Pokémon Sword & Shield Are Being Developed With A Focus On Switch's Handheld Mode

Pokemon has always been a 'handheld' game, long may it be so.

I’m sure some nerds will find this upsetting

shouldnt be making games and deciding how people should play it

Makes sense, given the handheld legacy of the series. I imagine I’ll be playing mostly handheld.

I await the next 2 games, Pokemon Glacier & Continental Shelf.

'Please understand, Pokemon Sword & Shield will only be compatible with Labo VR' =0p

im confused here, are they assuming they never knew it was a handheld title at inception? pffffft.

i'll be playing in tv mode, i sit still playing games anyway lol

As long as we can use a normal controller then I'll be happy.
Also hopefully this doesn't mean there will be main features that require you to be in handheld mode.

I understand this to mean "no waving things at the TV, it's all pressing buttons". Fine by me.

So basically, GF acknowledges their shortcomings and just gives up on developing a proper home console title. Just price it accordingly.

The motion controls in Let's Go were pretty terrible, the handheld gyroscope method being better made it seem like it was more aimed at handheld.

Hmmm. I wonder if this has anything to do with Game Freak not having confidence in the ability to create a game for the big screen in terms of graphics. A marketing push towards handheld could be a preemptive strike on their end to circumvent negative backlash if the graphics are lackluster. In any case, as long as it's fun who cares!

Not really surprising, seems they're just using this as an excuse for the lack of a great leap from 3DS to Switch.

People are making a lot of assumptions, a game primarily made for handheld mode addresses how the games play.. not how it looks. GameFreak is just doing what it does EVERY generation, point out the game is designed to be played out & about. No news here.

Saying that I WAS massively underwhelmed by the trailer footage. I hope it improves a good deal before launch.

I've played pretty much every game I own mostly handheld with the exception of Super Mario Odyssey and Let's Go! Pikachu. I'm fine with an emphasis on handheld but it better have $60 worth of content for me to buy it at that price.

That's fine and all but maybe make it a little more challenging this time. Last entries were baby mode.

But can we use a pro controller? I would have played Let's Go so much more if it didn't force me to use one joy con.

The beauty of it is that I can play it in whatever mode I feel like. I love my Switch 😍

@Sandro89 All Pokemon were baby mode, just with more and more time-wasting systems on top of it.
My brother jumped from third generation to Ultra Moon and he noticed how for him it's the same old game but with extra tat that ultimately feels unneeded while for hardcore Pokemon fans that one was oversimplified.

@Sandro89 Sun and Moon were definitely a lot harder than X/Y. They at least had interesting environments and the new style of gameplay helped to change the formula up a bit. Sword and Shield are already looking like X/Y for me.

Lol. I wanted to play Let's Go on my TV but the pro controller doesn't work with it. Hopefully it will this time...

@thesilverbrick I will play when I commute and on the bed! I have never played Sun and Moon, so I am really having high hope for this and I will also be playing it in Hyde park for max immersion!

What exactly is this article highlighting? Because we knew about this before, right after Lets Go. It was in that same interview. If this is supposed to spark discussion - sure. But if we're getting an entire article on it, I had expected to get something new in the way of information. But whatever, I guess.

All very well, but Ocarina of Time 3DS, a handheld port of an old game still looks better than this graphically (so far).

The fields in this game look about the standard of those in the original Ocarina release.

I would be actually mad if they make the game inpompatible with TV play.

I played Let's Go almost exclusively in handheld mode... not by choice but because the throwing mechanism was so awful when trying to play in docked mode.

I'm praying for no motion controls (or at least have them optional) in Sword & Shield so I can have my Pokemon adventure on the big screen.

It's my understanding that Let's Go was typically better in handheld mode for most people due to the controls being more "normal" for handheld mode as opposed to the motion sensing stuff. So, as far as I know, Pokemon Let's Go was already largely a handheld focused game. I myself played it entirely in handheld mode when I tried the demo. I didn't want to hassle with the motion controls.

Game still looks like an upscaled 3ds game, I guess selling 15 million the average Pokémon game doesn’t net you spending money.

