Pokemon Sword and Shield is giving players a new way to interact with massive versions of the Pokemon they’re already familiar with through a feature called “Max Raid Battles.” Multiple players can take part in these colossal fights against Pokemon who make use of the game’s similarly new Dynamax and Gigantamax mechanics, and even those who are new to the whole concept of a “raid” in games should be able to find them accessible. This feature was in the works prior to the release of raids in Pokemon Go, but the Max Raid Battles still took a bit of inspiration from the mobile game after seeing how popular the feature was.
Game Informer learned more about the Max Raid Battles and how they took a bit of direction from Pokemon Go by speaking to Sword and Shield director Shigeru Ohmori. The director pointed out that the feature was indeed in the works prior to the implementation in Pokemon Go and spoke about its influences.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“The initial concept of having cooperative battles against a Pokémon – the raid idea – came before raids were even implemented in Pokémon Go, but we saw Pokémon Go implement this raid feature and how popular it was for people to get together in the same space and enjoy these cooperative experiences,” Ohmori told Game Informer. “I think there was some influence like how in Pokémon Go, you don’t need to be a hardcore battler to enjoy the raid battles. It’s really easy to invite a friend. We wanted to have that element in Sword and Shield’s raid encounters as well.”
These Max Raid Battles weren’t called that in the beginning either. They originally had a more generic name like “cooperative battles,” Game Informer said, but the Pokemon Go influence allowed for a more recognizable name to be put in place.
Just because these battles will be accessible to newcomers in Sword and Shield doesn’t mean they’ll be easy once players get to the more difficult challenges. Planning director Kazumasa Iwao said that even as a veteran Pokemon player, he’s not always able to win.
“It starts out a little easier, then you can choose the difficulty based on how powerful your Pokémon are,” Iwao said. “Even for me, a seasoned Pokémon player, even if I go with one of the five-star Max Raid Battles, I can definitely run into situations where I’m not able to win.”
Pokemon Sword and Shield is scheduled to release for the Nintendo Switch on November 15th.
