franchise’s history. It’s also pretty phenomenal that they sold double or more what LGPE sold in their first several days. While obviously we can’t assume that this will hold true, assuming that these games have the same long-term multiplier and that this is indicative of the relative interest in these games, these could end up selling somewhere above Diamond & Pearl in a best case scenario, making them the third best-selling set in the franchise after the first two generations.

It remains to be seen whether they can achieve that, and I’m sure plenty of people have some powerful opinions about that should it come to pass, but we’re essentially still looking at anywhere from 14 million to 22 million as realistic long-term numbers. Personally I would gues that selling less than 16 million is really unlikely.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

On the topic of excluding certian overly popular Pokémon... I’m sorry, but Pikachu really should be in every game. Without him it would be like Persona/SMT without Jack Frost, or Dragon Quest without Slimes. Same goes with Eevee.

With that said... Pokémon like Meowth, Lucario, and especially Charizard have no reason to be present every game (the latter we don’t really have to worry about since this was the first game Charmander was present independent of his counterparts). Unfortunately, due to how recognizable they are, we’ll probably always have at least two of them a region.

I'd like to know who at GF has a cat obsession. First there was Alolan Meowth, now there's also Galarian and Gigantamax Meowth. Oddly enough, they're ALL weak to Fighting.

So apparently Sword & Shield are not only the fastest-selling Pokemon games. It's also the fastest-selling Switch games beating Zelda, Mario, Smash. Crazy right?

Pokemon is a system seller, and unlike say Zelda, parents are likely to pick it up for their kids as a direct gift instead of just giving them money for any of the other games you listed.

 

[DaddyOak]

If they are legit about this “cycling Pokédex” concept and won’t be having every Pokémon in future games, then they need to commit fully. And that means for the next generation of games:

No meowth
No charizard
No lucario
No mimikyu
No eevee
No mew
No ****ing Pikachu!!!!

There are three pokemon that might never be cut

pikachu lucario and charizard they are iconic no comparison to majority in terms of popularity. if they do get cut proably a big mistake.

Maybe eevee but in the past it was a popular pokemon nothing more nothing less. just so happened to be one of the mascots of lets go.

I'll give it a strong case though since so many eeveelutions but it's not that big of a mascot imo. If it reallt was why did we not have eevee instead of other popular starter pokemon. only got a guest appearance in a pokeball

It's a classic but just because it was the mascot in Let's go I still might see it being cut in the next game

the others as popular as they are tons of popular pokemon got cut

also mew ain't that popular for the casuals usually hard to get special events etc why would mew even be in this list could easily be gone in next rotation.

originally you had to go to a spot to get mew in japan it was even more crazy only 151 people where given mew at the event. mew is just like any other pokemon.

mimikyu as good as it is competitively and as much as people love it's design tons of lovable pokemon got cut I'd also say that mimikyu could be gone in next rotation

meowth in the past for sure not but the anime got less and less plus in game not many people where super fond of meowth definitely not as popular as most pokemon on this list.

in past anime times yes sure nowadays less.

also can we plz get the jerk rival back in the anime. it never got as good as gary oak again. I'd rather take comedy over even the better serious rivals such as paul. gary oak was a true jerk rival insulting ash all the time. you could actually see gary oak being better at everything being steps ahead and the rivalry between the two. why friendly rivals.

Gary's ego was over the top the guy even had a cheerleader squad at pretty much all times. also while ash was dirt poor and camping outside all the time. gary was stinking rich and could afford a hotel and travel by car.. than again the guy has the skills to back it up always beating ash until the final fight at the leagues having 10 badges and also with other task being the number 1.

was this guy truly 10 years old. imo other rivals didnt get close. also later anime could have good moments but only partly. in old gen the filler was more enjoyable.

ash had it's bottom moments in gen 1 and 2 but that wasnt a bad thing

when do we get moments as this again

Gary: "Say, I've got an idea. I'll give you my leftovers in a doggy bag if you spin around three times and say "Pikachu"."

Ash: "Not on your life! I'd die of hunger first!"

Pikachu: giving in spinning around saying pikachu because everyone starving to death and no place to stay overnight

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I'd like to know who at GF has a cat obsession. First there was Alolan Meowth, now there's also Galarian and Gigantamax Meowth. Oddly enough, they're ALL weak to Fighting.

