Originally reported in an exclusive interview with Game Informer was that the latest Pokemon games, Sword and Shield, would offer a massive 18 different Pokemon Gyms for players to take on during their adventures in the Galar region. Apparently, that information appeared to be a mistranslation on the publication's part, as The Pokemon Company International has stepped in to correct the original story. In an official statement, the company clarified that there are indeed 18 Pokemon Gyms in the Galar region, however, they exist to "contribute to the background setting of the story". As in previous Pokemon games, there are only 8 Gym Leaders you'll be able to take on, though they will be different depending on which game you choose.

In the Galar region, Pokémon Gym Battles are popular sporting events, and the 18 different types of Gyms that exist in Galar contribute to the background setting of the story in Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. In each game, Trainers must collect eight Gym Badges to complete the Gym Challenge and earn the opportunity to participate in the Champion Cup.

Over the course of the main story, Trainers will challenge eight Gyms, which are all in the Major League. Which Gyms appear in the Major League and Minor League will differ between Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. For example, depending on the version of the game, Trainers will be able to challenge different Gym Leaders, such as Bea or Allister.

Each version will have eight Gyms and eight Gym Leaders that Trainers can battle for a traditional Gym Challenge experience that fans have enjoyed throughout the Pokémon video game series.

Source

 

[Foxi4]

It's honestly the first time I hear about official, GameFreak-approved breeding contests. Collecting challenges are a thing, but they're pretty much in the spirit of "catch'em all", rather than any sort of stat gaming. As for hidden stats and all, Junichi Masuda himself explicitly stated his stance during the Wired interview:

"Each Pokemon does have a value but I don't consider those data as parameters. I prefer to think of them as real, living creatures. It's the same way that if you have a pet and someone else has the same breed of dog, it's a different dog. That way people can play the game and my Pokemon will be different to your Pokemon even if they're the same type. A comparison would be looking at a datasheet on different dogs and deciding about the data on the different dogs and deciding which one you want based on that data -- that would be soulless."

Maybe I miss on something, but your argument sounds like "This game isn't oriented for kids because I think it sucks".

You're missing quite a bit then. If the game requires a calculator, guesswork and mega-minds on dedicated forums working out equations based on hidden values just for optimal play, it has crossed the boundary between reasonable stats systems and convoluted trash fires, and it's on the wrong side of the line. You're welcome to defend it to death, I'm personally not interested in that kind of conversation, especially since you're unwilling to at least acknowledge its most obvious and glaring flaws. The spirit of "catch'em all" died a long time ago.

 

[Pipistrele]

You're missing quite a bit then. If the game requires a calculator, guesswork and mega-minds on dedicated forums working out equations based on hidden values just for optimal play, it has crossed the boundary between reasonable stats systems and convoluted trash fires, and it's on the wrong side of the line.

That's the thing - it doesn't. Unless you're a powerplayer intentionally duking it out with other powerplayers, you can perfectly play the game, beat the game, and then successfully trade/battle with other people without even knowing those mechanics exist in the first place; as mentioned above, even director of the game considers it to be missing the point. You can play it with calculators and graphs, but at that point, you're expecting Pokemon to be something it's not aiming for, and it's silly to blame the game for it.

You're welcome to defend it to death, I'm personally not interested in that kind of conversation, especially since you're unwilling to at least acknowledge its most obvious and glaring flaws. The spirit of "catch'em all" died a long time ago.

Lack of over-polished competitive meta mechanics in a casual-friendly series about collecting cute animals is just not an objective "obvious and glaring flaw"; I can't just "acknowledge" something I consider frankly silly.

 

[the_randomizer]

Man it's a good thing I stopped caring about these games since gen 2.

 

[VartioArtel]

Ah, so one of them is just for show? Just one that says out of maintenance or something?

More like we don't visit the full Galar, or our character's suggested to take on certain gyms by their sponsor. (Remember - competitors in the Gyms/League get sponsored in Galar)

Like maybe certain sponsors got a special relation with 8 gyms each.

 

[chartube12]

More like we don't visit the full Galar, or our character's suggested to take on certain gyms by their sponsor. (Remember - competitors in the Gyms/League get sponsored in Galar)

Like maybe certain sponsors got a special relation with 8 gyms each.

the gyms this time are big stadiums. Perhaps leaders share stadiums...

