Pokémon Sword and Shield Spoiler Discussion

[Anacybele]

5 minutes ago, Dai said:

It does kind of suck in that regard.

I admit, I'm still also pretty salty that I can't have my sandstorm/trap team fully in this game. Particularly Forretress. Hopefully there's something that they have something similar to it.

Indeed.

Yeah, I wanted Zebstrika in the game at least so I could fill up my team with the horses and zebra. Galarian Rapidash, Mudsdale, Keldeo, Zebstrika. I wasn't expecting Keldeo to be in, but there was always a chance it would be distributed again. But at least I get two horses (well, technically a unicorn and a horse in this case), so that's cool.

[Dai]

1 minute ago, Anacybele said:

Indeed.

Yeah, I wanted Zebstrika in the game at least so I could fill up my team with the horses and zebra. Galarian Rapidash, Mudsdale, Keldeo, Zebstrika. I wasn't expecting Keldeo to be in, but there was always a chance it would be distributed again. But at least I get two horses (well, technically a unicorn and a horse in this case), so that's cool.

I will admit, ice teams might be pretty nice this game. Eiscue, for example, as mentioned previously, being practically immune to physical attacks, might make for a decent wall. So there are at least some options.

I'm not entirely unsurprised that Zebstrika isn't in, but I do find it odd that Pangoro is in. For Pokemon that fit in Galar, a panda isn't one I would think of.

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, Dai said:

I will admit, ice teams might be pretty nice this game. Eiscue, for example, as mentioned previously, being practically immune to physical attacks, might make for a decent wall. So there are at least some options.

I'm not entirely unsurprised that Zebstrika isn't in, but I do find it odd that Pangoro is in. For Pokemon that fit in Galar, a panda isn't one I would think of.

Eiscue is one of those that I think look completely weird though. Like...they just took a penguin's body and put an ice cube on it.

Zebstrika doesn't really fit it Unova either though lol. Unova is Pokemon New York. Zebras are from Africa. 😛 But true, Pangoro doesn't fit well in Galar either.

[Dai]

Just now, Anacybele said:

Eiscue is one of those that I think look completely weird though. Like...they just took a penguin's body and put an ice cube on it.

Zebstrika doesn't really fit it Unova either though lol. Unova is Pokemon New York. Zebras are from Africa. 😛 But true, Pangoro doesn't fit well in Galar either.

I just like to consider it that Zebs broke out of the Unovian zoo and started mass breeding.

Eiscue just makes me think of Mario Penguins, which makes me wanna throw 'em off a cliff. But I do love that cube face.

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, Dai said:

I just like to consider it that Zebs broke out of the Unovian zoo and started mass breeding.

Oh my god this would be hilarious. XD

1 minute ago, Dai said:

Eiscue just makes me think of Mario Penguins, which makes me wanna throw 'em off a cliff. But I do love that cube face.

I actually kind of thought of the Mario penguins too! Just with ice cubes for heads rather than penguin heads.

[Dai]

5 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Oh my god this would be hilarious. XD

I actually kind of thought of the Mario penguins too! Just with ice cubes for heads rather than penguin heads.

Mm...PTSD.

Is there a super training equivalent in this game? I assume it'd be the jobs, but I've yet to hear much outside of, you know. Stuffing your pokemon with DRUGS.

[Anacybele]

3 minutes ago, Dai said:

Mm...PTSD.

Is there a super training equivalent in this game? I assume it'd be the jobs, but I've yet to hear much outside of, you know. Stuffing your pokemon with DRUGS.

I've heard of the scenario in this video before. Those poor penguins.

I'm curious about a super training equivalent too. I don't know. I also never got an answer to my question about how late in Shield Galarian Ponyta is found.

[Dai]

2 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

I've heard of the scenario in this video before. Those poor penguins.

I'm curious about a super training equivalent too. I don't know. I also never got an answer to my question about how late in Shield Galarian Ponyta is found.

Judging from the Galar Region map, if Wedgehurst, the starting town is at the bottom, that mushroom forest that was in the livestream appears to be southwest of what may be the Pokemon League, so I'd imagine just before post-game?

[Anacybele]

3 minutes ago, Dai said:

Judging from the Galar Region map, if Wedgehurst, the starting town is at the bottom, that mushroom forest that was in the livestream appears to be southwest of what may be the Pokemon League, so I'd imagine just before post-game?

Wow, I hope you're wrong. That's way too late to be of much use. I was really hoping early-game because forests tend to be early-game in general. Viridian Forest, Eterna Forest, etc. all were early-game.

Edited November 6, 2019 by Anacybele

[Dai]

Just now, Anacybele said:

Wow, I hope you're wrong. That's way too late to be of much use.

I might be wrong, but in an even worse way. That far north area that I was looking at might be the postgame area, since I believe that's the battle tower.

Which also sucks for me, as I want Frosmoth, and that frozen area might be post-game.

