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Official Generation I-VIII Travelog Thread

Got back to the game this evening, knowing I needed to finish it up if I wanted to finish it up on the big screen, seeing as I leave my place for the week and don't want to bring my Switch set up back home.

I trained up in the wild area for a little while this evening before going to take on the champ, but since wild Pokemon don't give near enough experience, I ended up biking around and collecting watt points so I could buy a few wishing stars to summon some Max raids, since none were available for me. Used the exp candies I got from those raids to get everyone up to Level 64, and went to take on Champion Leon. Some of the fights were a bit more difficult, but overall not to bad, seeing as my entire team was around his level. It was a good battle, and I have to say Leon might have broken that tie between Steven Stone and Lance as my favorite champion, beating out both of them and taking the throne. He was a joy to fight, but in general, his character was amazing.

The credits were somewhat disappointing. The whole music thing with the Pokemon was cute, but definitely not as memorable as other credit roles. Though to be fair, what can beat Sun and Moon's amazing credit role with all the cute photos of all the characters from the game?

I immediately went to the postgame, wondering if my Zacian would await me there. I have to say I was quite surprised to not see Looker for once, and a bit sad about that, but still the postgame story was cool. Sordward and Shieldwhatever were absolute jerks, and honestly didn't care too much for them, but it was fun working with Piers, and it was so good to see Hop really grow. I didn't think I would end up liking Hop's character as much as I do now. He really grew as a character, especially towards the end there. Hop, Piers, and I went around the various gyms, defeating the dynamaxed Pokemon, and then went to go to try to stop the weirdo sword and shield brothers from summoning the legendary Pokemon.

We were too late for that, and I had to try to calm Zamazenta down. Still not able to control itself even after, it charged at Hop, but Zacian jumped in and protected him. Zamazenta ran off, still quite out of control, so Hop followed him, meanwhile I caught Zacian and named her Lunar Blade. We went to go check up on Hop, and Hop and I had our final rival battle, before Hop decided he wanted to train to become a Pokemon Professor so he could help more Pokemon. A satisfying conclusion to his story.

Final Team Recap

Marion the Inteleon - Male - Level 68 - Torrent - Ice Beam, Hydro Pump, Snipe Shot, and Breaking Swipe - Timid, Likes to run, Met at Level 5 in Postwick.
Elewys the Corviknight - Female - Level 68 - Unnerve - Air Slash, Steel Wing, Brave Bird, Revenge - Quirky, highly curious, Met at Level 5 on Route 1.
Duncan the Thievul - Male - Level 68 - Unburden - Night Slash, Snarl, Foul Play, Dig - Relaxed, mischevious, Met at Level 6 on Route 2
Alina the Boltund - Female - Level 70 - Strong Jaw - Wild Charge, Crunch, Nuzzle, Play Rough - Relaxed, likes to fight, Met at Level 8 on Route 2
Cyder the Flapple - Male - Level 68 - Gluttony - Grav Apple, Air Slash, Draco Meteor, Dragon Pulse - Hardy, mischievous, Met at Level 17 on Route 5
Mystia the Hatterene - Female - Level 66 - Dazzling Gleam, Brutal Swing, Psycho Cut, Psychic - Lax, mischievous, Met at Level 25 in the Motostoke Outskirts.

128637

Well, that's my adventure through Pokemon Sword. These games were absolutely phenomenal, and I can't wait to continue to explore the Galar region within this game, and experience the adventure again in Pokemon Shield. I may do an adventure log for that game, but I'm not sure at this moment.
 
I did a little bit in Hammerlocke and made my way to the Ghost Gym town. I'm really liking Hop's story and character development, even if it could be done a bit better, it's still good.
I decided to remove Appletun from my team because it's eyes were weird and seeing it animated made me like it a lot less. First time I've ever felt that way with a Pokemon. Oddly enough, I added Dracovish as it's replacement, even though I didn't like the Fossils initially. I don't know if I'll keep him on my team, but he'll do for now.