I originally assumed the 18 gym leaders are actually the best 18 leaders of the year from other regions. Aka least amount of losses to challengers. With the 9th of the minor league and 9th of the major league requiring the other 8 in each respective league needing to be beaten first. Basically serving has the leagues’ champions. Beaten the minor league granting exe to the major league. While beating it’s 9th leader granting exe to a tournament. Beating the randomly chosen trainers in tournament unlocking the regions elite 4. Beating them allows challenging the champion of the champion league. I thrown this out the window though game play wise. Already debunked since gamefreak and game informer lied. But I still assume anime wise that’s how the region works.

hell maybe 6 of the gym leaders are based on the version we choose. With the 7th and 8th based on our starters.

 

[Xzi]

Wow, it took people this long to realise that Pokemon is an exercise in copy-pasting content and releasing the same game over and over? I mean, y'all should've noticed that after Gold and Silver, that's on you.

To be fair, Sun/Moon and LGPE both changed things up from the traditional mainline formula in different ways, and Sword/Shield has some fairly significant changes too. You could argue that they don't change things up enough, or that not all the changes have been for the better, but they are changes nonetheless.

 

[Foxi4]

To be fair, Sun/Moon and LGPE both changed things up from the traditional mainline formula in different ways, and Sword/Shield has some fairly significant changes too. You could argue that they don't change things up enough, or that not all the changes have been for the better, but they are changes nonetheless.

You're right, the trend of making Pokemon grow bigger that started in Pokemon X/Y with the Mega forms was truly innovative, I always wanted to have the same powers as Rita Repulsa.

 

[Jiehfeng]

Wow, it took people this long to realise that Pokemon is an exercise in copy-pasting content and releasing the same game over and over? I mean, y'all should've noticed that after Gold and Silver, that's on you.

I noticed this during the Sword and Shield national dex announcement, that's when I saw people getting the most riled up over a Pokemon game. And during that time everywhere on the internet people were saying things along the lines of "we've been tolerating the lack of innovation and removal of good features for years now, but this crosses the line", and then during that period I saw people complain about the various lack of innovation and copy paste content the Pokemon games have been having, they brought up very good points. I don't think this is a realization, more of a trigger of what the complaints people have been building up in them, with every game somehow there was compensation enough that they wouldn't riot.

 

[Foxi4]

I noticed this during the Sword and Shield national dex announcement, that's when I saw people getting the most riled up over a Pokemon game. And during that time everywhere on the internet people were saying things along the lines of "we've been tolerating the lack of innovation and removal of good features for years now, but this crosses the line", and then during that period I saw people complain about the various lack of innovation and copy paste content the Pokemon games have been having, they brought up very good points. I don't think this is a realization, more of a trigger of what the complaints people have been building up in them, with every game somehow there was compensation enough that they wouldn't riot.

The problem Pokemon as a franchise got itself into is the bloat - they kept adding new Pokemon to the dex at a staggering rate, a hundred at a time, and at this point the sheer amount of Pokemon is so insurmountable that rendering all of them is a fool's errand, let alone animating them. 151 is a tall order, and we're rapidly approaching 1K. They chose the easy path of progression by just adding more and more Pokemon instead of focusing on a good story or good gameplay mechanics and now they'll be paying the price for their laziness over the years. Their plan only worked in 2D where all you had to do was draw a single sprite - in 3D it's a completely different workload, it's orders of magnitude more difficult. I would absolutely respect them more if they simply looked at the frequency at which certain Pokemon are being used in online battles currently and *slashed all the rest*, there is no reason for them to exist if nobody uses them. Make the list manageable, 200-odd of fan favourites, and get rid of the bloat - that's a manageable workload. Pokemon maniacs would screech initially, but if they received a quality product in return, they would be fine with it in the end. Of course they won't do anything of the sort - that'd require a backbone. Instead, they'll simply come up with a convoluted reason why half of the roster isn't there when the real reason very obvious.

 

[Xzi]

You're right, the trend of making Pokemon grow bigger that started in Pokemon X/Y with the Mega forms was truly innovative, I always wanted to have the same powers as Rita Repulsa.

I meant more along the lines of the heavy focus on story and the change from gyms to trials in Sun/Moon, the changes to the way you encounter and catch Pokemon in LGPE, and the addition of open world elements and raid battles in Sword/Shield. Also keeping the overworld Pokemon encounters from LGPE in Sword/Shield (though there are random encounters too).

