Official Pre-Pokémon Sword & Pokémon Shield Speculation & Leaks thread

[Oriden]

So, a remake? I don't think that GF will start a new console with anything other than a new generation.

That does seem like a weird thing to do. Unless it's a Kanto revisit, but then everything could go wrong with completely changing up Kanto and it seems like it would be safer and more marketable to start with a new generation.

I guess it's imaginable that a new eeveelution might be the only new pokemon released for a Kanto revisit (similar in a way to how Sylveon was the only new evo added for a past gen pokemon in generation 6- eeveelutions tend to be the exceptions) and then they might release a new region afterward in a sort of reverse order to how we usually start our generations off. I don't think they can go a generation without introducing new pokemon since new pokemon are such huge marketing tools, but they might just barely get away with throwing a Kanto remake out first and then giving us a new region if the changes to Kanto are safe yet drastic enough (what an insane balance to do that, though).

Could explain a shorter promotional period if they just don't have the pokemon for these games to tease us with? Pretty much, they'd just be relying on whatever innovations the Switch allows for a Kanto remake to make it sell. This could be an experiment in how well games could sell just on story alone.

 

[k3n3p0]

Only love and support for @lavandula and Joe. People forget the main reason we are even here and it’s that we all love the franchise with all the good things they brought to our lives. They both do what they like and thats ok. I hope this is the last comment on the topic (externally from this forum of course) and people stop focusing on the wrong things. That way we all do our best to keep an eye out for all leaks and speculations, discuss and debate on the many possibilities that Pokemon Switch can bring to us.

 

[nickdt]

So, a remake? I don't think that GF will start a new console with anything other than a new generation.

I am with you on this one.

A remake will still be considered gen 7 and its unlikely we get a cross-console on any generation.
A remake doesn't sell as well as a new generation, which means if a remake comes before gen 8, Pokemon isn't a system seller (And since Nintendo wants Pokemon to be their system seller, that kinda rules out the remake possibility).

 

[Knightwolf09]

So if it's not a BW style reboot, nor is it a remake, the only other reboot I can think of must be in a gameplay sense.

 

[Midorikawa]

BW still had non Unova pokemon. They weren't available until end game, but they still existed. They could do something similar to that, or maybe they talk about how eevee is from a far away region, and just give it as a gift.

 

[InfernapeTheWise]

So if it's not a BW style reboot, nor is it a remake, the only other reboot I can think of must be in a gameplay sense.

As much as I would dislike that...There have been some credible rumors talking about gameplay changes, haven't there?Things are adding up.

 

[Joker901]

So if it's not a BW style reboot, nor is it a remake, the only other reboot I can think of must be in a gameplay sense.

Well, let's suppose they take Kanto, a Kanto that is not exactly the Kanto of 22 years ago, with a new plot and pokemon that are not the 151 of the first gen but a mix of the 7 past gens who may also get new evolutions like eevee. No new standalone, no new lines, just forms and evolutions of old pokemon. It would be like a new gen but in a really weird sense, right?

 

[dCraw]

A remake will still be considered gen 7

Actually if the game is built on an entirely different engine, it would technically be a new generation.

 

[Dark Phoenix]

Well, let's suppose they take Kanto, a Kanto that is not exactly the Kanto of 22 years ago, with a new plot and pokemon that are not the 151 of the first gen but a mix of the 7 past gens who may also get new evolutions like eevee. No new standalone, no new lines, just forms and evolutions of old pokemon. It would be like a new gen but in a really weird sense, right?

It would certainly be the very first generation which doesn't introduce a new region for sure but they could still expand it just like with the Pokemon species residing there. It feels kinda weird to me.

 

[Knightwolf09]

Well, let's suppose they take Kanto, a Kanto that is not exactly the Kanto of 22 years ago, with a new plot and pokemon that are not the 151 of the first gen but a mix of the 7 past gens who may also get new evolutions like eevee. No new standalone, no new lines, just forms and evolutions of old pokemon. It would be like a new gen but in a really weird sense, right?

That's more or less a remake than reboot though

 

[KrisiChiki]

I also lean on the reboot being a gameplay reboot, but I'm not sure what else they can do besides changing the battle system. I'm sure we're not getting an open world game, but maybe there are multiple career options for your character besides "Pokemon Trainer". The plot changes according to your choice of career, but the core of it remains the same. Well, one can dream.

That's not to say that a change to the battle system isn't something significant enough to be considered a gameplay reboot, but I don't play competitively and I don't use the games' battle facilities that much. For someone like me, a battle system change is more like Gyms and Trials. They are different, but still the same.

 

[Extroth]

Unpopular opinion time:
Gen 5 isn't a soft reboot or any kind of reboot at all.
Gen 6 is not a soft reboot or any kind of reboot at all.
The closest we have to a true soft reboot is gen 3 and even then I think the only reason it feels like one is because we couldn't transfer our old Pokemon up.

So when people say a gen 5 style reboot, the phrase is utterly meaningless.

 

[Esserise]

That's more or less a remake than reboot though

That’s like saying M20 is just a remake of the anime’s first episode.

Although, I would disagree with Joker about there being no new Pokémon families. Personally, I think they’d want to introduce some entirely new Pokémon, rather than just adding new evolutions for old Pokémon.

 

[Joker901]

That's more or less a remake than reboot though

Well remakes have basically the same plot and add just new forms. This would be another story settled in Kanto with pokemon that were never in Kanto and without pokemon that have always been there. It's more like a parallel Kanto with major differences in the environment due to events that may not have happened in the first Kanto, with new pokemon (gen 2-7) with completly new evolutions and forms like the alola forms. All the red/giovanni plot would be replaced with something completly new.
A new generation is basically a new region with new pokemon and a new plot. This is basically a new plot in a parallel region with different pokemon who may have new evolutions/mechanics etc.
In a way it is a reebot. Because after that, we can imagine the same to happen to johto and so on...
I'm not saying this is going to happen, ok? Just saying that a reboot may also be something like this...

