Pokemon Sword and Shield
Anyone play the new game out yet. Ive put 2 hours in it so far and its really good.
Chose the fire starter as I thing it will have the best final evolution. Not got to a gym yet but looking forward to playing over the weekend.
Chose the fire starter as I thing it will have the best final evolution. Not got to a gym yet but looking forward to playing over the weekend.
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Really enjoying it, just grinding in the wild area and trying out some raids. Nickit is already one of my favourite designs (I'm a sucker for foxes), and for all the moaning about dexit, theres plenty around, I've caught 30 different Pokémon already and not at the first gym
Original post by Stiff Little Fingers
Really enjoying it, just grinding in the wild area and trying out some raids. Nickit is already one of my favourite designs (I'm a sucker for foxes), and for all the moaning about dexit, theres plenty around, I've caught 30 different Pokémon already and not at the first gym
I'm just focusing on the new Pokemon and the new forms of pokemon. I have scorbunny, yamper and galarian zigzagoon and I want to run a eviolit galarian linoone.
Yamper is my fav by far at the moment.
Original post by Guru Jason
I'm just focusing on the new Pokemon and the new forms of pokemon. I have scorbunny, yamper and galarian zigzagoon and I want to run a eviolit galarian linoone.
Yamper is my fav by far at the moment.
Yamper is my fav by far at the moment.
Yampers ball fetch ability is so useful. Wasted so many trying to catch a couple of Farfetch'd.
Finished the postgame and now onto breeding and its so easy in this game compared to how hard it was even just a few gens ago.
Not sure if im gonna get it cause of all the criticism :/ i have played every main pokemon game since black/white but im torn. Some of the new pokemon are a hit or miss for me.
Original post by hellsnapcavern
Not sure if im gonna get it cause of all the criticism :/ i have played every main pokemon game since black/white but im torn. Some of the new pokemon are a hit or miss for me.
It's genuinely a great game even if all the pokemon arent in there. They really do capture the whole sports stadium vibe and the gym battle music is cool. Its also less cinematic, thank god, than USUM
Original post by Guru Jason
It's genuinely a great game even if all the pokemon arent in there. They really do capture the whole sports stadium vibe and the gym battle music is cool. Its also less cinematic, thank god, than USUM
The whole stadium instead of gym thing looks cool from what ive seen. I normally only get the new pokes to the game on my team so im not that fussed over some of the older ones being cut although it is weird since they already had the 3d models. Dont care that much for story if its gonna be basic so that actually sounds pretty good.
it's a good 3ds game
I'm briefly coming out of TSR retirement to air my thoughts on the game as an avid player since gen 1. I've just completed the main story line, becoming champion at almost 19 hours of play time exactly, that's with stopping to catch every new species I encountered and no grinding at all. Overall it's been an enjoyable but occasionally frustrating experience.
Good stuff:
* The new Pokémon are probably my favourite new batch since fourth gen. They're mostly interesting and well designed, and nothing feels like filler or novelty after a few years of ice creams and trash bags.
* I'm as disappointed as everyone else by Dexit, but the Pokédex they've put together has plenty of variety as well as being well distributed geographically. It's nice to be able to move through so many areas with very few repeated Pokémon straight from the starter town.
* The region is pretty cool, even if the graphics are embarrassingly dated compared to other Switch titles. The art direction is generally pretty stellar across the board, it's a region that's fun and interesting to explore.
* The score is good enough that I played the entire game with the volume on while most games in the series usually get 20 minutes before being muted. Some of the music is really well done.
* They've not f*cked with the core battling gameplay and mechanics that we know and love. It's still Pokémon, and it's still fun.
Middling stuff:
* Only three legendaries feels stingy. They've definitely gone overboard in precious generations so reigning that in is fine, but it would have been nice to have at least a handful more to flesh out the postgame, even if it was just a legendary trio. There's more previous gen legendaries coded into the game that will obviously be distributed at a later date, but they're not going to add new gameplay outside of changing the multiplayer meta.
