Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield are the eighth-generation mainline games everyone has been waiting for, officially coming to the Nintendo Switch sometime later this year.
The Pokémon Company and Nintendo revealed the titles via a seven-minute Direct presentation on Wednesday. In terms of aesthetics, they look similar to Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu and Let's Go, Eevee, which were released last year.
Pokémon Sword And Shield
Sword and Shield will mark the first time for a mainline game in the series to appear on a home console. All past Pokémon entries have traditionally appeared on handheld systems, such as GameBoy, DS, and 3DS. As the Nintendo Switch is both a handheld and a home console, players will be able to dock their system to play Sword or Shield on the big screen, or take the console and play anywhere.
Galar
The games will take place in a new region called "Galar," which seems to be inspired by Britain based on the cottages and Victorian architecture throughout. A structure resembling the Big Ben clock tower in London, England can be seen. A full view of the map reveals an overview of all the sights, including what seems to be traditional gyms.
The region is home to never-before-seen Pokémon, including three new starters Nintendo also showed off in the presentation: Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble.
Starter Pokémon
Grookey, a grass type, is also known as the "Chimp Pokémon," while the fire type Scorbunny and the water type Sobble are known as the "Rabbit Pokémon" and "Water Lizard Pokémon," respectively.
Evolution And Typing
New players receive Starter Pokémon at the beginning of their Pokémon journey. Past starters include Charmander, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile, and many others.
Nintendo did not share the starters' evolutions in the presentation, so it remains to be seen what other types and abilities they could have once they're leveled up. Such details won't likely be revealed until the games are released, though. It's worth noting that it's entirely possible for their final evolutions to have just one type, just like Blastoise.
Beyond the Galar region, starters, and the official game titles, precious little detail was shared. It does appear, however, that wild encounters are going to come back, along with gyms. The Let's Go games did away with the former, choosing instead to let players see roaming Pokémon in the overview.
Make sure to check back with Tech Times as we learn more about Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield.
Check out the trailer below:
