Sword & Shield **Official news only** DLC Crown Tundra 22nd October

[nightwolf]

Time for some hot takes for what was shown today

THE GOOD

1. An open world area that doesn't have the camera locked to 3rd person top down view.
2. New and returning pokemon to catch and collect
3. Showed off the professor, her granddaughter, the rival, and the champion.
4. Random encounters are still a thing.
5. GYMS/BATTLEFIELDS THAT RESEMBLE WHAT'S IN THE ANIME!
6. The new legendaries look like good boys, with the one for Sword being Sif from Dark Souls.
7. Corviknight being used to fast travel, so long garbage traveling mechanic of gen 7.

THE BAD

1. Dynamix, looks like a frakentinien mash up of Megas and Z moves, but you take away the cool aesthetic of mega-evolved pokemon, and turn them into Kaijus instead.
2. Raid battles, if you don't have friends irl that play the game, and you don't have internet access or nintendo online, this stuff is going to be a bad time, even with the NPC trainer help
3. The name of the rival and the pokemon. Who the hell in their right, fictional mind, would name their kid; "Hop"? Like honestly, that is one of the worst names for a rival after the 'buttfaces' and 'snoteaters' of gen 1 and 2 rival naming gimmicks.
4. The limitations on dynamix battles, only once per battle, and in raids it's one for the whole team. Not the worst thing out there, but then you factor in that it only lasts for 3 turns.

THE UGLY

1. The model/face of the first gym leader. He looks like a worse version of the guy in the Big 3 of My Hero Academia.

 

[Kanburi]

[*]The name of the rival and the pokemon. Who the hell in their right, fictional mind, would name their kid; "Hop"? Like honestly, that is one of the worst names for a rival after the 'buttfaces' and 'snoteaters' of gen 1 and 2 rival naming gimmicks.

For some reason, they changed the Champion's name in Japanese (ダンデ, Dande) to Leon, but kept ホップ as Hop. inb4 your other rival is named Hip.

 

[Worldie]

they changed the Champion's name in Japanese (ダンデ, Dande) to Leon

I can see the Leon name making sense. It's basically "Lion", in a game that's about grandeur, fame, and with the cover leges being wolves I can see the Lion as a comparably fierce animal.

No clue if "Dande" or whatever the jp pronunciation is has any actual meaning in Japanese.

 

[Hydrachomp]

I can see the Leon name making sense. It's basically "Lion", in a game that's about grandeur, fame, and with the cover leges being wolves I can see the Lion as a comparably fierce animal.

No clue if "Dande" or whatever the jp pronunciation is has any actual meaning in Japanese.

I think it's just a shortening of Dandelion (which is also a combination of the Japanese and English names). Also my mind immediately links Hop to Beer, which in my opinion is quite fitting for a region based on Britain. It might not be the best fit for a children's game though...

 

[Kanburi]

I can see the Leon name making sense. It's basically "Lion", in a game that's about grandeur, fame, and with the cover leges being wolves I can see the Lion as a comparably fierce animal.

No clue if "Dande" or whatever the jp pronunciation is has any actual meaning in Japanese.

I think it's just a shortening of Dandelion (which is also a combination of the Japanese and English names). Also my mind immediately links Hop to Beer, which in my opinion is quite fitting for a region based on Britain. It might not be the best fit for a children's game though...

I’d assume it comes from “dandelion” too, which coincidentally comes from the French “dent-de-lion”, or “lion’s tooth.”

The Japanese use たんぽぽ (tanpopo) more often than ダンデライオン (dandelion) when referring to the flower, so I’m glad they didn’t name the champion Tan or Popo.

Some fans are speculating that this is a new Pokemon:

Also, is that Pachirisu on the T-shirt or another new Pokemon?

 

[Deck Knight]

Love the new mon reveals. Here's a quick rundown

Wooloo
Galan Mareep is round, fluffy, and full of energy, just not the electric kind. I also hear it can Digivolve into Maverick Sheepman if you trade it with a Dubious Disc attached.

Corviknight
Galan Skarmory is a epic Pokemon with an epic type and defensive abilities sure to emphasize it's adaptation to maximize edginess. Hyper Cutter or Intimidate as HA for maximum edge.

Elegloss
Galan Jumpluff has had its pollen puff take over its head entirely rather than floating in the wind. Will Regenerator finally make Jumpluff viable?

Dreadgnaw
Galan Grotle borrows from Croconaw's name, but it's clearly an adaptation of Grotle to aquatic environments and much more biting power.