 

[Oriden]

I also lean on the reboot being a gameplay reboot, but I'm not sure what else they can do besides changing the battle system. I'm sure we're not getting an open world game, but maybe there are multiple career options for your character besides "Pokemon Trainer". The plot changes according to your choice of career, but the core of it remains the same. Well, one can dream.

That's not to say that a change to the battle system isn't something significant enough to be considered a gameplay reboot, but I don't play competitively and I don't use the games' battle facilities that much. For someone like me, a battle system change is more like Gyms and Trials. They are different, but still the same.

While I hope that the battle system change will be a switch from turn-based to real-time, I know that's kind of an unpopular opinion. XD

At the very least, maybe something less predictable than gyms/trials. Just send us on a journey where we don't have to stop in at clearly foreseeable towns to beat leaders in their building/area with neon signs everywhere saying "go here to kick a butt." Send us on a journey where we just happen to run into powerful people whose butt we have to kick and then keep going to get to that goal where we probably kick someone else's butt.

...I mean, it's mostly the same thing just without obvious locations to go to. That's kinda different, right? XD

Cripes what can they even do.


You know what I'd like to see if we're getting some weird revamped Kanto that might as well be a new region with new pokemon but it's not? Past Kanto- as in let's go back to when aerodactyls didn't all die out and see what was up in prehistoric times.

Except then where would they put the gyms.

 

[Plubio]

I don't see a (Pokémon) Direct coming soon but the fact they completely ignored Blastoise DLC during the last one makes me a lil bit suspicious. After 23rd there's not much more to talk about aside the film. Mmm.

((Anyway I think Blastoise will probably be displayed in this Pokkén event coming this weekend if I recall. It is JP only but they could also upload footage to YouTube as they also do on World Championships announcements)).

 

[Joker901]

While I hope that the battle system change will be a switch from turn-based to real-time, I know that's kind of an unpopular opinion. XD

At the very least, maybe something less predictable than gyms/trials. Just send us on a journey where we don't have to stop in at clearly foreseeable towns to beat leaders in their building/area with neon signs everywhere saying "go here to kick a butt." Send us on a journey where we just happen to run into powerful people whose butt we have to kick and then keep going to get to that goal where we probably kick someone else's butt.

...I mean, it's mostly the same thing just without obvious locations to go to. That's kinda different, right? XD

Cripes what can they even do.


You know what I'd like to see if we're getting some weird revamped Kanto that might as well be a new region with new pokemon but it's not? Past Kanto- as in let's go back to when aerodactyls didn't all die out and see what was up in prehistoric times.

Except then where would they put the gyms.

I would love a change in the main goal. I would like to start as a professor who has to build the region pokedex or as an elite four or ssimply to have the possbility to choose what to start as...Just a bit tired of the 10 years old kid and all the journey to become a pokemon master. But this will never happen because of the "starter pokemon" stuff.
P.s. Not Pokken 2.0 please. Can we get something in between? A hybrid of turn-based and real time maybe?

 

[RileyXY1]

Actually if the game is built on an entirely different engine, it would technically be a new generation.

In my opinion, no. In my opinion, in order for it to be a new generation, there must be new Pokemon (starters and box legends as well as many regular Pokemon, other legendaries, and at least one mythical), a new region, a new story, new characters, and some form of innovation to the series.

 

[Oriden]

I would love a change in the main goal. I would like to start as a professor who has to build the region pokedex or as an elite four or ssimply to have the possbility to choose what to start as...Just a bit tired of the 10 years old kid and all the journey to become a pokemon master. But this will never happen because of the "starter pokemon" stuff.
P.s. Not Pokken 2.0 please. Can we get something in between? A hybrid of turn-based and real time maybe?

I think we'd all die happy if we got the option to become a pokemon photographer. XD

But yeah I don't really want a Pokken thing, I don't think? Fighting-style games are just kinda eh button mashy keep punching them like DBZ, but I'd take something a bit more similar to Kingdom Hearts' Coliseum battles... except slower than the Sephiroth fight I'm thinking of (that was the last time I played it), with more strategy and without anyone teleporting around. Unless it was with a move. Like teleport. So teleport could be less useless. I think it'd kinda be nice and more interesting to be able to move around during battle instead of being fixed in one spot.

 

[Synthaphone]

I would love a change in the main goal. I would like to start as a professor who has to build the region pokedex or as an elite four or ssimply to have the possbility to choose what to start as...Just a bit tired of the 10 years old kid and all the journey to become a pokemon master.

I was just thinking about this the other day- I'd love a Pokemon game where I could be a researcher, capturing Pokemon for the Pokedex and focusing on learning about their behaviors and what lives where and stuff. Can you imagine a Pokedex where instead of giving you all the information about a Pokemon once you find it, you were 'discovering' new Pokemon and where they live, and so whenever you encounter a Pokemon somewhere you hadn't seen it before, it gets added to your Dex information on where that Pokemon lives? It would obviously make a lot of stuff more difficult, but they could add features where you can research information in a database and add it to your personal Pokedex, or explaining who discovered what, as opposed to giving you everything as if from an omnipresent source. We could get stuff where maybe two professors disagree on something, and you have to go out and figure out how it really works...

God, I would love a Pokemon game that focuses more on exploration and character building in regards to the Pokemon... but it feels like something that would either have to be more of a spin-off, or something that would have to be a sidequest in addition to the main gameplay, since that's not really what Pokemon at its core is about, exactly.