Starting to notice there may not be much, if any surfing in this game, aside from the Wild Area. And yes, I know about the Rotom Bike's ability to ride across water.

[Anacybele]

2 minutes ago, Dai said:

I might be wrong, but in an even worse way. That far north area that I was looking at might be the postgame area, since I believe that's the battle tower.

Which also sucks for me, as I want Frosmoth, and that frozen area might be post-game.

Starting to notice there may not be much, if any surfing in this game, aside from the Wild Area. And yes, I know about the Rotom Bike's ability to ride across water.

Well, at least that would mean there ARE new areas other than the dumb tower to explore in the post-game though, I guess. I don't want the post-game to just be the tower and nothing else. That's really boring given what previous Pokemon games have given us. Even XY would be better.

I'm fine with minimal surfing. I dislike surfing, generally. Which is ironic because it was rather awful in Sinnoh, my favorite region, at first. It was soooo slow in DP. Platinum sped it up though, thankfully. But I guess I could look past it in gen 4 in general because there weren't many watery routes in Sinnoh. Imagine if that slow ass surfing was in Hoenn. Oh god.

Edited November 6, 2019 by Anacybele

[Dai]

Liquid Voice-Hyper Voice Primarina would have liked that.



Pokemon capable of Giagantamax have a special icon attached to them. I dunno if you can breed them, but it's clear that you won't be able to transfer a Pokemon from past games and have it capable of Gigantamaxing. And, so far, we've only seen Galar originals and a few Kanto Pokemon capable of doing it, so...

Edited November 6, 2019 by Dai

[NegativeExponents-]

6 hours ago, Dai said:

Liquid Voice-Hyper Voice Primarina would have liked that.

A lot of pokemon would have liked that but the only notable ones left who might benefit are Sylveon, Noivern, and Toxtricity. Maybe Kommo-o too. I guess Rillaboom could use it too but why bother raising its sp atk?

[Emerson]

hello i just wanna say apparently Appletun is looking to be competitively viable at high tier because of its ability and access to stall options
grapploct too literally just because of Octolock which is absolutely amazing

this pleases me greatly

[Silver-Haired Maiden]

Apparently Appletun is only available in Shield, while the other one (Flapple? I forget it's name) is only available in Sword.

[NegativeExponents-]

Leaker has been posting screenshots of the ingame areas

Spoiler

 

Besides the graphics still looking like a 3DS game, all the areas are just big but completely empty. Subpar graphics is one thing but this barren wasteland to go alongside it just makes it worse.

Also, apparently game + postgame is only like 30 hours (leaker has caught all new available pokemon already btw). Sun and Moon were 50 hours for comparison.

I'm trying to look for positives but anything outside the new pokemon designs and some QoL changes constantly keep being a complete disappointment.

20 hours ago, Silver-Haired Maiden said:

Apparently Appletun is only available in Shield, while the other one (Flapple? I forget it's name) is only available in Sword.

Sounds correct. The apple pokemon need an item to evolve iirc. And shield only has the item to evolve into Appletun so Flapple's item should be exclusive to Sword.

Edit: some pokemon camp screenshots

Spoiler

 

Bizzare scaling but with Eternatus being there and shiny pokemon still appearing as shiny it doesn't seem like it has any restrictions on what pokemon you can interact with in it.

Edit2: Some TRs, new Grimmsnarl move, and hatched charmander.

Spoiler

 

lol first they delete Inceneroar then take his signature move away from him to give to other mons.

Charmanders bred from the special Gigantamax Charmander that Leon gives you aren't capable of Gigantamaxing. Only the gifted one from Leon can.

Edit3: it seems like GTS is absent, link trade and "Suprise Trade" is in though and the second one is probably just wonder trade with a new name, so trades are friend code only or random through suprise trade. Also looks like Gigantamax raids are gonna be an online only event so no Gigantamax pokemon besides the select few obtained in the game for anyone that doesn't have online.

Graphics looking worse with each screenshot

Spoiler

 

 

Edited November 8, 2019 by NegativeExponents-

[Flere210]

At least it really bring back the OOT nostalgia...

[NegativeExponents-]

1 hour ago, Flere210 said:

At least it really bring back the OOT nostalgia...

OOT was better than this. The trainer clashes with the rest of the scenery and looks like she's t-posing and levitating instead of actually standing on the edge of that n64 cliff. Not to mention the horrid red lights that are gonna plague the entire wild area due to the dynamax mechanic.

The towns and other non-wild areas look better at least (ignoring that inconsistent quality in a product is a terrible thing) but still look like that of gamecube or 3ds quality and not something that should be on a current gen game.

More screenshots I failed to acknowledge before:

Spoiler

 

Also, leaker had said he had run out of things to show us. At this point leaker is just going and checking pokemon moves with the move relearner in hopes of finding something interesting.

Game isn't even out yet and it quickly ran out of interesting things to show.