Zacian
Galan Suicune is a legendary dog that has exchanged its awkward oversized sword crystal for an awkward oversized actual sword, but note it is still extremely elegant otherwise.

Zamazenta
Galan Entei is still a big, broad-faced imposing legendary bear-dog, but it's exchanged its wild mane for a sweet shield design.

OK, OK, I know this post is razzing a bit on the new mons, a few of which I like a lot, but so much of this reminds me of how Throh/Sawk were callbacks to the Hitmons from Gen 5 to Gen 1 I had to do this. Too many coincidences from Gen 8 to Gen 2, with Grotle being a little better than Croconaw for mon design even if the intent is similar.

 

[Ironmage]

Alright, this is going to be a long one, so I've broken it into sections

pokemon

Gossifleur and Eldegoss: Not my thing design-wise. If it pans out that Cotton Down activates on all hits, it'll certainly be interesting for doubles (especially if it hits both or the mon gets Follow Me/Rage Powder), and might conceivably have an extremely niche revenge killer role over regenerator in singles. But RIP gooey/tangling hair if it does get that

Drednaw: Looks cool enough, but I won't be using it casually since this playthrough is going to be either monotype (steel, ghost, poison, or bug) or DoT-focused. All those weaknesses means it lives or dies competitively on its offense. Slow could work for some TR setups, fast could work for more general teams, but middling speed seems like it would be a mistake. I hope we get another bite move (since this is now the third water and second rock with strong jaw), but considering Tyrantrum doesn't have a bite STAB, I'm not holding my breath.

Woloo: Sheep aren't terribly exciting to me. Desperately in need of more info before I can have meaningful things to say about it.

Corviknight: Obligatory Cawmodore joke. Looks pretty good. Considering the main mythological reference I found was a creature from Danish folklore that is mostly known for eating people, I have some questions about the taxi service. Anyway, I don't think it will be competing with Skarmory since GF doesn't need to load corviknight up with hazard options. Competing with Celesteela is going to be harder. Pressure would likely be the main ability if it's more defensive, with unnerve being useful for doubles support and singles offense

Legends: Too much wolf, not enough sword/shield. No info to draw anything from competitively, not that I have the qualifications to draw anything on them anyway (I have a tendency to play monosteel in Ubers since I'm just there for aegislash, metagross, and genesect anyway)

characters

Hop: I started in gen 3, so I don't really have a preference for friendly vs. jerk rivals. I do think it's an important part of teaching new players that a rival gets a type advantage against the players starter, though (gladion gets his type advantage far too late). Since starters now have access to their elemental moves at level 5, that does make it an extremely hard fight if you encountered your rival before having time to catch other mons. You could just make winning that fight not required, and I hope what is happening here is that we encounter a second rival some time after (similar timeframe to the first Silver fight seems reasonable) and have regular fights with them throughout the story

Leon: I wouldn't panic about Zard quite yet. It's possible it's a placeholder for a mon they don't want to reveal yet. Even if it is Zard, I personally wouldn't mind too much if it means Zard Y finally gets some screen time, but I doubt that's what's going to happen. "Never lost an official match" is just too suspicious to pass up, and him faking it would allow for some much-needed character on Hop.

Magnolia and Sonia: Nothing too notable here for me.

Milo: nothing known but the appearance, and nothing about the appearance that hasn't already been said.

areas

Gyms: Hoping that they get more filled out teams. No indication if the leader battle is all we get, or if something is required before entering the stadium. If leaders 'Max their last mon (similar to megas always being last in gen 6), that would give players who don't want to use the gimmick plenty of time to set up and just plow through once the 'Max mon shows up. Hope I don't get booed too hard by the crowd for fighting as more than just a Dynamax slugfest :P.

Wild area: free camera is nice, and the expanse allows for a lot of different pokemon, but I'm not sold on the rest. Different spawns based on weather is a pain if you can't control the weather, and I'm not that into most open-world exploration. As an example, I basically went straight toward whatever thing held my interest in BotW, and completely ignored the intervening terrain. I enjoy the exploration in Xenoblade, but a good part of that is that the environments are worth looking at since I haven't been to an equivalent IRL. I doubt it's going to be a metroidvania style where the most direct route from A to B is a puzzle in and of itself