I spent the rest of the morning online in the Wild Area, doing Raids and Surprise Trades. I was finally able to join in a G-Max Butterfree Raid and I caught it. Unfortunately it is a male, but still thrilled to have fought in my first G-Max Raid!
I did get me thinking about this Butterfree event and the "extra" Pokemon yet to be introduced to the game (like Bulbasaur and Squirtle). Apologies if this has already been discussed, but could it be that all (or at least most) of these extra Pokemon have Gigantamax forms that will be introduced in events? It would certainly make sense, in my opinion, to give Gigantamax forms to Venusaur and Blastoise.
 
Do y'all think the gift meowth is a viable replacement for your starter? Are its stats better than normal Meowths?
 
Dead Moth said:
Do y'all think the gift meowth is a viable replacement for your starter? Are its stats better than normal Meowths?
Click to expand...
They’re not.

After completing the Gym Challenge, I didn’t play that much the last two days, and spent almost all the time looking for a Dreepy. I finally managed to get one, and reached Wyndon soon afterwards, evolving him into Drakloak.

I do wonder what to do next, if doing the Champions Cuo right away or spent some time raiding for TRs (though I noticed that after shifting date on my switch to find the right weather for Dreepy, the Wild Area still remained as it was two days ago, with the den all spent as I explored them all), expecially for Cinderace, for better moves. This is my team’s moveset right now, I’d like an input on it.

Sanji the Cinderace: Pyro Ball, Flame Charge, U-Turn and Low Kick.
Erza the Corviknight: Brave Bird, Steel Wint, Hone Claws and Body Press.
Merlin the Orbeetle: Bug Buzz, Reflect, Light Screen and Calm Mind.
Punk Saura the Toxtricity: Overdrive, Boomburst, Toxic, Sludge Wave.
Morgana the Hatterene: Dazzling Gleam, Psychic, Shadow Ball and Calm Mind.
Shadowforce the Drakloak: Phantom Force, Dragon Dance, Steel Wing and Dragon Dance.
 
Dead Moth said:
Do y'all think the gift meowth is a viable replacement for your starter? Are its stats better than normal Meowths?
Click to expand...

No. It's no different than any other Meowth other than the G-Max bit. Plus, it can't evolve, so it'll remain rather weak. I tested it out once during a Max Raid Battle. It barely survived, while my Scorbunny took the same hit in a different Max Raid Battle like a boss.
 
TheElderKing said:
They’re not.

After completing the Gym Challenge, I didn’t play that much the last two days, and spent almost all the time looking for a Dreepy. I finally managed to get one, and reached Wyndon soon afterwards, evolving him into Drakloak.

I do wonder what to do next, if doing the Champions Cuo right away or spent some time raiding for TRs (though I noticed that after shifting date on my switch to find the right weather for Dreepy, the Wild Area still remained as it was two days ago, with the den all spent as I explored them all), expecially for Cinderace, for better moves. This is my team’s moveset right now, I’d like an input on it.

Sanji the Cinderace: Pyro Ball, Flame Charge, U-Turn and Low Kick.
Erza the Corviknight: Brave Bird, Steel Wint, Hone Claws and Body Press.
Merlin the Orbeetle: Bug Buzz, Reflect, Light Screen and Calm Mind.
Punk Saura the Toxtricity: Overdrive, Boomburst, Toxic, Sludge Wave.
Morgana the Hatterene: Dazzling Gleam, Psychic, Shadow Ball and Calm Mind.
Shadowforce the Drakloak: Phantom Force, Dragon Dance, Steel Wing and Dragon Dance.
Click to expand...
Lol Sanji. Nice choice.
 
