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SwSh What are the things you like and don't like about Sword and Shield?

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Here's my personal list based on things I've seen so far, will probably expand upon this more as I go through the game more.

What I liked:
  • The region as a whole, I think it looks quite nice
  • Artistically, the region has some nice detail in the city areas
  • The wild area as a concept is really cool and I hope they continue expanding upon it in future games
  • The raid battles are fun and I liked doing them with other people
  • Some of the gyms have some really cool designs, especially the early ones
What I didn't like:
  • The re-use of all the old models and animations (though they do appear touched up a bit)
  • The wild area has some really noticeable pop in with Pokemon and berry tree spawns
  • The story was not particularly interesting to me at all
  • Gigantamaxing as a whole felt really underwhelming to me
 
Today I discovered, for some reason, Torkoal is both a common raid boss and a rare raid boss... At the same den. I do wish Gamefreak put a little more thought into things like that, and made better decisions in terms of the Pokémon raid pool.
 
What I liked:
  • The quality of life improvements.
  • The fact that Pokémon make noise such as flapping sounds when in battle. While it does get annoying at times, it’s still a nice bit of realism.
  • Camp. I miss Refresh but this is nice too.
  • A handful of new Pokémon designs.
  • The fact that certain items like the evolutionary stones are easy to come by.
  • The fact that money is easier to obtain, relating to the above point.
  • Two types of shiny Pokémon.
What I didn’t like:
  • Everything else.
  • The entire region, from the Wild Area to the towns. It felt really hollow and linear. I’m also not a fan of most of the aesthetics for some reason.
  • Max raid battles. The AI has ruined them for me, making them far more tedious and annoying than they should be.
  • Several of the characters. I found their personalities to be annoying and grating.
  • The story. Overall it felt very rushed and lackluster to me. The part with the rivals wasn’t interesting enough while the part with the legendaries was too rushed.
  • The Pokédex size. 400 Pokémon felt really small in this game, probably due to the distribution (which I also don’t like).
  • The Kanto pandering. There’s no reason for Kanto to have the lion’s share of non-Galar Gmax forms, for example.
  • The always-on exp share.
  • The abysmal amount of postgame.
  • Several minor things that I won’t get into.
 
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What I liked
-The new pokemon
-The characters. I did not hate a single one of them (unlike Gen 7 where I hated everyone). The only meh ones are Oleana and Rose.
-QoL improvements. Like the boxes, the menus, etc etc
-It wasn't as hand-hold-y as Gen 7 was. Also the tedious cutscenes that made it feel like a movie rather than a game are gone.

What I disliked
-The story. It's the laziest we've got since... Gen 1 maybe? Even XY with their lackluster plot are more interesting. I realize by now that Game Freak (or is it Nintendo?) doesn't care about making a decent RPG anymore. Which leads me to my next point, which is...
-Making the game for competitive/casuals. More and more with each release it feels like GF/Nintendo/TPCi or whoever makes these decisions only cares about the competitive side. They've made it so you can have a perfect pokemon for competitive since experience, EVs, IVs, natures and moves have been made extremely convenient. Long gone are those days of tedious breeding and training to have a perfect pokemon for battle. But those of us who are not into the competitive scene, what do we have left?
-The graphics. Especially in the wild area, they're tragic. And it lags like crazy when connected to the internet.
-The connectivity aspect. There's no GTS, trading with someone is downright awful. Trying to connect with someone for a max raid battle is a disaster. It's so bad it makes me miss the Festival Plaza.
-The lack of post game. Granted this has been a problem for the franchise since... forever. Only Gen 2 and its remakes, ORAS and BW2 have a decent post game. The rest meh. This falls in line with pretty much every other game.
-Lack of exploration. Again this has been a problem for some time. But everything including the "dungeons" is nothing but a glorified hallway in this game. Kalos was already bad with its inaccesible areas like the power plant. Alola was another step in the wrong direction as well. But this is unacceptable. Sadly it seems to be the new normal.
-Some lazy animations for some attacks. God, even Stadium and the game cube games had more decent animations than some of the moves here.
 
What I Liked
  • The new Pokemon designs are great.
  • Seeing non-Kanto Pokemon get regional variants.
  • The game's characters.
  • Galar as a whole is a very nice region.
  • The attention to detail within the region.
  • The way the Gym Challenge is treated as this big sports spectacle that everyone watches.
  • Quality improvements such as access to the box.
  • The game doesn't feel as hand holdy as Gen VII did.
  • Pokemon Camp is a nice way to spend time with your Pokemon and its fun watching them interact.
  • The Wild Area is a great step in the right direction.
  • The game has a great soundtrack.
  • Pokemon appearing in the overworld for encounters.
  • There are some great customization options.
  • Max Raid battles are a great idea and can be fun with friends.
What I Didn't Like
  • Galar doesn't feel that big honestly.
  • It feels like there's a lack of exploration with very linear and short routes and a lack of dungeons. The only "dungeons" tend to be corridors.
  • Some of Galar's cities are too small and have very little to them. Especially Turffield and Spikemuth.
  • The game itself actually feels shorter, especially with short routes, no dungeons, no Victory Road, and no storming the villains base sequence.
  • There's no side activities outside of Pokemon Camp. Why can't we have more stuff like Pokestar Studios, Pokemon Contests, Mantine Surf, Ultra Wormholes, or a replacement for Game Corners?
  • Your Pokemon can't follow you yet again like in HG/SS and Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee
  • The story is actually quite mediocre. Like there's hardly a story until the end.
  • There's yet again a very mediocre post game. After Sordward and Shielbert, all you have is the tournament and Battle Tower. No new areas, side quests, or anything.
  • It feels yet again that they don't care about their casual audience cause after the game weaps up, what's left to do for casual players?
  • Max Raid battles can be very frustrating without friends because of the very poor AI doing nothing to help, leading to the storm kicking you out.
  • The lack of connection to other games. There's very little references to other characters or regions. And no returning characters?
  • The game honestly doesn't feel like it warranted Dexit.
 
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I liked the majority of the game. The only things that bothered me was how Gigantamax (for the player) was locked to fully evolved Pokemon in Max Raid Battles and the Wild Area as a whole. I just didn't find it interesting and really don't like the Watts system. Just give me an option to buy them, damn it!
 
