New ‘Spirit Armor’ system introduced to the game which lets you equip armor or equipment that you have found

Spirit Armor adds different effects depending on the item and only one can be attached to a Pokémon at a time (but this is in addition to regular held items)

Some held items may be converted to Spirit Armor or at least gain the ability to serve as it; Never-Melt Ice is given as an example which will add an extra 10% chance of freezing an opponent
Another example Spirit Armor was given as a fiery necklace that changes an attack’s type to Fire
Similar to Z-Moves, some Pokémon will have exclusive Spirit Armor that can only be equipped by them, such as Mewtwo and the starting Pokémon
All three starter lines remain pure Grass, Fire and Water-type but, if equipped with their unique Spirit Armor, become Grass/Fairy, Fire/Fighting and Water/Ghost respectively
The games have a single wolf-like Legendary Pokémon as their mascot, but the Spirit Armor it wields will determine its type and attacks. In Sword it will be Dragon/Steel and in Shield it will be Ice/Steel.

Players can connect with others who have the opposite version to unlock the other version
The “wolf” Legendary cannot go into battle if it does not have any Spirit Armor equipped
There is definitely a connection to Kalos, with many characters re-appearing, but you cannot travel there