Dynamax

Trainer Battles: Gimmick bloat is certainly a concern, but I feel like the main problem is that it seems clunky, especially for singles. Mapping status moves to guard isn't a big problem in vgc when everything is going to want Protect anyway, and could lead to some new tech (e.g. setting Trick Room and then 'Maxing' to replace the now-redundant movelsot with Max Guard), but in singles "in a temporary position of power" and "I want to use a Protect variant" aren't usually the same situation. I don't think it will help out any of the lower-tier mons, since we mostly see Z-moves on already OU mons like landorus and kyurem-B. Most of the stuff that could be done with the move alterations has already been explored with Z-moves (and three turns is too short in singles to load up on multiple unwieldy moves e.g. hydro cannon/contest Steel Blown/Blizzard empoleon), and I don't think the extra effects are going to pry the life orb out of Sheer Force user's hands. Maybe it'll be interesting if we get a Merciless mon that actually feels like attacking occasionally and Max Poison has the expected secondary.

I don't see it being OP unless they use the same boosts as the raid bosses, but it's looking a lot like Battle Bond to me: Something I don't use because the power isn't worth how much less interesting it is compared to the base form. Casually or competitively, there's no point winning if you can't have fun doing it, and dropping from ~700 moves (Z-moves ignored) to 19 isn't my idea of fun.

Raids: The weakening but not KOing central to normal catching is a problem when you have multiple players. Considering we see a prompt for when to throw our gigaball, I expect that it will be captured in a cutscene after reaching 0HP. If they wanted to sacrifice realism for fairness (and they should), said cutscene could play individually for each player, meaning they all get the mon. That said, pokemon has an absolutely horrible battle system for when depleting a single health bar is the victory condition. Passive damage destroys single health bars, and you basically need to make the boss powerful enough to OHKO anything before it acts (see Unecrozma) because one turn is all it takes to set up a DoT that doesn't leave the boss with enough time to sweep. Neither the frustration nor the anticlimax is all that fun. As it stands, the guy who uses toxic turn 1 and sits around for the rest of the fight has a good chance of contributing more than his teammates, and a coordinated poison/leech seed/ ghost curse/ super fang will leave anything not immune to the components at 4hp max after turn 1.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

"Never lost an official match" is just too suspicious to pass up

Glad to see I'm not the only one getting bad vibes from Leon.

 

[PsychicAcademic]

Alright, I have been an avid player of Pokemon GO, where Raids originally were. So I think I can comment on this thing.

In GO, most of time your enemy is the clock (especially if you're soloing or are short of manpower), not just the raid boss wiping your team. It is true that in traditional format, abusing passive damages can make this Max Raid so easy (compared to GO raids where we have to beat it the old way), but I have not seen anything that resembles a timer. We haven't gotten the actual view on the battle itself, have we? I'm thinking that they could be implementing timer in LGPE's legendary initial battle.
That said, we don't even know the power of Max Moves. It could also be that in Max Raid, the danger is being wiped out (in GO, if your first team are wiped out, you're back into the lobby, ready to use the next team. I'm sure they won't be using LGPE's portable Pokemon Box here). Or worse, the threat is both the timer and being wiped out.

I'm sure GF is aware of out-of-the-box tactics like FEAR, and would make precaution when designing this battle. But I'm also sure that unlike GO, there will be a point where we can solo the Max Raid with AI trainers, since GO is more focused on social interactions and much easier to do (I'd be mad if I see I'm doomed to never be able to beat some bosses solo when the Switch's paid 'net subscription is a thing).

Now, in GO raids, obviously we only have damaging attacks, but this makes me curious if we can actually boost up out own dynamaxed mon with the likes of Helping Hand. This can actually give more depth in tactics in raids when in GO the raid is simply all about beating the clock (or completely shatter Double Battle).

Glad to see I'm not the only one getting bad vibes from Leon.

Not to mention that he's revealed very early. A Champion, revealed so early. People already speculate he's a Lusamine-style villain (without the psychosis) or Fake Ultimate Hero. Thinking about it, it can be interesting for Hop's character development with broken pedestal on his brother. But yeah, it's still baseless and unconfirmed.

 

[MattL]

Would not surprise me if this was inspiration for the design. (credit Popplio on FB)

 

[DreamPrince]

So, nobody is talking about the music? Full vocal ost, bagpipe gang, nice rendition of the gym theme etc.

I'm hype as anything. Dynamaxing will be... interesting. Surely you can't dynamax and hold an item / z move / mega.

In other news, that one leak mentioning almost everything shown was correct! Looking forward to meeting the other two rivals.

