Pokémon Sword and Shield might be switching up its saving mechanics when the game releases this November by introducing autosaves for the first time in the series history.
While it might sound like a natural move for the series on the Nintendo Switch, the feature’s introduction could severely impact some portions of the community depending on how it is implemented.
So, for the sake of arguments, let’s say that the autosave feature in Sword and Shield will be the game’s only save feature and that the game saves every time you enter a new building or exit a battle or wild encounter. Let’s also assume that this feature is mandatory and there is no way for you to turn it off.
If all of this is true, the autosave feature will be one of the worst things to ever happen to the Pokémon series—so let’s begin.
Why would this be a bad idea?
For starters, the autosave feauture would make competitive players work even harder to build favorable teams. A lot of trainers reset their games countless times to get a starter Pokémon or egg Pokémon with a specific nature to balance out their teams and to make them perfect.
If the game autosaves after selecting players’ Pokémon or after a Pokémon hatches, then the player would need to either completely wipe their save data and start again or hatch another Pokémon and pray that this time they get what they want to continue their game.
The same can be said for Shiny Pokémon and Shiny Chaining. If you screw up the chain and the game saves, or you cant soft reset a Legendary or Starter Pokémon until you get what you want, it makes the process of getting these Pokémon without cheating that much harder to get.
A lot of trainers also have a habit of saving just before important battles or Legendary Encounters, so if they fail to catch the Pokémon or lose the battle, then they can reset their progress and start over again.
The bigger picture
Of course, for casual players and players that don’t care about these portions of the game, autosaving isn’t a problem. Game Freak is also unlikely to remove a manual save function from the game, so some issues could be averted.
All these issues also stem from the fact we don’t know how such a system will be implemented into Sword and Shield. Until we get more information about the supposed system, or The Pokémon Company confirms its existence, there is nothing to really fear.
It could be a natural progression for the series and the right thing to do, but at this point, a small majority of the Pokémon community will always be looking for something to nitpick about the games and the series as a whole.
We’re looking at you, #BringBacktheNationalDex crew.