That's ironic as Let's Go was far worse in the TV mode they apparently focused on with its rubbish controls.

As long as I can use a normal controller to play on the TV, fine by me.

I'll be playing it in both handheld and TV mode... because I can, heh

Forgot to mention that I sincerely hope they keep the Co-op multiplayer and flesh it out for Sword and Shield because we've been adventuring alone in Pokemon for 20 years and that's kinda bogus when you remember that the series has advocated playing with/being together/adventuring with friends through the anime, advertising and whatever else.

Translation: No obnoxious gimmicky in terms of how the game controls like in Let's Go.

Thank god!

The funny thing is that, due to the weird TV controls, I play Let's Go in handheld mode 95% of the time anyway.

I mean, this is a given isn't it? Mainline Pokemon Games (And no I don't count Pokemon Let's Go) have always been a Core-Handheld experience.

No waggle/pointer stuff - great!

What it probably actually means - you will need to stroke your Pokemon with touch screen, and/or need the touchscreen to do special training or whatever.

I don't care about that stuff, I just want a good ol' RPG and I really hope nothing is sacrificed by playing on the tele.

What does it even mean to be developed with a focus on handheld mode. Shouldn't the article tell us what that means?

Odd really. I didn't play Let's Go in TV mode because they wouldn't let me play it my way with the Pro Controller. So stuck to handheld.

This one will have to be something drastically different to get me to play a Pokemon game again. And have Pro controller support.

That's fine and all, but please, please let me use the pro controller if I do want to play on the tv. That was by far the dumbest thing about Let's Go.

I just take this to mean Nitnedo told Game Freak the newer smaller Switch won't hook up to the dock as easily, maybe you'll need to buy and optional cable, and GF is focusing on making the game in handheld mode b/c of that.

It will of course still play on the TV on the orignal Switch, but they are focusing on playing this on a handheld Switch w/ no TV out and no removal Joycon.

Focus on handheld means less graphics and probably Less revolutionary. As of now I am disappointed. I was hoping for a Pokemon game better than Let's Go. I wanted a console Pokemon game. Let's Go the control system was disappointing. Why couldn't we use the pro controller? Only being able to use one controller was a huge drawback. It's hard to have a Switch this year. I mean nothing new this year besides a few games. Only Animal Crossing, a handheld Pokemon, a Zelda game that we should have got on Nintendo Online, and Metroid to look forward to. But those are 6-8 months away.

Great news, its my preferred and almost exclusive way of playing my switch. I hope i can use my pro controller in table top mode though.

What is this? Obviously they mean Handheld because the capturing mechanic will be the same as all the other games so you can actually use the buttons and maybe use both joycons as well plus some HUD changes :shrugs:

To be brutally honest, I think "It's meant for handheld!" = "we're doing standard 3DS quality Pokemon again. We are too scared to innovate." I have loved Pokemon since Gen 1 days, but it gets frustrating when they innovate a little (like Sun and Moon's lack of traditional gyms... Let's Go!'s pokemon in the overworld and having a pokemon out with you that can actually do stuff in the world, etc) and then walk it back. The game actually looks really unimpressive at the moment. I hope that they can change my mind.

@LuciferOnReddit Let's Go was designed around the motion controls of the Switch. Sword / Shield is designed around the "play anywhere" aspect of the Switch.

A little bit of a disappointment but so long as it's still perfectly playable in docked mode too you won't hear me complaining. I'll be getting both versions regardless.

You'll hear me complain when it's another step further down the drain that X/Y and (U)S/(U)M set up though. Those games just weren't very fun to me and I really hope these games will rectify that, because as a Pokémon fan since the first generation it does pain me a little to say that I haven't really been able to enjoy Pokémon the last couple of generations (not counting OR/AS which were still real fun, but those were remakes).

Speaking of remakes.. I do wonder if we'll be getting a D/P remake on the Switch within a year or two. Or maybe the Let's Go games took over the 'remake' stick and they're gonna make Let's Go Johto next. Hmm...

