Pokemon Sword and Shield
Pokemon Sword and Shield have now been officially announced! We got to see so much in the Pokemon Direct it’s hard to know where to start!
Over the past week I have been getting really excited for Pokemon news and started a bit of speculating before we even knew there was a Pokemon Direct.
I’ve decided to collect all my thoughts before, during and after the big reveal of Pokemon Sword and Shield…
Predictions – Before Pokemon Direct
Nintendo Direct happened the other week and like a lot of you I thought it was pretty great!
There were some really cool announcements. My favourites being Bloodstained, the Zelda Remake and Astral Chain.
However all Pokemon fans out there, including myself, were left a bit high and dry. But there’s been some whispers on the grape vine about generation 8 and they are starting to get very interesting.
New Nintendo Direct
Now it seems people are a bit tetchy about mentioning the next Nintendo Direct so soon after the last one. Poor Thomas over at Switch Stop got a load of abuse for an innocent video speculating what and when the next Nintendo direct will be. I genuinely think people just saw the title and jumped to assumptions.
Pokemon Direct
However it’s almost impossible to talk about the generation 8 Pokemon game without mentioning a Nintendo Direct of some sort. We know the next main installment of Pokemon gen 8 is coming to the Switch and that it will be here later in 2019.
With that being said Nintendo are cutting it pretty close to the line in terms of revealing any Pokemon information and with Pokemon Day Feb 27th just around the corner, it seems likely that we will hear some Pokemon gen 8 news from Nintendo pretty soon. Especially if you take into consideration the possible hint dropped by Junichi Masuda.
Pokemon Clues
Basically he posted an image of a weedle from Pokemon GO that got fans all excited theorising all kinds of clues from the image. The most interesting being the number of weedle candies of 226.
2 26 correlating to February 26th. The day before Pokemon day. There’s also been a lot of rumours around about the possibility of a Pokemon Crown and Pokemon Sceptre or Pokemon King and Pokemon Queen being announced soon. I was recently watching a video by Andres Restart in which he proposes some pretty interesting theories about the Pokemon rumours and the possibility of a Pokemon, Game Freak or Nintendo Direct Mini around Pokemon day.
Now there’s a couple of things that I think will really take Generation 8 Pokemon to the next level! The first would be all 809 pokemon in gen 8. To date no game has let you catch all 809 pokemon in game.
Gotta Catch Em All
Each game is focused on a specific region which focuses around the Pokemon native to that region. Some Pokemon make a reappearance and a lot can be traded from one game to another. However no game allows you to “catch them all”.
Being able to catch all the Pokemon to date would be a huge step forward for the franchise and would make a fresh start for the franchise on the Switch.
All Pokemon Regions
Secondly to enable you to catch them without breaking the canon of Pokemon, you would need to be able to visit all the regions to date. How cool would it be if the new Pokemon game allowed us to travel to all of the regions across all of the main line games.
It’s not beyond the power of the Switch and this could be just the type of feature that would justify the new Pokemon game being on a fully fledged console. I mean just imagine that… being able to jump on a plane and fly from Sinnoh to Kanto or jump on a boat and sail from Hoenn to Alola in gen 8. This would make the new Pokemon generation 8 game the definitive version of the game to date and make it an absolute must have for Pokemon fans and gamers alike.
3D Pokemon Graphics
Finally to really make the most of the step up to the new hardware and to fully immerse us in the amazing world of Pokemon gen 8 it would be awesome if the graphics took some inspiration from Breath of The Wild.
Keeping true to the Pokemon aesthetic but introducing epic 3D visual that would enable you to fully enjoy the regions and their vistas in all their detailed 3D glory.
The regions in Pokemon games are some of the best designed and well thought out environments in any game franchise. However they are limited by the 2D style perspective. Even though since Pokemon X and even more so with the Lets Go series Game Freak have gone for a more 3D visual, it is still influenced by the 2D visuals of the original Pokemon games.
How cool would it be if the new Pokemon games made the most of the Switch hardware and took the visuals to a whole new level giving those well designed worlds the justice they deserve! But hang on a minute, not just that. If GameFreak were to call the new Pokemon games something like King and Queen, then they are some pretty bold names. It would make absolute sense that the gen 8 version of the games were the king and queen of all Pokemon games.
Pokemon Direct
So the Pokemon Direct happened and it was so much better than I could have imagined!
We finally got to see what Pokemon generation 8 looks like in the shape of Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield!
Pokemon Direct Reaction
I’m sure there will be a huge reaction to this direct as I know a lot of us were not too hopeful for Nintendo giving us as much as they did. They have given us back to back awesome news. With last weeks Nintendo Direct and this awesome Pokemon Direct.
So a quick overview of what we saw. We found out the new names for the Pokemon games, we saw the new Pokemon logos, we got shown the new region, we saw the new graphics and we saw the new starters.
