Pokémon Sword and Shield facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
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| Developer(s) | Game Freak |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Director(s) | Shigeru Ohmtar |
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| Artist(s) |
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| Writer(s) | Toshinobu Matsumiya |
| Composer(s) |
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| Series | Pokémon |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo Switch |
| Release date(s) | November 15, 2019 |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield are exciting adventure games where you play a character, made by Game Freak. The Pokémon Company and Nintendo released them for the Nintendo Switch in 2019. These games are the first main adventures in the eighth generation of the Pokémon video game series. They are also the second Pokémon games to be released on a home game console.
Pokémon Sword and Shield were first hinted at in 2017 and officially announced in February 2019. They came out in November 2019. Later, two big DLC expansion packs were released: The Isle of Armor in June 2020 and The Crown Tundra in October 2020. You could also buy a special version in November 2020 that included both the main games and the expansion packs.
The idea for Sword and Shield started right after Pokémon Sun and Moon were finished in 2016. The full game production began in September 2017. Just like other Pokémon games, you play as a young Pokémon trainer. Your goal is to become the Pokémon Champion in the new Galar region, which looks a lot like the United Kingdom. You'll try to defeat the current Champion, Leon, in a big tournament. Along the way, you'll meet rivals, battle against Team Yell, and uncover a secret plot.
Sword and Shield added many new things. There are 81 brand-new Pokémon and 13 special "Galarian Forms" of older Pokémon. They also introduced Dynamaxing, which makes Pokémon huge in battles, and Gigantamaxing, which not only makes them big but also changes their look. The games also have the Wild Area, a large open space where you can explore freely and join co-op raid battles with other players. Some features from older games, like regional forms and Pokémon walking around in the world, also returned.
When it was announced that not all old Pokémon would be in Sword and Shield, some fans were upset. This led to a discussion called "Dexit" and some people even called for a boycott. However, the games still got mostly good reviews from critics. People liked the new Pokémon designs, the new features, and how simple and free the game felt. Some critics wished there were more Pokémon and thought the game could have been more detailed. By March 2021, Sword and Shield had sold over 21 million copies worldwide. They became one of the fastest-selling games on the Nintendo Switch and are now among the top five best-selling games on the console.
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Gameplay in Galar
Pokémon Sword and Shield are adventure games where you play a character. You usually see the game from a fixed, third-person view. Sometimes, you can move the camera freely to look around. You control a young trainer who travels to catch and train creatures called Pokémon. You also battle against other trainers. When your Pokémon win battles, they gain experience. This helps them level up, become stronger, learn new moves, and sometimes evolve into more powerful forms.
You can catch wild Pokémon by weakening them in battle and then throwing Poké Balls. Once caught, they can join your team. You can also battle and trade Pokémon with other players using the Nintendo Switch's online features. Like in past games, some Pokémon are only found in Sword and others only in Shield. This encourages players to trade with friends to collect them all.
The games take place in the Galar region, which is inspired by the United Kingdom. Galar has many cities and towns connected by "Routes." There's also a new open world area in the middle called the "Wild Area." In tall grass or water, you might have random encounters with wild Pokémon. You can also see wild Pokémon walking around in the environment. They might chase you or run away, depending on the Pokémon. You'll often battle other Trainers in cities, towns, and the Wild Area.
Your main goal in Galar is to take part in the "Gym Challenge." This is a big tournament to find the best Pokémon Trainer in the region, called the Champion. Eight cities and towns have "Gym Leaders." These are strong Trainers who specialize in certain types of Pokémon. When you beat a Gym Leader, you get a "Badge." After collecting eight Badges, you can enter the "Champion Cup." Here, you'll battle the Gym Leaders and other Trainers again in a tournament. If you win, you'll face the Champion of the Galar region!
New Features to Explore
The games bring exciting new ways to play. You can join cooperative raid battles with other players. There's also "Dynamaxing" and "Gigantamaxing." These features temporarily make your Pokémon huge in battle. Gigantamaxing is special because it also changes how certain Pokémon look.
The Wild Area is a big open world space where you can move the camera freely. The weather changes there, which affects which Pokémon you'll find. A new feature called "Poké Jobs" lets your Pokémon help with tasks like building or cooking. This helps them gain experience or find rare items. Pokémon Gyms are back after being absent in Sun, Moon, and Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
As usual, Sword and Shield have some content that's only in one version, like certain Pokémon and even some Gym Leaders. A new 'Camp' mode lets you play with your Pokémon and cook different kinds of curry to give them bonuses. You can also customize your character with new clothes and accessories. Now, you can usually access your Pokémon box (where you store Pokémon) outside of Pokémon Centers, which is very handy!
