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My farfech'd evolved like right after I got it, lol. Fought Hop with it. I got half my team I planned on now. Corvisquire (Eventually gonna be a Corviknight), Drednaw, and Sirfetch'd. The other members of my team are temporary.
Edit: I now have all of my team except Dracovish. I found a dreepy in a max raid. It's kind of just going to be sitting in the party gathering EXP for a while... Apparently the fossils are version exclusive so I can't get dracovish but there is a chance some NPC may have them. So, in the meantime I'll use Arctozolt
It's alright. It's pretty underwhelming for a Pokemon game.
Some Galarian Pokemon were great though, like Cinderace and Hatterene.
What I really liked though, were the stadiums. I really liked how they started to cheer and chant when the Gym Leader was down to their last Pokemon. It really hyped up Dynamaxing. Marnie's also a pretty cool character. I think I like her more than Lillie, but it's a shame the rivals (other than Hop) didn't get much screentime.
Given more time, I feel like SWSH could've been a really good Pokemon game. I kinda don't want them to make a barely enhanced version/"alternate universe" game like they did with SM and USUM (which should've been the same game to begin with), but I kinda want to see the game improve a bit at the same time. But in the end, I think I'd rather see DPPT remakes on the Switch like this rather than another USUM situation.
Also, I think I wanna see Cinderace in Smash. That Pyro Ball move has such a cool animation.
I MIGHT replay this game again but as default Victor/Gloria instead, now that I know what to expect. There's just something offputting to me about customizing the protag to self-insert myself into, when simply controlling the character already does that. I really hope there's patches or DLC waves or something to this game though.
This game is kinda easy, lol. I had enough xp candies to level up my dreepy all the way to a dragapult. He's so overpowered right now. I decided to box him and use dracovish and arctozolt instead. Arctozolt I'm using as special based but I probably should have looked up it's stats first. I like my team right now. But I need gigantomax Drednaw to complete it
Sirfetch'd "Zero ***" (Dux with an F. The facial expressions of his line fit the name )
Boltund "Sausage" (Fit better as a Yamper)
Grimmsnarl "CrotchGoblin" (I watch too many Entitled Parents videos on YouTube lol)
Pretty happy with my team so far. Still planning on adding more members soon. Maybe Falinks, Dracovish, or Dragapult, but we'll see about that.
Speaking of Dracovish, I don't think they're version exclusive, I think certain pieces just have higher odds depending on the version. I've only found Zolt's head so far in the Dusty Bowl. (I have Sword.)
Pokemon HOME won't be out until 2020, which I wasn't even aware of until I tried looking it up and was confused when I struggled to find anything,. lol
That pretty much clenches it. I'll wait for the service to release before I reconsider picking up a copy of Shield/Sword.
this seems like a place where i could ask...have anyone been able to find a Ralts yet? if so where can i find it? and what weather should i keep a eye on?
i been looking everywhere but with no success yet >.<
and i just really want my Gallade since it is 1 of my fave pokemon.
this seems like a place where i could ask...have anyone been able to find a Ralts yet? if so where can i find it? and what weather should i keep a eye on?
i been looking everywhere but with no success yet >.<
and i just really want my Gallade since it is 1 of my fave pokemon.
this seems like a place where i could ask...have anyone been able to find a Ralts yet? if so where can i find it? and what weather should i keep a eye on?
i been looking everywhere but with no success yet >.<
and i just really want my Gallade since it is 1 of my fave pokemon.
Ralts can be found in the following areas of the Wild Area: Rolling Fields, Rollings Fields Area 2, North Lake Miloch, South Lake Miloch, Watchtower Ruins, and West Lake Axewell.
The catch: Ralts appears in most of these areas only if the weather is foggy. Foggy weather in Dappled Grove and Rolling Fields are the locations where it has the highest appearance rates in the wild, whether it'd be in the overworld or a grass encounter. As for the other locations listed, it's considered to be quite a rare Pokemon to catch under foggy weather. Another issue is that foggy weather isn't unlocked until the postgame.