I just wanted a Galarian Glameow line based on the Manx cat where Glameow and Purugly rely on using their bodies to perform slamming and rolling attacks and possibly be given the Electric/Normal typing. Electric because all the rolling around creates static electricity in their fur and they store that energy in it and thus touching it gives off a shock.

 

[FlygontheRavager]

I just wanted a Galarian Glameow line based on the Manx cat where Glameow and Purugly rely on using their bodies to perform slamming and rolling attacks and possibly be given the Electric/Normal typing. Electric because all the rolling around creates static electricity in their fur and they store that energy in it and thus touching it gives off a shock.

I wanted a Ghost/Psychic-type Galarian Glameow/Purugly based on the Cheshire Cat.

Frankly, though, Galarian Meowth is okay in my book. At least it evolves into something totally new and not a Galarian Persian. As long as Meowth doesn’t get any more special forms in the future, I’ll be happy to accept what we got.

 

[Emboar_Rulez]

Are there any gift Pokémon besides Toxel and Charmander?

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

Are there any gift Pokémon besides Toxel and Charmander?

Yes there are more gift Pokémon. Type: Null is given to you at the Battle Tower after defeating Leon and becoming Champion, you can get one of the Galar Fossil Pokemon guaranteed on Route 6 without having to find two halve to create a Fossil, and you can get a Gigantamax Pikachu and Eevee if you have save data for LGPE on your system at the Meetup Spot Train Station.

 

[Wingulltrainer]

My problems with max raid battles;
I got into one with Sandaconda; it took me three tries, because I kept choosing the wrong Pokémon. Once I got in, I couldn’t stop the battle, swap out my Pokémon , or anything. I was finally able to get him, but the lack of control I had in he battle was very frustrating.
And do we get exp. points for max raid battles? Doesn’t seem like it. I’m trying to build up my team a bit before I go up against the dragon gym.

 

[DeadshotRogue]

Are there any gift Pokémon besides Toxel and Charmander?

Pokeball Plus gives you a Mew.

 

[Sham]

So apparently SWSH sold pretty great in terms of Switch games but sold worse than SM and XY.

 

[Emboar_Rulez]

Im a little mad that to get Mew i gotta buy the pokeball plus.Is anyone gonna buy 2?

 

[Red and Blue]

It is funny that Meowth is getting so much love after all these years. Even getting two regional variants and alternate evolution over Pikachu/Raichu

 

[BCVM22]

My problems with max raid battles;
I got into one with Sandaconda; it took me three tries, because I kept choosing the wrong Pokémon. Once I got in, I couldn’t stop the battle, swap out my Pokémon , or anything. I was finally able to get him, but the lack of control I had in he battle was very frustrating.
And do we get exp. points for max raid battles? Doesn’t seem like it. I’m trying to build up my team a bit before I go up against the dragon gym.

You’re not supposed to be able to stop the battle (in what battles does it allow you to stop?), and you only bring one Pokémon into the Raid with you. There’s nothing to stop or switch out - I believe you can use healing items if you feel you can spare the time, but that’s it.

You don’t get direct EXP for Raid battles but you get Exp. Candies of the various sizes (among other useful rewards), which are the same thing but with more control over who gets the experience points.

 

[Marzbar]

I just went through the most cancerous battle I’ve possibly ever been in, and I’ve been in VGC battles that have come down to Toxapex mirror matches!

Picture this:

