Pokémon Direct, February 27: Information and Reactions

The very short Pokémon Direct of February has finally announced the eighth Generation of the Pocket Monsters franchise, Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. At only seven minutes, we only got a few tantalizing details, but here’s what we know.

• The games’ director is Shigeru Ohmori, director of Pokémon Sun & Moon and producer of Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon.
• Sword & Shield take place in the Galar region, a land inspired by the United Kingdom (and is visually the U.K. flipped upside-down). It’s notable in how distinctly vertical it is geographically, and that at least one of its cities is riddled with large clockwork gears. There are also battles that take place in a soccer-style stadium, where the player character wearing a sports uniform.
• The starters are Grookey (a Grass-type monkey), Scorbunny (a Fire-type rabbit), and Sobble (a Water-type lizard).
• The logos feature the requisite sword and shield adorned with icons of a wolf, each facing in the opposite directions. This might suggest that the game’s main legendary Pokémon are two related monsters.
• The game retains random battles, customizable characters, seemingly similar Poké Ball mechanics, and most notably Gyms, back after their absence in Pokémon Sun & Moon.
• While it’s unknown if they’ll be in the base game or only accessible via Pokémon Bank, old Pokémon seen include Pikachu, Minccino, Wishiwashi, Grubbin, Hoothoot, Zweilous, Flygon, Braviary, Meowstic, Wailmer, Lucario, Tyranitar, and Munchlax.

Reactions:

I’m largely disinterested in debating the starters (Water is good, Fire will hopefully have a good evolution, Grass sucks, but they all look much better in the Sugimori art) and more interested in the environments. Aside from the jump to HD looking gorgeous, it’s our latest good example of how Pokémon has often employed great art direction. Galar’s grass plains and urban settings especially have a lush color palette that’s bursting with energy. Those giant clockwork engines are also great, presumably giving the game another Pokémon reinterpretation of the “modern world.” The map is also interesting; it’s so vertically oriented that I get the feeling it’s somewhat linear (not that there’s anything wrong with that; other Pokémon games have been fine with it), but also carrying this neat “quest” imagery and energy. I’m into that. Britain’s a nice choice after Hawaii and France. It makes me wonder if they’ll draw from British history for the villainous team (assuming one exists), in that case – maybe the Cavaliers?

I have to say I was one of those people going in expecting to see very little of the game, like the early reveal of Sun and Moon. This was definitely more than I was expecting to see, so overall I’m rather happy! I love how the game looks visually. The starters are cute, though I’m unsure which one I’ll go with. The names Sword and Shield are interesting, and I’m loving the look of the region. Overall, I’m definitely excited to see where things go from here as we learn more about the games.

It was a nice reveal, as the Galar Region looks like a really nice place to roam around, with a map that looks varied enough to present new challenges and great looking vistas and locations on every corner.

About the starters… well, They don’t look as British as I would have imagined. But that happens a lot with starters. And we haven’t seen their final forms yet, so maybe we can get nice surprises (or big disappointments) with them.

I was, like a lot of people, looking for a more mixed style of random encounters, but it looks like we are back to the ORAS model, on which the player can ambush Pokémon hidden in the grass, instead of having a full view of what the route has to offer like in Let’s Go. I hope the SOS Calls are still on the table this time.

And as a final thoughts: I didn’t like the logos… specially the Shield, as I can understand the wolf on the pommel of the Sword (like on Jon Snow’s sword, Longclaw) but on top of the shield?, that place is for eagles, dragons or other winged creatures… like I don’t know… the exclusive legendary of the games?! As I don’t think we would get two wolves.

This game is making me feel really national. As the only British person on the team so much of this game’s aesthetics is appealing to me and now I am super excited to see what new Pokemon are coming. After extensive analysis of the map and pairing it up with the real UK map some of the main cities in this game I cities close to my heart like Manchester and London. It’s wonderful!

Then the starters. I only liked Scorbunny at first but after looking over their influences and understanding their themes I have a new appreciation for Grookey and Sooble.

For those who missed my twitter posts going over these starters (below is speculation and not fact… yet):

• Grookey is a music inspired Monkey and is Grass/Rock
• Scorbunny is sports inspired and is Fire/Electric
• Sooble is art inspired and is Water/Poison.

I am confident in this, especially the first two.

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Wolfman_J

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