Jump to content
NEurope
Cube

Pokémon Sword & Pokémon Shield (2019, Switch)

Recommended Posts

At least the regional variants aren't gen 1 exclusive this time! Thank Arceus!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
6 minutes ago, Vileplume2000 said:

Well, that wasn't as big as an announcement as everyone was anticipating. And I can't believe they actually use the term "hangry"!

Yep, I had a feeling this was going to be very low key, but new info is new info... ::shrug:

I'm preparing a suitably low key article for it on the main site now, which will be up within the hour. :D

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

At least the regional variants aren't gen 1 exclusive this time! Thank Arceus!

A shame that they decided to choose the gen 3 Rattata and make it into dark/normal. Where have we seen that before? Cool that it is getting an evolution though.

But I love the region Pokémon so I'm curious to see who else gets a UK version!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Also noticed that they didn't show many new areas... (only the desert area is new).  Makes me wonder if the region itself is actually going to be very small and lacking in both depth and scope... (which, given the short development time and the shortcuts they've had to already make in development, would not be surprising...)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well that was cringe. And why does Game Freak seem to think we're still in the Victorian Era?

  • Thanks 1
  • Haha 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Team Yell is a group of troublemakers who seem to appear everywhere and who attempt to get in the way at every opportunity. They want nothing more than for Marnie to become Champion, so they try to obstruct other challengers. They take over hotel lobbies, prevent challengers from accessing transportation, and even shout and distract opponents during battle. Whenever Marnie battles, these Team Yell Grunts are quick to appear, showing their support with Marnie-print towels and horns.

So basically Team Yell are a bunch of football hooligans :grin: They really go all-out Britain here!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Looks like a cross between punk culture and hooligans

The Newcastle United look took me a second to realise

Edited by Ronnie

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

content-4-35904-pokemonswordshieldgalarianformsbanner.jpg

All up on the front page now, it took a little longer to format but all the press release info is up there, some images and both videos.

Not bad for a low key article. :D (thanks to @Ashley for the press release and @Dcubed for the Japanese video tip)

Edited by S.C.G
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Everything is dark type. Are they trying to say something? :blank:

Galarian Weezing gives out both toxic gas and purified air? Pick one dude. I'm totally using one.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I guess they'll release Galarian forms in Pokémon Go around the time Sword & Shield are released.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

New forms are boring but it's nice that they are making new evolutions of old Pokémon. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
4 hours ago, S.C.G said:

content-4-35904-pokemonswordshieldgalarianformsbanner.jpg

That shoulder...

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQLZbr2N5r53zSBc9wHbxe

Edited by Mandalore
  • Haha 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't think they could have gotten away with making regional forms Gen 1 exclusive again.

But with how transferring Pokémon will work, you probably won't even be able to get the original versions in the game at all.

23 hours ago, Ashley said:

Well that was cringe. And why does Game Freak seem to think we're still in the Victorian Era?

Given how backwards Britain has been recently, we might as well be.

23 hours ago, Vileplume2000 said:

A shame that they decided to choose the gen 3 Rattata and make it into dark/normal. Where have we seen that before? Cool that it is getting an evolution though.

The fact Linoone has gotten the exact same typing as Raticate makes me think that Rattata/Raticate is one of the Pokémon that you can't transfer from Sun/Moon.

In fact, I'd be amazed if any of the Alolan Forms show up.

RIP Marowak, cut down as soon as it became good in battles.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 07/08/2019 at 2:49 PM, Dcubed said:

short development time

Come again?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
46 minutes ago, Serebii said:

Come again?

Game Freak have been working on 5 games concurrently (Let’s Go, Pokemon Quest, Sword/Shield, Giga Wrecker and Town).  They only started working on Sword & Shield after putting out Ultra Sun/Moon; only 2 years for a brand new generation of Pokemon on a HD console, and that’s with 4 other games being developed within the company at the sane time.

 

Something simply had to give.  It was inevitable.

