Pokemon Sword and Shield Discussion Thread: Crown Tundra DLC Available Now! Time to Catch Those Legendary Pokemon!

[Ultomato]

Dreadnaw is amazing, zamazenta gang!

 

[Frizz]

We got official art of the protags, now all I need are the names.

I don't need anything else.

 

[---]

Am leaning towards Shield version, but given that both Legendaries seem like they could have the same typing & color scheme I might defer to version exclusives this time.

 

[Jaro235]

Am I the only one looking forward to the dynamaxing? I have always wanted kaiju sized Pokémon battles. It looks really cool in my opinion.

 

[Aurane]

Out of all of the newly Pokemon revealed, Corviknight is my most favorite. I'm not really thrilled about its abilities, but a Pokemon that looks this bad ass? Who gives a damn?

Loving Corviknight. I can't wait to hear more about it.

 

[TewnLeenk]

Corviknight is so cool. That bird's got a spot insta-reserved on my team.

 

[Hobnail Boot]

I'm still hyped for this and have pre-ordered both, however I'm not excited about dynamaxing and the raid battles. I really hope every gym doesn't have dynamax. I'll reserve full judgement for when I play it, but that's my take so far.

Really excited about the wild areas. Corviknight is definitely my favorite of the revealed 'mons so far.

 

[Erureido]

Now that I'm finally home from work, I can finally type my thoughts on the Pokemon Direct:

The new Pokemon look decent so far, but Corviknight definitely takes the cake. WOW! It has such a wicked cool design for a raven Pokemon! I already found a Galar Pokemon I'm hooked to, and I can honestly say this one is definitely going on my team as my Flying-type Pokemon unless a cooler one is revealed down the line (having an amazing typing of Steel/Flying is also an amazing, added bonus!). I think this Pokemon even has a very strong potential to be my new favorite Flying-type Pokemon!

As for the others, Wooloo looks very cute and fits the UK/Scottish setting perfectly. Gossifleur and Eldegoss have some decent designs for Grass-types, though I prefer the pre-evolution more for its vibrant colors. Drednaw looks okay.

I like both of the legendary mascots. Both look majestic and cool! In fact, this is the first generation where I equally like both of the mascot legendaries! Of the two, I'm choosing Sword just because I prefer the blue aesthetic on Zacian more (since blue is my favorite color).

It's great to see we finally have some level of true open-world exploration in Pokemon with the Wild Area. Though I didn't play the Let's Go games since I'm just not a fan of the Go catching gimmick, one thing I liked about those games was already seeing a Pokemon in the wild and having the opportunity to run up to it and catch it from there. The Wild Area seems to adapt this idea, only it feels more immersive with not too many Pokemon crowding one area. Being able to change the camera angle at will in this area is also a cool feature.

The Attack on Titan fan in me immediately made me think of Titans when I saw the Dynamax feature (and fittingly enough, we already have memes that highlight this). That aside, I can't say if this new gimmick feature truly wowed me compared to Mega Evolutions and Z-moves. Seeing Pokemon turn giant to receive powered-up moves feels a bit bland when I've been exposed to many giant Pokemon over the course of the video games' lifespan, but I like how this feature is arguably looking to be more balanced so far in that any Pokemon can access Dynamax and the feature can only be used on one Pokemon in your team for just three turns once per battle.

The Max Raid battles look like an interesting co-op mode. I wonder how will the four players decide which of the four will be the one to use the Dynamax feature though. Voice chat seems like the best approach to this, but not everyone may have the Nintendo Switch Online app, so if someone decided to use Dynamax on their own without some outside communication... it could mess up some strategies in battle and leave your allies feeling salty.

They are continuing the Rotom Pokedex it seems, only this time, the Pokedex is a smartphone. Fitting for the modern times. Pretty cool how it can let your bike be used as an HM for Surf. I guess this means we can expect the Rotom Pokedex to be the HM/Pokeride this generation. Maybe we will be able to upgrade the Rotom Pokedex to do more HM-like features the more badges we similar to how badges in the past gave you more access to other HMs? That's how I can see this feature being treated this generation, and I think it could work well for future games (imagine the Sinnoh remakes on the Switch ditching HMs and using the Rotom Pokedex feature as HM replacements: I can totally see a bike getting a Rock Climb feature or even a snow travel feature that will make it easier to traverse the snowy routes).

And now for the characters:

Leon looks awesome! Fantastic design for a champion! Seems like a really likable guy too based on the description we were given about him. Kinda surprising they revealed he was the champion this early though. Could this be because there will be a BW situation where we won't fight him at the end of the story because someone will already beat you to defeating him by the time you face him? That's what I initially thought, but after hearing some theories about how he could actually be the leader of this generation's villainous team, I think that sounds like a very interesting idea too!