Liked
  • Their entire reconceptualization of how something like Gyms and Pokémon training would actually work in more a realistic sense, down to so many little details. For that alone, the setting of these games feels more authentic to me than that of any previous Pokémon game.
  • The Wild Area was a ton of fun for me during the main game. As I've said before in other posts, I do think there's a lot more potential in the idea, but for a first venture into adding open-world elements into the core games, I don't think it's a bad start at all.
  • Outside of the Wild Area, I really like Galar. For the most part, the towns all had nice, unique atmospheres and lots of pleasant little details (the snowmen in Circhester, the reptilian scale pavement in Hammerlocke, the Pokémon-themed architecture in Stow-on-Side, etc.). I like the amount of thought put into how people actually get around, with the heavy emphasis on trains. And although with a couple of exceptions, the routes we pretty meh on average...
  • ... the addition of Pokémon walking around in the overworld made up for that quite a bit in my mind. If the routes aren't going to be mini-puzzles, then they can at least feel like intercity spaces that are full of wildlife. Relatedly, I am happy that they found a compromise between having Let's Go-style overworld Pokémon and classic in-the-grass encounters. There was really no reason those couldn't coexist.
  • The characters. I like them all, even though a couple (Rose in particular) aren't quite as fleshed out as they could be. This is by far my favorite cast of Gym Leaders ever, although to be fair, the revitalized take on the Gym Challenge and the always-improving level of graphical presentation helps a lot with that.
  • Speaking of graphics, I guess I have Nintendo to thank for this more than anyone else, but being able to play on the TV screen with a controller in my hands is a fucking great way to experience Pokémon. The Switch is really just a fantastic system in general and has been worth every penny.
  • That said, I think it was an astute artistic decision of GF's part to emphasize Pokémon's arrival on big screens with the concept of "giant" Pokémon. (Dynamax as a whole is a mechanic that I've had a lot of fun with, although I recognize that there are some pretty egregious excesses of power when put into a Singles context. I agree that it seems more balanced around Doubles and Max Raids. Opening up the held item slot in contrast to Megas and Z-Moves feels like a mixed bag - I like that it adds some more flexibility and unpredictability, but clearly that can spiral out of control thanks to certain items like the Choice Band/Scarf. And that's just one issue with the mechanic. It could definitely do with a rebalancing, but I still believe that there are good ideas here.)
  • On the subject of Max Raids, they've probably been my favorite aspect of Sword & Shield. I was never interested in competitive battling, but working together with other people for a shared reward is a lot of fun for me. Though admittedly I have NSO so I'm not stuck with the AI partners unless I choose to be.
  • Pokémon Camp is super cute (the arc from here to here sure has been a journey lol), and making curry is rather fun. (I do wish we could still pet our Pokémon, though - in fact, I wish that SwoShi still had touchscreen support in general. Also, it'd be nice if there were somewhere you could just read your Pokémon's affection level written out, rather than having to quickly count the number of hearts that appear for a mere second when you interact with it.)
  • Touchscreen aside, they went absolutely all-out with the UI and quality of life improvements. Thank you, so so so so much for the skip nickname prompt option. And although having to "unlock" the option is extremely strange, I also appreciate the ability to adjust the different sound channels. Mystery Gift being integrated into the in-game menu is suuuuuuper nice.
  • Customization of clothing is a big step up from Sun & Moon, and I guess I'd say it's about equal to X & Y, although I do wish there was a little more diversity in the kinds of clothes you can wear. A lot of them are just type-themed palette swaps of the same article of clothing. Still, I managed to get my character looking more like me than I ever have before in previous games, so you could say I'm satisfied. I also like all the other little bits of customization - League Cards, jersey numbers, Camp tents, Pokémon marks and such.
  • The Y-Comm is probably the closest I can see us getting to the glory of the PSS as long as we only have one screen to work with. I found it fairly easy to use and navigate, unlike Festival Plaza.
  • The apotheosis of the Town Map by merging it with Fly(ing Taxis, which are a delightful concept). Gone from one of the least-used items to something absolutely essential and convenient.
  • I really like how the Legendaries are handled this time around. Not too vague like in X & Y, but not too convoluted like in (Ultra) Sun & Moon. Nor is there a massive influx of Legendary-tier Pokémon - they keep the focus on just Zacian, Zamazenta, and Eternatus (by proxy), and it works. I love that the opposite version's Legendary is involved in the story, and I like that Eternatus is the one we get in the main climax while Zacian/Zamazenta are left to be wrapped up after the main story. The first encounter with Z/Z in the Slumbering Weald is rad as shit, and the climactic Max Raid battle with them against Eternatus is quite possibly my favorite plot climax in the main games thus far because of how it actually employs a new battle mechanic and avoids being embarrassingly easy like, say, B2W2's climax
  • Having baked-in rental teams for the Battle Tower is really nice. I actually bothered with it this time.
  • MINTS. And Exp. Candies. Accessibility +1000.
  • There certainly weren't as many as I'd prefer, but I did like that there were some microquests peppered throughout the game, like searching for that kid's Minccino in Motostoke, bringing the spooky letter from the dead girl in Hammerlocke to the guy in Ballonlea, and delivering orders from the seafood place in Hulbury.
  • As always, the music is awesome and I like most of the new Pokémon designs, but both of those topics too broad and encompassing for me to give proper space to them here. Though I do want to give special mention to the return of dynamic music tracks, although they're not as widespread here as they were in Gen 5.
  • Gigantamax Melmetal that is fucking all.

Didn't like
  • Dexit (I do think that it would have had to happen eventually, but it's still a shame nonetheless)
  • Shifting the GTS function over to Home (as I assume is their intention) feels like a backwards step. Being able to search for and request trades should be inherent to the base game.
  • Not being able to pass on Gigantamax through breeding is really dumb, and contradicts how it's portrayed everywhere else in the game.
  • The method of obtaining Milcery sweets. I challenge the cafés daily and I still have yet to receive a single Star or Ribbon Sweet; meanwhile I will never have to worry about healing a status condition ever again because of all the regional treats I've accumulated... (By the way, we really don't need eight extra variants of Full Heal and two extra variants of Potion, and having them all be available at once in a foreign land kinda runs counter to the idea that they're regional specialties). That said, the method of evolving Milcery is pretty fun. It's kind of like actually having to follow specific recipes.
  • Ultra Spikemuthopolis
  • The Macro Cosmos part of the story being so rushed, especially having the villain base be just an elevator. Aether Paradise had the same kind of shtick but it still managed to be a decent villain base. Though I do like that Rose Tower becomes the Battle Tower in the post-game instead of just, like, sitting there abandoned and unused like most other villain bases.
  • I feel like I was mislead by the official site into thinking that Team Yell would be used in a more dynamic way than they were. I think they're okay as they are, but I was pretty interested to see them "shout and distract" you during battles, and I know the game makers could have done something like this on a technical level because Opal's Gym Challenge does a very similar thing with the quiz buffs/debuffs.
  • The lack of any meaningful dungeons whatsoever (come on, even Alola managed to have a couple).
  • The Wild Area is one of the best new features, but other than Max Raids there's not much to do there after beating the game, and Dexit doesn't help matters because it means no new Pokémon can be added in the post-game. I guess they tried to make up for this by having certain weather conditions in the Wild Area be restricted to the post-game, but I don't think that really works out as well.
  • Obtaining Hidden Abilities has become more difficult than it had been. You just have to hope you come across a Max Raid that yields one (and as I understand it, the purple beams are only an indicator that it "might" have its HA), whereas in previous games, you had SOS chaining to greatly and controllably increase the chance, DexNav outright told you, and Friend Safari had a simple 1-in-3 chance.
  • For whatever reason, I didn't really mind the Poké Ride uniform in Sun & Moon, but my god the Rotom Bike outfit in these games is atrocious. I don't like a single one of the type variants, either.
  • The shit-tier Max Raid AI partners are a problem, and I still feel that way even though I'm to the point now where I can generally manage 5-star raids on my own.
  • Not being able to grow berries.
  • Not being able to keep a record of my own League Cards. ('Member how in X & Y you could register certain outfits as favorites so they could easily be reassembled? Why isn't that here (for both League Cards and clothes, frankly)? What if I want to reuse an old card design, but don't remember the exact specifications?)
  • Pokémon like Braviary and Vanilluxe still retain their high evolution levels even though those were scaled for Unova's progression and make those Pokémon difficult to use here.
  • Only being able to wear the type-themed Gym uniforms outside of Gym missions... weird call.
Umm?
  • So, Poké Jobs. I know they don't mean it like this and I know I'm way overanalyzing it, but I'm really not sure how I feel about sending my Pokémon off to do work and then profiting off of their labor, especially since it's likely to be Pokémon that aren't on my team, that I have little connection to. Poké Pelago was cute and pleasant because it was a warm, fun island resort for the Pokémon in the PC to play around in.
  • I think their reasoning for integrating the Exp. Share mechanics into the game function itself was kinda weird and limits players' choices, but personally, both of my story runs thus far have been pretty balanced and on-level even with it being forced, and normally I'd have been one to turn it off. So idk
 
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Liked:
-Soundtrack.
-Customization.
-Pokemon choices.
-The Wild Area.

Disliked:
-Some of the characters. (Bede, mostly. Holy scrapmetal, I have never wanted to lay someone out so badly. The less I saw of him, the better.)
-Dexit. (You're telling me, with that expansive Wild Area, you couldn't have more Pokémon post game? Really?!)
-Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing. (It feels downright forced and worse, seems like an afterthought to the main plot.)
-Kanto pandering.
-Max Raid AI partners. (When you're happy to see a Magikarp as a partner 'Mon, there's a problem.)
-The story. (Let's be honest: there wasn't a lot there. Hell, X and Y had a better story!)
-The lack of a GTS. (Until Home comes out, I have no idea how I'm gonna complete the Dex.)
-Berry Trees. (Shake them and you might get Berries... or have those Berries stolen by other Pokémon. And we can't grow anything. Ugh.)
-Overworld Pokémon. (Some leave you alone. Like Golett and Golurk. Then you have the obnoxious ones that chase you down to attack! I am officially sick of Zigzagoon and its evos, along with Sneasel.)

WTF?
-Why can't we pick up the Berries dropped by Greedent? The fainting animation shows Berries spilling out of its tail; we ought to have a chance to grab them.

I don't have an opinion on the postgame, as I haven't gotten that far. But I'm forced to wonder if it'll hold my attention for any length of time. That worries me.
 
