Pokémon Thread XXIX: Sword, Shield, and Spoilers

[Grif]

The bug sounds fairly serious too, potentially wiping your SD card if you run into it.

Gonna be a wait and see game for me, before buying.

[LaZodiac]

The bug, if it exists, only applies if you have auto save turned on. Just turn it off to be safe.

[Razade]

I've put about four hours into the game. The bug...hasn't effected me. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I haven't reached the first big city yet but I'll give some thoughts. Spoilered.

The bug, if it exists, only applies if you have auto save turned on. Just turn it off to be safe.

This is not true. If the bug exists there are people who have had it happen with Auto-Save off. It seems to happen more with Auto-Save being on but there are people reporting it with Auto-Save off. Most of the reports now are with Auto-Save off actually. So, if it's real we're still not sure what is causing it. It has nothing to do with Auto-Save, that's for sure. Here is the reddit thread compiling the issue.

Edit: It seems the reports have been well and truly inflated. It mostly boils down to the SD card and a good number of reports being from people with hacked Switches. It's been known that exFat formatting has caused problems with the Switch. This seems to be the problem effecting the legitimate and non-hacked Switches. If you have an SD card that is nor exFat formatted then you should be fine. No promises there, but that's the bulk of reporting.

My thoughts, however

Spoiler

Show

So. Much. Fun. The Wild Area is a blast, the raids are fun and I look forward to playing more with friends with the Gigantimax stuff. I've got some complaints. I'll do my best to give some initial thoughts.

Gameplay: It's Pokemon. If you've played any of the most recent games...then you're getting exactly what you expect. The animations are good but for a full 3D game with such potential income behind it...we could get some better animations for attacks. The leakers who showed absolutely no attack animations were lying, they obviously had them turned off as many claimed. But what we get isn't too special even with full animation. The game is...easy. I'm 4 hours in and I'm already almost level 20 with my main mon and with EXP share always on...leveling and general grinding are gone. The fact that I haven't even hit the first gym and could easily grind to level 20 is a problem for me, wanting more of a challenge. I shouldn't be on my first evolution without some serious over-leveling...which maybe I've done...but still. The Wild Area makes things a little too easy to grind.

Graphics: So yeah. The trees and general stuff is a little flat. It looks better than any other Pokemon game so there's that. It doesn't look as good as Dragon Quest 11 or Breath of the Wild in a lot of areas. It doesn't look bad. It doesn't look nearly as bad as so many on 4chan or other places wanted to claim it looked, but it's certainly closer to Fire Emblem: Three Houses than Dragon Quest 11. That's the overworld though. The in-battle animations are amazing, a little too amazing if you ask me. I looked over all the leaks and my only issue was every character and pokemon looked a little too bright, a little too smooth. Like they were made from plastic. That concern remains. The 3D models are really good, a little too good. They look fake they're so smooth and shiney and well animated. I could have used a little better graphics on the overworld and a little less over-processing for the pokemon themselves frankly.

Soundtrack: S'ok. I listen to podcasts and stuff when I play games so I honestly don't pay a lot of attention.

Pokemon: I'm 4 hours in and I have 34 out of 400 I know the Dex has. The Wild Area makes it easy to catch Pokemon. The spread is pretty wide. I'm already about 30% to what I'd like my final team to be and that's surprising.

The Gimmicks: Dynamic is SO. DANG. COOL. I don't care that it's just more HP and some special attacks. I don't care that Raids are just more HP battles. I like that I don't need to play with humans. I like that I get stuff for doing them on top of the Pokemon. They're fun. Adding more depth to them would be great but I know we'll see this feature dropped in the next Gen. Such is the life. Would mixing Mega Evolutions have made this better? Yeah. Would making Z-Moves work in Dynamax form have been cool? Yeah. In the end, Pokemon has always been about changing gimmicks.