Ralts does appear in the Rolling Fields if the weather is overcast though (a weather condition that can be accessed from the start of the game), but it will be a rare chance as an overworld encounter. When it appears in the overworld, it can be a bit tricky to find, especially with Bunnelbys running around that can make it easy to confuse it with a Ralts at times. A Ralts in the overworld will also try to run away from you if it spots you. Thus, you will need to be patient if you get overcast weather in the Rolling Fields and walk around the grass until you hear a Ralts cry. Then, slowly approach the Ralts so that you don't catch its attention or the other Wild Pokemon.
I am speaking about this from experience because Gallade is my favorite Pokemon, so I wanted to catch one to add to my story team; thus, I had to do some research on how to obtain a Ralts in SwSh. It took me some time to activate the right weather condition to obtain the one needed to have Ralts appear by playing with the Nintendo Switch's date & time features, but I eventually managed to get overcast weather in Rolling Fields, and that was how I was able to catch the Ralts I wanted. I'm not sure if the weather that day applied to all SwSh copies, but I set the clock on my Switch to the day before the games released (November 14), and that was the day that finally got me overcast weather in Rolling Fields. You can try to set your Nintendo Switch's internal clock to November 14 and see if it triggers the overcast weather in Rolling Fields; if not, just set the Nintendo Switch's clock to March 1: that will cause all areas of the Wild Area to become overcast, which will allow you to find Ralts in the Rolling Fields.
(Yes, setting the Nintendo Switch's to the 1st of a specific month unlocks a specific weather condition, as this video explains. I only learned about this specific trick after I caught my Ralts).
On a different note, you will probably want to know where you can find a Dawn Stone to evolve Gallade. A Dawn Stone can be found in the overworld in the Giant's Cap area of the Wild Area, specifically by a large rock surrounded by wild grass near the Lake of Outrage. Dawn Stones are also hidden spawns in the Lake of Outrage, but that area can't be reached until you upgrade the Rotom bike so that it can surf. You can also get Dawn Stones from the Digging Bros (they can be found near the Pokemon Nursery in the Wild Area); the digging bro on the left has a chance of finding Dawn Stones for you. That digging bro was how I got my first Dawn Stone.
Should've figured the games have their own thread, at least I won't have to spam the Social thread now.
I've been spamming Wonder Surprise Trade for a while now, in hopes of getting either Shield exclusive or starter mons. Got a Sobble which would've been nice, except for the fact that it was also my starter. I really miss the GTS, especially because I don't know anyone who has Shield an online.
At least all that trade spamming fills the Pokedex a bit.
i want to thank everyone for the advice! but i am very happy now!
i happen to walk into a high leveled Gallade by accident and well..i am the happiest dude right now!!!! :D
luckily i have all badges otherwise i might had to take a break from the game due to my disappointment lol
Appletun is a really cool Pokemon, but yeah, I wish I had one with a HA, lol. It's on my main team for now, but I might replace it with something better if I find another Pokemon I like more.
Playing through the game for the first time so I can give a fair assessment of it. I have Shield version, but I want to get Dracozolt for my team as soon as I can revive it. Anybody here with Sword version willing to trade me a Pokemon holding a Bird fossil so I can combine it with a Drake fossil? I can trade a Fish fossil in return, or any of the Shield exclusives once I find them in the wild.
They aren't exclusive, I can confirm that, though they are still much rarer and a pain to get because you can't reliably farm the digging brothers until postgame.
Pokemon Sword: Bird and Dino Fossils are easier to find.
Pokemon Shield: Fish and Drake Fossils are easier to find.
All fossils are obtainable regardless.
Anyways, I can't sleep, so I'm probably gonna play some Pokemon. Gonna be taking my three boxes of end game raid boss Pokemon and see what I can do with them.
Can confirm they aren't version-exclusive, but if you want to get a combo that requires a half from a different version ASAP during the campaign, trading's really your most reliable method. Or you can spin the roulette wheel with the Digging Duo, which I really don't want to do unless I absolutely have to.
Finally beat Pokemon Sword last night, as well as the postgame story in it.
Honestly, I think it is a solid game, even with the whole Dexit controversy and some of the game's shortcomings that I often hear about. Sure it is far from the best Switch title out there, and some main series Pokemon games are better than it, but for what the game had to offer, I enjoyed most of it!
