Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield

[Autumn Zephyr]

...Guess it's just Gigantimax shenanigans this time around... with even more Gen. 1 pandering to boot! Huzzah?

Spoiler

 

--Well, the fat pikachu gigan-leak was right here, big surprise. The tail glowing is new, at least? Apparently that's where its storing most of its electrical power now that it it has far more than what its cheeks can handle. The rat's eighth(?) signature attack, G-Volt Crash, is guaranteed to cause Paralysis to all enemies, which I feel like would've been the standard Electric Max-Move effect if Electric Terrain didn't exist. It can paralyze Ground Types, though it's still unclear if the same can be said of foes with the Limber Ability and fellow Electric Types. A compatible pikachu can be obtained as a gift if you have Let's GO! Pikachu save data on your system, but it's uncertain as to whether that's the only way to get one or not.

 

--Giga-Eevee is similarly obtained if you have data for its respective Let's GO! game, though I'd say it's actually a bit inferior here. It's signature move is G-Max Cuddle, which makes its Normal attacks infatuate the enemies... with all of the usual stipulations attached. I mean, I'd rather stick with Max Strike, even with how bad that move's effect is (lowers the enemy's Speed stat by one stage), but at least it's a unique effect. I feel like eevee would much rather just have Z-Moves back, seeing as Extreme Evoboost is definitely more useful that G-Max Cuddle, and the Partner Eevee losing its other signature attacks' effects during Gigantimax is actually really significant as well. Granted, it's unlikely that said eevee can even be moved across games to begin with, but it's not like the other eevee have anything particularly useful going for them either, so I might as hold onto the dream, right? Visually speaking, it's the most simple looking of the Gigantimax Formes so far- as far as I can tell, all that really changes is that its neck fluff now points upwards like an oversized crown. Then again, I completely missed G-Corviknight's drones the first 5 or so times I saw it, so I could very well be missing something here as well. 

 

--Didn't a leaker predict there being a long meowth? 'Cuz here's a weird-looking long meowth. Seriously, this thing's torso is about 1.5x longer than persian's (relative to rest of its body), yet it's still trying to stand upright! Aside from that... odd design choice, it leans more into the lucky cat motif, giving it extra whiskers toward the top of its head and slipping some kanji onto its coin. Oh, and its eyes are glowing like molten gold. That's kinda important, right? Supposedly, this thing likes to sharpen its claws on skyscrapers, so you should definitely keep it in the stadiums until its transformation wears off! Its signature move is G-Max Gold Rush, which (surprise, surprise!) increases the amount of money you get at the end of battle... as well as confusing all of your enemies like the poor suckers who found themselves digging through plain dirt because they showed up to California a week or two too late! A compatible meowth will serve as the Speed Boost torchic and Pulverizing Pancake munchlax of Generations prior, so it seems unlikely that meowth will be obtainable at all outside of the event. Whoops?

 

--Are you tired of seeing charizard yet? No? Good, 'cause here's a third superform for the not-dragon! It's seems to have taken on a more bulky, muscle-bound form this time, keeping it firmly on the ground, as well combining the Y-Mega's use of the standard color scheme with the X-Mega's use of extra flames. Or, rather, it takes those flames and runs off with them, full-throttle. It's completely incinerated its wings and replaced them with fire that reaches around to its chest, as if the leathery limbs just weren't enough for the flames! And its horns are on fire as well, instead of just perpetually spewing them out of its mouth like the X-Mega has them. Its signature move is G-Max Wildfire, which deals damage to all non-Fire Typed enemies. This is an interesting effect, not because of what it does, but because of the previous mechanic- this was the the Combination Effect for when you used Fire Pledge and Grass Pledge together. Fitting, for one of the pokemon that can use Fire Pledge, no? I still think its mechanically inferior to the standard Max Flare (which sets up Sunny Day), but who knows? Maybe the yet-unknown mechanical differences between Dynamaxing and Gigantimaxing will be enough to close the gap somewhat.

