PokéJourney: The Shirla Chronicles

PokeJourney: The Shirla Chronicles
Developer(s)	Game Freak, The Pokemon Company, Monolith Soft
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Nintendo Switch
Genre(s)	Action, Adventure, RPG
Series	Pokemon
Mode(s)	Singleplayer
Age Ratings	E +10 (ESRB), 7 (PEGI), A (CERO)
Media Included	Nintendo Switch Game Card, Digital Download

PokeJourney: The Shirla Chronicles is an action adventure game in the Pokemon series in development for the Nintendo Switch by Game Freak, The Pokemon Company, and Monolith Soft. The game will be directed by Junichi Matsuda and produced by Satoshi Tajiri.

Setting

This Pokemon game takes place in a world disconnected and unrelated to the other Pokemon games. The world is called Shirla (pronounced Sheer-la), a world where Pokemon can speak, communicate, and trade like humans do. Pokemon, and the animals and plants that are not Pokemon are all that inhabit Shirla. There are no humans and there never was, is, or will be on Shirla. The planet is Earth-like. The Pokemon that are man-made in the main series are made by mutation.

Plot

The story revolves around a male Totodile who is the equivalent of an 18 year old. He wishes to travel and he finally gets the permission to leave his hometown of Cotton Town. He heads out of town on his first and grand adventure. He wants to see the world of Shirla, but not abandon his home. This journey may prove more than just a experience of sight seeing.

Characters

There are total of 11 characters to use in the game total. Four characters are only temporary members and are not ment to permanently join the party.

Permanent Party Members

Name	Starting Species	Type	Description	Hometown	Area where member joined
Tidero	Totodile	Water	Main protagonist. Polite, intelligent, and curious. Has his father's fighting talents and egg moves.	Cotton Town	Cotton Town
Forrest	Treecko	Grass	Strong and silent. He and Tidero are unaware that they are cousins.	Cotton Town	Cotton Town
Gulf	Chimchar	Fire	Smart-alec and rude at times. Often starts fights with his words, but is first to admit his faults.	Arena City	Arena City
Geist	Ghastly	Ghost-Poison	Mostly causes harmless pranks. Underneath the pranks, would do anything for her friends.	Realmsville	Goldenrod Trail
Dusk	Zorua	Dark	Hangs in regret. Tends to keep to herself and doesn't say much	Melodia	Papaya Road
Pix	Eevee	Normal	Wants to be a fairy. However she does know a fairy type move.	Dazzle City	Dazzle City
Slade	Rockruff	Rock	Loyal and dedicated to a cause to a just end. He has a great sense of moral character.	Rockmine Village	Terra Path

Temporary Members

Name	Species	Type	Reasons for being temporary
Blaze	Charizard	Fire-Flying	He doesn't want interfere with his son's adventure. Leaves after seeing his son evolve and using two of his techniques.
Ace	Pikachu	Electric	He doesn't want his merchandise taken without payment. Becomes a vendor after leaving the party.
Whisk	Meowstic	Psychic	All as part of a diversion. He intended to force the party into servitude, but Dusk betrays him out of a guilty conscience.
Dravel	Excadrill	Ground/Steel	He wants to help build an area for Arena City's "Training Cave" outside the city.

Gameplay

Overall

This Pokemon title utilizes Pokemon type weaknesses and advantages, Egg moves, Abilities, and Evolution. It also utilizes open world mechanics similar to that of Xenoblade Chronicles X, and the very first Legend of Zelda title. Players are free to move around the vast world of Shirla and its towns, cities, villages, caves, woods, and even bodies of water like lakes, rivers, and even the oceans. Players fight enemies to grow and learn new attacks. You can shop with the town, village, city vendors, or the traveling merchant named Ace.

Pokemon of Shirla

This Pokemon title will feature Pokemon from all currently released "Generations" of Pokemon, including the new Alola region. Alolan forms of earlier generations of Pokemon and the Alolan forms' "shiny" will also make an appearance in Shirla. The Pokemon will be based off of their statistics from the base Pokemon games, but it will not be based entirely on the Alolan generation's statistics.