(On a side note regarding Leon, did anyone notice that the stadium he was first shown in looked a lot like the stadium that appears in the London-inspired city on the Galar map? Looks like this may very well be where we will fight him and thus also supports the theory that city could also be the final location we will visit in the story).

Hop is an odd name, but he seems okay so far. Nice to see we have a rival who is related to the champion!

Great to see we have our second female professor! I get Queen Elizabeth vibes when I see Professor Magnolia too, a nice twist of sorts considering a lot of fan speculation prior to today pointed to the champion being inspired by her). Sonia looks cute. Pretty interested in learning more about her past with Leon.

Milo has an odd design with the face of a young kid and the body of a bodybuilder, but I think it's because the way his eyes are drawn are similar to Sophocles and Lana from S/M, the two characters that I felt highlighted Gamefreak's attempts of changing up how they draw eyes for some of the human characters but not giving them conventional anime eyes. He seems like a jolly fun fellow though. Can't wait to see his dialogue.

Great Direct overall! Looking forward to November 15!

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

Dreadnaw is pretty rad. Hope it evolves.

With the reveal of the electric corgi pokemon, the rumored leak may be true

We may actually be getting a farfetch'd evo.

I'm excited.

Gonna name it DUX

 

[Perkilator]

Anyone hear the news? That only Galardex Pokémon can be transferred?

 

[Hobnail Boot]

Anyone hear the news? That only Galardex Pokémon can be transferred?

Yeah, saw that. I get where they are coming from buuuttt.... Kinda defeats the purpose of "gotta catch em all."

Well that and I have spent countless hours breeding Pokemon for this new game and now they may have to just sit in the bank.

 

[Jaro235]

I am amazed how Gamefreak killed the hype for Sword and Shield with one terrible announcement. I am not even mad, I am just very disappointed. I don’t even use the bank that much and I think that this is the dumbest idea GF has come up with so far.

 

[SJMistery]

I am amazed how Gamefreak killed the hype for Sword and Shield with one terrible announcement. I am not even mad, I am just very disappointed. I don’t even use the bank that much and I think that this is the dumbest idea GF has come up with so far.

I consider it the fourth worst they have ever dome
First and second are obviously GO and Let's GO, and the third is never bothering to improve the battle system.

 

[Jaro235]

I consider it the fourth worst they have ever dome
First and second are obviously GO and Let's GO, and the third is never bothering to improve the battle system.

Honestly, I think this tops all of them when you think about this game from both a player and business perspective. Go and Let’s Go are not for everyone, but at least those are spinoff games. This is a main series game that is already incomplete by not having every Pokémon coded in the game. Every Pokémon has someone that loves them. For example, one obscure Pokémon for me is one called Druddigon, which was a pure dragon type in Unova that I got from doing a nuzlocke. It may not have been the best dragon I have ever had, but it was an absolute beast that survived all the way through the whole game. Even fairies feared my Druddigon! It would really make sad if I couldn’t bring Druddigon to Galar all because he is not within the regions dex. Then he would be stuck in Pokémon Pris- I mean Pokémon Home until the next game comes out. That is only a minor example compared to the many people who have had their Pokémon for years and they will not be able to bring them to Galar all because they are not in the Galar dex. Now, Gamefreak has lost a good chunk of their audience because now most people will not even buy this game unless they bring back the national dex. I’ll still buy it because I am an idiot who still wants to play it, but you also have to think from a business perspective when thinking about bad Pokémon decisions. Sword and Shield could be the lowest selling Pokémon titles and that could even hurt the Switch’s sales because many people were going to buy a Switch just for this game. Now, that is not the case, and it is all because they didn’t code in all Pokémon in the game...

That is why I think this is their worst decision they have come up with to date.

 

[Luigifan18]

Honestly, I think this tops all of them when you think about this game from both a player and business perspective. Go and Let’s Go are not for everyone, but at least those are spinoff games. This is a main series game that is already incomplete by not having every Pokémon coded in the game. Every Pokémon has someone that loves them. For example, one obscure Pokémon for me is one called Druddigon, which was a pure dragon type in Unova that I got from doing a nuzlocke. It may not have been the best dragon I have ever had, but it was an absolute beast that survived all the way through the whole game. Even fairies feared my Druddigon! It would really make sad if I couldn’t bring Druddigon to Galar all because he is not within the regions dex. Then he would be stuck in Pokémon Pris- I mean Pokémon Home until the next game comes out. That is only a minor example compared to the many people who have had their Pokémon for years and they will not be able to bring them to Galar all because they are not in the Galar dex. Now, Gamefreak has lost a good chunk of their audience because now most people will not even buy this game unless they bring back the national dex. I’ll still buy it because I am an idiot who still wants to play it, but you also have to think from a business perspective when thinking about bad Pokémon decisions. Sword and Shield could be the lowest selling Pokémon titles and that could even hurt the Switch’s sales because many people were going to buy a Switch just for this game. Now, that is not the case, and it is all because they didn’t code in all Pokémon in the game...

