Pokémon Direct - 27.02.2019

Overall I think Pokemon Sword and Switch looks pretty good. Graphics are still cel-shaded, which might come across as "3dish" to some people. But it looks like a big improvement over the 3DS versions of Pokemon to me.

Wild encounters aren't like they are in Pokemon Let's Go, which is great. It was way too simple in Let's Go and it took a lot of fun out of it.

The region itself looks awesome. There seems to be some steampunk cities as well as a lot of unique biomes.

The starter Pokemon look alright. It feels like they're trying way too hard to make them cute. I usually like cute Pokemon, but these designs for the starters feel like they're trying way too hard to be cute.

Music is great, I like what they've done with the sound tracks, and the beloved sound effects come back.

New pokemon are confirmed, though that shouldn't be a surprise. Hopefully there's a lot more and they're not trying to make them all overly cute.

The new region is the "Galar region", which seems modeled after Britain, Scotland, etc. Gyms are back, thank God.

Some of the textures look pretty blurry and muddy, but it's still a huge upgrade over previous mainline Pokemon games. I'd even say it looks a bit better than Let's Go. Other than that, the graphics look really comfy and cute. I was worried they over-cute designs of the starter Pokemon would be applied way too much over the rest of the game. It doesn't look like it, it looks like a really enjoyable place to explore and catch Pokemon.

Personally, it's not a perfect announcement and I wish they told us more, but it's going to be interesting to see what Game Freak can do with the Nintendo Switch. Usually, mainline RPG Pokemon games have been stuck on under-powered handhelds. Switch is no power-house compared to Xbox One or Playstation 4, but the difference between Switch and the other consoles is much smaller than the difference between the 3DS and Xbox 360 and PS3.

Being able to kick back and play Pokemon on the couch has been something that I've been looking forward to ever since the Switch was announced. Gen 8 does't look perfect, but there's a lot of potential here and