[Sword & Shield] So it’s been almost 1 month...

[PageEmp]

...Since gen8 has been revealed. So now I'll ask: what are your thoughts on everything we know so far? I have a feeling this is similar to another thread that exists right now, so if that's the case then feel free to ask a mod to go and merge it then. Now, time to spill my thoughts on teh starters:

Fire - Of course I overall like it so let's get the bad out of the way first, TOO MUCH WHITE GAH. I know that's nitpick, but it can be distracting at times. I hope the evos get a better colour scheme. And secondly I didn't really want a rabbit starter, I was more hoping for maybe a goat or something. But hey they got the design out pretty well, and everything else about it is great so hopefully it gets great evos.

Water - So a salamander? Very nice. Oh and chameleon properties too somehow. I would have stated that I'd pick it because I'm a Water starter person, but I do feel like switching around a bit this time. Hopefully this one gets an awesome final evo, as do the other 2.

Grass - Not much to say about this one but it's not bad. Also hoping that it turns out to be good as well.

Now for the protagonists, not bad. The female protag is probably one of the better ones we got in a while, I expecting to like her more as we get more info about gen8. The graphics/setting look nice. Hopefully these turn out to be memorable games as a whole.

So what are your thoughts on everything so far?

 

[colours]

I feel like it's way too early to even have thoughts period (about the games, that is) given we haven't seen a second trailer or reveal. IMO, overall thoughts and opinions should probably wait until version differences are officially revealed.

 

[PageEmp]

A fair amount of info has been revealed, and it's beenalmost a month, like thread title says. That should be an ample amount of time.

 

[Miss Wendighost]

Honestly, I'm kind of interested to see how this goes down. Hoping for more info soon.

 

[w1f1pa55w0rd]

I don't mean to be a piece of crap, but the graphics are... questionable. Don't get me wrong, I know Gamefreak worked hard on these games, and I'm going to get them no matter what, but just look at some of the graphics.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&sou...aw2w_BSpzqGux-4LiDrPXhZg&ust=1553735814324656

(Just head to the link)
In the image above, it looks like the girl's image is just pasted onto a background of her house. Just look at the ground where her feet are. Not only this, the entire surrounding landscape in the video had some grainy areas and stuff. I know it isn't final game footage, but how much can they change? (Also, am I the only one who was disappointed in Scrobunny and Sobble, because I think they're designs are waaaay to simplistic. Sorry Scrobunny and Sobble fans, but does anyone agree with me on this? Grookey FTW. Or I'll wait for the evolutions.)

 

[BrandoSheriff]

I think what we've seen so far is ok. Graphic-wise, it looks like how I'd expect a Pokemon switch title to look. The world looks large and colorful, so I'm hoping there will be a lot to do in it.

I like the designs of the player characters. Female MC is pretty cute, and design wise is probably one of the better ones we've seen in a while. Only thing I don't like about the male MC is the massive suitcase on his back. Starters look too simplistic and similar imo, though it's too early to judge them since we don't know what their final evos look like. I'm still Sobble Gang tho.

The map at first glance looks like it'll just be a straight line upwards. Hopefully I'm wrong, but that's my first impression. I also was hoping for Pokemon roaming the overworld like in Let's Go, so I'm slightly disappointed that it's back to tall grass.

It's cool seeing Gyms return. It seems that the new gimmick might be used there in full force, so I'm pretty excited to find out just what it is and how it all plays out. And might we be finally getting a dark-type gym?

They said they were challenging themselves to try new things, so I'm really hoping that leads to something that feels really fresh. I'm excited, but also hoping for big changes and shake-ups to give a breath of fresh air to the series.

 

[raxic_ex]

The Galar map seems very straight-forward, hope that's not the case. I can't find a 'spot' that fits into post-game area (kinda gives the Kalos vibe for me). Either there's no post-game area (how sad), or they hide it (one can dream), or they forcefully cut off a portion of the map just for post-game (no pls)

Lately the Pokemon map has been rather generic, Alola aside (can't do much to islands I guess), Unova (B2W2 kinda helped it just a bit) and Kalos map was designed rather plain. Throughout the entire Pokemon franchise I can safely say that Sinnoh has the 'best' map in making you lost sense of direction. No Pokemon games has yet made me searching 'where the hell im supposed to go' more than DPPt.