* The wild area is a good concept that will hopefully be fleshed out in future iterations, hopefully with more variety in ecosystems rather than just being 90% field and then just changing the weather every so often.
* It feels like a good first "core" game of the generation to draw new players further into the franchise after being introduced to it by Let's Go
* The story is relatively interesting
Bad stuff:
* The game is painfully linear. Outside of the wild area there is virtually no scope for exploration. Pokémon has never exactly been known for its richly detailed side quests, but this game has almost nothing of substance besides the main quest.
* Balancing the difficulty of games like this is, well, difficult, but the game is painfully easy thanks to two of the big carry-overs from Let's Go- exp for catching Pokémon and permanent exp share. Nobody wants to grind for hours on end anymore like you've had to do in previous generations and other JRPGs, but I was able to comfortably beat the game without doing anything but the bare minimum of battles. Just by catching new species of Pokémon, beating all gym trainers and beating trainers blocking the path, I was only about 5 levels below the champion's Pokémon.
* Compounding the ease of the game is that the AI is hot garbage, worse than anything I can remember facing previously in this series. I'm not expecting strategic masterminds but there is no way I should be seeing opponents using Ground moves on Flying types or Normal moves on Ghost types. And yet I did on a regular basis.
* The group of "rivals" were obnoxiously obtrusive. Pushing narrative is one thing, but this was handholding to the point of absurdity with cutscenes almost every 20 minutes for the entirety of the game.
* Dynamaxing is a waste of time, usable only in only a minute number of scenarios and for such a short period of time. Given that it almost never surfaces until one player is on their last Pokémon, at which point both players typically do it simultaneously, it has almost no impact on gameplay. They sacrificed megaevolution, one of the best mechanics to be introduced for several generations and with huge scope continual expansion, so that Game Freak could introduce this half baked mess of a concept (I'm less upset about the death of Z moves). Apparently the competitive meta is an absolute sh*tshow because of it too.
* I can live with the disappointment of Dexit, but it's a d*ck move for GF to lie about why they did it. Just admit you wanted to try culling the Dex for whatever their reasons were rather than obvious lies about time/manpower constraints when you're obviously reusing old models.
Good stuff:
* The new Pokémon are probably my favourite new batch since fourth gen. They're mostly interesting and well designed, and nothing feels like filler or novelty after a few years of ice creams and trash bags.
* I'm as disappointed as everyone else by Dexit, but the Pokédex they've put together has plenty of variety as well as being well distributed geographically. It's nice to be able to move through so many areas with very few repeated Pokémon straight from the starter town.
* The region is pretty cool, even if the graphics are embarrassingly dated compared to other Switch titles. The art direction is generally pretty stellar across the board, it's a region that's fun and interesting to explore.
* The score is good enough that I played the entire game with the volume on while most games in the series usually get 20 minutes before being muted. Some of the music is really well done.
* They've not f*cked with the core battling gameplay and mechanics that we know and love. It's still Pokémon, and it's still fun.
Middling stuff:
* Only three legendaries feels stingy. They've definitely gone overboard in precious generations so reigning that in is fine, but it would have been nice to have at least a handful more to flesh out the postgame, even if it was just a legendary trio. There's more previous gen legendaries coded into the game that will obviously be distributed at a later date, but they're not going to add new gameplay outside of changing the multiplayer meta.
* The wild area is a good concept that will hopefully be fleshed out in future iterations, hopefully with more variety in ecosystems rather than just being 90% field and then just changing the weather every so often.
* It feels like a good first "core" game of the generation to draw new players further into the franchise after being introduced to it by Let's Go
* The story is relatively interesting
Bad stuff:
* The game is painfully linear. Outside of the wild area there is virtually no scope for exploration. Pokémon has never exactly been known for its richly detailed side quests, but this game has almost nothing of substance besides the main quest.
* Balancing the difficulty of games like this is, well, difficult, but the game is painfully easy thanks to two of the big carry-overs from Let's Go- exp for catching Pokémon and permanent exp share. Nobody wants to grind for hours on end anymore like you've had to do in previous generations and other JRPGs, but I was able to comfortably beat the game without doing anything but the bare minimum of battles. Just by catching new species of Pokémon, beating all gym trainers and beating trainers blocking the path, I was only about 5 levels below the champion's Pokémon.
