The Pokémon Company recently hosted a 24-hour livestream of Pokémon Sword and Shield‘s Glimwood Tangle Forest location, which introduced one new pocket monster and little else. There has been some major ebbs and flows associated with the lead up to Sword and Shield this November. It’s been so intense that some gamers have committed to boycotting the titles–although this seems like an overreaction.
The fan momentum notably changed when it was confirmed that the National Pokédex was being ditched. According to the games’ developer, Game Freak, it wasn’t feasible to bring every existing Pokémon over into Sword and Shield because there are just too many to commit the resources to for adaptation to Switch hardware. The truth is that this seems like a probable scenario given the major rehaul the team has given to the games’ open-world segments and updated battle mechanics. Despite this, The Pokémon Company may have underwhelmed some fans once again through a recent 24-hour livestream.
The purpose of this stream was to show off a CGI version of Pokémon Sword and Shield‘s new Glimwood Tangle Forest area. It was set up as a mock nature cam, but the expectations of fans was that a number of new Pokémon would be shown off. Instead, they were greeted with sightings of a number of pre-confirmed creatures and one new unicorn-inspired beast that many believe is Galarian Ponyta (via Serebii).
If this creature is indeed Galarian Ponyta, this marks the fourth known Pokémon to feature a unique form in Sword and Shield‘s Galar region. The others are Zigzagoon, Linoone, and Weezing, the latter of which has become beloved amongst the Pokémon community. Assuming it’s Ponyta, then it’ll also presumably feature a unique look and typing for its evolution, Rapidash. If that’s the case, then will it also rock a third evolution akin to Galar’s Zigzagoon, Linoone, and Obstagoon line? It’s a possibility given that Farfetch’d got its Sirfetch’d evolution. Only time will tell though.
The creature’s reveal seems bittersweet given how long fans had to tune in to catch their first glimpse of the beast. To be entirely fair to The Pokémon Company, it never set sky-high expectations for the event. Even then, it had to know how high hopes were for this broadcast given that there are very few details currently released on the full roster of new pocket monsters. In that light, it feels like a misstep.
Sword and Shield are so close to release now and much is still unknown about the titles. Is this really all part of the marketing plan? Whatever the case may be for the lack of information thus far, it has certainly been one of the more controversial lead-ups to a major Pokémon release. Plus, there’s plenty of room to be pleasantly surprised. Here’s hoping the games do just that when they arrive on November 15th.
