Pokémon Sword and Shield

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The beginning of eighth generation of Pokémon games, released worldwide on November 15, 2019.

Taking place in the Galar region, roughly based on the United Kingdom (especially Scotland). In terms of design, it is more similar to Pokémon X and Y, leading some to assume that there is a connection between the two games.

More controversially, it was revealed in June 2019 that some Pokémon from older games will not be present in the new games. A full list of Pokémon that were removed can be found here. There is also a new feature called 'Dynamax' which enables a given Pokémon to increase greatly in size and power, but only in a certain area, and Mega Evolution and Z-Moves are not in Sword and Shield. For these reasons, the opinion of fans on the game is mixed.

In January 2020 the announcement was made that DLC 'Expansion Pass' will be released for the game in two parts: The first is called Isle of Armor and the second is called Crown Tundra, and include new Pokémon, characters and areas.

  • The Isle of Armor takes place on a small island with a dojo, and offers a number of quality of life mechanics and a side story accessible from the early game on.
  • The Crown Tundra offers its own story, and features its own gameplay mechanics with a focus on tracking down legendary Pokémon. It also included Dynamax Adventures, and was generally meant as late game or post game content.

Despite rumors of a Pokémon Gun, no third version was released.

In Generation 8 it was immediately followed by the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl remakes. Following those was as by the side game Pokémon Legends: Arceus, which built considerably on the open world mechanics established here. The next generation was introduced by Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Tropes used in Pokémon Sword and Shield include:
  • Alas, Poor Villain: It's easy to feel sorry for Bede after you defeat him at Stow-on-Side; sure, vandalizing a historical monument wasn't the best idea he had, but seeing Chairman Rose disown him, retract his endorsement, and disqualify him from the League, all in public seemed a little harsh. It gets even worse a few seconds later when Sophia tells you Bede's past, how he was an orphan whose literally owes Rose his life. To make it worse, the whole reason he destroys the mural is to please Rose by finding Wishing Stars.
  • Anime Hair: To varying degrees with some characters. Exaggerated with Swordbert and Shielbert
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Gigantamax, a form of Dynamaxing, which make some pokemon to become insanely huge (as much as 98ft).
  • Character Customization: The Male and Female player avatar's clothes and hair can be customizable.
    • Poketrainers can make their own League Cards, which can be traded and given out across the region.
  • Cool Old Lady: Opal, the Ballonlea Gym Leader.
  • Creepy Child: Allister, the Galar Ghost-type Gym Leader.
  • David Versus Goliath: This can happen when a poketrainer encounters a Dynamaxed wild pokemon.
  • Ditzy Genius: You get the bicycle from a scientist who invented a Rotom-compatible bike before he realized he didn't have a Rotom; since you have a Rotom-haunted mobile, he gives you the bike so it isn't wasted. Later, you meet him again and he upgrades it, enabling it to be ridden across water.
  • Downloadable Content: In a first for the mainline Pokémon series, Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra serve as DLCs for Pokémon Sword and Shield that feature additional locations with Pokémon not present in the base game as well as those that made their debut in the DLCs, such as the Kubfu line and Galarian forms for the Slowpoke line.
  • Eldritch Location: The Wild Areas. It can be snowing in the section that borders the section with harsh sunlight - at night. The weather her is downright screwy.
  • Enemy Mine: Team Yell gives the player trouble for most of the story, but help against the main antagonists flunkies by cheering your Pokemon on; this actually increases their stats a little.
  • Everything's Better with Monkeys: Pokemons, like Grookey.
  • Excalibur in the Rust: The player and Hop find the Rusted Sword and Rusted Shield at the Slumbering Weald; these items are actually the dormant forms of Zamazenta and Zacian.
  • Expy: The camping mode is similar to Pokemon Amie.
  • Fictional Currency: Pokécoins
  • Fictional Sport: While the Pokemon League has always been a competition between trainers, it's clearly treated as a sport in Galar. Gyms are more like arenas (with spectators), trainers wear jerseys, Gym challenges are more athletic, and the Gym Leaders and Champion even have sponsors! The villainous Team (well, if you can call them that) are more like a group of Football Hooligans who throw their support behind Marnie. Much to her chagrin.