That is why I think this is their worst decision they have come up with to date.

Transferring Pokémon between generations was ruined for me in Gen IV by making it only one-way, so I don't think I'll actually mind too much. I thought Pokémon Bank was going to fix that issue, but nope, Pokémon can still only get transferred forward, which is a shame. (However, I’m going to be pissed if Dragonite, Heatran, Blaziken, Volcarona, or Togekiss turn out to be no-shows in Sword & Shield (Mew at least has been confirmed to be safe).) However, if some of my fakemons don't have their canon pre-evolutions in Galar, things are gonna get awkward for them (Nohtyp, the evolution of Arbok, immediately comes to mind as a Pokémon that might get left behind). Also, I can't help but wonder how Smogon is going to deal with a metagame where certain Pokémon are flat-out excluded.

EDIT: I'm a ninny, Hoothoot was seen in one of the trailers. Sabiowl is safe (though evolution still might only be possible in Gen V if the type gems don't come back). I'm still super-worried about Heatran, though.

 

[Ultomato]

I consider it the fourth worst they have ever dome
First and second are obviously GO and Let's GO, and the third is never bothering to improve the battle system.

What's wrong with the battle system?

 

[Perkilator]

I consider it the fourth worst they have ever dome
First and second are obviously GO and Let's GO, and the third is never bothering to improve the battle system.

Not changing the battle system is fine. If it just changed for no good reason, it wouldn’t be as accessible to newcomers as it is.

 

[SJMistery]

What's wrong with the battle system?

LOTS of things, see below.

Not changing the battle system is fine. If it just changed for no good reason, it wouldn’t be as accessible to newcomers as it is.

By changing it, I mean just removing all of the spaggetti of the damage formula and at least a part of the luck factor, and make the most dangerous attacks, habilities and moves more easily readable, wich would not only make it more competitive-friendly, but also more newcomer-friendly in some ways. On my eyes the priority changes are:

- Have all megastones and crystals (i want those back GF, don't you DARE go through with removing them), as well as the Choice Items and some others discussed below tigger a warning when a pokemon equipped with them switches in. Same for abilites that significantly change stats or weaknesses like Levitate, Flash Fire, Swift Swim and Huge Power. It is NOT fun to be randomly destroyed by something you could have never taken into account until it happened. Abilites might be less of a problem since your opponent can only have one out of 3 and they can be easier to play around, but at least trapping abilities absolutely NEED that warning.

- Remove the RND factor of the formula entirely. The custom EV spreads already make damage predictions inconsistent, having two moves from the same source to deal +-5% damage for no reason is stupid.

- Fix the unecessarily imperfect accuraccy of many attacks like Fly and Air Slash, they have considerably better alternatives anyway, but at least don't make them randomly miss when stronger attacks have no drawbacks at all.

- Remove the Evasion stat or at the very least make the boosts reset if the pokemon gets hit. Self-explanatory, really.

- Make critical hits no longer happen without a crit boost (from the move itself, periscope or focus energy) and as compensation have them only have two stages (25% and 100%), and revert them back to x2. This way seting up a critical rampage with Kingdra, Drapion and similar pokemon is worth it over simply using Rain/Swords Dance. Additionally, have the Periscope item trigger a warning like discussed before so you know they are going for the crits.

- Make the Quick Claw trigger when the pokemon is at 100% HP instead of randomly, and offer full +1 priority similar to how Gale Wings currently works. And speaking of this, revert Gale Wings, Talonlame was never that good.

- Give OHKO moves a charge AND recharge turn, and 100% accuraccy. This way they can be reliably used to remove particularly dangerous/bulky pokemon in a pinch but become much easier to counter by simply sending something immune to it or using Protect and Substitute. And even if you can't, you get a free turn to knock them down and prevent them from taking anything else out, or set up shop for a sweep.

- Make trapping abilities loose their effect after 2-3 turns (1 turn is too low since the game engine counts the turn of switching in making the abilities useless, and 4 is too high as it lets them abuse Perish Song), and also disable them when the target takes direct damage from the trapper. Also extend the reciprocal Shadow Tag immunity to all methods of trapping to prevent forced PP stall wars.

- Give us back the sleep and freeze limits of Stadium (nope, Smogon wasn't the one that invented it) as well as making them always last 2 and 4 turns respectively, so both players can combat/take advantage of those statuses more effectively.

