Printable version of thread

Posted by: Liаm Feb 23 2019, 12:58 PM

We're very close to the reveal of Gen 8 it seems, rumours abound that it will be this coming week for Pokemon Day on the 27th February that we get a tease of the new games and that seems about right tbh for a timescale.

Rumours are that the versions are called Pokemon King and Queen due to hints from the Pokemon account on Twitter and I've seen November 21st banded about for the release, but that's a Thursday Either way I can't wait, it's going to surely be a huge jump from Sun and Moon with what the Switch can do, it might be asking too much for it to be the big open world game we've wanted for years but it's sure to be so much bigger and better than before, hopefully there can be two regions in it at least or something, and a bigger postgame.

Posted by: Atonement Feb 23 2019, 01:37 PM

I hope so too but I am very sceptical. Hope GF will prove me wrong though and snatch my wig and lashes.

Posted by: Whoody4Paramore Feb 23 2019, 02:44 PM

So excited for this! Really hoping for graphics like Fire Emblem or Dragon Quest.

I hope the anime returns to usual as well, because Ash stuck in one location most of the time gets quite boring

Posted by: lewistgreen Feb 23 2019, 04:06 PM

I do wonder if they’ll bridge the anime with something separate as I imagine this will be the final series set in Sun & Moon and they won’t put out a new era until the games are established. But, I’m very much looking forward to having a new game for the Switch!

Posted by: Whoody4Paramore Feb 23 2019, 05:03 PM

I reckon there will be another series of Sun & Moon. I remember Black & White was still airing about 6 months after X & Y came out.

Posted by: Whoody4Paramore Feb 23 2019, 07:11 PM

http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=219772

Pokemon Theme Songs - The Rate is here!

Posted by: Martyn Feb 23 2019, 08:38 PM

I'm a no for the main series of the game being switch

Posted by: LexC Feb 24 2019, 10:30 AM

OMG Pokemon Queen *.*

Posted by: Whoody4Paramore Feb 24 2019, 11:45 PM

There's no point releasing it on the 3DS, it's pretty much dead.

Posted by: Codester X Feb 24 2019, 11:58 PM

I do wonder if they’re gonna do a sequel series or have this generation be three games within the region. I did think of royalty, but what I also thought of was a deck of cards. Maybe we could have Pokemon Jack or Pokemon Ace as that third game if they decide to go with the latter?

Posted by: Dexton Feb 26 2019, 02:55 PM

Announcements coming soon, likely for Gen 8's main series game for November release! Although it's strange nothings been leaked/advertised in Japan so far when normally they get info before English speaking coutries

Posted by: Whoody4Paramore Feb 26 2019, 04:03 PM

Argh I'm at school then!

Hopefully it will be a lesson where we can get our phones out

Posted by: Atonement Feb 26 2019, 04:53 PM

This is it girls. Lettuce pray it will be epic.

Posted by: Whoody4Paramore Feb 26 2019, 05:11 PM

They've been posting the starters from each gen every day on Insta, so we should get a reveal of those!

Posted by: Liаm Feb 26 2019, 06:05 PM

Fingers crossed this is an actual reveal and not some troll spin-off reveal but I can't see why it won't be, hype *.* That's 2pm our time which very conveniently is just as I finish work!

It's 7 minutes so hopefully we're treated to the starters, names and maybe some gameplay, I'm most excited to see what it looks like as a step up from SM/USUM!

Posted by: Codester X Feb 26 2019, 06:34 PM

f*ck do I wanna wake up early for that or

oh well I did it for (G)I-DLE’s comeback today, I can do it for tomorrow

Posted by: Aaron. Feb 27 2019, 02:10 PM

Sword/Sheild, kinda lame. Starters look Meh, but I think I'll go with the Fire Bunny.
Late 2019 tho. Probably November. So far away.

Posted by: Defaze Feb 27 2019, 02:14 PM

I'm thoroughly whelmed.

The fire bunny is atrocious and the water starter looks like a Mudkip/Froakie hybrid. The grass monkey is cute at least. The games themselves don't look particularly impressive either. I've noticed random encounters are back, which is a shame, since the new approach was one the few things Let's Go actually got right.

Posted by: LMLou Feb 27 2019, 02:37 PM

I was hoping there would be a bit more change with the graphics, it looks like it’s gone back to what Sun and Moon were like and stepped down from Let’s Go.
It looks good enough but I was kinda hoping to be wowed

Posted by: JJAAKKEE Feb 27 2019, 02:41 PM

ooo galor is the UK upside down

Posted by: Whoody4Paramore Feb 27 2019, 04:05 PM

Really looking forward to this!

Love the UK-inspired setting

Posted by: Codester X Feb 27 2019, 04:51 PM

Sensing a recurring theme here

Gen 5: Western Hemisphere
Gen 6: Eastern Hemisphere
Gen 7: Western
Gen 8: Eastern

so I’m thinking Gen 9 will be another Western Hemisphere region?

Posted by: Whoody4Paramore Feb 27 2019, 05:47 PM

Hopefully the return of gyms makes the anime return to adventuring!

Posted by: Atonement Feb 27 2019, 06:33 PM

The starters are kinda cute but it's always the later stages that make the whole line look like a true mess. I mean, we can already tell that Scorbunny's final evolution is probably gonna be some ugly overgrown, buff hare. I'm leaning towards the monkey or maybe the water type.

The game looks nice but for me the most important/vital points are:
- the game shouldn't be too easy
- the game shouldn't be too short
and we won't know that until after release, so I can't really say anything yet about my level of excitement.

Posted by: Codester X Feb 27 2019, 06:34 PM

I'm already a Sobble stan just from that clip alone

Scorbunny and JooE from Momoland give off similar energies

Posted by: Codester X Feb 27 2019, 06:38 PM

btw here's the video for us to overanalyze the shit out of



I'm already seeing Stonehenge and Westminster Abbey references

Posted by: Liаm Feb 27 2019, 06:59 PM

I don't want to say I'm underwhelmed, but I kinda am I LOVE the idea of a UK based region, but the starters while cute look a bit... basic? Like idk how to explain it, they kind of have too much of the same style and whilst they're different animals they just seem a bit similar.

I expected a bigger step up from Gen 7 graphically too, I guess it might be one of those that pops when you actually play it and they'll have added things etc. that show that. I'm still excited ofc! *.*

Posted by: Dexton Feb 27 2019, 11:21 PM

Great to see Chespin, Mudkip, and Chimchar all making returns!

Posted by: Envoirment Feb 27 2019, 11:42 PM

I like what I see, but am not that excited about it really. I'm hoping the game won't be too short/easy and that the evolutions for the starters will be decent!

Posted by: Martyn Feb 28 2019, 12:48 AM

Isn't the UK also western?

Posted by: lewistgreen Feb 28 2019, 07:03 AM

Yes but for Cody it isn’t haha

Posted by: Whoody4Paramore Feb 28 2019, 04:03 PM

There will indeed be another (presumably final) series of the Sun & Moon anime. Quite like the look of this, seems less slice of life than the previous S&M series.

Posted by: Umi Feb 28 2019, 06:11 PM

Similar thoughts to the rest of you guys really. Map looks beautiful and I'm OK with the starter first stages but it's all about the gameplay at this point. A couple of generations ago I would have trusted the gameplay to be solid but I'm terrifed of a Sun/Moon rerun at this point.

Posted by: Codester X Mar 1 2019, 12:14 AM

From the trailer, it seems very "back to basics" with the gym emblems, random wild encounters and stuff, but what threw me off was the football stadium and the jerseys at the end before they highlighted the starters. Is that going to be relevant in the story? Does Pokemon have a World Cup theme?

What I'm more interested is how everything is going to look come the 2020 tournament season.

Posted by: lewistgreen May 27 2019, 01:03 PM

Pokemon Direct presentation on June 5th at 2pm BST has just been announced and will include 15 mins of new information about Shield and Sword! I’ve just pre-ordered Shield this weekend

Posted by: WhoOdyssey May 27 2019, 01:24 PM

Darn Geography paper 2 I'll have to catch up on it later.

Posted by: Prettylittlebry May 27 2019, 08:57 PM

Excited for news on these games. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow’s news will be

Posted by: Prettylittlebry Jun 4 2019, 12:44 PM

Prediction before tomorrow’s direct:
Box art legendaries
Early route bird/rodent/bug Pokemon
Forms (if not, next trailer)
Evil Team (same as forms)
Starter 1st stage evolution
Bit more of a view of Galar
Release date
Bundle

Posted by: Defaze Jun 4 2019, 05:32 PM

I just want some cross-gen evolutions. The likes of Dunsparce, Stantler and Girafarig deserve their time to shine after 20 years.

Posted by: Codyclipse 🌙 Jun 4 2019, 06:02 PM

I know Gen 6 had Megas and Gen 7 had regional variants, I’d expect Gen 8 to come out with either something new or combining them both.

I just wish we got another Mystery Dungeon game

Posted by: Oliver Jun 4 2019, 07:09 PM

Is this Switch only? It'll be a shame for the series to desert the handheld consoles.

Posted by: Liаm Jun 4 2019, 09:32 PM

There was a leak that had loads of evos for old Pokemon (like there was one for Dunsparce and one for Donphan) as well as Delta forms for Johto and Hoenn Pokemon but I'm assuming they were fake, you get so much shit coming out from people who know they can get a bit of clout while people are scrambling for info I hope we get "Galarian" forms though, I really liked the Alolan forms last time as it was an interesting way to breathe life into Pokemon that needed a bit of love to make them interesting again.

Apparently, and this seems more concrete, what we could be getting is armored Pokemon, which sounds even worse than Megas tbh

Posted by: WhoOdyssey Jun 4 2019, 10:41 PM

Of course it is, they're starting to ditch the 3DS now.

And the Switch can be handheld if you want it to be.

Posted by: WhoOdyssey Jun 5 2019, 03:41 PM

Loads of new stuff announced! The games are out on November 15!

Posted by: Codyclipse 🌙 Jun 5 2019, 03:41 PM

I still don’t understand what Dynamax is, is it just making them look bigger for enhanced visual effects? Also I’m liking how the “gyms” are stadiums in this!

Posted by: Liаm Jun 5 2019, 03:54 PM

Dynamax sounds like a failed DVD alternative from 2002 Not sure about the idea tbh, I assume it will be like when there was the bigger Totem Pokemon and they had increased stats. I just don't really see the point, I'd much rather have something a bit more novel and interesting like the Alolan forms were :/ If every Pokemon can have it it might at least be more interesting than Megas.

Posted by: Prettylittlebry Jun 5 2019, 04:14 PM

Corviknight and Wooloo are my faves so far. Also , Zacian is my fave of the legendaries so will be getting sword first

Posted by: Atonement Jun 5 2019, 04:49 PM

Corviknight, Wooloo and Eldegoss are queens tbh. I don't like that the legendaries embody the names of the game so literally.

I'm not here for the new generational gimmick and I wish they would stop them all. I think I would have liked it better if there were just particular Dynamax battles, instead of getting to Dynamax once per BATTLE. That's a whole ffing lot of Dynamaxing if I'm not gonna like using it.

The last game I played was Black and White so seeing these graphics and camera control was really something else. I know it's still probably subpar compared to other games/consoles but for a Pokémon game I think they slay. I also like that weather conditions will influence was Pokémon you will encounter.

Posted by: Liаm Jun 5 2019, 05:54 PM

Yeah me too, I don't think every gen needs a "gimmick" like this, I think it makes it less special too with it seemingly being anyone can go Dynamax in any battle. I'd like it if there were certain boss Pokemon like within the evil teams, the rival's starter or a gym leader's ace that kind of emphasised them or upped their stats to make them more a challenge, but if it's just gonna be any old thing in any old battle I don't see the point.

I'd much rather they fleshed out Alolan forms or Mega Evolution a bit more, as much as I wasn't a fan of the latter.

Posted by: lewistgreen Jun 5 2019, 10:03 PM

I cringed the whole way through at their presenters and Dynamax looks like a massive gimmick right now but I’m sure I’ll love it when I come to play it. Some of the gameplay looks fab!

Posted by: WhoOdyssey Jun 5 2019, 10:37 PM

Well it's not a Pokemon game without some sort of gimmick

Posted by: lewistgreen Jun 6 2019, 05:43 AM

I thought I read that Dynamaxing can only be done during certain parts of the game e.g. Gym Battles and certain Wild Zone areas and that’s it? Hardly fun if it’s every battle like 1:1 with Bill the Nerd and his Grimer

Posted by: Dexton Jun 6 2019, 08:53 AM

The footage reminded me a lot of the BotW world actually, which for a Pokémon game is spectacular.

Posted by: Envoirment Jun 6 2019, 07:04 PM

The game looks so good *_* I like the pokemon we've seen so far. Wooloo being my favourite - it better have a good evolution chain!

Posted by: Liаm Jun 11 2019, 05:27 PM

Only the Pokemon in the actual Galar Dex have been coded into the game - so you can only use those. Really bizarre decision :/

Posted by: Oliver Jun 11 2019, 05:48 PM

That is an incredibly strange decision to make. Who knows how many Pokemon are going to be included? :S

Posted by: Liаm Jun 11 2019, 08:12 PM

I might sound very cynical but it feels like this is leading up to the obligatory enhanced second version having them all, so people will buy Sword and Shield now bc of the Switch hype, then also buy the next one to get all the Pokemon Some people are saying that it's no different to when Sun and Moon didn't have the option of getting certain Pokemon until Pokemon Bank was updated for it, and like fine you can never obtain every Pokemon in every game but to not even code them in and never have the option of bringing them over.....

I'm not THAT bothered from a personal standpoint as I always tend to use new Pokemon in playthroughs anyway but it's just such a weird decision, it's going to limit the metagame for example.

Posted by: lewistgreen Jun 11 2019, 08:26 PM

A further trailer from the E3 presentation

Posted by: CSB 127 Jun 11 2019, 11:05 PM

so basically they're leaking new gym leaders per update and giving us a budget Pokewalker. interesting

Posted by: CSB 127 Jun 12 2019, 09:12 AM

WE’RE

GETTING

CORGIS

Posted by: Atonement Jun 12 2019, 06:48 PM

UGH I skipped Let's No and will have to skip this too waiting for the re-release I guess. I mean, I'm the same as you: I always use the newest generation in my party in playthroughs, but I'm not gonna buy this game only for it to be re-released a year later with ALL Pokémon in it and likely a few new areas. I know it is all but confirmed but it'll probably happen.

Why does GameFreak keep on disappointing me. The last Pokémon game I played was Black or White (don't even remember which one I have) and I want to play a new Pokémon game but I don't want to settle.

As Animal Crossing is delayed this means there are no games coming in 2019 that I will want to buy.

Posted by: Defaze Jun 15 2019, 10:44 PM

Sorry, but these games looks awful.

The level of backlash GameFreak has been receiving after the cut Pokemon reveal is kinda unprecedentent for this series, but I must say, I'm glad they're finally on the receiving end of criticism. I've felt Pokemon fans at large have been wayyyy too lenient in the past, especially after the absolute shitshow GameFreak have consistently served with XY, SM, USUM and the worst offender, Let's Go. ORAS was the best of the 3DS era, but that was predominantly due to how amazing the original games were -- and even then they butchered key aspects like the Battle Frontier. I've been replaying Platinum, Heart Gold and Black 2 recently, and the absolute nosedive in quality the series took after the transition to 3D is honestly quite startling.

Posted by: Atonement Jun 16 2019, 09:11 AM

That Steelix appearing out of nowhere has me howling. It's just not acceptable for a game in 2019.

Graphics are not as important to me as actual gameplay and difficulty/post-game but even that I have little faith in tbh.

Please prove me wrong GF.

Posted by: CSB 127 Jun 16 2019, 06:05 PM

the "OOOOOOHHHHHHHHH... he tried it" was what got me

Posted by: Prettylittlebry Jul 8 2019, 05:52 PM

3 new Pokemon have been announced: RolyColy, Alcremie and Duraludon.

Also, new mechanic Gigantamaxing has been revealed.

First games to also receive version exclusive type gyms

Posted by: Atonement Jul 9 2019, 10:44 AM

The trailer is trash.

They got rid of mega evolutions only to reintroduce it with a different name? Gimmicky trash.
That whipped cream Pokémon? Gaybait trash.
That whipped cream Pokémon ''Gigantamaxing'' into a giant cake? Utter trash.

Posted by: HarryEzra Jul 9 2019, 04:46 PM

Poor Yamper who was also new.

