[Sword & Shield] Galar Region First Impressions

It's beautiful! That was my first impression. Like Sabrewulf said, the quaint little details make the setting come alive! I love it!

While the map does look rather linear, once you get past the marsh-like area in the middle, it seems to branch out a lot more. :) You never know, there might be a lot more to the map than meets the eye.

With all the mountains, tunnels and caves, not to mention the mines in the trailer, I can see mining as an important aspect of Galar.

Also, I'm curious about the train tracks! Do you think we'll be getting around by train? :D
 
Hyzenthlay said:
It's beautiful! That was my first impression. Like Sabrewulf said, the quaint little details make the setting come alive! I love it!

While the map does look rather linear, once you get past the marsh-like area in the middle, it seems to branch out a lot more. :) You never know, there might be a lot more to the map than meets the eye.

With all the mountains, tunnels and caves, not to mention the mines in the trailer, I can see mining as an important aspect of Galar.

Also, I'm curious about the train tracks! Do you think we'll be getting around by train? :D
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I think the train line that goes past the lakes will be the blocked off part, so that you initially have to go past/through the lakes on a route.

Just above the mountain that the most southerly train line enters there's a building that looks like a station, so a train through the mountain perhaps but the main part of the line that goes to the reddish town is under maintenance or something.
 
The region looks absolutely breathtaking! I'm in love with the amount of detail in the scenery so far. Even if the structure is on the linear side, I'm definitely gonna have a blast exploring every inch of the map and admiring our surroundings within the game. <333
 
I love it. The look of it, the feel to it. A great region, I hope it isn't lacking like Kalos was (Kalos had SO much potential).

https://imgur.com/a/vV6asBr
And I only had to wait three years!

Someone on Twitter is speculating that we aren't seeing the whole of Galar, but I disagree, after studying the map. Galar seems big enough for a region. I know it seems small to some, but I don't think clouds are covering anything (remember when we all thought that for Sun and Moon?) I strongly believe what we've seen is what we are getting.
 
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Basing Galar off of the UK was Game Freak's best design choice since Charjabug.

Mainly because of the memes but ya know
 
One of the things about the map which has me most enthusiastic is that the map is not a completely accurate representation (credits to GameXplain for that). As such, the region is likely larger than what it looks like on the map - which makes me even more enthusiastic about exploring it. Being from the UK, I keep getting a warm fuzzy feeling seeing so many recognisable features in a pokemon game, the home cottage especially looks so accurate, and the sitting room as well.

I also really love the range of environments on display. A large icy mountain range, lots of forests and fields, rocky slopes, even a slightly arid area in the centre and multiple big cities. It also looks so colourful! I can't wait to learn more about this region.
 
wakachamo said:
This is huge news if true. iirc these maps are typically a complete, 1:1 faithful representation of the region and all of its buildings and spots. If they're moving away from that, that gives me hope for the possibility of breadth, which IMO is something the franchise really needs in its regions. :)
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It's true. Just from the top of my mind, if you look at the first village area, then you can see a pokemon centre and a residential house next to a purple building, however, neither of these are visible on the map. As such, the map doesn't include pokemon centres or some residential houses on it at the very least.
 
Blue_Pigeon said:
It's true. Just from the top of my mind, if you look at the first village area, then you can see a pokemon centre and a residential house next to a purple building, however, neither of these are visible on the map. As such, the map doesn't include pokemon centres or some residential houses on it at the very least.
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It's true. Serebii pointed it out on his twitter, but the houses on the map are clearly not a 1:1 scale. It's safe to say the map is only a small guide and that places are bigger than usual.
 
I'm a bit bummed about the reveal. I guess I was just expecting something more or different? It just looks like your usual Pokemon game to me so far. I was hoping that for the switch they would FINALLY do something big. At least a different style would be interesting. I can't say I'm that surprised that this is looking like a safe choice, but it's just like man really... With that said it's early and I will keep an open mind but I'm not feeling great about this one.
 
Bellsprout said:
I'm a bit bummed about the reveal. I guess I was just expecting something more or different? It just looks like your usual Pokemon game to me so far. I was hoping that for the switch they would FINALLY do something big. At least a different style would be interesting. I can't say I'm that surprised that this is looking like a safe choice, but it's just like man really... With that said it's early and I will keep an open mind but I'm not feeling great about this one.
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Out of interest, what direction were you hoping for Game Freak to go in?

I guess I really want to know what you mean by "different".
 
colours said:
Out of interest, what direction were you hoping for Game Freak to go in?

