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Pokemon: Sword & Shield Direct Recap

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The Pokémon Direct yesterday showcased a bunch of information about the upcoming titles Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield for the Nintendo Switch

Open World Wild Areas: There are open areas between cities and towns where players can explore at their own pace and encounter Pokémon. The wild areas will differ depending on in-game weather.

New Pokémon: A slew of New Pokémon were shown. All of them can be found here including official Pokédex entries for the starters.

Max Raid Battles & Dynamax Pokémon: Up to four players can team up online or locally against giant "Dynamax Pokémon". When the Dynamax system is used, these Pokémon will become big in size and gain powerful abilities

New Characters: Multiple new characters in the Galar region were shown off, including one of the Main Character's rivals, and the Champion.

Release Date: November 15th, 2019.

For any interested in watching, the direct is embedded below,

Author's Note: Did you enjoy the direct? I surely did. Glad to see E3 season picking up! Can't wait to be back here in a week once all the Nintendo news is out. Let us know what you think in the comments below!
 
Lucas "Thirdkoopa" Guimaraes

Comments

The takeaway from the direct:

  • Pokemon hasn't looked this great before.
  • It seems like we have some Xenoblade-esque exploration in the form of the Wild Area. Pokemon has finally caught up to other JRPGs (like Monster Hunter). WE CAN FINALLY CONTROL THE CAMERA!!!
  • The bike is back, and its new functions pretty serve as the HM replacement. One of my favorite things about gen 7 is the removal of HMs, and it is cool to see that this continues into gen 8.
  • The new Pokemon revealed so far looks great. Wooloo, the new Mareep, is already a fan favorite. Gossifleur and Eldegoss looks fresh and cute. Drednaw seems like the generic tough-guy Pokemon. Corviknight is our new edgy bird to play with.
  • Dynamax seems like an interesting game mechanic to behold. When used competitively, you have to carefully plan when to use it, or else it could turn into your advantage or your downfall. The fact that raid battles are also a thing is pretty nice (yet another thing Pokemon is catching up to other JRPGs). People are already imagining something like Dynamax Alolan Exeggutor or Dynamax Wailord.
  • The new characters seems interesting. Due to the fact that none of the dialogue cannot be heard/seen, how each character is going to be like remains unknown. Leon seems like a hot-shot trainer and his design looks cool. Hop seems similar to Sun/Moon's Hau, but this time he is the nephew of the champion. I think this is first time your rival is related to the champion in some way. For those who are wishing for the jerk rival to return the direct did say that Hop is "one" of your rivals. They also introduced the new professor and a new waif- err I mean the professor's assistant as well.
  • The box-cover legendaries looks very similar to eachother, which is also a first. The shield legendary looks like Lysandre's spirit animal, and the sword legendary looks like literally a big armored dog holding a sword like how Wario swings a baseball bat. I dig it, honestly. The ending of the trailer is also hinting in potentially a third legendary Pokemon, or maybe them getting approach by the new evil team of the region.
 
I just hope they cranked up the difficulty this time around. If not, I might skip this game like I did with Sun/Moon, Pika/Eevee, etc.
 
The only main series Pokemon I've had are Pokemon Yellow and Pokemon Ruby (would've preferred Emerald, but that didn't exist yet). I may love Pokemon and it's near my heart, but no single game is worth getting a system over (Not even Smash.... but I'm glad I bought the Wii U for Sm4sh, it was a good time), thus I didn't get any of the DS handhelds for Pokemon. So you bet I'm eagerly awaiting to play Pokemon Shield (because everyone else I know is getting Pokemon Sword for many reasons).

Looking forward to seeing the new Pokemon (Corviknight is definitely going to be a Pokemon I use), and returning pokemon (Hoping for Absol, Noivern, Midnight Lycanroc, Zoroark, and Lucario off the top of my head). Most returning Pokemon will be pokemon I've never encountered because it's been so dang long since I've played a pokemon game.

I'm really hoping that the Wild Area becomes a sort of hangout with friends online post-game so you can just casually catch Pokemon/train with each other.
 
I just hope they cranked up the difficulty this time around. If not, I might skip this game like I did with Sun/Moon, Pika/Eevee, etc.
hopefully not >.> i prefer they have a option for the difficulty..for people who want a challenge can do hard mode and for others who don't want that..can pick normal/easy mode that way is more fair if you ask me.
 
I just hope they cranked up the difficulty this time around. If not, I might skip this game like I did with Sun/Moon, Pika/Eevee, etc.
While I would love that, it would turn away from any potential new Pokémon Trainers. Especially, when the holiday season approaches after the release date the games. I do urge that when you start a New Game, that you can select the difficulty of the Trainers (not the wild Pokémon).
Some things that I wish they could do End Game-ish:
In Black 2/White 2, they had a tournament with the previous Gym Leaders and Elite 4 of the respective region. Would be fun to see that brought back.
A Pokémon Arena Option: Since we have not had a Pokémon Stadium game since Battle Revolution for the Wii, I think it would be fun to have a 3rd Switch be a "spectator" for the competitive part of the games. Perhaps an app of some sort in the future.
 
hopefully not >.> i prefer they have a option for the difficulty..for people who want a challenge can do hard mode and for others who don't want that..can pick normal/easy mode that way is more fair if you ask me.
While I would love that, it would turn away from any potential new Pokémon Trainers. Especially, when the holiday season approaches after the release date the games. I do urge that when you start a New Game, that you can select the difficulty of the Trainers (not the wild Pokémon).
Some things that I wish they could do End Game-ish:
In Black 2/White 2, they had a tournament with the previous Gym Leaders and Elite 4 of the respective region. Would be fun to see that brought back.
A Pokémon Arena Option: Since we have not had a Pokémon Stadium game since Battle Revolution for the Wii, I think it would be fun to have a 3rd Switch be a "spectator" for the competitive part of the games. Perhaps an app of some sort in the future.
Excellent points. There should definitely be an option to raise or lower the difficulty--that way, neither beginners or intermediate players are shunned.
 
Excellent points. There should definitely be an option to raise or lower the difficulty--that way, neither beginners or intermediate players are shunned.
Honestly a scale gradient would be awesome. Do something like modern Pokémon and classic Pokémon games as easy and normal-hard respectively, and then maybe add some bonus very-hard and intense difficulties that add things like new trainers, trainers with extra Pokémon, trainer Pokémon equipped with their hidden abilities, Pokémon with evolutions at levels they don't evolve at, say a trainer on route 30 that has a level 35 Dragonair now has a level 35 Dragonite, and other challenge tweaks like that.
 
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