 

--And lastly, we have the real surprise of the trailer- butterfree, of all things, is getting a gigantimax form! Took GameFreak a while to bring it up to snuff with its counterpart, eh? Its wings grow a bit, pick up some of the Glimwood Tangle-style bioluminescence, and notably keeps on spewing scales... scales that are more akin to breloom spores than vivillon scales, at that! Seriously, its signature move, G-Max Befuddle, is Effect Spore ticked up to a 100% trigger rate and slapped onto a damaging attack! Given that its Effect Spore-based, though, what Status Effect your opponents will pick up is randomly chosen between Sleep, Poison, and Paralysis, so the unpredictability will certainly hinder G-Butterfree's competitive viability a bit- especially since we have no idea if the move will take Status immunities into account. Granted, it still wouldn't have any bonus effect against a Limber toxapex with a Sweet Veil-wielding ally, but given how hilariously specific that situation is, its likely you'll be facing off against a pokemon that's immune to at least one of the status effects. Unlike the other new forms, we still don't know what the standard Bug Max-Move does, so we can't really compare how this compares to that, which... is unfortunate. But what can you, right?

 

 

I had an unrelated thought the other day, so I guess I'll pop it up here at the end of this post. You know how Sweet Veil protects all of your pokemon from Sleep and Pastel Veil does the same for Poisoning? Wouldn't it be nice if they buffed Water Veil to give the Burn immunity to allies as well? It admittedly would only effect a handful of mediocre pokemon if this does happen, but giving those pokes any sort of extra utility is bound to help out a bit, right?

[Maqqy]

Yea, don’t really care too much about Gigantimax so this was a little meh for me. I’m still glad they’re keeping everything on a down low with a few weeks from release.

 

That said, Gigantimax Butterfree is lit  

[J-Awesome_One]

Aaannnd I was definitely correct! Alright trailer for me but I just wanna see some new Pokemon.

[Siragon]

Oh. More Charizard. Because 2 megas wasn't enough i suppose. Yaaaaay.

Can't say i didn't expect it at least a little (since, you know, being the ace of the champion... which is still an aberration to me... seriously, which champion has an ace from a different region ? (except Lance because the indigo league is shared between Kanto and Johto and he was already introduced in gen 1 and except Diantha because she needed an ace with a mega but there is no gen 6 mega) ) but i can't say i was looking forward to it either.

... i don't even have the energy to get mad at this. I'm just tired of it. And if i ever get the game, i know i won't be able to ignore it, like i could for his megas. (not that i don't want to get the game, i just don't have a switch ^^")

 

Long Meowth is long tho. Between him and Sirfetched, these games seems to have a strong memeability. Good.

[seki108]

Butterfree finally gets it's time after Bedrill got all the spotlight with it's Mega.  Honestly, I'm really happy about this one.  Even if I'm not really a fan of this Gen's throwaway gimmick, I wonder what other unique mons will get some new stu.............*sigh*

 

Pikachu and Eevee:  I get the series mascot and all, but you both just had two sidegames dedicated to you.  You don't need more things, especially if Eevee isn't bringing an actual eeveelution.  Good callbacks to the Gen 1 sprites, but infuriating that resources are being spent on this instead of new stuff.

 

Meowth:  Eh, not as disappointing personally as A-Persan's design for me.  Still better spent on something else, but good reference to both a meme and those cute cat good luck charms.

 

 

Overall so far:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Charizard:  *sigh*  You were my first, and I'm really sad to say that I've got THOROUGHLY sick of you.  It was plainly obvious this one was happening from the second the the champion was shown having a Charizard, but it's still another thing to see.  At least it looks cool, I guess

 

Spoiler

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

[0ddman]

I can't stand the Gen 1 pandering, but I don't hate any mons for it... I'm just glad that their is a bunch of stuff that we don't know about... During Sun/Moon hype train, during the same time we had a trailer that show us EVERTHING, and we saw everything except Alaloan Geodude and the evolutionary line for it. Now we know so much and yet... so little at the same time

[J-Awesome_One]

Wow... after 7 generations of Pokémon, Gen 8 has done the unthinkable! You won’t believe it!

Spoiler

You can skip the catching tutorial!!!

 

[Siragon]

27 minutes ago, J-Awesome_One said:

Wow... after 7 generations of Pokémon, Gen 8 has done the unthinkable! You won’t believe it!

  Hide contents

You can skip the catching tutorial!!!

 

Spoiler

I even heard that you can... skip the type matchup tutorial too !

 

[Vinnie]

Reddit has been an absolutely beautiful place. All the memes have made me very happy- 

Spoiler

 

Although lots of feels for butterfree. It didn't deserve the hate :c Charizard though...

