Pokemon Sword and Shield Trailer Showcases New Team, Rivals, and Galarian Versions of Pokemon

No matter what region of the Pokemon world you're in, it seems there's always a motley crew of evildoers to take on. This morning, Game Freak and the Pokemon Company debuted the Galar region's Team Yell, as well as some new rivals and Pokemon.

Team Yell is the Galar region's version of Team Rocket, except this Team is based around a fandom obsession for its one Pokemon trainer, Marnie. All of Team Yell seems to adorn their faces with paint and dresses in Marnie's punk-goth style. Their main objective is to see Marnie become the Pokemon Champion and prevent other challengers from doing the same.

Marnie is one of your ongoing rivals in Pokemon Sword and Shield, aiming to become a Champion of the Galar region herself. She garnered a fandom thanks to her sense of style and battle strategies. Your other rival is Bede, a skilled Pokemon trainer who has an endorsement from Chairman Rose. But his character bio hints that he might have other objectives besides just a Championship.

Accompanying Marnie is one of the new Pokemon announced today, Morpeko, a form-changing Pokemon. It can swap between Fully Belly and Hangry mode. According to the Pokemon blog, Morpeko is constantly generating elecricity, which means its always hungry. When it uses an ability called Hunger Switch, it swaps between the two, which makes Morpeko's Aura Wheel also a different Type move depending on its mode.

The Galar region also gets some special forms of older Pokemon, much like the Alolan forms from Pokemon Sun and Moon. Weezing's Galarian Form gets a smokestack hat, while Zigzagoon and Linoone's Galarian Forms take on a black-and-white pattern. Also unique to Galar is a new evolution for the Galarian Linoone called Obstagoon, which transforms Linoone into a bipedal "Blocking Pokemon."

It's a smaller info dump than the last video, which revealed Gigantamaxing and several other new tidbits, but it's cool to see what the rivals look like this time around. Marnie is probably already inspiring a fandom outside the Sword and Shield world.

Pokemon Sword and Shield is due on November 15 for the Nintendo Switch. If you want to read up on the development of this new Pokemon entry, be sure to check out our interview with the developers at E3 2019.