The first Wild Area is quite large and quite extensive. There are higher leveled pokemon roaming around I can't catch because I don't have the badge. I know I defended it earlier but...throwing them a t me this early is a bit annoying. I'd have been more ok with it if they showed up later but in the first Wild Area? Come on. Camping is cool, making curry is an ok mini-game but noting too special yet. The watts you get are slim, so grinding will be...well. A pain but such is the life. The Wild Area shows that a fully open world Pokemon game is possible, but I think (so far) it is a good lesson on how not to do them rather than how to do a more open world game in the future.

The complaints: So cutting the Dex is a bummer. We all know that. No GTS is a huge bummer to me, as that's how I fill the Dex and just focus on enjoying the game without grinding. If I had home I'd have the Dex like...80% full by now. So I'm not too worried about getting any but the new Pokemon. Everything else will be a double. Which is cool, I'm at least doing the raids. As mentioned a lot of the issues the Leakers raised seem to have been manufactured. The weird popping in and out of trainers in combat doesn't happen in the actual game. The animations are fine. I honestly can't see any other complaint landing with me other than the game being fairly linear...but that's modern pokemon for you. The Wild Areas make up for the routes being short (they are) and more or less a straight line (they are).

As predicted, most of the complaints come from people hung up on their wife-pokemon not making the cut or based off partial information. I have no time for either.

It's been fun. It's been less hand-holdy than Sun and Moon but only by a small margin. I haven't even hit the first gym yet, but I'm taking my time to level and snatch up as many Pokemon as I can. People have complained that the main game is rather short. It's obvious to me that that's only if you rush to the very end as fast as you can. Otherwise...the game will take some time to chew through focusing on catching/filling up the Dex. Which is how I play.

If you're sitting on the fence, so far the game's been fun. As fun as X/Y at least. If you're not getting the game because of the Dex cut or because you feel Gamefreak lied to you about the animations (they didn't, you should actually look at their full and correctly translated interviews on using models), nothing I can say will sway you and that's cool. I don't really care if you don't get the game. Don't. You'll have to excuse me if I ignore anything else you've got to say though. Your obvious bias and lack of actual gameplay renders anything you have to say in the face of time spent in the game rather moot. If you're leaning on getting the game but are uncertain...honestly? Get it. The game's got a lot of heart to it even this early. Unless it majorly drops the ball later on, it's a good entry even with the few issues. Are there issues though beyond what's in the spoiler? Yeah. The frames are a little rough, not going to lie. Loading times between cutscenes too. Like, to an inexcusable level considering the hardware. The animation could be smoother over all as well, outside of combat, but such is the life.

The game gets a solid B+ from me. It's obvious even 4 hours in some things were rushed and Gamefreak is outside their element but they tried. They tried and it shows. It's absolutely, even this early in, better than Sun and Moon was at the same time stamp. Any improvement on what I feel was the worst game in the series to date is good. Here's hoping for some really awesome DLC and an even cooler remake for Gen 4.

I do want to take a small moment to say just how awesome the first town in. It's small and you don't get to roam much but I feel the culture of Galar more than any other game. It feels like you're in a place with its own history and that's great. If we get a Sinnoh with the same, or better, feel than...man. I will be so impressed. I hope we do.

[Aotrs Commander]

I think the thing you said about it being easy is the bit that concerns me most, espcially if they haven't added any difficulty settings. While I'm usually the last person to complain about games beign easy, Pokémon is one exception I prefer.

No GTS is also a bit off-putting, since I like to plan my team in advance, and in the absense of being able to bring stuff in from earlier games, trading with folk to get the Pokémon I want in my team from the start is the only way to do that.

[huttj509]

Edit: It seems the reports have been well and truly inflated. It mostly boils down to the SD card and a good number of reports being from people with hacked Switches. It's been known that exFat formatting has caused problems with the Switch. This seems to be the problem effecting the legitimate and non-hacked Switches. If you have an SD card that is nor exFat formatted then you should be fine. No promises there, but that's the bulk of reporting.