* Compounding the ease of the game is that the AI is hot garbage, worse than anything I can remember facing previously in this series. I'm not expecting strategic masterminds but there is no way I should be seeing opponents using Ground moves on Flying types or Normal moves on Ghost types. And yet I did on a regular basis.
* The group of "rivals" were obnoxiously obtrusive. Pushing narrative is one thing, but this was handholding to the point of absurdity with cutscenes almost every 20 minutes for the entirety of the game.
* Dynamaxing is a waste of time, usable only in only a minute number of scenarios and for such a short period of time. Given that it almost never surfaces until one player is on their last Pokémon, at which point both players typically do it simultaneously, it has almost no impact on gameplay. They sacrificed megaevolution, one of the best mechanics to be introduced for several generations and with huge scope continual expansion, so that Game Freak could introduce this half baked mess of a concept (I'm less upset about the death of Z moves). Apparently the competitive meta is an absolute sh*tshow because of it too.
* I can live with the disappointment of Dexit, but it's a d*ck move for GF to lie about why they did it. Just admit you wanted to try culling the Dex for whatever their reasons were rather than obvious lies about time/manpower constraints when you're obviously reusing old models.
(edited 3 years ago)
Just to cover a few points
Yep, and it's at its worst with the raid battling. I've on more than one occasion come up against a storm drain gastrodon raid battle where the AI partners included a magikarp with hydro pump, which could be described as slightly less than useless. This is compounded by the matchmaking services being pretty subpar, it's incredibly difficult to get anyone to join your raids, or to join other raids, pushing you towards the AI partners.
* The group of "rivals" were obnoxiously obtrusive. Pushing narrative is one thing, but this was handholding to the point of absurdity with cutscenes almost every 20 minutes for the entirety of the game.
I actually found the cut scenes far less obnoxious than SM, definitely an improvement on that regard.
* Dynamaxing is a waste of time, usable only in only a minute number of scenarios and for such a short period of time. Given that it almost never surfaces until one player is on their last Pokémon, at which point both players typically do it simultaneously, it has almost no impact on gameplay. They sacrificed megaevolution, one of the best mechanics to be introduced for several generations and with huge scope continual expansion, so that Game Freak could introduce this half baked mess of a concept (I'm less upset about the death of Z moves). Apparently the competitive meta is an absolute ****show because of it too.
****show how? I do agree, although I don't mind the designs for gigantamaxxing. It could have been a good way to combine megas and z-moves if done properly, but I don't think there are any real stat changes, just bigger pokémon, so it doesn't really offer much. Also the inability to breed gigantamax pokémon, so while 4IVs are seemingly guaranteed, there's no guarantee of them being remotely useful.
That said, I've actually found dexit refreshing in terms of making the game feel completable without being a noticeable depletion in game, and I've generally enjoyed it with just a few flaws in execution. Improved AI and online services and I'd probably rank it as one of the best mainline games so far, as is that remains HGSS
Yep, and it's at its worst with the raid battling. I've on more than one occasion come up against a storm drain gastrodon raid battle where the AI partners included a magikarp with hydro pump, which could be described as slightly less than useless. This is compounded by the matchmaking services being pretty subpar, it's incredibly difficult to get anyone to join your raids, or to join other raids, pushing you towards the AI partners.
* The group of "rivals" were obnoxiously obtrusive. Pushing narrative is one thing, but this was handholding to the point of absurdity with cutscenes almost every 20 minutes for the entirety of the game.
I actually found the cut scenes far less obnoxious than SM, definitely an improvement on that regard.
* Dynamaxing is a waste of time, usable only in only a minute number of scenarios and for such a short period of time. Given that it almost never surfaces until one player is on their last Pokémon, at which point both players typically do it simultaneously, it has almost no impact on gameplay. They sacrificed megaevolution, one of the best mechanics to be introduced for several generations and with huge scope continual expansion, so that Game Freak could introduce this half baked mess of a concept (I'm less upset about the death of Z moves). Apparently the competitive meta is an absolute ****show because of it too.
****show how? I do agree, although I don't mind the designs for gigantamaxxing. It could have been a good way to combine megas and z-moves if done properly, but I don't think there are any real stat changes, just bigger pokémon, so it doesn't really offer much. Also the inability to breed gigantamax pokémon, so while 4IVs are seemingly guaranteed, there's no guarantee of them being remotely useful.
That said, I've actually found dexit refreshing in terms of making the game feel completable without being a noticeable depletion in game, and I've generally enjoyed it with just a few flaws in execution. Improved AI and online services and I'd probably rank it as one of the best mainline games so far, as is that remains HGSS
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by Stiff Little Fingers
****show how?
The top abusers are ridiculously snowbally, gaining powerful uncounterable moves that simultaneously provide boosts all while getting bulky enough that they can't be conceivably revenge killed or phazed. The meta is warping around soft-checking the top threats after they've finishing the Max turns because a lot of the time there's simply nothing you can do during those turns, and everyone is playing offense because it lens little value to defensive strategies and games are almost always being won or lost on who better uses their DM turns. And unlike Mega Evolution where they could simply ban the stones of problem Pokémon, DM being unrestricted means that they will likely either ban problem Pokémon completely, or ban the mechanic entirely. I expect we'll eventually see the latter occur in at least the Smogon formats and possibly even in VGC (I'm not sure what its impact on doubles formats is), since it's likely that even if you banned the current top flight of DM abusers you'd likely see another bunch become dominant. It's just a horribly janky and unbalanced mechanic for competitive play.
That's disappointing. From reading that I'd guess at least though that toxapex is no longer the crucial part of the meta it was last gen?
Particularly to have messed it up though when part of the dexit justification was fixing the meta (no more lando-T)...
Particularly to have messed it up though when part of the dexit justification was fixing the meta (no more lando-T)...
Original post by Stiff Little Fingers
That's disappointing. From reading that I'd guess at least though that toxapex is no longer the crucial part of the meta it was last gen?
Particularly to have messed it up though when part of the dexit justification was fixing the meta (no more lando-T)...
Particularly to have messed it up though when part of the dexit justification was fixing the meta (no more lando-T)...
It's very early days, but odds are Toxapex is going to remain a highly important poke. It's typing gives it resistances to a lot of STABs STABs from the early major threats, notably Gyarados, Hawlucha and G-Darmantian. The eventual outcome of the Dynamax debate will be a big factor, but for right now it's one of the 10 most used Pokémon in OU.
Anyone her play the new DLC Isle of Armor yet? My boy, the immortal egg (alolan exeggutor) is back.
Watts seem so easy to come by now.
Watts seem so easy to come by now.
New DLC is decent - it's fixed a few complaints over the gigantamax stuff now you can breed and make them gigantamax, it's bought back my 3 favourite pokes in Heracross, Scizor and Krookodile, and following Pokémon. Feels like the whole island as a wild area is more cohesive than the wild area in the base game. Bit short although it's DLC so I'm not going to hold that against it too much until I see the other part but it seems like they've learnt a bit and fine tuned the good parts of SwSh
Original post by Stiff Little Fingers
New DLC is decent - it's fixed a few complaints over the gigantamax stuff now you can breed and make them gigantamax, it's bought back my 3 favourite pokes in Heracross, Scizor and Krookodile, and following Pokémon. Feels like the whole island as a wild area is more cohesive than the wild area in the base game. Bit short although it's DLC so I'm not going to hold that against it too much until I see the other part but it seems like they've learnt a bit and fine tuned the good parts of SwSh
I'm really struggling to justify buying it, I haven't felt any desire to touch Shield since I last came on TSR to b*tch about it- I've played almost as much RBY on my emulators as I put into my initial run in the time since then. Although I can actually play the online stuff now so I may have to revisit.
Original post by Moonbow
Buddy Pokémon, just for the buddy Pokémon 🥺🥺🥺
I've got a copy of Soul Silver for that
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