Pokemon Sword and Shield Expectations

I love Pokemon to death. I am a huge Pokemon fan. I tell people "I don't care for gifts but if you will, make sure its Pokemon related". I've been playing the games since the Gameboy Advance and know damn near everything there is to know about Pokemon. So, with the new release in the mainline Pokemon Games, Sword and Shield, I decided, for the first time, to make a list of things that I do and don't want in the game. Sun and Moon were "okay" games but I need Sword and Shield to be much better because as of right now, its not a day 1 cop.



Don't Want 

1. Pokemon that Need "Happiness" to Evolve or Learn Moves"
After playing Pokemon Sun and Moon I honestly could care less about a lot of the in game functions. I thought the game was highly overrated despite trying new things. One aspect of Sun and Moon that I could not stand, was the the fact that you needed a Pokemon's "happiness" to be high in order to learn new moves or to evolve. While this isn't a new feature, it has gotten out of hand. Even with the help of bells, fortune tellers and so on, it took weeks for me to raise my Pokemon's happiness but even then, its still a daunting task to do. Once you beat the story, the post game is catching and evolving Pokemon you hadn't before. Most of that happiness could have been raised in battle but now that there are no more battles, its harder to raise. It got the point where I didn't care about finishing the Pokedex. I'm not saying the feature has to be eliminated, but there needs to be more effective ways of raising happiness.


2. No HMs
People have their opinions of "Lets Go Pikachu/Eevee" but I thought it was a cute and fun game. It took elements of mainline Pokemon games and Niantic's Go to make a cool casual game. One of my favorite aspects of Lets Go, is that there were no HMs. If you didn't play GO, HMs were taken out and those moves were replaced with moves called "Special Techniques". Only the starter Pokemon, Pikachu or Eevee, could learn them, and they didn't take up a move slot. Doesn't that sound great? The hassle of having to always keep a Pokemon with an HM on them and having to decide what move to delete to make room is gone. I get Lets Go was as for casual and made to be easy but that was a great feature. The mainline games can still be challenging and strategic without HMs.


3. Too Many Pokemon
I know this sounds weird, but hear me out. We are in Generation 8 of Pokemon. Pokemon has been out for the last 23 years. We do not have to catch them all any more. With function such as Pokemon Bank, its easy to keep track of all your Pokemon from across Gens but what's the point? Are you going to run the Elite 4 74 times but with different teams? Finishing the National Dex just becomes a chore. And on top of all of this, like in Sun and Moon, some ares have way too many Pokemon species. If an are is overpopulated, some of those Pokemon have to be rare finds. In Sun and Moon, some Pokemon were so rare (Bruxish), that I never caught them. I got pissed and moved on. There is no reason to have so many saturated areas.


Wants

1. Two Eeveelutions
We get an Eeveelution only on the even numbered Gens. There are currently 8 eeveelutions and 18 Pokemon types. I'm 22, I'm not trying to wait till I'm 42 to experience all 18 types of Eevee. We're gong to the Galar region and its looking pretty industrial so why not introduce a Fighting type and a Steel type. There aren't many pure Steel or Fighting types so this is a double plus. It doesn't have to be these types but I really want to Eeveelutions instead of one this Gen.


2. Less Gen 1 Pokemon
I pretty much love all Pokemon, but I'm tired of Gen 1 Pokemon. Besides trading and transferring, they are in every game. They are half the roster for the regular Pokedex in each game. We are on Gen 8, we don't need so many Pokemon from Gen 1. Switch it up a bit and use Pokemon from the other 6 Gens. Instead of Zubat, Machop, and Tentacool, replace them with Woobat, Hitmontop, and Spheal. Stop being lazy and switch things up. Gen 1, because Pokemon is a powerhouse, will not be forgotten anytime soon.


3. More Region Variant Pokemon
I loved type variants for Pokemon we've known for years. It was one of my favorite aspects of Sun and Moon. Why not keep that going? How about we get variants of Gen 2 Pokemon.What if Gligar was a dark type, Phanpy a grass type or Hondour a water type? Wouldn't that be cool as hell? I thought Region variance was a cool new feature so hopefully GameFreak keeps it going as not only is it fun, but it adds to the lore of and biology of Pokemon.


4. More "Pure" type Pokemom
 It's no secret that all 18 of the Pokemon Types aren't used effectively. Fire, Grass, and Water will always have new Pokemon but Bug, Steel, and Dark type continue to pull craps from the Game Freak floor. There are only 12 Pure type Dark type Pokemon. Over the course of 23 years, only 12 pure type Dark Pokemon have been created. That's a shame.


5. A Great Story
Pokemon has always had some decent stories with Sun and Moon arguably having the best one. I never have to worry about the story but I do wish things got even spicier. Maybe there are more stakes at risk besides the world maybe being changed by and evil organization trying to resurrect a legendary Pokemon. We've done that 7 times already. Hopefully its not the same this time but we haven't gotten much info on the game.


6. Two Rivals
I want two Rivals this Gen. Make use of that third starter that just stays in the Professor's lab the entire game. I want to battle and team up with two hometown peers instead of one. Which brings us to my next and final "Want".


7. Innovative gym battles
With two rivals, maybe there's a gym with 3 Leaders that you have to face all at the same time. You have to use teamwork in order to beat them. Or, to be more challenging, what if you had to use a certain type of Pokemon to face a gym. For instance, the Gym is Psychic type but you have to use Fighting type Pokemon in order to enter and challenge the gym. Something like that would not only force you into catching a strong Fighting type, but it would lead the developers into making more pure type Pokemon.

After making this list I realized not all of these feature will be in Sword and Shield but maybe in the future of Pokemon. I do hope that we get two Eeveelutions this Gen. I pray every night that this happens.

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