NOVEMBER HYPE

Maybe it’s because they have a habit of not releasing music they use in trailers. I wonder if raid battles can be updated like Go over time for different Pokémon.

 

[The Chaotician]

Devils Advocate here - I've not seen a single mention of MELMETAL since this thread was reopened after the Direct Presentation.

We were told it has a significant role in the games story, yet we still know fuck all about what this might be.

Chloe noticed that Zacian and Zamazenta are based on the CMYK colour model and that yellow and key (black) are missing...

On the topic of 'key', this could also be a play on words for Hex Key. Seems very coincidental that the Hex Nut Pokemon has decided to turn up just in time for Gen 8.

yourDeadGrandad noted that that the legends appear to be based on Alphyn and had a feeling they may combine into a single more powerful being. What better way to bond metal to metal with...liquid metal.

 

[Ivy]

Meanwhile, some people still think Meltan was a completely improvised Pokémon that was hastily created from a placeholder Kecleon model.

 

[Zowayix]

The only rumor mentioning Meltan and Melmetal was discredited once it got the legendaries wrong.

 

[The Chaotician]

The only rumor mentioning Meltan and Melmetal was discredited once it got the legendaries wrong.

I'm not buying any of the leaks since the the persistence of 'Armoured Evolutions' and how wrong they were.

 

[Deck Knight]

Glad to see I'm not the only one getting bad vibes from Leon.

C'mon, it's not like Lysandre (a lion themed guy with fire Pokemon), Lusamine, and Leon (a lion named guy with Fire Pokemon) could all have something in common besides being prominent people with their name beginning with the letter L...

 

[Vengeance417]

I'm hoping that SwSh will also feature integration with the Pokeball Plus, much like how it paired with LGPE. I think it's a great way to train your Pokemon when you're not playing the game, and it encourages exercise :p

Mostly, I just don't want this accessory to be tied down to just LGPE and Pokemon GO. It should be used in all future games.

 

[Steel With It]

Some fans are speculating that this is a new Pokemon:

Also, is that Pachirisu on the T-shirt or another new Pokemon?

The Pokemon in the crowd and the Pokemon on the shirt are the same Pokemon, just from different angles.

 

[DreamPrince]

I'm hoping that SwSh will also feature integration with the Pokeball Plus, much like how it paired with LGPE. I think it's a great way to train your Pokemon when you're not playing the game, and it encourages exercise :p

Mostly, I just don't want this accessory to be tied down to just LGPE and Pokemon GO. It should be used in all future games.

Wasn’t it criticized for poor control in general though?

 

[Vengeance417]

Wasn’t it criticized for poor control in general though?

It serves me well when I use it in LGPE. Besides, that won't matter for SwSh since I doubt we'll be catching Pokemon like we would in LGPE or GO. The main feature I'm referring to is choosing a Pokemon to stroll with to earn EXP and items when not playing the game itself. I see no reason to can the ability to do that.

 

[nightwolf]

Devils Advocate here - I've not seen a single mention of MELMETAL since this thread was reopened after the Direct Presentation.

We were told it has a significant role in the games story, yet we still know fuck all about what this might be.

Chloe noticed that Zacian and Zamazenta are based on the CMYK colour model and that yellow and key (black) are missing...

On the topic of 'key', this could also be a play on words for Hex Key. Seems very coincidental that the Hex Nut Pokemon has decided to turn up just in time for Gen 8.

yourDeadGrandad noted that that the legends appear to be based on Alphyn and had a feeling they may combine into a single more powerful being. What better way to bond metal to metal with...liquid metal.

There's literally over 6 months until the release, which means that there could be at least one or two more directs specifically for SwSh.

 

[Worldie]

Wasn’t it criticized for poor control in general though?

Actually, what was criticised was the fact that *without* the pokeball plus, the catching controls were awful.
The only critique the Pokeball plus had was the lack of a "Y" button in battle, which was (and still will be in SwSh) necessary to check field conditions.

 

[The Chaotician]

There's literally over 6 months until the release, which means that there could be at least one or two more directs specifically for SwSh.

No doubt. Just haven’t heard anything about it. Despite being a new Pokédex entry it’s only been available in spin offs so far.

 

[Rapti]

From what I heard the problem with the Pokeball Plus is that it was unconformable for people with big hands

 

[BP]

From what I heard the problem with the Pokeball Plus is that it was unconformable for people with big hands

I mean you know what they say about people with big hands.

It makes it harder to catch Pokemon