- Let flying type pokemon ignore terrains when attacking, instead of only when defending. This means that the Gyarados/Landorus can toxic you in misty terrain just as effectively under terrain as you can do it to them. It's been kind of stupid that it works like currently.

- Make Misty Terrain make Yawn completely fail like Electric Terrain does. It is REALLY stupid that you can use Yawn on the last turn of Misty Terrain and bypass it's effects and I'm sure it wasn't intended.

- Convert the RBY glitches that made Hyper Beam (and reskins) skip the recharge turn on KO, those moves are completely outclassed in utility by attacks with similar or even higher base power and considerably less drawbacks, like Boomburst, the Draco Meteor and Water Spout reskins, Head Smash (with Rock Head preferably) and V-create among others, and if you REALLY need a new downside, make them recharge even if they miss or otherwise fail to do damage. They would still be extemely punishable if baited by a pokemon that takes little/zero damage from them but at least they would have a niche as cleaning moves.

- Also, and ESPECIALLY, convert the glitch/quirk/hidden mechanic (what it exactly was no one knows for sure) that made all pokemon immune to secondary effects from incoming attacks of their own types (p.ex. snorlax and tauros could never be paralyzed by body slam) into an actual official mechanics because Arceus know this game already has way too much RNG for it's own good, and at least having Rotom, Keldeo, Milotic, Toxapex, Empoleon and co be able to sponge Scald for the team would help a LOT in squashing the spammability of the move. Plus it would prevent people from trying to shield said pokemon from Toxic and sleep by waiting to get burned intentionally.

- On a more personal note, make Ditto's exclusive items work post-transformation to make him a bit more usable. If you are curious, the game still recognizes him as Ditto post-transform, wich is why he can't use megastones nor exclusive items. Those two items failing to work is an intended feature that should have never happened. And since both significantly change stats, give them the same warning I mentioned above so you can know if he is either able to outspeed your scarfer or outlast your tank, and counter him accordingly.


And a LOT more stuff could be done, those are just the basic "obvious to-do stuff that should already have been done" requeriments for the series to get a good step back in the right direction.

 

[Luigifan18]

LOTS of things, see below.


By changing it, I mean just removing all of the spaggetti of the damage formula and at least a part of the luck factor, and make the most dangerous attacks, habilities and moves more easily readable, wich would not only make it more competitive-friendly, but also more newcomer-friendly in some ways. On my eyes the priority changes are:

- Have all megastones and crystals (i want those back GF, don't you DARE go through with removing them), as well as the Choice Items and some others discussed below tigger a warning when a pokemon equipped with them switches in. Same for abilites that significantly change stats or weaknesses like Levitate, Flash Fire, Swift Swim and Huge Power. It is NOT fun to be randomly destroyed by something you could have never taken into account until it happened. Abilites might be less of a problem since your opponent can only have one out of 3 and they can be easier to play around, but at least trapping abilities absolutely NEED that warning.

- Remove the RND factor of the formula entirely. The custom EV spreads already make damage predictions inconsistent, having two moves from the same source to deal +-5% damage for no reason is stupid.

- Fix the unecessarily imperfect accuraccy of many attacks like Fly and Air Slash, they have considerably better alternatives anyway, but at least don't make them randomly miss when stronger attacks have no drawbacks at all.

- Remove the Evasion stat or at the very least make the boosts reset if the pokemon gets hit. Self-explanatory, really.

- Make critical hits no longer happen without a crit boost (from the move itself, periscope or focus energy) and as compensation have them only have two stages (25% and 100%), and revert them back to x2. This way seting up a critical rampage with Kingdra, Drapion and similar pokemon is worth it over simply using Rain/Swords Dance. Additionally, have the Periscope item trigger a warning like discussed before so you know they are going for the crits.

- Make the Quick Claw trigger when the pokemon is at 100% HP instead of randomly, and offer full +1 priority similar to how Gale Wings currently works. And speaking of this, revert Gale Wings, Talonlame was never that good.

- Give OHKO moves a charge AND recharge turn, and 100% accuraccy. This way they can be reliably used to remove particularly dangerous/bulky pokemon in a pinch but become much easier to counter by simply sending something immune to it or using Protect and Substitute. And even if you can't, you get a free turn to knock them down and prevent them from taking anything else out, or set up shop for a sweep.

- Make trapping abilities loose their effect after 2-3 turns (1 turn is too low since the game engine counts the turn of switching in making the abilities useless, and 4 is too high as it lets them abuse Perish Song), and also disable them when the target takes direct damage from the trapper. Also extend the reciprocal Shadow Tag immunity to all methods of trapping to prevent forced PP stall wars.