@MoonKnight7 nah, id like to think taking out wild battling was the dumbest thing they did with the lets go series -_-..literally killed the game for me. Tried the demo, was boring asf.., gameplay wise they innovated pretty much everything right for almost a truly awsome pokemon rpg and then they had to take one of the core draws lf it out..! Unbelievable.

It was Graphically more beautiful than any pokemon game to date. But it lacked major substance due to that core mechanic being taken out.

Really? Can't they focus on both? As someone who plays mainly docked this news doesn't please me.

@Nomad Don't jump to conclusions. It still hasn't been confirmed that you can play this game in docked mode.

@Preposterous we will get the handheld experience and they will charge $60 for it. I was hoping they would atleast be a little more ambitious, but it seems well be getting Sun and Moon in HD.

What he’s saying is that it won’t be primarily tv focused like Let’s Go. You all need to calm down

Pokemon Sword and Shield are the same but are likely apart from the other Pokemon games. I think it doesn't really matter which way you play it since it's called the Nintendo switch in the first place.

Reading these comments gave me a headache. How many people missed his point...

Knowing Nintendo, they will disable TV mode for this game 😄

@Travisemo007

Well sure, that's a fair argument, but I was talking about the physical mechanics since the article is referencing handheld vs tv play. It was so awkward to play on the tv. I tried it once and hated every second of it, plus actually throwing the ball wasn't even accurate.

But yeah, Let's Go really stripped a lot of what made the core series so great, but I do think it's just a one-off event cause of Pokemon Go. In terms of how to play it though, I think the lack of a pro controller was incredibly dumb. Especially since it had a gyroscope built right into it. I really believe it was just to sell that stupid pokeball joy-con for 50 bucks.

Never really got the 'this game looks like an upres 3DS game' comments, but in any case, like others have said, this seems more as a reassurance to traditional fans that the upcoming games will be more traditional than the Let's Go! ones were.

@MoonKnight7 - Which elements are you referring to? Outside of not being able to battle wild pokemon, I didn't think there was much removed that was actually integral to the experience.

As long as I can play TV normally (which I doubt they will force motion in a main line title). I also hope they give us options: difficulty, more player customization, online connectivity, I would love to play with my pokeball joy con, Pokemon bank.

I hope they add some type of Pokemon Stadium Minigames (ratata race, clefairy singing, Magikarp jump, etc). Would be neat to see old minigames from past entries to this game, and ability to play 4 players couch or online. I mean it seems there is a sports theme, and most of the minigames we're sports.

Honestly I feel like its going to suck..

tbh i'm expecting more from digimon survive then these games at this point

As long as it's not un-playable on the tv screen than I'm fine. I mean I'm pretty much 50% handheld, 50% tv with my Switch regardless but as long as they don't nerf the docked mode with a Pro Controller setup then I really don't care what the "emphasis" is. Basically don't turn Sword and Shield in to that handheld-only game Voez and we'll be good, LOL.

Okay. so if you're making it focus on the handhelds, you understand that most people use them in quick bursts.

If you understand that most people use them in quick bursts, you will avoid hour and a half long series of cutscenes where control is minimal and saving is impossible, right?

...right?

Should had just say play it the way you want it instead of hinting at restricting the games. A lot of Switch owners like myself don't want to hear that a game would be restricted when clearly the reason for buying a Switch is to be able to play any game how we want. Sure a lot of people who first started to play Pokemon first play it on a Game Boy but this is 2019 man, you had the ability to offer the games through different experience and now you're telling people yeah these games could only be play one way even though it's on a platform that could be play three ways. Just not a good sign Nintendo.

Since we don't know the specifics of how they're going to do this, we can't comment to much. However playing a mainline Pokemon game on a TV is something I've been looking forward to for ages, so I'm hoping that isn't compromised.

I'll be playing docked out of pure spite.

While it depends on the game, I could see myself playing these in handheld mode for the most part.

If this means removing the gimmicky and badly implemented motions controls from Let's Go, I'm all for it. I doubt them optimizing the experience for handheld mode would translate badly to TV-mode, unless they do things like rely on the touch-screen without an equivalent pointer mode for TV.