Figured I should do a review of the Gen 8 games, so I'll break down my review into four parts:
Region-wise, I like Galar quite a bit. The city and towns definitely left a big impression on me, feeling a lot bigger and thus more to explore in them this time around now that Switch can make them feel more like popular areas of residence. Motostoke and Hammerlocke were definitely my favorites, though I also enjoyed Stow-on-Side for the towns as well. The routes also generally felt nice to explore.
It also felt like Gamefreak was continuing something that was present in Alola: giving the region we explore its own identity and making us feel like we were part of it. I like how the Galar residents spoke British-English by using words like "telly" and "you lot" to reference the region Galar is based on, and the British sports culture was also present in Galar through the emphasis on Gym challenges. Good world-building there!
The Wild Area is absolutely genius: definitely my favorite part of the Galar region! The open-world aspect to it is what makes it so good, and I often found myself returning there to find more items, catch some Pokemon, and even collect some TRs. It's just that addictive to explore. Now, it would be great if Pokemon could go full-blown Open World in a future main series game, but for what the Wild Area is, it's a good start! If we do get DP remakes this generation, I would love to see a new area added to Sinnoh that replicates the feel of the Wild Area (perhaps an island that can be accessed in the postgame) because it's that fun and addictive to explore.
My only major complaints about Galar is that it's more linear than most regions when it comes to exploration. There's no incentive to return to old areas aside from the Wild Area and Route 2 after upgrading your Rotom bike. It also lacks a postgame area to explore. It felt like a downgrade in that depart coming out of Gen 7 (Alola had half of Poni island that led up to the Battle Tree as a decently big postgame area to explore).
I am very glad that Game Freak learned their lesson from the last generation when it came to revealing Pokemon during the prerelease days. They did not reveal too many new Pokemon/regional forms prior to release day this time around, unlike the pre Sun/Moon days where they revealed almost all of the new Pokemon and regional forms. This way, there were still plenty of new Pokemon that were left to discover on our own this time around (if you didn't follow the leaks that is). The amount of new Pokemon regional forms isn't too high, but it's not too low either. Basically Alola again when it comes to new Pokemon & regional forms.
In terms of the designs of the new Pokemon, Game Freak demonstrates quality over quantity yet again. Many of the Galar Pokemon look fantastic! I admit some of the Pokemon initially made me hesitant when I first saw them like Drednaw, Cinderace, and Toxel, but I warmed up to them after seeing more of them in action. Some Pokemon that didn't look pleasing in their basic stages get saved with their evolutions, notably Impidimp's evolution line (Morgrem looks wicked cool and is definitely one of my favorite middle-stage evolutions overall now, and Grimmsnarl looks epic). The rest of the Pokemon have great designs! The only Pokemon that I am disappointed with are Chewtle (looks way too derpy), Stonjourner (cool idea in that it's based on Stonehenge, but something about the design just doesn't click), Perserker (kinda dull design), Morpeko (dull design for a Pika-clone) Rolycoly's evolutions (they would've looked better if they had the orange eyes just like their basic stage has), and the fossils (I like the idea behind them, especially in regards to what they reference about Britain, but based on how they look, not my cup of tea)
My favorites of this generation are Intelleon, Sobble, Rookidee, Corvisquire, Corviknight, Centiskorch, Hatterene, Hattrem, Hatenna, Morgrem, Grimmsnarl, Sirfetch'd, Toxtricity, Alcremie, Indeedee, Dragapult, Zacian, and Zamazenta. Who are my absolute favorites out of all of them? I'll get to that later in the concluding thoughts.
Pokemon Camping is the Gen 8 version of Amie/Refresh, and in some ways, it may just be the most engaging one yet. Rather than interacting with one Pokemon at a time, your entire party joins you for the camp, and you get the opportunity to interact with all of them this way. I wish the camping feature gave you more variety of toys to choose from: all you have to play with your Pokemon are the feather and the ball and that's it. You do get new toys as you upgrade your Curry dex, but the new toys are just different variants of the ball. Cooking curry is pretty fun though! I love how the Switch's motion controls come into play for the cooking aspect; the stirring part of it even reminds me of cooking Poffins from the DP games (perhaps that part about Pokemon Sword/Shield might actually be a Sinnoh remake hint?), which was something I enjoyed back then. The fact there is a massive variety of curry dishes to cook gives you a lot to do with that, and I also really enjoyed seeing how my Pokemon reacted to the curry I made!