- Give us back the sleep and freeze limits of Stadium (nope, Smogon wasn't the one that invented it) as well as making them always last 2 and 4 turns respectively, so both players can combat/take advantage of those statuses more effectively.

- Let flying type pokemon ignore terrains when attacking, instead of only when defending. This means that the Gyarados/Landorus can toxic you in misty terrain just as effectively under terrain as you can do it to them. It's been kind of stupid that it works like currently.

- Make Misty Terrain make Yawn completely fail like Electric Terrain does. It is REALLY stupid that you can use Yawn on the last turn of Misty Terrain and bypass it's effects and I'm sure it wasn't intended.

- Convert the RBY glitches that made Hyper Beam (and reskins) skip the recharge turn on KO, those moves are completely outclassed in utility by attacks with similar or even higher base power and considerably less drawbacks, like Boomburst, the Draco Meteor and Water Spout reskins, Head Smash (with Rock Head preferably) and V-create among others, and if you REALLY need a new downside, make them recharge even if they miss or otherwise fail to do damage. They would still be extemely punishable if baited by a pokemon that takes little/zero damage from them but at least they would have a niche as cleaning moves.

- Also, and ESPECIALLY, convert the glitch/quirk/hidden mechanic (what it exactly was no one knows for sure) that made all pokemon immune to secondary effects from incoming attacks of their own types (p.ex. snorlax and tauros could never be paralyzed by body slam) into an actual official mechanics because Arceus know this game already has way too much RNG for it's own good, and at least having Rotom, Keldeo, Milotic, Toxapex, Empoleon and co be able to sponge Scald for the team would help a LOT in squashing the spammability of the move. Plus it would prevent people from trying to shield said pokemon from Toxic and sleep by waiting to get burned intentionally.

- On a more personal note, make Ditto's exclusive items work post-transformation to make him a bit more usable. If you are curious, the game still recognizes him as Ditto post-transform, wich is why he can't use megastones nor exclusive items. Those two items failing to work is an intended feature that should have never happened. And since both significantly change stats, give them the same warning I mentioned above so you can know if he is either able to outspeed your scarfer or outlast your tank, and counter him accordingly.


And a LOT more stuff could be done, those are just the basic "obvious to-do stuff that should already have been done" requeriments for the series to get a good step back in the right direction.

I wonder what sort of reaction you would get by bringing these up on Smogon. Eliminating Z-Moves is actually understandable, since they're redundant with Max Moves, but Dynamax and Mega Evolution do appear to have enough differences in what they do that keeping both around is worthwhile.

 

[SJMistery]

I wonder what sort of reaction you would get by bringing these up on Smogon. Eliminating Z-Moves is actually understandable, since they're redundant with Max Moves, but Dynamax and Mega Evolution do appear to have enough differences in what they do that keeping both around is worthwhile.

Every competitive player I've discussed those and more changes has agreed with them, it's safe to say NOBODY likes loosing by sheer bad luck, from the newest player that just got critted twice by a Rattata on route 2 to the streamer that got his Battle Tower killstreak demolished by a combination of Quick Claw, Crits and OHKO moves, to every pro VGC/Smogon WCoP player that got knocked out of the bracket or even get destroyed on the very finals in a horrible way. In fact I am currently planning to code a custom tier in Showdown with those changes.

 

[Ultomato]

LOTS of things, see below.


By changing it, I mean just removing all of the spaggetti of the damage formula and at least a part of the luck factor, and make the most dangerous attacks, habilities and moves more easily readable, wich would not only make it more competitive-friendly, but also more newcomer-friendly in some ways. On my eyes the priority changes are:

- Have all megastones and crystals (i want those back GF, don't you DARE go through with removing them), as well as the Choice Items and some others discussed below tigger a warning when a pokemon equipped with them switches in. Same for abilites that significantly change stats or weaknesses like Levitate, Flash Fire, Swift Swim and Huge Power. It is NOT fun to be randomly destroyed by something you could have never taken into account until it happened. Abilites might be less of a problem since your opponent can only have one out of 3 and they can be easier to play around, but at least trapping abilities absolutely NEED that warning.

- Remove the RND factor of the formula entirely. The custom EV spreads already make damage predictions inconsistent, having two moves from the same source to deal +-5% damage for no reason is stupid.

- Fix the unecessarily imperfect accuraccy of many attacks like Fly and Air Slash, they have considerably better alternatives anyway, but at least don't make them randomly miss when stronger attacks have no drawbacks at all.

- Remove the Evasion stat or at the very least make the boosts reset if the pokemon gets hit. Self-explanatory, really.

