Forums » Smalltalk » Pokemon generation eight

Nintendo Direct announced generation eight of the series this morning. The games are going to be called Sword and Shield and take place in the Galar region.

(Gameplay trailer)

I'm twenty-one entire years old and still excited. Pokemon came out the year before I was born. I got into it a couple generations late with my cousin's hand-me-down Gameboy Color and caught up from there. Can't afford it now that the games are moving to the Switch, but the franchise has been an unequivocally positive and entertaining part of my life, and for others I'm sure it still is, so I'm glad to hear the news nonetheless!

My dumb nostalgia aside, which starter (of the new ones but also in general) is your favourite? I'm partial to the crybaby newt-lizard.

I never got to play the games as a kid, but I was positively Obsessed with the tv series (weeb from the womb, apparently), and had an enormous amount of official and bootleg toys of pokemon growing up. I play the GB titles in emulator every now and then when I can.

As for my fave starter, it's either Chikorita or Charmander: I loved both theirs stories at the tv show, and I'm an absolute sucker for fire tipes adsdaf.

I’m genuinely excited about it, especially about how much influence there might be from the UK.
And it is hard keeping up with the games, right? I can’t afford or have the time for every main entry and every console. I’ve got Pokemon Sun but I hardly touch it and it lags on my 2DS.

I love all the Gen 3 starters equally because they have strong designs. I’m old enough to have been around the Advanced generation, I had Pokemon Ranger and Blue Rescue Team on the original DS before I got finally got Pokemon Diamond when I was 9 or 10? You know what, I’ll list all of them from every generation:

I: I would’ve picked Charmander or Squirtle
II: Tododile
III: They’re all too good, but Treeko’s line wins by a hair
IV: I chose Turtwig but Piplup’s line has the coolest design
V: Snivy, Serperior is best snek
VI: I would’ve picked Fennekin or Froakie
VII: For some reason, I picked Popplio over the grass owl even though I love birds and think most grass starters are solid choices.

If there was one thing I’d wish for, it’s either one big Pokemon game with the best of everything in it (because I’m tired of every gen fragmenting fans over gameplay features/platform) or a new Mystery Dungeon game with sprite art.

lmao god please show me your bootlegs if you have any pictures of them. Every time I see eyes painted on but a little to the left it extends my life by three years. Also, Chikorita is a bean-shaped friend.

I do miss the Mystery Dungeon sprite art. It was really charming (at least the music's still good.)

It'd definitely be cool to have some sort of all-encompassing game, though. As a kid I was psyched enough when I figured out some games had a secondary region in them. Can't imagine eight.

Yeah, nothing like good music to add to the experience. Speaking of emulators, I’m tempted to try some of the fan games out there, maybe one of the GB ones to see how they can push 8 bits to the limit.

When I was younger, ironically I was really into Pokemon stuff with a dark twist because Gen 1 had that sci-fi vibe with all the genetic experiments around Mew and fossil Pokemon. I remember getting into the sprite art too and making up hybrids by taking, say, a Charizard and a Venusaur sprite to edit them together.

I hope the best for Sword and Shield but they really need to ditch the hand holding tutorials if they haven’t already, I don’t think I ever needed to be told how to navigate to the bag to use a Pokeball for the first time when I was a kid - the UI should already make those things clear by design.

I’m incredibly stoked for Sword and Shield, the trailer looks gorgeous and I’m very, very happy to see that gyms will be returning.

I really hope though, that they don’t lead you by the hand to the same extent as Sun and Moon. I get that young players would find it tricky to know hundreds of different match ups, but having it in the battle menu removes all forms of strategy from the game (and I like the challenge). So I’d like to see that at least being something you can toggle off in the menu.

Out of the starters, the water starter is my favourite! Though that could change with the evolutions. Overall though, I can’t wait for more news; I’ve played through each gen pretty much as they were released! So I’ll likely do the same here, as long as I can afford it.

Ooooh, that looks exciting!
I've been thinking about getting a Switch after I'm done with my thesis, because I've heard a lot of good things. I guess Pokemon generation eight forces my hand, then.

Thank goodness I'm starting a job with a better salary soon...

I am as excited as I am weirder out by the new starters, they remind me of happy tree friends for some reason, but I guess this is just the initial impact of something new. The generation before this, where there was that seal Pokemon who was really weird but turned into a beautiful mermaid taught me to wait before judging. I really really hope that bunny is a fire+fighting type, memetic but a good combination nonetheless.

I'm actually crossing my fingers for a fire/electric combination!! In Japanese, it's name is Hibani and 'hibana' means spark. It would make for something different since we've already got 3 fire starters that evolve to include fighting.

@EarlyGrey
Oooh I didn't know that, it would be an unique combination indeed! Isn't Rotom the only one right now that is fire+eletric?

Yup that's right, Heat Rotom is an electric/fire type. But then fire is it's secondary type. We don't have a fire/electric type yet where fire is the primary type, so that would be pretty neat!

I'm so excited for Gen 8, I can hardly wait for more news even though it was just announced yesterday! My childhood best friend got me into Pokémon when the Sinnoh games had just come out, and I've played every main series game, two Pokémon Ranger games, and all the Mystery Dungeon games except Gates to Infinity and the Wii (or was it Wii U?) exclusives since then. As much as I love the Alola games' 3D free roaming, I do kind of miss the sprite era, because I had a lot of fun animating Pokémon sprites and fusing sprites into new Fakémon as a kid. You can't really do that with the 3D models, or at least not so easily that a kid with no training and MS Paint can do it.

As far as the new starters go, I'm torn between Grookey and Sobble. On the one hand, Sobble is a water lizard with anxiety, and I'm all about that. But on the other... Grookey. I'm a Grass-type starter sort of person anyway, and Grookey has such a dorky name and look that I can't help but love it. I'm probably gonna wait until their evolutions and type combos are released to decide for sure, but I'm definitely in the Sobble Protection Squad regardless of who I end up choosing. Scorbunny I'm not too into, because I can smell the fandom gearing up to give it the same treatment as Lopunny...but that's probably not a subject for casual discussion. And I desperately hope we won't get another freaking Fire/Fighting starter. I'm sick and tired of Fire/Fighting. Give us more unique starter type combos, gosh darn it! (I feel like an old-timer with all these child-friendly swears, but I don't want to foul up the forums, haha.)
/rant

My other favorite starters are Bulbasaur, Cyndaquil and Totodile, Treecko and Mudkip, Turtwig (it was my first ever Pokémon), Snivy, Fenerox, and Rowlet. Primarina I like, but I'm not as fond of Brionne and Popplio's designs, so I'm leaving poor Popplio off the list. My favorite regions are Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Alola. (Sinnoh remakes when???)

I don't really enjoy the designs of the new starters, honestly? I might end up going with the monkey because.... Monkey. Probably staying away from the rabbit for now, because... I don't really like its design at all.

Sobble is solid though, but I'm anticipating a dull chain from him.