And I want some decent character development like how they did in Alola, they made every important characters memorable and fun (except Lillie she gets more annoying with every replay), especially I would expect the Sword/Shield game length is equal to or longer than what SM/USUM brought to us, since we're at Switch platform now. I will be put off if the Elite Four of Galar (if there is one) gets the same treatment with the Kalos Elite Four (4 members even when rematched, sitting pretty in league with no social life)

 

[w1f1pa55w0rd]

I'm still iffy about the graphics, but I do agree with the map concern. It does seem to be relatively linear, and I also don't want to have to use Pokemon from past generations. Though some people don't like the BW system, with only Unova pokemon available initially, I think it's nice because we can try out the new Pokemon without being tempted to revert to some older mons. Also, am I the only one who doesn't care about the wild pokemon in the overworld thing?

 

[Kieran]

I personally have nothing to nitpick about the starters and I feel a Fire Goat would be too soon because people are going to say it's just a knockoff Gogoat which was just 2 generations away.

I am pretty cool w/ everything thus far, everything looks good but if I have to pick something to say I would say the game doesn't seem to be an open world in the trailer and I don't really like it.

 

[Rivvon]

The Galar map seems very straight-forward, hope that's not the case. I can't find a 'spot' that fits into post-game area (kinda gives the Kalos vibe for me). Either there's no post-game area (how sad), or they hide it (one can dream), or they forcefully cut off a portion of the map just for post-game (no pls)

Lately the Pokemon map has been rather generic, Alola aside (can't do much to islands I guess), Unova (B2W2 kinda helped it just a bit) and Kalos map was designed rather plain. Throughout the entire Pokemon franchise I can safely say that Sinnoh has the 'best' map in making you lost sense of direction. No Pokemon games has yet made me searching 'where the hell im supposed to go' more than DPPt.

The big northernmost area honestly looks like it could be the League and post-game rolled into one area--which would honestly be quite convenient as the League could serve as a good level- and money-grinding spot and you won't have to fly around to all sorts of different places to do what you need. A post-game "hub" of sorts. And if all those different buildings offer different styles of battle, then we may finally have our Battle Frontier return after all these years.

As for the overall map design, I'm glad it's straightforward. A region like Alola needed hundreds of "roadblocks," some annoying cutscenes (put your Stoutland on a leash if it's going to attack me as I walk by...), some by literal, tacky fences blocking the road. There are some roadblocks in Unova but you hardly see them as the game naturally pushes you forward to the next destination before most players get the chance to see what's stopping them from skipping the current Gym entirely.

I'd much rather a simplistic overall map but with expansive, exploration-encouraging level design (such as, again, Unova's routes) than a map that zig-zags all over the place but the routes are hallways with trees (such as Alola or especially Kanto). There's no way to know how well-executed Galar's level design will be as of yet, but at the very least I have high hopes for less roadblocks breaking my immersion thanks to the map design.

 

[Percy]

sword and shield looks like a good game at this time. can't form a solid opinion without more info but i'm liking the region and the medieval feel. and i admit that at first, i didn't like the starters since they looked like fakemon. but i like them all now :>

 

[_pheebee]

Not much was shown, but enough was shown for me.
I don't like to much shown off, I can't handle knowing the how game before buying it.

"no news is good news" as they say.

 

[w1f1pa55w0rd]

I hope they don't pull another SM with it. They released way too much for SM to make the final game have a lot of mystery. Granted, leakers were a larger problem, but the damn demo also helped data miners ruin my life. The second I saw all the Pokemon leaked, I was so depressed because I was really looking forward to a surprise. It was kinda my fault for looking at the leaks, but still. I really hope they don't release too many new Pokemon.

 

[Whim]

I miss Gen 5's trainwreck of revelations/trailers/people crazy with CoroCoro. That made the waiting way more fun and worth it. Also miss how even the fake leaks were at least well thought out. Now we see Ctrl C + Ctrl V fakes following exactly the same logic behind them, with no true appeal. Seriously, I don't remember being this bored before the launch of a Pokémon game.