Posted by: lewistgreen Jul 9 2019, 06:32 PM

Getting Vanillish teas with Alcremie.. why do we need food related Pokemon

Posted by: Prettylittlebry Jul 9 2019, 10:59 PM

Oh yeah, keep forgetting he wasn’t officially revealed. My mistake 😊😊😊

Posted by: Liаm Jul 10 2019, 10:36 AM

Alcremie is a SERVE I kind of stan

Posted by: lewistgreen Aug 5 2019, 06:11 PM

More details coming on Wednesday!

Posted by: cantthinkofaname Aug 7 2019, 01:30 PM

So new info from this trailer includes:
- Regional forms are back. Weezing, Zigzagoon and Linoone all confirmed to get new Galarian variants.
- Zigzagoon & Linoone's regional variant have received a third evo: Obstagoon.
- New Pokemon that changes formes depending on whether it has a full belly or whether it's hangry lol: Morpeko.
- New rivals: Bede who dresses like an old lady, and a goth chick called Marnie.
- New team: Marnie's fans call themselves Team Yell (oh lord) and they are basically just soccer hooligans.

I think I'm not forgetting anything.

Idk despite the flack this game has been getting I'm still excited to play it in November.

Posted by: Aaron. Aug 7 2019, 02:11 PM

Everything I'm seeing and viewing has left me really underwhelmed. Moving to the Switch was a risky move but I have yet to see the value in moving to a larger platform.

I've always enjoyed Regional Pokemon Types/Evolutions - so I will give them a point there. Hopefully there are some interesting choices they will make on the Pokemon because the threw we have seen so far are not good choices.

They've completely lost me with Full Belly and Hangry?! Like. Why?

Team Yell was when I turned off the video. This all looks really bad. I'll still buy/play but this looks awful.

Honestly I've been filling my spare time playing fan made Pokemon Games and they are a lot better and more advanced than the direction we are going now. I give them maybe one more game on the Switch until they give up and just focus on mobile gaming apps. Although I would not mind seeing a few remakes for the Switch.

Posted by: Dexton Aug 7 2019, 03:53 PM

- Galarian Weezing looks stupid
- Galarian Zigzagoon/Linoone look great, still not entirely sure of the inspiration though... Zigzagoon made me think of a mime at first but Linoone looks like a badger. Obstagoon is a bit meh. I don’t mind the design but I’d rather have regular evolutions to old Pokemon
- Morpeko looks stupid. It also looks completely made for the anime tbh, like how a Pokémon will look angry and change its pigment to display mood lmao. Also “Hangry” is very stupid I don’t care if it’s an official word now in the dictionary it’s dumb.
- Honestly Teams have been a complete waste of space for years now and only included to force a plot into a game. With now this game has open world like qualities they could’ve easily just had numerous “side quest” type things instead of an evil team. Again teams are very anime driven these days I feel like the game is becoming an afterthought
- I do like the idea of a Pokemon being different based on its hunger though. I don’t mean like adding hunger levels to every Pokemon but for example Snorlax. “Full Belly” could alternatively be an ability where a Pokémon’s attack/defence stats are doubled when its full and halved when its hungry. Feed it berries mid battle or something, add a “Forage” move where a Pokemon “searches nearby bushes for food” and picks up random food. Usually just HP restoring but they could have a small chance to increase stats. Unless I’m missing any other hungry Pokemon I’m pretty sure it’d just be Munchlax & Snorlax. Basically an ability like Pickup but for in battle

Posted by: Liаm Aug 7 2019, 04:03 PM

Morpeko is one of the worst Pokemon I've ever seen, they're not even remotely trying with the Pikachu clones now

Posted by: cantthinkofaname Aug 7 2019, 06:29 PM

I actually like it been waiting for a regional form for Weezing since Sun & Moon as there have been so many cool ideas out there but I think they did a good job here. Could have been cooler to go for a nuclear design instead though but I guess that wouldn't really fit the UK inspired region.

Posted by: cantthinkofaname Aug 7 2019, 06:33 PM

So how many Pikachu look-a-likes do we have now?

- Pichu/Raichu (duh)
- Plusle
- Minun
- Dedenne
- Pachirisu
- Emolga
- Togedemaru
- Mimikyu (well, sort of)
- Morpeko

Marrill also felt like a Pikachu inspired Pokemon at the time.

Am I forgetting any?

Posted by: Oliver Aug 7 2019, 07:08 PM

I laughed when I saw Jacob Rees-Smog in the comments!

Posted by: ITz Cody Aug 7 2019, 08:45 PM

Not sure if the Zigzagoon Line was the right pick to introduce it but I LOVE the idea of a regional variant-only evolution.

Morpeko is the definition of trying too hard

Posted by: lewistgreen Aug 7 2019, 09:09 PM

More regional variants please!

Posted by: Liаm Aug 7 2019, 09:57 PM

Other regional evoltuons from the rumours were Meowth and Farfetch'd, I really like the idea too though! I think the Weezing one should have been an evolution maybe. I like the Linoone one but it's the same typing as Ratata/Raticate, whilst it makes sense the 4x Fighting weakness is a bit shit and I imagine it won't be hugely exciting to actually use or in terms of movepool/potential.

In the future a good idea for a "reboot" of sorts would be if they did an entire Pokedex (of a certain region, probably bloody Kanto again lmao) in different types. There's a fan game called Pokemon Insurgence that has loads called Delta species and there's some really cool ones, like a Fire/Water Lilligant, Dragon/Fairy Gorebyss, Flying/Fairy Raichu, Grass/Fire Greninja, it's really cool and invigorates some forgotten or kinda bland Pokemon. Actual Gamefreak are never that creative, but the fact they totally turned Vulpix and Ninetails for example upside down as ice types was so cool.

That's all of the, Marill was deffo meant to be one even though it's not electric (ik Mimikyu isn;t either but all the pikaclones otherwise are)! Idm most of them but this new one isn't even remotely trying

Posted by: ITz Cody Aug 7 2019, 11:40 PM

omg how can we forget about the legendary Pikablu *.*

Posted by: Prettylittlebry Sep 4 2019, 10:25 PM

Legit just announced a teapot Pokemon called Polteageist 😂

Posted by: WhoOdyssey Sep 4 2019, 10:32 PM

And a whole gimmick with curry making

Posted by: Liаm Sep 4 2019, 10:49 PM

Omg I kind of stan Polteageist, meh at this whole camping gimmick tho

Posted by: lewistgreen Sep 4 2019, 11:05 PM

!! Dead at Polteageist

Posted by: Cody Burnett Sep 5 2019, 01:43 AM

surprised no one else is stanning the curry gimmick, that sounds like the most Buzzjack thing ever

Posted by: Dexton Sep 7 2019, 02:13 PM

Of all the BotW features they could have adopted into the new Pokemon game.. they chose that?

Honestly not sure how I feel about this generation right now. None of the Pokemon have really excited me so far aside from the starters which for all we know could have disappointing evolutions and neither have any of the new features.

Posted by: lewistgreen Sep 18 2019, 07:31 PM

Sirfetch’d has been announced as Farfetch’d’s evolution properly. It’s exclusive to Sword though and I’ve pre-ordered Shield so I hope there’ll be an exclusive evolution to mirror it.

Posted by: Liаm Sep 18 2019, 11:57 PM

Sirfetch'd looks more interesting than the Linoone one but I wish it was Fighting/Flying! I pre-ordered Sword so that's a sure sign we'll end up getting a better one for Shield

Posted by: Atonement Sep 20 2019, 03:28 PM

Sirfetch'd is tragic. The way Shield won.

Posted by: Prettylittlebry Oct 5 2019, 01:06 PM

Galarian ponyta was revealed in the 24 hour live stream

Posted by: Liаm Oct 5 2019, 11:01 PM

Galarian Ponyta tried to scream gay rights but Mega Altaria remains unbothered

Posted by: LexC Oct 5 2019, 11:28 PM

It's...my little ponymon

Posted by: Liаm Oct 9 2019, 01:15 PM

Galarian ponyta is the counterpart to sirfetch'd and exclusive to Shield!

Posted by: lewistgreen Oct 9 2019, 01:30 PM

Omg I knew I picked the better game, can’t wait to have it in my team

Posted by: LMLou Oct 9 2019, 03:33 PM

Bit surprised Galarian Ponyta is a Psychic type and not a fairy type based on it's design and concept

Posted by: Atonement Oct 9 2019, 10:15 PM

And now Shield has Alolan Ponyta too. The truly better game.

Posted by: Defaze Oct 11 2019, 06:56 PM

Both this, and the fact that it's Psychic type makes zero sense. At least retconning Sandshrew and Vulpix into version exclusives was excusable given that they were both redesigned as two-stage Ice-types. Farfetch’d doesn’t even have a Galarian form. It leads me to believe we’re getting far less regional evos than anticipated, which would suck but be very on-brand for this era of GF. I just want gen 2 icons Stantler and Girafarig to receive some love.

Posted by: Liаm Oct 11 2019, 10:29 PM

I'd have loved, instead of ANOTHER gen 1 game in Let's Go if there was a reboot of types, like say ALL of the Kanto region had different typed forms but that was just the standard Pokedex, maybe like a parallel universe so like you could have the starters switching types, and then all sorts of crazy type switch ups of the Pokemon we know and love. I think that'd be such a fun idea that's worked really well in fan games!

It's such random Pokemon getting new forms, and not enough, it's just a random handful that's a waste of what could be potentially done with these new forms.

Posted by: Aaron. Oct 11 2019, 11:21 PM

I agree. Alternative Forms and Mega Evolutions were such huge wins as fans, they really could have delivered both a lot better.

Posted by: Defaze Oct 13 2019, 03:17 PM

Yeah, 100%. Regional variants is such an inspired idea and a fantastic excuse to revamp some of the more outdated designs, but the execution has been absolutely horrendous. I'd consider maybe A-Ninetales, A-Sandslash and A-Marowak to be on par with the originals. Rattata and Meowth were solid too, but their evos destroyed any good will I had towards them. The rest vary from 'eh' (Raichu, Zigzagoon line) to legit some of the worst designs ever conceived (Persian, Dugtrio, Weezing). I'm not even massively keen on Ponyta; the overly-forced cute aesthetic with the chibi proportions and impossibly large eyes/ears is sorta nauseating. Give me regular Ponyta any day.

On another note, gameplay of the first town was released and it's actually... not horrible looking? Living for how British it looks.

https://vimeo.com/365892350

Posted by: cantthinkofaname Oct 14 2019, 11:43 AM

I actually LOVE the new Weezing look lmao. But yeah Diglett/Dugtrio was so unnecessary lmao. I'd rate them something like:

Great: Muk, Marowak, Weezing
Good: Raichu, Sandshrew, Sandslash, Vulpix, Ninetales, Geodude, Grimer, Ponyta, Zigzagoon
Meh: Rattata, Meowth, Linoone
Bad: Raticate, Persian, Graveler, Golem
Awful: Diglett, Dugtrio, Exeggutor

Posted by: Liаm Oct 14 2019, 12:32 PM

Alolan Nintales is by far the best because it's like a total opposite and reinvention with a great design, for that reason I also like Galar Weezing (although it's still half poison, the concept is opposite as it purifies the air). When I mentioned the fan games that have done similar ideas, Pokemon Insurgence stands out as it has some total opposites you'd just never think of that work really well like a Fire type Snorunt line and Psychic Torchic line with an Egyptian design. That's what these reinventions should be, not a bit of extra hair or colouring them black or making them tall with a bland typing. Linoone and Zizagoon plus the evoltuion are a much better design than the Raticate line but it's still the same idea, an early route normal type gaining the Dark type which arguably makes them worse, adding a weakness to Fairy and Bug plus making it 4x weak to fighting. It's just not an interesting enough typing for such an average Pokemon to make anyone really want to use it surely.

Posted by: Liаm Oct 16 2019, 01:31 PM

Today's trailer was just Gigantamax for the same old Kanto Pokemon getting a refresh




I mean there's Gigantamax Meowth which is literally just that long cat meme ffs

Posted by: Defaze Oct 16 2019, 01:36 PM

These games...

Posted by: Liаm Oct 16 2019, 01:37 PM

Gigantamax is just DeviantArt fan art come to life

Posted by: Defaze Oct 16 2019, 01:43 PM

Ah, wholly agreed on Insurgence! I figured I was the only one dorky enough to play Pokemon fan games, but it's honestly embarrassing how much they upstage the official releases. Whew, the layers of innovation in some of the Delta redesigns. GameFreak could literally never.

Posted by: LMLou Oct 16 2019, 01:51 PM

Ugh what a waste of a trailer. I just hate the constant obsession with Gen 1 Pokemon, no doubt they'll all be featured in this game with mainly gen 5-7 Pokemon being the ones removed.

Gen 5 has such a huge pokedex yet they never seem to get any sort of special feature apart from one Mega

Posted by: Dexton Oct 16 2019, 03:03 PM

Geez this is some crap right here. I just want Megas again tbh, every battle gimmick since that has been trash and entirely disappointing in comparison. They could've literally milked the fan service and just added more and more megas each generation and no one would even mind. Everyone still wants mega Lapras, Flygon, Luxray, Excadrill, Milotic, Butterfree, etc. Focusing every new Pokemon game around Pikachu and Charizard isn't making people happy its just irritating

Posted by: Envoirment Oct 16 2019, 05:05 PM

I like the way the games look and like some of the pokémon revealed so far. But I wish they didn't introduce Gigantamax forms. Between mega evolutions and regional forms, there are a large amount of pokémon that could benefit from those. Instead they shift a lot of focus to something that isn't needed. I'm sure the games will still be a lot of fun though.

Posted by: lewistgreen Oct 16 2019, 08:29 PM

Tbh I just want to get to grips with the game and give it a whirl before I make judgement on how much I dislike this whole Gigantamaxing fodder

Posted by: Liаm Oct 16 2019, 10:59 PM

Agreed about the Gen 1 fanwank being ridiculous We literally just had Let's Go so if anything I'd have taken most of Gen 1 of the Pokedex if anything but I guess it's a case of wanting Let's Go players to be able to carry forward their Pokemon from there. Gen 1 is kinda overrated for me so I'm probably biased but it's just always gen 1, gen 1 had so many megas, Alola forms were only gen 1 Pokemon and now a lot of Gigantamaxed Gen 1 Pokemon...

Like as much as people say Gen 5 or whatever was "running out of ideas", gen 1 had "fire pony" "fire dog" "electric dog" "water dog" "literally a Pokeball with eyes" yet it gets ALL the attention and love just because it came first.

Yes!!!

I get that sometimes they overhaul things a lot more than GameFreak would be willing to, but I think switching up Pokemon we know and love isn't a stretch at all! I mean if we have to have Pikachu, Meowth and Charizard yet again, why couldn't it be say a Water/Dragon Charizard that turns everything on its head? This Gigantamax shite just feels like Z-Moves and Mega Evolution mashed into one and I didn't care for either of those concepts. I would have thought it'd be a no-brainer to expand the concept of alternate forms like Insurgence did but alas.

Posted by: Atonement Oct 17 2019, 02:10 AM

Trash.

Posted by: TheJü-Pumpkin Oct 17 2019, 09:56 AM

Did pokemon fire half their team and hire new people with only a baseline understanding of the property or something?

Maybe a bunch of people only still know gen 1 bc that's what you keep giving them...self fulfilling prophecy.

Posted by: Defaze Oct 17 2019, 04:51 PM

The entire build-up to these games have honestly been a car crash. From the underwhelming graphics/animations from the get-go, to the horrific dyanmax gimmick, the Pokemon cuts, and now the obscene Kanto pandering. These games had to be pristine to justify the dex cut in my eyes, but literally nothing has served to drum up any semblance of hype. Even the new Pokemon (the few we've actually been exposed to) just feel like boring retreads.

That being said, I'm actually kind of living for the level of backlash these games have been receiving. I doubt it'll actually harm sales, but it's nice to see the fans finally taking a stand given how overdue the criticism is. The series has low-key been in the gutter since XY. Like, it's still incomprehensible to me how anyone could enjoy Sun and Moon. Genuinely the most tedious games I've ever played.

I can't get over it being a month from release, and that trailer was the best they could muster. The gen 1 lot are iconic to me: Pokemon Red was the first video game I ever played, and even I'm beyond pissed at the level of exposure the Kanto mons are receiving. The designs are largely trash, so the fact that they're put on some absurd pedastal when 90% of gen 3-7 mons are superior is an absolute mess. I can't even imagine how younger players that don't have any sentimental attachment towards them feel.