 

[Jiehfeng]

The problem Pokemon as a franchise got itself into is the bloat - they kept adding new Pokemon to the dex at a staggering rate, a hundred at a time, and at this point the sheer amount of Pokemon is so insurmountable that rendering all of them is a fool's errand, let alone animating them. 151 is a tall order, and we're rapidly approaching 1K. They chose the easy path of progression by just adding more and more Pokemon instead of focusing on a good story or good gameplay mechanics and now they'll be paying the price for their laziness over the years. Their plan only worked in 2D where all you had to do was draw a single sprite - in 3D it's a completely different workload, it's orders of magnitude more difficult. I would absolutely respect them more if they simply looked at the frequency at which certain Pokemon are being used in online battles currently and *slashed all the rest*, there is no reason for them to exist if nobody uses them. Make the list manageable, 200-odd of fan favourites, and get rid of the bloat - that's a manageable workload. Pokemon maniacs would screech initially, but if they received a quality product in return, they would be fine with it in the end. Of course they won't do anything of the sort - that'd require a backbone. Instead, they'll simply come up with a convoluted reason why half of the roster isn't there when the real reason very obvious.

I agree mostly. Though it should be noted, around 90% of the dex is loved, even more sometimes. Each Pokemon has a good background and story behind it, other than design and use, the pokedex entries and shows add to it as well. But yeah, once the numbers go higher and higher, priority goes to that instead of making a better game overall.

What's you counter to the famous argument that these 3D models and animations are already done though? In the 3DS game they've already made high res Pokemon which could be reused, so what's the fuss?
If they can't be reused, why not then do so once and for all and make everyone happy? Make them high res enough with enough animations, take the time to develop it, release a remake in the process to curb fans.

 

[Foxi4]

I meant more along the lines of the heavy focus on story and the change from gyms to trials in Sun/Moon, the changes to the way you encounter and catch Pokemon in LGPE, and the addition of open world elements and raid battles in Sword/Shield. Also keeping the overworld Pokemon encounters from LGPE in Sword/Shield (though there are also random encounters).

What story? Pokemon has a story now?

I agree mostly. Though it should be noted, around 90% of the dex is loved, even more sometimes. Each Pokemon has a good background and story behind it, other than design and use, the pokedex entries and shows add to it as well. But yeah, once the numbers go higher and higher, priority goes to that instead of making a better game overall.

What's you counter to the famous argument that these 3D models and animations are already done though? In the 3DS game they've already made high res Pokemon which could be reused, so what's the fuss?
If they can't be reused, why not then do so once and for all and make everyone happy? Make them high res enough with enough animations, take the time to develop it, release a remake in the process to curb fans.

I counter it in a very simple way - those models don't last long. You need to remake them every generation, for obvious reasons. Game Freak has already ported some models and animations from the 3DS games, much to my chagrin - it looks awful in motion. They *say* that they didn't, but you and I both have eyeballs, we can see that they did. It's *embarrassing* that animations from Pokemon Stadium on the N64 are more life-like than what we see in Let's Go or Sword and Shield on the Switch, a brand-new console and the most powerful handheld to date, there's nothing more to say on the matter. I also disagree with the notion that "90% of the Pokedex is loved" - it isn't, Game Freak should just bite the bullet and nuke at least half of it, preferably three quarters, instead of playing coy and going for half-measures.

 

[Jiehfeng]

I counter it in a very simple way - those models don't last long. You need to remake them every generation, for obvious reasons. Game Freak has already ported some models and animations from the 3DS games, much to my chagrin - it looks awful in motion. They *say* that they haven't, but you and I both have eyeballs, we can see that they did. It's *embarrasing* that animations from Pokemon Stadium on the N64 are more life-like than what we see in Let's Go or Sword and Shield, a brand-new console and the most powerful handheld to date, there's nothing more to say on the matter.

I'm not following completely, you say you need to remake them every generation, but in reality Game Freak doesn't, they reuse the previous 3DS models and animations. So what's the point here?
If you're talking about a huge generation leap from the N64 to now, then yes they have to be remade. But graphics don't upgrade like that forever, it's coming to a point where things more or less look the same. Just make high quality enough models and animations that can be used for this generations's Switch and the next, downscale and use techniques and whatnot to fit it, besides, you're not only getting one pair of Pokemon games on the Switch.

 

[Xzi]

What story? Pokemon has a story now?

When it comes to Sun/Moon it's more like endless grating exposition strung together in a haphazard manner, but yeah. Like I said, you could argue that not all the changes have been positive ones, or that the changes don't go far enough, but they are there.

 

[Foxi4]

I'm not following completely, you say you need to remake them every generation, but in reality Game Freak doesn't, they reuse the previous 3DS models and animations. So what's the point here?
If you're talking about a huge generation leap from the N64 to now, then yes they have to be remade. But graphics don't upgrade like that forever, it's coming to a point where things more or less look the same. Just make high quality enough models and animations that can be used for this generations's Switch and the next, downscale and use techniques and whatnot to fit it, besides, you're not only getting one pair of Pokemon games on the Switch.