 

Still looking forward to the game, but it is a shame that corners had to be cut.

 

Good to see you back BTW!

Edited by Dcubed

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
14 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Game Freak have been working on 5 games concurrently (Let’s Go, Pokemon Quest, Sword/Shield, Giga Wrecker and Town).  They only started working on Sword & Shield after putting out Ultra Sun/Moon; only 2 years for a brand new generation of Pokemon on a HD console, and that’s with 4 other games being developed within the company at the sane time.

 

Something simply had to give.  It was inevitable.

 

Still looking forward to the game, but it is a shame that corners had to be cut.

 

Good to see you back BTW!

That's not entirely the case. Sword & Shield has been in development since before USUM finished.

There's two clues to this that confirm it

1. The games were revealed in the E3 Direct just a week or so after USUM were revealed

2. In interviews, they stated Max Raid Battles for Sword & Shield were developed at the same time Game Freak were helping Niantic in developing Raid Battles in GO. Raid Battles in GO came out in June 2017 so were in development way before that (I mean they were technically shown in the 2015 reveal)

 

And yeah, I've been busy and lurking a bit. Don't know if I'll be fully back here. I kind of got a bit confrontational and for that I apologise.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
37 minutes ago, Serebii said:

That's not entirely the case. Sword & Shield has been in development since before USUM finished.

There's two clues to this that confirm it

1. The games were revealed in the E3 Direct just a week or so after USUM were revealed

2. In interviews, they stated Max Raid Battles for Sword & Shield were developed at the same time Game Freak were helping Niantic in developing Raid Battles in GO. Raid Battles in GO came out in June 2017 so were in development way before that (I mean they were technically shown in the 2015 reveal)

 

And yeah, I've been busy and lurking a bit. Don't know if I'll be fully back here. I kind of got a bit confrontational and for that I apologise.

That would likely be pre-production work taking place then; not actual production.  They were neck deep in making Giga Wrecker, Pokemon Let's Go AND Pokemon Quest at that time.  No way could they have been having all 4 games in full production at that time.  The fact that they had literally nothing to show of their "Pokemon Switch" game at that point says it all.

 

No worries mate.  Glad to have you back, I missed ya here :hug:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The thumbnail of a random youtube video on my feed just told me there's a posh, stiff-lipped, dapper Weezing in this game, what the fuck? Whoever thought that was a good idea deserves a promotion because it totally is.

...

Welcome back, Serebii! This day's just full of pleasant Pokémon-related surprises, isn't it?

Edited by Jonnas
  • Thanks 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh hey, @Serebii's maybe back! Can't be having me take all the "Massive Pokémon Nerd" credit, that would just be wrong.

Here's hoping you stick around a bit.

  • Thanks 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
9 hours ago, Dcubed said:

That would likely be pre-production work taking place then; not actual production.  They were neck deep in making Giga Wrecker, Pokemon Let's Go AND Pokemon Quest at that time.  No way could they have been having all 4 games in full production at that time.  The fact that they had literally nothing to show of their "Pokemon Switch" game at that point says it all.

 

No worries mate.  Glad to have you back, I missed ya here :hug:

Well Quest was heavily outsourced and Giga Wrecker didn't have that many people on it.

 

It's hard to say but I am 100% certain that development of SWSH began mid-2016 at the latest.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, Serebii said:

Well Quest was heavily outsourced and Giga Wrecker didn't have that many people on it.

 

It's hard to say but I am 100% certain that development of SWSH began mid-2016 at the latest.

On that topic, do you think Game Freak are starting to spread themselves too thin when it comes to developing Pokémon games?

Obviously, I'm still upset about National Dex being annexed in Sword/Shield, but I'm starting to think that TPC might be more to blame than GF. Now, I'm not saying TPC explicitly said "Cut some Pokémon out of this game", but I feel like more could have been done on their part to prevent this.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
4 hours ago, Glen-i said:

On that topic, do you think Game Freak are starting to spread themselves too thin when it comes to developing Pokémon games?