Posted by: Call Me Cody Oct 17 2019, 06:24 PM

god the Obstagoon introduction was super promising and I’m also glad that Farfetch’d is getting somewhat of a buff but since then jt’s Kinda gone down the drain

I don’t blame Pokemon for redesigning Gen 1 stuff tho considering it’s the OG and how a lot of the fandom is a bunch of Gen 1 purists, be careful what you wish for I guess

Posted by: cantthinkofaname Oct 17 2019, 08:00 PM

OMG! They released the starter final evos today!

https://preview.redd.it/k1cya75ll1t31.png?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webpe0e1026f

Posted by: Liаm Oct 25 2019, 04:43 PM

The Exp Share is always on like Let's Go

Posted by: Atonement Oct 26 2019, 12:35 AM

Ugh well I'm gonna buy it but the more I hear the worse it gets. I do like that they are revealing so little before the release of the games.

Posted by: Defaze Oct 31 2019, 09:58 PM

Okay but where's the leaks at?? I need to know the final starter evos (before I inevitably box it due to them all being trash like the previous two gens). Seriously though, is it too much for them to actually resemble... monsters this time round? Delphox and the Gen 7 lot honestly make me shudder.

Posted by: Atonement Nov 1 2019, 03:06 AM

Lol I just know this is gonna be true.

I agree I'm not enjoying the furrybait Pokémon like Delphox, Primarina or Incineroar for that matter. They should be less humanoid. (Decidueye is awesome though).

Posted by: Liаm Nov 1 2019, 12:21 PM

Primarina >>>>>>

I guess it might be interesting if they aren't revealed before the game but then I won't know who to choose as starter as ofc it all comes down to the evolutions.

Posted by: LMLou Nov 1 2019, 12:30 PM

They pretty much revealed the entire game before release the last 2 generation so I'm glad there's still some unknown things about this one

Posted by: cantthinkofaname Nov 1 2019, 01:50 PM

Here's my starter choices:

Gen 1: Squirtle
Gen 2: Totodile
Gen 3: Mudkip (yes I like my water starters so what)
Gen 4: Turtwig (yes I like turtles go off)
Gen 5: Oshawott
Gen 6: Froakie
Gen 7: Rowlet
Gen 8: Probably gonna choose Sobble?

So.. 2 grass, 6* water and 0 fire lmao.

Posted by: Liаm Nov 1 2019, 06:57 PM

I've just seen on Twitter things are starting to leak?? I've been travelling so haven't looked at anything but there we go if we do want leaks

Posted by: Envoirment Nov 1 2019, 10:58 PM

Apparantley the start evolution chains have leaked, plus a few other pokémon. If the leaks are real, I actually quite like them! But I would take them with a pinch of salt for now (if you do wish to look).

Posted by: Atonement Nov 2 2019, 12:14 PM

All of the starters are trash and furrybait. The worst set of starters yet.

+ there are rumors that the game is really easy. The gigantamaxing appears to play a bigger part than I'd hoped for.

I canceled my pre-order. Might still get it after all but it'll be a last minute decision.

Posted by: lewistgreen Nov 3 2019, 09:28 PM

Corsola apparently getting a Galar form and and an evolution!

Posted by: Liаm Nov 3 2019, 11:24 PM

I'm FLOORED I absolutely love it! First Pokemon this generation I've actually thought that about and I don't even like Corsola that much

Posted by: Liаm Nov 4 2019, 12:17 AM

Without spoiling - the leaks have worried me less than I thought. There's some great Pokemon and it seems like they've showed off some of the worst pre-release! I think in terms of a good few of the designs, it's better than Gen 7's offerings but I'm still worried about the actual game and how easy/dumbed down it might be.

Posted by: Atonement Nov 4 2019, 11:00 AM

Same! Minus the starters I think a lot of the Pokémon look really good. Which means I'd have no issues boxing my ugly starter.

I don't want the actual gameplay spoiled but all I need now is information about the difficulty of the game.

Posted by: BiLLYx Nov 4 2019, 12:05 PM

I think they all just look, weird....

I don’t know if it’ll look better in the game itself, but they don’t actually look like Pokemon haha.

Posted by: Atonement Nov 4 2019, 02:09 PM

Apparently there is no post-game .

Posted by: Liаm Nov 4 2019, 03:14 PM

The 3rd legendary looks like it would be Final Fantasy endgame boss Bizarre.

I agree that they don't look like Pokemon, which isn't a bad thing if they're good and feel fresh but some of them I do mean that in a bad way! I just... Don't know how they arrived at some of these designs when there's still so many obvious concepts that are unused.

It's two halves really, there's loads I really like and quite a few that look horrendous, not many in between ones...

Posted by: cantthinkofaname Nov 4 2019, 03:20 PM

The starter evos are definitely some of the least exciting Pokemon of this Gen (especially the fire evo). I'm still psyched about it, lots of cool Pokemon I can't wait to use and I think I heard somewhere there will be 16 gyms? So idk. I'll reserve any major judgement until the game is out.

Posted by: Liаm Nov 4 2019, 06:22 PM

There was a mix up with the "16 gyms", there's different gyms between the versions so technically there's 16 but it's 8 different ones in each game (idk if it's different types of just different leaders/puzzles either.

As for the postgame apparently there's a 2 hour episode and a battle tower, which could be worse. That's basically what ORAS had.

Posted by: Defaze Nov 4 2019, 06:26 PM

The vast majority of these designs...

Words fail me. The leaked penguin 'mon is so abhorrent that it actually makes me cackle, so it gets a pass. The rest vary from 'meh' to downright atrocious. Guess this'll be third consecutive gen where I only like a handful of mons and loathe the rest. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but the designs peaked with gen 5 imo (obvious exceptions aside) and have been increasingly awful with each passing gen. Even the new cross-gen evos make me shudder.

Also...

The dex only has 400 mons. They literally cut 60% of Pokemon.

Posted by: Envoirment Nov 4 2019, 10:44 PM

Just been through all the leaks and I really like a lot of the new pokémon! Galarian Rapidash *_* I love the design of Frosmoth too. Galarian Corsola/Mr Mime/Yamask with evos was unexpected as well!

I hope we'll get a lot of other pokémon in addition to the leaked ones. Getting a little excited for the games now.

Posted by: #Justice4Wonho Nov 4 2019, 11:18 PM

Am I the only one who thinks the Galarian deck getting cut down is a good thing? It makes the actual game less clunky and then open the doors wide enough when the National dex comes into play

Posted by: Liаm Nov 5 2019, 03:35 AM

I don't hate Grookey's evolution, but the other two... The fire one honest to god looks like someone with 5 followers drew it on DeviantArt to use it as an character for macrophilia furry art. I get what they're doing with Sobble but I don't think I like it.

I'm still floored at Galar Corsola, SHE'S GHOST BECAUSE OF GLOBAL WARMING AND THE REEFS DYING omg. The best Galar additions for me are that, Hatterene (I always stan a Psychic queen serving looks like Gardevoir or Gothitelle), the Impdimp line (love the concept and typing), Galar Darmanitan (even if the Fire to Ice concept was already done with Vulpix/Ninetails, it's cool and has an unconfirmed dual typing) and Dragapult. On the other hand there's Eiscue (literally wtf is that, it looks like the token gimmicky/silly enemy in a JRPG, I'm thinking Cactuar or Slime), Cinderace, Snom (looks like a prolapse), Applin (literally just Bounsweet cosplaying as Mr Krabs), Stonjourner (looks like something I'd draw when making up my own Pokemon when I was 6 years old) and Galar Stunfisk (I'd forgive them giving such a bland, hated Pokemon a Galar form if it refreshed anything but it's just a palette swap with a bland typing).

One of my big gripes might sound weird but I find some of the typings really boring? Like Alola forms didn't ALL go totally out there but the fact they just chucked Steel instead of Electric on Stunfisk, and added Ice to Mr Mime... Also I feel like Coperajah gives off Psychic vibes, Galar Meowth and its evo could easily be Ghost, and that's not even mentioning the starters! I like that the starters usually have a second typing when they evolve, it either balances their weakness or doubles down on them making that "circle" of the 3 starters a bit more solid. I could easily see them as Grass/Normal (I loved a theory that Grookey would be that typing because of the evolution being sound based and sound moves being almost always Normal type), Fire/Fighting (as dull and overdone as the typing is) and Water/Ghost as rumoured previously. Honestly that and the designs being underwhelming has me thinking I'll probably dump my starter but it depends on the other grass options and when they're available.


Fairly big spoiler in terms of the gameplay but probably the most disappointing thing for me is the fact there is no Elite 4, you instead rematch the gym leaders who in this case use Gigantamax forms :/ That feels to me like too much push of what's an underdeveloped concept, there's only a handful of Gigantamax forms - the Kanto ones we've seen plus a couple of others from Kanto, Garbodor randomly and 8 from Galar which I feel like will be each gym leader's ace that they'll use in the rematch as they match up with the few gym types we know the game has. They really shouldn't replace one of the fundamental goals in the game with a gimmick. I mean imagine getting to the end of X and Y and there's no Elite 4, you just face a few Megas... Maybe if the Gigantamax forms have something about them that makes the battle difficult it'll be fine, if it makes them feel more like a boss to overcome rather than just another bog standard battle except the opponent is bigger.

-----------------

The leaks haven't really covered difficulty or the "experience". I'm still gonna give it a chance, but it's just that because Pokemon isn't a series that's driven by story (like say Final Fantasy which pretty much always saves itself even if that iteration's gameplay is lacking or not to your taste in places), what else does it have if the gameplay is too easy or really dumbed down? I mean I don't expect Game Freak to rip up the rulebook and totally go off the rails with the gameplay but if they carry on as they have been with Gen 7 and Let's Go, then they're ripping out the heart and soul of the game but not adding anything. It's also the fact that we have a console capable of games like Breath Of The Wild, imagine the scope a Pokemon game *could* have on it and everything so far feels quite watered down and half assed.

Posted by: LMLou Nov 5 2019, 02:01 PM

I’m really happy overall based on the leaks. Glad we’re getting evolutions for a handful of old Pokemon and most of the designs are stellar.
Obviously the gameplay is the most important part but I’m not as worried as I was a week ago

Posted by: Envoirment Nov 5 2019, 06:21 PM

Regarding the typings, I believe Frosmoth is the first Bug/Ice type. I'm sure there are a few other unique typings that will be happening as well, plus going through the typings there will be quite a few additions to rare typings - I believe Duraludon will be the first non-legendary steel/dragon type. .

Posted by: #Justice4Wonho Nov 6 2019, 03:33 PM

MINTS TO CHANGE A POKEMON’S NATURE I HAVE TO LAUGH

NO COMPETITIVE PLAYER IS GOING TO USE THIS MECHANIC

That being said... being able to access your Pokemon storage away from a PC is actually pretty cool.

Posted by: cantthinkofaname Nov 6 2019, 07:14 PM

Interesting that none of the leaked Pokemon featured in this trailer so they haven't acknowledged yet whether it's real or fake (although I think it's safe to assume it's real at this point lol).

Posted by: Envoirment Nov 9 2019, 06:22 PM

I really like how much easier it is to get a preferred nature. It'll mean you need to focus less on natures when breeding for IVs, saving you time. Not to mention it's especially useful for shiny hunters. It'll be great for the casual game in general as well. I also like that there's no cap on the amount of vitamins you can use as well. The egg move transfer is super useful too. Some nice quality of life changes there.

Posted by: Richard21 Nov 10 2019, 09:34 PM

Yes hopefully also can't wait

Posted by: Liаm Nov 11 2019, 10:07 PM

A certain version exclusive just made me cancel my Sword pre-order and swap to Shield

Posted by: Atonement Nov 12 2019, 12:37 PM

I canceled my pre-order all together. I read about experiences and there are too many issues and restrictions that I wish weren't there.

Hopefully next year the re-release will have a major graphics update and some other shizzle like mandatory EXP share, forced full heals in the beginning of the game, terrible scaling of Pokémon, the ugly and sudden transition in the wild area from a sandstorm to a hail storm within a few meters, a non-existing Post-Game, short length of the game etc. etc. will be updated or GONE.

Galarian-Ponyta was not good enough for you ?

Posted by: Liаm Nov 12 2019, 01:06 PM

Another real annoyance has been they've removed some moves?? Like really. I mean a lot of them are signature moves of Pokemon that aren't in the game as well as Z-Moves and the ones you can teach to Eevee and Pikachu in Let's Go, so they're obselete to be in the game really, but they've taken out a lot of moves like Return, Hidden Power, Magnitude, Psywave, Clamp, Bide and Rage that have some sort of mechanic to them, it just feels like they couldn't be arsed to program different mechanics so took them out entirely. When they're copying animations from SM/USUM anyway, surely it doesn't really save time to cut them out it's just lazy??

Everything to me feels less they cut Pokemon and features to make room for new things and instead they've done it so they can rush out a game this year. I'd rather than just waited if it's gonna be like this, or that they didn't do Let's Go (bc who really needed that) and instead spent the time making this better.

Posted by: Liаm Nov 12 2019, 01:06 PM

Another real annoyance has been they've removed some moves?? Like really. I mean a lot of them are signature moves of Pokemon that aren't in the game as well as Z-Moves and the ones you can teach to Eevee and Pikachu in Let's Go, so they're obselete to be in the game really, but they've taken out a lot of moves like Return, Hidden Power, Magnitude, Psywave, Clamp, Bide and Rage that have some sort of mechanic to them, it just feels like they couldn't be arsed to program different mechanics so took them out entirely. When they're copying animations from SM/USUM anyway, surely it doesn't really save time to cut them out it's just lazy??

Everything to me feels less they cut Pokemon and features to make room for new things and instead they've done it so they can rush out a game this year. I'd rather than just waited if it's gonna be like this, or that they didn't do Let's Go (bc who really needed that) and instead spent the time making this better.

Posted by: Dexton Nov 12 2019, 02:56 PM

Honestly r/pokemon has really opened my eyes, wow. Adjusting in game volume requires the item “Hi Tech Earbuds” now too

https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/dv438w/complete_list_of_all_problems_known_so_far_in/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/dv463w/apparent_leak_suggests_that_the_real_reason_dexit/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Posted by: Liаm Nov 12 2019, 02:58 PM

DEXIT AHAHHAH

Posted by: Liаm Nov 12 2019, 03:16 PM

Also I'm watching streamers play this and... my god it looks even worse than I thought lmao

Posted by: Dexton Nov 12 2019, 03:24 PM

The graphics are atrocious and omg those cut scenes ESPECIALLY THE LEGENDARY ONES

Posted by: Liаm Nov 12 2019, 03:58 PM

It's not even coming across like they made some cuts to get it out on time, it's just... unfinished. I wouldn't mind as much if the art style was basic or stylised like Let's Go, of course that would be disappointing for a main game but there is absolutely no excuse for the myriad of things wrong with this game. It's not hardware limitations, I've seen the few people not mad at this shite saying that, but just look at Dragon Quest XI or Breath Of The Wild on the same system. Hell, look at what SM/USUM achieved on a lesser system!

I mean... Let's Go was a cut down version of what we'd normally get but at least that was finished. This just looks to be even worse. Cutting things down for those games made sense, it meant that I liked it less and didn't really bother, but because it was a Kanto game that was tied to a side game and used mechanics from that, it made sense. This is supposed to be a main series game!

I can't wait to see the reviews. Idk what I'm expecting, I mean it's not like Sonic 06 level absolute unplayability but it's clearly very bare bones and unfinished. There's no excuse for removing so much and adding so little, what were they saving space for?? The legendary sequences are embarrassingly bad, I was actually laughing at them. I don't think the reviews are going to be good, and I think Nintendo know it which is why there seems to be an embargo on reviews before the game comes out - damage control.

I wish I'd seen that thread before and I would have just cancelled my pre-order instead of pre-loading Shield onto my Switch

Posted by: Atonement Nov 12 2019, 06:42 PM

I'm still not watching anything in case I do decide to get it (I don't want to be spoiled too much) but after everything I've read I am not surprised.

I hate that the games are so bare bones but at the same time the backlash GF is getting is kind of a kii I must admit. I just wish it didn't involve my favorite franchise.

Posted by: Liаm Nov 12 2019, 10:39 PM

Yeah I feel the same, I don't want it to go absolutely tits up because I don't want it to happen to Pokemon, but at the same time I don't want Game Freak to have the ammunition to carry on as they are, so I kind of do want it to go tits up

(he says as he is still buying and playing it x)

Posted by: Aaron. Nov 13 2019, 02:57 PM

I got lost when the fans started cancelling their pre-orders when it was speculated the starters were shiny locked. Like. Are you honestly that upset that you cannot soft reset your game over and over again to get a shiny?