There's a very obvious polycount difference between the 3DS models and the Switch models, a lot of those upgrades can be automated thanks to tessellation and other assorted technologies. Thing is, in order to improve animations, new bones need to be added and models must necessarily be reworked - that takes time. The idea that there are no "generational leaps in graphics quality" across generations is a naive one - the Switch is orders of magnitude more powerful than the 3DS and the models must necessarily follow suit if they're planning to make an AAA release instead of an indie title or a college project. They're being relentlessly made fun of *because* they're going down the path of least resistance instead of doing any actual work, but even that might not be true - the sheer amount of work required to "do this right" is tremendous, so perhaps they are doing their best, but dug themselves into a hole. Either way, nobody cares about Klefki, nobody cares about that stupid garbage bag Pokemon, nobody cares about the ice cream one. I could go on and on about all the Pokemon that I don't even want to waste a Pokeball on, but am required to in order to get a tick in the Pokedex. They could explain it in some way story-wise - species go extinct all the time. The environment has improved due to more awareness and recycling? Farewell, Garbagemon. Global temperature rising? Oh no, the Icecreammon have all melted! Very sad story.

 

[Jiehfeng]

There's a very obvious polycount difference between the 3DS models and the Switch models, a lot of those upgrades can be automated thanks to tessellation and other assorted technologies. Thing is, in order to improve animations, new bones need to be added and models must necessarily be reworked - that takes time. The idea that there are no "generational leaps in graphics quality" across generations is a naive one - the Switch is orders of magnitude more powerful than the 3DS and the models must necessarily follow suit if they're planning to make an AAA release instead of an indie title or a college project. They're being relentlessly made fun of *because* they're going down the path of least resistance instead of doing any actual work, but even that might not be true - the sheer amount of work required to "do this right" is tremendous, so perhaps they are doing their best, but dug themselves into a hole. Either way, nobody cares about Klefki, nobody cares about that stupid garbage bag Pokemon, nobody cares about the ice cream one. I could go on and on about all the Pokemon that I don't even want to waste a Pokeball on, but am required to in order to get a tick in the Pokedex. They could explain it in some way story-wise - species go extinct all the time. The environment has improved due to more awareness and recycling? Farewell, Garbagemon. Global temperature rising? Oh no, the Ice Cream Mon have all melted! Very sad story.

But you're comparing a handheld to a console, if they developed AAA-esque models and animations, what more work has to be done to upgrade so much? Do you think Pokemon games are going to look ultra realistic one day? There's a limit to what the cartoonish graphics can be, and it's not naive to say so. Animations are also not going to be as complex as you make it sound. There's very few animations that are reused for different attacks for example, it's not a tremendous amount of work if they take a good amount of time to develop it like other AAA games do, especially if these high quality models and animations can span a few games (X/Y > Omega/Ruby > Sun/Moon > Ultra Sun/Moon).

As for those "useless" Pokemon that you don't like, you're clearly mistaken about the community then. There's a big 'market' for every Pokemon, everyone has their own liking. As for Klefki, heck that was in my online party which I used for status effects and whatnot, and I loved the design.

 

[Foxi4]

But you're comparing a handheld to a console, if they developed AAA-esque models and animations, what more work has to be done to upgrade so much? Do you think Pokemon games are going to look ultra realistic one day? There's a limit to what the cartoonish graphics can be, and it's not naive to say so. Animations are also not going to be as complex as you make it sound. There's very few animations that are reused for different attacks for example, it's not a tremendous amount of work if they take a good amount of time to develop it like other AAA games do, especially if these high quality models and animations can span a few games (X/Y > Omega/Ruby > Sun/Moon > Ultra Sun/Moon).

As for those "useless" Pokemon that you don't like, you're clearly mistaken about the community then. There's a big 'market' for every Pokemon, everyone has their own liking. As for Klefki, heck that was in my online party which I used for status effects and whatnot, and I loved the design.

Oh please, I heard that old whopper in PS1/N64 days, "it can't possibly look any better than this!" - it can and it does, every single generation, without fail. I don't want them to "reuse" the crappy wiggling animations they have, I want them to take their time and animate move sets for each and every Pokemon so that they look life-like - their job will be "done" when the battles become indistinguishable from an anime, and they're not quite there yet, to put it mildly. I'm not being unfair - if it can be done for Dragon Ball FighterZ or Naruto Ninja Storm, it can be done for Pokemon. Anything short of that is an excuse for releasing a sub-par product that doesn't cut the mustard.

 

[NeroAngelo]

When will Gamefreaks discover the wonders of DLC instead of shoveling multiple versions of the same game, and multiple iterations of reskinned games?

 

[jesus96]

who cares,youtubers already gave them fake hype for the game

 

[Deleted member 388531]

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