So I know CRoll has posted saying nothing else, but I was reading through the thread and pulled out a few posts to reply too. I want to point out we are just as upset about this decision as a lot of you are, but there may be hope.
So umm, will Gen 8 OU just forever be Galar only mons, will smogon say fuck it and just allow everything or will we get like an unnoficial "unrestricted" ladder?
Smogon Leadership is currently discussing what to do regarding this decision going forwards. There will most likely be an OM which will have every Pokemon available, but it would not be called "Smogon OU".
But occasionally, I want to try some other Pokémon in my playthroughs than the ones the games place in my path. For instance, I love Ice-types, but decent Ice-types are rarely available until after the sixth Gym or so, so to use them in-game I trade over some bred ones from another game. And sometimes I look over the National Dex and think "Wouldn't it be fun to use this Pokémon in my next playthrough?" Currently, I'm going through Ultra Moon using Pokémon such as Tangela, Yamask and Combee, neither of which are native to Gen VII. But they are compatible with the games, so I could easily get them through online trade.
Sword and Shield will not let me have that same freedom in my casual play. If, say, Heracross isn't in the Galar Dex, I will never be able take it with me on my Galar adventure, no matter how many Heracross I transfer over to Home. I can't pick and choose freely from my previous-gen favourites anymore, but have to cross-check with the Galar Dex to see if I can play with it in glorious Switch graphics. That feeling of restriction will place a bitter taste in my mouth, even though I may fully be able to assemble many fun teams using only Galar Dex Pokémon. But it's exceedingly unlikely that the Galar Dex will have all the Pokémon I ever want to use in-game again. That unlimited pick-and-choose freedom I had in USUM will be no more. Sure, there are plenty of Pokémon I probably never would have used for in-game runs even if I could, but knowing that my options are restricted will be a negative experience in itself. Halving the number of available Pokémon will take away from the in-game variety we used to have.
Much like how CRoll plays, I like picking esoteric Pokemon to use in my play throughs. This limitation is somewhat irritating as some of the teams I have played in the past now cannot be recreated.
3. Can't buy the reasons: As for providing refining animations as well as balancing, I don't see much evidence. The animations look exactly as in the 3DS games, maybe with a different lighting. Not to mention Pokemon lack textures- I mean look at Incineroar in Smash Ultimate. Hopefully they'll improve upon it during development but we'll see. As for balancing, I'm not sure GF has a very different understanding of VGC than compared to players. If they want to balance it, they need to show some major buffs, such as movepools and ability updates, as well as some massive stat distributions. Buffing and nerfing mechanics such as Hail and Psychic Terrain should be considered too.
So here are my thoughts. I'm still picking this up because I can't wait for the wild zone as well as not minding the cut of Pokemon.
I don't understand the "Balancing" reasoning at all, when they have already specifically shown Pokemon like Vanniluxe and Butterfree. You know, those well known VGC powerhouses. We've already seen Pokemon like Tyranitar as well. The choices seem random at best currently.
ANYWAY:
I have not yet updated the OP with the NEW Pokemon,
Impidimp and
Yamper as they currently don't have proper web pages on the main website (which is a bit strange). Both of them are looking interesting, Impidimp's side view makes the model look tonnes better than what we initially saw from it. People are theorising that Yamper will evolve into the "greyhound" like Pokemon we saw on some of the advertising boards in one of the gym locations too. Impidimp is likely going to evolve into some form of Vampiric like demon I guess? Nessa appears to be Gym 3 as well (I'd be shocked if she was Gym 2 after Milo). Which fits with the route that I was expecting us to take going onwards.
The more I looked at the map compared to what the direct showed us, the more confused I ended up getting in terms of scales and the routing involved. Game Explain did a really good video detailing where most of the camera angles are at, but the views seen in game don't match the large overworld map we were given. There is an extra bridge in the lower "lake" zone of the Wild Area, as well as an extra river/lake near the three bridges which also isn't shown on the map. Similarly, there is a river shown to the west of the Dragon Castle building, which isn't on the map either. I think the Wild Area might actually be larger than initially shown on the map, even at its smallest size possible. Don't forget we we also have more traditional Pokemon encounters in caves and other locations too. So whilst I dislike having Pokemon in the overworld, at least there is still some "exploration" work required to track down the right weather systems and locations for a lot of Pokemon to spawn. I am however dismayed that Wingull made it into the game again :(