The bike now being this Gen's version of Surf/Lapras Ride is a really nice touch! I really hope to see that in future games from now on. It makes things more convenient! I think it'd be cool to give the bike more HM-like features like a front razor for something like Cut, two heavy fist-like objects in the front to mimic Strength, or even add some stronger lights to navigate areas that could require Flash or Defog. Maybe we could see the bike accessing those HM-features in the Sinnoh remakes (I could totally see the bike being upgraded to utilize areas that would require Rock Climb).
SwSh give you a lot of customization options too. Trainer customization is a big improvement from the previous generation. I'm especially happy that version exclusive clothes are no longer a thing. Thank goodness! I also like how you can now view which hairstyle you can get before you proceed to get the haircut you want, unlike the last gen where you had to look online if you wanted to know what hairstyle you want. Some other minor customization options like bike outfit and camping tent were also neat touches.
The League card was definitely the main highlight of the customization the game gives you. There are so many ways you can customize your League card from the backgrounds, to the pose, to the facial expressions, and even the holographic details. You can make the League card that looks right for you, and being able to share card to others is great! It's definitely one of my favorite new additions of this generation, and I hope that future main series games will implement this feature as well!
The fact you can no longer turn off Experience Share was something I was worried about at first, but it turned out it wasn't as overpowering for my team as I thought it would be. It was only when I got sidetracked by the Wild Area during the story at certain parts did the Experience Share make my team more overleveled than expected, particularly by the 6th Gym. Otherwise, if I just played the story without getting sidetracked by Wild Area exploration, I probably would've been just slightly over-leveled like I was in the first 5 gyms.
In terms of difficulty, yeah, this is definitely one of the easiest games in the series. I personally found X/Y to be much easier, but it's definitely a step back in difficulty when compared to Alola. Most of the Gym Leaders didn't give me too much trouble except for Raihan (really happy to see a Double Battle for a Gym Leader battle again considering the last time this happened was Tate & Lisa in Gen 3), and even the final fights weren't too difficult except for Eternatus and Leon, whose team had a sudden spike in level increase to the point most of his team was close to my teams levels (his Pokemon even had type coverage; I won't forget his Haxorus outspending my Grimmsnarl and OHKOing it with Iron Tail, or his Gigantamax Charizard using G-Max Airstream to outspeed my Dyanamaxed Intelleon on the next turn and KOit with G-Max Overgrowth; those two things definitely caught me off guard).
Oh, and I can't forget about Dynamaxing! Making Pokemon giant isn't the most appealing idea out there when we already have some giant 'mons, but the Gigantamax forms for some of them at least make up for it to some extent. I don't know if I want to see Dynamax/Gigantamax being continued though. Z-moves and even Mega Evolution felt more balanced in terms of "making Pokemon more powerful in battle" battle mechanics compared to it. Dynamax/Gigantamax feel the most broken so far thanks to the massive HP boost they give to the Pokemon and basically giving them access to multiple Z-moves at once during battle: a Dynamaxed Mimikyu from the rental Tough Team makes the Battle Tower super easy from my experience using it.
Speaking of Dynamaxing, Max Raid battles are okay. They are fun when working together with actual players, but rather meh when working with CPUs (especially when some of them use basic-stage Pokemon like Magikarp and Togepi). I really like the awards you can get out of them, and that's what makes me revisit this feature a lot.
It's nice to see Game Freak is working on making the competitive meta game more accessible players though: the Nature mints are great for changing Pokemon to the nature you want them to have rather than relying on RNG 100% of the time, and allowing Pokemon to gain Egg moves just by interacting with one that has those moves in the daycare is convenient. I also love the addition of the Exp candies; it's easy to get tons of them by grinding in Max Raid battles, and those same candies make leveling up a Pokemon to Level 100 much easier now (thus meaning that Hidden Training is more accessible now, especially with Bottle Caps now being Battle Tower rewards).
