Pokemon Sword And Shield - What We Know So Far

Nintendo caught us all off guard with a welcome announcement: two new Pokemon adventures are on their way to the Nintendo Switch! Fans have been eagerly anticipating new mainline games. We had fun with Pokemon: Let's Go — Pikachu and Eevee, but a proper Pokemon game with a whole new region and fresh new batch of Pokemon has been on our minds since leaving Alola in Pokemon Sun and Moon.

The shiny new games are called Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, deviating from a long tradition of games named after colors, gems, and celestial bodies. One logo features a wolf-headed sword, the other an equally intimidating shield. The two titles games were announced fittingly on Pokemon Day, the 23rd anniversary of the series' release. The Nintendo Direct gave fans a brief but tantalizing look at what the new titles have to offer: a new region, new Pokemon, stunning graphics, and a whole new adventure to embark on.

Each new trailer expands the Galar region just a little more. In one of the newest trailers we get new Pokemon, new Gym leaders, and some new hints as to the story we will get to explore as intrepid young trainers in the wilds of Galar. 

Firstly, the Pokemon League is a big deal. Gym battles are public events, and the leaders are stars with hundreds of screaming fans. Like sports stars, they get deals and endorsements from various companies. Champion Leon's kingly cape is filled with logos of the businesses who apparently sponsor him. Chairman Rose, the smiling, mustachioed chairman of the Pokemon League, was the first to sponsor Leon. In the new trailer we met him and his VP Oleana, who looks markedly less thrilled about Pokemon battles. She, complete with white lab coat, is the inventor of the Dynamax Band. 

Dynamax Pokemon aren't the only new twist: for the first time, certain gyms will be version exclusive. Pokemon Sword will have Bea and her fighting-type gym. Pokemon Shield will feature the masked Allister and his ghost-type gym. Want to fight them both? You'll have to buy both of the games.

The Pokemon games allow their players to travel the world. Kind of. The first four games' regions were based on different locations in Japan, like Kanto for the first game's Kanto region (who knew?) and Hokkaido for Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum's Sinnoh region. Later regions are based on New York, France, and Hawaii. With Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, fans were instantly reminded of the United Kingdom upon the reveal of the Galar region.

The Galar region looks to be a great island filled with greenery, not unlike the real life British isles. The Pokemon Direct described it as expansive, so get ready for a long journey toward becoming a Pokemon master. On this huge map, there are many different areas: idyllic countryside, contemporary cities, thick forests, and craggy, snow-covered mountains. Those mountains look pretty formidable, but a huge London-esque city sits atop them, complete with Ferris wheel and clock tower. The bottom of the map is farmland, with colorful fields and adorable cottages. There are lakes, rivers, and steampunk cities that remind us of Kingdom Hearts' Twilight Town. According to the Pokemon site, "The people and Pokemon live together in this region, and they've worked together to develop the industries here."

Even with several steamy, brick and metal cities there are so many places to explore on the Galar map. A high-quality rendering reveals innumerable details, new places populated by new Pokemon that we have yet to see.

A new region in a Pokemon game means a whole new population of Pokemon to catch, befriend, and battle. Before they make their debut, the design of these critters are one of Nintendo's most closely held secrets. There are always alleged leaks of design documents detailing the next gen's starters. These are fake, but surprisingly not too far off the mark. Earlier in the week before the announcement of Pokemon Sword and Shield, supposed sketches of Generation 8's three starters were posted on Reddit.

The real starters and their official designs were brought to life in the Nintendo Direct announcement trailer. Like the illegitimate leak, trainers met a fire type rabbit and a grass type monkey, but the official water type starter for gen 8 is a lizard rather than a platypus. We first got to met fire-footed Scorbunny, "a Rabbit Pokémon that is always running about, bursting with energy." Then we saw shy Sobble, "a somewhat timid Water Lizard Pokémon that shoots out attacks as it hides itself in the water." And finally Grookey, "a mischievous Chimp Pokémon that is full of boundless curiosity."

As usual, they're all adorable. These three new Pokemon will be hard to choose between. This difficult decision might later be made easier when we see what kind of super-powered bruisers these three cuties evolve into, but for now we wanna catch 'em all.

Although Pokemon: Let's Go — Eevee and Pikachu were essentially remakes of Pokemon Yellow, there were many features that differentiated these titles from the mainline series. Rather than picking an elementally based starter Pokemon, players met either a Pikachu or an Eevee, who would then learn special moves and ardently avoid evolving. The Let's Go games pulled some game mechanics from the mobile Pokemon Go as well. Rather than battling wild Pokemon, all players had to do was toss some Pokeballs in order to catch them.

The Pokemon Sword and Shield trailer appears to have gone back to basics. In the trailer, when the player is sneaking through some tall grass, they don't see the wild Pokemon before they encounter it, while in Let's Go, players can see the Pokemon walking around in the overworld. Upon encountering the wild Pikachu, the player throws out their own Pokemon, confirming that we're back to battling wild Pokemon, weakening them before capture. This supports the classic kind of gameplay that fans may have missed. A frequent complaint about Let's Go was that it made things too easy. Shiny hunting was more straightforward than ever, for one thing. When it comes to Pokemon Sword and Shield, the difficulty looks to be like that of Pokemon games past.