So, backstory to preface this: Lil bro wanted preorder keychains that came with the dual pack so we went ahead and got it back when it first came out. Not happy about paying 60$ but I’ll deal. In the meantime, thanks to a combination of going slow to write down my thoughts, being busy with other stuff, and my brother hogging the Switch, I'm only up to Nessa's town, but I've heard and seen more past from other's playthroughs, his especially, and also just finding out more details about things. So here's all the thoughts so far:

Praise
  • I know there are some valid criticisms of the graphics and animations, but the starter pick cutscene and the Eternatus fight cutscene were both really cool! (also the babies were so fun together and I felt bad separating them! I wish we could have some more interactions with them, like Leon brought us all back together when they evolved to see each other again!)
    • He put his paws on me…. (Do you call Sobble’s appendages paws? That doesn’t sound right but what are they on a lizard?)
    • And they have a cutscene for Hop’s partner meeting Wooloo, too! And for the last baby coming with Leon!
  • While I do miss having more fun characters added with the Elite Four, I’ve liked the idea of a Championship Cup since I heard about it. Makes more sense for a league, too.
  • Nature mints! Raising the cap on vitamins! Passing egg moves to breeding partners! Competitive gets easier and easier to get into!
  • More ease of access, like name raters in every PMC, or how new items get a quick popup with their description so you don’t have to root through the bag to learn more.
  • Scary Face’s animation is cool as hell. Wish it wasn’t on such a boring move, though.
  • By putting the capture of the cover legendary after becoming Champion, it feels more like a big deal than in past games where you got it before becoming Champion.
  • Most of the new Pokemon are great.
  • I don’t think I’ve actually mentioned this before-I really love the concept of GMax, and how “How can we make this Pokemon different in a way that makes it huge?” gets applied differently. Pikachu’s thunderbolt tail touches the sky, Centiscorch gets really long, Alcreamie gets several layers, Garbodor gets lots more pollution in it, Duralodon becomes a skyscraper, Meowth references longcat, etc. I mean, there’s several that could’ve just been megas- Lapras, Charizard, Corviknight, Machamp, etc.-but the ones that focus on “How do we make this giant in a unique way?” instead of just “How do we make this look powered-up?” are really great IMO, and make me feel like it was worth making a new mechanic instead of just making more megas.
  • Camp is adorable! Even though there’s only two toys so far, play-fighting and fetch already give you plenty of great moments-plus you get to see your team interacting! (I do hope that we can see this expanded in the future-maybe you could set out beds, since some Pokemon mention being sleepy? Maybe a puzzle you could give your Pokemon, or a cat tree they could climb)
    • Man I wrote that before learning you can get more toys this is so great
    • Also I didn’t realize all the little interactions your Pokemon can have!
  • The fact that you can call wild Pokemon to you gives you a great dynamic interaction with overworld encounters! It really makes it feel like you’re exploring and choosing how to fight, instead of just avoiding crowded areas like you used to, which LGPE’s could still be similar to. (Much like Camp, though, I hope to see this expanded in the future-maybe bring back bait and honey for you to lure Pokemon? Let you throw a Poke Doll to distract a pursuing one, or even include a Paper Mario mechanic and let you throw a Poke Ball to start a battle with? Include encounters like Crabrawler and have the player try to sneak around an OW encounter to get to an item?)
  • An attempt to make version differences more relevant than just Pokemon encountered. It’s not exactly a huge amount- technically no more different than RSE, since it’s just different trainers to fight and different locations to explore- but I think it’s great that it’s still being explored more!
  • You can have Pokemon join your party by meeting you in Camp. <3 Babyyyyyyy
  • It’s small, but I appreciate that there’s a family Munchlax and Budew! I like that we’ve been seeing more Pokemon involved in your family home since Gen 6!
  • You get a fishing rod and a tutorial guide when you first start! Nice!
  • Call me an SJW or whatever, but I think Pokemon’s made an effort to include more diversity, and I really appreciate that. Hop seems to be our first black rival (if I’m right in guessing that Hau is Pacific Islander), we have a continuation of letting the player pick their skin tone (though I wish we had more than just four options), we have another black Champion (second after Iris), more diversity in gym leaders, etc. It’s certainly not unique to SwSh-it’s been more noticeable since Gen 5, but we’ve had representation since Gen 1 with Brock-but I think it’s nice that a series that primarily featured Asian/white characters is expanding that.
  • I was expecting Leon to be really obnoxious with that perfect record, so to have him come back home and tell the town “I hope everyone’s been working hard and you’re gonna come up to fight me for the title!” with no “of course I’ll win” thrown in there made him much more likable! He even expects to learn from your beginner’s battle at Magnolia’s house! It reminds me of something said about Papyrus from Undertale- he brags, but it’s not unlikable because he encourages everyone to be as great as he considers himself!
  • The cutscene battle….so good…
  • Yamper wags his tail like a pubby greeting Leon...the fukcing baby…
  • It’s something we’ve seen more since Gen 6, but I appreciate that we’ve had our regional tropes get more unique abilities- Skwovet gets the Stockpile powers, Rookidee gets its typing and GMax form, the Orbeetle line is a whole new typing, our Pikaclone has a form change, etc.
  • I was expecting Exp Candies to replace Rare ones, but we get both, wow!
  • You can skip the PMC tutorial!
  • Name Rater can rename any Pokemon in the PC!
  • Six battle teams!
  • Rotoms inhabiting PCs, too! I know some people think they’re annoying, but I think it’s a fun touch to the Pokemon world!
  • There’s some nice door opening animations, like entering the boutiques!
  • Lots of nice customization, plus enough starting money to let you get right into it!
  • You can find multiple items at once now! Nice way to fill up the bag early on!
  • Nickit does this cute thing where it shakes the dirt off its tail and paws after a Quick Attack
  • I criticized the Wishing Star bit when I heard about it through playthroughs, but having two pieces fall down for each of you is way better! Still weird that it needed to be set up like this, but it was so much more centered around Hop’s wishing than the player being special that I feel way better about it!
  • There’s a really sweet talk about rivalry as trying to make each other a better person, and I really like it! I know “rival” isn’t usually used in dialogue, and when I see it in fan games it’s usually “Oh, you have to have one, that’s just how it is”, so it’s nice to have it as a personal relationship sort of thing!
  • Moms showing up more in the story, even if just a little bit! Yay!
  • You don’t need a Nintendo Online subscription to get online Mystery Gifts, that was really nice!
  • Card making is really nice, all sorts of options!
  • The world really makes the gym challenge feel like a spectacle! All the decorations and challengers in uniform, the crowds, even registering and booking a place to stay made it feel like a thought-out event, I really liked it!
  • There are little boys that sit on the edge of things and swing their legs. It’s fun, I like NPCs being given more personality like that!
  • I don’t love all of the gym uniforms, but Poison, Steel, Psychic, and Electric are all so cool!
  • The statue in Budew Hotel looks really well-done!
  • Marnie’s theme is really nice!
  • I complain elsewhere about dialogue choices without meaning but you can tell the desk clerk “I’m not a gym challenger” and he says “Oh, and you have a sense of humor, too” and that is absolutely worth it.
  • You can, in fact, set your number to 69 and it is the best thing in every reference to it.
  • Flight from the menu….
  • Escape Rope is now a Key Item-smart idea!
  • You can evolve prevos at level 100!
  • The gym designs are really fun!!
  • Love the collectible cards! They feel like a fun upgrade to the fame checker!
  • Eldegross floating across the bridge is delightful


Camp Stuff:

  • Do Pokemon have preferences for toys? Because my Nickit loved the ball so much
  • I VISITED BECKA’S CAMP AND MY WOOLOO ROLLED AROUND FOR HER VULPIX TO CHASE IT
Criticism:
  • Dex cut, move cut, GTS cut-nobody likes them but I’m being thorough.
    • Also-if you’re going to cut out stuff when you could just re-use old assets, will you at least cut out the old key items that you don’t need to import?
  • I love the name raters being everywhere, but also...why do we need an NPC for it, instead of just adding it to the menu? And why can we only rename traded mons once? If they don’t want the Pokemon back, the name’s not important to them, simple as that.
    • Stop pretending you’re rating my Pokemon’s name. You know I want to rename it, I know I want to rename it. Let’s just be honest.
  • Maybe it’s just because I get annoyed by hearing noise from the TV in another room, but it feels like the item get sound effect and wild encounter theme played a LOT, and it got on my nerves. I wish there’d be more variety in encounter themes, or that they’d use the four-note item get sound instead of the full-length one.
  • Rose’s goal made no sense. You have access to solar, wind, hydroelectric, etc. just like we do and you live in a world with creatures that generate electricity on their own and you say “Oh let’s awaken an ancient being known to cause great harm because maybe in one thousand years we’ll have run out of power” when your machines don't even run on Dynamax!
    • Here’s a nice, easy motive that even ties into the themes of the game: Rose, Leon, and Oleana want to awaken Eternatus to show off how they’re the best in their classes-Leon would take it down in an epic showdown, Oleana wants to show off how brilliant she is by harnessing the energy, and Rose wants to show how great he is at leading the two of them.
    • Also as Aulos pointed out, having someone worried about the environment and climate change be portrayed as the villain, while the only opposing message is “You're looking too far ahead” in a time when we have climate change denialism is...not great.
  • Options to control sound should not be unlocked through game progress, and they shouldn’t be kept in the bag. Also, you made a cool earbud item and then didn’t give it to Toxicricity, your cool new rocker.
    • I wrote this before I got to that point and now it’s even stranger. They DID put it in options-but they don’t tell you that, and now you have the earbuds just sitting in your bag doing NOTHING.
  • Eiscue’s concept is cool, but its design is really awful IMO. Okay, you want to start with a penguin and just keep it looking similar. Sure, no problem there-we’ve got Pokemon like Goldeen, Tauros, etc. where it just looks like an IRL animal, go ahead. You want to give it a mechanic where it freezes itself in ice to protect itself? Sure, are you gonna do like a coating of ice on its body, or make it a snowman, or...you’re just gonna plop an ice cube on, okay. And when it breaks, you see the normal penguin head? No, you see a light blue face that doesn’t look like it matches the body at all. (And it doesn’t even seem to have a beak?)
  • GMax Eevee is the laziest change ever. Why not do something like give it multicolored fur, referring to its evolutions?
  • I appreciate what they tried to do with Hop talking in battle- like your friend joking with you while you battle together IRL -but it should’ve been done through scrolling text that didn’t interrupt the battle. We don’t need a cutscene breaking battle because you got a critical hit.
  • They removed petting from Camp? :( Why? They imported plenty of other assets from it, I don’t see why they couldn’t add a cursor.
  • All that work to make competitive more easy to get into and then...they lock GMax forms to certain encounters for no reason.
  • Raid Battles kick you out if any four Pokemon faint. That means that if you get slated with three bad NPCs who keep fainting, then you can lose your chance at a Pokemon despite never having your own faint.
  • Playing with NPCs should let you get their chances to catch Raid Pokemon. Only one chance to catch them is ridiculous.
  • Your character’s breath fogs up, but not NPCs? Why? Haven’t we had fogging breath since Gen 6?
  • ZWolves’s abilities should raise by two stages, not just one. Swords Dance/Iron Defense on the first turn is more powerful than these legendary heroes associated with Attack and Defense?
  • PRESSURE for Eternatus? We’ve had it on 13 legendaries and 1 mythical, not even counting all the regular mons it’s on…
  • I have this complaint about all Pokemon games, but it feels especially relevant for a game with so much customization for the player- why can’t you change the Poke Ball your Pokemon’s in? I know that, for game balance reasons, it wouldn’t be wise to let the player have it back- you could give the player unlimited Master Balls, or every speciality ball would be down to the price of a Poke Ball-but why not let us reskin it, so to speak?
  • Not making experience share optional is just silly, and the idea that they considered people wanting to make battles harder and said “Oh, they can just constantly shuffle around Pokemon” was even sillier.
  • Why lock day-night for story purposes? You can always do a time skip, and I seriously doubt most of these events needed to happen at a certain time.
  • I know that we lost most of our different battle methods because the 3DS lagged too much, but why don’t we have them now, on a console that handles five Pokemon at a time just fine? Rotation, Battle Royal, Triple- why not have them in just for fun?
  • Badge blocks are good for overleveled mons, but I've heard people not being able to catch a Pokemon below them because they don’t have a badge?
  • Some competitive items, like the Flame and Toxic Orbs, are only obtained by winning the Champion’s Cup, which gives you one item per win. What.
  • With walk cycles all ready for most Pokemon, why is following Pokemon still not a thing?
  • They removed PokeDex searching???
  • Chairman Rose delivering the speech was fun, but also, it’s very awkward listening to him explain what Pokemon are to a crowd of people watching a Pokemon match. Imagine showing up to a football game and the announcer tells you about what a football is and that someone who plays football is called a football player.
  • Charizard GMaxes when Leon tells it to Dynamax...I know it’s a simple typo, but for the big mechanic in the intro cutscene?
  • Why does Hop hold his arms behind his head casually when scolding the Wooloo? It’s like...the opposite of his tone.
  • They still make Purrloin stand on two legs. Why.
  • Most of the crowd reacts to Leon are understandable, but there’s this one dude in green who just pats his belly in celebration?
  • I know it’s just to teach newbies, but the fact that Hop has studied Pokemon battles for a while and is shocked that you know about type advantages is...awkward. And then he says it again in the next battle. And the one after the Grass Badge.
  • The !s in the grass seem to be too responsive to you moving-maybe that’s just my playstyle, though.
  • There seems to be a lot of walling at the start of the game. Kid blocks you from moving past Hop’s house, Hop blocks you from the grass and from leaving without talking to Mom. I get it, but why not just have the game teleport you to where you need to go instead? It’s not a huge deal to walk down the paths, there’s not anything there.
    • There’s a barrier in Motostoke to the left of the PMC where you’re turned away by a guy excitedly yelling about the lift. Why would this not allow you to pass.
    • At the stadium, there’s a crowd of three people on a wide street excited about the ceremony that make you turn back.
    • At Route 3 a guy mulls over the gym leaders’ power. And you turn around and leave.
  • GMax forms made me actually avoid catching some Pokemon in the start. “Oh, I could catch a Rookidee now, but if I want a GMax, I’d have to swap it out...better not get attached.”
  • Was I just not paying attention or did they just...give me Poke Balls without saying so?
  • I think the popping in and out is good for saving processing power, but it does so a little too early to feel natural.
  • It’s kinda odd that the Rotom phone’s PokeDex is only given out by the professor...If the phone is a commonplace device, why is the app so specific?
  • Magnolia’s lab only has three books to read, and one of them is “you look tougher if you’re bigger”. I shouldn’t have expected much, but…
  • Hop criticizes you for not catching any Pokemon after Magnolia’s house, even if you’ve already caught several Pokemon before then. C’mon, dude.
  • “I knew this day was coming since the moment you picked (starter Pokemon), Hop.” So, yesterday, ma’am? You didn’t think he’d be journeying before then?
  • “Have you and Eevee had a...never mind, it was my imagination!” plz run your lines by young audiences because I thought they were asking if we had an affair.
  • Why do they have dialogue options that mean the same thing in some points? “That sounds rough” and “Ouch, Professor” don’t have any bearing on the dialogue.
  • Why can Isabell’s Magikarp use Hydro Pump. I’m grateful but why pick Magikarp instead of a Pokemon that can actually use it?
  • Love the berry trees, don’t love getting messages that tell me each individual berry I got after I was already told every single berry that fell.
  • Why did they put candies in Other Items instead of Medicine, like they’ve been since Gen 5?
  • I wish you could move around in Camp, it feels awkward not being able to reach farther away Pokemon.
  • You have to select every option in the card making to get the “new” tag off, instead of just putting the cursor on it. Why.
  • The formerly-free ability to change the color of your eyes is now 1000 to change. You can’t buy contacts, you just get charged to change them.
  • You can’t see the makeup/hair options without paying for them first.
  • There’s a few references to throwing Poke Balls, like Hop studying the technique and the guy practicing in Motostoke-so why isn’t there the style throwing option like in Gen 7?
  • I know the idea was that Bede bumped into Hop, but the turning in the cutscene really did not convey that.
  • You told me direction to the Budew Inn at registration. You told me where to go after I exited the gym. And then you told me where it was when I walked over there. Please stop.
  • There are LOTS of doors that you can’t pass through. Please, just have a doorless building so I’m not tempted!
  • PokeJobs should make it a bit more clear how long their time periods are. I thought “very long” was more than a day and found out it was only eight hours. :/
  • Some NPC dialogue had a hard time balancing between flavor text for the world and describing battle mechanics. Outside Motostoke’s train station, a man and woman are in conversation. The woman tells you about PP. The man wonders if he has it within him to make a change. No I am not making this up.
  • The player’s never met Leon according to the intro scene, but according to Sonia in the Budew Hotel, “he practically raised [Hop]”? So how long have you two known each other? It’s strangely vague.
  • When your grunts have very basic dialogue it is much more efficient to just let me battle all of their Pokemon instead of clicking through each line as they cycle through. Also, why is it formatted as “The Team Yell Grunt and the Team Yell Grunt” instead of “The Team Yell Grunts”?
  • You can see Galar starters in the crowd at the opening ceremony-awesome, but if they’re this common, why can’t the player obtain any besides the one Leon gives?
  • Why does Magnolia know how to make Dynamax Bands if they’re developed by Rose’s company?
  • Why do you need Rose giving you a taxi pass? Shouldn’t that just be something every challenger gets?
  • This is an issue since Gen 2- Why are egg groups not explained in-game? My brother just said to me “Hey, did you know some Pokemon won’t produce eggs with each other?” He’s finished Sword and Ultra Sun. He just didn’t know because Pokemon never explains it in-game.
    • Same goes for acquiring hidden abilities. Poor guy kept breeding Darumaka over and over and didn’t realize how HAs worked. Why does Game Freak include NPC dialogue for simple concepts that aren’t even unique to Pokemon, like PP (plenty of games have a stamina mechanic), but leave the complex things specific to Pokemon up to the internet to explain?
  • There was a lot of backgrounds that looked like they could be explored but couldn’t. The starting town is a great example-big ol field you can see, but only two buildings, the smallest starting town ever IIRC.
  • Turrfield town has the gym and the PMC, and no other buildings you can enter.
  • Why is Bede’s first beef with you “I’ll beat anyone with a wishing star”, not “I’ll beat anyone who’s challenging the league”?
  • It feels like a lot of useful items just...show up? Heavy Duty Boots are just right next to a guy who talks about how he was looking for items in the Galar Mine. Silver Powder, Sharp Beak, and Heavy Stone are all right in GMine/Route 4.
  • Yamper is a cute baby but why did I need multiple cutscenes of him leading me to the hill instead of just having him run. You can’t even go anywhere else in Turrfield.
  • I nearly soloed the first gym with my starter. Not that unusual- except I picked Sobble. Eldegross did put up a good fight at the end, actually getting several of my mons without feeling overly hard- I liked the difficulty there. But prior to that, I was literally two-shotting Pokemon with Water Pulse and doing fine.
  • The first gym challenge was...not a challenge. I pretty much just walked forward for most of it, the Yampers weren’t even a problem.
  • The scientist behind the Rotom Bike is depicted with a doctor’s model, gloves and face mask on. This is not a scientist.
  • The descriptions on town signs are awkward and rambly compared to the quick slogans of past ones.
  • “Or will it perhaps be one of those trainers endorsed by the Champion.” Period included. I know typos are nitpicky, but it’s also not that hard to fix.
  • Team Yell blocks a bridge=fight them. Team Yell blocks a tunnel=you can’t pass. Okay.
  • 50/50 gender ratios are now 50.02%/49.98%. Why was this done.
  • Snorlax’s GMax form is an interesting concept, but not only does it steal Torterra’s shtick, it also makes it look like a Grass-type? Like, if your new form involves covering a Pokemon in grass and saying “This is not a Grass-type”, please get a new idea.
    • Also, the lore behind it is that seeds and stuff stuck to it were enlarged- cool concept, but why is that specific to Snorlax?
  • You get notifications for what you’ve done on the side, even if you’re not connected to the internet. (I don’t have Nintendo Online) I was there, you don’t need to clutter my screen.
  • Evo items like the Alcreamie toppings or the Flapple apples should not be a random daily chance. How can you expect players to enjoy new Pokemon if their use is confined to poor RNG?
I'll probably have more stuff to point out when I get deeper into things, and maybe sort this out too. (I'm sure everyone is thrilled to hear my thoughts on singular NPCs...)
 