This next part contains story spoilers for the entire game, so for those that don't want to be spoiled, read at your own risk!
This game's story feels more like the common Pokemon story we are used to, with a dash of Sun/Moon's story here and there in terms of the twists. Sword and Shield's story-telling isn't as good as the last generation's (Sun/Moon that is; the less said about USUM, the better), but it still had a decent story in my book. There are some high points in the story, though there are some notable low points as well.
The cast of Sword and Shield is arguably the main highlight of this generation's story. There's a lot of great characters in this game! Most of the Gym Leaders make appearances in the overworld at some point in the story, and their League cards help explain more about their characters. There really wasn't a single Gym Leader I disliked or didn't care for off the top of my head. I liked most of them. My favorite Gym Leaders were definitely Piers and Raihan. I will go more into Piers later, so I will talk about Raihan for now. Raihan is a really fun dude! I love a good narcissist, and his whole selfie-taking shtick presented quite a colorful side to him (especially when he takes a selfie in the middle of Gigantamaxing his Pokemon). His rivalry with Leon and the interactions we have with him in the overworld were great as well!
Opal also surprised me too: I initially expected her to be a basic old-granny archetype, but I ended up enjoying her character a lot! Her overworld moments were pretty good like her encounters leading up to her Gym Battle, and her search for a successor presented a nice and funny side to her In fact, the scene when she scouts Bede and decides to make him her successor to the Ballonlea Gym is my favorite moment in the entire story. Really funny moment! Kabu is another favorite of mine because of his mannerisms as a person and in battle, as well as the fact he sends you off as you begin traveling for the 4th Gym (that was quite touching considering how he is noted to be a lot of Gym Challenger's roadblock in the plot, so beating him means a lot story-wise, and he is aware of that).
The rivals were solid this time around. I've seen a lot of hate being directed towards Hop, and while I can see where the criticisms come from, I think he is far from the worst rival in the series and a big improvement from Hau. Hop has an active presence in the story with a pretty good character arc too. I really liked seeing development from someone who wants to become the Pokemon champion like his brother to someone who decides to take a different route in his journey in the postgame. The inner conflict he faces at certain parts were also nice touches; I especially liked how his team changed around in the middle battles to highlight how he was unsure how to become strong following his crushing loss to Bede, and his losses to Sordward/Shielbert in the postgame highlighted that he felt bad upon seeing his dream of becoming champion being dashed away). In all, he's a decent character. If there is one thing I would do to improve Hop, it would be to lessen the amount of battles and encounters we have with him; that would help give the next character I want to talk about.
Marnie was an okay character/rival. Cute design and nice personality, but out of the three rivals, she was my least favorite. She didn't leave much of an impression on me compared to the other two. She didn't have that engaging of a character arc. Her goal is noble in that she wants to become the Champion to improve her hometown's reputation, but the arc never really went anywhere. I did like her interactions with Piers and how her League cards explain how her Morpeko helped her grow out of being a crybaby, but in the end, she's just a rival I feel okay to indifferent on. Far from my least favorite or most forgettable, but not one I can say I care much for. If I had to improve her character, I would remove some of the Hop battles (mainly most of the early game ones) and replace them with more Marnie battles. Out of the three rivals, she was the one that I think needed some more story presence, particularly the early game.
Bede is my favorite of the three rivals. We finally have our first true jerk rival since Gen 2, and honestly, I'd say he is my favorite out of all the jerk rivals we got. He is very snobby and arrogant in the initial encounters to the point you want to beat him in a battle, and eventually, you see him getting the ultimate punishment when Chairman Rose disowns Bede and revokes his Gym Challenger status for trying to destroy a historical landmark in Galar. When you learn that Bede was originally an orphan who was adopted by Rose and got his endorsement from him, it explains why he was so snobby: Rose's influence lead him to thinking he was the chosen one of sorts, which in turn is why he is such a jerk when we first encounter him. When he is eventually scouted by Opal and becomes the new Ballonlea Gym Leader, Bede realizes that Rose and Oleana eventually started to use him to further their goals. I also like how he interrupts the Pokemon League finals just to fight you and put his career of Pokemon battling on the line as a way of trying to escape Opal's boot-camp like training, which was a good way of showing his initial acceptance with Opal's intervention eventually turned to disagreement. What he learns from the fight after you beat him there was a good way of wrapping up his character arc.
