Pokémon triumphs wherever it goes. More than 20 years after Nintendo launched the first title of the series on the market, the franchise of little creatures and turn-based fighting continues to arouse passions and shake up the world of video games as if a Tauros rammed a Sudowoodo . Knowing the commotion it generates, Nintendo and Game Freak have advanced some details of their new titles: Pokémon Shield and Pokémon Sword .
The big news
This new installment will arrive on November 15, 2019 on Nintendo Switch , Nintendo’s current desktop console. The usual thing, due in part to the type of graphics they had, was that the Pokémon games were intended for portable consoles but this will be the first classic installment that we find on a desktop . This opens up quite a few interesting opportunities for titles.
One of the first points that anyone would highlight when seeing the advance of Sword and Shield is the graphic section. Although the Pokémon games have been improving that aspect as the deliveries followed and went from pixels to smoothed textures and from there to a first 3D, the following games take advantage of the power of Nintendo Switch and give it a visual quality that had been appreciated in other games for years. In addition, and it seems like a very well made decision, Pokémon Sword and Shield have a manga roll style reminiscent of the television series so this particular novelty is easily assimilated.
But more than the characters, it is worth looking at the environment. The new region that we will visit is called Galar and we can explore it as if it were an open world of any RPG , with a beautiful design that promises to be enjoyed by the simple fact of traveling it and the freedom to orient and move the camera as we want. From the little that has been seen of the map and the occasional image it seems that we will also be able to interact much more with the environment ; from having to adapt to the weather conditions to being able to immerse ourselves in huge cities more lively than what we had seen so far.
The Dynamax mode and the new generation
The big news, at least from what has been shown so far, is the Dynamax combat . If Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon included special attacks that we could only use once per combat called ‘Z movements’, in the last two installments we will have the possibility of turning our Pokémon into a giant and much more powerful version for a limited time . This new element will make the fights much more spectacular, but will it make a real difference or a simple facelift?
In relation to this Dynamax mode, it has been anticipated that there will be a cooperative game option to capture Dynamax pokémons , as if they were hunting games a la Monster Hunter . Players will be able to connect locally or via the Internet with people from all over the world to fight Pokémon that do not lose their Dynamax status and that have unique attacks .
The last detail that fans always want to know with new Pokémon games is which creatures will make up the next generation . Those 150 pokémons from the first video game were long left behind and the creators have demonstrated above-average imagination and improvisation capacity, but there have been cases in which the design of some pokémons not only hit, but also showed that all ideas had been squeezed out . Pokémon Shield and Pokémon Sword seem to return to designs based on magical animals and creatures, which we consider a success.
Starting Pokémon and other great classics
But Pokémon would not be Pokémon without a series of elements that it seems that fans have to recognize yes or yes . Among them are the three initial options (fire, plant and water), turn-based combat, tall grass, gyms and the final championship, the pokédex that must be completed, the teacher who guides you in the first steps , the rival on duty and the champion to beat to fulfill the main mission of the game. The striking thing is that in the advance no mention has been made of any Team Rocket type criminal society that we will have to face. Is it possible that a Pokémon game could exist without its Jessie and James?
There are also the two legendary Pokémon (Zacian and Zamacenta) , which this time are wolves that fulfill their promise by carrying a sword and a shield respectively. In a cinematic trailer that has been shown, it is implied, for a brief moment, that there is a threat capable of facing both legendaries so it may be that there is a third and powerful pokémon to face .
Summarizing…
We have not yet been able to test it in depth and it seems ugly to rant about a video game that has not even been released . Even with this, based on our experience with previous titles of the franchise and on the little that Nintendo and Freak Games have shown, Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield will be another installment of a saga that got too close to the sun and has long since burned the wings .
True, each new title that comes out sells millions of copies and is still a real gold mine for Nintendo but it is likely that the success is due more to a kind of tradition that has been formed around video games. The mechanics have been practically intact since 1996 and the novelties that are included in each edition are mere aesthetic additions or features that had been incorporated into other video games years ago.
Let’s grant the gift of doubt to Nintendo and Freak Games , but everything indicates that it will be the same old Stacy Malibu with a new hat .
