Pokemon Sword and Shield's starting town Galar is as British as the Queen eating toad-in-the-hole

(Image credit: The Pokemon Company)

Pokemon Sword and Shield art director James Turner gave us a sneak peek of Galar a few days back, showing off "how pretty the countryside of the UK can be". Now we can revel in the quaint British countryside even more courtesy of a teaser shared by The Secret Club of Pokemon Sword and Shield

"The Pokemon Sword and Shield 'Secret Club' in Japan has uploaded a new look at the games' starting town!" tweeted Pokémon site, PokéJungle. "A Chinese user extracted it from the site and we are sharing with you all here :) What do you think!?"

Complete with water features and birdsong, our first glimpse of Galar has a decidedly British look about it, and as many fans have noted, the buildings seem to actually scale now, too. The NPCs appear a little stiff, granted, but watch closely, and you'll see them turn and smile at you as you walk by.

As Jordan said at the time, there's a lot more to Galar than the picturesque scene depicted in Turner's wonderful artwork, of course. There's also snowy mountains, contemporary cities, sprawling plains, dark caves, and more. November 15 really can't come soon enough, can it?

The Pokemon Company recently revealed that Galarian Ponyta is going to be exclusive to Pokemon Shield, joining a few other Pokemon Sword and Shield exclusive variants. The "Unique Horn" Pokemon was revealed in the 24-hour Pokemon Sword and Shield livestream earlier this week, which showed footage from the forest area in the Galar region known as Glimwood Tangle. 

Here's your guide to every Pokemon we know about in Pokemon Sword and Shield.

Vikki Blake
Weekend Reporter, 12DOVE

Vikki Blake is 12DOVE's Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter. 

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