  • Food Porn: The Curry on Rice dish that gamers are encourage to make.
  • Game Breaking Bugs: After the game's launch, some players reported that SwSh deletes the save files of other games, this occurs because of the Switch's exfat driver. It constantly changes the folders and files, even when on reads and doesn't sync properly. Also, concerning exFat does not have a second FAT.[1]
  • Haunted Technology: Rotom makes a comeback and decides that he will haunt Poketrainer's trusty cellular phone. Rotom also haunt the Pokemon Center storage devices, and the bike you get is a special design that is compatible with the Rotom in your mobile.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: The first time the player and his Rival run into Zacian or Zamazenta (depending on the version) their inexperienced Starter Pokemon can't even touch it, let alone fight it. After trying for about three turns, the Legendary seems to just swat the two trainers aside, leaving you and Hop to get a scolding from Leon.
  • In-Universe Game Clock: Akin to the previous Pokemon game installments, depending on the time of day, weathers, will effect the "little things" unnoticeable to gamers, like what type of Pokemon will appear, what typing they will have, and such.
  • Killer App: It's a Pokemon game and one of the reasons to buy that dem Switches and Switch Lites.
  • The Lost Woods: Right next to Postwick (the protagonist's hometown) is the Slumbering Weald, a place said protagonist and Hop have always been warned never to go into. At the beginning of the game they have to do so anyway to track down a lost Wooloo, only to come face to face with the game's Legendary Pokemon! After that, it's a good idea to avoid the place for awhile...
  • Make My Monster Grow: Pretty much the whole point of Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing.
  • Mon Machine: The Dynamax Band which allows a Trainer to Dynamax their Pokemon and be able to use Max Moves. A Dynamax Band needs a Wishing Star to absorb energy for a Pokemon to Dynamax.
  • Nerf:
    • Several moves have been rendered unusable in Sword and Shield, notably Return/Frustration, Hidden Power, and Pursuit, which have been widely used in competitive play or in-game.
    • Figy, Iapapa, Wiki, Aguav, and Mago Berry go from restoring 50% of the holder's Max HP to 33% from Generation 8 onward.
    • The power boost provided by Electric, Grassy, and Psychic Terrain has been reduced from 50% to 30%. Misty Terrain remains unchanged.
    • Aegislash has its base Defense and Sp. Defense stat (and by extension, its Attack and Sp. Attack in Blade Forme) reduced to 140 in Sword and Shield. Its Secret Art, King's Shield has been hit by a nerf as well, going from reducing Attack by 2 stages if it makes contact to only 1 stage.
    • Mimikyu now loses 1/8 of its maximum HP once its Disguise is broken, making it more difficult to take advantage of Focus Sash to ensure it takes 3 hits to be KO at minimum.
  • Nice Hat: As per Pokémon tradition, the player protagonists all wear hats.
  • No Export for You: An in universe example, Dynamaxing (and by extension, Gigantamax) is a phenomenon that's only exclusive to Pokemons found in the Galar region.
    • Preordering the game from Walmart or Amazon will give gamers a special skin for the Pokémon trainers.
      • Those that pre-order the double pack from GameStop will receive a double-sided wall banner.
  • No Sense of Direction: A problem Leon has; every time he shows up, he or someone else will mention how terrible he is with directions.
  • Obvious Rule Patch:
    • Several abilities such as Inner Focus and Own Tempo have been buffed to block Intimidate.
    • Max Knuckles and Max Ooze have reduced power when compared to other Max Moves as they can increase the user's side Attack and Sp. Attack, respectively. Dynamax also immediately removes the user's Substitute to prevent them from soaking hits or blocking status moves with it.
    • Notably, Zacian, Zamazenta, and Eternatus are unable to Dynamax. Other Legendary Pokémon don't have the same Dynamax restrictions as the aforementioned Pokémon.
    • Isle of Armor features move tutors that teach Pokémon moves not present in the base game. Aegislash, Mimikyu, and Dragapult are unable to learn Poltergeist as they are some of the most used Pokémon in competitive play throughout their history. Similarly, the Guardian deities cannot learn the terrain moves (Rising Voltage, Expanding Force, Misty Explosion, and Grassy Glide) from the move tutor, as they would have wreaked havoc with their surge abilities immediately summoning their respective terrain.
  • Old Save Bonus: A new feature with SwSh is that if one played Pokémon Let's Go: Pikachu and Pokémon Let's Go: Eevee and Pokémon Quest, the game data will unlock a fancy backgrounds and frames for the gamer's League Card and a special Pikachu or Eevee that can Gigantamax.
  • Pop Star Composer: Toby Fox composed a track.