Pokemon games originally didn't give players much chance to customize their characters. The very first games only had one playable character to choose from, later games adding in a female character model. Customization of trainers was introduced in Pokemon X and Y, allowing players to change their hair, skin tone, and eye color in order to better represent themselves in the game.

It's expected that this feature will be present in Pokemon Sword and Shield, but what we've seen so far of the trainers from the trailers has caused a bit of a ruckus online. The Galar region appears to have the chilly weather expected of the UK countryside, so the new characters are decked out in woolen sweaters and hats. The male trainer sports a wool beanie, a red sweater, and jeans with green tartan pockets. The female trainer has a pink dress with a grey sweater layered over it, and a green golf hat with a white poof. It is this look that has gathered the attentioned and speculation of the internet: are these trainers Scottish? There has been many a joke going around Twitter about this, and players are excited regardless as to whether or not this was the designers' intended impression. Further, because of the apparent Scottish flair to the games, players are demanding the inclusion of a Pokemon based on the Loch Ness monster. Could little Sobble, so determined to stay hidden, be this legendary beast?

You know what's cool? Pokemon battles. You know what's even cooler? When your Grookey is the size of a six-story building. There's something mysterious and exciting about the Galar region: Dynamax Pokemon. Similar to Mega Evolution, Pokemon get temporarily oversized and overpowered through this mysterious force. The temporary transformation makes them big, with special "Max" moves. This makes for rather tremendous gym battles; gyms are specifically built with Dynamax Pokemon in mind, and there are few other areas in the games that will support Dynamax transformations.

That said, throughout the map are areas marked in red. These beacons draw in trainers who want to band together in order to take on a Dynamax Pokemon and try their luck at catching it. Sound familiar? Players of Pokemon Go will recognize this formula as your everyday raid battle. In Pokemon Sword and Shield, these are called Max Raid Battles, wherein real players can team up to bring down a big bad wild Pokemon.

Thanks to the Nintendo Direct preceding E3 2019, we finally learned what the sword and shield in the titles are: the legendary Pokemon Zacian and Zamazenta. They are two fierce, armored wolves arrayed in blue, red, and gold. They seem to have a somewhat antagonistic relationship, or maybe they were just engaged in a friendly battle when we saw them in the trailer.

Zacian wields a sword in its mouth, lacking any apparent thumbs. This was quickly riffed on by the internet, comparing the otherwise regal Pokemon to dogs with knives and a Dark Souls boss. Zamazenta doesn't hold a shield so much as it is a shield: the Pokemon is covered in golden plating that snaps together at the first sign of danger. Zacian is described as having the ability to cut through anything while Zamazenta can force back any blow. We're still waiting on word of what third legendary, as is traditional with mainline Pokemon games, would stand opposed to them. According to the official Pokemon site, not even the people of the Galar region are aware of these two knightly wolves' existence.

Galar is kind of sort of based on Britain, and upon realizing this, everyone and their grandmother immediately assumed that somewhere in these new games would be a Corgi. The Queen of England has an impressive collection of the adorable little dogs, so it would follow that the Welsh breed be adapted for the world of Pokemon. A seemingly credible leak posted before the first Nintendo Direct revealed the new Pokemon Wooloo, Drednaw, Corviknight, Gossefleur, and Eldegoss and also mentioned a Corgi Pokemon named Pamper.

Pretty close. Yamper is an electric type Pokemon that looks strikingly like a fluffy-butt Corgi. Players were delighted to discover this good boy during the E3 demo of the games, along with the new, considerably less cute Dark/Fairy type Pokemon Impidimp, which is very pink and very mischievous-looking. You know, like an imp. Wooloo still seems to command the hearts of prospective players with its round, cute design, but as more Galar Pokemon appear, there are sure to be new contenders for the internet's favorite new Pokemon.

Another new trailer has proven that the new games will be bigger than ever. Game Freak is maximizing on the Dynamax phenomenon and has revealed a further discovery in the world of Pokemon: Gigantamaxing. In battle, Pokemon can become bigger than ever, and this comes with its own transformation. In the trailer, a newly debuted Fairy-type Pokemon Alcremie went from a dollop of whipped cream to a multi-layer cake that would make any baker balk. Drednaw got a considerable upgrade as well, standing on two legs and looking like a proper kaiju. 

Gigantamaxing and its added animations might account for the concerns that designers cited as the reason behind the apparent exclusion of the entire Pokedex. Veteran fans are still rankled that their favorite Pokemon may not be able to come along with them to the Galar region where Pokemon can get Gigantamax-ed and attack with a special G-Move. Fans were reassured by the Gigantamax trailer that old favorites Tyranitar, Goomy, and Mimikyu were making a return. The Pokemon Company revealed some new faces alongside Alcremie as well: the Pokemon Rolycoly and Duraludon and gym leaders Bea and Allister.