Is there an easy way for me to check what formatting my SD card has? I'm unfamiliar with some of the specialized computer terminology (while still being more comp literate than many folks, I'm just not specialized).

[deuterio12]

I've put about four hours into the game. The bug...hasn't effected me. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I haven't reached the first big city yet but I'll give some thoughts. Spoilered.



This is not true. If the bug exists there are people who have had it happen with Auto-Save off. It seems to happen more with Auto-Save being on but there are people reporting it with Auto-Save off. Most of the reports now are with Auto-Save off actually. So, if it's real we're still not sure what is causing it. It has nothing to do with Auto-Save, that's for sure. Here is the reddit thread compiling the issue.

Edit: It seems the reports have been well and truly inflated. It mostly boils down to the SD card and a good number of reports being from people with hacked Switches. It's been known that exFat formatting has caused problems with the Switch. This seems to be the problem effecting the legitimate and non-hacked Switches. If you have an SD card that is nor exFat formatted then you should be fine. No promises there, but that's the bulk of reporting.

My thoughts, however

Spoiler

Show

So. Much. Fun. The Wild Area is a blast, the raids are fun and I look forward to playing more with friends with the Gigantimax stuff. I've got some complaints. I'll do my best to give some initial thoughts.

Gameplay: It's Pokemon. If you've played any of the most recent games...then you're getting exactly what you expect. The animations are good but for a full 3D game with such potential income behind it...we could get some better animations for attacks. The leakers who showed absolutely no attack animations were lying, they obviously had them turned off as many claimed. But what we get isn't too special even with full animation. The game is...easy. I'm 4 hours in and I'm already almost level 20 with my main mon and with EXP share always on...leveling and general grinding are gone. The fact that I haven't even hit the first gym and could easily grind to level 20 is a problem for me, wanting more of a challenge. I shouldn't be on my first evolution without some serious over-leveling...which maybe I've done...but still. The Wild Area makes things a little too easy to grind.

Graphics: So yeah. The trees and general stuff is a little flat. It looks better than any other Pokemon game so there's that. It doesn't look as good as Dragon Quest 11 or Breath of the Wild in a lot of areas. It doesn't look bad. It doesn't look nearly as bad as so many on 4chan or other places wanted to claim it looked, but it's certainly closer to Fire Emblem: Three Houses than Dragon Quest 11. That's the overworld though. The in-battle animations are amazing, a little too amazing if you ask me. I looked over all the leaks and my only issue was every character and pokemon looked a little too bright, a little too smooth. Like they were made from plastic. That concern remains. The 3D models are really good, a little too good. They look fake they're so smooth and shiney and well animated. I could have used a little better graphics on the overworld and a little less over-processing for the pokemon themselves frankly.

Soundtrack: S'ok. I listen to podcasts and stuff when I play games so I honestly don't pay a lot of attention.

Pokemon: I'm 4 hours in and I have 34 out of 400 I know the Dex has. The Wild Area makes it easy to catch Pokemon. The spread is pretty wide. I'm already about 30% to what I'd like my final team to be and that's surprising.

The Gimmicks: Dynamic is SO. DANG. COOL. I don't care that it's just more HP and some special attacks. I don't care that Raids are just more HP battles. I like that I don't need to play with humans. I like that I get stuff for doing them on top of the Pokemon. They're fun. Adding more depth to them would be great but I know we'll see this feature dropped in the next Gen. Such is the life. Would mixing Mega Evolutions have made this better? Yeah. Would making Z-Moves work in Dynamax form have been cool? Yeah. In the end, Pokemon has always been about changing gimmicks.