@FullMetalWesker

I am mostly referring to battling in general. Wild Pokemon, yes, but also battling trainers as well. When coming across wild pokemon it's just literally throwing balls until you snag it. But other aspects were simplified as well with no abilities and no held items. It takes a lot of the strategy away for battles. Now maybe that doesn't matter much to some, but abilities was integral to how I played. It was so satisfying to find a Pokemon with a really useful ability.

Now, if it's just a one off, I don't think people will care too much, but if that gets incorporated into the mainline games, that's gonna be an issue (for me anyway). However, at least from what I've seen of it, I don't think it's gonna be that way.

Let me just say though that Let's Go did some things better too. Seeing the pokemon in the grass (and behind you) was great and so was having constant access to your PC.

Lemme guess, they'll be disabling docked mode for this game. lol

I played Let's Go Pikachu exclusively in handheld mode because screw those horrible motion controls. Sword and Shield being focused on handheld mode actually gives me hope of being able to play it in TV mode more often

The Pokemon Company confirmed this would be the case back when Let's Go was announced. Nothing has changed since then - Sword/Shield is a true new generation mainline Pokemon entry.

This presumably confirms the lack of co-op and motion control-based catching in the new game.

I am still hoping that they keep the pokemon in the map mechanic introduced in lgpe, it's just so much better to play and the world feels much more alive that way.

I'm fine with it being the focus, but it is a bit disappointing. People have been hyping this up for years now as the first real home-console Pokemon title. I'm hoping "focusing on handheld" doesn't mean they don't try to make the most of the hardware and push the series forward.

I find it weird how whenever Pokémon tries to innovate, people seem to crap on it. All of the little steps they’re making are what people are freaking out about, so I don’t think we should expect any huge innovations until there’s a successful small one

It makes sense. Part of the fun of Pokemon is to trade and fight with some friends with other console. (No, online is not the same)
Never being in the need, but how does Switch consoles communicate between each other? Do you need a Wifi connection? Or can they connect directly without anything else?

How can Level 5 make a proper monster catching game but Gamefreak is having trouble? Nintendo has Monolith can't we get that Xenoblade/Pokemon game we all want? I'd be fine with a game like the original Nino Kuni because the new Yokai Watch looks great.

@-Green- @-Green- Some people find this upsetting, some people like that, other people find certain decisions of others dumb and others find oranges and bananas good. People have different legit opinions on different things. I don't get what you want to say with your comment.

@BenAV The problem is they are deliberately developing mainly for the handheld mode. The switches point is that every user can choose if he wants to play a game handheld or TV. I would understand it if its like half/half with handheld being a bit more in focus. But from how it looks, they don't care that much about the TV-Gaming-mode, and that shouldn't be with the switch.
its like someone creating a digital book that is only designed to be viewed on a big screen, so you have to scroll left and right the whole time on a smartphone. Its just something that only brings restrictions and no bonuses.

"this focus on handheld play suggests that the final product might be even more similar to its 3DS counterparts than we first thought."

But not in price.
I'll wait until I can pick up a used copy, or hold off on this generation and see how the next one shapes up.

I'm genuinely bemused by some comments.

@Aoisenshi Not trying to say anything tbh, i don't consider nerds an insult. It's more an observation than anything else. nothing of value.

As long as they don't do something silly, like force motion controls, I'm fine with it. My concerns still remain with the mechanics side of it, and whether they actually take advantage of the added power in the Switch. That 20 dollar price hike needs to feel worth it.

Waggling Joy-Cons means "designed with TV mode in mind?" I found catching pokemon in Let's Go heck of a lot easier in handheld mode, not to mention it felt "normal."

I hope they include some sort of Pokémon Stadium style mode. It would be incredible if up to four players could battle it out from over 900 Pokémon.

The main thing that I get from handheld mode is the freedom of playing where I want, with the Joy-Cons adding the possibility of co-op, so they kind of had that with Let's Go, despite the focus on being played on the big screen. Going to assume this emphasizes controller variety (you know, play how you want, when you want), local wireless battles like the 1v1v1v1 fights or the place you could met players avatars in Sun and Moon (but actively playing with people), trading, and some other activities. Fine by me, it's never stopped them from adding online gameplay, so we'll get the best of both worlds.

