I don't like:

- hop and leon. their relationship feels weird and unauthentic and they're super annoying.

 

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

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

 

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.

- Grookey lv 15

- Stufful lv 15

- Yamper lv 14

- Rookidee lv 13

- Zigzagoon lv 13

- Chewtle lv 13

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

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 :lol:

 

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" :drama: 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 :lol:

 

 

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 *.*

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

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 :lol: 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 :lol:)

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.

Anyone managed to find a gigantamax Pokemon yet?

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)

Anyone managed to find a gigantamax Pokemon yet?

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.

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 :rofl:

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. <_<

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

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.

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. :lol: 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.

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.

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.

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.

 

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.

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!

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 :lol: 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.

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).

Edited November 17, 20195 yr by Defaze