As for some other prominent characters, Professor Magnolia was just a basic Pokemon professor. She felt like a step down from Professor Sycamore and Professor Kukui, both being my favorite Pokemon professors in the series. Sonia was a surprise for me. I initially didn't care much about her in the prerelease days and had the impression she was just a basic nice girl, but I ended up liking her a lot by the end of the story. I especially liked how she was basically journeying the region alongside you, only her reasons for journeying were to learn more about Galar's history. Her becoming the new Pokemon professor was quite the nice payoff, and I think her moments in the postgame story were just as good. I only wish they actually showed Sonia interacting with Nessa instead of telling us they are close friends. Leon ended up being a fun character too. Many seemed to think he would be one of the villains, but I did not. He is a nice dude who shows a lot of care and is a bit of a dork with his bad sense of direction. When trouble arises in Galar, he also does his best to solve the issue on his own while encouraging you to continue doing the Gym Challenge, which shows that he cares about helping the region when it matters. The dude even highlighted how flawed Rose's evil plan was!
Now for the villains: Team Yell serve as the villainous team of this game, but they never felt that evil or threatening. I like how they are based on the kind of sports fans that cause trouble, but they never really take anything too far in this game other than just blocking destinations along the way or trying to disrupt Gym Challengers in some way. It would've been cool to see them go on a rampage if Marnie lost at a Gym Battle, and then you and Marnie had to clean up the mess they caused; those are the extreme kind of sports fans I'm aware about, and I think if Team Yell acted more like them, they could've been pretty neat. In the end, they ended up feeling like a far inferior version of Team Skull, who at least did more threatening things like take over a town to claim it their base of operations (not to mention they overall had much more personality and charm).
The one good thing I will say about Team Yell is their leader: Piers!
EASILY my favorite character in Sword/Shield! You can tell that he is quite caring older brother to Marnie because of the fact he formed Team Yell to have them cheer for her, but even he is aware that Team Yell shouldn't push things too far. There's also some conflict he faces: on one hand, his town is unpopular because it lacks a Power Spot for Dynamaxing, so he just wants to boost his town's popularity, hence why he seems to be all for Marnie becoming a successful Pokemon Trainer and eventually overtaking the Spikemuth gym. Yet, he also does not seem like Dynamaxing, and he would prefer showing off a more authentic style of battling to his foes. In the face of Gym Leaders that love to go all out with Dynamaxing, Piers likes to break the Galar norm in that regard (Raihan even notes that he almost beat him in the Pokemon League finals with that in mind), and that makes him cool! Did I mention he is the first Dark-type Gym Leader in the series, and he has an amazing battle theme too? Yeah, those two things make him that much cooler!
This was another favorite moment of mine from the story:
I LOVE how he brings in Team Yell to help you confront Oleana and Rose later in the story. I think this is the first time a villainous team collectively helps you beat a greater villain, and you can think Piers for that! I also loved how he helped you out in stopping Sordward and Shielbert in the postgame, and his smack talk on those two jerks was quite satisfying.
Honestly, Piers may just be my new favorite villainous team leader in Pokemon. His character and role in the story is just that good! Now, I'm aware calling him my favorite villainous team leader may be an odd thing to say. He is the least villainous team leader in the series to the point he doesn't feel like a villain, as he never really does anything that villainous other than not keeping a close eye on some things that Team Yell does. Yet, he is the leader of this game's main villainous team, so I guess it'd be appropriate to call him such. If not, Cyrus is still my favorite as far as traditional villainous team leaders in Pokemon go.
