The long history of Pokemon has become a legacy to billions of children and adults alike. Recently, the Pokemon company announced the release date for the eight generation of Pokemon games, Sword and Shield, to be in late 2019. What does this mean for Pokemon fans?
Well, for starters, this game will only be released on the Nintendo Switch. This means if you don’t have one, better get to working on buying one. For the previous Pokemon games, Nintendo has released bundles that include the game and a special edition console.
What To Expect From Sword and Shield
Starter Pokemon. Although not much has been released on the new Pokemon we can look forward to in the game, they have released the base forms of the starter type Pokemon to the public.
Sobble
The water starter for Sword and Shield will be Sobble. It isn’t a very intimidating Pokemon, nor does it exactly have the cute factor in its corner. However, that doesn’t mean it won’t be a strong and feared Pokemon after it evolves fully.
Grookey
The grass starter is this little cute green monkey. As most starter Pokemon, it doesn’t exactly look like it demands the respect it deserves, and the history of grass type Pokemon starters isn’t the most promising. However, it could break the chain of bad starters in later stages depending on stats.
Scorbunny
This energetic bunny is said to have seemingly endless stamina. It is definitely the cutest of the three according to popular opinions. Fire types have been favored since Charmander in Red and Blue. We believe great things can be expected from this evolutionary chain with some powerful flames and speed.
Now as far as starters go in the recent generations, these three seem to match the themes of the older generations rather than the complex dual types that we had in later games. That isn’t to say they won’t receive a secondary type in their evolution chain, but for now they all seem to have a single typing that is tradition among starter Pokemon.
More Starters in Sword and Shield?
These starter Pokemon are not the only Pokemon announced by the Pokemon Company. Aside from the fact that they haven’t even released how many new Pokemon are going to be in this generation, they did release names and minor details about a select few of these pocket monsters.
Wooloo
This sheep like Pokemon (Sheep like? It is a sheep.) is believed to be a pure normal type that has the chance to lessen the damage of physical attacks by half due to its fluffy ability. Battle expectations for this Pokemon are not promising though, as it was stated that this Pokemon avoids conflict. It’s second ability is run away.
Gossifleur
This is a basic grass types, most likely obtainable early game with low level evolution and most likely some generic moves that make it a typical overlooked grass type. It is confirmed to have at least one evolution into Eldegoss. Whether or not this is the highest evolution it will obtain is unknown.
Eldegoss
As stated above, this Pokemon is the evolved form of Gossifleur. Also, a basic grass type Pokemon so expectations are low.
Drednaw
This is a promising turtle like Pokemon with the believed types of water and rock. It is stated that its muscles are strong and allows for speed as well as a solid defense. As previous games have done, the expectation for heavy hits are low. Because it is hard to get speed, attack, and defense in a single Pokemon.
Corviknight
This is a flying/steel type crow/raven based Pokemon. Though many have high hopes for this Pokemon, we feel it will just be another Skarmory that falls short of spectacular. Though promising in ability, we will have to wait to see if this high flyer is really as feared as the descriptions make it sound.
Gameplay
Well, to begin, let’s talk about the usefulness of Corviknight in game some more. This Pokemon will taxi players across the Galar region. This causes us to believe that they will keep to the recent idea in the later games of abolishing HM moves that previously felt like they just took up space. Which they did.
As far as the game play itself, this will be a turn-based battle game. This is a bit disappointing, seeing as how we have advanced in consoles, but not battle interaction. Though, if something isn’t broke. There are several different camera angles that allow you to experience the Pokemon world with a greater point of view. This will make the map seem larger as you will be able to explore and see more details that the creators have added into the game. It is all about aesthetics.
It isn’t confirmed, but there are rumors that you will be able to choose different outfits in the game.
One of the more promising gameplay features is Dynamax. Dynamax increases your Pokemon’s strength and skills to greater levels while enlarging the Pokemon to towering sizes. This is appealing to competitive battlers and hard-core challenge runs. The enlarged Pokemon last for three turns and can only be used once per battle. We expect this to be exploited greatly by trainers. There is no word on how mega evolution will fit into the mix.
Aside from the ability to create Godzilla out of Tyranitar, there is also a new co-op for local or online play that allows raids on Dynamax Pokemon that stay large for the entire fight. It is believed that you can catch them.
Final Thoughts
This looks like a promising game and many look forward to its vast regions of fresh Pokemon to become the best. The release date is set at November 15th, 2019. Make sure you get your copy and let us know what your expectations are for the newest generation of Pokemon. Something you can expect, however, is there will be more posts about Sword and Shield in the time to come.