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“Have you and Eevee had a...never mind, it was my imagination!” plz run your lines by young audiences because I thought they were asking if we had an affair.
I had a laugh with that one. In other games, they would have lampshaded the awkward dialogue.

Some NPC dialogue had a hard time balancing between flavor text for the world and describing battle mechanics. Outside Motostoke’s train station, a man and woman are in conversation. The woman tells you about PP. The man wonders if he has it within him to make a change. No I am not making this up.
I feel this might have been a mistranslated pun and not a non sequitur. I wonder what it said in Japanese.

Also, why is it formatted as “The Team Yell Grunt and the Team Yell Grunt” instead of “The Team Yell Grunts”?
I guess this is because the battle was formatted like a Multi Battle message, instead of a normal Double Battle one. This has been an issue since the day they introduced those battles in Emerald (well, the NPC ones).
 
Likes:

- That they tried something new (for Pokemon) with the Wild Area. It is a flawed feature as I'm sure I'll have to mention later, but it was nice to see a Hyrule Field-like area in a Pokemon game and have the controllable camera as well.
- While the story itself is a mess that is almost nonexistent most of the game, I actually did like the characters. Even Hop. The nice rivals are usually completely forgettable to me, but I actually liked him.
- Having a championship instead of an Elite 4 was excellent. It felt much more real and significant than the standard Elite 4 which has always had so little fanfare. Also the fact that it included characters we met and fought throughout the games was a nice way of tying up their little story arcs.
- While held back a lot by lots of tiny towns and narrow routes, I like Galar as a region. Like they couldn't have made the city based off of London a decent size at all?
- I love Zacian/Zamazenta. Especially Zacian. They are certainly among the top designs for legendaries IMO.
- Galarian Rapidash! I need not say more.
- There were regional forms that weren't Gen I.
- The overworld Pokemon were neat. Sure, not all animations were great, but there was certainly some character put into the overworld Pokemon, more than I expected.
- The OST was more above average than I thought it would be.

Dislikes:

- Removal of Pokemon. I don't buy any of GF's excuses for this.
- Exp Share being forced. As I always say, when you remove options from a game, that's just plain bad game design.
- The balancing! Between Exp Share being forced and the Wild Area, this game punishes you majorly for wanting to take your time enjoying the game. I'd go and spend time in the Wild Area because I didn't want to rush the game. I even tried taking Pokemon out of my team so they wouldn't get overleveled, they all became overleveled anyway, and I mowed over the entire game easily. Boy did it kind of sour what was otherwise a great end-game. I crushed Hop's dreams without breaking a sweat even though we were supposed to be legitimate rivals. I beat the champion with no struggle.
- The Wild Area too quickly feels like the same old thing every day.
- Everything outside of Wild Area is very narrow and feels very 3DS-ish. And for god's sake, just give us a controllable camera everywhere!
- What happened to caves? Why are there not multiple levels or any puzzles at all anymore?
- The game still reeks of Gen I favoritism. While I love my Galarian Rapidash, the ratio of Gen I Galarian forms versus other generations is still off and even worse considering that last generation all regional forms were Gen I (but at least the Gen I regional forms were pretty good to make up for that... Meowth aside.). And the special Gigantamax forms being majority Gen I (aside from the new generation's Pokemon) is just... *shakes head* If I cared about Gigantamax like I do regional forms I would be really ticked off. But it's bad either way.
- The story. Non-existent throughout 90% of the game, and then being..what it is. What message was supposed to be sent here exactly?
- While I guess some could see the appeal in this, Team Yell ended up feeling like nothing more than poorly masked barriers. I do like that there was no evil team in these games, but Team Yell were just...there. Not anywhere near as amusing as Team Skull.
- The sluggishness of in-battle messages is more irritating than ever. It becomes the worst when you get in a Raid battle and the Raid Pokemon does a move that lowers a stat of every Pokemon and the message and animation/sound effect has to happen for every single one (there was one Pokemon with an ability that lowered the status of every other Pokemon every single time it was attacked, and that really did me in). Like come on, GF. Status effect changes and the like should be shown in banners on the side with no battle interruption!
- The online is really bad. The game doesn't even allow for direct trades with your friends. I had to use codes to trade with a friend and both of us were having issues because other people were also given that code. What in the world, GF?
- There is nothing to do or explore in the games once you finish the post-game quest, which doesn't even introduce any new areas itself. No secret legendaries or anything. It's very bizarre.
 
What I liked:

-New Pokemon designs! These almost never disappoint me. And they've still got that special touch!
-The scenery. Is. Gorgeous. I did see some oddities--like a sheet of dots on some occasions--but that doesn't really bother me.
-Most of the characters were interesting and fun (and good-looking)! The gym leaders had a lot of personality! And we FINALLY get a Dark-type gym leader!
-The music. Flawless as usual.
-The gym challenges and battles. I loved hearing the cheers as characters walked up to the pitch, how it started out quiet, you heard some individual shouts, and then everyone was cheering. That's not even adding how the cheering gets louder when a Pokemon is defeated, and how the music changes slightly when you're on the last Pokemon!
-Dynamaxing was great, and a lot of fun to watch! Especially the way the Poke ball seemed to grow, too! I actually liked this a lot better than Mega Evolution and Z Moves!
-The post-game story, short as it was, was heartwarming and satisfying.

What I didn't like:

-The plot. There was little to nothing throughout most of the game, and then the majority was shoved in at the last minute. I've read all kinds of posts that explain the Big Bad's motives, and I'm still not buying them. They made no sense. The whole thing felt rushed.
-TOO. SHORT. This is, I believe, the least amount of time I've taken to finish a Pokemon game. I kept hoping for some big reveal towards the end, to discover that I'd only completed half the game (kind of like Gold/Silver), but nope, that's it.
-There were far fewer trainer battles than in other games. It was actually a little depressing, somehow. I'm guessing that the developers thought that wireless/online battling would make up for it--but some of us aren't into that side of Pokemon.
-Most of the good-looking men are too young for me, so I had to settle for Rose. More single men in their thirties and forties, please!.
-There were fewer towns and dungeons, too. I would have never thought of this as something that mattered to me, because there was always just so much to explore that I never missed it. But this game left me feeling somewhat empty in that regard.
-Personally, I prefer the traditional type of random encounter, but that's an OCD thing, and I don't really want to explain it, and I don't think it really matters to anyone but me.
-I did miss having a more expansive set of bad guys. The Big Bad only has one underling, and there's not really much of a story there.