Yeah. Some of this looks unfinished AF but I'm watching some streams and I'm somewhat impressed. What I'm not enjoying is the avoidance to battling trainers, completely avoiding any wild pokemon at all. Maybe I just play Pokemon different to others. I just watched a player battle one of them new Mega Pokemon. Looked interesting, comments were not favorable at all... I don't get it. You're watching someone ride a bike, avoid trainers, catch a big wild pokemon and you think the game is boring? The game is boring because the asshat you're watching isn't actually playing the game. SMH.

Posted by: LMLou Nov 13 2019, 03:14 PM

I’m kinda torn cause on the one hand it’s so annoying that a company with so much experience, staff and money can’t make a game look better than this and I’m also bothered by people constantly defending everything cause that way it’ll never change
But on the other hand I’m kinda like, I don’t play Pokemon for great graphics. A trainer appearing and then disappearing in battle or a tree popping up quite late isn’t going to ruin the gameplay of the game

Posted by: Liаm Nov 13 2019, 04:18 PM

IGN has reviewed this as "the best Pokemon game ever" :')

Not much more expected from the outlet who gave ORAS 7.8/10 for having "too much water"

Posted by: Atonement Nov 13 2019, 05:55 PM

I think I would enjoy the game if I would buy it. But GF's completes lack of care or love for the games is SO off-putting I refuse to give them a sale. Personally I didn't even care about Dexit. I never transferred my Pokémon from old games to a new one. But it's shows a lack of effort and that's what I do care about. They copied old models, recycled animations, you can't even put off the EXP. Share (why?). They just copied old codes for items and options that aren't even in the game now. They cut a lot of moves (why?).

Posted by: Liаm Nov 13 2019, 08:30 PM

81% on Metacritic currently, which is the lowest for a main series game apart from Black and White 2, but it's not that far behind which I'm surprised at given the fact that they've taken away so much and added so little. Maybe it happens to be that the full game is enough to outshine the... imperfections (to say the least). Because obviously seeing the glitches and stuff isolated is gonna make them look worse but I can't see how some of the stuff we've seen can be excused

I still want to see for myself how it is overall before anything else but a lot of things have put me off a bit so I'm less excited, and I'm mostly just annoyed that they cut so many corners knowing they could get away with it, and it seems like they have done.

That's true, the ones I found seemed to all be "noobs" who were infuriating me by skippng stuff, not appreciating what was there etc., who probably somehow got hold of it and streamed it for clout because they knew that Pokemon fans would be seeking out such streams.

Posted by: JüpaHulaHula Nov 13 2019, 10:30 PM

I'm just interested what it does for competitive. New mons seem largely not very balanced even more so than last gen with the minmaxers. Starters seem a bit dull with their monotypes. The new Charizards, Meowtys and Pikachus seem like pandering and to who? Are any of those characters even still in the anime?

Posted by: #Justice4Wonho Nov 13 2019, 11:12 PM

I still think national dex will come in as DLC in like a year or something

Posted by: Envoirment Nov 14 2019, 12:02 AM

I always double the time that streamers/hardcore players go through the game to see how much time I'd get out of the games. They just do the minimum to beat the game. Usually most people explore, catch lots of the newer pokémon, battle most/all trainers etc. I believe the fastest times to complete the games have been 14-15 hours, I can see myself spending at least 25-30 hours on it before I beat the champion.



They could quite easily patch in all the pokémon that they've cut bit by bit over the coming months if they wanted. Not to mention fix any glitches and such with patches too. I have a feeling the third game/sequels will have all the pokémon and make players even more mad about Sw/Sh.

From what I've seen, I'll likely really enjoy the games. I've already made my team based on the leaks.

Posted by: Aaron. Nov 14 2019, 03:50 PM

Let's be honest, they ain't patching anything other than bug fixes.
We will get a remake like POKEMON ULTRA SHIELD or POKEMON GUN at another $60 a pop.
They may have messed up this generation (TBD) but they're still a company that wants your money.

Posted by: Dexton Nov 14 2019, 04:45 PM

Well I’m playing it and enjoying it a lot so far tbh. The animations could definitely do with some work especially in cutscenes but no other dramas so far.

My girlfriend was watching me and said the starters reminded her of powerpuff girls so now my Grookey is called Buttercup

Posted by: Aaron. Nov 14 2019, 04:54 PM

That's so cute <3!
Hope you're enjoying - 12 Hours left until my release. It's going to be a long day - but I'm off tomorrow!

Posted by: Envoirment Nov 14 2019, 09:50 PM

I wish it released everywhere as soon as it hit 12am in Japan! A couple more hours until I can play, although I'll likely just go through starter selection before heading to bed. Hopefully I'll be able to get home from work early tomorrow.

Posted by: lewistgreen Nov 14 2019, 10:32 PM

Oh my god I cannot wait to get home tomorrow night and just get to grips with it. I wish I’d taken the day off work tbh

Posted by: Liаm Nov 15 2019, 01:32 AM

Me letting Hop's battle theme loop after I've beaten him

Posted by: Prettylittlebry Nov 15 2019, 11:02 AM

Just started my copy and the visuals are absolutely stunning.

Posted by: Dexton Nov 15 2019, 03:00 PM

The wild area is literally the only area with less than incredible graphics tbh, I can kind of understand why since there’s constantly a lot of Pokémon spawning in such a big area but I’m sure they could’ve smoothed it a bit. The weather transitions in there are crazy too

I’m really enjoying this game though. All the criticisms are completely valid but no one can say it’s not enjoyable. My one, MAJOR gripe is all the cutscenes. I can’t walk 100m without Hop or someone else trying to chat me up. They talk and talk for ages about nothing it’s very irritating.

Loving a lot of the new designs though, besides the few with abnormally large head-to-body ratios that look stupid af. The Pokémon cuts are less noticeable at least so far in the game (up to first gym) just because of how much variety I’ve seen so far. The regular routes have a fair few different Pokémon and the wild area is bursting with wildlife. Yes each patch of grass usually only has 2-3 different Pokémon (or common ones at least, idk how it works) but It’s still teeming with variety

Posted by: cantthinkofaname Nov 15 2019, 03:53 PM

Apparently the following Pokemon will be transferrable into Shield & Sword through Pokemon Home when that's out or via various event distributions:

Bulbasaur
Ivysaur
Venusaur
Squirtle
Wartortle
Blastoise
Mewtwo
Mew
Celebi
Jirachi
Cobalion
Terrakion
Virizion
Reshiram
Zekrom
Kyurem
Keldeo
Rowlet
Dartrix
Decidueye
Litten
Torracat
Incineroar
Popplio
Brionne
Primarina
Cosmog
Cosmoem
Solgaleo
Lunala
Necrozma
Marshadow
Zerora
Meltan
Melmetal

https://serebii.net/swordshield/transferonly.shtml

Additionally Snorlax, Melmetal and Toxtricity have gigantamax versions that will be added later.

https://serebii.net/swordshield/gigantamax.shtml

This hopefully means more Pokemon and other stuff will be available later on through DLC.

Posted by: JüpaHulaHula Nov 15 2019, 04:40 PM

For a surcharge no doubt!

Posted by: Aaron. Nov 15 2019, 04:45 PM

Yes, the Wild Area was a complete miss. Awful to navigate, not really any interesting pokemon I came across, and I wanted to get the game going so I didn't even complete all the raids. This seems like something that should have come close to the end of the game as an optional side quest.

Everything else has been sublime. However, I feel they've thrown a LOT at the beginning of this game. The sheer number of available pokemon so early on is overwhelming. I also question the difficulty this time, I've had my Pokemon healed outside of a Pokemon Center almost half a dozen times now and I'm not sure why, I haven't found anything overly difficult.

With that being said, I've only just exited the first cave on to Route 4. I haven't even hit the next city nor have a Gym Badge and I've played 5 and a Half Hours so far.. I'm really just enjoying catching Pokemon. Here is my current team. I'm naming my Pokemon off of my favorite Big Brother contestants.

Thwackey (Jamie Kern) - Level 20
Yamper (Holly King) - Level 20
Sizzlipede (Tahan Lew-Fatt) - Level 19
Dottler (Amy Crews) - Level 18
Chewtle (Nadia Almada) - Level 18
Mudbray (Jordan Lloyd) - Level 17

Sheer chance that my team is all ABSOLUTE QUEENS at the moment.

Posted by: Liаm Nov 15 2019, 05:31 PM

I like the raids but I agree about the wild area! It's too open, feels quite empty because you have to avoid half the Pokemon anyway as they're 20 levels higher than you I wouldn't mind if they worked it into the story or had some trainers, it's just walking endlessly to wherever else. The Pokemon so far are the same old ones I don't want to use (no Galar ones).

Posted by: Frenchie Nov 15 2019, 06:12 PM

I was very hesitant to buy one of the games after seeing all the bad things people had to say about them. But I did anyway, and I’m really enjoying the game so far. I’m just before the first gym and there’s already been so many areas to explore. I quite liked the wild area when I was first there, but I can see it becoming boring once you’ve seen everything. Also really like all the new Pokemon designs, from the leaks some looked a bit questionable but they all fit in the game really well imo.

Posted by: cantthinkofaname Nov 15 2019, 06:17 PM

I like the game more than I was expecting. There's some stuff that's not great but there's also some stuff that's really great!

I like:
- the general quality of life changes like choosing whether to send a pokemon to the box or to the team when your team is full
- the exp candy which saves you time from having to grind for new pokemon for hours upon hours
- the wild area .. mostly. I like the idea of it and the dynamax raids are really fun especially since you can play them with random NPCs
- the amount of pokemon catchable in the game. idk how many of the previous games have featured so many pokemon that you can actually catch in game but 400 is a big number and it'll take a while to catch them all lol.
- the "effective" or "not effective" thing that comes up when deciding which moves or which pokemon to use. i usually had to use bulbapedia alongside playing while playing older games which was a hassle so this helps.
- mum <3 she's so sweet and looks adorable
- professor magnolia (crawford) <3 <3

I don't mind:
- dexit.
- the cut moves

I don't like:
- the wild area.. lol I like it and I don't like it. I don't like the emptiness of it and I don't like the way too strong pokemon that are roaming around. the area should instead just show pokemon on similar levels as you.
- hop and leon. their relationship feels weird and unauthentic and they're super annoying.

Overall I like the games and am excited to see what I've got in store. I'm in the wild area atm and have not made it to the first gym yet so just leveling up my pokemon and catching all kinds of randos but my team at the moment is:

- Grookey (Abu) lv 15
- Stufful (Winnie) lv 15
- Yamper (Bolt) lv 14
- Rookidee (Zazu) lv 13
- Zigzagoon (Meeko) lv 13
- Chewtle (Crush) lv 13

So I decided to do the same as Aaron and name all my Pokemon with a theme so I went with a Disney theme. Naming them all after Disney characters!

Posted by: Aaron. Nov 15 2019, 08:34 PM

What even is their relationship? I skipped over it. Hop is quite annoying, but I always hate the partner/rival.

Posted by: lewistgreen Nov 15 2019, 08:52 PM

They’re brothers.

I’m thoroughly enjoying this. I’m always slow and careful at building up a team but I currently have Grookey, Dottler (fab that it’s part psychic) and Shellder.

Posted by: cantthinkofaname Nov 15 2019, 09:12 PM

So I haven't reached the first gym yet as I was grinding for what I thought was the first gym which wound up just being the gym tournament opening ceremony lmao so I had to put 3 Pokemon on hold as they are all on lv 19 and apparently they stop obeying me after lv 20 so I'm using different Pokemon to get through route 3. I also gave up on naming them since I have so many Pokemon already lmao.

Thwackey, Hoothoot and Yamper are all at lv 19 and in the computer for now so I'm using the following to get through route 3:

- Stufful
- Zigzagoon
- Chewtle
- Butterfree
- Snorunt
- Wooloo

Posted by: Liаm Nov 15 2019, 11:47 PM

I'm enjoying this a lot more than I expected too, I'm preferring it to SM/USUM tbh. The only odd glitches I've had graphically and with performance haven't affected my enjoyment, there's all the little quality of life things like the portable boxes and Pokemon being on the overworld that make sure nothing feels like a chore. I also like the scaling of Pokemon, as I haven't grinded a lot if I want a new Pokemon it's basically right there (other than the gift Toxel which I had to grind from level 1 ffs) at the level I catch it when I've got to a new route, as I'm not huge on grinding in Pokemon

It's a lot of fun, cute and the graphics being scaled up is great. Outside of the wild area, I've not noticed anything going that wrong, it doesn't feel as huge as it could have been but given some of what we heard before release, I can't grumble hugely at anything.

One thing I'm not sure on is replayability, it's like playing a series of the anime (which feels great don't get me wrong) with the fact you're travelling with Hop and you keep having to go through "cutscenes" and scripted events, it's not holding your hand as much as SM/USUM but it kind of is in a different way? You're always pushed into where to go and what to do, Pokemon is always linear (moreso than ever, ironically given the push for this open world Wild Area) but there's not even any scope to go a bit ahead and train, it just seems to be that there's just enough between A and B so that you don't have to grind, and it locks you out of going that bit further to find a new Pokemon for the gym or to train a bit if you did want to. Idk there's just too much Hop going through the same motions, I agree he's really annoying when he keeps popping up with no real purpose after every event and I don't care at all about him and Leon. Leon's only discernible personality trait is "lol he gets lost easily" Sonia and Marnie are so much more interesting.

I'm also finding the gyms a bit lacklustre, Dynamaxing is fun and maybe it's just that I had the right team (Thwackey for Nessa and Carkol for Kabu) but I one-shotted both Nessa and Kabu's Dynamaxed aces when I was at the same level and a level below respectively


My team as of just beating the third gym is:

Galar Stunfisk (Trapper) (wtf at them making Stunfisk good)
Thwackey (Kong)
Carkol (Etna)
Hattena (Daizy)
Stufful (Kuma)
Toxel (shame this is useless until it evolves, need to do some grinding)

Stunfisk and Stufful won't be staying, also haven't nicknamed Toxel yet. Not 100% on Carkol but she's pulling through so far *.*

Posted by: lewistgreen Nov 16 2019, 12:21 AM

Interesting we’ve got Galarian Meowth so soon after the Alolan form, but hey at least it’s more interesting being a steel type

Posted by: Liаm Nov 16 2019, 01:46 AM

Ok I've got what is potentially my final team and I'm only at the city after the 3rd badge!

Cufant - Ganesh (not 100% on this, when it evolves and gets better moves, Sheer Force with some of the moves it gets later could be slayage)
Thwackey - Kong (perhaps the only starter that's still adorable in its second stage rather than being an awkward middle)
Galarian Corsola - Sylvia (god this was a bitch to get, it only appears 5% in overcast weather in one part of the Wild Area, weather is random each day so I had to keep changing my Switch date, then it wouldn't stay in the ball and killed itself with Curse It's 100% my fave new Pokemon though and its evo's Sp Atk is insane, Chandelure level!!)
Hatterem - renamed Divina (this is a bit weak til it evolves but I'm a sucker for the femme queen Psychic types and love a Fairy)
Carkoal - Etna (didn't expect this to be a potential team member for me, just caught it to help with the Grass gym but I'm loving it way more than I thought)
Toxtricity - Siouxsie (needs to level up to get some moves but I adore the concept and typing, and it's been great so far)

If I swap out Cufant or Carkoal when they evolve, it'll be for Impdimp and evos, but then I already have a Fairy type so I may keep what I have for the balance. I could do with a water type but I don't really like any of the new ones oops, Corsola still has access to some water moves via TM/TR so I can just make do with that really.


(honestly did not expect to be this into it given how mad I was pre-release but that's Pokemon for you )

Posted by: Aaron. Nov 16 2019, 01:47 AM

I'm just about to challenge the 3rd Gym but had a big shakeup on my team:

Drednaw (Nadia Almada) Level 31
Centiskorch (Tahan Lew-Fatt) Level 30
Mudsdale (Jordan Lloyd) Level 30
Dottler (Amy Crews) Level 28
Impidimp (Victor Arroyo) Level 27
Hatenna (Ryan Ruckledge) Level 24

Really only my Top 3 are useable at this point. Nadia has been a slayer for my team. Hate to say it but I may drop Amy soon.

Posted by: Prettylittlebry Nov 16 2019, 08:32 AM

Anyone managed to find a gigantamax Pokemon yet?

