Today, we got the long-awaited announcement of the 8th generation of Pokemon games, Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield! For the first time, a true, new generation Pokemon RPG will finally be released on a home console! This is an announcement that got me especially excited since this game has been what I have wanted ever since I was a child playing Pokemon Emerald for the first time.
The first thing to point out is how stunning the game looks. I’ve always wanted to see what a real Pokemon RPG would look like on a home console. Pokemon: Let’s go Pikachu and Eevee don’t count, in my opinion. They were clearly cheaper filler games to capitalize on Pokemon Go and give us a game while we wait for what we really wanted, Generation 8. Now that there’s confirmation and we got to see a good amount of gameplay, The game looks gorgeous. The new Galler region is based on the UK, so the backdrops are vibrant and beautiful and the map of the region is huge with a lot of variety. One important thing to note, it specifically says under the footage that it is, in fact, not final and not what the game will look like upon release. Meaning, it will likely look even better and more detailed than it already does!
The starter Pokemon, Grookey, Scorbuny and Sobble, also look adorable. I still have not made up my mind on which one to choose, but at the moment it’s likely between Scorbunny and Sobble. Sorry, Grookey! They all look adorable as all starter Pokemon do, but I’ll have to see their evolutions and movesets before I make a final decision. I hope we find out more soon.
During the direct, I couldn’t help but notice how much focus was put on the world map itself. It is definitely bigger than any other region map and it has a really cool shape to it. Could it be, perhaps, that for this game, they are going to make it more of an open world than usual, similar to Breath of the Wild? An interesting thought, indeed, but I don’t know if they’ll actually go that far. I’m sure we’ll get more details soon, but it would be interesting if they do change the game up in that way. It probably won’t be as expansive as Breath of the Wild but there does seem to still be a lot there.
I am at extreme hype levels for this game. Everything I’ve seen of it so far looks amazing, even if what we got to see was rather brief. At the moment, it has been given a release date of “Late 2019.” Since Pokemon games tend to release in November, I’m certain this title will be no different. I can’t wait to hear more about this game very soon!
Pixel Perfect 