Pokémon Sword / Shield

Pokémon Sword og Pokémon Shield udspiller sig i Galar-regionen, der er en ekspansiv region med varierende omgivelser, der rummer alt fra idyllisk landskab til moderne byer, dybe skove og snedækkede bjerge. I Galar-regionen arbejder Pokémon og folk sammen om at opbygge forskellige industrier. Fans kan besøge gyms over hele regionen i deres stræben efter at blive champion.

One of the smaller, yet interesting pieces of info we learned involves Exp. Share, an item that splits the experience earned in battle to all Pokémon in the player's party.

According to director Shigeru Ohmori, Pokémon Sword and Shield does away with this item. However, when we followed up with Ohmori about whether that means we need to train up each individual Pokémon, he confirmed to us that every Pokémon in your party gets equal experience automatically as you progress through the game.

“Traditionally in the series, you start with your starter Pokémon and then you catch a lot of Pokémon in the beginning, and those are with you throughout your whole adventure, and the player gets attached to them. But a lot of times, they get into the competitive battles and they find they can’t actually use those Pokémon or they’re not competitive, so they have to go out and find the exact right Pokémon or breed them in a certain way to make sure they’re viable in competitive battle. This time around, we really wanted to introduce some systems that help the player be able to take those Pokémon they caught in the beginning, and the first one they chose, and actually take them straight into competitive battle. There’s a lot of hidden parameters to Pokémon that aren’t surfaced to the player. We’re doing a lot of stuff in the back end introducing systems that allow players to make sure that Pokémon they want to use in competitive battles are viable.”

“I’ve got to be very vague about it, but one example – it will be visible to the player and they’ll know when they see it, I think – say you have a Pokémon where it’s got all the right stats and everything, but there’s a personality parameter as well that comes into play in battles, and it might not be the right personality, so you’ll breed until you get the right one, is what people do currently. But you’ll see that there’s a system in the game that will fix that for people.”

“Up until now, we’ve been proud we’ve been able to include so many Pokémon in the games, but as a result of that, there’s actually been quite a few features or gameplay ideas that we’ve had to abandon in the past. Going forward, thinking about the future of Pokémon, we want to prioritize all those new gameplay ideas, new ways to enjoy the game, and want to challenge ourselves at Game Freak to create new ways to enjoy the game. That’s really what drove the decision for this new direction.”

“We have a lot of awesome new challenges that we haven’t even revealed in Sword and Shield. We want to continue to come up with these new features, so we figured this was the best path forward for the franchise.”

“A wide variety of discussions happened; it’s not just one kind of criteria for deciding which Pokémon are going to appear in the games, but a lot of different reasons, a lot of different directions, a lot of debate over which ones would be the best in the game. I think one example of that is figuring out the Pokémon that would make sense for the setting of the game the most; these Pokémon look like they could live in the Galar region. We really spent a lot of effort deciding which would best fit the setting of the adventure and the features that we wanted to implement. I think players will be satisfied. There’s quite a few Pokémon that you’ll encounter in the Galar region Pokédex, so I think players will have fun seeing all the Pokémon.”

“There are 18 different types of gyms in the story, and depending on the version, which gyms are in the minor league and which gyms are in the major league are different. For example, in Sword, the fighting-type gym will be in the major league, but in Shield, the ghost-type. The idea is that every year, the Galar region is playing and which gyms make it into the minor league versus the major league changes.”

"… However, The Pokemon Company reached out and said, ‘Hey, I think there might have been something a little lost in translation or somebody might have misspoke.’ … They said ‘similar to what has appeared in the past.'”

In the Galar region, Pokémon Gym Battles are popular sporting events, and the 18 different types of Gyms that exist in Galar contribute to the background setting of the story in Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. In each game, Trainers must collect eight Gym Badges to complete the Gym Challenge and earn the opportunity to participate in the Champion Cup.

Over the course of the main story, Trainers will challenge eight Gyms, which are all in the Major League. Which Gyms appear in the Major League and Minor League will differ between Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. For example, depending on the version of the game, Trainers will be able to challenge different Gym Leaders, such as Bea or Allister.

Each version will have eight Gyms and eight Gym Leaders that Trainers can battle for a traditional Gym Challenge experience that fans have enjoyed throughout the Pokémon video game series.

Galarian Ponyta
Category: Unique Horn Pokémon
Type: Psychic
Height: 2’7″
Weight: 52.9 lbs.
Ability: Run Away/ Pastel Veil

Galarian Ponyta have been found in a certain forest of the Galar region since ancient times. It is said that they were exposed to the overflowing life energy of the forest over many generations, and therefore their appearance became unique in this region.

Galarian Ponyta can absorb the life energy of the surrounding atmosphere and store it in its mane. Its mane will become more colorful, and even emit a sparkling glow, if there is an abundance of energy around.

Galarian Ponyta’s Ability, Pastel Veil, is a new Ability introduced in these titles. This Ability prevents the Pokémon and its allies from becoming poisoned. It can even cure the poisoned status condition of its allies when this Pokémon enters the battlefield.