So, what have I been doing since I last posted? Well I spent over 2 hours grinding for watts in the Wild Area doing that stupid Rotom bike race. Why? Because I needed to get a Bird Fossil from the digging duo. You see, I didn't know that you got a pair of only two fossil halves depending on your version. I though you got one of all four pieces. Being that I am playing Shield, I got the drake fossils I needed, but fish fossils instead of bird, and I needed bird to get the next Pokemon I wanted for my team. After hours of grinding watts and talking to that stupid stamina brother (who doesn't seem to have all that amazing stamina considering there were several times when he only found one thing), I was finally able to get a Bird Fossil to get a Dracozolt. Sadly, this thing is genderless for some stupid reason (I guess because we're combining random tops and bottoms?) which really messes up my team theme, but I don't care. I still going to refer to her as a female anyway. I named her Joy.

Then, tragically, I had to go back to that hellish Wild Area to do Max Raid battles for Exp. Candy since Joy was only at level 10 when I got her. Thankfully it didn't take too long for her to get reasonably close to the rest of my main team. After that, we headed to the stadium to take on Allister.

Allister is the gym leader I was anticipating the most. Not only because of the version exclusivity, but because it's been so long since we had a ghost-type gym leader. I was excited and boy did he deliver. That battle was even tougher than Kabu's. I was surprised, but also happy to see that he had 4 Pokemon since I had 4 permanent members at this point. Red Velvet (Alcremie) took down Yamask with little issue. Only minor problem was her only move which could hurt Yamask, got disabled, but Attract held him off from doing damage while waiting for it to wear off. Seulgi (Appletun) battled Mimikyu, again without many issues. The Rocky Helmet I gave her helped a bit too. Irene (Raboot) battled Cursola and easily won considering she's holding the Charcoal Leon gave me for massive damage, plus Blaze's boost for her second hit. And here was where I got a it confused, because I thought for sure Cursola would be his ace. (I figured out that it and Sirfetch'd were the exclusive counterparts so I thought for sure, that those would be the aces for the respective exclusive leaders of this city). But then he sends out Gengar. And for a second I'm confused before I remember...that this thing has a Gigantamax form. So it was Joy vs. G-Max Gengar. She was able to do a good bit of damage, but had to protect herself from the last attack or she would lost then and there. I wanted her to win this gym battle, so I swapped and healed her and eventually finished off the Gengar with one final Dragon Claw (I'm so glad I got that from a Raid Battle). Allister is such a smol, cutie. I wish he wasn't so shy and would actually talk more.

After the battle, Mr. Chairman's Pet, Bede, decided to destroy the ruins and THANKFULLY, he got his obnoxious ass disqualified from the Gym Challenge. That's the punishment that little brat deserved and I'm so glad he got what was coming to him.

Making my way to Ballonlea, Irene evolved into Cinderace. She's so expressive and cute and the animation for Pyro Ball is lit. I ran into Marnie at the gym, who gave me her league card and said we're officially rivals now. Great, out with the trash (Bede) and in with Marnie :) The last major thing I did was catch my 5th permanent team member, a Galarian Ponyta who I've named Yeri. I caught her in a Love Ball since I got one at the Ballonlea gym. Next on the schedule will be battling Opal.

Edit: I forgot to mention the funniest thing that happened today. I was chilling with the crew in camp and for some reason the super slow, sluggish Red Velvet (Alcremie) decided to have a race against Irene the Cinderace. Irene had LOOOOONNNNGGGGG beaten her by the time Red Velvet had finally gotten over to where she was. It was the most hilarious thing I've ever seen.
 
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Currently training on route 6, getting ready for the next gym battle.
 
I have been playing the game just a little everyday, so I've only just now got done with the Motostoke Gym.

Kabu was easy. Only Arcanine gave me a challenge, using Leer to get a speed advantage, and Will O Wisp / Bite to slow down the progression of my Drizzile's attacks.

Centiskorch (Gigantamax) was a complete joke, I was expecting Kabu to have a Carkol or Coalossal with the Steam Engine ability, so I've been training / leveling my Drednaw to hit it with Rock Tomb instead. But I was surprised to see it was a Centiskorch instead, and basically I one hit KO'd it with the Dynamax rock move.