- Make critical hits no longer happen without a crit boost (from the move itself, periscope or focus energy) and as compensation have them only have two stages (25% and 100%), and revert them back to x2. This way seting up a critical rampage with Kingdra, Drapion and similar pokemon is worth it over simply using Rain/Swords Dance. Additionally, have the Periscope item trigger a warning like discussed before so you know they are going for the crits.

- Make the Quick Claw trigger when the pokemon is at 100% HP instead of randomly, and offer full +1 priority similar to how Gale Wings currently works. And speaking of this, revert Gale Wings, Talonlame was never that good.

- Give OHKO moves a charge AND recharge turn, and 100% accuraccy. This way they can be reliably used to remove particularly dangerous/bulky pokemon in a pinch but become much easier to counter by simply sending something immune to it or using Protect and Substitute. And even if you can't, you get a free turn to knock them down and prevent them from taking anything else out, or set up shop for a sweep.

- Make trapping abilities loose their effect after 2-3 turns (1 turn is too low since the game engine counts the turn of switching in making the abilities useless, and 4 is too high as it lets them abuse Perish Song), and also disable them when the target takes direct damage from the trapper. Also extend the reciprocal Shadow Tag immunity to all methods of trapping to prevent forced PP stall wars.

- Give us back the sleep and freeze limits of Stadium (nope, Smogon wasn't the one that invented it) as well as making them always last 2 and 4 turns respectively, so both players can combat/take advantage of those statuses more effectively.

- Let flying type pokemon ignore terrains when attacking, instead of only when defending. This means that the Gyarados/Landorus can toxic you in misty terrain just as effectively under terrain as you can do it to them. It's been kind of stupid that it works like currently.

- Make Misty Terrain make Yawn completely fail like Electric Terrain does. It is REALLY stupid that you can use Yawn on the last turn of Misty Terrain and bypass it's effects and I'm sure it wasn't intended.

- Convert the RBY glitches that made Hyper Beam (and reskins) skip the recharge turn on KO, those moves are completely outclassed in utility by attacks with similar or even higher base power and considerably less drawbacks, like Boomburst, the Draco Meteor and Water Spout reskins, Head Smash (with Rock Head preferably) and V-create among others, and if you REALLY need a new downside, make them recharge even if they miss or otherwise fail to do damage. They would still be extemely punishable if baited by a pokemon that takes little/zero damage from them but at least they would have a niche as cleaning moves.

- Also, and ESPECIALLY, convert the glitch/quirk/hidden mechanic (what it exactly was no one knows for sure) that made all pokemon immune to secondary effects from incoming attacks of their own types (p.ex. snorlax and tauros could never be paralyzed by body slam) into an actual official mechanics because Arceus know this game already has way too much RNG for it's own good, and at least having Rotom, Keldeo, Milotic, Toxapex, Empoleon and co be able to sponge Scald for the team would help a LOT in squashing the spammability of the move. Plus it would prevent people from trying to shield said pokemon from Toxic and sleep by waiting to get burned intentionally.

- On a more personal note, make Ditto's exclusive items work post-transformation to make him a bit more usable. If you are curious, the game still recognizes him as Ditto post-transform, wich is why he can't use megastones nor exclusive items. Those two items failing to work is an intended feature that should have never happened. And since both significantly change stats, give them the same warning I mentioned above so you can know if he is either able to outspeed your scarfer or outlast your tank, and counter him accordingly.


And a LOT more stuff could be done, those are just the basic "obvious to-do stuff that should already have been done" requeriments for the series to get a good step back in the right direction.

This isn't "improving the battle system", it's "improving certain moves and items". That's why I was confused. I can see the upside of most of the changes you propose, but I really don't think it's as bad as you make it seem right now.

I would love to go through all the points you mention but that'd take more time than I currently have. No I dont think Pokémon should be like you describe it, but I'd probably play that showdown mod a lot

 

[DrCoeloCephalo]

I don't know about the rest of you guys but that Galar Dex nonsense makes this game a hard pass for me. If I had to suffer through a mediocre Pokemon game, I'd prefer to do so with monsters I know I care about. Besides, if I wanted to try other monsters, that'd certainly be much easier to do if ALL of them were transferrable like you'd expect the paid transfer system to do. That's part of why I didn't touch LGEP.

Not like it's a total loss as I get to save my money for other monster collector RPGs.

1. Shin Megami Tensei 5 is still in the works
2. An unnamed Dragon Quest Monsters project coming to Switch
3. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, a monster collector that coincidentally won RPG of the Year award the year Pokemon XY came out. Been wanting to try that one for awhile so it's nice it's coming to Switch.
4. Yo-Kai Watch 4: We're Looking Up At The Same Sky came out not too long ago, got sweet sales, stellar reviews and is getting free DLC and multiplayer features plus new maps and new monsters soon.