The first Wild Area is quite large and quite extensive. There are higher leveled pokemon roaming around I can't catch because I don't have the badge. I know I defended it earlier but...throwing them a t me this early is a bit annoying. I'd have been more ok with it if they showed up later but in the first Wild Area? Come on. Camping is cool, making curry is an ok mini-game but noting too special yet. The watts you get are slim, so grinding will be...well. A pain but such is the life. The Wild Area shows that a fully open world Pokemon game is possible, but I think (so far) it is a good lesson on how not to do them rather than how to do a more open world game in the future.

The complaints: So cutting the Dex is a bummer. We all know that. No GTS is a huge bummer to me, as that's how I fill the Dex and just focus on enjoying the game without grinding. If I had home I'd have the Dex like...80% full by now. So I'm not too worried about getting any but the new Pokemon. Everything else will be a double. Which is cool, I'm at least doing the raids. As mentioned a lot of the issues the Leakers raised seem to have been manufactured. The weird popping in and out of trainers in combat doesn't happen in the actual game. The animations are fine. I honestly can't see any other complaint landing with me other than the game being fairly linear...but that's modern pokemon for you. The Wild Areas make up for the routes being short (they are) and more or less a straight line (they are).

As predicted, most of the complaints come from people hung up on their wife-pokemon not making the cut or based off partial information. I have no time for either.

It's been fun. It's been less hand-holdy than Sun and Moon but only by a small margin. I haven't even hit the first gym yet, but I'm taking my time to level and snatch up as many Pokemon as I can. People have complained that the main game is rather short. It's obvious to me that that's only if you rush to the very end as fast as you can. Otherwise...the game will take some time to chew through focusing on catching/filling up the Dex. Which is how I play.

If you're sitting on the fence, so far the game's been fun. As fun as X/Y at least. If you're not getting the game because of the Dex cut or because you feel Gamefreak lied to you about the animations (they didn't, you should actually look at their full and correctly translated interviews on using models), nothing I can say will sway you and that's cool. I don't really care if you don't get the game. Don't. You'll have to excuse me if I ignore anything else you've got to say though. Your obvious bias and lack of actual gameplay renders anything you have to say in the face of time spent in the game rather moot. If you're leaning on getting the game but are uncertain...honestly? Get it. The game's got a lot of heart to it even this early. Unless it majorly drops the ball later on, it's a good entry even with the few issues. Are there issues though beyond what's in the spoiler? Yeah. The frames are a little rough, not going to lie. Loading times between cutscenes too. Like, to an inexcusable level considering the hardware. The animation could be smoother over all as well, outside of combat, but such is the life.

The game gets a solid B+ from me. It's obvious even 4 hours in some things were rushed and Gamefreak is outside their element but they tried. They tried and it shows. It's absolutely, even this early in, better than Sun and Moon was at the same time stamp. Any improvement on what I feel was the worst game in the series to date is good. Here's hoping for some really awesome DLC and an even cooler remake for Gen 4.

I do want to take a small moment to say just how awesome the first town in. It's small and you don't get to roam much but I feel the culture of Galar more than any other game. It feels like you're in a place with its own history and that's great. If we get a Sinnoh with the same, or better, feel than...man. I will be so impressed. I hope we do.

Thanks a lot for your honest and fair review!

[Seerow]

My experience so far has mostly lined up with Razade's. I'm not quite so overleveled due to mostly just pushing through the Wild Area (I did a few raids which don't seem to award experience, and caught a couple pokemon, but did no grinding and a lot of running away from higher level pokemon), sitting at level 15-16 coming into the town with the first gym. Having not seen what the levels of that gym are I'm not sure if I'm overleveled or not. I thought I was pretty overleveled coming out of the Wild area at 12-13, but then a story battle shortly after that had a level 14 ace, so instead I felt right on par. Then I moved on to a route where nearly everything was around level 13 and I wound up jumping to my current level basically without trying.

I'm not sure how much I mind. If continuing like this where just doing the trainers on the route and catching every new pokemon I see will on average keep me to the point where important trainers are a level or two ahead of me I think I'm okay with it. If I get to the point where I'm suddenly 5 levels above everyone I encounter and stay that way, then I may have a problem. But for now, I'm happy with it.