Evolution

Evolution is story based and is tied to a specific moment in the story. Each permanent party member can and will eventually evolve as the story progresses. All the permanent party members will assemble first before anyone of the party will evolve. The evolution, similar to the main Pokemon games, will get the party stronger with stats boosts and speed changes to be faster.

Combat

Enemies are encountered either by plot elements, exploring outside of towns, or as part of training and tournament fights in Dojo Village. Fighting happens when the camera shifts to a fighting combat viewpoint. Then, three active party members will begin the fight with the enemy force(s). For battle, statistics of the party members in battle are Attack, Special Attack, Defense, and Special Defense. These stats affect how much damage a Pokemon will do and take and work similar to newer mainline Pokemon games. The party members have their speed built-in and will change as they evolve, not as they level up. Attacks connecting are a matter of knowing how the attack works and if the target dodges, gets hit, or blocks the attack somehow. The party and foes have HP. To win the fight, drop the enemies HP to zero. If the whole party is defeated, it is a game over and will prompt players to continue or not. Continues will pick up where the selected save is left off, auto save or manually saved.

The attacks themselves have damage power that can increase as a Pokemon grows stronger and have types similar to Pokemon. Players can equip up four techniques per battle set-up. Unlike the main Pokemon games, Pokemon do not forget the moves they have learned, have no PP limits, and can discover combo techniques. The combo techniques can be traditional Pokemon combos like Sunny Day and Solarbeam, or team attacks. Team attacks are triggered when players use a technique that a party member calls for. Party members are aware of what technique is equipped on them and each other. 

Vendors

The Shirla vendors use a very durable stone that resembles a sunflower seed as currency. These crystal looking stones are called "Seedems" which get their name from putting the words "seed" and "gems" together. Give these to the vendors to purchase items and services. There are four types of vendors; item shops, inns, move tutors, and accessory shops. There are also Pokemon that are willing to help out with traveling.

Item Shops

These shops give out potions, status cures, gifts, Escape Ropes, and more. These vendors are present in every settlement that can be travelled to. However, there are two variants of item shops. General is where you can get a variety of items, but it will not contain everything to buy from in the item department. Specialty item shops offer specific item types and usually there's one per settlement. Specialty item stores carry a wider range of their specialty, but will cost slighty more Seedems. The traveling vendor Ace, is a general store merchant. Ace can discount some items on certain days and encounters.

Inns

The party members can all rest up here to recover to full HP and cure status problems. Inns are found in every settlement and fits within' the settlements' setting. Just pay enough Seedems and the party is good for the night.

Move Tutors

Tutors will instruct a party member of any move that a tutor can teach. The party member being taught must go on a mission for the tutor to teach the move. The missions vary by not only by the move, but the tutor as well. By finishing the mission, the move will be unlocked for the party member. The moves being taught are moves not learned from leveling up.

Accessory Shops

These vendors sell accessories that alter only appearances. The accessories vary from settlement to settlement. Accessories can range from stuff that anyone can equip to party member specific accessories.

Items

There are many different item types that players can pick up in the game. Restorative, Exploration, Power ups, Berries and Key Items.

Restorative

Restorative items are non-berry items that restore health, status effects such as paralysis, unnatural sleep, etc. These can be found in stores and lying around in places to be explored. Common item examples are Potion, Burn Heal, and Antidote.

Exploration

These items help out with exploring Shirla. These items performs tasks like escape from caves/dungeons and get away from foes. Such items examples are Escape Ropes, Smoke Balls, and Poke Dolls.

Power-Ups

These items boost stats. They either effect party members temporary or permanently. Examples of these items are HP Up, X Defense, and Mystic Water. Some can be held, others are used.

Berries

These items are berries. They have similar effects to restorative items. However, these can be used as ingredients for other items. Examples of berries are Oran, Pecha, Durin, and Leppa berries.

Key Items

These items are important to the story and/or mission. These items are used or removed based on the events of the game. These items vary on purpose.

Trivia

This Pokemon game is developed as a response for Pokemon fans who'd like to see a Pokemon game on the Nintendo Switch.