Posted by: Dexton Nov 16 2019, 10:04 AM

Midway through the second gym:

Buttercup (Thwackey, level 23)
Marlin (Barraskewda, level 24)
Batbird (Corvisquire, level 23)
Swiper (Thievul, level 24)
WALLE (Carkol, level 23)
Toxel (level 22)

I'm yet to give Toxel a name, if it stays on the team. Barraskewda replaced the Shellder I originally had, I'm trying to use all new Pokemon (I tried Chewtle as my water type but its head irritated me too much)

Posted by: Liаm Nov 16 2019, 01:37 PM

I got a Butterfree from one of those Wild Area raids (I think, it's got the red X in its summary and it was stronger than the others I'd faced, like a 4x Max rock attack from Dynamax Carkol did like 1/4 of its health because it had a protection shield thing you had to hit 3 times to break) and if you pre-ordered you could get a Meowth from Mystery Gift. Ik that a couple of my team have Gigantamax forms so I'm wondering if through the story you get to obtain an item or something for those, like a superpowered kind of Wishing Star you can use on the Dynamax band thing.

Posted by: Liаm Nov 16 2019, 01:48 PM

Also my god can Hop GO AWAY. Cba that he doesn't bat an eyelid being thrashed by me when he insists battling every 5 minutes but he loses his mind losing to one other person and goes on about letting his brother down

Posted by: Nightcrawler Nov 16 2019, 02:06 PM

I'm still waiting for mine to download. I seriously don't know what I was thinking - why didn't I just order a physical copy? My internet sucks: downloading an episode of Gogglebox is a challenge, let alone a whole game! I've still got 12 hours left apparently.

Posted by: LMLou Nov 16 2019, 04:07 PM

The hand holding (so far) is ridiculous again. Let me explore, let me not know where to go and get lost a little.
Feels like it’s more Hop’s adventure and we just press A along the way

Posted by: cantthinkofaname Nov 16 2019, 04:44 PM

I feel like the game could have done with an option on whether you want to play on easy mode or not lol. I personally like this for the most part but I understand how other people may not.

Posted by: Envoirment Nov 16 2019, 10:27 PM

Really enjoying this so far. I haven't played as much as I was hoping to. Just onto the wild area near the beginning of the game. I kinda go a bit crazy trying to catch everything. Not sure what my team is going to be. Sobble is my only definite so far - the rest of my team is just a collection of pokemon that I need to evolve for the pokedex.

Posted by: Liаm Nov 16 2019, 10:53 PM

100%, even if it was a New Game+ option like other games! It really can't be that hard to just program a slight level increase, perhaps competitive style movesets for important battles with the gym leaders and rival.

Posted by: Envoirment Nov 16 2019, 11:14 PM

Difficulty settings for pokemon games would be amazing. They could decrease exp gain for easy/normal/hard (hard being 0.75x normal xp and easy being 1.25x), as well as raise levels for trainers/gym leaders universally (perhaps 3-5 levels higher). They could even add in an "extreme" mode which would cause you to release any pokemon that faint - similar to nuzlocke challenges. Then they would never get complaints about games being too easy.

Posted by: Liаm Nov 16 2019, 11:24 PM

I mean they did it for Black and White 2 plus loads of fan games do it, so exactly! It'd be such a good quality of life improvement, they've made loads of little quality of life tweaks this gen but that's one that's still crying out to be done.

I guess you can just Nuzlocke the game to make it harder but with how easy a lot of it is, without a challenge mode I don't think that would be that hard, depending on how lucky you were with encounters I guess. I mean my Pokemon have fainted but not that often and most of the time it's because I've made stupid mistakes when not paying quite enough attention (like I didn't think of switching out Rillaboom when facing Gengar even though ofc I know damn well it's part Poison, so I took a Dynamaxed Poison attack to the face lmao) or I just pushed someone with half HP a bit too far because I wanted the experience on them. But you shouldn't have to make up a challenge to do to make it a bit more difficult!

Posted by: Liаm Nov 16 2019, 11:35 PM

Agreed on the hand-holding too, I didn't find it too bad at the start considering SM/USUM was similar for pretty much the first island but it just doesn't stop through all of what I've played so far (about to do the 6th gym). I'm still enjoying it but it'd be great if it could just cool it on Hop or Sonia or whoever you happen to speak to just before an event always telling you where to go! It's linear enough that you'd easily figure it out, especially with Team Yell always blocking you until you do the gym.

It also feels like there's not enough content between gyms, I'd love a more fleshed out story or some side missions with Team Yell actually doing something and causing a bit more trouble than just blocking you from leaving a town until you've done the gym Like look at Team Galactic threatening the entire universe, Team Aqua and Magma trying to destroy the world via extreme weather, and look at "we want to slightly get in your way because we want Marnie to win the gym challenge"....

Don't get me wrong I am enjoying it, but I think I'm getting to the point of the game where I can see the unfinished comments are coming from. They didn't flesh it out enough, I think the experience is fun enough so that that doesn't totally ruin the game but I am left thinking that they could have done so much more in so many ways. The best part for me is the brilliant new Pokemon, if I didn't love raising them so much I think I'd be much more disappointed.

Posted by: Defaze Nov 17 2019, 12:28 AM

Okay these games aren't nearly as awful as I was expecting. I've clocked almost 15 hours before the first gym just breeding and exploring the Wild Area ooops. The dex cut is still unforgiveable and the new Pokemon designs are still largely awful, but it's a million million miles ahead of Sun and Moon.

(Hop can get so far to f*** tho -- what is this recent trend of having the rivals being as excruciatingly annoying as possible?!).

(OH, and f*** the automatic Exp Share too. This is probably my biggest gripe with the game, since it's SO easily remedied by just letting us turn the bloody thing off. Absolutely absurd decision on GF's part).

Posted by: lewistgreen Nov 17 2019, 01:11 AM

Hop is literally Ash in the anime.

So I spent most of this afternoon/tonight playing this and I’ve only just beaten Allister (took a few attempts mind because I’ve barely fleshed out my team)

Posted by: Liаm Nov 17 2019, 01:22 AM

I found the Ice gym (in Shield, I think you get Rock instead in Sword) just now quite challenging! Granted it was because I tried to refrain from using Copperajah's Heavy Steel or Coalossal (although admittedly the fact that only has Incinerate as a Fire move rn isn't the best) which would have been easier, but she seemed to keep having a counter for those anyway Actually quite a balanced team you had to think about, some of the gyms here feel like you can just spam their weakness.

The Exp Share is becoming more of an issue now, Cursola and Rillaboom are storming ahead a bit to the point where I'm thinking I'm gonna have to box them to halt them and stop them being overlevelled, but I don't want to do that because if I come across something they can counter and I can't use them it's gonna be a bit shit. It's really frustrating they didn't even program in something to switch off the Exp Share to prevent that! On the other hand Copperajah is lagging behind, it's slow and can't take a super effective hit well (and there seems to be tonnes of fighting, fire and ground moves out of nowhere any time I try to use it lmao) so I might have to switch it out but idk what for

Posted by: lewistgreen Nov 17 2019, 11:18 AM

OPAL’S TOGEKISS IS SO INFURIATING OH MY GOD

Posted by: Envoirment Nov 17 2019, 03:37 PM

Only just finished the first gym after ~7 hours. I have to say I really love the gym concept, with the challenge and then the battle. I like how big of a deal they make of the gym battles as well, being in a stadium and all. My only gripe with the first gym is that the leader only has 2 pokémon, despite having 6 pokéballs attached to his legs.

I've still yet to get a solid second member on my team. It's currently my Drizzile with 5 random pokémon to level up/evolve. Although I do quite like the look of Corviknight, so that may become my second team member. I really liked the design of Nickit, but it evolved into Thievul and I'm not sure I really like it. I have 3-4 others in mind, but have yet to come across them.

Posted by: Nightcrawler Nov 17 2019, 03:48 PM

Just defeated the second gym and am loving it so far, though completely agree with the comments about the hand-holding. Never spammed the A button as much in my life!

Current team:

Thwackey - Level 24
Butterfree - Level 23
Thievul - Level 23
Quagsire - Level 24
Carkol - Level 24
Woobat - Level 23

Was planning on choosing Sobble but then looked at the Pokedex and realised that there wasn't a single other grass type that I particularly wanted on my team, so settled for Grookey in the end.

Posted by: Aaron. Nov 17 2019, 05:12 PM

Do you guys have 'Skip Movies' on? I do not notice the hand holding as much as Sun/Moon.
RANT: However, I just finished the 4th gym and I was not impressed. The gym had nothing to do with the story, the gym itself was exceptionally easy - I 1 Hit KOed every single Pokemon, but that puzzle man. It wasn't hard, it was just stupid and frustrating to play. This Gym with the Wild Zone are my two lows so far.

Everything else is just perfect however, I've played almost 16 Hours and have caught just about 100 Pokemon. I have already started planning out a second go at this game once I finish this. Anyways, current team:

Appletun (Bianca Benigo) - Level 37
Morgrem (Peepers*) - Level 35
Mudsdale (Jordan Lloyd) - Level 38
Centiskorch (Tahan Lew-Fatt) - Level 40
Drednaw (Nadia Almada) - Level 40
Galarian Rapidash (Lesley Brain) - Level 42

*Dropped my own Impidimp for one that I could trade Stow-on-Side.

Posted by: Liаm Nov 17 2019, 07:42 PM

Is that sword? Gym 4 was awful on Shield too, cba with the controls for the spinning cups Not hard but just annoying.

I do like that the gyms have puzzles though, none have been hard or anything but it changes it up a bit. I really liked the Ice gym one, that was something you had to think about a bit.

Posted by: Aaron. Nov 17 2019, 08:49 PM

I'm playing Shield as well, I ended up always choosing the wrong route. Very frustrating.
Although the game play between Gym 4 and Gym 5 was far too short, Glimwood Tangle and Ballonlea were truly remarkable to play in.
Opal is one of my favorite Gym Leaders of all time *.*. Her Togekiss killed 4 of my Pokemon no problem and Gigantamax Alcremie was a sensational reveal.

Posted by: lewistgreen Nov 17 2019, 09:22 PM

I’ve just finished gym 8 *.* I sort of wish I hadn’t spammed it all weekend but I couldn’t help it as the gameplay has been fabulous. Guess I’ll have a crack at finishing the whole story tomorrow and work my way back at completing the Pokédex... I do hope there’s some post-game nuggets to sink our teeth into

I’ve tried to avoid any walkthroughs but man I was literally getting so annoyed that Linoone hadn’t evolved I had no idea it had to be at night time

Posted by: Frenchie Nov 17 2019, 09:36 PM

I've done the same, just finished the game . Also wish I'd taken my time but just was enjoying it too much. Although I wish there had been more side stuff apart from the gyms, cause there was potential for much more story.

Posted by: BiLLYx Nov 17 2019, 10:14 PM

I’m playing right now, and Ballonlea is absolutely stunning!

Posted by: Aaron. Nov 17 2019, 10:49 PM

Does anyone have any good resources on this Raid nonsense? I wanted to kill an hour and caught that Gigantamax Butterfree. I don't really know what that means. I don't really want a Butterfree on my team lol.
Also, I caught the Galarian Corsola in one of the raids, but couldn't help noticing the raid beam was a different color (?)

Posted by: TomHo Nov 17 2019, 10:51 PM

I’m playing Sword. I’m really enjoying it so far. It is amazing discovering all of the new Pokemon and forms.

This is the best game since Black and White imo

Posted by: lewistgreen Nov 17 2019, 11:23 PM

I hope they do Ballonlea justice in the anime

Posted by: Prettylittlebry Nov 17 2019, 11:51 PM

I noticed the different colours too but didn’t know what was any different

Posted by: Envoirment Nov 18 2019, 12:12 AM

I've just made it to Hammerlocke and finally getting a solidish team together. My team is currently:

Inteleon - Lv. 38
Boltund - Lv. 32
Corvisquire - Lv. 32
Applin - Lv. 30
Centiskorch - Lv. 30
Hatenna - Lv. 29

I'll likely switch out Corvisquire and Centiskorch for Snom/Frosmoth and Galarian Ponyta/Rapidash. Although not entirely sure on keeping Applin - I want to evolve him into Appletun, but 50/50 on whether I want him on my main team or not.

Posted by: Liаm Nov 18 2019, 12:32 AM

I had no trouble with Opal's Togekiss, but then I did have Coalossal with Rock moves and Copperajah with Heavy Slam The latter can decimate basically anything with that due to its weight but it's slow with meh defences so doesn't always get there.

I think the purple-y coloured ones are higher level, and they're harder so the rewards are greater. I assume the Pokemon are a higher level and have higher stat increases maybe?

Also Gigantamax changes appearance as well as size and I think the stat increase is greater, it's more like a Mega especially because only certain Pokemon can do it, but you have to catch a "special" one of the species to be able to do it, for example you have to have the Butterfree from that raid, you can't just catch any Butterfree and do it. Whereas obviously anything can Dynamax in the "power area" things. Idk I don't really get them, or see the point, it's fun in the gyms to set apart the challenge and the gym leader's ace, but I keep one-hitting them when I Dynamax too which defeats the purpose

I'd kind of prefer if we couldn't use Dynamax and it was something to make the gym leaders harder, something they earn the right to use as gym leaders and maybe we get to use it when we beat them all or when we win the league.

Posted by: HauntedHaus Nov 18 2019, 07:25 AM

My copy should be arriving tonight! Can't wait to get started.

Posted by: Aaron. Nov 18 2019, 05:19 PM

My Butterfree had an excellent moveset, it also had the Gigantamax Logo in its info page. Outside of that, I'm not really sure what value it brings or why people would hunt for it. But if you're a Butterfree fan I guess go for it? I guess the intent is to get people excited about stronger versions of Pokemon they like?
Maybe they need to do a better job of informing us what the raids are, Ala Pokemon GO. But maybe they already do this and I haven't been paying attention lol

Posted by: lewistgreen Nov 18 2019, 06:51 PM

I’ve quite enjoyed the dynamaxing element only being contained to one part of the gym battle and in the wild zone... I thought it’d be an overkill gimmick but it makes gym battles a tad more interesting especially when saved til last

Posted by: Liаm Nov 18 2019, 07:39 PM

Nah you haven't missed anything, well that or I did too They just kind of appear and you figure it out, which is odd given how much they signpost quite a lot and lead us to things in this game. I'm surprised we don't have to do a Raid with Hop

Posted by: lewistgreen Nov 18 2019, 10:46 PM

Thoroughly enjoyed those final battles and that match with Eternatus! I legit thought I’d just battle Leon tonight so pleasantly surprised my evening was spent building up to that instead

Posted by: LMLou Nov 19 2019, 10:31 AM

Just finished the fire gym and it’s the most I’ve struggled with a gym in ages which I’m happy about, a bit of a challenge for the first time in a while

Posted by: HauntedHaus Nov 19 2019, 08:27 PM

One of the first times ever I haven't chosen the water starter D: Grookey it is ~

Posted by: lewistgreen Nov 19 2019, 08:34 PM

^ The correct choice, although Rillaboom's moveset is a little disappointing

Posted by: Liаm Nov 20 2019, 02:17 AM

Yeah his moveset is kinda awful, I went and did loads of raids to get some good TRs and the late game TMs helped a bit but he could be so much better with some better moves.

Posted by: Liаm Nov 20 2019, 10:53 PM

Damn Leon is actually difficult, I was actually over-levelled for the rest of the league but he thrashed me oops

Posted by: TomHo Nov 20 2019, 11:51 PM

I love that the story continues after defeating Leon. It’s nice it’s not an abrupt end like in some of the games.

Posted by: Liаm Nov 21 2019, 04:36 PM

Having defeated Leon and completed the postgame, I have to say that's the most I've enjoyed a Pokemon game since... possibly gen 4 (barring ORAS which was a remake and I won't count)? It certainly wasn't perfect, but it was so fun that I didn't care about the Wild Area issues for example, given it was largely optional. I didn't even blink at the Dex cuts in terms of the game, I didn't use any old Pokemon apart from Stufful for a time before I solidified my tea, of course it's still lazy and sad they did it but oh well. I didn't really experience much lag and the graphics I never noticed as being bad outside of the Wild Area. The graphical popping in of Pokemon and people as you, for example, bike through towns was a bit annoying but not something that ruined the game. I grew to really like Dynamaxing as a concept, I liked that they saved it for gyms and other big events in the game and it was part of the story properly.

You can tell they had ambitions beyond what the game ended up being, so in places it felt a bit unfinished, only scratching the surface, but I honestly think they're on the right track. The gym leaders and rivals felt like actual characters rather than afterthoughts, I liked that the gym leaders show up again for the league and postgame rather than just being there for one battle with 0 characterisation. The story was fun, as short as it was compared to other games, it felt like an anime arc especially with the fact you journey along with Hop and I loved that the climax of the villain's story tied in with the league rather than it being a case of journeying through the gyms with something to disrupt you now and again.

