Pokemon Sword & Shield arrives November

Pokemon Sword & Shield arrives November

News from the Pokemon Direct

During today’s Pokemon Direct, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company revealed some crucial new details about the upcoming highly-anticipated games Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield.

In the game, which takes place in the new Galar region, humans and pokemon work together (like in Detective Pikachu’s Ryme City). However, the game’s open world includes a special wild area where the friendship isn’t so… equal.

The new game will bring stadium battles in place of just gyms. These stadiums are massive, and require the space for the new Dynamax pokemon that the game(s) will be debuting. Several new pokemon have been introduced, including the sheep like Wooloo, the flowering Gossifleur (which evolves into Eldegoss, a healing pokemon), the monstrous biting tortoise Drednaw, and the armored bird Corviknight, which will also serve as a sort of fast travel taxi system allowing players to “fly” back to places they’ve already visited in the game.

Also revealed are two of the game’s legendary pokemon: the shieldbearing Zacian and the sword-wielding Zamazenta. Both of these are wolf-based creatures, so we know the Starks would be proud. Long live King Bran.

New characters have been announced as well: the brash Leon, the little brother Hop, Professor Magnolia and her niece Sonya. These folks will be pivotal to players’ adventures in the game.

Finally, the game has a worldwide release date: November 15. Both games will be available separately or together in a bundle, depending on which (or both?) legendary the player prefers to take on.

Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield are exclusive to Nintendo Switch.