Weirdly enough, one of my big questions involves the battle interface. The DS and 3DS era let Game Freak clear up the battle screen, so I'm curious to see what they'll do going back to it. Otherwise, just assuming that this builds off of where Sun and moon left off, which is fine by me.

Going to sound negative but...
Sounds like they know their battle animations are vastly inferior to the Genius Sonority games over a decade ago, so they are claiming it's not going to be in the same category of standards.

Controversy aside, I'm happy. While I loved having the Pokemon walk around in the over-world and behind me in Let's Go, I didn't like much else about them. Just a personal thing. I'm super excited for Sword/Shield.

sounds perfect for a cheaper, more portable switch revision hmmmm?

Seems like people are trying to find a reason that is a bad thing. This probably just means that Sword and Shield wont have the motion controls that LGP/E had. Which, shouldn't that make people happy? Aren't motion controls like the 7th level of hell for some folks?

@Joeynator3000 They didn't disable handheld play on the previous games. So no.

@KryptoniteKrunch Yep. Same old:

Nintendo / GameFreak: releasing a motion based Pokémon game.
Nintendo fan base: WE DON'T WANT MOTION CONTROL!! "Whine and cry" Give us BUTTON CONTROL!!

Nintendo one year later: releasing a button control Pokémon game.
Nintendo fan base: WE DON'T WANT BUTTON CONTROL!! GIVE US CONTROL LIKE THE PREVIOUS GAME!!!

Nintendo: ...

Go back to 1.

And that's what's wrong with the comment section on Nintendo fan sites. And this site takes the lead.

My bottom line: If you want to play Pokémon with motion controls. Get yourself Pokémon Let's Go.
If you want to play Pokémon with normal buttons and controllers. Get yourself Pokémon Sword / Shield

let's go's lack of pro controller support really pissed me off—especially as that came out the same time my left joy-con started to drift. so not only was i obliged to use a controller that is objectively too small for my hands, but i was dealing with the prospect of laying out a substantial amount of money to potentially replace the joycon (air-spraying did reduce the problem, but didn't eliminate it).

i really hope this isn't the developer's way of saying that they're just going to continue to ignore nintendo's best controller. honestly it may put me off the title. the switch is a hybrid console for a reason. it's a shame that one of their best franchises deliberately kneecaps themselves.

@erdem to be honest all the latest games were rather surprising for having ALL of the pokemons coded and modeled in-game. Be them old and new, catchable in-game or not. All so as to be able to support generational trading and transfer. Something further encouraged by the pokemon bank system.

Considering that now means 800+ pokemons worth of assets plus however many Sword/Shield's Galar region will add.... that'll be a lot.

Thinking about it and looking at the trailer I feel the game might have similar graphics to the trailer but might indeed be achieved by clever use of details that may well look more like the traditional handheld games when it come to perspective/etc.

So character models actually on par with 3DS, with improvements instead made in display resolution and shaders for better special effects while still using clean but deceptively simple textures.

Larger regions might zoom farther away from the camera and use lower resolution textures(the player not noticing due to distance) meanwhile more detailed areas might zoom close to the player like XY's Lumiose city to allow better texture without having too much of it on screen at once(especially if it can be split in multiple zones like Lumiose city again).

Gameplay wise I'm wondering what trying to appeal to both longterm players and newcomers from the Let'sGo side series but overall it might mean ultimately very minor change that wouldn't be obligatory for longterm players who could play the ways they always have without anything being "dumber down".
Perhaps it might be just a rebalancing of gym fights levels and intensity to make it easier(if need be during development) without changing anything of core mechanics or optional controls.

Ultimately though the fact they pointed out to Let's Go "waving a controller in front of a tv" gameplay when they discussed handheld play might only mean they're planning to have a more traditional control scheme(it should be noted that going from dual screen to single screen again may mean minor changes from how they used to do things just in term of UI).

