Pokemon Sword & Shield: Bunch of new stuff and reactions and whatnot

Y'know... that national dex news really ended up souring my opinion of the upcoming games. I'm not the sort of asshole to go around spamming the "Bring the National Dex Back" thing everywhere I go, and I am definitely upset that the pro-National-Dex movement has ended up being pretty damn noisy. I still do not support what they're doing for Sword & Shield, definitely, and do feel like the excuses they give us really isn't satisfactory, but I don't feel like what some segments of the Pokemon fandom are doing is excusable.

That said, though, the combination of seemingly-rudimentary-but-people-are-lapping-it-up quasi-multiplayer features, the still-underwhelming megamax gimmick, and the lack of the actual features I felt was crucial in a Pokemon game have truly soured me and I sort of completely ignored Pokemon news for the past... oh, couple of months, now. And it's almost October, which means that, for better or for worse, we're heading to Galar soon. And apparently there were a bunch of extra new trailers published here and there, a bunch of interviews, a bunch of new pokemon and new Galarian forms. Which, okay! New pokemon designs are always good.

I think the last time I did a post on the game was during the Duraludon/Rolycoly trailer? Since then we've got the revelation that we're getting some Galarian forms thrown in. Galarian Weezing has smokestack top-hats and dapper facial hair made out of green smoke. And also, he's Poison/Fairy. Part of me really wants to love this thing because my god it's such a hilariously wacky looking form, but another part of me really looks at this thing and goes "is this even real?" It has the bizarre bit of "yeah, this is surely a fakemon" in a way that none of the more controversial designs in the past like the Ultra Beasts or Vanillite or Alolan Exeggutor had ever elicited in me. I dunno. At least it's a mixed reaction from me, not a completely negative one.

Good old Zigzagoon and Linoone get a black-and-white cool angry raccoon punk look as they end up becoming Dark/Normal types, and I do like how they look! Galarian Zigzagoon is a simple but pretty awesome design. Not a huge fan of the weird wrist-accessories on Galarian Linoone, but I still ultimately don't mind that form.

Of course, Galarian Linoone has a Galar-specific evolution, Obstagoon, which... is an angry raccoon-man punk. I'm not sure how I feel about these region-specific evolutions, and I wonder if there's going to be a regular-Obstagoon in the future or if Obstagoons are only found in Galar. Of course... I'm not sure if Nintendo at this point even cares enough about game-to-game consistency, though. Obstagoon's neat. Humanoid furry pokemon has never been my thing, but Obstagoon's an alright one.

Sirfetch'd is a glorious thing to come out of this generation and is probably the best thing to come out of it. It's a pure-white duck and it's holding a leek lance and a shield made out of the sliced-off top of the leek plant. Truly, a Pokemon that embodies the sword and the shield, nevermind those silly legendary doggos. Pretty hilarious looking evolution to an often-overlooked Pokemon in the past, and it became a meme practically overnight for damn good reason. He's a Fighting-type, which... uh... yeah, sure, I dunno. Why not.

Cramorant is a bird? It's got a form-changing gimmick that allows it to scoop pokemon with its beak and change into a gulping form. He's all right. I don't care too much about this one, personally.

Morpeko is our Pikachu clone, and he's an Electric/Dark type that sort of switches from one 'face' to the next and it basically swaps from a happy mascot to an angry purple-furred "hangry mode". I'm not sure whether to bash my head against my desk with this "hangry" mode, or find it hilarious. It's all right. Could've stood to be more distinctive compared to Pikachu, but the gimmick and the looks are certainly better than Dedenne and Togedemaru. I do feel that we're getting another large influx of random one-off pokemon with a weird gimmick, something that's sort of becoming a bit of a trend since the sixth generation, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.


Polteageist is a fun name. It's a little blob ghost hiding in a teacup. I feel like this creature is perhaps one of those that "doesn't feel like a Pokemon" (I bet this dude gets all the hate online already), although I still like the concept and the artwork. Being a tea-themed monster is definitely appropriate for ye olde England, and I feel like I like this critter enough from its visual look and general theme to maybe give it a chance. Who knows, maybe it's one of those creatures that I'll like once I see it in the game? Wouldn't be the first time.

None of these designs call out to me immediately as being one of my new favourites, though -- I'm lukewarm on most of them, amused by Sirfetch'd and Galarian Weezing, and somewhat ambivalent with Polteageist. I don't hate any of them, though, which is neat.

I did find it pretty hilarious that after all of the defenders of the "oh no they are totally getting rid of a huge chunk of the national pokedex for balance reasons" ended up having to sort of swallow their words because it seems like whatever these Max-Moves and G-Max-Moves are will end up being as bad, if not worse, than the Z-Moves and mega evolution of old.

We also got a bunch of new human characters introduced, none of which really stand out to me other than the evil team. "Team Yell" is... a bunch of crazy punk overzealous fanboys and fangirls, which is hilariously appropriate considering the fandom fallout that happened from this game.

We got to see the "Pokemon Camp" and "Poke Job" gimmick, which is pretty tedious-looking, but I'm not going to complain about this since it's essentially the same thing with Pokemon-Amie or whatever we've been having in the 3DS games.

Overall, I'm still not as excited about this game as I was during the leadup to the past two generations. The game's prettier than the 3DS games, don't get me wrong, and if you really think that the Wild Area and mobile-game-style multiplayer raids are enough to tide you over, more power to you! Mostly, the only things that I feel are exciting about this upcoming generation is the ability to play it on my tee-vee and the new designs and the new region, with the added dread that I might have to end up being forced to play through some of the gimmick-laden features. I just wish that for all the pessimism I have about the actual features that this game has, that the solo player experience is still satisfying.