My thoughts on Pokemon Sword and Shield

So I know it's been, what, two years since I posted here? I was all ready to give up on Pokemon...



AND THEN THIS HAPPENED.

Yep, Pokemon is coming to Nintendo new console, the Nintendo Switch, and just recently the Pokemon direct hit(which I missed because I am a late bloomer, thank God for YouTube!) and...

Well, let's just say my last post was very critical about Pokemon Sun and Moon and their Festival Plaza and global missions...
 

They've redeemed themselves in my eyes with Generation 8. ^_^

(I do not own the copied pictures.)

Let's get to the basics. First, what I like about the new stuff Generation 8 brings to the fold:

1. We get another female professor! True, Professor Magnolia looks one foot in the grave, but most of the professors weren't spring chickens either(Rowan and Oak) and the most popular Professor Oak also had a grandkid who was your rival in Blue.
2. Pokemon finally takes a page from Legend of Zelda and goes open world. We saw the demise of HM slaves with Sun and Moon(which will probably remain because of the new Blackwi-- I mean, raven Pokemon being a taxi service now) and now we see the brutal murder of linear routes. Of course, that means speedruns of this game will be VERY short if you can just easily avoid trainers now. (Probably not, but we can dream.) Also, Pokemon becomes a little more realistic with certain Pokemon appearing depending on time of day and weather conditions.
3. Speedruns will probably abuse the next Dynamax(really, Game Freak? Power Rangers much?) mechanic, turning Pokemon into glowing Kaiju. It seems like any Pokemon can gain the power of giga-growth, which means I can't wait to import Bellossom and my Mawile ribbon tuner to see how awesome they look when they go Kaiju. Of course, it's only a temporary thing because I think it would be 
4. Max Raids means interesting things are bound to happen. Four people against a Kaiju makes for some really epic battles. Still... Kaiju Clefable is still stupid-looking. :p One of the things I griped about and predicted in the death of Pokemon was that Nintendo sucks at online networks. They... still do(online is a paid service?!) but at least they learned from Pokemon GO and found a way to make online not be stupid. I'm sure they'll have their own little Festival Plaza but at least it will not require a lot of hits.
5. Gossifleur and its evolved form, Eldegoss, look like pussywillows. I am going to enjoy capturing it and Corviknight, which is fine because Scorbunny will be my starter. I hope its final evolution doesn't look like s***, but then again, Primarina made me mark Poplio over Litten. (Hey, not knocking Inceniroar, I can't wait to see that Kaiju since Smash made giant Incineroar look cool. ;}) Not so much Wooloo.
6. Some of my faves are coming back: Weavile, Clefable(not really), Braviary, etc.
7. It's nice to know how they presented it. We see four new Pokemon, we see one of these Pokemon evolve, we see a new mechanic or two, and we see how the culture of Galar is. Many people were happy Alola decided not to do something like gyms, but are going to hate the new gyms here. Me, I don't mind. I mean, Pokemon gyms are a tradition and the only reason Alola didn't do them is because Game Freak wanted to try something new. Having Ash's adventures in the Orange Islands in Sun/Moon are fine but it's nice to see gyms returns. It looks like, however, that there won't be a maze or anything - gym battles are just you and the gym leader in a really cool live-broadcast match. And it seems like Dynamaxing will be mandatory, so they may introducing the Dynamax concept before the first gym.
8. Another grass-type Gym Leader! Is the Grass type finally going to get some loving support that they desperately need! I mean, come on, Grass only has three offensive strengths and Water trumps two of those. :(
9. In the past I had to spring $80 for both versions. It seems Game Freak looted all of my old receipts because now they have a special bundle - you can pre-order a double bundle that has a copy of both versions! Definitely pre-ordering that. :D

Now what I hate:

1. "Some Pokemon can only be encountered after you defeat them in Max Raid battles." NOOO! Dammit, Game Freak, I thought you were BETTER than forcing me to play multiplayer to get 100%! X( Luckily, we can connect over the Internet but I bet it'll require the new $20 online program. OH NOES! I HAVE TO PAY A JACKSON TO PLAY POKEMON MULTI-PLAYER... FOR A FULL YEAR! (/sarcasm) I'm sorry but mandatory multiplayer sucks for me. I only hope Max Raids are the ONLY multiplayer we have to deal with.
2. We can capture Max Raid Pokemon... but chances are it'll be just like most multiplayer incidents where people steal captures and only one person gets the Pokemon. We don't know how this whole thing works but the Max capture looks really cool.
3. It might be that Dynamaxing will replace all of the old mechanics like Z-Moves and Mega Evolution, which I guess is for the best. Kaiju Pokemon get their moves powered up and do one-shots, do we REALLY need to add Mega Evolution into the mix? Even so, it would be super cool if my Ribbon Meister, YuyaSakaki the Mawile, could Mega Evolve and Dynamax. A giant two-jawed GOD (my Mawile is male) would be a craygasm. ^_^
4. No Dark/Fairy type yet announced. I really want to see one of this dual-type.

And that is about it.

Stuff to debunk:

• The legendaries are wolves - one carries a sword in mouth(figures they'd steal stuff from Bloodborne XD) and another has a mane of fur shaped like a shield. They are allies against some... common enemy we don't see. Yeah, this looks pretty neat.
• No evil team as of yet, but perhaps we can finally get away from that boring trope... NAH. 
• Sorry, looks like Hop, our rival, is going to be one of those "nice" rivals. I know a lot of people hate "nice" rivals, but I'd better that I have a rival who isn't a sore loser than someone like Blue was, a self-arrogant pri**.
• With Pokemon Home, it looks like your Let's Go Pokemon can finally become Kaiju. :)

I am eager to see where this goes. With five months and ten days ahead of us, I am eager for Thanksgiving as ever.