@Seacliff tbh all the recent games focused on having ALL of the existing pokemons from gen 1 to gen 7 coded and modeled into the game to support cross generation trading.

That's 800+ worth of pokemon models and textures assets and generation 8 is just likely going to add up at the very least 50-100 more.

Animations are basic but with the hundreds of moves they need to cover for soon close to 1000 different pokemon models means they very much have to to be basic to make sure to fit it all in let alone not overwork employees anymore that they already be.

I noted from trailer models might not be too different from the last gen either. Just benefiting from a much cleaner display resolution and much more advanced shaders.

Which might be for the best if we want gen7 players to be able to import their pokemon in the new gen8 as they have all previous Generations we've had since gen3(and now can even with gen1 and gen2 thanks to the virtual console release of the gameboy and gameboy color games being updated to support these pokemon transfer mechanics toward gen 7).

@LexKitteh by all account I get the feeling "focus on handheld mode control" while mentioning let's go use of motion control make me feel the controls will primarily be like existing 3DS titles.

Which is primarily buttons plus fully optional touchscreen(only in some optional minigames is it mandatory).

Kind of like how handheld is recommended in Smash stage builders but it's perfectly doable on TV as well(in fact I find comyroller+grid almost easier than touchscreen with my clumsy fingers).

@MARATXXX personally I feel their comments might imply they might actually truly focus on more traditional control schemes, especially with how they singled Let's Go motion controls when mentioning how they would differ from "Let's Go TV focus".

So that may be good news for pro controller users since traditional handheld pokemon games are actually fully buttons based with almost completely optional touchscreen control(mandatory only in optional minigames on 3DS).

This would be good news for Pro controller users since that's basically just saying the default would be joycons in handheld mode ... which is exactly the same layout than joycons in grip mode which is nothing more than a scaled down Pro controller in that configuration.

Other ways they could play on "handheld focus" might just be the way they could implement their very traditional(for pokemon) support of local wireless connection/ multiplayer/trading and so on. All features benefiting from the mobility of handheld.

And with the example of recent games(especially the advent of the pokemon game making it easier to transfer pokemon from older generations to newer ones without needing a second console), all that would likely continue to exists alongside the online features of recent games that would mesh even more with a pokemon game one could now play on TV as well(I could see the pokemon bank getting merged with nintendo's own online service subscription considering how the bank is itself a paid service even in 3DS).

One thing I could see for Let's Go players to help them transition to the new game in particular is a conversion transfer system that could take Pokemons from Go/Let's Go into the now mainline game by converting their stats and traits to ones compatible with traditional games.

This could provide the interesting tweak of making it possible Go/Let's Go-exlusive pokemons playable on traditional pokemon games.

@Ludovsky I know you are setting this up to be a big task, but that didn't stop smaller studios from doing the same exact thing with Digimon: Cyber Stealth, Persona 5 and Yokai Watch 4, which all features hundreds of collectible monsters.

They could also reuse animations from Battle Revolution. That's nearly 500 Pokemon done for them already.

Why are we holding Pokemon to this lower standard?

As long it supports the Pro Controller this time around i'm happy. I play mostly docked these days.

I hope the Poke Ball Plus is still compatible, though.

I'm not really sure what they mean by "focusing on hand held mode." The most obvious meaning is that the game has touchscreen controls as a major part of it's design. I do have two games that are best played with touch controls, but they were cheap e-shop games. I doubt they'd leave a major release gimped in TV mode.

Okaaaay aaand??? :s

As long as it is an improvement over Let's Go and the past two generations in difficulty or mechanics I will be happy. It already looks like its bigger than the handheld games and has more advanced shading as well as a higher resolution. I'm not sure if some of these people complaining have compared the footage directly or not.

So is this why Sword and Shield look like 3ds games? We didn't have to deal with this crap during the Wii U days.

Honestly sometimes I don't like how they make some pokemon games more weird....

@Pit_Lurker Seems like you've got a phobia for motion controls... and 36 others too

@FTPinkRabbit You're anticipating disappointment.