 This Pokemon's defining characteristic is it's fluffy fur. I have never once put my hair up in a video. So I hope that this demonstrates how serious I'm about to be. Also, I intentionally made it look dumb for comedic defect. That Pokemon Direct trailer, whatever you want to call it, it honestly did completely change my mind on Pokemon Sword and Shield in a lot of different ways, mostly like 90% for the best. So I went into it with a certain set of expectations. And the main one was, I thought I pretty much had a handle on this game, everything that it was going to be about. And oh boy, was I completely wrong. Honestly, I don't care. Whatever, whatever they want to show. Wait, is the gamer? What? Oh, what? What? Wait, that's a big boy. Well, you want to be in the video, buddy? What's going on? When they initially released the trailer for the Pokemon Sword and Shield games, I was kind of underwhelmed. I didn't really talk about that fact too much. I didn't want to say, oh, I'm disappointed in Pokemon and be like every other person on the internet that always seems to be disappointed with everything these days. But when I saw it, it just kind of looked like another Pokemon game. It looked like something that we had played a billion times before on the 3DS, on the Game Boy Advance, on the Game Boy Color. Like those portable Pokemon games never really made the leaps and advancements I wanted them to make. They always just felt like the same game copy and pasted. But then on the Switch, we got Pokemon Let's Go Eevee and Pikachu. And while they were almost carbon copies of Pokemon Yellow, with a few changes here and there, sure, the biggest change or other than the way they did the catching mechanic, which was arguably horrible, depending on your experience with it. But the biggest change other than that was you could see Pokemon in the wild. And I truly felt like that was a huge step forward for the franchise. It's the direction that the Pokemon games should be going in, right? Like, we should at some point start seeing these things in the wild. That is the Pokemon experience I have wanted ever since I was a tiny little dweeb of a kid watching the Pokemon cartoons in the morning alongside Dragon Ball and SpongeBob before I went to school. And Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee was the closest representation to the cartoons I have had in the video games. And then they released that initial trailer for Pokemon Sword and Shield and it just didn't look any different. It looked like any other Pokemon game on the 3DS just with a fresh coat of paint. And it didn't feel like they were utilizing the Switch to its full capacity. And I was still looking forward to picking up the new Pokemon games, but I definitely wouldn't use the word excited. And going into this direct, I also wasn't that excited. It didn't help that it was 7.30 in the morning and I would much rather had been sleeping at that time. But almost immediately into this direct with our first new glimpse at Pokemon Sword and Shield, there was this huge open field and suddenly Pokemon started to pop up in it. And initially we didn't see the main player walking around this world. We just saw the Pokemon for about the first 10 or 15 seconds. And I was just in this crazy suspense of is this wild Pokemon? Or are you just teasing me with a cool cinematic trailer? And then it happened. We saw the trainer not only interacting with these Pokemon, but whistling to them, calling them out of the grass. Hey, buddy. How are you doing? What is going on with you? And all of a sudden there it was. The first brand new open world Pokemon game. I really didn't expect that. Like, again, just judging by the initial trailers of this game, it didn't allude to that at all. It honestly looked like they had completely gone back to the old way of random encounters where you can't see the Pokemon in the wild. And now all of a sudden it's like a whole different game. And I love it. I can't tell you how excited I am for this. Oh, that's what you want. There's little dangly chords from the fan. That's what he's been trying to get at. I mean, the direct almost immediately took a sharp left turn when it started focusing on these raid battles and these huge Pokemon battles. That's not really for me. I don't think. What I was really looking forward to in this trailer was exploring the towns, exploring the world, meeting some of the characters, learning about the story. And while we did learn a little bit about a couple of the characters in the game, really don't know much about it. Like, I'm not sure if these giant battles are the new, like, gym battles in the game, or if they're still gyms, if there's an Elite Four. All we really learned was it's open world now, which I loved learning that. And there's these giant soccer arenas that you can go into and have massive Pokemon battles. Oh, and on top of that, we also learned about some multiplayer aspect side of things. And I am really curious about this. This is what left me with the biggest question of the entire direct because they said that you could play the game now with your friends and they showed you running around this open field towards these markers, which essentially look like Pokestops from Pokemon Go and meeting up with friends. Now, there is an animation of one of your friends and they use the word friends, walking towards this stop. I'm not sure if that means you go towards the stop and you can like online match make friends can join just at that stop and like you can battle with them or if they're actually, if they can actually walk around the world with you, if they can enter your game or you can enter their game and roll around the fields. Now, that for me is too good to be true. So I don't think Nintendo is going to lean in that direction but the way that this trainer walks in from the left here, it looks like he walked in with you. Like he's in that world. I really want an answer to that because again, too good to be true. I don't see Nintendo letting me walk around an open world Pokemon game with three of my friends catching Pokemon together, exploring and finding and that just seems like too, too good to be true but I really want an answer on it because why did they show him walking in like that? Oh, and I will say that the open world seems to be sectioned off which I don't mind at all. I'll completely take it. There's this huge open field area in between all of the towns and I couldn't gather if it's just like this one massive wild area and they're still going to be branching paths off from certain towns to get to certain locations where it is still random encounters like the old school way kind of like how in the previous games you had the wild safari or if you went in the wild safari it was its own