A Prediction, Hope, and Dream for Pokémon Sword and Shield

Come tomorrow, Pokémon Sword and Shield will get a blowout of information in a dedicated Direct. We'll finally know more about the game, with reveals like early Pokémon, the main legendaries, and the professor all likely. It is also possible for us to get information on how this game will be mechanically different, which is an even more exciting prospect. With that in mind, I would like to use a form of wish list I came up with: the PHD method, which consists of a prediction, something that you can claim will happen with reasoning to back it up, a hope, something which seems feasible but not something which you can back up, and a dream, something that will not happen but would be cool. Perhaps it is best showcased by putting it into practice.

My prediction is a bold one, but I have the reasoning to back it up. Many of the Switch's greatest games draw from the past and make it new for the future, like how Breath of the Wild draws from the original exploration-heavy Zelda games, Mario Odyssey returns to the sandbox style of Mario 64 and Sunshine, and Smash Ultimate's "Everyone is here!" tagline. Perhaps Pokémon could be similar, but aside from the Let's Go games, core mechanics that could be drawn from are rarely removed. However, Pokémon is not a traditional JRPG, so perhaps it could use a staple of that genre? A nigh universal trope of the genre is how the entire party battles opponents at once, something Pokémon has never really done, so what about that? The entire party would be sent out at once to battle either a small handful of supercharged Pokémon or a similarly large party of comparable Pokémon; this would likely be dubbed the party battle. Something like this could be integrated organically into the game more often than previous battle styles, particularly when fighting the evil team of the game. What evidence do I have to support this? For one, this is a mechanic only made possible on the Switch, since the 3DS struggled to render a large amount of Pokémon at once in previous games, though this is a minor point. A perhaps more convincing is that mechanics like what I have described have been implemented into previous generations: X and Y introduced hoard battles, where one of your Pokémon fights five foes at once, and Sun and Moon had Totem Pokémon, which were powered-up Pokémon designed specifically for boss fights. These two mechanics match the types of opponents that I previously mentioned, large groups of enemies and supercharged bosses, which could suggest that the developers have been planning a mechanic like this for a while. Another point is that recent seasons of the Pokémon anime feature the cast battling like this, which is to say using the entire party at once, in high-stakes situations, like X Y and Z's confrontations with Team Flare or Sun and Moon's dealings with Ultra Beasts. This could also suggest that the creative team has been toying around with this idea (especially considering how they've done this before with how double battles, which were introduced in generation 3, appeared in one of Ash's earliest confrontations with Team Rocket not five episodes into the original season).

Crazy theories aside, my hope is a simple one that many can get behind: a Battle Frontier. For those who are uninformed, some Pokémon games, namely those in generations 3 and 4, have a hub of battle facilities, each with unique mechanics, called the Battle Frontier. From generation 5 onwards, the Battle Facilities have not been nearly as interesting, with them almost exclusively having some facility which plays using the rules for online battles. Naturally, seeing the Battle Frontier make a comeback is something that many fans, myself included, want to see. The Galar region's British inspirations would naturally lend themselves to bringing the mechanic back in a postgame area, since you could easily base such an area off of Ireland.

Finally, my dream is of a mechanic that I have seen before, but is wildly unlikely to appear in a Pokémon game anytime soon. The somewhat recent Middle Earth games have a "nemesis" system, where enemies encountered throughout the game can acknowledge previous interactions and play into them. You could see how such a system could play into a Pokémon game, with ordinary trainers becoming "rivals" on their own journeys, which discuss previous battles with you as you cross paths multiple times on your adventure. Their teams would naturally grow along with yours, their names might appear on gym entrances, and you could encounter them wherever they are in their journey, giving a heightened sense that this Pokémon world is one that goes beyond the player character.

At the end of the day, I doubt that these wishes will be revealed in tomorrow's direct, if they happen at all. However, it never hurts to let your desires be wild dreams, so long as your expectations remain grounded in reality. I trust that Sword and Shield will be a worthy first generation to boast the power of a console, and I can hardly wait to see what new discoveries await in the Galar region.