It's nice to have other options.


EDIT: Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth and Hacker's Memory just got confirmed for Switch and PC. Life is good.

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

I might still get it, but the Dex thing has made me lose the hype I had for the game. The series doesn't feel the same knowing there is a possibility I'll never be able to make a team of my favorite pokemon again.

 

[Hobnail Boot]

I might still get it, but the Dex thing has made me lose the hype I had for the game. The series doesn't feel the same knowing there is a possibility I'll never be able to make a team of my favorite pokemon again.

I'm pretty much in the same boat. I'm still getting it though. It's just disappointing that I know some of my favorites won't be in this game. My team generally consists of Pokemon like Girafarig, Zebstrika, Empolean, etc. and I bet they don't make the cut.

I'm excited to see the Galar region but it won't be the same hype I had before they casually dropped this bomb.

(Also makes my disdain for Dynamax more knowing they took time for those animations)

 

[Ultomato]

It's stupid and dissappointing but the game still looks good as hell.

Only problem I might have with buying it is that it's the most expensive mainline pokemon game yet (being on the switch and not 3ds) so I want to be sure it's worth the extra €15,-

Looks like it Will be, but I'm not sold yet

 

[Erureido]

A new Pokemon Sword and Shield trailer appeared!

More new Pokemon revealed as well as two new Gym Leaders: a Fighting-Type and a Ghost-Type one that are version exclusives. Some more new characters were also revealed, two of them that have higher-up positions within the Galar Pokemon League, and some Pokemon get new forms through Dynamaxing called Gigantamaxing that so give them access to exclusive moves.

 

[Mamboo07]

Rolycoly looks awesome! (I swear it better evolve into a train or i'm going to get furious!)
Here's my pretend 2nd and 3rd evolution for it as well the Gigamax thing:
2nd Evolution-Minecart (Rock/Fire)
3rd Evolution-Steam Train (Fire/Steel)
Gigantamaxing-Freight Train
(It's just a theory ok!)

 

[Coolboy]

seeing all this hate everywhere on these games for no good reason..makes me really dislike people sometimes..
so what you can't transfer all your pokemon? just play your old games who have them! so what there is no National dex? just play the old games then!
i'm sorry but US & UM weren't fun to play online for me AT ALL...people just transfer their godly unbeaten pokemon everywhere so someone like me who doesn't have all the games get punished for it...
now with Sword & Shield i feel like everyone starts at a equal ground and is only able to use the same pokemon so everyone can make it if they know what their doing!
yeah you know what? only reason people get butthurt about this whole thing is because they can no longer have easy wins online
now i can actually have fun online with these games knowing that i at least have a chance for once!

 

[SSGuy]

I just really hope every single starter Pokemon from the past games return and are available in the region. If anything, fans deserve to have those Pokemon return more than anything. I want Johto guys to get some love so bad.

Has their been any news on those guys? (Besides already confirmed Charizard)

 

[DrCoeloCephalo]

seeing all this hate everywhere on these games for no good reason

Dude. All the reasons for the hatred have plenty of merit to them.

so what you can't transfer all your pokemon?

That's kinda the whole point of the transfer system that people are paying money to use: to transfer Pokemon. There's really no good reason for Pokemon to have one in the first place when plenty of other MCRPGs have just as big if not bigger monster counts than your average Pokemon game and could fit ALL of those monsters into a single game without the need for monster transfer.

I'm sorry but US & UM weren't fun to play online for me AT ALL...people just transfer their godly unbeaten pokemon everywhere so someone like me who doesn't have all the games get punished for it...

You do realize they're STILL going to be able re-breed all that "unbeatable" stuff anyway in the next game regardless of the transfer, right? Plus, they didn't even need all the games to do that. Even high level tournament players are known to hack or clone Pokemon with perfect sets into game so they could spend their time actually practicing battling (plus, if Pokemon's stat maxizimation method wasn't absolute garbage compared to how other MCRPGs do it, they wouldn't need to do that).

now with Sword & Shield i feel like everyone starts at a equal ground and is only able to use the same pokemon so everyone can make it if they know what their doing!
yeah you know what? only reason people get butthurt about this whole thing is because they can no longer have easy wins online
now i can actually have fun online with these games knowing that i at least have a chance for once!

Not really cuz the Pokemon that are still top tier metagame threats that can still be transferred due to being part of the Galar region such as perfectly bred Clefable for example will still be ready to dominate online. What's more is that fewer monsters in a game means a WAY more centralized metagame with WAY less variety. Just look at the usage stats of LGEP and you get obvious proof of that (Source: https://www.smogon.com/stats/2019-06/gen7letsgoou-1760.txt ) . That game has the LEAST variety and the MOST centralized metagame of ANY Pokemon game to date with the #1 most used Pokemon Melmetal having 94% usage on high ladder. That's more usage than Tauros in high level of RBYOU.