Now for the bad - of course the Exp Share. It didn't really matter for most of the game, it just eliminated the need for grinding but it did annoy me towards the end when I had to think about not using certain Pokemon because they'd be even more overlevelled. It really made 0 sense not to just program in such a tiny feature and give the option, some people like grinding a lot and to not even have the choice was really odd and quite lazy. I also would have liked more story, at times it felt like it was just gym-route-gym and more story could have elongated the game. The postgame is disappointing but that's been an issue since Gen 4 with Pokemon, especially when you compare it to the Johto games having Kanto at the end, Gen 3 having the Battle Frontier and Gen 4 having the whole postgame island with the Battle Frontier/Tower. At least this has a little episode afterwards that continues the story on a bit, rather than it being a case of just ending like Tombo said. I'm so pleasantly surprised that this was great, my expectations were so low because of what we heard pre-release but honestly so much of it was exaggerated! That or I have lower standards/rose-tinted glasses for Pokemon, but idk I hated Let's Go and had more than enough to criticise with Gen 7, particularly USUM.


My biggest issue is replayability, as much as I enjoyed it, when a lot of it is scripted events, idk how much I'd enjoy going through the same again too soon after beating it, no matter how much I angle it as a challenge (perhaps a Nuzlocke) or change up my team. I'll wait until Home at least, but that's another issue as you have to pay a subscription just to be able to store the Pokemon you don't want to lose! If it's just a kind of £5 per year thing like Bank, I'll not mind but I can see it being a ridiculous price

I'm torn on what I want next though, I'm dying for Gen 4 remakes as they're my fave games but equally with the ambition of this, I'd love to see a 3rd version in the vein of B2/W2 that expands things (perhaps with the full Pokedex, or at least a wider one) but equally now it's on a bigger and better console, they could even do with going 2 years to make the follow-up game instead of rushing them out.

All that and I one-shotted the Charizard nobody shuts up about when I finally got to it! Which just says it all about how hideously overrated Charizard is. Granted, I did lose all my other Pokemon in the battle but I knew I had to have Cursola as it has Power Gem, the Dynamax rock move did it in *.* I actually felt really challenged by a champion which I missed in SM/USUM for sure. The only time I was challenged in that was Totem Lurantis, and that was only because I chose Popplio my first time and at that time I didn't have a solid team to cover its weaknesses. This had a couple of gyms and Leon, although it felt like most of the league was really easy. I found the format really fun anyway, moreso than the usual Elite Four tbh.

Hop did grow on me though, by the end I enjoyed the fact we had the whole adventure together when you compare him to barely there rivals like May/Brendan for example who you battle like 3 times and then they just vanish. He might have got annoying at times, but he had development too which you don't often see in rivals, he felt human and rounded. I like that he stays with you even through the postgame too, you feel the friendship grow and him grow as a person throughout the entire adventure, not just at select points.

Final team for me was Rillaboom, Cursola, Toxtricity, Copperajah, Hatterene and Centiskorch. I so wish I used Centiskorch for more of the game, it was so much of a better option for a Fire type than Coalossal was. Cursola and Toxtricity were definitely the MVPs though, in different ways but Cursola is the hero of the game for getting me out of a sticky spot with Leon! There's a good few other Pokemon I want to use for another playthrough, I'll have to nab Galarian Rapidash and Darmanitan from someone with Sword for my next play-though for sure!

Posted by: Liаm Nov 22 2019, 03:46 PM

Hatterene would EAT this

Posted by: Atonement Nov 22 2019, 11:12 PM

The other hoes are no competition for Hatterqueen.

Posted by: Liаm Nov 23 2019, 11:30 PM

The Battle Tower is quite fun, if bare bones af, but GOD can Leon stop wheeling out his Gigantamax Charizard I cba

Posted by: CSB Dream Nov 24 2019, 07:17 AM

lol i read Leon as Leona and i was about to respond "does she have a horse pokemon bc if so the jokes just write themselves at this point"

Posted by: Liаm Nov 27 2019, 01:23 AM

I'm starting breeding to get into competitive, wish me luck huns I'm gonna regret this :') It's the EV training I cba with but there's a couple of exploits to grind so I'm gonna see how that goes for now.

Gonna have breeding rejects left over if anyone wants anything traded, otherwise I'll just probably wonder trade them anyway (I'm doing Corsola and Eiscue which ofc are Shield exclusive) Especially if anyone has a Galar Darumaka/Darmanitan

(Ik you can use mints for natures instead of breeding til you get the right one, but they don't actually come that easy so I don't want to use them just yet.)

Posted by: Aaron. Nov 27 2019, 01:47 PM

I finished this over the weekend, overall for me an exceptional game. Granted, I don't play a lot of Video Games, just Pokemon and the occasional Mario Kart/Party. But the experience of playing Pokemon on a big screen TV with surround sound was sublime. Really everything that people called out about the game prior to launch that were defects or negative I probably wouldn't have noticed on my own. However, I do acknowledge the first half of the game was a lot more solid than the second half.

My final team ended up being the 3 Starters, Centiskorch, Dragapult and Eternatus. We can pretty much lose Eternatus because I only caught just at the end and I didn't really use him at all.
Centiskorch is probably the best thing to happen to this game. There's a lack of strong Fire Pokemon, but the fact that you can get Centiskorch so early in the game is great. I really wish Dragapult was available a lot earlier because it would have been great to run with him prior to the Elite 4 (or whatever it was now).
Why they did not give one of Drednaw/Boltund or Centiskorch a 3rd evolution completely baffles me.

I did end up ditching my run of Big Brother Named Characters. In reality I had played over 24 hours by the 4th Gym and really just wanted to finish off the game. My team prior to Wonder Trading was terrible, I had a Galarian Rapidash which ended up being a complete mistake, Appletun and Drednaw. Unfortunately all can be taken down in one shot with a type disadvantage so I dropped all of them. However I've seen a lot of the new Pokemon so will rethink my next run. Which I am excited about, there's a lot of re-playability to this game.

I didn't notice the story/hand holding as much as you all did. Admittedly I would be on my phone mashing the 'X' key. However I did notice it a lot at the end and I really didn't care.


PROs:
- Wonder Trade Anytime: This goes along with the ability to change Nicknames and Delete/Relearn moves at Pokecenters. No need to find a random house in a random town. Big call out for being able to effectively manage the entire game and Pokemon without needing to fly everywhere or find a Poke Center.
- Wild Area: Great concept, great for someone like me who wants some strong pokemon with competitive stats that I don't need to spend hours hunting for. The raids are fun as well.

CONs:
- TMs/TRs: One of the things people hated was that TRs break after one use. So what. They are so easy to get. However the problem is with TMs/TRs.. half the time they aren't even compatible with the Pokemon you want to use them on. This has been a problem for GENERATIONS. Fix this PLEASE!
- Wild Area: Yep. Both a Pro and a Con. At times this is completely non navigational. Insanely frustrating at times to search for that one Pokemon you want. With a revamp this could be one of the best things to happen to Pokemon in a long time.
- Intro/Cut Scenes: Another area that Pokemon needs to work on is when you do a Mega Evolution/Dynamaxing or even doing a Raid. This shit takes WAY TOO LONG. We don't need massive transformations EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Or at least let us skip it. It's great to see once or twice. But, I don't need to waste an entire minute going into a Raid and Dynamaxing a Pokemon.
- The Spikemuth and Hammerlocke Gyms: Wow. This was lazy, even for Pokemon. The Spikemuth Gym... you're.... walking down an Alley. Okay. In Hammerlocke you... battle 4 trainers in a room. There was also something else before taking on the Elite 4.. where you are in an elevator... going up... battling people? Really lazy. It seems like towards the end they ran out of time.

I know it looks like there are more Cons vs Pros - but it's not the case. The game is beautiful. I'd give it 8/10 - but if they found a way to fix these 4 or 5 things.. this game would be 10/10.

Posted by: Liаm Nov 27 2019, 02:42 PM

Can't argue with any of those cons, I've been noticing the TM/TR thing a lot while doing the Battle Tower and making competitive Pokemon. There's more than ever which should be good, but there's some really specific ones than it feels like hardly anyone can learn I guess they have to have balance, so it's not like I want everyone to learn EVERYTHING, but in some cases not being able to learn them makes no sense. For example, I wanted to give Cinderace a physical Fighting move for coverage to help with Rock types, the only ones it can learn is Revenge, Low Sweep or Low Kick. Really it makes no sense it can't at least learn Drain Punch or Brick Break, it's also really frustrating when you get a TR after a Raid, think YAS a great move, and it's something literally none of your Pokemon can learn. Idk there's just a lot of moves I can't see any reason why pretty much most Pokemon shouldn't learn, and it'd be a big quality of life improvement and it would make quite a few Pokemon so much better.

Posted by: Liаm Nov 27 2019, 06:25 PM

The Max Raids are becoming a con for me post game too, it's the fastest way to level up when you want Pokemon for online battles or the Battle Tower but the f***ing AI..................... I keep getting some idiot with a Solrock who just uses Cosmic Power or some idiot with a MAGIKARP, who brings a Magikarp to a raid and expects to do anything lmao. They're fun when they work but it's luck a lot of the time, getting the right NPCs joining you and being lucky with what moves the Dynamax/Gigantamax Pokemon uses against you. It'd be ok if you could Dynamax when you want, it keeps saying x is ready to dynamax but the NPCs never do, and I don't like to use my 3 turns straight away before whittling it down some more otherwise you end up struggling near the end. It is fun with other people if you can get them but I wish there was an option to use 4 of your own Pokemon against it too, or you could call the NPCs from the game (Hop, Gym Leaders, Leon) to help or something. Because there's an exploit with the raids that you can manipulate in game time to passing, there's no chance of getting anyone to join online either so it's just practically impossible to do the 5* raids and even if by some chance you do, you get like 2 L XP Candies and 1 XL XP candy..


I think your point though Aaron about the Wild Area being a pro and con applies to that, there's so much right but the glaring things wrong with it certainly bring it down.

Posted by: Cody Cranberry Nov 27 2019, 11:44 PM

this is the best thing to come out of this generation lmao

Posted by: Liаm Nov 27 2019, 11:52 PM

Omg I'm screaming I was sweeping some kid with Eiscue Ice Face and he got salty and quit lmao

That's the most fun I've had online tbh, for some reason every team has either Dragapult or Rotom Wash, or both, and it's getting boring :') I mean Dragapult I get, it's cool af but Rotom??? Is this 2009??

Posted by: lewistgreen Nov 28 2019, 07:36 PM

Gigantamax Snorlax raid will be coming on December 4th

Posted by: Cody Cranberry Nov 28 2019, 11:06 PM

testing new metas, probably? or pelipper assist

Posted by: Dexton Nov 29 2019, 12:30 AM

Rotom will always be a competitive staple tbh, in another 10 years time it’ll still be on most teams

Posted by: Liаm Nov 29 2019, 03:04 AM

It's actually so easy to make competitive Pokemon this gen which is fab, the short postgame is more than made up for by the fact it's so easy to get into.

Posted by: Defaze Nov 29 2019, 09:48 PM

Why does the quality of these games fall off a cliff after the fourth gym? YIKES. The run of gym 5-7 is wayyy too uneventful. Spikemuth in particular has an amazing aesthetic but my God, it's actually barren. They very easily could've made the interiors accessible and turned them into a pseudo-maze for the gym puzzle.

The storyline is truly horrific even by Pokemon standards. It's just... such a snoozefest.

Those two major gripes asides, it's a serviceable enough game. The QoL changes are great and the Wild Area is an amazing addition. My team is a bit of a shitshow though. I'm only using two new mons and they're Pincurchin and Thievul (both shiny tho, and the former has its HA so it's actually really potent). The rest have mostly grown on me but not enough to actually compel me to use them over old favourites.

Posted by: Liаm Nov 29 2019, 11:01 PM

I liked the storyline, it was like playing the anime! It was nice to actually go through the journey with your rival like I said.

I do agree about the gyms though, like Aaron said last page it definitely feels like they kind of gave up or ran out of time in places, it's not even towards the end as I think the league and story around it was brilliant and the postgame wasn't too bad given X and Y and Sun and Moon had basically nothing on that front. I feel like they were rushing with time to get a game out each year and that meant that some things suffered, namely bits of the story and the gym challenge. I love that they made the gym challenge such a spectacle with everyone watching and it being in a stadium, but what I found odd was that you had all this hype of Raihan being amazing and Leon seeing him as a rival, not many people being able to beat him... and then you just get an empty gym and "wow he does double battles!11!1" The Spikemuth one kind of made sense for the story of Team Yell, but Raihan's was just bizarre. Literally just "battle these three trainers then me", when we had actual puzzles, quizzes and challenges the whole rest of the way through.


I still think the games are brilliant, all things considered, but just imagine with the extra year of development if they skipped Let's Go and put the effort into SwSh, how amazing they'd have been!

Posted by: Defaze Nov 29 2019, 11:49 PM

I've not battled Raihan yet but I kinda' suspected it'd be equally as uneventful. Spikemuth just left a bad taste in my mouth because I LOVED the theme of the town, it reminded me of the old Sega side-scrolling brawler games like Streets of Rage. It was just such wasted potential, which seems to be a recurring theme with Pokemon this era.

Your last comment is so on-point. I genuinely enjoyed the first half of my run more than any official Pokemon in a long time, but they dropped the ball hard in the latter half. There's so many great things but just about everything lacks polish. Imagine a game that incorporated the open-world/co-op aspect of the Wild Area for the entirety of the playthrough? It's a bit embarrassing that that seems like such a pipe dream in 2019, but hey ho. I'm at least slightly optimistic going forward, because they did seem to make some strides towards bringing Pokemon into the modern era. Like you said, they really ought to stop with the yearly release cycle and especially with the cash-grab 'sequels' that are effectively the same game repackaged with a few cosmetic/mechanical alterations, because SwSh could've been legitimately fantastic with more development time (and a full dex).

Posted by: Liаm Nov 30 2019, 02:30 AM

I've had such U-turns on Eiscue and Cinderace I remember them leaking and me being like jesus christ what the f*** but the former is so fun to use because of the form change if Hail comes back, it's fun to have to adapt if you switch a couple times, and to see if the other team can deal with it. I've nearly swept a team four times with it, the nearly only being because I got a salty disconnect each time I've been doing similar to what I did with Mimikyu's Disguise/Swords Dance last gen, I use Ice Face to get a free Iron Defence off if I can see the team is likely to be physical, then I've still got great defence even when the Ice Face goes down. It's kind of a novelty type gimmick 'mon but I just love it The confused lil' penguin face is adorable too.


Cinderace's design isn't that bad once you grow into it, it's basic af but I think it's the best starter, wish I'd chosen it as Rillaboom's moveset has been a bit lacking, even for the main game which wasn't hard at all I felt at times like he wasn't good enough apart from when he was overlevelled by a bit. Cinderace is basically the onyl good counter to Zacian which is ridiculously broken, as it will outspeed and get it in one with Pyro Ball which has been a godsend.

I kind of got Spikemuth being so different, I didn't mind the lack of Dynamaxing as it just all fit Piers as a character, but there was really no excuse for lack of a gym challenge. Maybe if he also noted that he didn't see the point of that and was just all about battling, but still. When you have the likes of herding Wooloo, riding teacup rides and detecting traps in the ground so you don't fall in a hole, it was really meh to just walk along a corridor with a Mr Mime or two in front of you.

And yeah 100%, I'm hopeful for the future at least because it genuinely feels like this is a step in the right direction, whatever you think of Dexit and some of the more unfinished bits. There's so many little quality of life improvements, things that make the game more fun or adventurous for me and that's what I want. if they just plow everything into the next main game instead of a 3rd version or remake (as much as I'm dying for Diamond and Pearl remakes) it'll be amazing. Even if it was still Galar but a sequel like B2/W2, maybe with the full dex (but I'm honestly not bothered as I'm not even really using old Pokemon now I'm in the meta, only used Toxapex so far), that'd be amazing.

But it's probably my fave game of this year despite all its flaws, maybe it's more that I was prepared to be colossally disappointed and it turned out good, but I just keep thinking it could have been SO much worse. Granted, that isn't how it should be

Posted by: Defaze Nov 30 2019, 05:01 PM

So the conclusion was about as underwhelming as I expected. The entirety of Wyndon is aesthetically great... but there's nothing to do? You can't enter any of the houses, the hotel serves no purpose, the footpaths contain precisely 0 NPCs and you can't even buy anything from the stalls outside the stadium. The final boss 'dungeon' consisting of a single elevator going upwards was a bit of a scream. It's honestly just grim. Did they run out of development time??