[Starry Knight]

I like the new Butterfree looks pretty cool

[J-Awesome_One]

Hey! So I haven't played Let's Go Eevee or Pikachu but I know it was WAY easier to get into your PC without having to be in a PokeCenter.

I'll put this in a spoiler tag just in case people don't want to know about this even though it's kind of a small thing.

Spoiler

A new item called the PC Linked Box will allow you to access the PC anywhere but there are some restrictions and contraints. What they are, we have no idea but hey. Easier way to access the PC.

https://www.serebii.net/

 

[Maqqy]

I just wanna share this with ya’ll

 

This is kinda making it hard to choose a starter now cause I love all three of em... 🥺 

 

I’m also curious on which version you guys are getting! I was originally picking Sword but now I’m thinking if I should get the double pack since I want to experience both versions this time (it will be the first for me!). I’m still undecided.

[SilverAngelus]

1 hour ago, Maqqy said:

I’m also curious on which version you guys are getting! I was originally picking Sword but now I’m thinking if I should get the double pack since I want to experience both versions this time (it will be the first for me!). I’m still undecided.

I want to know the typings of Zacienta first before I choose between the two versions

 

There has been multiple interviews with GF lately and we do get a handful of info. One thing in particular that I like is the possibility for a decent postgame for once!!! A long, that too!

[Maqqy]

1 hour ago, SilverAngelus said:

I want to know the typings of Zacienta first before I choose between the two versions

 

There has been multiple interviews with GF lately and we do get a handful of info. One thing in particular that I like is the possibility for a decent postgame for once!!! A long, that too!

 

Or maybe just wait for Eternatus' version....

 

I also liked the one part in said interview wherein Masuda stated that "Let's Go's difficulty influenced SwSh". Though it's hard to believe at this point, we are *crossing fingers

[J-Awesome_One]

I hope we see more Galarian Forms from other gens too... but they need Galarian Form Arbok...

[Vinnie]

4 hours ago, Maqqy said:

I just wanna share this with ya’ll

 

This is kinda making it hard to choose a starter now cause I love all three of em... 🥺 

 

I’m also curious on which version you guys are getting! I was originally picking Sword but now I’m thinking if I should get the double pack since I want to experience both versions this time (it will be the first for me!). I’m still undecided.

I'm still going for Sword most likely. When it comes to exclusives it's more about which ones I don't want to bother waiting to trade for, and I definitely want Sirfetch'd right away. Galarian Ponyta and Rapidash can wait. What I am more interested in Shield for is the Ghost gym. Fighting is so bland, and Bea is overrated considering we've already had Maylene and Korrina. 

 

2 hours ago, SilverAngelus said:

I want to know the typings of Zacienta first before I choose between the two versions

 

There has been multiple interviews with GF lately and we do get a handful of info. One thing in particular that I like is the possibility for a decent postgame for once!!! A long, that too!

I'm still guessing that both box art legendaries are going to be Steel/Fighting. Steel just feels as if it's given due to them being the Sword and Shield legendaries, while I feel Fighting wil lbe there to represent justice, righteousness and chivalry. But I haven't really paid that much attention to all the interviews and potential leaks, and that feels way too simple. 

[Chase]

Man, its been....awhile.

 

So - I've been here since '96, and when you've been playing as long as I have you definitely have "phases" of when a Pokemon game feels like it would be an enjoyable experience or feel like a chore. I have a feeling I'm going to really enjoy Sword/Shield (I'm going to pay for the double pack because I have no friends - but I AM an adult who is fortunate enough to make money) because of the time the release is falling.

 

I am absolutely down for a Pokemon journey right now.

 

---

 

Things I like so far:

 