I feel like this game would have better if it they weren't desperately trying to throw out a new game every year. It's hard on our wallets, and it's hard on our hearts. I also don't like the "Nintendo Online" thing. But alas, this is how gaming is now.
 
What I liked:
  • The region. I just love the aesthetic of the region itself, with each of its different towns feeling very unique and different from others. And the wild area, while a tad bit empty, is absolutely huge. It takes a while to explore every bit of it, and items respawn in it so you can go back and explore it again.
  • The new Pokemon. The designs are really solid this generation. I don't think I absolutely loved as many as I did in Gen 7, but overall there were many solid, fun designs.
  • The characters. They are all really memorable and charming in their own way. I love all their personalities and different characteristics, and Bede and Hop, in particular, get some amazing character development, especially the latter.
  • The music is on point, like the entire game it's amazing. I can find a few songs that don't hit as hard, but I can't find a song that I wasn't noticing and loving. They always do a great job with the OST, but this game really has something special with it.
  • The Gym Challenge and Championship Tournament were a great change-up for the series. It gave players a new way to experience gyms, without replacing gyms as the trials did in Gen 7. It added a lot of culture to the region as well, and honestly, I hope they continue making different format changes to the gyms in later gens, or something because after this I don't think I really want to go back to regular gyms for at least another generation (besides remakes). They add so much character and uniqueness to the game, and it really makes Sword and Shield stick out from other games.
  • The expansion of regional variants to include regional evolution. One of my hopes for this gen was to see them to not only continue to do regional variants, but to even expand on the idea, and they sure did. Regional evolutions are awesome, and I hope we get to see more of them in the future!
  • The Overworld Pokemon and Random encounter system. This! This was amazing! I don't want them to ever go back to random encounters again because this was just awesome. Being able to feel the world of Pokemon, seeing all the Pokemon around while traveling through the route was completely awesome. Then there was just that chance of running through and getting surprised by a rare Pokemon maybe. I like being able to see where encounters are so if I am just trying to get somewhere quickly, I can avoid them.
  • The little things this game does. Like the British slang is just awesome, all the quality of life additions they made, and actually being acknowledged as a champion by many NPCs. Heck, while it does keep the player from conflict a bit, which can be argued as bad, I do overall like the idea of Leon being like "you kids should just focus on the gym challenge and leave this to the adults" whenever there was conflict. Like yes, I wanted to help, but I appreciate the characters acknowledging that yes, the player character is actually a kid and we should not leave the safety of an entire region in a child's hands.
  • Camping and Curry making are so much fun, and I love being able to watch my Pokemon interact with each other.
Dislikes
  • The story isn't bad, in fact, it was pretty enjoyable while I played it, but it just wasn't all that memorable. Like I beat Sword only a month ago and kind of already forgotten some of it
  • Online functionality is pretty rough. I can't even believe you can't trade with your friends without the use of a code
  • The bike outfits. I can understand having to wear a helmet, but an entire outfit change to ride a bike? Is that even necessary? I hated the gear for Pokeride, but I could somewhat understand some of it. I really can't understand the outfit change for the bike, especially because it doesn't even seem to do much
  • I like the change of having the Evil team not actually being so evil, but we don't really get involved with the singular bad guy's plan that much. Now I did mention that it is because of the game characters telling you not to get involved, which is fine in itself, but it would have been nice to add a little extra conflict we could get involved in, without revealing the baddie until the end.
 
Rose’s goal made no sense. You have access to solar, wind, hydroelectric, etc. just like we do and you live in a world with creatures that generate electricity on their own and you say “Oh let’s awaken an ancient being known to cause great harm because maybe in one thousand years we’ll have run out of power” when your machines don't even run on Dynamax!

As I put it in another thread, he already has stuff like solar and wind power sorted. We see that throughout the game. The present day is attended to, but he's concerned that those resources will only sustain them for the next millennium, and is interested in the potential that Dynamax power might have to provide for the region in the very long term. ("There’s more to Wishing Stars than just making your Pokémon into giants, though! They hold far more energy than that!" / "Our lives and society require various types of energy sources, such as electricity, natural gas, and water. My associate groups aim to improve everyone’s lives by harnessing the power stored in Wishing Stars!") That's the thing, the machines don't run on Dynamax energy - but what if they could? And what if he could control the creature that generates that energy in limitless amounts?

Plus, he knows that Eternatus can cause a disaster, but he also knows that it isn't unbeatable. The ancient hero(es) managed to win against it, it's just that history forgot about Zacian and Zamazenta's role in that. Rose was counting on Leon being strong enough to defeat it, kind of like how the Ultra Recon Squad wanted to recruit Trainers that would be strong enough to battle Necrozma. ("Oh, it’s not just about me. It’s for the future of the whole Galar region. And we’ll need more than just Wishing Stars. We need a powerful Pokémon Trainer, too— someone like the Champion." / "The Champion is the one who needs to control Eternatus.")

What's not clear to me is why he felt he had to enact the Darkest Day when he did. Sure, they mention a couple of times that he likes to address problems right away and starts to feel down if he doesn't, but that's not really convincing enough. However, I find it curious that Rose seems insistent that it be Leon who helps him deal with Eternatus. But of course, he was the one who endorsed Leon way back when, and clearly that was an astute call since Leon has maintained a completely undefeated record. So if anyone can do it, surely it would be him? Maybe he wants to be certain that Leon is focused on the task at hand rather than putting all his attention on the Championship match, or, in the extremely unlikely event that Leon loses, is not still reeling from his first-ever loss.

I've seen it supposed elsewhere that Rose was only ever using Bede and had no intention of him ever really being able to become the Champion, and through Oleana actually prompted his stunt in Stow-on-Side so that Bede could take the fall for destroying the mural while Rose collected the Wishing Stars from it. I'm not sure that the games are trying to imply this, although him not really believing in Bede would make sense with how he's so fixated on Leon. Plus, there are two moments that stick out to me as odd - Rose doesn't even seem to recognize Bede at first when we see them in Hulbury, despite having endorsed him. And then, in Hammerlocke, we see Rose, Oleana, and Bede conversing outside, but then Oleana calls Bede away to go discuss something privately while Rose chats with us. The next time we see Bede, it's in Stow-on-Side. What was it she wanted to talk to him about? We never find out. Perhaps that was where she gave him the idea to target the mural? (Presumably by playing to his ego rather than directly suggesting it.)

Of course, I'm not necessarily saying I ship it, but maaaaaybe Rose is just hot for Leon and everything we see is just an elaborate and overblown confession of his feelings. :sneaky: I mean... "The Champion came to aid me, even at the cost of abandoning the match. Indeed, just like a knight in shining armor coming to rescue a princess from a dragon!"

We've got the knight, and we've got the dragon. So Rose is the princess yeah?

Raid Battles kick you out if any four Pokemon faint. That means that if you get slated with three bad NPCs who keep fainting, then you can lose your chance at a Pokemon despite never having your own faint.

I'm pretty sure you can just save before doing the raid and then reset for another chance if you lose.

Playing with NPCs should let you get their chances to catch Raid Pokemon. Only one chance to catch them is ridiculous.

If you're playing with NPCs, then you have a 100% catch rate anyway unless it's an event spawn.

Charizard GMaxes when Leon tells it to Dynamax...I know it’s a simple typo, but for the big mechanic in the intro cutscene?

I'm not sure it was a typo per se - Gigantamax is just a special kind of Dynamax, which is the overarching mechanic and by far the more common one. Saying "Dynamax" here in order to establish the base term for new players makes sense to me; they can get into the Dyna-/Giganta- nuances later.

What's weird to me is that he Dynamaxes it without returning it to its ball first. :unsure:

They still make Purrloin stand on two legs. Why.

Near as I've been able to dig up, it's a reference to this

I don't think we've ever seen Purrloin's concept art, so it's also possible that it was always intended to stand up and that the image they chose for the key artwork just wasn't representative of that (I assume the BW sprite was then based off of that image)

Magnolia’s lab only has three books to read, and one of them is “you look tougher if you’re bigger”. I shouldn’t have expected much, but…

I thought that was a neat thing to point out. It's a tactic that some animals do use, and it kinda hinted at a practical benefit that wild Pokémon could gain from Dynamax. They're not actually growing, but if they use that power to seem more imposing, they might scare off some would-be predators.

Why does Magnolia know how to make Dynamax Bands if they’re developed by Rose’s company?

They say at least a couple of times that Dynamax Bands were a joint effort by Magnolia and Rose. She did the research, he provided the funding.