As for the championship, I actually experienced some difficulty with Leon, but that's probably due to my self-imposed no items rules and my team being hot trash (and largely underleveled). Speaking of, hall of fame team:

Mortimer the Thievul [66] - Basically my makeshift starter since none of them appeal to me in the slightest. He's weak as shit, but he's shiny and his colouration is awesome.
Poison the Tsareena [58] - I put her on the team purely because of her chase animation. Iconic.
Bjorn the Beartic [59] - I... have no idea why I used this? His design is tragic, but Hail/Slush Rush shenanigans was fun to abuse I guess.
Decibel the Noivern [60] - Amazing design but using Noibat until level 48 is honestly torturous, and the pay-off really isn't worth it. He's fast but not much else, and Draco Meteor/Hurricane aren't the most reliable STABs (Air Slash/Dragon Pulse did pitiful damage).
Flubber the Reuniclus [58] - Would've been a whole lot more useful if Trick Room wasn't post-game. She was powerful and bulky enough though, and my switch in to most incoming attacks (I was playing on Set mode).
Tex the Pincurchin [58] - See above re Trick Room. Still a whole lot of fun with Electric Surge though. He has surpisingly decent stats.

I was originally planning on using EV-reducing berries and retraining them (and fixing their IVs using caps) like all my other playthroughs, but I honestly think they're beyond salvation. I'd probably get annihilated if I tried Battle Spot.

Eiscue is objectively horrific and I was legitimately offended when it was revealed, but I think its gimmick meshes well with how awful it looks. Seems like a lot of fun to use at least (especially with Belly Drum).

Cinderace is probably the best of the starters, but I figured I'd stop forcing myself to use designs I wasn't keen on simply because they're starters. The last one I actually legitimately liked from a design standpoint was Serperior. Every starter since has been leaning far too heavily into the anthropomorphic trend imo. They just look unnatural and... icky.

Posted by: Envoirment Nov 30 2019, 05:13 PM

Just coming up to the 8th gym now. I've spent too much time catching things/doing max raid battles.

Frosmoth Lv. 77
Galarian Rapidash Lv. 59
Inteleon Lv. 54
Boltund Lv. 59
Drakloak Lv. 54
Hatterene Lv. 56

Frostmoth's level being so high wasn't intended. I feel I'm way over leveled for the rest of the game now. But really enjoying it still. I might switch out Inteleon for something else as I'm not really that fond of it.

Posted by: WhoChristmassy Dec 28 2019, 07:53 PM

Received this for Christmas and I'm absolutely loving it!

I'm just about to do the first gym, and my team currently is:

Drizzile Lv. 22
Corvisquire Lv. 20
Yamper Lv. 19
Growlithe Lv. 17
Snover Lv. 16
Thievul Lv. 19

Posted by: lewistgreen Dec 29 2019, 09:10 PM

My Snom and Corsola had a race in Pokemon Camp today and I wish I had recorded it as it literally took them 5 minutes

Posted by: Dextmas Lights Dec 30 2019, 08:28 AM

Completed a Galar Living Dex today (missing only Zamazenta and Type: Null, traded with a friend to fill my Dex but traded back)

I'm very proud because it's the first time I've ever even completed the Pokedex in a Pokemon game!

Posted by: Who Year's Eve Dec 31 2019, 11:23 AM

On a related note!

Posted by: WhoOdyssey Jan 7 2020, 04:06 PM

Pokemon Direct on Thursday at 14:30!

Posted by: Liаm Jan 7 2020, 09:28 PM

Being 20 minutes long, I've just seen that hat's the longest Pokemon Direct which is v interesting I'm trying not to get my hopes up for those Sinnoh remakes but when it's that long it can't just be Pokemon Home/Sleep can it??

Posted by: WhoOdyssey Jan 7 2020, 10:52 PM

I'm *really* hoping for DP remakes!

Though part of me is thinking if there are console games announced it'll be Mystery Dungeon or Detective Pikachu.

Posted by: LMLou Jan 7 2020, 11:55 PM

I wouldn't mind waiting another year or two for Sinnoh remakes if it means they put more time and effort into them and add a lot of features. We've had a main series game for 4 years straight now so missing out on one this year would be fine for me

Posted by: Defaze Jan 8 2020, 07:43 PM

I'm sure I read that the Direct focused on Pokemon Bank all the way back in 2013 was roughly 20 minutes, so I'm not getting my hopes up for anything exciting.

I'm actually replaying Platinum for the first time since it was released, and while it's objectively better than any of the 3D era games, it's so unbelievably slow. All the QoL changes from the newer gens are sorely missed. So I am tentatively excited for DPP remakes, although slightly hesitant that they'll butcher everything that made them fantastic games. I know for a fact that they'll lower the difficulty, but I swear if they don't at least incorporate the Platinum upgrades, like the distortion world + the improved dex and gym leader rosters (hi ORAS *shudders*), then I'll scream.

Posted by: Liаm Jan 8 2020, 07:55 PM

Omg imagine if after all this time waiting for DP remakes they just chuck us Let's Go Bidoof and Pachirisu

Posted by: WhoOdyssey Jan 8 2020, 11:16 PM

I'm absolutely loving Shield, I genuinely think it might be my favourite mainline game so far.

Posted by: Liаm Jan 9 2020, 01:38 PM

The same source that leaked a lot of SwSh before it came out (although that was from having the game) are saying the Direct will feature Mystery Dungeon, idm that as long as they're better than the last two entries. Gates To Infinity was just about playable but Super Mystery Dungeon was so so so dull.

Posted by: WhoOdyssey Jan 9 2020, 02:22 PM

8 mins to go! I'd be happy with a new Mystery Dungeon tbh

Posted by: Liаm Jan 9 2020, 02:32 PM

Mystery Dungeon Red/Blue remake March 6th- DEMO TODAY

I'm here for that, the originals were great.

Posted by: WhoOdyssey Jan 9 2020, 02:33 PM

So hyped for that!

I'm really happy with this direct what ever happens now

Posted by: Liаm Jan 9 2020, 02:34 PM

Ooh DLC for SwSh as well!!

Posted by: WhoOdyssey Jan 9 2020, 02:34 PM

Sword and Shield DLC

Posted by: Liаm Jan 9 2020, 02:51 PM

FIRE GALARIAN SLOWPOKE

200+ Pokemon added back with the expansion packs, good news is that even if you don't pay for the extra story content they're adding them into the "normal" games via update.

Posted by: WhoOdyssey Jan 9 2020, 02:59 PM

£26.99 for BOTH of the DLC packs together (lots of people online thinking they're separate)

Posted by: cantthinkofaname Jan 9 2020, 03:01 PM

OMG what a day for Pokemon!! New pokemon, new galarian forms, new gigantamax, new locations, new mystery dungeon! I'm psyched for this! Hope we get more DLCs like this for which I'll gladly hand over my wallet lmao!

Posted by: Liаm Jan 9 2020, 03:03 PM

I'm watching Patterrz's stream and everyone seems to be whinging I mean I'd get it if they just DLC'd the Dex and made you pay but extra story content as well for that price is good! I mean Smash charges about the same and all you get is a handful of characters and a handful of stages so I think it's fair. Especially considering they usually will charge say $40 again for a whole new game that only changes a few things like USUM.

Posted by: cantthinkofaname Jan 9 2020, 03:07 PM

One question. Are they both available no matter which game you initially got or is one for Sword and the other for Shield? Any release date yet?

Posted by: Liаm Jan 9 2020, 03:13 PM

Yeah you can get them both (for the £26.99) on either game, but there's still version exclusives depending on what main game you have.

Posted by: cantthinkofaname Jan 9 2020, 03:19 PM

That's awesome. I'm past being bummed at whatever they decide to do. I'm just excited for some new content! I suppose this could have been included for free in the base game as part of the post game but I prefer this to not getting this content at all.

Posted by: LMLou Jan 9 2020, 04:48 PM

I think the DLCs are great! As Liam mentioned, this is much better than the usual 3rd game editions that charge full price but add in very limited features. This way you save money and get an extra adventure and areas to explore with your original team

Posted by: Liаm Jan 9 2020, 04:55 PM

Bit disappointed the Galarian Slowpoke is just Psychic because like.. that's LESS than a normal Slowpoke and it's just yellow on its head, I feel like Slowking/Bro might have a different typing so it's like two cool different evolutions tho

Posted by: Envoirment Jan 9 2020, 06:54 PM

Excited! From what I can tell it looks like they're expanding the Regis - Regielectric and Regidark (not entirely sure for that one) *_* Regional forms of Zapdos/Articuno/Moltres too? £27 for two expansion packs is pretty good. I'm glad a lot of pokemon will be readded to the game without having to buy the DLC. It'll change the meta quite a bit though which'll be interesting!

Posted by: Liаm Jan 10 2020, 03:03 PM

Regional forms of a legendary is interesting, doesn't really make sense tbh I'd rather they just expanded the bird trio like they are with the Regis.

Good point about the meta, there's some interesting Pokemon being used a lot because they've become viable due to a lack of the Pokemon who previously outclassed them, or because of new moves etc. they gain (who'd have called Mandibuzz and Seismatoad being OU? ), so it'll be interesting to see if they get displaced by the newly available old favourites. I'm getting fed up of every team having either Gyarados, Dragapult or both as of right now though I was battling for a good two hours yday and there was genuinely ONE team I faced that didn't have either of those :/

Posted by: Envoirment Jan 11 2020, 01:09 AM

There were memes on twitter about Landorus being back. Hopefully the meta won't revert back to what it was and that there'll still be a nice mix of the new mons in there. It was nice to have a lot of pokemon that weren't used that much previous become more prevelant due to Dexit.

Posted by: Liаm Jan 11 2020, 01:14 AM

Yeah definitely! It'll be fun to have a bit of both, I'm looking forward to using some old ones now it's so easy to get competitively viable Pokemon but I hope it doesn't mean my faves I've been using of the bunch we had to "make do" with are obsolete. I've been using Tsareena a lot for example!

Posted by: Jüpiter👑 Jan 11 2020, 05:58 PM

I miss loads of my faves...Gliscor + Mega-Garde...

Still, the DLC looks fun altho the pricing of it is really moneygrubby of them.

Posted by: lewistgreen Jan 11 2020, 11:04 PM

I’ve ordered it but I agree with the moneygrabbing

Posted by: Liаm Jan 12 2020, 12:16 AM

I don't think it's moneygrabbing at all, look at the Smash DLC for just a bit less and all you get is a few fighters and stages, look at the 3rd versions that add virtually nothing? I think to have extra Pokemon and areas, that actually expands the story of the game, is so much better and it costs less than the 3rd version would. With the 3rd versions, you have to trudge through the same story yet again with a few things changed. I so regretted Ultra Moon for that reason

I suppose they shouldn't have taken them out in the first place, but I think getting extra content for the game we already played and extend the experience you can have with the Pokemon you loved through the story is so much better than demanding full price for a barely changed third version.

Posted by: Envoirment Jan 12 2020, 03:37 PM

Ye I don't think the price is too bad at all, especially as it's cheaper than a 3rd game would be and it's likely both DLCs will have a lot of extra content as opposed to re-doing the same content with just a few changes here and there.

I'm not sure how long they'll support the games with DLC, I'm hoping they'll bring out more DLC in 2021 before moving on to new games in 2022-2023 when the 9th generation should come out.

Posted by: cantthinkofaname Jan 12 2020, 06:28 PM

Yeah I'm hoping they bring DLCs until all old Pokemon have been added into the game. I see a lot of people saying this should have been in the game but idk I'm fine with this as it adds some freshness into the game a while after you've finished it instead of just being part of the post game. Surely the post game could have done with a lil bit more content on its' own and then also having these DLCs - that would have been the best version of events IMO.

Posted by: Liаm Jan 12 2020, 07:30 PM

Yeah I can see them doing that which I'm OK with to be honest, gives them more time for the next proper game but we don't go without in the meantime and it means SwSh can live on for longer as we get more and more content.

Posted by: 👍 Codyland 👍 Jan 12 2020, 07:50 PM

National Dex DLC to come next year then?

Posted by: WhoOdyssey Jan 12 2020, 09:33 PM

I imagine next year it'll be the next set of games (hopefully Gen 4 remakes!)

Posted by: WhoOdyssey Jan 15 2020, 02:54 PM

The first episode of 'Pokemon Twilight Wings' has been released, a short web anime based around the Galar region - new episodes (there are 7 of them) are every Wednesday.

Posted by: Liаm Jan 27 2020, 02:06 AM

Omg Polteageist is my new fave, I've been Shell Smash/Stored Power sweeping so many teams tonight lmao

Holy trinity of Polteageist, Dracovish (ugly as it is) and Tsareena stay winning x

Posted by: Liаm Jan 28 2020, 02:37 PM

Pokemon Home is 15.99 a year, Bank was only 5.99 iirc I don't like how people now have to pay for GTS capabilities.

Posted by: lewistgreen Feb 27 2020, 06:30 PM

Dark/Grass type Zarude has been revealed

Posted by: Liаm Mar 3 2020, 02:52 PM

There's a rumour that Z-Moves return in Isle Of Armour and Megas in the Crown Tundra, I kinda hope that isn't true because I think the meta is much better for not having either of those (not so much Z-Moves, but Megas, I think the lack of both of those and Dynamaxing being something any Pokemon can do with a bit of strategy to it is better than a select few ending up broken). Saying that, Mega Mawile and Mega Altaria are two of my fave Pokemon so I do kinda want those

Posted by: diva thin muffin Mar 3 2020, 04:45 PM

Omg I hope megas come back. Mega Evolutions > Dynamax.

Posted by: LMLou Mar 3 2020, 05:23 PM

I prefer Megas too but they can come back next gen, we don't need everything put in the one game

Posted by: Prettylittlebry Jun 1 2020, 03:12 PM

New DLC trailer tomorrow. Hoping we finally get a release date.

Posted by: Liаm Jun 1 2020, 10:25 PM

Omg I'm so excited, especially for being able to use all the new Pokemon online now that building competitive Pokemon is so easy! I just hope it doesn't change the meta too much, I'm worried about like Landorus and Garchomp as ik they are coming back, I use Morpeko a LOT and if there's gonna be two omnipresent Ground threats like that he could be harder to use

And just to be able to have more of the adventure to play as well *.*

Posted by: Liаm Jun 2 2020, 01:31 PM

17th June release, lots of Pokemon shown as coming back plus we saw Galarian Slowbro which is Psychic/Poison, it's got the shell on its arm rather than its tail with purple markings on its arm and tail so it looks like it's been poisoned or something by being bitten by the Shellder for too long. Love the typing! It has a new move called Side Arm Smash that deals wither special or physical damage based on which one will do more damage to the opponent, love that concept!

From the trailer we know these will be back:

Shinx line
Absol
Tauros
Scyther line
Druddigon
Whismur line
Sandile line
Tangela line
Exeggecute line
Poliwag line
Kangaskhan
Bouffalant
Rockruff line
Emolga
Mienfoo line
Fletchling line
Skrelp line

Really excited to use Tangrowth competitvely!

Second half of the trailer was Crown Tundra stuff, with the following returning Pokemon:

The Regis, including a new Electric Regi and a new Dragon Regi
Absol
Cyrogonal
Swablu line !!!
They showed off legendary Dynamaxes so I think a lot of them will be obtainable like in USUM's wormhole thing
Galar Articuno is Psychic/Flying, Galar Zapdos is Fighting/Flying and Galar Moltres is Dark/Flying, I like that they have a type triangle as with starters!


Magmar, Kingdra, Aggron and Magnezone are shown in the championship too meaning they will come in one expansion pass or the other.

Posted by: lewistgreen Jun 2 2020, 11:02 PM

That all sounds fantastic!

Posted by: Liаm Jun 5 2020, 03:16 PM

Hidden ability starters are also out as a Pokemon Home gift and now Cinderace has the same hidden ability as Greninja where it changes its type before each move, so STAB on EVERYTHING

Posted by: lewistgreen Jun 10 2020, 06:24 PM

ONE WEEK TO GO

Posted by: Liаm Jun 10 2020, 11:50 PM

I'm excited but nervous, the latter being how much online is gonna change but it's gonna be fun having the new areas to explore (from the trailers, it all looks stunning) and it's just exciting to get Pokemon back that we've missed this whole time! It's also exciting bc I've seen loads of leaks about Galarian forms and ik most will be false but I'm intrigued to see if we get any more than just Slowbro and to see what they are.