Current team:

Drizzile, level 28
Drednaw, level 27
Meowth (Galarian), level 25
Theivul, level 27
Corvisquire, level 27
Boltund, level 27

I don't think Thievul or Meowth will be on my team come the game finish. Drednaw is definitely a keeper, and is probably becoming one of my favorite Pokemon.
 
Meant to post an update last night, but other things got in the way. But, it works out, as I got some more stuff done this morning, so it's all good.

After getting the Rotom Bike upgrade, I spent some more time catching what I don't have yet/wasn't allowed to yet, as well as using the bike upgrade to get the items that I couldn't get before (like some TMs). After everything was said and done, I went to Spikemuth for the long-awaited Dark-type Gym. Even without Dynamax, being sort of the "black sheep" Gym of the region (befitting of the Dark-type), I will say Piers earned his position as 3rd best Trainer in Galar, as his Dark Mons actually made me work for that badge. Still, despite that, I did manage to win without any casualties, with Gustav and Dusty doing most of the heavy-lifting.

Then it was time to take on Raihan's Gym, along with all the story elements that happened before/after. Raihan's battle was pretty clever, using a weather-based team, a first for the main story of a Pokemon game (while Candice did use Hail in Platinum, only Froslass could really benefit from it, while here, every Mon benefited from it). The Gym Battle itself wasn't that difficult, as Skyla and Dusty really pulled through, with G-Max Dusty dealing the killing blows to Raihan's Sandaconda and Duraludon, though it was the first time I actually didn't outright beat Duraludon's G-Max form, as the form expired before the final blow. But, I got my badge, completing my requirements for the Champion Cup.

Also got to see Sonia getting a status upgrade afterward, something I'm very pleased to see, as she deserved it after all her hard work. Plus, I like her more than Magnolia, so that was a torch I was glad that got passed, and Sonia didn't get burned once. Now that I have all the Gym Badges, it's time to hit the Wild Area to catch what I couldn't before, see if I can find any more G-Max Mons, and grind a bit more for the final battles, as I know they'll be a dozy.
 
First job of the day was battling Opal. I taught Yeri (G-Ponyta) Psychic and Zen Headbutt from TRs I got in Max Raid Battles. I already knew this gym would be a challenge for me. I had 2 dragons on my team and I also really did not want Irene (Cinderace) to participate at all. I'd relied on her for every gym battle so far to some extent, and I wanted everyone else to handle it without her. The quizzes really got me anxious. I found myself getting really nervous with the questions about what the gym trainers eat for breakfast and their names and the like. I only failed the breakfast one in the main test, but to be fair, with the big focus on curry I thought omelettes were too predictable to be the right answer. For the battle against Opal, it was just as tough as I expected.

Weezing destroyed Seulgi (Appletun). It was a horrible matchup all around, but she did do enough damage for Yeri (G-Ponyta) beat it. Joy (Dracozolt) took on Mawile and won actually quite easily. Thankfully I got that question about Opal's favorite color correct. She stayed in for Togekiss since she had an advantage and was doing well, but a crit Draining Kiss took her down. The attack drop from not flattering Opal by saying she looked 16 probably didn't help. Red Velvet (Alcremie) was sent in for Togekiss and won thanks to Tri Attack paralyzing it. Otherwise the Air Slashes would have been too much for her. Opal's Gigantamax Alcremie was last. I wanted Yeri to be the one to take her down and she did a lot of damage with two Max Mindstorms, but ultimately went down. Red Velvet was sent in as healing fodder and to do a bit of damage. I tired for a status condition with Tri Attack, but no luck. I sent Yeri back out who took a few attacks, but the healing on Alcremie with Draining Kiss was getting to be a bit much. I really just needed one flinch to be able to take her down. I didn't get that flinch, but thankfully, a crit Zen Headbutt won us the battle. After the battle I talked to one of the guys in the gym who told me the answers to all of Opals questions! I don't remember talking to him before, but I'm going to be really mad if he was going to tell me that before the battle...

