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Recently, on June 5, 2019, there was a Pokemon direct concerning the upcoming games, Pokemon Sword and Shield. There was enough new information to wet my appetite for these games, and I look forward to playing them when they come out world wide on November, 15 2019 (which was announced in the video). I will go over the announcements and give some quick impressions on what was revealed. So, let’s get started!
I will begin with the new Pokemon announced:
- Wooloo – a new Pokemon that resembles a sheep.
- Gossifleur and Eldegoss – Gossifleur evolves into Eldegoss, where the former is a flower, and the latter is a dandelion.
- Drednaw – a new Pokemon that resembles a snapping turtle.
- Corviknight – new Pokemon based on a raven. Apparently, it is used to fast travel back to any town the player has already visited.
- Zacian – a legendary Pokemon that looks like a wolf, and has a sword in its mouth.
- Zamazenta – a legendary Pokemon that looks like a wolf, with the front of its body resembling a shield.
(It should be noted that the official Pokemon website currently has the typings of all new Pokemon except for the two legendary Pokemon.)
Personally, I like the legendary Pokemon more than the common ones revealed, but none of them are deal breakers in terms of my getting the game.
New Features:
The over world appears to be split between wild areas and towns. The wild area features a variety of Pokemon who appear based on time of day and weather. This area has camera control too, a first for a 3D Pokemon game. The Pokemon seem to wander around before you encounter them, similar to Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee, a feature I am happy to see (that being said, there was fine print saying game content not final, so anything seen during the direct might change).
More notably is a new feature called “dynamax”, were a Pokemon becomes temporarily gigantic and more powerful. Here are a few takeaways on this feature:
- Players can use this feature mid battle, each trainer can only activate it once, and it effects the Pokemon for three turns.
- The Pokemon’s moves become “max moves” that are stronger than their usual moves, and are based on their current moves.
- There are “max raid battles” where four players, either locally or online cooperatively face a wild dynamax Pokemon to try and catch it.
- The wild dynamax Pokemon stays dynamaxed for the entire raid battle.
- Only one player of the four can dynamax a Pokemon in max raid battles.
- Some Pokemon only appear in these battles.
- Gym leaders can dynamax their Pokemon as well, which lasts three turns.
Some things we don’t know about the dynamax feature:
- How a Pokemon’s stats change.
- Can it work on any Pokemon? (It looks that way).
- What is required to trigger it (Does the target Pokemon need a held item?)
- Does it limit mega evolution or z-moves? (Neither feature has been confirmed to be in this game, but most likely will return).
- Does mega evolution or z-moves limit the use of dynamax? (Can a Mega Pokemon dynamax? Can a dynamaxed Pokemon use z-moves?)
- Does a Pokemon’s ability change? (This does not appear to be the case).
Some new characters were revealed as well:
- Leon, the current champion.
- His younger brother (and your rival), Hop.
- Professor Magnolia.
- Her granddaughter and assistant, Sonia.
- And one of the Gym leaders (presumably the first), Milo (who favors grass types).
Impressions:
I’m a little surprised to see that the champion was revealed so early before the game’s release. So far, I personally think the character designs seem stronger than usual. The features of this game seem more powerful and interesting as well. The dynamax feature seems like it might be a bit much when considering that the game may have mega evolution and z-moves. I look forward to seeing how it functions, and what impact it wil have on competitive battling. I am hoping that the online features are done right, so you can easily find friends and opponents. As for the max raid battles, I want to know what happens if one player disconnects! If the battle just ends, then a new form of trolling will come about for the Pokemon games. If the battle continues, either with one less player, or with the CPU taking over, then the feature will work properly, most of the time.
Well, I am looking forward to this game quite a bit now. But what do you think of this new Sword and Shield info? What are you most excited for? What do you think of the new Pokemon? What about the dynamax feature? What else would you like to see in this game? Let me know in the comments below! If you enjoyed this news article, be sure to click that like button! To keep up with That’s All Games, you can subscribe via email. Until next time, have fun gaming!
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