Nintendo Pokémon Sword & Shield

The games look absolutely stunning and are an instant guaranteed purchase from me.
Sobble is currently my favourite of the starters but as always the final decision will come down to their final stages.
As for the region; I'm very happy to see that they managed to make the UK look gorgeous. And with the region map being split into sections that each have different terrain and climate, there's sure to be several fantastic areas that are all visually unique. A definite plus given that some previous regions have often boiled down to plain green or plain brown depending on the location.

 

Well, certainly not the title I was expecting, but to be fair, I guess I'm not sure what I was expecting that were polar opposites. I can just hear the helicopter parents now "Oh my god, that sounds so violent!".
Anyways, I've still got to raise money, because I'm actually willing to buy a switch to keep playing new generations of pokemon games to keep up with them. And I don't know when it started, probably around 5th generation, but why does it feel like the starter pokemon designs are getting worse and worse? I've been fine with most of the final evolutions, but come on, what are those? I see a fire-type chespin, a grass-type cousin of chimchar or something, and a water-type....actually, i'm speechless for Sobble. Maybe it's just my age, but I can't seem to enjoy the designs of starter pokemon anymore, and even when I get used to them, it after playing the games and getting them to evolve.
I'll also be curious on trainer customization, because that's been such a big thing in the past 2 generations, I'll honestly be shocked if they didn't keep it. I've enjoyed getting new designs for my characters. Oh, and I think there's a Hiker who wants the backpack the male character stole from them.

Now the questions I'm going to be asking whenever I remember about these are:
Who's the new organization this time around?
What's the main premise for story?
Who are the legendaries?
Do we actually get good diverse gym leader teams that aren't all 3 pokemon? (That one's bugged me ever since Gen 4. I miss Emerald's gyms. Or 2nd gen's Kanto gyms where they all have 6)

 

Prediction: the Legendaries are going to be loosely based on Knights of the Round Table, much like Cobalion/Terrakion/Virizion were loosely based on the Three Musketeers (even though the reference to them preceded the region inspired by France).

 

If that ends up being the case, I'm calling the Sword being based on Lancelot and the Shield being based on Galahad. Would be interesting if the theory is true

 

There has never been a more badass, more anime-esque visual in a Pokémon game than those three trainers facing down a single massive Pokémon, keeping their fourth ace in the back ready to use a power to match it. Absolutely incredible.

The new Pokémon so far are fantastic. I'm loving Corviknight. Wooloo is adorable. The legendaries look fitting.

No doubt some people are going to complain that they're adding yet another gimmick but Dynamax looks like it had the story built for it and its real purpose is to make competitive battles a much more impressive visual spectacle, and I'm on board with that.

My only complaint is that you can't pre-order the double box of the games yet.

 

The WIld Area looks like a mix of both random encounters and field encounters like Let's Go games. Given how it's one giant area connected to all the towns and cities, I guess this is closer to being an open world game?

 

So something that wasn't immediately noticeable in the trailer was the existence of some kind of squirrel/chipmunk Pokémon in the crowd during the Gym battle. The same Pokémon appears to be on a child in the crowd's shirt, which suggests it could be a Pokémon with high in-universe popularity, like Pikachu etc.

 

The official Pokémon twitter account confirms that there will be Sword and Shield info in today's E3 Nintendo Direct.

 

Just watched the Treehouse Live segment on Pokemon Sword & Shield and I very much want those games now. The dynamax battles actually looked and felt like full boss battles, and the Wild Area is BIG. We've also got a new Gym Leader named Neesa or something and is a water trainer, and from he screenshot of her pokemon levels, she's likely either #2 or #3. Being able to see other players online in the Wild Area is also a really cool thing.

 

In the playable demo of Sword and Shield, two new Pokémon were seen. These are the Electric-type Yamper, and the Dark/Fairy Impidimp.
In addition, today's E3 Direct unfortunately stated that Pokémon that are not in the Galar Pokédex cannot be transferred from Pokémon Home into Sword and Shield.

 

Well, we still don't know exactly how big the pokedex will be in total, and for all we're know it'll consider a national pokedex as part of the Galar region when you unlock it. And no, I don't entirely believe that, but let's be fair, 800+ pokemon in a single game world be a lot. I'm still buying it but i also don't transfer my pokemon over a lot so it doesn't bug me.

 

A little more information has come out from Famitsu:

 

I'm much more interested in Dynamax than I thought I'd be, but I'm getting tired of a new game-changing, story-driven, gimmicky mechanic each generation. It's not completely new since we had Abilities introduced, but Mega-Evolutions, Z-Moves, and Dynamax have all been introduced seemingly to replace the previous gimmick and it's...off-putting. If it was up to me, I'd combine them all into one major mechanic and possibly a lesser mechanic. Something like...Mega-Evolutions include growing into Dynamax size with an ultimate move -the Z-move- that functions as a finisher and either reverts the Pokémon back to regular or keeps it in Mega-Evolution/Dynamax mode but in a vulnerable state.

 

Another new trailer was released today.

In an interesting turn of events, we once again have version-exclusive gym leaders - something that hasn't been done since Black and White back in Gen 5.
We also get the first look at Gigantamax, which appears to be like a cross between Dynamax and Mega Evolution, as the Pokémon changes its appearance as well as growing huge.
This trailer also shows a handful of new Pokémon, but interestingly doesn't officially reveal Impidimp, the Dark/Fairy Pokémon seen in the demo at E3.

 

Serebii added to their information for today with this extra bit for version exclusive pokemon as well: