If there's two sides to every story, dismissing one as "neckbeard bitches" seems very balanced of you. 10/10.

 

I hardly just dismissed them, I've stated why they're neckbeard bitches in a detailed post. Did you miss that?

 

Look, at the end of the day we can throw around hyperbole all we want, but here's one thing that's for certain: Charizard is the only Kanto starter to make it into Galar, to get two Megas, and to get a Gigantamax form and to be featured as the "unbeatable" champ's ace, even if said champ is apparently easy as piss to beat. The other two? Dexited away like yesterday's garbage.

Why not just straight up slap me across the face and call me a cunt, GF? Do me and my boy Blastoise mean that little to you? Fuck off.

 

Nah, I got that and your side makes sense too. People are allowed to enjoy things.

Personally I hate the direction and decisions that senior leadership at GF is taking. I understand it, but dislike it. Anything that can cause them to rethink those decisions is a good thing in my book. But ultimately I don't think they will - half-assing a product and meeting the yearly release cadence makes them way too much money, and delivering something of the scope that I want would not actually make sense financially.

It's a shame they're operating as a business and not as a artist/craftsman though.

 

So I'm having a good time, I enjoyed playing a mainstream Pokemon game on the big screen for a while, before once again turning it back into a handheld game. The only real problem I have is getting other people to go on a max raid with me, but at least they provide you with AI side kicks (either I was tripping balls last night or one of the AIs had a Magikarp that knew hydro pump).

I'm taking my time dicking around with my team (so much time that I haven't even done the 2nd gym yet).

My team as of now is Toxel, Corvisquire, Raboot, Chewtle, Kirlia, and Impidimp

 

I'm very much not enjoying it.

My team consists of mostly Kanto pokemon, every new pokemon I've run to is super uninspiring, thus I have no interest in using them (aside from the Corviknight family).

It feels like control is being taken away from me every 10 minutes and pulling me into a dialogue scene. Every time I go to a new place, walk ten steps, scene, walk another ten steps, another scene. Ugh.

No Toxic for some fucking reason. That can fuck right off.

It's super slow. Not framerate, just the process of getting into battle and getting out. Trying to find a Timid Eevee and the speed at which you get in and out of combat feels glacial. It's like the game is running at 0.5x speed.

Gigantimax is just dumb. I don't want to Gigantimax my Pokemon and I don't particularly enjoy fighting them either. Those battles feel even slower when I group battle them.

What I like:

Corviknight is legit one of the coolest looking Pokemon ever.

I like the character customisation a lot.

The mechanics of Wild Zones

Re: Wild Zone

The Wild area is cool in theory. First, it's really dumb that this wide variety of Pokemon all habitate this random open field that looks like an inner city park... This idea could be cool, but these areas need to be in places where I can believe Pokemon would congregate, and the deeper you go in the more powerful the Pokemon get.

Let's use Viridian Forest as an example. I can buy it being a Wild Area thing, just extend the map out to the 'left' and the deeper you go, the more powerful the Bug and Grass pokemon are.

So I think these areas need better 'themes' of Pokemon, and they need to be better placed. The Mechanics of it are cool, it just doesn't make sense. Why is there a Vileplume there? Why are Onix and Steelix slithering around? They all seem out of place.

tl;dr regarding Wild Zones: Cool idea, poorly implemented.

So yeah, still early. But if this is all you need for a game to be 'breathtakingly good,' no fucking wonder Pokemon has stagnated so hard over the years.

 

Yeah, I can definitely see where you're coming from in all of that. This game, just like every other one, has it's problems, just for the most part they're not that big a deal to me. I can agree that the wild area could be a lot more expansive, the commercials definitely made them seem bigger. But overall it's still a good game to me.

Different strokes for different folks and all that.

 

So I went ahead and gave this a try after all.

I haven't really seen anything that I would call bad beyond the constant interruptions by Hau2.0 and Sonia, or Team Yell blocking off a route. The lack of real exploration in the towns/cities is a bummer. The only open-world elements come from the Wild Zone, and I agree that it is strange to have so many diverse species just... clustered in the same general area without much reasoning. But woo lad, those level 50 encounters when you're still in your low twenties is a yikes moment.

Also, for as cool as the Dynamax raid opening cinematic is the first few times, it is wearying to have to sit through that, and the Dynamax animation for my own pokemon, and the whole giant ball throw process. A lot of unnecessary padding.

I will say this much about the gyms, you finally feel like this is a serious, televised kind of event like Game of Champions presented it. I do kind of find the uniforms ridiculous, but hey. Also, lul at Leon's cape full of in-region advertisements.

I do also like that you have to have an endorsement to take on the Gym Challenge.

As far as rivals, Bede can get bent, which is a nice thing since we finally have a jerk!rival again. Hop is tolerable when he isn't slowing me down. Marnie feels like what whats-her-name from Sun and Moon tried to be.

Haven't really bothered with the camping or curry yet. Played with my team once at one of the NPC camps, which got a bit of exp so that was nice.

Not having running shoes(unless I missed them somewhere early on, not likely) was annoying as all hell. The bike was very helpful, but only having the one speed for the most part is still annoying-- give me back the Mach Bike!

General thoughts aside, here's my journey thus far.

Being me, I spent a while grinding the first couple of areas until I could evolve my Sobble before I met with the Professor. I think D/P/P was the only game that commented on you evolving your starter early, alas. My initial/early team consisted of Drizzile, Corivsquire, Yamper, Vulpix, Ralts, and Noibat.

Wiped the floor with Milo without ever having to Dynamax.

Thanks to raids, had a decent team in the mid-teens to mid-twenties by the time I took on Nessa.

Thanks to further raids, I was in the low to mid-30s before much longer and had my starter fully evolved.

Grinding and grinding as I took out the next few gym leaders, and having just kicked in the teeth of Gym 5, my team is a dangerously over-leveled Intellion(49), Corviknight(44), Hitmonchan(53), Noivern(49), Grimmsnarl(47), and Gardevoir(35).

I'm thinking, if there is one slot most likely to be replaced, it will be Gardevoir. I've already replaced Boltund with Hitmonchan, because c'mon, it learns Ice Punch, Fire Punch, and Thunder Punch. Major staple of my last Platinum run. Might also ditch Noivern if something better comes along, but holy hell that speed uptick upon evolution, mm, glorious.

 

I only gigantimax in the wild area to expedite grinding. It trivializes gym battles too much to do it there, so I'm not doing it.

That poison/electric pokemon I got from the daycare looks interesting. Might use it until I can just catch Gengar in the Wild Area.

I dropped my starter for... um, that dragon pokemon the little choco loli uses, i can't remember its name right now. Pretty huge attack, final evolution is something like haxorus or something? It was a 'rare' find from a gigamax den thing (the silhouette was 'shiny').

But yeah, it's starting to feel like a roller coaster I'm not allowed to get off of atm. Constant interruptions by NPCs and those fucking grunts stopping me from leaving each town. Was hoping for more freedom.

And no Toxic can still fuck off.


Edit:... TIL I should have deleted the fucking fairy move Eevee had... into the box you go Sylveon.

 

Goal update: All 8 Gyms cleared(without Dyna/Gigantimaxing, not that I expected to need it). Raihan actually put up a fight. Nice direction with his setup, had to think a little more than straight type effectiveness.

Time to go pummel the... elite four? Whatever they have in this Champion Cup.

 

That poison electric learns toxic at level 30 I think.

 

Surrendered to temptation and purchased Pokemon Beardwolf. I lasted nearly 36 hours since release.

The flesh is willing but the spirit is spongy and bruised.

 

I'm gonna wait until I'm finished to write down my complete thoughts but Marnie is something special.

 

does anyone here have a Nintendo sub and is willing to help me out? Wanna trade then trade back my Haunter plz. For those Swordboiz, I can get you a MLP Ponyta if you like too.

 

I can do it. Is it just the Link Code option?

 

I think so. I just set up a link code 1852

try that
--- Post automerged ---

Thanks a lot!

 

Yep! Enjoy the Spookyboi.

Trading's not as inconvenient as I thought it'd be, that's nice. I did run into a fella named Aki using our code before we connected, though. Shenanigans can happen.

 

yeah, super weird... only 9999 options for a private room with a game that likely sold millions. WCGW?

BTW, I finally noticed the framerate issues. Definitely bad when you connect to the net (likely only in the Wild area)

 

Say hello to your new Galar Champion.

Quite the finale. Leon put up more of a fight than I was anticipating, and I think this is one of the lower leveled teams I've brought to face a Champion in recent years. We traded KOs back and forth until he surprised me with his bloody dragon, and in the end it came down to my damaged Corviknight vs his damaged Charizard.

Spoiler alert--

Spoiler

he flubbed Fire Blast. Twice. lul. Brave Bird polished him off, even going slower.

Also, I named my team after various anime characters. Tyr being the exception, since I was thinking Game of Thrones but got lazy and cut Tyrion short.

I'm fluffing around in the post-game now.