The long-awaited follow-up to Pokémon Sword and Shield‘s initial announcement finally aired today, bringing with it a wealth of new details for fans to pore over.
The 15-minute presentation, while excruciatingly short, was jam-packed with gameplay reveals for the Generation 8 titles, many of which are wholly unique to the series. Max Raid Battles as well as Dynamax Pokémon, to name but two of the bombshells Game Freak dropped on viewers, appear to be the perfect endgame additions to the core RPG franchise, an element that’s often been noted as missing in prior installments.
But even besides all of the above, there’s one segment above all, that effortlessly stirs the fanbase into a frenzy of excitement like no other: New Pokémon. As the series’ bread and butter, Hell would need to freeze over before Game Freak forgot to showcase several of the new species native to Galar and boy, they certainly didn’t disappoint. Before we get into the nitty-gritty though, check out the gallery below for every new Pocket Monster shown during the presentation.
The special cases that they are, we’ve already covered Legendary Pokémon Zacian and Zamazenta over here, so let’s get to dissecting (not literally) the other new Pokédex additions.
- Gossifleur – Grass-type
– Ability: Cotton Down/Regenerator - Eldegoss – Grass-type
– Ability: Cotton Down/Regenerator - Corviknight – Flying/Steel-type
– Ability: Pressure/Unnerve - Drednaw – Water/Rock-type
– Ability: Strong Jaw/Shell Armor - Wooloo – Normal-type
– Ability: Fluffy/Run Away
Given their identical attributes and abilities, it goes without saying that Gossifleur and Eldegoss are part of the same evolutionary line, though it remains unclear whether a third, more powerful form change is yet to be revealed. Similarly, there’s every chance that the remaining three will have evolved forms too, especially Drednaw, which clearly has the appearance of an immature turtle. Expect its notoriously strong jaw to gain immeasurable strength in later evolutions.
In the case of Corviknight, Game Freak confirmed that the raven-inspired critter will provide a ferry service to the player, perhaps hinting that it has a greater role to play. Either way, we’ll surely be privy to further details and reveals when E3 kicks off next week, so stay tuned.
Pokémon Sword and Shield are out November 15th worldwide.