Connecting with Friends
You can connect with other players online for trading, battling, and meeting them in the Wild Area. However, you need a paid Nintendo Switch Online membership for these features. Sword and Shield only connect directly with each other.
The games also work with Pokémon Home, an online cloud storage service for storing Pokémon. It was released in February 2020. You can transfer Pokémon to Sword and Shield from the Nintendo 3DS app Pokémon Bank, Pokémon Go, and Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! through Pokémon Home. This is the only way to bring Pokémon from older games into Sword and Shield.
Story of Galar
Setting the Scene
Sword and Shield take place in the Galar region, a long, narrow land in the Pokémon world. The game's director, Shigeru Ohmori, said it's a more modern setting. The Galar region is inspired by Great Britain, with many places looking like real-life landmarks, such as the Houses of Parliament.
In the south of Galar, you'll find countryside towns with cozy cottages and old-fashioned buildings. The center of the region has a city that looks like it's from the Industrial Revolution, with a steampunk style. Many towns and cities have Pokémon Gyms that look like football stadiums. These stadiums are where Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing are shown off, thanks to the Galar Pokémon League Chairman, Rose. The northern parts of Galar are covered in snow-capped mountains.
A big part of the south-central region is the Wild Area. This is an open world area with many different Pokémon walking around. The weather in the Wild Area changes often. Like in Pokémon Sun and Moon, some older Pokémon, like Weezing, have special "Galarian Forms" with new types, stats, and looks. Some Pokémon, like Linoone and Meowth, even get new evolutions unique to Galar.
The Main Adventure
Like many other Pokémon games, you start a journey across the region to become the strongest trainer. You'll battle eight powerful Gym Leaders and eventually the region's Champion. You and your best friend, Hop, receive one of three starter Pokémon: Grookey, Scorbunny, or Sobble. These are given to you by Leon, the Champion of Galar and Hop's older brother.
Afterward, you two explore a forest called the Slumbering Weald but are scared away by a very powerful Pokémon. Later, you visit the region's Pokémon Professor, Magnolia, and her granddaughter Sonia. They convince Leon to let you both join the Gym Challenge. When you go to the next city to sign up, you meet rivals Bede and Marnie. You also meet Team Yell, a group of fans who support Marnie and try to stop others from finishing the Challenge. You also meet Chairman Rose, who leads the Galar Pokémon League and the region's main energy company. He also supports Bede in the Gym Challenge.
As your adventure continues, you help Sonia research two Legendary Pokémon. These Pokémon saved Galar from an ancient disaster called the Darkest Day. You figure out they are the same powerful Pokémon you met in the Slumbering Weald. After beating all eight Gym Leaders, including Piers (Marnie's older brother and the leader of Team Yell), you head to Wyndon. There, you win the Champion's Cup, earning the chance to battle Leon.
The next day, before your battle with Leon can start, Chairman Rose awakens the legendary Pokémon Eternatus. He tries to use its power for unlimited energy for Galar, but this accidentally causes a second Darkest Day. You and Hop return to the Slumbering Weald and get help from the legendary Pokémon, Zacian and Zamazenta. Together, you defeat Chairman Rose and Eternatus, and then you catch Eternatus. Finally, you battle and defeat Leon, becoming the new Champion of the Galar region!
After becoming Champion, you and Hop go back to the Slumbering Weald to return Zacian and Zamazenta's special items. You also meet Sonia, who is now the new Pokémon Professor of Galar. However, you are confronted by Sordward and Shielbert, two brothers who say they are descendants of ancient Galarian kings. They steal one of the relics and start forcing innocent Pokémon to Dynamax. You, Hop, and Piers work with the Gym Leaders to calm down the Dynamaxed Pokémon. Then you track down the brothers. They use Dynamax energy to make Zamazenta (in Sword) or Zacian (in Shield) go wild. You calm them down with the help of Zacian (in Sword) or Zamazenta (in Shield). You then get to battle the Legendary Pokémon and catch it. Hop follows Zamazenta/Zacian back to the Slumbering Weald, calms it down, and is chosen by it as its Trainer. You and Hop have one last battle, after which Hop decides to become a Pokémon Professor and works as Sonia's assistant.