We now meet Macro Cosmos: they are the Aether Foundation of this game, in that they initially seem like a good organization but later turn out to be the real antagonistic faction. It turns out not all of them are evil though: only the ones that serve Oleana are. We technically feel the presence of this company through Chairman Rose and his secretary Oleana throughout the story with the "grunts" (if you want to call them that) managing the stadiums and parts of the Wild Area. We don't meet the bad members of Macro Cosmos until the Rose Tower part of the story, which happens right around the near end of the plot, kicks in. Around that point, we learn that Chairman Rose is the real antagonist of the story, and so is Oleana. This is probably a good point to talk about the two of them.
Many expected Oleana would turn out to be evil. I was among them; she gave that stoic and heartless attitude from the prerelease footage we saw of her. Game comes out a few months later, and whoop-te-do, turns out she is a major antagonist. It also turns out she is pretty crazy, which did not surprise me either. She basically just does all she can to help Chairman Rose, and she does help you gain access to the Power Plant later in the story when the Dynamax Pokemon go awry because of Rose awakening Eternatus. There really isn't much else to say about her. She is underwhelming. I heard somewhere that she grew up in poverty and her Garbodor was her first Pokemon since it was a Trubbish, and Rose found her and jumpstarted her career, but I am yet to come across dialogue in the game that states this. If it's true, I guess that would improve my opinion about her as a character. She at least has a pretty good battle theme; reminds me of Lusamine's theme in some aspects.
Now for Chairman Rose: I heard a lot of speculation about him being the main villain in the prerelease days. I honestly thought it was too good to be true, so I went with the belief that he was actually a good guy and that Oleana was the real villain who was pulling the strings. My reaction when I learned he was the real villain was a mix of surprise and no surprise because of it. His main motivation is to awaken Eternatus so that he can supply Galar with enough Dynamax energy needed to keep the region afloat for eternity, thus solving an energy crisis that was supposed to cripple in 1000 years from the time the games' take place, even if it means throwing Galar into disarray. Some may think this goal of his stupid, but it has some realism going for it when you apply it with the real-life issue of Earth's fossil fuels eventually running out and could thus spell the collapse of human civilization when it happens, thus leading to some to start pondering ways to combat it. Thus, I think Rose's villainous motivation makes sense.
As a twist villain, I like that the game showed more of his good side this time around to startle us when the truth was eventually revealed. Some say that his true goal came out of nowhere, but I think it was foreshadowed rather well. Bede looking for Wishing Stars was the earliest foreshadow of this reveal, and by the time he tries to destroy Stow-on-Side mural to find more Wishing stars, it is there we start to learn about a problem that has been bugging Rose. The events in Hammerlocke also foreshadow what would eventually happen.
What I think could be improved about him is if there was some villainous parts to him and have those aspects sprinkled into the earlier parts of the story, something like Lusamine's creepy smile after seeing Nihilego for the first time in Sun/Moon's story. I'd also to see the games expand on this part about Rose that he mentions when he disqualifies Bede from the Gym Challenge:
This quote gives me the impression that Rose too may have been an orphan once but found eventually success in battling and starting a business. Basically a "from rags to riches" kind of deal. I think it'd be cool to learn more about this part about Rose.
In all, Rose is a decent villain in my book. Not the best or worst villain in the series: just an okay one, though there is a chance my opinion about him will improve as time goes on because I seem to warm up to him the more I see try to find his appeal. He's got a really good battle theme too! It honestly sounds like something straight out of Dark Souls. It's that epic! Honestly, I'm not sure whether this or Piers theme is my favorite song in Sword and Shield because they are both such amazing songs!
The whole Eternatus scene and the legendaries coming to the rescue was pretty cool though. I am still trying to figure out what in the fact is Eternatus's Eternamax form supposed to be: is its true form a hand or is it five dragon heads?
As for the other aspects of the story, I can't comment much else since my commentaries on the characters cover a lot of the main parts of the plot, but I do think the pacing in the final moments of the story does feel a bit too fast. I feel like the entire part where you have to storm up Rose Tower and the meeting Rose has with Leon could've happened earlier to at least not make the ending events feel rushed. I do feel like the handholding tutorial aspect of the first moments in the story was more toned down and didn't last as long as it did in Generation 7, so I think Sword and Shield were improvements in that regard.