Obviously, I'm still upset about National Dex being annexed in Sword/Shield, but I'm starting to think that TPC might be more to blame than GF. Now, I'm not saying TPC explicitly said "Cut some Pokémon out of this game", but I feel like more could have been done on their part to prevent this.

I think we don't have the full picture. However, a lot of people don't realise that a lot is outsourced and GF have been expanding and if they were just working on Pokémon games in a cycle like that, some staff would be sat twiddling their thumbs. They'd also suffer burnout. This is where the other projects (Gear Project, the extra team for non Pokémon things has existed since 2009 so people are over-reacting with it) come in to play.

 

My belief is that they intended for every Pokémon to be in, but something must have happened. I've done a lot of research and spoken to a lot of developers about this and the only logical conclusion I can come to is that when they ported the models over to the new engine, the animation rigs broke (which is not unhead of)so they had to rerig every model and rerecord the animations and the sheer scope of that caused this situation.

  • Thanks 4

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, Serebii said:

I think we don't have the full picture. However, a lot of people don't realise that a lot is outsourced and GF have been expanding and if they were just working on Pokémon games in a cycle like that, some staff would be sat twiddling their thumbs. They'd also suffer burnout. This is where the other projects (Gear Project, the extra team for non Pokémon things has existed since 2009 so people are over-reacting with it) come in to play.

 

My belief is that they intended for every Pokémon to be in, but something must have happened. I've done a lot of research and spoken to a lot of developers about this and the only logical conclusion I can come to is that when they ported the models over to the new engine, the animation rigs broke (which is not unhead of)so they had to rerig every model and rerecord the animations and the sheer scope of that caused this situation.

This sounds pretty plausible.  I do think that they had every intention of re-using the old models and animations (as they did in Let’s Go); as they were clearly designed for hardware beyond the 3DS’ capabilities.

 

But I cant see how they ever intended on being able to develop so many different titles concurrently; and on a HD console to boot! Not to mention that they’re effectively jumping 2 generations forward at once; coming from 3DS to Switch! Other developers in their position (like Alphadream, Good Feel and Intelligent Systems) really, really struggled to make that jump (and hell! Alphadream still haven’t!); so there were always going to be teething problems...

 

It just feels like they bit off more than they could chew, so I reckon that we might both be right here; and then if they did have problems bringing over the 3DS models & animations (throwing all of their best laid plans into disarray); it’s not hard to see why they had to make the hard decisions they have made.

Edited by Dcubed

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
36 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

This sounds pretty plausible.  I do think that they had every intention of re-using the old models and animations (as they did in Let’s Go); as they were clearly designed for hardware beyond the 3DS’ capabilities.

 

But I cant see how they ever intended on being able to develop so many different titles concurrently; and on a HD console to boot! Not to mention that they’re effectively jumping 2 generations forward at once; coming from 3DS to Switch! Other developers in their position (like Alphadream, Good Feel and Intelligent Systems) really, really struggled to make that jump (and hell! Alphadream still haven’t!); so there were always going to be teething problems...

 

It just feels like they bit off more than they could chew, so I reckon that we might both be right here; and then if they did have problems bringing over the 3DS models & animations (throwing all of their best laid plans into disarray); it’s not hard to see why they had to make the hard decisions they have made.

Undoubtedly they underestimated the jump.

 

However, just remember that the people working on those side projects wouldn't be working on the main one at the same time (also don't believe that interview saying Pokémon is no longer the priority. I have heard that was due to a mistranslation due to context etc. being lost).

 

It helps that they outsource a lot. The Pokémon models, for example, are done by Pokémon CG Studio within Creatures Inc among others who help.

 

500 people worked on Sun & Moon. Game Freak had around 100 people working there at that time. It goes to show that the Internet doesn't get how Pokémon is developed

  • Thanks 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

×