Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield will be the first pair of main Pokemon games to grace the Nintendo Switch. The brief Pokemon Direct revealed a sparkling new variety of areas in Galar, the newest region for players to explore in the Pokemon world. The trailer briefly shows off a wide range of locales within Galar, including towns, sparkling caves, and beautiful green landscapes.
Like Pokemon games before it, Sword and Shield contain a trio of new Pokemon starters for the player to choose from. They include the chimp Pokemon Grookey, rabbit Pokemon Scorbunny, and water lizard Pokemon Sobble. The trio were provided with their own special cinematic introduction, while not much was shown of their actual combat ability in a traditional Pokemon fight. Of course, these are hardly the only new Pokemon that will make an appearance in the region, and players can expect many more to show up for the first time in the two games, likely including quite a few that are limited to either Pokemon Sword or Shield, as is the norm for the franchise.
Overall, Pokemon Sword and Shield looks to have an additional layer of polish on it over Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee, appropriate for a main series entry. Notably, it appears that Pokemon don’t follow the trainer on the world map this time around, though the game footage shown came with the disclaimer that it was still in-development, so that may or may not change. Unfortunately, the developer didn’t provide an exact release date, but the game is still on-schedule for a release sometime this year.
There’s plenty for Pokemon fans to look forward to this year. Between the release of the first main franchise entries to the series on the Switch, Detective Pikachu, and the promise of more to do with the Pokemon series coming from the developers themselves during the Pokemon Direct presentation, fans will definitely get plenty of hours in the Pokemon world in 2019.
Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield will release exclusively for the Nintendo Switch in 2019.
