Pokemon Sword and Shield Won’t Have HMs, Will Feature Autosave

More major changes will be heading to Pokemon Sword and Shield, but they're likely ones that many longtime fans will appreciate.

Pokemon Sword and Shield release in a little over a month at this point and new details on the latest titles in the long-running RPG series have continued to emerge ahead of that time.

In a new series of interviews from Game Informer, it was revealed that a long-requested feature will finally be coming to the series in Pokemon Sword and Shield. Yes, autosave will finally be implemented for the first time ever in the franchise, meaning that you won’t need to manually save any longer to ensure that your progress up to a certain point won’t be lost.

Director Shigeru Ohmori mentioned that this would occur in the game’s Wild Area saying, “It’s also saving in the background, which is something we previously didn’t do, so there’s quite a bit going on in there that is represented in the Wild Area.” That said, you can turn off autosaving as well if you want manual saves to be the only way to mark your progress.

Along with the advent of autosaves, it was also revealed that HMs will not be present this time around. If you’re unfamiliar with HMs, they are the specialized moves that you would teach your Pokemon in past entries that would have benefits outside of just combat. Cut, Fly, and Surf are some of the most well-known HMs that have been in the series since its inception.

Much like Pokemon Sun and Moon though, HMs will not be making a return in Sword and Shield. Planning director Kazumasa Iwao explained the decision by stating, “We didn’t have them in Sun and Moon, and this time around, we didn’t feel it really matched the concept, especially with the Wild Area and wanting to have this higher degree of freedom. The player can kind of choose how they want to engage with the gameplay. Having the more HM-based elements, we didn’t feel it really matched the game, so this time around they’re not in it.”

While some fans might not be happy with some of the changes in Sword and Shield, autosaving and the lack of HMs once again are two improvements I can get behind.

Pokemon Sword and Shield are set to launch on Nintendo Switch next month on November 15.