One thing I will say is I was very pleasantly surprised with the sheer variety of pokemon in the first few routes. Even before hitting the Wild Area, in the first couple of routes I think I got around a dozen different types of pokemon, covering a variety of types, and almost all of them new to the region. So anyone looking to do a run with just new mons should be able to do so pretty easily and have plenty of options to choose from. I've already had to make a couple of hard choices on what to keep and what to cut, and I got to see a few old favorites over in the Wild Area that I wasn't able to catch due to them being too powerful for right now.

[Razade]

Is there an easy way for me to check what formatting my SD card has? I'm unfamiliar with some of the specialized computer terminology (while still being more comp literate than many folks, I'm just not specialized).

Booting the SD card onto your PC with the reader and re-formatting it. Or googling the make and build. SD cards over 32GB are not going to be exFat.


Now that there's been more time, it does in fact seem to be an issue with exFat. Here is a good source. A lot of misinformation is going around thanks to a lot of bad actors. A lot of reports trickling in are for unrelated problems or, unspurprsingly, people trying to poison the well against the game. The Switch has had issues with exFat before. The Piranha Plant glitch in Smash is another example of the problem going on with SwSh.

What we do know.
- It's just the digital copy. It may still happen with the physical but it's much more rare.
- It will not brick your Switch.
- It will not delete your data, as that is not saved to your SD card. At worst you'll lose screenshots and have to redownload any game you don't have physical copies of.
- It has nothing to do with the Auto-Save feature but turning it off is still advised. The less writing the game has to do, the less chance for this bug to occur.
- It is effecting exFat formatting.

[GloatingSwine]

Booting the SD card onto your PC with the reader and re-formatting it. Or googling the make and build. SD cards over 32GB are not going to be exFat.

Why would you think that?

The advantage of exFAT over FAT32 is that it's newer and supports large storage devices better. It's quite possible for a larger SD card to have been supplied as exFAT.

Anyway, at the moment the safe way to play is to pop out the SD card, but the problem is still caused by SwSh doing something it shouldn't (accessing the NAND, which no software has any reason to do everm which is why it times out, falls over, and causes the problem because the Switch's dodgy exFAT driver doesn't recover properly).

[Razade]

Why would you think that?

The advantage of exFAT over FAT32 is that it's newer and supports large storage devices better. It's quite possible for a larger SD card to have been supplied as exFAT.

Just repeating what I've seen said by others mostly.

Anyway, at the moment the safe way to play is to pop out the SD card, but the problem is still caused by SwSh doing something it shouldn't (accessing the NAND, which no software has any reason to do everm which is why it times out, falls over, and causes the problem because the Switch's dodgy exFAT driver doesn't recover properly).

It accessing the NAND has been debunked. Only one person was claiming that as far as I can tell.

Here is a more up to date reddit thread compiling the issue.

[Kantaki]

Spoiler: first impressions

Show

So far I'm having fun with the game.
I mean, the way to the first gym seems a tad long, but all the new faces make up for it.

Speaking of new faces, I want to punch one of the rivals in theirs.
I mean Hop is surprisingly likable, considering how much he reminds me of Hau.
Maybe because he actually takes the journey serious.
And Mary made a pretty good first impression, despite her fans.
But the third one?
Seriously rubbed me the wrong way.
Easily the least likable rival so far.
Heck, Gladys Betty Berryl* whatever his name was is right up there with some of the villains on my list**.
And that's just from his first two scenes.

*Bethis is his name (in the german version), but he kinda looks like a girl to me, so he gets girl names.

**Not kidding there. Going purely by how much I dislike characters he's easily in the top 3.

[Seerow]

So having played a bit further now (just shy of the third badge), I've decided I am annoyed with levels, but not the exp share.

