Got mine yesterday, saved a couple of euros in the process (was cheaper than I was expecting), will probably start playing over the weekend.

 

I've gotten Marill, Rhyhorn, Chikorita and a Horsea from the QR scanner, far as I know it has every pokemon except legendaries and the pokemon already in the game on the list - based on which island you're on and the time of day.

 

Another fun dex entry:

Also, I can't wait until the fanfic Pokedex guy starts updating with the new gen

 

Just beat the league. Vikavolt is my eternal bae.

 

Spent 70 minutes resetting for a female Popplio without a garbage nature. I'd almost forgotten how annoying that was. Still worth.

Pretty good so far. The graphics are good (for pokemon), there are a ton of cutscenes, it seems a lot more story driven than the previous games, and your rival is actually decent. But a lot of things are blocked off, so it feels extremely linear.

 

So, can anyone here do me a quick favor? I'll trade you a Charjabug w/rare candy and you level it up in the electric fields in Vast Poni Canyon and send it back?

David
3454-1201-2252

---------- Post automerged at 07:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:27 PM ----------

Spoiler

Lusamine is a proper fuckin creeper isn't she? She's not as fun of a villain as that nihilist fuck Cyrus, but she's probably number 2. Far better than the Hoenn losers and Team fuckin Flare

 

Oh yeah.

Spoiler

First villain I've genuinely wanted to just set my pokemon on while they were monologuing.

 

Just finished the main story. Absolutely loved it and especially loved everything about the companion characters and team skull. Only bad thing about this game is the relatively small pool of pokemon one can catch, which happens to exclude multiple all-time favorites of mine.

My team through the whole story, without any changes after capturing said pokemon were:

Decidueye
Snorlax
Slowbro
Arcanine
Alolan Raichu
Alolan Muk

So a pretty boring team with only one completely new pokemon in it, but I really didn't want to waste the affection I had spammed on pokemon refresh, and this comp seemed to be pretty good at beating everything, considering I had absolutely no problem against anyone. Although that might have been because I at times obsessively chased certain pokemon in the wilds and ended up always being at least a good 5 levels higher than anything coming against me...

 

Mine was:

Wishiwashi
Crabominable
Decidueye
Pallosand
Alolan Persian
Alolan Golem


Wishiwashi is a tiny adorable murderbeast. Possibly my favourite new pokemon.

 

Mine was:

Decidueye ("Hedgeworth")
Crabominable (wish I hadn't evolved him tbh)
Vikavolt (absolute MVP)
Metagross
Salandit (figured out only the female evolved after having put time into him, so remained a core part of the team. Helped by the fact there's like 3 fire pokemon and it's one of the only fast new pokemon)
Lunala (one of the few legendaries I've actually used for gameplay instead of just being a trophy in the box).

All in all, my thoughts:

Spoiler

I've heard people say that Gamefreak goes half a step backward for every step forward, and I can definitely see why. What I liked:

1) There were lots of good little moments; the entire Fire trial was fantastic, I loved our boy Guzma, Lusamine was a genuinely good villain... Team Skull's also my favorite villain team. I loved Po Town.

2) There's lots of little sidequests, like filling up Pokedex entries, fighting all the Trainers in a route, etc. They were a pretty cool concept, though the execution was sometimes lacking.

3) The new pokemon were generally pretty cool. Vikavolt is, of course, fantastic, but Salazzle is pretty cool, Bewear is interesting, the cover legendaries look sweet, etc.

4) They improved some core mechanics. Seeing which moves are super effective is neat and greatly simplifies things, SOS chains are a neat mechanic even if it can fuck you over something fierce, the trials are generally fun and Totem Pokemon a fun challenge...

My core complaints are as follows:

1) There were also a lot of less good moments and in general the storyline's kind of meh. Rotom was a nice idea but badly executed, IMO; there's no way to shut him up, he does nothing in the actual storyline and rarely gives any useful hints, and he annoyed the shit out of me sometimes. Also, Hau might as well not have existed, Gladion's cool but his turnaround seems too quick and his hair is goofy, Lillie seemed like more of the protagonist than the MC did at times...

2) All of the new pokemon are hidden away. You want a Dhelmise? Get ready to camp a specific spot over and over and over for that 10% chance, bitch. Let's not even talk about Stufful, Feebas (both of which are required for sidequests), etc. To make it worse they're generally not that good, due to being slower than a limbless turtle that is also dead. Would it have killed them to make Vikavolt fast? C'mon, guys.

3) The non-cover legendaries are... not good. You get at least one of every UB, and if you fail to catch them (which would be a feat, considering the balls you get have a really high catch rate) or accidentally KO them you can try again and again, endlessly. You don't even have to reload. The guardian pokemon don't play a role in the storyline at all, either, except Tapu Koko, who does impressively little.

4) The lag. Jesus Christ, the lag. Battle Royales are the worst for this, but any battle where there's more than one pokemon on screen is just hellish. C'mon, gamefreak.

All in all, this is a pretty solid game. I'd rate it a 8/10, but if the rumours I've heard about a Pokemon Stars are true that might change.

 

My winning team was:
McDapper the Decidueye
Empress the Salamance
Tesla the Vikavolt
Okami the Lycanroc
Sheila the Salazzle
And Jack the Alola!Ninetales (I went into the game wanting an ice fox and goddamnit I don't care how late game the vulpix was, I got me a goddamn ice fox.)

 

My first game squad:

Decidueye
Vikavolt
Salazzle
Kommo-O
Mudsdale
Toxapex

Seems like a generic in game sweepsquad to me, kinda disappointing to look at it. A nuzloke is in order, but I want to wait until Jan 1 when the bank unlocks for Sun/Moon

 

Did everyone but me go with Rowlet? Litten all the way!

My final team was:
Incineroar
Snorlax
Salamence
Hypno
Ninetales
Magnezone

 

Litten didn't have a bow tie

 

Due to one reason or another I've only had around an hour to play so far but after beating my first Kahuna and roaming around the island my first impression is this; this is a seriously good game.

When I heard about the trials I was sceptical but it's turning out to be a really nice change of pace. The game looks beautiful and the first island at least is really well designed.

I haven't had this good a feeling about a new game since Gen IV, Black/White/X/Y were big disappointments for me personally.

The new Pokemon are interesting and well designed and I get a little excited every time I run into an Alolan version of the Kanto 'mons.

There are a few minor annoyances so far but nothing massive. Room Dex won't shut up, neither will that Pokemon care button and I wish your character didn't look like a fucking idiot in the Taurus riding gear.

Too notch game so far though.

 

That's actually kind of useful. If you get their Affection high enough, they'll dodge moves, survive attacks ala Sturdy (I had my starter survive with 1 HP an attack that should have killed it, then take no damage from the next attack that connected too), shake off status effects and land crits more often.

 

Okay, this I didn't know. Feels kind of cheaty though. They make the games easy enough as it is these days. :/