  • Precious Puppies: Yamper
  • Ridiculously Cute Critters: The starter pokemons: Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble.
    • And some of the Galar pokemon.
    • And Wooloo. It already had many fans just a day after the trailer that revealed it.
  • The Rival: You've got three in this game, and each is a different type as far as rivalry goes:
    • Hop is the friendly rival that the protagonist has known since childhood, energetic and exuberant almost to a fault.
    • Bede is the far-darker rival, a protege to the main antagonist, making him a Privileged Rival and a complete jerk.
    • Marnie is the middle-ground. She holds no real animosity towards the protagonist, but has a competitive streak of sorts that causes her to see any opponent as an obstacle that has to be crushed.
  • Rivals Team Up: In real life, gamers can connect online just to take down a wild Gigantamax pokemon. Also, in-game, both Hop and Marnie aid the player against the villains, Hop doing so again in the post-game story.
  • Scenery Porn: The background vistas of many locations are often quite scenic, with a common complaint being that players wanted to experience more of the interesting places showcased in the game.
    • Ballonlea is a picturesque fairy themed village in the woods.
    • The ancient monuments in Turffield.
    • Motostoke is one of the more visually distinct cities in the series, featuring a variety of exposed machinery nestled amongst heavy use of masonry.
    • Hammerlocke is effectively a giant castle city, with of the castle dominating the skyline even in the adjacent wild area.
  • Shorts Over Leggings
  • Sissy Villain: Bede; pink overcoat that resembles a dress, large blue eyes with long lashes... A lot of fans have actually gotten his gender wrong, possibly because the first time anyone refers to him with a pronoun occurs after you've beaten the fifth Gym.
  • Socialization Bonus: While camping, one can socialize with other real life trainers and their pokemon.
    • A team of real life Poketrainers are needed to capture a single dynamaxed wild pokemon.
    • Subverted that one can do this with a team of NPCs.
  • Super Mode: Dynamax makes the Pokémon gigantic for 3 turns, as well as multiplying its HP and converting its moves into Max Moves with powerful effects for the duration of it. Unlike Mega Evolution and Z-moves before it, which only required a specific held item, Pokémon can only undergo Dynamax in specific locations, such as stadiums or dens. This restriction is removed in multiplayer battles.
  • Supreme Chef: The player can become this eventually, the curry you make at campsites able to not only heal your Pokemon, but increase their XP and make them friendlier towards you.
  • There Are No Tents: Averted. One can set up a tent and camp in the Galar wilderness, play with their team, and eat. It's even encouraged to meet other trainers whilst resting.
  • Up To Eleven: Normally, Eternatus has a base stat total of 690, which is a respectable total even for Legendary Pokémon. (About 10 points higher than Mewtwo or Zekrom.) It has incredible base HP, Sp. Attack, and Speed (140, 145, and 130, respectively), and the other stats are solid too, its lowest being ATK (which a Pokemon with its moveset likely won't use much anyway). However, when it assumes Eternamax form during the story, those stats go through the roof, with a base stat total of 1,125! Its HP, Defense and Sp.Defense become at least 250, while its Sp.Attack become 125. This gives it, without a doubt, the highest base stat total for any Pokemon in the history of the franchise! Sadly, there is no way for a tamed Eternatus to assume this form, the player can only use its regular form after catching it.
  • Video Game Caring Potential: Pokemon Camp, which is similar to Amie and Refresh, in this mode, the gamer can interact, play, and even feed their Mons.
  • Virtual Paper Doll: Poketrainer customizable clothes and hairstyles ahoy.
  • Xanatos Gambit: Bede tries something like this as the Championship Semi-Finals start, storming into the stadium (now wearing his Gym-Leader attire) and demanding a battle with the player. While he technically has no right to do so, having been disqualified earlier, he offers the player a wager: if he wins, he gets to take the player's place in the Champion Cup; if he loses, he'll retire as a trainer. Bede sees this as win-win for him, because if he loses, he can use this as an excuse to get away from Opal; he's not very happy as her protege, a situation he describes as Training from Hell. Unfortunately, it doesn't work quite as he planned; despite losing, he puts on such a spectacular show that the crowd doesn't want him to retire, and their support makes him feel obligated to continue.
  • Zettai Ryouiki
  1. ↑ UPDATE: Pokemon Sword and Shield Triggers Switch exFAT Driver Bug
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