While it feels sad to not have an Elite Four in the story, I think it is also cool that the Pokemon League this time around is structured more like the anime where you fight trainers competing in the League in a single elimination format leading up to the Champion title.
The postgame story definitely feels underwhelming though: it's essentially just hopping from stadium-to-stadium to stop Dynamaxed Pokemon, with Sordward and Shielbert feeling quite underwhelming in regards to their motivations on top of having being annoying characters. The only good parts about the postgame story were Sonia, Piers, and how Hop's character arc developed. Other than that, I'd say this was as underwhelming postgame story thus far.
In all, Sword and Shield's story is okay. Great cast of characters that made the story engaging engaging, but the pacing towards the end and the postgame story could've been improved upon.
Sword/Shield were an enjoyable ride in my book! There were several new gameplay mechanics that caught my interest and a few that I did not care for. The story was decent with some memorable moments and also a few parts that could've been worked on. I feel like the game could've been made more difficult in some aspects, on top of having a better postgame. Most of the cast was pretty good though, with only a few characters that I just did not care for. The new Pokemon introduced were awesome, and Galar is a fun region to explore.
Favorite aspects from my experience playing Sword:
Favorite Galar Pokemon: I'll say Intelleon for now, but it could easily flip flop with either him, Hatterene, or Centiskorch
Favorite Character: Piers
Favorite Gym Leader: Raihan (this is not counting Piers)
Favorite City: Motostoke
Favorite Area of Galar: Wild Area
Favorite New Mechanic: League Cards
It's been a solid generation so far! If I had to rank Gen 8 with all the other generations, this is where it'd be. My favorite generations sorted from favorite to last favorite:
Gen 4 >> Gen 3 >>>>>>>>> Gen 7 >>> Gen 8 >>>>> Gen 6 >> Gen 5 >>> Gen 2 >> Gen 1
Yeah, it's my fourth favorite generation. Not as good as Generation 7 in terms of what it provided, but definitely a more enjoyable ride than Gen 6 and anything below that so far.
Even the whole Dexit controversy of Gen 8 doesn't affect me that much. I am not the kind of person who transfers Pokemon between generations that often; in fact, the last time I did such was bringing about 6 Pokemon from my generation 4 games to my copy of Pokemon Black back in the Gen 5 days. I probably would feel more affected if Gallade didn't make the cut, but since he and his evolution line did, I guess I got the lucky end of the stick when it came to Dexit.
Fun games overall!
As an added bonus, here's my League card code for those would like to have my nifty League card!
If it’s true, I’m worried. It seems like it could be true, and a download for a video of the interview on Google Drive was taken down because it “broke the terms of service,“ and a Reddit thread was taken down for being rude even though it wasn’t rude...
Does anyone here happen to have a Hidden Ability Farfetch'd or Applin? It's funny, I have all the Hidden abilities of the version exclusives NOT in my game but not one of the ones that are in it.
So, I was testing some stuff with Pokemon SwSh and long story short, can anyone help me to trade my Grookey over to my main save? Whoever does so can keep my second Gigantamax Pikachu as thanks. Thanks to the Switch account system, you can get unlimited amounts of them, provided you wanna invest the time.
Does anyone here happen to have a Hidden Ability Farfetch'd or Applin? It's funny, I have all the Hidden abilities of the version exclusives NOT in my game but not one of the ones that are in it.
So, I was testing some stuff with Pokemon SwSh and long story short, can anyone help me to trade my Grookey over to my main save? Whoever does so can keep my second Gigantamax Pikachu as thanks. Thanks to the Switch account system, you can get unlimited amounts of them, provided you wanna invest the time.
If it’s true, I’m worried. It seems like it could be true, and a download for a video of the interview on Google Drive was taken down because it “broke the terms of service,“ and a Reddit thread was taken down for being rude even though it wasn’t rude...
In addition to that, I also need a Sweet Apple to evolve my Applin into Appletun. Also a tradeback for Zamazenta's Dex data.
If anyone here could help, I could offer the following:
Sword exclusives
Tart Apple (up to 3)
Bird Fossil (up to 15)
Dino Fossil (up to 20)
Zacian tradeback for the Dex
)
at all.