Pokemon Sword & Shield GENERAL DISCUSSION Thread [Spoilers]

[Leonhart]

The characters they've introduced so far in Sword and Shield look more promising than Gen 7's at least, so I'm more excited to see the story than I was for Sun/Moon.

I like Sonia, Dande (Leon), the regional professor, and the playable characters at least. I'm not too enthusiastic about Hop's design though since he reminds me of a frog because of his long arms and facial expression, and the two Gym Leaders that have been revealed so far are just so-so to me.

 

[KillerDraco]

To be honest, the Dex issue is not really a dealbreaker for me on Sword and Shield regardless. Like, I usually transfer all of my past-Gen Pokemon during the postgame, so the main game experience isn't really impacted by this decision for me.

What it does impact, however, is my willingness to pay for Pokemon Home. Without the ability to transfer old generation Pokemon forward, it's effectively worthless for me in its current form.

 

[JLK2707]

Save it from what? As Masuda noted, there was always going to come a point where it was no longer feasible to support all pokemon in a game. Its painful yes, but it holds a lot of good possibilities too. And for the average player who probably doesn't even know half the pokemon by heart, it probably won't matter.


Actually from what I heard there is balance there as you're not able to actually catch them when they are above a certain level compared to you.

What makes you say that?

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

Or you could just retcon Ekans' move pool to learn Poison Fang earlier on, or any other Poison move really. They've remixed older Pokemon's move pools so many times, so this is hardly a compatibility-breaking issue. Also, just technically, most dragons have subpar pre-evolutions that are difficult to level up around their contemporaries until they achieve their powerful final evolution, so Noibat isn't the best example. Even Larvesta follows this trend.

Most dragons show up in late-game so that late evolutions aren't as crippling. Dratini and Jangmo-o for instance only show up on Poni Island. Noibat on the other hand shows up in Verdant Cavern, and quite commonly as well. Dratini also gets Dragon Rage relatively early for powerful damage in the lower level ranges, as well as Thunder Wave for paralysis support. Bagon shows up early on in USUM, but evolves earlier at level 30 and has a lot better stats than Noibat. Base 75 attack is very solid for a first stage pokémon. And it gets much better moves by level-up like Dragon Breath at level 13, Rage at the beginning to boost its attack, Headbutt at level 17, and Crunch at level 25. Larvesta also only shows up in the cavern area of Lush Jungle, which is only available after you unlock the Machamp ride on Poni, and if you look at Larvesta as a second-stage pokémon its stats aren't that bad. Larvesta is also a 1% encounter there and on a route you're not normally treading on the main story play-through, you're not going to find it on a typical adventure. People catching it there are generally people that are explicitly looking for it.

Also, yes, they should give Ekans Poison Fang at like level 23, maybe 25 for Arbok, but they haven't, it's only available by breeding with Seviper. And that's exactly my point. Updating movesets like that for a large portion of pokémon and balancing it all out is a lot of work because there are so many pokémon.

 

[Orphalesion]

Where is your line in the sand? Because Game Freak just crossed mine, and yours could be next.

My line in the Sand would be no or a very small amount of Pokemon (if generations shrink to less than 50 I'm out), or if they change the battle system to real time.
But as long as that doesn't happen I continue to buy those Pokemon games I want (I've never bought 3rd versions or remakes)

I know it sucks when your personal line in the sand is crossed in a video game franchise, happened to me a couple of times, but it happens.

 

[D*N]

Oh yeah, everyone's personal line is somewhere else and sometimes it does get turned around a generation later. It's funny because I see a lot of outrage about no mega's in this thread when I basically skipped generation 6 because of the inclusion of mega's. (and knowing from reviews that the game was gonna be too easy and the story and rivals being disappointing didn't help either). But yeah, here I am because they went back to the other side of the line when sun and moon came out, which was a game I really enjoyed.

 

[wolf jani]

My line in sand is only crossed by LGPE and it's possible seguels/3rd versions
And that's just because of Kanto pandering.

I would skip SWSH if it's dex had just been gen 1 pokemon and under 50 new ones.

 

[B. Thunder Tiger]

Eh, after taking some time off to think about the whole situation regarding the booha of Restricted Transfers (a.k.a slashing out a good amount of Pokémon from the games' data), I'm still kind of pissed, or rather, more disappointed. I mean, that feeling will never go away, and I'm pretty sure that counts for many among us as well, but at this time, there's not much you can do about it, other than constant bitching. And Im not going to waste my time doing this every single day. I have better things to do.