exclusive enclosed area where you just, you know, safari battled but imagine that on a much grander scale where you know you're walking into the wild area where the wild Pokemon are and then the rest of the game is fairly normal and honestly if that's the way it is I'll still take that 100% and I'm still just as excited for that. It's still a step in the right direction. I am actually really interested to see the fallout of this. I honestly leave your thoughts down below on that because I know some people were really hesitant for Pokemon to go in that direction but just looking at it is that this is the way it has to go man like this is the way it's supposed to be. And while I wasn't all that hyped up for these big Pokemon battles while it didn't engage me and interest me all that much the one thing I really did appreciate about them was that those huge battles looked like they were utilizing the hardware and that's just that. The open world area looked like they were really utilizing the switch and its hardware. I mean, heck, there was that one moment where I swear I heard the piano keys from Breath of the Wild. It looked like they had taken the Breath of the Wild engine and just re-skinned it with Pokemon and it was amazing. Like, ah, as soon as I heard that Zelda music I got really excited. It was really weird that they played it or at least something similar to it. There will be new discoveries for you each day. Some of you may already have noticed. But again, the big Pokemon battles this big open world area both of those look like switch games, you know? They look like they're utilizing the hardware to not its full extent but not quite at the point I would say that a Pokemon game could be if they really push the limits as to what a Pokemon game is. But it looks like a game that was developed for Switch and that's what I wanted. Now, here's where I have to be a negative Nancy just a tiny bit, the legendary Pokemon. Was that underwhelming for anyone else or just me? They look like such good doggos, man. Like, I love them so much for what they are. They look like sweet, sweet boys and I can't wait to own both of them somehow and have them fighting alongside each other. I mean, one of them looks really weird. I mean, his entire face is a shield but the other one is a doggo holding a sword. That is his entire identity. He is a sword-wielding doggo and I love it so much. It's so adorable. But not legendary status for me, not at all. And the trailer that they were introduced in, just two dogs in a field. They just look like normal pup pups in a field. Like, they look like the final evolution to a random dog Pokemon I would find within the game and it wasn't mystical, it wasn't magical, it was literally just two good doggos lost in a forest. I will say something that intrigues me about that clip though is they clearly got riled up by something. What's gonna worry them? What's gonna make them back up on their hind legs and get ready for a big fight? And yet, something seems to be coming in that trailer. There's something that they're ready to fight and that's what I'm interested about. Like, is it supposed to be us, the trainer maybe? But the whole, like, whispering of the wind tells me something bigger, something grander, maybe a third legendary? And I mean, it's fine. They are such good boys that I will definitely give them a pass as the legendaries. But then the next thing that I need to be a negative Nancy about is, is this the final cover art? I mean, I'm assuming it is, but it just looks really tacky to me. The logo looks off-center, the doggo looks off-center and both these drawings, these renderings of the legendary dog Pokemon, they look just average. I was gonna say bad, but I guess average. They look like fan art. I mean, the sword doggo doesn't even look like he's actually got that sword in his mouth and the sword looks like it's made out of squished gummy bears. Like, it just looks pudgy and not, like, good. It, like, it looks like 16 year old me saw this trailer and did his best at drawing the doggos based on what I had just seen and then they slapped that on the cover art for the game. Like, maybe I'm wrong. It just looks like one of the weaker cover arts to me and it looks, it looks fan made. Obviously, that's not a make or break for me. It just doesn't look good. Speaking of Pokemon, we did get introduced to a few new ones. Looked like they've gone back to their roots a lot. I mean, the sheep is just a sheep and a lot of the first generation of Pokemon, they kind of just looked like whatever animal they were supposed to be. I mean, Starmie was literally a starfish. Psyduck was literally just a duck and I mean, later generations started getting really weird and taking a lot of liberties with the animals they initially were, but that sheep is just a sheep and I really liked him. I thought he was adorable and it reminded me of the first generation. He looks like he would belong with it. But then the other one I really, really liked was the crow. The armored night crow. Usually I'm not that into the bird Pokemon. I don't know why I'm just not a bird guy, but he looked freaking cool, man. Like, I can't wait to catch that bird and evolve him and see what he turns into because he honestly looked badass. I can't tell you how heavy this cat is getting and honestly, I'm just really excited now. Wild Pokemon and Let's Go Evie and Pikachu were great, but I knew all of the Pokemon already. I mean, it was the first generation. It was cool to see them in the wild, but I kind of knew what to expect and where to expect it. But this new generation of these all new crazy Pokemon I haven't seen before in the wild, popping up in bushes and, you know, depending on the seasons and the time of day different Pokemon, that is just really, really exciting. And I cannot wait now to buy it. Like, I've literally gone from just being okay to I cannot wait to buy this Pokemon game. I would love to know your thoughts. Did this do anything for you? Did it change your mind on the game? Change your perception of it? Did it make it worse? Did it make it better? Please let me know down below. I'm going to get that double pack just so Kim can play one and I can play one. I am totally, totally playing the sword because I want that sword doggo. Apparently Simon really wanted to join me for this video. So from Simon and me, we wish you a very, very merry midweek. I hope you have a fantastic rest of it and a great weekend. And I hope that you love the Pokemon news as much as I did and I'm sorry if you didn't truly like this video. If it was something that you liked, I can't have flipped because I tied my hair up. So just subscribe, I guess. What you want to say, Simon? What you want to say? You want to say goodbye? Bye from Simon. See ya.