At this point I must state that I love Galar's gyms so much. It's so amazing to go in a gym before my battle and see that people have heard of me and they're talking about me. To see people wish me luck and congratulate me. People have even said that they saw me on the news! And it's nice seeing other challengers talk about how nervous they are or how their battles went. It really make this whole gym challenge feel so alive. I didn't mention this yesterday, but I liked how in Allister's gym, the man at the entrance referenced me using my number. In Circhester there were to random npcs who said they were looking out for Hop, Marnie, and myself for the gym challenge. Everything feels so real. I really just love how they did everything with the league here.

After the battle, I updated my League Card. After Opal brought me back to Hammerlock I ran into Bede and of course taunted him for getting his ass kicked out of the Gym Challenge. I actually guessed that Opal would think Bede a decent successor for her since he does where that bright purple/pink, so I was really happy to see her confront him about that. Only problem is that this dude clearly stans Psychic-types and not fairies, but you do you Opal.

I battled Hop with his new new team. And man, seeing how sad he's been about this whole losing to Bede and ruining Leon's name fiasco just makes me wish I could let him win our battles. Anyway, on route 7 I caught out final team member, a Morpeko I've named Wendy. Even though at first I wanted to catch her in a Dusk or Nest Ball, I decided to go with a Quick Ball since it's blue which related to her real life namesake. Also, I already have 2 Pokemon in regular red Pokeballs (sadly), 2 in pink balls (Heal and Love) and 1 in a green Friend ball. I didn't want another greenish ball, so I went with a Quick Ball for a bit more variety.

I played in camp for a bit and cooked some more new curries. I have to say, Cinderace is so adorable in Camp. I love how she plays with the toy balls like soccer balls, moving them around with her feet.

I arrived in Circhester where I FINALLY bought the dress I've been wanting the whole game. I was getting so nervous that I'd have to beat the whole game to get it. I also finally got some new shoes, a pair of sneakers that match the nightmare jacket I have on. I'm only keeping the jacket until I'm done with Circhester since I don't want my girl to freeze. Plus it is cute. I'll be taking on Melony next.
 
Yesterday, I managed to get my third Badge and I managed to catch two new team members: a Sawk (Lonely/Hero) and a Golett (Hardy/Grander). The Sawk gave me one heckuva fight; two blown Balls and a fainted Onix later I was able to secure him. He was the second one that I found.

Funnily enough, the Golett was quite literally the only one in the Wild Area. It was as if the little guy was waiting for me.

Kabu was slightly irritating; I really could have done without the constant Will O Wisps but I managed to take him down. The next order of business will be some training to get everyone up to level 35.
 
I beat Opal on Monday; she didn't give me that much trouble. My Toxtricity learned Overdrive, which, combined with Punk Rock, managed to break any fairy not weak to Venoshock or Poison Jab. I didn't have time to play yesterday, but I beat Gordie today. He gave me a little trouble, but a Glare from my Sandaconda pretty much took the bite out of his Coalossal. Hop's fight afterwards was the most challenging rival battle I've had all game. He managed to paralyze two of my Pokemon with Body Slam and brought them down to the low yellow section.

I can't wait to get the water bike upgrade because then I think I'll be able to get a Dreepy via Max Raid Battle.
 
SpinyShell said:
I beat Opal on Monday; she didn't give me that much trouble. My Toxtricity learned Overdrive, which, combined with Punk Rock, managed to break any fairy not weak to Venoshock or Poison Jab. I didn't have time to play yesterday, but I beat Gordie today. He gave me a little trouble, but a Glare from my Sandaconda pretty much took the bite out of his Coalossal. Hop's fight afterwards was the most challenging rival battle I've had all game. He managed to paralyze two of my Pokemon with Body Slam and brought them down to the low yellow section.

I can't wait to get the water bike upgrade because then I think I'll be able to get a Dreepy via Max Raid Battle.
Click to expand...
Dreepy can be found in the den in Axel’s eyes, the water area you can’t access right in front of Motostoke, the problem is that it’s still rare.

