To the delight of countless gamers everywhere, Nintendo has officially announced a new generation of Pokémon will be released later this year.
With dozens of new pocket monsters being added to the mix, Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield are the two new titles for the popular franchise. They were revealed on the franchise’s twenty-third anniversary, becoming the eighth generation to join the line of successful role-playing games.
Nintendo has officially made the “switch” for Pokémon as well; unlike the last several Pokémon games released on the 3DS, Sword and Shield are the among the franchise’s first RPG games to be released on the Nintendo Switch. This comes only a year after the release of Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!
There has been a renewed interest in the Pokémon series ever since the app game Pokémon Go was released back in 2016. With a new fanbase to capture, the new RPGs are expected to bring a number of innovations to the forefront.
The game will feature dozens of new Pokémon to capture in an entirely new region to explore. The Galar region is rumored to be based on the geography of the U.K., featuring industrial cityscapes and rolling country hills. As is tradition in the realm of Pokémon, the two games will have virtually identical gameplay but feature slightly different Pokémon to capture.
The newest starters sparked the most interest among fans throughout the world. Players can choose between Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble, each of whom represents one of the three traditional types — grass, fire, and water respectively — to begin the game.
The creators have also brought nuance to the game through increasingly shifting camera angles. This is going to allow players to see the world of Pokémon in an entirely new way — literally.
Until now, the games have predominantly relied on a top-down fixed view. This limited perspective was a staple, but the trailers infer that changing the camera angles is a possibility throughout the game.
The trailer also revealed that new gameplay is on the horizon. While this generation goes back to battling gyms, something generation seven shied away from, the trailer also showed a large stadium, presumably for soccer.
Not too much has been revealed regarding this type of play, but with more than 25 million children playing soccer each year, this game of Pokémon is certainly appealing to the masses.
Nintendo first tried to tweak the logistics of the RPG’s gameplay in the seventh generation, Sun and Moon. Most notably, this took the form of island challenges. This replaced the classic gym battles of which many fans had grown bored.
But this isn’t the first time Nintendo has branched away from traditional forms of gameplay for the franchise.
Nintendo and Pokémon are expected to thrive from the addition of countless new players garnered from the success of the popular app Pokémon Go.
More than one billion people downloaded the app upon its release and the game still witnesses thousands of players each day, more than two years later.
Though this game got countless Americans off the couch and into the streets and parks of their neighborhoods, people may want to buy a durable couch for hours of new gameplay with Sword and Shield. After all, 28% of people keep their couch for more than 15 years.
“Pokémon Go really did represent the second Pokémon boom, so to say, and it was really a rare opportunity that no one could have counted on,” claimed series director Junichi Masuda.
This innovative attitude is what will certainly make Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield a success later this year.
Even though Americans typically eat ice cream only 28 times per year, the announcement of this game is certainly giving us something to celebrate. As more information becomes available in the future, fans will have to wait to find out more information about the Galar region.