1. the Wild Area: From what seems to be out there, the WA is about the size of 1.5 LoZ:BotW areas - which is just a massive amount of space for what is essentially a randomly generated Pokemon sandbox. If there's hidden items or TMs out there as well as the WA-exclusive currency system that seems to be alluded too, it will really add to the value of the place beyond trying to give your team benchmarks against really strong Pokemon you wouldn't normally run into at certain points of your journey or looking for Gigantamax 'mons.
2. I don't know which of the three starters I want to start with - and all three seem compelling according to potential leaks. Obviously not going to bother talking about things we DON'T know here - but earlier, when Sobble was still a possibility despite being a Water type (my least favorite type of the FWG triangle by far) it was telling that this game might be fun. Also, Sobble is VERY MUCH still in the running. The last time Water types really had a chance of me picking them? Gold/Silver/Crystal, in which Totodile seemed WAY cooler than the other two. Those were GameBoy Color titles.
3. Team Yell and the obvious "this isn't really the bad guy organization" subtext - and even if my guess is wrong, I still love Yell's concept because of my next point. As a raving college football fanatic, having your team go into massive 100,000+ stadiums full of what are essentially Team Yell members will, at least by noise level, compare to Rocket levels of sinister for who you consider "the good guys" in that situation. They seem like a generally fun, if goofy, group. I think Team Skull aged quite nicely. The only issue I might understand is that Skull and Yell are coming in back-to-back generations.
4. Galar is all about sports. - and this should excite not only the raving sports fanatic mentioned above, but people that really like Pokemon beyond the game franchise. The anime was ALWAYS about making battles massive sporting events, but the games seemed to fail to really make that fully realized. I've always appreciated Reborn's bleachers in gyms because it showed that it was very much possible to incorporate spectacle to the journey to being the best. I've always wondered how big a deal it was for our 10 year old protagonist to become Champion if nobody was watching it happen live on television and it really was just taking place in a dungeon-esque gauntlet of rooms cut off from the rest of the world. Glory is nothing if you don't have lots of people watching you obtain it.

Things I'm not as big on that may dampen the experience if not reasonably explained in the lore.

 

1. DynaGigantamaxing: Mega Evolution, at least through the 'dex entries that were assigned to megas, seemed to exist not only because of a strong bond with a trainer, but also added significant gravity to the Pokemon's health in the moment it happened. While that's...morbid, it was at least additive to the overall background in which the annual "how can we change up competitive play this time" mechanic is explained. Z-Moves seemed to fall flat because of a bare narrative surrounding it in-universe - especially because it didn't alter the Pokemon's appearance in any way. So - my concern is that perhaps making your Pokemon inexplicably large is something that doesn't have much of a reasoning (outside of Affleck's info, which does have me hopeful) or weight to the decision. Game Freak seems to be going all in on these as their big game mechanic this generation, so I hope it has in-universe consequences that make it appealing for those like me, who somewhat DO care about things outside of competitive play.

[Autumn Zephyr]

So, a lot have people have been complaining about the recent Exp. Share news because they think it'll make the games' difficulty even lower than it already was. I don't think that's a completely valid criticism- EV training just got a heck of a lot more difficult to pull off!

 

...I think our games have corrupted me. R.I.P.

[Maqqy]

To be honest the only thing that made the core games hard was the level cap. By making the exp share “always on”, they might give room to more creative ways in raising difficulty like say, raising EV’s.

 

It’s not a problem truthfully speaking. Or maybe I’m just saying this cause I recently played Octopath Traveler and the grind on that game is just..... jezuz. Yea get rid of it forever. Jk

[J-Awesome_One]

Do you all think there's gonna be a 2nd evil team? I mean Team Yell isn't really evil... They seem more annoying than anything.

[SilverAngelus]

1 minute ago, J-Awesome_One said:

Do you all think there's gonna be a 2nd evil team? I mean Team Yell isn't really evil... They seem more annoying than anything.

If they're not really evil, then can you really call them the first evil team?

 

I think there could be a second....well, I wouldn't necessarily say team, but corporation, if you will. *nudge nudge wink wink

[J-Awesome_One]

6 minutes ago, SilverAngelus said:

If they're not really evil, then can you really call them the first evil team?

 

I think there could be a second....well, I wouldn't necessarily say team, but corporation, if you will. *nudge nudge wink wink

Well we don’t have another team or corporation sooo...

[Autumn Zephyr]

16 minutes ago, J-Awesome_One said:

Well we don’t have another team or corporation sooo...

We do have a company, though- the League itself is run by a man who goes by the title of chairman. Angelus hasn't trusted Rose one bit from the moment he was revealed.

[J-Awesome_One]

34 minutes ago, Autumn Zephyr said:

We do have a company, though- the League itself is run by a man who goes by the title of chairman. Angelus hasn't trusted Rose one bit from the moment he was revealed.

Omg! I totally forgot about that dude!

[SilverAngelus]

1 hour ago, Autumn Zephyr said:

We do have a company, though- the League itself is run by a man who goes by the title of chairman. Angelus hasn't trusted Rose one bit from the moment he was revealed.

Not quite [insert evil smirk here]