Why is Bede’s first beef with you “I’ll beat anyone with a wishing star”, not “I’ll beat anyone who’s challenging the league”?

How much of his story do you know?

Heck, while it does keep the player from conflict a bit, which can be argued as bad, I do overall like the idea of Leon being like "you kids should just focus on the gym challenge and leave this to the adults" whenever there was conflict. Like yes, I wanted to help, but I appreciate the characters acknowledging that yes, the player character is actually a kid and we should not leave the safety of an entire region in a child's hands.

But it's kind of a moot point when the region ends up being saved by little kids anyway, no?
 
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  • The formerly-free ability to change the color of your eyes is now 1000 to change. You can’t buy contacts, you just get charged to change them.
  • You can’t see the makeup/hair options without paying for them first

Yeah, I don't understand how customization continues to grow more inconvenient with each game. First Sun & Moon removed the changing rooms from the Pokémon Centers in favor of minimal-function cafés while also removing the ability to buy clothes from within a boutique's changing room (instead you must speak to the cashier, and can only use the changing room to try on clothes you've already bought which, at least where I'm from is... not how changing rooms actually work). And now this. It's like they want to punish us for complaining about them initially considering it a Kalos-specific feature.
 
I liked a lot:

-Designs
-New abilities and moves.
- Magic Armor, Perish Body and Ice Face
-cuting moves that gives a possibility to make them come back with a buff them in gen 4 remakes and sequel actually. (Dragon rage should become a ball move and blocked by Bulletproof, Constrict and Spider Web to work like Octolock)
- the pause from Megas but want them still back in a sequel game
-small details Grav Apple gaining power during Gravity
-Jaw Lock a biting type move that traps the oponent
-The trapping moves with extra effects
- amount of buffed abilities with additions(blocking Intimidate)
-3D
-Walking pokemon


Disliked:

- low amount of new physical fairy type moves

-low amount of new switching and draining moves

-Low amount of Grudge users...
Stonejuorner, Grimmsnarl and others look like they can make a Grudge.

-Grimmsnarl Pickpocket and Frisk? would make frisk by now block oponents items like Embargo...
Aftermath that would be something... Stamina... Intimidate...

-poor movesets of new pokemon that need a serious buff in future

-Jaw Locks typing and too high power, could have 70 power and been rock type actually.

-Run away still misses in battle effect to out run pursuit, binding and some trapping moves when switching out

-Eternatus Pressure ability, that pokemon deserves a clearly better hidden ability

-Morpekos form not getting any stats changes

-Pressure should reduce 3 pp by now.

-Some pokemon like Vespiqueen deserved Queenly Majesty

- Yawn , Drum Beating , G-max renosance not beeing sound moves actually.
They should be sound moves especially physical Drum beating when sending sound with the roots.

-Bug Bite not getting boosted by Strong Jaw

- Dragon Darts not getting blocked by Bulletproof taking how "small" they are.
They even explode when hitting.
And the fact that Dragon Darts should hit Dive , Dig, Fly, Bounce, Sky Drop semi turns
(even when self under that effect)

- Seismic-toss not beeing yet a weight move and work like Sky Drop

- all sleeping moves having weird probability and accuracy taking 3 turns.

-Grav Apple , Water gun, Ice shard, Draco meteor, Snipe Shot should all get blocked by Bulletproof by now.

- Steel spirit and Stel worker should give a steel immunity or resistance to the users...

- Steam engine not reducing water and fire damage???

-Stonejourner Power Spot? missunderstanding here, should boost itself and its allies... or a double boost during sand storm to sp. defense, yikes.

-Rapid spin and defog removing the G-steel entry hazard? why? other moves could have filled tahat roles.

-Defog removing terrains from both sides? seriously? I saw Earth Power and Fissure more in those roles actually...

-Screen Cleaner? Why not Screen Stealer? taking away oponents screens would make more sense actually. Rooms are a form of Screens?

-Court Change, if you take away the oponents screens and other stuff then start the count of them from zero to have better after making a oponeing at yourself. (more pokemon should get it)

-The battlefields not beeing better from the start and the switch in them should be better

-Bug/psychic UFO without Magnet Rise? without Levitate?
 
As I put it in another thread, he already has stuff like solar and wind power sorted. We see that throughout the game. The present day is attended to, but he's concerned that those resources will only sustain them for the next millennium, and is interested in the potential that Dynamax power might have to provide for the region in the very long term. ("There’s more to Wishing Stars than just making your Pokémon into giants, though! They hold far more energy than that!" / "Our lives and society require various types of energy sources, such as electricity, natural gas, and water. My associate groups aim to improve everyone’s lives by harnessing the power stored in Wishing Stars!") That's the thing, the machines don't run on Dynamax energy - but what if they could? And what if he could control the creature that generates that energy in limitless amounts?
I dunno... It makes a little more sense this way, but there's still this question of "Why Eternatus over any other Pokemon?" Choosing between the abundant supply of Pokemon in the region that can already create various forms of energy that you know how to harness, and the rare ancient Pokemon that's likely to cause a natural disaster and gives off energy that might power machines (but you don't know how to use that yet)... it still seems like an easy choice. Or, if common Yamper aren't up to snuff, why not hunt down Tornadus for endless windstorms? Move Zapdos from one power plant to the other? Grab Lugia's big ol wings and tell it "Here's a bunch of windmills, have fun!"?

And besides, if solar/wind/hydroelectric stopped working, the more pressing problem isn't "How do we power our cities?" but "What happened to the sun/air/water, things that we very much need to live?"

I've seen it supposed elsewhere that Rose was only ever using Bede and had no intention of him ever really being able to become the Champion, and through Oleana actually prompted his stunt in Stow-on-Side so that Bede could take the fall for destroying the mural while Rose collected the Wishing Stars from it. I'm not sure that the games are trying to imply this, although him not really believing in Bede would make sense with how he's so fixated on Leon. Plus, there are two moments that stick out to me as odd - Rose doesn't even seem to recognize Bede at first when we see them in Hulbury, despite having endorsed him. And then, in Hammerlocke, we see Rose, Oleana, and Bede conversing outside, but then Oleana calls Bede away to go discuss something privately while Rose chats with us. The next time we see Bede, it's in Stow-on-Side. What was it she wanted to talk to him about? We never find out. Perhaps that was where she gave him the idea to target the mural? (Presumably by playing to his ego rather than directly suggesting it.)
This definitely makes sense to me!

Of course, I'm not necessarily saying I ship it, but maaaaaybe Rose is just hot for Leon and everything we see is just an elaborate and overblown confession of his feelings. :sneaky: I mean... "The Champion came to aid me, even at the cost of abandoning the match. Indeed, just like a knight in shining armor coming to rescue a princess from a dragon!"

We've got the knight, and we've got the dragon. So Rose is the princess yeah?
I would love that interpretation, except it makes this hindsight of Rose selecting Leon (presumably around the age the player, Hop, and Bede are) and building him up as a hero feel uncomfortably like grooming a teen. (Obviously that's not at all your intent, it just ends up turning out that way)

I'm pretty sure you can just save before doing the raid and then reset for another chance if you lose.
Yeah, true, I just feel like that's more of a player loophole than an actual intended feature from the devs. Like with legendaries- sure, you can soft reset if you take one out by mistake, but seeing as they've had them reappearing after the player beats the Elite Four, it seems like that's not the intended way? They used to have the button combo for easy soft-resets, too, but they've removed it this time.

If you're playing with NPCs, then you have a 100% catch rate anyway unless it's an event spawn.
Oh, heck yeah! I feel like I might have heard that since writing this, I was copy+pasting from my doc, lol. But still, very good tradeoff!
I'm not sure it was a typo per se - Gigantamax is just a special kind of Dynamax, which is the overarching mechanic and by far the more common one. Saying "Dynamax" here in order to establish the base term for new players makes sense to me; they can get into the Dyna-/Giganta- nuances later.

What's weird to me is that he Dynamaxes it without returning it to its ball first. :unsure:
That's true, but at the same time, I feel like it leaves new players with a bit of an incorrect impression? Say someone who hasn't kept up with SwSh news watches this clip of Charizard "Dynamaxing" and changing appearance. They'll learn pretty quickly that Dynamax doesn't change all Pokemon's appearance, of course, but until Gigantamaxing is explained in-game, they're still left with the impression that Dynamaxing could change some Pokemon's appearance, which is going to be a letdown when they try to GMax their Corviknight/Orbeetle/whoever else they might think can do it.