For me, well, I still like to go play Sword and Shield despite this whole situation, so even if I can't transfer any Pokémon that is not in the Galar Dex, I will make it work for somehow.

If Pokémon Home ends up surprising me, I may opt to transfer my collection in 2020, but seeing as we haven't seen anything of the said game app, with the idea going round its likely going to be a paid service annually or monthly like Pokemon Bank, this is unlikely for me as of now. Especially with the fear people have that if you don't pay, your collection may be purged from the system.

With this in mind, I will just not opt to transfer any of my old mons into the new games, not that you can do it anyways at release or even this year, seeing as Pokémon Home is not slated for release until somewhere in 2020. Instead, like I do with any new Pokémon game, I will just start anew, using whatever Sword/Shield's Galar Dex will provide me with, and make the best of my ability to create a good experience with said games in my own way.

That and I never buy Pokémon games on release anyways, so i can afford to wait it off to see and read impressions from other people first.

 

[Pokemon Fan]

What makes you say that?

What part of my post are you asking about? I rather not just go through it point by point in detail unnecessarily.

 

[Ultra Beast Lover]

My personal line in the sand for the anime was when Brock left the anime. I got over that then my new line was not having the regional villains be the focus until really late, I got over it twice then my other line was crossed when Ash stayed in one place for a bajillion years.

My personal line in the sand for the games was crossed when we had a bad character cast in XY. They're not making an M rated game ever so that line's never going to be touched. It sucks when a line in the sand is crossed, especially when you thought they'd never cross it, not much you can do when it happens other than be upset for a bit, take a break if needed, and move on with life.

 

[PrinceOfFacade]

I agree. I just can't help but subjectively feel like fans value Pokemon so highly that we have allowed the games to falter, for many years at that.

From the E3 footage, Sword and Shield's overworld art design looks much less inspired than Alola's. The Wild Area's draw distance is impressive, but unless they drastically improve the Pokemon and NPC draw distance to match it, it will just look like flat, empty space with bland coloration. The environment textures look honestly horrible so far, and I wish GF had chosen a more stylistic aesthetic to mask the low fidelity.

Masuda says that kids these days don't have the attention span for post-game content, so I've given up hoping for a meaty end-game like HGSS/Platinum and Black 2.

The storyline peaked at Gen 5, and ever since XY, all the characters around you only exist to service your continued progress through the region. Only the slightest, tiniest bit of character progression and the smallest amount of character involvement makes the story feel like you're in a vacuum. I do not expect Sword and Shield to make a complete turnabout.

The two big cities we've seen so far do look gorgeous, but since it's basically confirmed you can't control the camera except in the Wild Area, I won't be able to turn the camera around to fully appreciate the skylines. I mean seriously, what a waste! That was one of the things I was most excited about, walking into each beautiful town and hoping I could turn the camera around to see it all since we finally have a second analog stick on a proper console. But this was too much to hope for apparently!

And again, just subjectively, I can't help but feel like this is all because we have slowly lowered our expectations so far that we will just buy anything they make because it still has Pokemon in it.

Interestingly, I find Gen 7 to have the best story in the series since Gen 5, and some of the best characters, with Lusamine developing from being a downright insane villain, to one you genuinely feel sorry for, and Guzma being the only villain to willfully make a change for the better. And then we have Lilly, a once scared and timid little girl who grows to not only stand up to her tyrannical mother, but finds courage in herself to be her own person. It may not be as many well developed characters as Gen 5, but it's certainly good.

I also find Sword & Shield's open environment to be rather beautiful. Sure, it doesn't carry the distinct beauty of Breath of the Wild, but it still certainly reminds me of the game.

I personally don't think Game Freak's quality has dropped, but that their risks have increased. They are wanting to change more and more, and - as can be expected - many fans aren't willing to take on change. I do feel it's more of a change issue than a quality issue, but I can ultimately only speak for myself.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

I hope the villain theme has something to do with the middle ages and I also don't want a Team Galactic 3.0.

 

[GatedSunOne]

Dusted off my account here to weigh in...

I'm going to be blunt. From the Direct to the fateful presentation during E3, I went from buying Sword/Shield day one to basically buying one of them used, considering I get them at all.

No Megas.

No Z Moves.