Not as rare as he is normally, as I needed around 6 hours to find him in the grass, though.

My luck in Raid isn’t great, as I found both Giga Butterfree and Centiskorch, and both escaped my Dusk Balls.
 
TheElderKing said:
Dreepy can be found in the den in Axel’s eyes, the water area you can’t access right in front of Motostoke, the problem is that it’s still rare.
Click to expand...
Thanks.

TheElderKing said:
My luck in Raid isn’t great, as I found both Giga Butterfree and Centiskorch, and both escaped my Dusk Balls.
Click to expand...
I know the feeling. I was fighting a Gmax Sandaconda, and it took several attempts before I finally caught it. I was so glad I saved before the battle.
 
SpinyShell said:
I know the feeling. I was fighting a Gmax Sandaconda, and it took several attempts before I finally caught it. I was so glad I saved before the battle.
Click to expand...

That exact thing just happened to me about 30 minutes ago. I was planning on catching another G-Max Sandaconda to use for trading, but it was the first Max Raid Battle Mon that I repeatedly failed to catch. Every other battle I've had has been instant successes, so the fact that this was the first time I failed a Max Raid Battle catch (and repeatedly, mind) was bit of a shock, as I didn't really know that could happen. In the end, I just gave up on it, as, even after seven attempts, it just won't stay in the ball, so after the final fail, I just took the rewards and moved on. At least I caught a G-Max Butterfree and Dreadnaw earlier today, so that made up for it somewhat.
 
Just beat Leon and am typing this as the end credits roll.

My final team:
L68 Intelleon
L67 Roserade
L66 Gallade
L65 Chandelure
L65 Copperajah
L63 Vikavolt

I won't spoil the climax for you guys here, but I will say that the feeling of "deja vu" with the Aether Foundation & Necrozma came as a pretty heavy blow for me.

Also, the Champion's Cup was an interesting take on the Elite Four, although I felt that using Nessa/Allister/Raihan for the finals was a cop-out. Why didn't they just have a bunch of random Trainer challengers who have gotten all 8 badges in-universe, and have it be completely random who you face?

Overall, I would say SwSh are not as bad as many people are making them out to be. They have many features that I am hoping the hypothetical Sinnoh remakes have, great graphics, and the Wild Area stuff is surprisingly addictive. BUT it's still not one of my favorite games in the series, I'd put SM, ORAS, and Platinum above it.

I give this game a final score of...7 out of 10.
 
JFrombaugh said:
Just beat Leon and am typing this as the end credits roll.

My final team:
L68 Intelleon
L67 Roserade
L66 Gallade
L65 Chandelure
L65 Copperajah
L63 Vikavolt

I won't spoil the climax for you guys here, but I will say that the feeling of "deja vu" with the Aether Foundation & Necrozma came as a pretty heavy blow for me.

Also, the Champion's Cup was an interesting take on the Elite Four, although I felt that using Nessa/Allister/Raihan for the finals was a cop-out. Why didn't they just have a bunch of random Trainer challengers who have gotten all 8 badges in-universe, and have it be completely random who you face?

Overall, I would say SwSh are not as bad as many people are making them out to be. They have many features that I am hoping the hypothetical Sinnoh remakes have, great graphics, and the Wild Area stuff is surprisingly addictive. BUT it's still not one of my favorite games in the series, I'd put SM, ORAS, and Platinum above it.

I give this game a final score of...7 out of 10.
Click to expand...
I think the Champions Cup is a bit confusing. I get that only one of the trainers that complete the Gym Challenge goes on to compete the next day...but if there's not a problem with one leader, or some schemes (Opal/Bede), 9 people get to partecipate the next day. It makes honestly little sense.

I do think that based on Galar's system the leaders partecipating makes sense.

As for the game itself, I do think they had development problems and that they had to cut corners. Not only in the graphic department, but the way the game is structured, with 4 routes before the first gym, makes me believe their initial idea has far more routes in the game and that they had to restrain themselves because they didn't have enough time.
 
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