How the Games Were Made
Development for Pokémon Sword and Shield started right after Sun and Moon were finished in late 2016. Shigeru Ohmori, who directed Sun and Moon, put together a team to brainstorm ideas. Kazumasa Iwao, director of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, later joined as a planning director. Full production began in September 2017.
One of the first ideas the team had was making Pokémon giant. This was possible because the Nintendo Switch could connect to a TV, allowing for a bigger screen. Ohmori then thought about having a sword and shield Pokémon to defeat these giant Pokémon. That's how the games got their names!
About 1,000 people from different companies worked on making, marketing, and promoting Sword and Shield. Around 200 Game Freak employees worked directly on the games. About 100 Creatures Inc. employees worked on the 3D models, and another 100 helped with testing the game for problems. Junichi Masuda, one of the producers, said that the total number of people involved was 50% more than for previous Pokémon games.
The main idea behind the games was strength and trying to be the best. This is shown through the Nintendo Switch being the most powerful console to run a Pokémon game, features like Dynamaxing, and references to British folklore. The music in the games is inspired by British rock music. One song was even made by Toby Fox, who created the game Undertale. The Switch's ability to show larger Pokémon models and better show size differences between them led to the Dynamax feature. The idea of "growing and evolving" is a key part of the games for both the trainer and their Pokémon.
Unlike other main Pokémon games, not all existing Pokémon species appear or can be used in Sword and Shield. Masuda explained that with so many Pokémon, and needing to create new features like Dynamaxing, keep the game balanced, and maintain high quality, it was too difficult to include every single Pokémon without making the development time much longer. So, only Pokémon found in the Galar region can be transferred from older games using Pokémon Home. Also, the developers said that the new, more detailed Pokémon models had to be built from scratch. Simply moving the old models from the 3DS wasn't possible. Masuda confirmed that all three companies involved (Nintendo, Game Freak, and The Pokémon Company) agreed to reduce the number of Pokémon in the games.
Release and Updates
The games were first hinted at by The Pokémon Company president Tsunekazu Ishihara during Nintendo's E3 2017 presentation. He said that Game Freak was working on a new main Pokémon game for Nintendo Switch, but it wouldn't be out for over a year. At a press conference in Japan on May 30, 2018, Junichi Masuda confirmed that the next main Pokémon games would be released on Switch in late 2019. Ishihara also promised that these new games would not be influenced by Pokémon Go (unlike Let's Go, Eevee! and Let's Go, Eevee!) and would have many new Pokémon and improved graphics.
Sword and Shield were fully shown off in a special Nintendo Direct on February 27, 2019. This presentation introduced the games' region and starter Pokémon. It happened on Pokémon Day, a fan celebration of Pokémon on the anniversary of the Japanese release of Pokémon Red and Green. A second Nintendo Direct about the games was held on June 5, 2019. This showed off new features, characters, and Pokémon, including the legendary Pokémon Zacian and Zamazenta, which are on the game box art. The release date of November 15, 2019, was also announced then. Game Freak purposely didn't reveal too many new Pokémon in promotions. They wanted players to discover them in the game.
There was a special event in Tetris 99 from November 8–11, where you could unlock a Sword and Shield themed design. A website was also launched that let you explore the Wild Area online. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, an online tournament about Pokémon was held from November 15–18 to promote Sword and Shield's release. A "spirit event" also happened from November 22–27, where some Pokémon were available as collectible spirits.
Expansion Packs
During a Pokémon Direct on January 9, 2020, two expansion packs were announced. They were released throughout 2020 as part of an expansion pass. The first pack, The Isle of Armor, came out on June 17, 2020. The second pack, The Crown Tundra, was released on October 22, 2020. A physical bundle that included both expansion packs with the main games was released on November 6, 2020.
These expansion packs added new Legendary Pokémon, like Kubfu and its evolved forms in The Isle of Armor, and Calyrex in The Crown Tundra. They also brought new regional forms for existing Pokémon, such as Slowpoke. Between both expansion packs, they added over 200 Pokémon that were not available in the main game. The area you can explore in The Isle of Armor is inspired by the Isle of Man. The area in The Crown Tundra is based on Scotland.
See also
In Spanish: Pokémon espada y Pokémon escudo para niños