[Dai]

1 hour ago, NegativeExponents- said:

Game isn't even out yet and it quickly ran out of interesting things to show.

Ouch.

I may as well share this, while I have it on my mind. Keep in mind, it’s strictly rumors.

While I feel bad for them if, and it likely is the case, I can’t say that they didn’t bring this upon themselves. If they were more open and honest, then maybe, it wouldn’t have gone off as badly for them. But, ever since Masuda announced that the dex would be cut during the tree house, after most had tuned out of E3, to improve animations (which turned out to be a lie anyway), it’s been one PR disaster after another.

I will add tgat they deserve to be criticized, not bullied and harassed, which a lot of people HAVE done.

Edited November 8, 2019 by Dai

[NegativeExponents-]

Why is the draw distance so shit? Hate how everything just appears and disappears instantly.

1 hour ago, Dai said:

Ouch.

I may as well share this, while I have it on my mind. Keep in mind, it’s strictly rumors.

While I feel bad for them if, and it likely is the case, I can’t say that they didn’t bring this upon themselves. If they were more open and honest, then maybe, it wouldn’t have gone off as badly for them. But, ever since Masuda announced that the dex would be cut during the tree house, after most has tuned out of E3, to improve animations (which turned out to be a lie anyway), it’s been one PR disaster after another.

I will add tgat they deserve to be criticized, not bullied and harassed, which a lot of people HAVE done.

With the official announcement of cancelling their launch event in Japan I'm pretty sure the rumors of low morale are real. Can't say I'm surprised with how badly they've been doing between LTH, Masters, and the ongoing SwSh backlash. At least having low morale means they recognize their issues. Now it's just a matter of how they're gonna go about dealing with said issues.

Edited November 8, 2019 by NegativeExponents-

[Dai]

6 minutes ago, NegativeExponents- said:

Why is the draw distance so shit? Also hate how everything just appears and disappears instantly.

With the official announcement of cancelling their launch event in Japan I'm pretty sure the rumors of low morale are real. Can't say I'm surprised with how badly they've been doing between LTH, Masters, and the ongoing SwSh backlash. At least having low morale means they recognize their issues. Now it's just a matter of how they're gonna go about dealing with said issues.

I think the most impressive thing I saw in that video was Snorlax’s fat ass taking a leisurely stroll. Good on you, Snorlax.

[Anacybele]

Japan canceled the launch event for Sword and Shield due to "operational circumstances" as well. I didn't know the backlash there was THAT bad... Jesus.

Well, at the very least, this could make GameFreak rethink the choice to cut so many Pokemon... But yeah, it's sad to hear about the morale thing and this canceled event anyway.

That disappearing and reappearing thing in the wild area is a bit weird. But minor nitpick. It looks pretty cool otherwise! I actually look forward to the camping thing.

Edited November 8, 2019 by Anacybele

[Dai]

This game’s pre-release has been the most insane, and ridiculous rollercoaster of emotions that I’ve ever experienced for any game. Hopefully this backlash amounts to something, and TPC starts taking to heart the necessary steps to better help GF make quality titles, particularly since I’m hearing rumors that a lot of issues are TPC’s fault and GF is taking a bit of the fall.

 

Edit: So exp gained overal has been buffed.

Keep in mind, experience share is mandatory, now. This isn’t looking too good for the game’s challenge, or lack thereof.

Edited November 10, 2019 by Dai

[NegativeExponents-]

Imagine people working for the company supporting the notion that fans who don't like the game are "indignant cunts"

I can't believe that this is the company that so many people are choosing to white knight. The company where one the leading art directors is ready to agree with insults thrown at anyone who criticizes the games.

@Dai that's godawful. When I first played XY I left the exp share on because I'd figure I'd give it a whirl, by the time I was at the elite four my greninja was at level 93 and charizard at 87. Probably all of the pokemon are gonna be at 100 by mid game now

Edited November 10, 2019 by NegativeExponents-

[Dai]

20 minutes ago, NegativeExponents- said:

Imagine people working for the company supporting the notion that fans who don't like the game are "indignant cunts"

I can't believe that this is the company that so many people are choosing to white knight. The company where one the leading art directors is ready to agree with insults thrown at anyone who criticizes the games.

@Dai that's godawful. When I first played XY I left the exp share on because I'd figure I'd give it a whirl, by the time I was at the elite four my greninja was at level 93 and charizard at 87. Probably all of the pokemon are gonna be at 100 by mid game now

I can understand thanking GameFreak for their past stuff, bit at this point in time, when the developer for the mainline titles of the MOST PROFITABLE MEDIA FRANCHISE IN THE WORLD are feeling the lowest morale in its history, not when they are about to go out of business, but because fans are legitimately upset at a less than half-baked product? It feels like they’re rewarding Game Freak.

Also, an ass-backwards explanation on exp share being mandatory:

Except the people that use the exp share are incentivized largely to use fewer Pokemon, not the other way around.