The problem is wild pokemon levels are too high. It keeps the wild pokemon relevant, but it also means going around catching a bunch of stuff levels me up really quickly. It's also really weird to fight a major NPC and be a level ahead of them, then go to the next route and have most of the pokemon be a couple levels higher than me. Like basically my general expectation is wild pokemon = level X. Random Trainers = X+(2 to 4) depending on how many pokemon they have. Important trainers = X + (3 to 5) with 3 to 6 pokemon.

So if wild pokemon top off at 20, I expect trainers at 22-24, and important trainers at 23-25. Instead what I'm seeing is wild pokemon topping off at 25-26, random trainers at 23-24, and important trainers at the same level as random trainers, with 1-2 extra pokemon. It leaves the trainer battles feeling underwhelming, but the wild battles still aren't really taxing enough to be noteworthy either since it's only one at a time. '



Another thing that is slightly annoying to me is there is no way to separate the dex by route to see what pokemon are in a given route and have a check list to go down and catch. I mentioned a couple days ago that was my favorite thing about completing the Alola dex, and similar mechanics had been in previous gens as well. So for that functionality to just not exist... it is annoying. Now there is the new mechanic of "recommended" pokemon to catch, where the Pokedex picks a handful of pokemon at random you haven't caught and says "Go get these next" which kind of fills that same "Go get these and get the fancy screen reward for checking off an item on your list", but for all I know I'm going to catch the pokemon on that list, be sent somewhere else next, then after 2-3 more iterations be sent back to where I just was. I'd rather just know everything that is in this zone and stay until I find it all.


That being said, relatively minor gripes given I am having a lot of fun. Something like 10+ hours in today. Looking forward to getting some more done tomorrow afternoon when I get back from work.

[Aotrs Commander]

So having played a bit further now (just shy of the third badge), I've decided I am annoyed with levels, but not the exp share.

The problem is wild pokemon levels are too high. It keeps the wild pokemon relevant, but it also means going around catching a bunch of stuff levels me up really quickly. It's also really weird to fight a major NPC and be a level ahead of them, then go to the next route and have most of the pokemon be a couple levels higher than me. Like basically my general expectation is wild pokemon = level X. Random Trainers = X+(2 to 4) depending on how many pokemon they have. Important trainers = X + (3 to 5) with 3 to 6 pokemon.

So if wild pokemon top off at 20, I expect trainers at 22-24, and important trainers at 23-25. Instead what I'm seeing is wild pokemon topping off at 25-26, random trainers at 23-24, and important trainers at the same level as random trainers, with 1-2 extra pokemon. It leaves the trainer battles feeling underwhelming, but the wild battles still aren't really taxing enough to be noteworthy either since it's only one at a time. '

Mmm... That's... Yeah. Considering that the trainer battles (especially the gyms) are the bit that I mostly play for (honestly, filling out the dex for the sake of it lost some of sheen years ago, and why I stated porting my living dex through...)



Yeah, I think it looks pretty solidly like I won't be looking at it in the near future, between design, bugs and everything else; certainly not at the outlay of a new console I would literally only use to play Pokémon on.



(I mean, if I leave it until next year or something, there might be something around so trading can be done... And well, if that can only be done by paying for a subscription (that isn't covered by the one I'm already forking out for Bank), yeah... Kinda not that bothered if I can't do any team-planning, as I spend probably as much time on that and prep (if not more...) than actual playing, so...

But hey, never mind owt else, I've got Omega Ruby that I got at Christmas unopened and the team for that barely started (ducklett just won't breed), let alone all the games I've not finished yet, so I'm not short of Pokémon to do or anything.)

[OracleofWuffing]

(I mean, if I leave it until next year or something, there might be something around so trading can be done... And well, if that can only be done by paying for a subscription (that isn't covered by the one I'm already forking out for Bank), yeah...