A level 5 yellow aura Cursola max raid. I choose my Grimmsnarl Loki for the battle because of his Dark STAB. Communications aren’t working on the server properly, so nobody joins my raid and I’m stuck with 3 NPC’s as allies.
The battle starts, Cursola somehow gains a 5 piece barrier before the battle even starts!
We start chipping away at the barrier, only to realize the Cursola has Weak Armour as its ability. The first 3 hits into its barrier activate Weak Armour and Cursola goes +6 max speed without us even putting a dent in it.
Then it starts OHKO’ing my allies with Max Rockfalls, because it now outspeeds everything. It KO’s all 3 NPC’s (Jolteon, Heatmor and something else I forgot because it died so quickly). I’m pretty sure it KO’d the Jolteon with Mirror Coat FFS. And now Sandstorm has kicked in too.
But it’s initial barrier is gone thanks to my Max Darkness, so I get some damage in. But then another Barrier gets put up straight away!
Then Cursola starts spamming Strength Sap on my Grimmsnarl, I’m now -2 Atk and Cursola is healing itself back up! And I’m also taking Sandstorm chip damage.
Just when it couldn’t get anyway worse, Cursola uses Spite on me and wipes out my PP on my only Dark attack.
Thankfully while it’s distracted with utterly decimating my Grimmsnarl, all my ally NPC’s come back and break the barrier.
It’s now got massive drops in its defenses thanks to weak armour defense drops and the drops from breaking the barrier. We go on one last desperate offensive and it outspeeds us and puts me and a couple of the allies down to only a few HP left, it was dangerously close because no more Pokémon were allowed to faint. Then our attacks take it down.

I throw a white Premier Ball because I’m like, screw it, this ball would look epic and I don’t care anymore. Well it amazingly somehow manages to catch it... by this stage I’m too mentally drained to celebrate.

I go check out its summary in my PC. Naive nature, meh. But shockingly.... and this may happen for all max raid battles I don’t know, but Cursola did NOT have Spite or Strength Sap, which it used repeatedly. So I don’t know how it was using them!

Anyway, Cursola will now haunt me forever. I’m almost tempted to join forces in an evil alliance and use it in my team

 

[Emboar_Rulez]

It is funny that Meowth is getting so much love after all these years. Even getting two regional variants and alternate evolution over Pikachu/Raichu

Its probably gonna get a regional variant with every game now.

 

[WishIhadaManafi5]

Im a little mad that to get Mew i gotta buy the pokeball plus.Is anyone gonna buy 2?

I'm still mad about that. Not going to buy any of them. Not worth it to me.

 

[DeadshotRogue]

Im a little mad that to get Mew i gotta buy the pokeball plus.Is anyone gonna buy 2?

You will be able to transfer from Let's Go when Pokemon Home comes out next year.

 

[Sαpphire]

So apparently SWSH sold pretty great in terms of Switch games but sold worse than SM and XY.

They sold significantly more than XY and had a comparable attachment rate, and looking through news reports I’ve found they may have actually sold more than Sun and Moon as well. We didn’t actually get reliable estimates for SM for the same time period, but what I can find that’s verifiable is 5.7 million in its first whole week - which is less than the weekend total for Sword and Shield.

These may actually have had the biggest Nintendo launch of all time. They definitely, verifiably had the biggest launch for the franchise in terms of revenue, and probably in units sold.

 

[Sham]

They sold significantly more than XY and had a comparable attachment rate, and looking through news reports I’ve found they may have actually sold more than Sun and Moon as well. We didn’t actually get reliable estimates for SM for the same time period, but what I can find that’s verifiable is 5.7 million in its first whole week - which is less than the weekend total for Sword and Shield.

These may actually have had the biggest Nintendo launch of all time. They definitely, verifiably had the biggest launch for the franchise in terms of revenue, and probably in units sold.

Maybe my sources are wrong. Is this according to the Japanese market or the world in general? And where did you get this information from if you don’t mind me asking?


Edit: the news reports I’ve read said they haven’t outsold Sun and Moon but that’s without the inclusion of digital sales.

“However, "Pokémon Sword and Shield" did not outsell franchise predecessor "Pokémon Sun and Moon" in the UK nor in Japan. The older games' Japanese launch accounted for 1.9m sales.

For context, when "Pokémon Sun and Moon" launched in November 2016 for the portable Nintendo 3DS, 61 million 3DS consoles had been shipped to retail worldwide, according to Nintendo's own figures.”

 

[Pikasaur]

I just wanted a Galarian Glameow line based on the Manx cat where Glameow and Purugly rely on using their bodies to perform slamming and rolling attacks and possibly be given the Electric/Normal typing. Electric because all the rolling around creates static electricity in their fur and they store that energy in it and thus touching it gives off a shock.

I would have liked Glameow to show up at all. Outside of Pearl it has only shown up once in OR/AS post game