So have fun with that.

 

[SJMistery]

Oh, and Toxapex and Ferrothorn, alongside the almost-certainly-secured RBY dex including Clefable, Chansey, Tangela and Slowbro, are confirmed in SS, so, have fun with that too.

 

[Hobnail Boot]

Don't know if anyone else saw this talked about, but it kinda looks like an elephant Pokemon. If so, it would be tied with Corviknight as my favorite reveal so far.

 

[Banjoisawesome2020]

Hello. Came from the Banjo-Kazooie character discussion. I have something that fuels the controversy. https://youtu.be/8jfnzeX7yCM I think Game Freak lied about the models.

 

[Perkilator]

New trailer released today. The most prominent thing is the return of regional variants and Linoone getting a new Evolution.

 

[Banjoisawesome2020]

New trailer released today. The most prominent thing is the return of regional variants and Linoone getting a new Evolution.

Must...resist...liking...games...still no... National Dex...not resisting well

 

[FancySmash]

]
New trailer released today. The most prominent thing is the return of regional variants and Linoone getting a new Evolution.

Hmm, well, if I'm can be brutally honest...

Probably my favorite part was regional Weezing. Always had soft spot for Weezing, and being a poison/fairy type is... kinda neat I guess? The dapper look also helps.

Zigzagoon... we'll get back to him.

Morpeko. What can I say, it's the regional Pikachu, in a region where Pokemon will now be scarce thanks to the dex cut, and we're still getting these Pika clones despite the fact that Pikachu will never not make the cut. Odd that this is the first choice for an electric/dark type. Otherwise, I've got no opinion on it. Not a fan I guess, only pika clones I ever liked were Plusle and Minun, but I think that's primarily nostalgia of the first true Pika clones, as Pichu doesn't count, and the jury is still out on Marill I believe.
Edit: Mimikyu doesn't count, at least to me. Mimikyu's cool.

Team Yell... kinda seems like they're trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice. After Skull worked out, it seems Yell is the next take on them. Honestly, I hope there's more going on here. Chances are, there probably is, similar to the Aether stuff from Sun/Moon, but Yell doesn't really impress me, especially when they're just hardcore fans.

The Japanese trailer got a few more things than we did. Something about jobs? Guess we'll have to wait for more info on that...

Now for Zigzagoon. The redesigns to it and Linoone are... OK. I don't necessarily mind them. Cute for what it's worth. It's Obstagoon that bothers me. Considering that Zigzagoon's family was shown with only a Galarian form, I think it's safe to say normal Zigzagoon won't make the cut. And that means to me, that normal Linoone will never be able to evolve into Obstagoon. This troubles me for one reason. With the dex cut, I'm worried the old creatures will be forgotten, and that old Linoone will never get an evolution, thus making Galar Linoone, in a way, superior to the old one. In other words, considering how they're rotating Pokemon out now, it could be a while before we ever see normal Linoone again, which at that point, they may opt to just skip giving it an evolution entirely. This could very well be the direction the series goes at this point.

I guess that's about it. Otherwise, a decent trailer. Would've liked a little more I guess, but hey, I guess we weren't expecting too much. Would've preferred to see at least the middle stages of the starters though.

(Oh, also 0/10 because my Smash main still hasn't been confirmed in the game).

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

I like Obstagoon. I actually never cared for the Zigzagoon line, it's my second least favorite of the regional rats. But THIS version, I like. Punk Rock Badger. Looks more like KISS to me though. Unless some much better pokemon are shown off this guy is going to be on my team.

All the signs are pointing to Sirfetch'd being real, and unless it MASSIVELY disappoints me that's also ensured on my team

I actually didn't care for Galarian Weezing though.

 

[Banjoisawesome2020]

I like Obstagoon. I actually never cared for the Zigzagoon line, it's my second least favorite of the regional rats. But THIS version, I like. Punk Rock Badger. Looks more like KISS to me though. Unless some much better pokemon are shown off this guy is going to be on my team.

All the signs are pointing to Sirfetch'd being real, and unless it MASSIVELY disappoints me that's also ensured on my team

I actually didn't care for Galarian Weezing though.

I just hope...no regional Pikachu variant...they would target my weakness...Pikachu.

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

So far only 1 pokemon on my crossgen team has made it to Sword and Shield, and it was one of the ones I expected the least. Reuniclus.

 

[Banjoisawesome2020]

So far only 1 pokemon on my crossgen team has made it to Sword and Shield, and it was one of the ones I expected the least. Reuniclus.

Mine is Gardevoir...