Generation eight of Pokémon is officially here, as this morning Nintendo announced Pokémon Sword and Shield, to release this spring on the Switch. The pair of games are three-dimensional and cel-shaded, looking better than any Pokémon we’ve seen before.
You can watch the first trailer here:
Pokémon Sword and Shield will be the first mainline games in the series to appear on a home console, they’ll take place in a new region (“Galar”), with a whole bunch of new Pokémon, including three starters that Nintendo showed off in a trailer this morning: Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble.
(Yes, those are real names.)
The previous generation of monster-collecting games, gen seven, began with Pokémon Sun and Moon on the 3DS in 2016. Now, three years later, it’s time for the next one.
Comments
36 responses to “Nintendo Announces Pokémon Sword And Shield For Switch”
God dammit, I saw Jason’s name, saw “Spring” didn’t see “.com.au” and got awfully excited this was coming out soon.
Random encounters in the grass again, what a shame. I honestly prefer how Let’s Go Pikachu / Eevee did it. At least it looks kind of nice, but not groundbreaking.
Yeah I was disappointed they’d gone back to the old system
I absolutely detested how Let’s Go did it. Maybe its time to give a choice? Wouldn’t exactly be hard to code or balance.
Did you detest the Pokemon appearing properly? Or that you had to throw a ball at every single one. As I think most people just mean they want Pokemon appearing properly.
I’m not sure how you can detest that.
That’s a really good point @Idt.
I initially thought going back to the original battle mode was best after Let’s Go’s attempt.
But you are correct – it wasn’t the Pokemon appearing/random encounters I had an issue with, it was the fact I was using pokeballs all the time that put me off.
Really good point you make.
Well yes, the catching mechanic is lame and simplistic. Apart from egregious areas such as Mt Moon though, Pokemon generally balances it well by if you don’t want random encounters, don’t go in the grass.
Shrug.
Yes for the record I dislike throwing the Pokeball but I was a fan of them appearing in the world for a number of reasons. Aside from knowing what I was going to fight, I also felt it just made the world feel a bit more alive.
Yeah thats fair. Be able to fight pokemon, but have them world spawn as well sounds cool.
This might of been too far into development to change to the let’s go way of encounters.
Yep. After playing Dragon Quest 11 and seeing all the monsters walking around the world this new Pokemon looks rather barren.
Agreed. I was also going to complain about doing two versions of the same game with miniscule differences just to make the hardcore fans buy both (yet again). Then I realised that this is probably never going to change.
Feeling indifferent about those Starter Pokemon… Their names are also more than a little bit shit. I mean, “Grookey” sounds like a racial slur.
Still, I’ll be choosing Grookey for my starter. I get the feeling he’s gonna be another Wukong/Goku inspired Pokemon (that stick in his head will surely end up being used for a staff during evolution).
I think grookey is supposed to be groove monkey. Tree grooves I think. He will probably evolve into something gorilla due to grass type.
Thats a quality longbow.
I had many a ping in relation to the name today…
I guess, if we MADE it into a slur, they’d have to change it!
Let’s do it! But to MANY Pokemon!
We can start by saying that “Jigglypuff” is what Michael J Fox named his bong.
This was fairly uninspiring to be blunt. More of the same but slightly prettier looking. I know it’s still 9ish months away but this was an underwhelming reveal. Yo-Kai Watch 4 looks miles more advanced.
…and yokai are more awesome than Pokemon conceptually. Yes, I went there.
You’ve already made clear that you think Yokai is for “real connoisseurs”, so it’s fairly unsurprising you “went there”.
Oh man, you remembered!
🙂
*tips fedora*
Over time, I’m starting to agree. Especially when compared to some of the middle generations.
I think the most relevant takeaway is that an honest-to-goodness new generation of Pokemon coming for the Switch is basically official confirmation that the Switch is meant to also replace the 3DS/small portable Nintendo consoles.
I’m excited, but also a bit indifferent at the same time. It looks nice, but it’s hardly the leap we were hoping for.
I didn’t bother with B&W or X&Y, and I gave Sun & Moon a go, but didn’t make it to the end. It just hasn’t evolved (lol) enough.
I have to agree. It doesn’t look anymore advanced than Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2.
It’s a bit disappointing that they are still using random encounters instead of having the beasts wandering about the map, changing based on weather/day-night cycle etc.
Random encounters aren’t okay in modern games. We’re past that.
X&Y is the best iteration they ever released and I would urge you to play them.
* Second best.
ORAS/RSE is best don’t @ me
I’ll just be happy to be able to sit on the couch and play it on the big screen. No need to re-invent the wheel with gameplay. The formula has worked well for decades for a reason.
Back to random encounters. Oh joy.
I didn’t particularly like Let’s Go’s catching mechanics (or overall. It’s quite boring and I hate myself for giving in and buying it because the nostalgia), but I loved that Pokemon would appear and wander around. Made the world seem alive.
I guess the one thing I can hope for is that it won’t be Red/Blue 8.0. Exactly the same game, but with different monsters and in a different location.
I’m the opposite of those above, give me the random encounters, I didn’t like Let’s GO mechanics at all. I only started enjoying that game when I kept Repels up the whole time.
The graphics look great, the starters are a bit eh, but we’ll see how it goes from here!
Yeah same here I’m definitely excited for Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield.
I mean come on we’ve got 3 new Generation 8 Pokemon and the landscapes are just absolutely beautiful and breathtaking and I wouldn’t say that their names are a little bit shit.
Still though I’m definitely going for Sobble as my new starter Pokemon.
I’m all in for Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield and I can’t wait thanks to the team at Game Freak and Tsunekazu Ishihara President and CEO of The Pokemon Company for giving us this 7 minute Pokemon Direct.
The backgrounds are nice. I think breathtaking is a bit much.
Was kind of hoping battle animations would look more contextual this time instead of prepackaged animations that all pokemon share.
Yeah, it’s be good if they got a more dynamic look to them. A bit more DBFZ and a lot less RPG of yester-year. Pokemon is well due to fuck with the formula. I find myself getting bored by the last 3/4 of EVERY Pokemon release now days.