Out of nowhere, the Pokemon Company dropped a bombshell full of Pokemon Sword and Shield news on us.
Dropping only an hour or two ago, the new Pokemon trailer and press release has a ton of information to sort through, starting with Gigantamaxing. This modified version of Dynamaxing changes a Pokemon’s appearance and gives them unique properties and a G-Max Move, combining Mega Evolution and Z-Moves from the last two generations. Only certain members of certain Pokemon species can access these forms, so it seems you’ll need to search for them if you want them. Other members of the species will simply Dynamax normally.
Drednaw and Corviknight can use this ability, alongside the new Cream Pokemon, Alcremie (whose giant cake form looks really sweet). Corroborating this with the now-confirmed leaks from a couple months ago, it seems that Game Freak’s been busier than we realized. It doesn’t excuse some of the hilariously low-effort animations shown in the trailer, but at least their recent statements regarding the difficulty of the National Dex make a little more sense. Other revealed Pokemon are the Puppy Pokemon Yamper (who appeared at E3), the coal Pokemon Rolycoly, and the Alloy Pokemon Duraludon.
More Pokemon League-related characters were revealed, and it was clarified that trainers would have to complete certain tasks to be endorsed by Gym Leaders to join the Gym Challenge and compete in the Champion Cup. You are able to customize the numbers on your Gym Challenge uniform. The League chairman Rose and his assistant Oleana were revealed, alongside two new Gym Leaders: the Fighting-type Bea and the Ghost-Type Allister. These trainers are nice additions to the cast, featuring small details like Bea using Ultra Balls and Allister sporting a glove on his left hand instead of his right (it’s a trope). They also expose a unique feature of Sword and Shield: some Gym Leaders will be different across versions (Bea is in Sword, Allister is in Shield).
Speaking of version differences, as a special bonus for purchasing the Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield Double Pack, Trainers will receive two codes (one per game) that will reward them with Dynamax Crystals. By using the Dynamax Crystals in the Wild Area, you will be able to face Dynamax Larvitar and Dynamax Jangmo-o, Pokemon that are normally encountered later in the game, in special Max Raid Battles. Larvitar won’t appear in Sword and Jangmo-o won’t appear in Shield during normal gameplay, but players will be able to catch them in either version by using these Crystals. Also, if a player downloads the digital version of the games from the Nintendo eShop by January 15th, 2020, they can receive a code that can be redeemed for twelve Quick Balls.
That’s a lot of news, and I haven’t even gone into the various new Abilities that the newcomers are bringing to the table! Even so, we surely haven’t heard the last of Pokemon Sword and Shield before they release this coming November 15th.