Honestly, I like that he doesn't- it implies that the whole ball procedure is really just for putting on a good show, which I think makes perfect sense for the context. And it adds a little extra "special Champion" flair to Leon- everyone else cares about how they throw their Poke Ball to get people hyped, Leon just doesn't throw it at all and still makes the crowd go wild.
Near as I've been able to dig up, it's a reference to this

I don't think we've ever seen Purrloin's concept art, so it's also possible that it was always intended to stand up and that the image they chose for the key artwork just wasn't representative of that (I assume the BW sprite was then based off of that image)
Huh! That would sorta make sense, but it seems really weird to make the evo a quadruped again if that was the case. (I wish we could've gotten a regional evo based on that, that could've been cool!)
I thought that was a neat thing to point out. It's a tactic that some animals do use, and it kinda hinted at a practical benefit that wild Pokémon could gain from Dynamax. They're not actually growing, but if they use that power to seem more imposing, they might scare off some would-be predators.
Yeah, that's true. I guess I was just wanting more flavor text fleshing out the world rather than a comment on the big new feature, since it seemed it could be easily included in any dialogue explaining Dynamax. (Although, seeing as Dynamaxing also includes a large HP and power increase, isn't it a little different from appearing bigger to intimidate, which generally relies on trickery?)
They say at least a couple of times that Dynamax Bands were a joint effort by Magnolia and Rose. She did the research, he provided the funding.
Oh, nice! I'll be interested in seeing if they talk more about that at all, I'd love to see that relation expanded!
How much of his story do you know?
I think just the bits about him destroying the mural and some general backstory... Although, reading my comment again, I'm remembering that a key line on the site is "He has aspirations beyond just the league", so, duh, he wouldn't necessarily be focused on it, lol.
Yeah, I don't understand how customization continues to grow more inconvenient with each game. First Sun & Moon removed the changing rooms from the Pokémon Centers in favor of minimal-function cafés while also removing the ability to buy clothes from within a boutique's changing room (instead you must speak to the cashier, and can only use the changing room to try on clothes you've already bought which, at least where I'm from is... not how changing rooms actually work). And now this. It's like they want to punish us for complaining about them initially considering it a Kalos-specific feature.
Game Freak, dreaming up new ways to make customization hard: "Beauty is pain."
 
I dunno... It makes a little more sense this way, but there's still this question of "Why Eternatus over any other Pokemon?" Choosing between the abundant supply of Pokemon in the region that can already create various forms of energy that you know how to harness, and the rare ancient Pokemon that's likely to cause a natural disaster and gives off energy that might power machines (but you don't know how to use that yet)... it still seems like an easy choice. Or, if common Yamper aren't up to snuff, why not hunt down Tornadus for endless windstorms? Move Zapdos from one power plant to the other? Grab Lugia's big ol wings and tell it "Here's a bunch of windmills, have fun!"?

I don't know. Thing is, we don't even really know how Rose came upon Eternatus and deduced that it was the cause of the Darkest Day, but I imagine that would have led to whatever eureka moment that birthed his plan, 'cause that would be a rather huge breakthrough. I don't really have a problem with the premise of him being fascinated by the potential of this new source of highly potent energy despite the presence of other, more conventional means, but there are unfortunately aspects of this that do feel a little contrived or underbaked. Though, at the same time, I'm not sure one couldn't say the same of most Pokémon villains - that's not what I'd call one of the series's strong suits. (For the record, the primary villains in the series that I think are conveyed most effectively are N, Lusamine (both incarnations but I actually prefer USUM's approach in many ways), Guzma, and Lysandre.)

Also, nitpicking, but wouldn't using Tornadus or Lugia potentially pose a similar risk? They both create huge storms, and in Lugia's case, they can supposedly last for 40 days. The Darkest Day would suck but so would a month-long hurricane.

And besides, if solar/wind/hydroelectric stopped working, the more pressing problem isn't "How do we power our cities?" but "What happened to the sun/air/water, things that we very much need to live?"


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV9Fcb1lkrM


I would love that interpretation, except it makes this hindsight of Rose selecting Leon (presumably around the age the player, Hop, and Bede are) and building him up as a hero feel uncomfortably like grooming a teen. (Obviously that's not at all your intent, it just ends up turning out that way)

Indeed, Leon's League Card says that he took on the Gym Challenge at age 10.

Abandon ship!

Yeah, true, I just feel like that's more of a player loophole than an actual intended feature from the devs. Like with legendaries- sure, you can soft reset if you take one out by mistake, but seeing as they've had them reappearing after the player beats the Elite Four, it seems like that's not the intended way? They used to have the button combo for easy soft-resets, too, but they've removed it this time.

Fair.

Oh, heck yeah! I feel like I might have heard that since writing this, I was copy+pasting from my doc, lol. But still, very good tradeoff!

For full disclosure, I have seen a couple of isolated reports about solo raids against non-event spawns that failed, but the major outlets like Serebii and Bulbapedia all affirm the 100% rate for solo non-event spawns, and my own experience has been consistent with that.

That's true, but at the same time, I feel like it leaves new players with a bit of an incorrect impression? Say someone who hasn't kept up with SwSh news watches this clip of Charizard "Dynamaxing" and changing appearance. They'll learn pretty quickly that Dynamax doesn't change all Pokemon's appearance, of course, but until Gigantamaxing is explained in-game, they're still left with the impression that Dynamaxing could change some Pokemon's appearance, which is going to be a letdown when they try to GMax their Corviknight/Orbeetle/whoever else they might think can do it.

Maybe. It's hard to predict how that type of thing might play out - I think you'd have just as many people who aren't confused as ones who are.

Honestly, I like that he doesn't- it implies that the whole ball procedure is really just for putting on a good show, which I think makes perfect sense for the context. And it adds a little extra "special Champion" flair to Leon- everyone else cares about how they throw their Poke Ball to get people hyped, Leon just doesn't throw it at all and still makes the crowd go wild.

True. It definitely works better for the cutscene. Kinda wish they'd had him stick with it for the actual final battle though, in that case.

Yeah, that's true. I guess I was just wanting more flavor text fleshing out the world rather than a comment on the big new feature, since it seemed it could be easily included in any dialogue explaining Dynamax. (Although, seeing as Dynamaxing also includes a large HP and power increase, isn't it a little different from appearing bigger to intimidate, which generally relies on trickery?)

Yeah, that's a good point... but I think the book was just comparing Dynamax to that tactic and musing on the commonality.

Game Freak, dreaming up new ways to make customization hard: "Beauty is pain."

I will suffer as I must.

Oh yeah. And I can't believe I forgot about version-exclusive colors. :oops:
 
I really like the idea of seeing other players in the over world. I hope to see this expanded on in the future. And it was nice to see they had a purpose, you collected items for Camp Cooking. I also like how you can team up with other players for the max raid battles. I hope to see more multiplayer things in pokemon in the future for sure. Pokemon is fun single but it is more fun when you can play the game with others. In fact, for Let's Go, that was the only reason why I bought that game. Because it could be 2 player. Of course it was a start, but I loved the idea.
I liked how you could join in on raid battles even though you weren't in the wild area at the same time.
What would be nice to see in the future is other players battling pokemon in the overworld. Overworld encounter pokemon, and being able to see shiny pokemon in the overworld. Random encounters are ok, but I kinda would like to see them go.
It would be nice to set up squads in the future and take on hords of wild pokemon or team battling in the game.
I liked how the Dens in Sword and Shield are also used for Events. It gives reason to pick up the game again. It is nice that stuff isn't just handed out to you by a delivery man.
The new pokemon in this Generation was great. Alot of effort and thought was put into majority of them in my opinion.
I do like how there is weather in these games and it effects what pokemon are available. This too, helps with game longevity and fun. I hope to see this progressed with Night pokemon in the future.
I do like seeing how the Camping feature was expanded from the Pokemon Amie by allowing wild pokemon to join up with you through that or getting experience points for doing it. I like how they combined the idea of cooking with it instead of having it separate like in the past with pokeblocks or puffins ect. Maybe in the future some pokemon may be only obtained through doing some sort of interaction with pokemon outside of pokemon battles.
Having the square shiny pokemon with the sparkle one still existing is cool and gives more novelty to the shiny pokemon.
It was nice to see the bike music go away. Thank you!




I did not like how janky the online wild area was. I didn't like seeing other players randomly appear and disappear. It was hard to have a friend show up in the overworld with you at the same time without the disappearing act.
I don't like the limited dex thing.
I also felt like alot of the buildings in cities were there for decoration rather than exploration or purpose. Too many non-opening doors. I say this in assumption we will not get any dlc patch or update that expands the game to open up the lighthouse or various other non-accessible buildings. If they do things like that, then I don't have a problem and would be kinda cool.
I did not like how you couldn't search the pokedex by pokemon type.



That is all I can think of off hand right now, but I will tell you one thing for certain. Depending how they do the diamond and pearl remakes, will determine if I get them. I am hoping the underground on those games will used in a similar manner as the Wild Area is in sword and shield but I do expect to see some expansion on the idea and improvement. I am also hoping for expansion on multiplayer.
 
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