At least presently, when you buy a new Nintendo Switch (The Lite model as well), it comes with a free 7 day trial of Nintendo Switch Online (which is what you would need for the trading) that you don't need to activate right away. So, if that's still happening some year or so later, you could still get all your trades for free as long as you can fit them all in a week.

[cobaltstarfire]

So having played a bit further now (just shy of the third badge), I've decided I am annoyed with levels, but not the exp share.

The problem is wild pokemon levels are too high. It keeps the wild pokemon relevant, but it also means going around catching a bunch of stuff levels me up really quickly. It's also really weird to fight a major NPC and be a level ahead of them, then go to the next route and have most of the pokemon be a couple levels higher than me. Like basically my general expectation is wild pokemon = level X. Random Trainers = X+(2 to 4) depending on how many pokemon they have. Important trainers = X + (3 to 5) with 3 to 6 pokemon.

So if wild pokemon top off at 20, I expect trainers at 22-24, and important trainers at 23-25. Instead what I'm seeing is wild pokemon topping off at 25-26, random trainers at 23-24, and important trainers at the same level as random trainers, with 1-2 extra pokemon. It leaves the trainer battles feeling underwhelming, but the wild battles still aren't really taxing enough to be noteworthy either since it's only one at a time. '

I haven't run into this problem yet, but as soon as I realized I couldn't turn the xp share off I started to just constantly rotate all the pokemon I've caught that I'm interested in training, so I have a range of almost 30 pokemon withing 5-8 levels of each other at all times.

[Seerow]

I haven't run into this problem yet, but as soon as I realized I couldn't turn the xp share off I started to just constantly rotate all the pokemon I've caught that I'm interested in training, so I have a range of almost 30 pokemon withing 5-8 levels of each other at all times.

That's one way to take advantage of having access to the box no matter where you are. I may just start doing that.

[cobaltstarfire]

That's one way to take advantage of having access to the box no matter where you are. I may just start doing that.

I kind of wonder if that was one of the things they had in mind when they made boxes available in most places, especially for early game where you can level pokemon up so quickly.


The main reason I started to take advantage of the boxes like that is cause I hated the experience in XY where sometimes I'd never get to use some of my pokemon because of exp share, it was very dissatisfying so I didn't want to repeat it in this game. Also gives a bit more flexibility to play around with everything without worrying about the time grinding new monsters.

[tonberrian]

I'm about ten hours in. This pokemon catching is the best the series has ever been, dexit be darned. Still haven't managed to get a gym badge though, wild area too good.

[Aotrs Commander]

The good master Stirling presents some fair and balanced thoughts on the whole issue (for reals this time) in his Jimquisition this week.



I have to agree, actually - if they'd just started with a completely fresh crop (yeah, okay, Gamefreak, you could have brought back maybe ten or so of your big merch shifters...), the backlash might not have been AS bad. A good compromise pleases nobody (except Charizard and Pikachu fans maybe... Yes, I know, I am one of the latter, hush) but that might have been a better way to start of the whole "we can't logisitically deal with hundreds of characters every time anymore."

Black/White did that for the first half of the game after all, and I think that was probably the strongest main series game to date by quite a long margin.

[Qwertystop]

There's a decent one from ScottFalco too.

[Lord Raziere]

There's a decent one from ScottFalco too.

yeah, that one captures my complaints perfectly. It aside from all the good point it makes, its definitely the mood I'm feeling myself as someone who isn't hyped about the game, and everything I've heard about it form previews and seen from lets plays has made me anti-hyped instead. Unironically can't wait for all the new pokemon to come out on a 2D graphics fan game.

[tonberrian]

One percent spawn rates can bite me. Anyone a.) have sword or shield b.) have a trapinch c.) have any idea how to set up a trade on the new game?

[LaZodiac]

I have beaten the main game, and am doing post game stuff now. My thoughts; it's good! Quite good, in fact.

I detailed my entire playing of it with a friend who is a massive cynic and it won him over pretty well, I think.