Pokemon being cut from Gen 8's programming.

Home being a prison for Non-Galar Pokemon until a game comes out that has them in their own Dex.

Honestly, my faith in this series was sort of shaking ever since XY. I thought it was odd that we got less than 100 new (non-temporary) Pokemon, but hey, Fairy Type. And that type remains my favorite.

ORAS came out, and ended up being a remake of RS instead of a fusion of that entire Generation like HGSS was, basically justifying the omission of Battle Frontier in the process. (It also introduced Zinnia, my most disliked female character in the franchise, but that is a personal gripe.) Again, I thought it was odd, and the interview they gave at the time even irritated me. But I got over it.

Gen 7 came around and removed the National Dex and low-key villified the Mega Evolution mechanic, making their stones post game goodies and Dex Entries magnify how controversial it is. We could still catch them all, though, so I didn't mind it much.

I can't overlook Sword and Shield's shake up of the formula. This is where they finally crossed the line with me.

And since these are new games in a generation, it's guaranteed to not have much postgame content or things to shake up competition such as Move Tutors. I can't find a way to justify this as a $60 purchase right now.

 

[Ultra Beast Lover]

I think the villain teams have done enough "saving the world". Maybe the evil teams can have an obsession with the legends?

 

[Orphalesion]

Maybe the evil teams can have an obsession with the legends?

That wouldn't be any innovation either. Villain teams have been obsessed with the legends to varying degrees since Gen 3.

 

[PrinceOfFacade]

That wouldn't be any innovation either. Villain teams have been obsessed with the legends to varying degrees since Gen 3.

Interesting thing, neither Lusamine nor Guzma was obsessed with the legendaries.

Lusamine just wanted to use Cosmog's energy to get a portal to Nihilego, and Guzma didn't even know the legendaries existed. This was honestly quite a nice change of pace. It made the legendary, for me, more impacting because it wasn't shoved in my face like every other legendary since Gen 3. The only reason I knew Cosmog evolved into Solgaleo/Lunala is because I saw the leaked roster. If it weren't for that, I would have been as surprised as the characters.

I hope we get something similar to this. Make the legendaries important, but not invasive.

 

[(P.O.K.E.M.O.N)]

This game is flat-out anti consumer trash. Gamefreak has alienated the community far too strongly this time, and what has been presented is not sufficient to their argument regarding (we must focus on quality). Yes, the game looks fun, but it isn't BOTW. The graphics are sub-par, it's riddled with glitches, pop-ins and other notable issues. Dynamix is a stupid inclusion and the wild area is that - it's wild. It's sparse of anything other than a few roaming Pokemon. There is nothing else to it. Now the question comes again, where is this quality that gamefreak is insisting on? Because i'm not seeing anything that is telling me that it would be "for the best" to not include over 400 other Pokemon.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

Interesting thing, neither Lusamine nor Guzma was obsessed with the legendaries.

Lusamine just wanted to use Cosmog's energy to get a portal to Nihilego, and Guzma didn't even know the legendaries existed. This was honestly quite a nice change of pace. It made the legendary, for me, more impacting because it wasn't shoved in my face like every other legendary since Gen 3. The only reason I knew Cosmog evolved into Solgaleo/Lunala is because I saw the leaked roster. If it weren't for that, I would have been as surprised as the characters.

I hope we get something similar to this. Make the legendaries important, but not invasive.

UBs are coded as Legendaries in the Alola Dex, so the obsession with Legendaries is still there, it's just not the cover ones.

 

[Orphalesion]

Interesting thing, neither Lusamine nor Guzma was obsessed with the legendaries.

Lusamine just wanted to use Cosmog's energy to get a portal to Nihilego, and Guzma didn't even know the legendaries existed. This was honestly quite a nice change of pace. It made the legendary, for me, more impacting because it wasn't shoved in my face like every other legendary since Gen 3. The only reason I knew Cosmog evolved into Solgaleo/Lunala is because I saw the leaked roster. If it weren't for that, I would have been as surprised as the characters.

I hope we get something similar to this. Make the legendaries important, but not invasive.

I agree to an extend, Alola was also the first time where I felt they properly integrated the legendary into the plot without being obnoxious and the first time I put the legendary into my team for the Elite 4 (can't box Nebby, after all!)

 

[TsengHyena]

We can't evaluate how good Sword and Shield is until we see what exactly Pokemon Jail is like.