I guess I really want to know what you mean by "different".
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The best way I can explain this is that Pokemon has more or less been the same throughout the years with very little change when it comes to the main series games. It just feels stale, what I saw in the trailer is what I could have predicted. Same overall art style, locations look fairly similar to past ones, and it seems as though this could be a linear play through looking at the map, but that's just a guess.

Just taking a look at the map and making some guesses I'm going to guess that we're going to start at the bottom in the small town. Our rival will probably come from the same place, we'll meet the local professor, get our pokemon and start our journey. From there it looks like we're going to go through a beginner forest. Along the way we will visit a snowy city, a forested city, a city in the mountains, a port city, and just your regular city. City with the drawing on the hillside with have some local lore that ties into the legendaries. ...It's the feeling of playing these games so many times and having the same general things happen that I feel like I know exactly what to expect. That's what I didn't want. There isn't anything for sure I wanted to see in these games other than not the same things I've been seeing.
 
Bellsprout said:
The best way I can explain this is that Pokemon has more or less been the same throughout the years with very little change when it comes to the main series games. It just feels stale, what I saw in the trailer is what I could have predicted. Same overall art style, locations look fairly similar to past ones, and it seems as though this could be a linear play through looking at the map, but that's just a guess.

Just taking a look at the map and making some guesses I'm going to guess that we're going to start at the bottom in the small town. Our rival will probably come from the same place, we'll meet the local professor, get our pokemon and start our journey. From there it looks like we're going to go through a beginner forest. Along the way we will visit a snowy city, a forested city, a city in the mountains, a port city, and just your regular city. City with the drawing on the hillside with have some local lore that ties into the legendaries. ...It's the feeling of playing these games so many times and having the same general things happen that I feel like I know exactly what to expect. That's what I didn't want. There isn't anything for sure I wanted to see in these games other than not the same things I've been seeing.
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So what you actually want is a game that isn't Pokemon.
 
Bellsprout said:
Nope still want Pokemon just wish they would break the mold hard
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You're literally complaining about the towns in a region having some variance.
Let's have 8 identikit towns instead, all lowlands and not near a shore. Don't want to have a mountain town or a port. All with the same climate, but don't want a snowy one.

The looks of the Pokemon games has developed rather a lot over time, a screenshot from 2 different games will show that. The developments between each Generation isn't very big, but they are there.
Could they be graphically more advanced? Yes, but is it really that important? No.

Going through a 'beginner forest'. Well from the map we have the only forest that is near the start town leads to nowhere, so unless you're privy to some extra information that simply isn't the case.
It could be that your rival wants to explore the forest and you try to enter but are told you can't without Pokemon. It could also be that the area is a place you can't enter for a long time because it's a scared area thought to be home to a legendary creature.
 
JamesBCFC said:
You're literally complaining about the towns in a region having some variance.
Let's have 8 identikit towns instead, all lowlands and not near a shore. Don't want to have a mountain town or a port. All with the same climate, but don't want a snowy one.

The looks of the Pokemon games has developed rather a lot over time, a screenshot from 2 different games will show that. The developments between each Generation isn't very big, but they are there.
Could they be graphically more advanced? Yes, but is it really that important? No.

Going through a 'beginner forest'. Well from the map we have the only forest that is near the start town leads to nowhere, so unless you're privy to some extra information that simply isn't the case.
It could be that your rival wants to explore the forest and you try to enter but are told you can't without Pokemon. It could also be that the area is a place you can't enter for a long time because it's a scared area thought to be home to a legendary creature.
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What I was trying to get across is that we have been seeing the same sort of layout for awhile now. It's predictable what a region will have for towns and cities. I know it's going to contain one or two snowy areas, a mountain area, a forested area. Not sure why you jumped to the conclusion that must mean I want eight identical areas with no climate changes?

I agree, if you compare shots from different pokemon games they have improved. The style looks about the same to me though. I often think of Zelda and how they have tried different styles over the years and it's really cool to see something you love get a new face of sorts. I'd love to see Pokemon in a new way.

Nope not privy to any extra information, as I said I was making some guesses. There's a forest after what I'm guessing is the start area that has some mountains right after it and then opens up to a giant area with water. Seems like we would venture through that forest and into that giant area unless we end up taking that train to the left side of the start area and completely miss it altogether.
 
Doesn't it look a bit... small? If you compare to Unova or Kalos or anything really. Maybe it's just the art style. But I loved how huge some regions felt, like Sinnoh and Hoenn.
 
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