[tonberrian]

Note to self: you can, in fact, fail to catch dynamax pokemon. You only get one chance, so if that Gigantamax Butterfree breaks out of your pokeball, you will never see it again.

[cobaltstarfire]

Note to self: you can, in fact, fail to catch dynamax pokemon. You only get one chance, so if that Gigantamax Butterfree breaks out of your pokeball, you will never see it again.

You'll probably see one again, I have a friend that's caught like...4 of them for...reasons.

I do have a trapinch if you want me to breed you an egg, guess I got lucky when I nabbed it. 1% spawns suck, but at least those guys spawn in the overworld. It'd be easiest if you have discord, but if you want to coordinate via pms we can probably figure something out.

Spoiler: But I agree 1% encounter rates can bite me

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I spent a couple hours to find and catch a Sizzilipede, I was a bit salty when I got to the fire gym a bit later and learned that you're practically given one for free as part of the gym challenge.

Edit: I think the funniest thing about discussion around the game right now, at least when it comes to people who are enjoying it vs people who think it is/looks like a hot mess, is that so many people are whining about the trees. Then there's me, someone who's been studying trees for the past 5 months, who thinks they (and most of the other plants in the game) look fine, and have a really good variety of growth habit, coloration, and groupings. (except for the berry trees, other than the trunks they are pretty hideous designs). Like I'm not going to look at the trees with a magnifying glass, why are people running right up to them and scrutinizing the resolution of the bark and leaves?

I really have enjoyed the game (just finished the last gym last night), yeah there are a lot of things where I feel like gamefreak really could have pushed more than a few things further, and their handling for online is mostly garbage. (being under the wing of nintendo I'm not terribly surprised that their online is just...not quite right). But I still feel like when I play the game that what is there was mostly done with care, and in some ways pretty clever. Like how most of the cities feel large and lived in, even if you personally can only visit a small portion of them, I know some people would probably like larger cities, but personally I do like how its been handled here cause I hate getting lost in large cities! XD I enjoy the wild area, but feel like it's too small, and a little bland. There aren't any cool places to really find in it and just appreciate having found them. I love most of the new pokemon, though there are a few that don't look like they would fit in any of the various -mon franchises, I still am pretty happy with it overall.

A part of my wonders if my take on the game would be different if I had picked up lets GO, but I didn't. Though I didn't have very high expectations for Sw/Sh to begin with. I personally would rank it somewhere middle of the pack against all the previous games. I hope they keep and expand on/improve the wild areas and camping as well as their online handling for future games.

[tonberrian]

I managed to grab a Trapinch, finally. Working up to taking out Gym 4 (Sword, so it's the fighting Gym).

[unseenmage]

Turns out that I need to get into six fights with another Pokemon GO player.
In other news, this is a too common required occurence.

[Emmerlaus]

Although I dont play the Pokemon Sword/Shield game I fallen in love with Appletun.

I came out with a buildset idea I would need some enlightement from, see if it could be perfected:

Appletun
Nature: Sassy (+ SpD, - Spe)
Ability: Thick Fat
Item: Weakness Policy

Moveset:

Gigadrain
Recycle
Draco Meteor
Recover

EDIT: Planning to have a Trick Room team around him. Like with Jellycent for exemple.

[Epimetheus]

Speaking of Applin's evolutions, does anyone know if Flapple is worth anything? I caught one on Route 5, but I already have a Pumpkaboo for my Grass Type. Would it be worth switching them out and putting Applin in my party, knowing it can't do anything but Withdraw and Astonish until it evolves, or would I be better off just sticking with Pumpkaboo?

The rest of the team is Drizzile, Yamper, Corvisquire, Swinub, and Galarian Farfetch'd.

[Bartmanhomer]

I don't believe it, Pokemon Showdown change everything from Let's Go: I can't use Melmetal Double Iron Bash move because it doesn't exist in Gen 7.