News: Game Informer reveals no Exp. Share or HMs

bobandbill

bobandbill

7.8/10 too much water
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    Lots of news came out of Game Informer, so here's a summary article of all the news, with links! Lots to discuss.
     
    They said no HMs again, right? Well, apparently you can use Surf by attaching Rotom Phone to your bicycle, so maybe you unlock more HM features as you progress via your in-game phone? Like, maybe you use Fly by attaching Rotom to your bike and it like... sprouts balloons? It would be kinda weird if all of the HMs were tied to the bike. I mean, how would Strength work like that, just ramming into the boulder? I feel like that'd just wreck the tire rim on the front wheel.

    I do kinda like the idea of the 18 different types making up two versions of the league. Perhaps you start in the Minor Leagues and move up to Major, and then once you have all of the requisite badges for each you have the right to challenge the Champion? Or maybe you just need 8 like before and you take on the Elite 4 at that point? If it takes the Minor to Major route that would make it fit even more with the theme of Pokemon Battling being a major sport in this region.
     
    So, does this mean Dark type gym confirmed? I'm not too fond of the exp share being a "feature" over an item, though, I hope that's an option that can be turned off.
     
    Continued lack of HMs is good to know, stuff like Corviknight taxi service and Rotom phone things (it can turn into a bike that can traverse water, right?) is likely what's taking their place.

    The part that has me most interested though is the mention of 18 Gyms. Just enough for one of each type! I assume that the major league/minor league distinction is mostly going to determine the rough order of the Gyms. The player will have to beat the Gyms designated as minor league ones, and then after that they get the right to challenge the ones designated as major league ones (and then after clearing those, the championship tournament), with which ones being which version exclusive. So if the Ghost one is minor league in one version and major in the other, players of the former will encounter that Gym earlier in the game and the Pokemon in it will be at a lower level, while players of the latter will have to deal with it later and with higher level opponents inside.

    Hopefully this means we're in for a longer game than Pokemon main series games typically are
     
    18 gyms sounds massive. Do we still get an elite four? I'm guessing each city will have 2-3 gyms probably two minors one major have to beat the minors before you can face the major. This honestly makes me a little nervous about post game , this sounds like a lot to do in a main game.
     
    I will give credit where it is due. They didn't have to explain version execlusives gyms but they did. Essentially each year a new gym takes the place of the major and minor league confirming this is all in the same universe. Nice worldbuilding. It's a cool touch that shows how competitive Galar is.

    Hms being lost forever was expected. Ever since that interview I had the feeling they knew they couldn't use them anymore lol.

    Autosave for the wild area is also a given. Glad we can turn it off. So shiny hunters you are clear!

    Exp share... honestly due to the wild area existing makes sense. In games like Persona 5 it's pretty much needed considering how long it takes to grind up your team. I can see why they added it considering this game is longer for what we know. Having to spend time grinding 1 Mon is a pain in the butt. Especially if the versus seeker doesn't exist. Hopefully it does here though. And I hope we can turn it off. If not I hope it's managed well.

    What surprises me the most is being able to fix natures? It sounds like something out of a rom hack. Not a bad thing, but surprised nonetheless.
     
    Oh so we'll finally have a Dark-type Gym? Only took you 20 years Gamefreak :^)
     
    I just realized it's one gym per type. So that means a dark type gym leader in at least one version...right?
     
    Ducolamia said:
    I just realized it's one gym per type. So that means a dark type gym leader in at least one version...right?
    Click to expand...
    Probably in both. I doubt that if they have 18 Gyms in both Sword and Shield that they'd repeat a type, so that should mean that we're finally getting that Dark type Gym, and in both versions.
     
    So brief thoughts:

    - I can tell it's gonna be a lot of fun grinding up a really low leveled teammate then.

    - No HMs, although like someone else I also saw that coming. Here's hoping the water starter ends up as a physical attacker, I never expected that before because Surf, but now I think it's safe to say that it's about time we had another physical water starter.

    - Can't wait to see how they are going to implement both the raid thing and that changing your mons thing.

    - I wish the programmers luck for thinking up a pun for each of all the type's leaders.
     
    Still plundering if we have to use somesort of tools or without needing tools to go exploring, like SM/USUM have those pagers to take you to different path and remove obstacles since HMs are gone for good. I like auto-save feature its nifty in case you forget to save while turning the game off.

    18 Gyms each from lower and higher tier leagues sounds like much of a challenge, I like to see how this be implemented if the same type of gym player has won and wonder if player would get 2 badges or something
     
    Here are some of my thoughts:

    • I think Autosave can be good in case someone forgot to save frequently, but still, I'm glad that it's optional, because it might be a hindrance for those who want to catch Legendary 'mons without failing.
    • I'm cool about having Exp. Share as the feature, because leveling up other Pokémon in the party would be a breeze. Plus, Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee have that built-in before, as well.
    • I don't mind HMs are not available as long as some certain moves associated with it, like Surf and Fly, are still accessible as TMs (which they did in previous games), and that they can provide alternative to do HM thing like PokéRide in Alola region.
    • Changing personality parameter, eh? First the Bottle Cap thingy (which raises IVs), and now this? Now I'm intrigued.
    • I like it when Max Raid Battles having a choice of difficulty. It might be nice to pick easiest difficulty when you're not confident on how the raid works at first.
    • Sooo Galar region might have the most Gyms available? I'm wondering if they'll shuffle any of these after winning the first Pokémon League.
     
    This is building up to be an awesome game, in my opinion.
    18 Gyms seems very exciting, and, it may be possible that each type may get a Gym.
    No HMs? This makes it obvious that the era of "HM slaves" is gone, at least for now. So, all pokemon can be used for battling effectively.
    The Competitive news is helpful, but intriguing.
    Like everyone else said, it'll help if the Exp. mechanism can be turned off.
    The max raid news, I don't know what to expect from it...

    I assume we may be getting the longest pokemon game ever (even GSC and HGSS had 16 gyms). This means fun and kind of a compromise for "Dexit".
     
    I just realized that the reason they probably only showed us a few gym leaders is because of the new league format. Before, revealing the gym leaders wouldn't be too bad as there is only 8 of them. But if it's one for each type, I appreciate the marketing team having some sort of restraint not showing us everyone. I think having some sort of surprise is worth it here.

    That being said, I'm not against the rotom turning into new technology for upgrades for out gear. It was shown to have a water bike so I can assume after a certain point you just upgrade the phone?
     
    I just thought of something regarding the 18 gyms thing... Do we have any confirmation all 18 will be in one game? We already have confirmation of version exclusive gym leaders, so is it possible that there will be an entire different league depending on the version? Because that'd be a humongous version exclusive situation on Black and White levels.
     
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