Posted by: Billy. Jun 11 2020, 10:52 AM

Are there gonna be any new pokemon?

Posted by: J00psyMethyd Jun 11 2020, 11:35 AM

There's a new Slowbro form

Posted by: Liаm Jun 11 2020, 12:06 PM

Also the two new legendaries, rumours say there'll be more Galar forms but we don't know yet, it would seem weird to only have Slowbro.

Strongest Galarian form rumour seems to be Shroomish and Breloom

Posted by: Liаm Jun 17 2020, 10:42 AM

Today *.* I assume it will be around 2pm after the "Pokemon Presents" thing that is on then. I wish they'd just released it at midnight local time but I guess this way it's a surprise for everyone which is fun.


EDIT: so Home has been datamined and NO new Galarian forms other than Slowbro, apparently there may be data server side that you can't see right now with a datamine, it just seems so stupid and lazy and disappointing to bother adding one new form and nothing else?

Posted by: diva thin muffin Jun 17 2020, 03:58 PM

But isn't Slowking being added in this version too or is that in the other DLC?

Posted by: lewistgreen Jun 17 2020, 06:48 PM

Immediately caught a Starmie. YAS THANKS

Posted by: LexC Jun 17 2020, 07:19 PM

Catching a level 80 Wailord what's good UwU

Posted by: Billy. Jun 17 2020, 08:10 PM

got myself a Starmie, Emolga & Jigglypuff within 20 seconds aha, I'm enjoying it.

Posted by: Prettylittlebry Jun 17 2020, 09:45 PM

Completed the story for Isle of Armor already. But sad it was so short but I’m assuming the Crown Tundra will be packed full of content later this year. Happy to have Starmie back in the games too

Posted by: Liаm Jun 18 2020, 11:51 AM

The story was pretty tedious and way too short I mean half of it was glorified fetch quests with only really one challenging battle. I mean the calibre of opponents in the Tower was pathetic I wasn't expecting a whole new region and league, we were never gonna get that, but a couple of hours of fetch quests and piss easy battles is disappointing. I know the main game was hardly difficult, but I just wanted a bit more here.

So many of my faves still not back too, it's fun exploring and catching all the returning Pokemon but to me this feels quite rushed for a bit of fan service (especially the lowkey glitchy following Pokemon where the programming seems to be half assed). Mostly I'm just looking forward to shaking up the metagame a bit, good thing is all the broken ones who used to rule the metagame aren't in this DLC and seem to be Crown Tundra returnees so hopefully some lesser remembered Pokmeon who are back get a chance to shine.

We also seem to have a lot more promised for Crown Tundra, so this feels a bit rushed. I mean they at least could have added a few new Galarian forms or something, plus there was a perfect excuse for G-Max Vespiquen with the honey quest. Idk it just all feels like they've shoved the good stuff to Crown Tundra and then farted this out in the meantime. The Kubfu stuff was cute though I guess.

Posted by: Prettylittlebry Jun 18 2020, 10:54 PM

SERIOUSLY THOUGH. I thought this was going to happen!

Posted by: Atonement Jun 20 2020, 09:11 AM

I'm not gonna get the expansion but I heard you can still catch the newly added Pokémon in the original. I guess I will return to it at some point to do that.

Posted by: Liаm Jun 20 2020, 10:01 AM

Online is really fun atm, seems to be people kind of testing and exploring new pokemon and we all don't know what we're quite doing For example I've been using Comfey a lot, totally irrelevant in gen 7 but is putting in WORK right now, I feel like it's because people are using all the returning pokemon as they test out sets and work on teams, which is fun! It's like we don't know what's coming or what ro expexg, whereas when you see Dragapult, Charizard and Dracovish for example, you 100% know the drill.

That's the good thing about the picking really random pokemon to bring back, although Chansey is gonna be soooo broken with Dynamax, I lowkey hate the mechanic now

Posted by: Doug Jun 20 2020, 06:25 PM

I managed to get a shiny Horsea through breeding like 7 just to get one with Sniper! Funnily enough it didn't have Sniper but I grafted for an Ability Capsule, training it up now to make it into the beast it has proven to be on Showdown - Sniper + Scope Lens + Dragon Dance + Scale Shot has proven to work an absolute treat! Plus access to Iron Head made short work of any Clefables/Hatterenes/Grimmsnarls that have popped up.

Posted by: Liаm Jun 20 2020, 10:53 PM

One huge really good thing about the DLC is the quality of life improvements, little things like it being way easier to grind for Watts and BP, the EV reset woman, there being more Raid Dens, that was the same with the base game tbf, a lot of the enjoyment still comes from those quality of life bits that just make the "extras" so much better and way easier/more fun rather than a slog and a grind.

Posted by: Liаm Jul 5 2020, 01:31 PM

I one-shot Urshifu with Wigglytuff online today and I've never laughed so hard at Pokemon omg

Posted by: Doug Jul 6 2020, 08:17 PM

At the expense of sounding extremely Smogon, G/Slowbro is actually giving me everything right now. Quick Draw & Quick Claw means that half of the time it’ll go first against anything, plus with Belly Drum and a heavy Sp. Atk investment it’s an incredible mixed attacker. Doesn’t always work but so much fun to use.

Posted by: Liаm Jul 7 2020, 01:35 AM

It's quite good under Trick Room! That way it will usually go first even without a Quick Draw and Quick Claw combo, so I use Life Orb for extra power. Of course that's an even more situational build but it's fun when it works. I thought it was gonna be super broken when we heard more about it so I'm glad that it's just good enough to be fun to work with in a few ways.

I've had the most randomly insane niche today, Eiscue works as a brilliant counter for the Dark Urshifu which I am SO fed up of seeing Stick a Focus Sash on it, the Ice Face can take one Wicked Blow and that means you get an Ice Punch off, then when it breaks you outspeed Urshifu, so you get another off, then the Wicked Blow takes you down to 1HP and you can use Reversal to hit super-effectively and finish it off. I know Urshifu isn't actually that good and is quite easily countered but it's so fun using something as random and so far unviable as Eiscue to do it

I'm finding the meta really fun in general rn, there's a lot of variety and I'm finding it easy to run a wide range of Pokemon and get their chance to shine, although I have been going on the Y-Com link battles instead of Ranked which got to be so tedious, you're almost forced to use the same few top tier Pokemon to get anywhere and it gets boring, but you see way more variety in the full Y-Com battles.

Posted by: Doug Jul 17 2020, 09:10 PM

We should totally hold a Gen 8 rate if enough people would take part now that you've mentioned Eiscue - I absolutely LOVE the little thing. This gen has been great with bringing in interesting nichey Pokemon such as that, Runerigus, G/Slowbro, Coalossal, plus more.

Posted by: Liаm Jul 17 2020, 09:18 PM

I love Eisuce so much, it's such a stupid design but I love it, it's so adorable with its little anxiety face underneath <3

Posted by: Liаm Jul 18 2020, 04:38 PM

I've been on all afternoon and EVERY team bar one which was a Poison type team has had a Cinderace no word of a lie, yaaawwn

Posted by: Doug Jul 18 2020, 05:47 PM

Oh I am SO sick of seeing Libero Cinderace - people think that they're pro players just because they use it and sweep but it's ridiculously easy to win with something as OP as that. Shame as Cinderace started off as one of my favourites but now I can barely look at it, same as with Urshifu.

Posted by: Liаm Jul 18 2020, 10:34 PM

Agreed! In and of itself, I really like it but it's just ridiculously broken to the point I don't feel right using it. It's really annoying that it defines so much of the metagame that whenever I make a team, I have to be like "what counters Cinderace" and use a slot up. You can almost feel the absolute salt when somebody knows they're losing and cracks out the G-Max Cinderace to sweep through you, I just don't get what's fun about resorting to that? As soon as you bring something in that can maybe beat it (like my Rock Blast/Skill Link Cinccino), up goes the G-Max to take a hit, then it'll get off a Max Airstream, OHKO and outspeed and sweep your whole team. If you do manage to beat that then they get super salty and almost always disconnect in my experience They're as boring as facing a stall team to me.

Agreed about Urshifu too, annoys me more because it's not even that good, there's so many easy counters to it in either form. I beat the Dark one with my stupid physical Hatterene I made out of sheer dumb curiosity today

Posted by: lewistgreen Jul 19 2020, 03:59 PM

Thought I'd finished the expansion but found that little side bit with Hop today so that killed a whole 30 mins haha.

Posted by: Liаm Jul 20 2020, 09:54 AM

I wish they had actually added a bit more story with Hop, at least like battle him again with a team of new DLC Pokemon or something, it was just like "lol oh btw I'm here too xx"

Rumours suggest the next DLC is a bit more meaty with the story so fingers crossed for that!

Posted by: Doug Jul 21 2020, 12:27 PM

Has anyone else seen the tactic of using Passimian with Azumarill in doubles? The latter using Misty Explosion with the former Dynamixing, inheriting Huge Power and activating a Weakness Policy is so unbelivably broken but I love it

Posted by: lewistgreen Jul 21 2020, 04:14 PM

Absolutely agree and Marnie just randomly being on the beach doing nothing too was a total moment

Posted by: Doug Jul 25 2020, 09:14 PM

Legit just reverse swept a guy's Cinderace-led team with Weakness Policy Runerigus and my GOD that was such a rush.

Posted by: Liаm Jul 25 2020, 09:20 PM

Omg it's so fun when you just f*** a Cinderace because you KNOW they were banking on some bullshit sweep and there is nothing better than putting a stop to that


All the gym leaders just randomly appear, they could have let you battle them at least

Posted by: Liаm Jul 27 2020, 07:58 PM

Howling at me just sweeping a legendary plus Cinderace team with my Chlorophyll Venusaur, it's so so satisfying when someone thinks merely having legendaries is a given win

Posted by: Doug Jul 28 2020, 02:44 PM

That is incredible this is the thing, Cinderace is hard to counter... with the generic OU options. Think outside the box and the idiots using them get so shocked when they come crumbling down, was actually disappointed that my Libero Runerigus didn't attract a salty reaction!

Posted by: Liаm Jul 29 2020, 11:36 AM

Definitely! The best counter I've found that I use often is Cinccino with Rock Blast and Skill Link, my own Cinderace has higher speed but only by 188 to 183 so if they run Adamant instead of Jolly or don't have 31IVs, I outspeed then Rock Blast is usually an OHKO so I'm good, even if it uses priority Sucker Punch that isn't an OHKO as frail as Cinccino is. I'm scum and use Kings Rock btu it's guaranteed OHKO with Choice Band, I just like the flinch chance if it's not quite enough on other Pokemon Choice Band Crawdaunt with Adaptability and Aqua Jet also works actually. It's so much more satisfying when it's a Pokemon they won't expect, you could easily bring out Choice Scarf Dracovish but I live for the salt.

Posted by: Liаm Jul 30 2020, 05:32 PM

I just swept most of a team with a special Cinderace, I am screaming

Posted by: Liаm Oct 24 2020, 02:39 PM

I'm being so picky but it's annoying me that there's fossil Pokemon just randomly walking around the Crown Tundra like they're not extinct and then everyone is like "oh nobody has any reason to visit our little old corner of the world xx" like there isn't dinosaurs walking round lmao, it kind of f***s with the lore of them being extinct fossils when they're roaming around this region.

I think the story is more fun than Isle Of Armor but I hope the meta isn't flooded with legendaries because of the Dynamax Adventure thing. I'm excited to use the gen 3 starters competitively *.*

Posted by: Doug Oct 24 2020, 06:32 PM

On the whole I agree that this is more fun and appealing than Isle of Armour but again, quite a short storyline, no? Great to see the returning Pokemon though and Dynamax Adventures is a fun concept and will be making use of that to get some older legendaries and hunt for shinies (1/100 if you have a shiny charm!!), shame the Pokemon they give you to go through with are pretty poor.
Regidrago is such a mixed bag for me out of the new additions - it has a fantastic design and a great ability that pairs well with Dragon Energy and yet learns hardly any special moves to make a proper set with it? Its stat spread is a bit odd too.

Posted by: Liаm Oct 24 2020, 06:58 PM

Yeah I definitely wish it was longer, it would have been nice to have an old region in as DLC and you go and actually do all the gyms with a story to that too.

Posted by: lewiscapaldi Oct 24 2020, 07:55 PM

omg please can this happen.

I've quite enjoyed playing it. Done about 4 hours gameplay longing some bits out and I've still got some to do. Loving all the added ice types *.* especially quen Smoochum and the cutie that is Spheal

Posted by: Liаm Oct 25 2020, 02:55 PM

I just keep seeing full on teams of legendaries on Y-Comm, I really wish you could filter out Ubers teams (I know Smogon tiers aren't official but still) somehow because it's ruining the meta for me and it's only been about a day of me playing it Especially when they can set up and Dynamax with a legendary, it's just unnecessary and really boring when I'm trying to use old faves like the Nidos, Garchomp and Hoenn starters. I'm hoping it's just the novelty of them being newly available and it'll die down.

I know you can change the rules to be like the Battle Tower, but then I can't have say two Life Orbs or two Assault Vests which I often do, and I like the full 6 on 6 battles a lot more.

Posted by: Liаm Oct 25 2020, 04:51 PM

Ok I just swept someone's mono Dragon legendary team with Triage Comfey and I'm howling omg

Posted by: Dexter Oct 27 2020, 03:58 PM

100% agree, there should totally not be such an abundance of Tyrunt or Aerodactyl etc. Idk why they couldn’t have just added the fossils themselves and let us revive them... or at least give a reason as to why there’s extinct Pokémon about. I know it’s a remote place but that doesn’t explain it It is entirely more fun than IoA which I got bored of very quickly as there isn’t really a whole lot to do. The story in CT is just much more interesting too, I love the idea of doing quests like this in a Pokémon game

Posted by: Liаm Oct 27 2020, 04:48 PM

The Dynamax Adventures are actually super fun too, I've never been that big on legendaries and catching them is boring but the catch rate is 100% once you defeat them, the way you have to go through the dynamax battles with random rented Pokemon and then defeat the legendary to get it is really fun!

I got a first encounter shiny Registeel during the Crown Tundra story too!

Posted by: Dexter Oct 28 2020, 12:35 AM

Wow *.* I’ve got all the clues for Regirock but haven’t been able to catch it yet it always ends up wiping me out before any dusk/ultra balls manage to get it

I’ve also flopped at the dynamic adventures too and can never defeat the final legendary in 10 turns... so far no shinies so it’s not the end of the world but still annoying! I caught Suicune on my first adventure then literally failed every attempt since.

Posted by: Liаm Oct 28 2020, 06:20 AM

I already transferred Regice and Regirock so Repeat Balls worked well, otherwise I just kept healing and using Timer Balls but it is a pain catching legendaries with such a low catch rate. Same with Beldum but then I just got one off GTS instead

Posted by: Liаm Nov 3 2020, 04:59 PM

I really am fed up of bloody Max Airstream It's so broken on Pokemon like the legendary birds, Lati twins and Forces Of Nature, not to mention Cinderace still, it you can get one off. I'm seeing a lot of people trying to set up and sweep with them but if you thwart them, they'll disconnect I don't mind set-up, but if you're gonna disconnect and throw your toys out of the pram over not being able to get an easy sweep, don't bother.

I'm having fun using the Ultra Beasts online tbh, ofc Pheromosa in particular is broken but I like that it's kinda high risk, high reward using them, like Pheromosa is super broken but also it will die to one hit (even though I use Focus Sash, it only takes one priority move or sandstorm/hail to finish that) if a move misses. Triple Axel is a great answer to dragon types, especially when Dragonite is everywhere, but that 90 accuracy ALWAYS lets you down when it matters Sheer Force Nidoking holding a Life Orb is also a godsend, I ALWAYS thwrat Landorus-T with Ice Beam *.* Atm on Ranked, I tend to go with Focus Sash Pheromosa, Choice Scarf Nihilego and Life Orb Nidoking.

Posted by: Aaron. Sep 11 2022, 08:59 PM

I got COVID this weekend, so decided to pick this game back up.
I finished the mainline game, but never spent more than 5 minutes in either of the DLC Expansions.

Meh.
I still haven’t finished, this game just feels so… just… meh to me.
Horrible storyline, I never payed attention, just felt like I was mashing the keys. Way too linear gameplay outside of the Open World areas which felt too vast and takes up way too much time.

I hate to say it but this is my least favourite generation all around.
Gameplay.
Pokémon Variety.
Storyline.
Cut scenes, battle scenes.

Everything was just a complete fail for me.