 

[alisaie]

Part of the reason why I don't really look at fake leaks because it doesn't interest me. I'm the same way in which I hope they don't show us everything like SM did so I can have some sort of surprised when I play. XY was kinda the same way too iirc (which is partly why Fletchinder is one of my favs because I didn't know it existed until my Fletchling evolved into one. I want that surprise again).

 

[bobandbill]

The big northernmost area honestly looks like it could be the League and post-game rolled into one area--which would honestly be quite convenient as the League could serve as a good level- and money-grinding spot and you won't have to fly around to all sorts of different places to do what you need. A post-game "hub" of sorts. And if all those different buildings offer different styles of battle, then we may finally have our Battle Frontier return after all these years.

As for the overall map design, I'm glad it's straightforward. A region like Alola needed hundreds of "roadblocks," some annoying cutscenes (put your Stoutland on a leash if it's going to attack me as I walk by...), some by literal, tacky fences blocking the road. There are some roadblocks in Unova but you hardly see them as the game naturally pushes you forward to the next destination before most players get the chance to see what's stopping them from skipping the current Gym entirely.

I'd much rather a simplistic overall map but with expansive, exploration-encouraging level design (such as, again, Unova's routes) than a map that zig-zags all over the place but the routes are hallways with trees (such as Alola or especially Kanto). There's no way to know how well-executed Galar's level design will be as of yet, but at the very least I have high hopes for less roadblocks breaking my immersion thanks to the map design.

I do agree that less linear maps and more reason to explore and revisit places (ala Johto) would be neat.

Not that Unova was without roadblocks too (e.g. group of people standing around/dancing on a bridge...), but it is a sort of staple of Pokemon games.

I miss Gen 5's trainwreck of revelations/trailers/people crazy with CoroCoro. That made the waiting way more fun and worth it. Also miss how even the fake leaks were at least well thought out. Now we see Ctrl C + Ctrl V fakes following exactly the same logic behind them, with no true appeal. Seriously, I don't remember being this bored before the launch of a Pokémon game.

Part of the reason why I don't really look at fake leaks because it doesn't interest me. I'm the same way in which I hope they don't show us everything like SM did so I can have some sort of surprised when I play. XY was kinda the same way too iirc (which is partly why Fletchinder is one of my favs because I didn't know it existed until my Fletchling evolved into one. I want that surprise again).

Agreed here - there are a lot of fakes and a lot are the same format as others which is just more unimaginative and repetitive to see. Also agreed on hopefully they won't reveal everything about SS like they did with last gen. Leave us some surprises!

 

[Sheep]

I'm excited! The graphics are very pretty and I'm in love with the character designs. Hoping attack animations in battle will be a bit more fluid instead of just oddly jumping in place for some moves, but that may not be likely since they look pretty much the same as what we have now, just a bit more smoothed out. Ah wells. In love with the scenery and cannot wait to play as my adorable female player. <3

 

[Rivvon]

I do agree that less linear maps and more reason to explore and revisit places (ala Johto) would be neat.

Not that Unova was without roadblocks too (e.g. group of people standing around/dancing on a bridge...), but it is a sort of staple of Pokemon games.

Those dancing men were only in B2W2 and that was the game where they tried to "expand" Unova and make it "less linear" by sprinkling in new locations here and there. It just goes to prove the idea: the more nonlinearity, the more roadblocks are needed. Whereas in BW most people tend to not even know the roadblocks are there because they're drawn to the Gym in each city before moving onward. If you're like me and you feel like exploring forward, the roadblocks that are in place are minuscule compared to that of Alola's. If Pokémon is going to take a linear approach to their game (a la narratives progressing linearly and levels being a linear mechanic) then I feel it's best the region be a bit linear too, as linearity doesn't break immersion while too many roadblocks does.

 

[hotsushi-kun]

I am hoping more Gen 8 Pokemon will more open world, i am hoping people will walk randomly instead of walking around every where on the same location like routes.

 

[w1f1pa55w0rd]

I think I'm gonna go dark because SM ruined too much of the game. I wanna go in without any expectations.