Pokemon Sword And Shield Logos
The new names are Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield. First off I’m not a huge fan of the names, but that is a minor gripe. They’ll probably grow on me any way. What is really interesting are the new Pokemon Logos for Sword and Shield.
They are drastically different from all previous logos. Quite recently a lot of rumour logos have been debunked for not sticking to the traditional Pokemon logo styles. Mainly for having bold images taking up a lot of the background.So it’s quite ironic that the Pokemon Sword and Shield logos follow that exact same aesthetic.
Pokemon Sword Shield Region Galar
Now the new Pokemon region. Galar, looks absolutely beautiful!
As speculated it looks to be inspired by the UK with an island design and vast countryside vistas. The map also shows a snowier region to the north similar to Scotland. It also has a similar map design look to Game Of Thrones. I’m not sure if that was intentional though.
So we’re not getting all the previous Pokemon regions in one game. I admit that was a long shot! But we are getting a amazing looking new environment! Now lets talk about the Pokemon Gen 8 graphics.
Pokemon Sword And Shield Grahpics
Wow! Those graphics look amazing! Just like I was hoping the new Pokemon generation 8 graphics really take it to the next level! Incorporating a fully 3D third person perspective. Enabling you to really enjoy and savour the amazing design of the Pokemon region!
Of all the changes I hoped for Pokemon 2019, full 3D graphics that stay true Pokemon design is the one thing I hoped for the most! As I’ve said before, Pokemon regions are some of the best environments ever designed, but they are always limited by the 2D perspective. Having fully realised 3D environments will finally let us explore and enjoy the Pokemon generation 8 region in all it’s glory!
Pokemon Sword And Shield Starters
Last but not least we also got to see the three new Pokemon gen starters. The starter Pokemon for generation 8 are the standard grass, fire and water types. And we got treated to great video and design images of the three new starter Pokemon. They are Grookey. Grookey is a grass type chimp style Pokemon. Scorbunny is a fire type bunny style Pokemon. Sobble is a water type lizard style Pokemon.
They all look like great starter Pokemon to be fair. I haven’t been a fan of all the starter across the generations but these three I will struggle to pick between. If I had to pick right now I would go with Sobble. I don’t normally pick the water type Pokemon as a starter and I really like the lizard style.
Galar Region Map Clue
Now there was one other thing I noticed that I’m not sure everyone will have. That is the big footprint looking lake in the middle of the map. Now I could be completely wrong and my mind could be playing tricks on me but that lake in the middle of Galar looks a lot like a footprint. Now could that be a clue to a legendary Pokemon? Could this be a hint to the first generation 8 legendary Pokemon? Maybe it was created in prehistoric Pokemon times. I’m just saying…
Pokemon Sword And Shield Giant Clue
Giant Gen 8 Legendary Pokemon
I wasn’t planning on doing another video about Pokemon Sword and Shield. But there’s something no one seems to be talking about! Maybe everyone’s noticed it and doesn’t think it’s a big deal. But I think it’s a pretty huge clue about one of the generation 8 legendaries in Pokemon! So kick off your shoes and relax your socks while I tell you about these legendary Pokemon clues!
Pokemon Giant Legendary
So we all saw what looked like a giant on the hill in the Pokemon Sword and Shield trailer. The one that looks like it’s based on the real world location in Dorset over here in the UK. Cerne Abbas Giant, a hill figure near the village of Cerne Abbas in Dorset, England.
But there was something else that no one seems to have noticed… I’ll get to that in a second.
If we look closer at the hill, despite just the sheer size of the image. All indications point to it being a giant Pokemon. There’s the small characters at the bottom. Which look maybe like a human and a Pokemon.
And the huge Pokemon itself seems to tower over what looks like it could be a sun. Or if you want to get really crazy, is the image showing the giant Pokemon creating the sun using some sort of legendary power?
Pokemon Gen 8 Giant Legendary Clue!
So what about the thing no one seems to be talking about. Well I mentioned in my previous video that I saw what looked like a huge foot print shaped lake in the middle of the region map. I wasn’t sure yesterday but after looking more closely at the hill. Putting two and two together I’m almost definite this is the footprint of one of the legendary in the game!
So I’m calling it, I think we’re going to have at least one giant legendary Pokemon. And if you want to speculate even further could it be a Pokemon legendary that created the sun or had some hand in shaping the land of Galar?
Also if the Stonehenge references in Galar are strong then we could even be looking at it being a giant alien legendary Pokemon? So what do you think? Like I said I wasn’t planning to do another Pokemon video but I just had to get this idea off my chest and out there to see what people think. Let me know what you think in the comments below, or if you think I’ve just got a bit too excited with such a great Pokemon Direct.
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