The recently announced Pokémon Gen 8 in Pokémon Sword and Shield introduce a whole new place, with a brand new attitude, and they’re hopefully the best Pokémon games to date.

The Pokémon series is enjoying a bit of a renaissance as of late, with Pokémon GO and Let’s Go taking the world by storm. With all of these new Pokémon fans, Nintendo is asking themselves, “How can we draw all of these new and returning players into Pokémon Gen 8?”

Pokémon Let’s Go sold players on a lighter, more familiar adventure. It took place in Kanto, the first region of the Pokémon series, and almost exclusively featured Gen 1 Pokémon. It was a cute, simple, and fun adventure. Now that Nintendo has those gamers’ attention, how do they keep them coming back for more?

Answering that question is not so simple, but there are some elements of the Pokémon games that, should they return, could make the Pokémon Gen 8 games even better than the Sun and Moon series.

The bar is high, as Sun and Moon made for a challenging and rewarding experience full of new interesting Pokémon designs, maps/locations, battles, and meta matchups.

They looked great on the 3DS, but now that Nintendo has signaled their deviance from using the tried and true handheld as their mainstay Pokémon money-printing machine, a lot of things are about to change for the Pokémon series.

With the last main-series Pokémon games in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon releasing in November of 2017, Game Freak has had a good amount of time to sit back and gather their thoughts on how they can improve their monster capturing formula for Pokémon Gen 8. And with any luck, these returning and new features will combine to give fans the Pokémon adventure their heart’s desire.

Wild Pokémon appearing in the field

Yes, I know that the trailer for Pokémon Gen 8 shows a wild encounter with a Pikachu being triggered without seeing the mouse Pokémon’s sprite in the overworld. It may be too late to add back in a wonderful feature from Pokémon Let’s Go, but if at all possible, bringing back overworld wild Pokémon would make things so much more convenient.

The Pokémon Let’s Go games coasted on easy mode for the majority of their main game content, but that doesn’t mean that all of the new features in the titles need to be scrapped. Overworld Pokémon allowed you to grind, capture, and shiny hunt without the frustration of encountering Pokémon that you weren’t looking for. Yes, it does take a bit of the challenge out of hunting for a specific Pokémon, but if something is more of a time saver than an easy button, I’m game for it in any RPG.

Evolutions/Mega Evolutions for prior Generations

One of the best parts about Gen 4 was the new evolutions for Gen 1 Pokémon. You mean Magneton evolves into a UFO cannon machine?! COOL! There is also an opportunity here for baby Pokémon in an evolutionary line. Am I the only one still waiting for a baby pre-evolution for Lapras?

I’ll never forget how excited I was when I saw Mega Evolutions of some of my favorite Pokémon like Steelix and Gyarados. I highly doubt Game Freak would skip out on adding in more Megas in Pokémon Gen 8, and as long as their character designs stay far away from anything resembling a Digimon, I’ll be happy.

Pokémon following you in the overworld

Pokémon Yellow introduced this concept in having Pikachu following you around and reacting to things like its status ailments, affection or frustration toward you, or even the spooky environments. Soul Silver and Heart Gold brought the concept of follow Pokémon back in a big way, as any given Pokémon in your party could now follow you around in the overworld if it was placed first in your party.

For a while, it seemed as though Game Freak had forgotten about this cute feature, as it wasn’t present in another title in the series, up until Pokémon Let’s Go. In Let’s Go, some of the Pokémon that are in your party could even be ridden, making for some hilarious and cute scenarios. My favorite to ride on was Aerodactyl. Imagine a giant dinosaur soaring overhead as you, a simple Poliwag trainer, are battling a Caterpie for low-level experience. While the trailer for Sword and Shield did not show any follow Pokémon, Nintendo could be waiting to reveal this feature.

Allowing motion controls to be optional

The motion controls in Pokémon Let’s Go were more than a pain: they made grinding, capturing, and resource preservation obnoxious. I get it, there are some of you out there that want to feel like you’re really throwing Poké Balls at wild Pokémon. For that, I’ll point you toward Pokémon Let’s Go, which bases the entirety of its gameplay off of the motion control gimmick.

For longtime Pokémon RPG fans, please, Game Freak, give us the ability to turn motion controls completely off. I know it’s the Nintendo Switch, and even when it’s handheld, the gyroscopic feature is pretty neat, but it makes for really difficult grinding and a frustrated player experience. It’s cute, and many will love it, but keeping motion controls optional on this Switch game will save many trainers time and energy.

3DS/Pokémon Bank trading

It’s likely that Nintendo will opt to have players trade their Pokémon from previous games using the paid Pokémon Bank service. Sure, it’s convenient and allows you to keep Pokémon from nearly all generations of your games in one spot.

However, if Nintendo decides that they love us enough, we could get a trade functionality between the Nintendo Switch and the 3DS. Pokémon Let’s Go allowed for one-way trades between the Switch and Pokémon GO games on mobile devices. If a phone or tablet can trade with the Switch, then why not a 3DS?

What features do you want to make a return in ‘Pokémon Sword’ and ‘Shield’?

The latest Pokémon adventures in Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield release for the Nintendo Switch late 2019.