Pokemon General

[Eizan 126]

Well I see why the limitation on higher level pokemon. It would of kinda been game breaking for me to catch a level 26 Onix right out of the gate, but the exp from it was fine enough.

[dr. b 492]

Having not played much Pokemon before, I don't really have anything to compare it to... but I just played 30 minutes or so and I think it looks pretty sharp. Decided to pick Sobble as my starter, did the first tutorial battle thingy, and then had to go and do other things. The intro was a bit long for my liking - I prefer to just get into the gameplay, but that's just me - though I did find it a bit weird that there was no voiceover during that cutscene. Felt like there should have been. The dude's mouth was moving and all that... I don't even really care about voiceovers, it just seemed strange because it looked like it was supposed to be there Not something that would really bother me either way though.

[Vic Boss 612]

Welp, guess I am playing it

 

The Wild Area's kind of fun and kind of aggravating at the time same time. The rest is more of the same. Love that gyms are back, kinda like the Dynamax Raids, the fucking faux-English countryside is beautiful <3

 

I'll probably try to complete the Pokedex (but not keep everything in the case of Legendaries) so if anyone wants to trade for shit when they get to the post-game, let me know

[dr. b 492]

 

I figured when you said you'd sit this one out that it would end up like when you said you weren't gonna play Smash a few weeks ago

 

Which started did you go with?

[Vic Boss 612]

Grookey. I had to look up the final evolutions and that's only one that was half-decent looking.

[Revolver 27]

These are some of the worst starters in a while. Maybe ever.

[Vic Boss 612]

Just beat the first gym, have 60 someodd Pokies on my Dex

 

On 11/16/2019 at 5:06 AM, Eizan said:

Well I see why the limitation on higher level pokemon. It would of kinda been game breaking for me to catch a level 26 Onix right out of the gate, but the exp from it was fine enough.

 

I guess this is the upside. Makes it easy to train lower-level Pokemon that you wouldn't otherwise play with during the game because your main team is too overleveled

[dr. b 492]

I probably would have been to the first gym by now but I'm kinda hung up in the Wild Area trying to catch as many Pokemon as I can. Should probably just move along now...

[webhead 519]

I'm on the fence still right now...you guys think this is worth getting or should I just wait for the next one like Ma?

[Psycho666Soldier 283]

33 minutes ago, webhead said:

I'm on the fence still right now...you guys think this is worth getting or should I just wait for the next one like Ma?

Well, Ma ended up getting it, soooo...

[webhead 519]

Ah fuck it.  I already have the damn Nintendo voucher anyway.

 

[Eizan 126]

6 Badges so far and I'm enjoying the game

 

Which is a lot more than what Sun and Moon gave me. I quit like about 1/4th of the way into the game.

[dr. b 492]

You work fast Eizan!

[dr. b 492]

On 11/19/2019 at 6:44 AM, little birdy said:

I probably would have been to the first gym by now but I'm kinda hung up in the Wild Area trying to catch as many Pokemon as I can. Should probably just move along now...

 

After looking up the data on the Wild Area on Serebii.net, I decided to just move along - way too many Pokemon to try to catch them all across different weather conditions and all that  

[Shade Aurion 54]

Okay, so I finished Sword and moved on to Shield

Pros and Cons

Spoiler

Pros
- Open World area is fun and decently sized
- New Pokemon are pretty great
- NPC characters are well designed and likeable
- Mix and match prehistoric Pokemon is a cool way to do things
- Great character customization
- Better hair and eye options
- Gigantamax forms are cool
- Nice and customizable menu
- Customizable trainer card is nice
- Version exclusive gyms
- UK-themed atmosphere is brilliant. I really enjoyed it
- Nice new options to turn off nicknaming among other things and adjust camera controls
- Curry making and camp functions are nice

Cons
- Starters are shiny locked
- Only 3 legendaries, 2 per game both of which you have a guaranteed catch if you defeat them)
- Annoying limitation of pokemon catch level. Clearly put there for balance but having the 7th gym badge and only allowed to catch up to lv45 pokemon is kinda weak.
- Extreme handholding. You don't seem to go far without someone healing you to full or offering to.
- All online action (wonder trades, raid battles, etc) are locked behind Nintendo Online
- Nice graphics but sub-par compared to other Switch titles
- Mew only obtainable via Pokeball Plus
- Dynamax is a kinda lame gimmick
- National Dex, Z Moves, Mega Evolution, Super Training, Berry Farming, etc have all been cut
- No prehistoric Pokemon have evolutions
- No new Eeveelutions
- Less clothing customization options than Ultra Sun/Moon
- The world freezes when you use ladders
- Fairly short story
- Halfassed battle animations for some moves (double kick was like a hop despite my pokemon having a kicking animation for other attacks..which aren't kicks)
- Spelling errors ("Vise Grip?!")
- Watts seems like an unnecessary additional currency
- Watt grinding is tiresome
- Not a lot of great things you can buy with Watts
- Weak amount of post-game content
- No combo marker for chaining despite being able to chain
 

Super Petty Cons
- The bike outfit looks terrible even if you palette swap it
- You cannot change your uniform for gym challenges despite being able to buy uniforms
- Annoying notifications you cannot turn off

Verdict

 

Overall, a nice experience but a pretty big letdown. The cons vastly outweigh the pros sadly and as seemingly big as the openworld makes the game out to be, the sheer lack of content makes it vapid. The lack of postgame content and unlockable is jarring and while there is some, its really not much. Frankly I feel like a majority of players will finish it, muck around for a bit but ultimately put it down to return to US/UM where they can use whatever pokemon they wish, breed whatever shinies they like, enjoy ongoing and post game content like Dimensional Warping, Pokemon Pelago, Surfing and all the collectibles. This is undoubtedly a gutted game. It will be remembered for its pleasant atmosphere and characters as well as half a game they passed off as a AAA release.

 

6.5/10

 

 

[webhead 519]

I fixed the code in your post.  No idea how people do this stuff.

 

6.5 seems harsh.  I think a lot of your cons are things that aren't going to bother me since I'm not that hardcore into the series.

[Shade Aurion 54]

42 minutes ago, webhead said:

I fixed the code in your post.  No idea how people do this stuff.

 

6.5 seems harsh.  I think a lot of your cons are things that aren't going to bother me since I'm not that hardcore into the series.

The editor for the forums is terrible. You fixing my post is after I had to edit it 3 times in a row. If it was still broken, thats not on me since all I was using were spoiler tags, bolding, underlining and coloring. One of the times I edited it, it straight up didn't save my post so I had to rewrite the final verdict

6.5 is above average which is a fair summation. I've considered things in the long term and while i'm enjoying it now. Frankly the cons vastly outweigh the pros. You don't have to be a hardcore to notice the issues, just familiar in general And while things may not bother you now, when you're done after 30-40 hours, you'll realize that yes, that's it. That's all there is. I was going to give it a 7 but it just didn't feel right to put it on par with games that don't have such a long list of cons. It might be fine for someone who hasn't played pokemon, that doesn't have anything in pokebank waiting months for the release of pokemon home, but new players are a small percentage of pokemon's demographic as the games are made to continue over through generations. Comparing it to the last release (which at 1080p via Citra looks almost as good) taking into account the reused models, the gutted mechanics and staples.. 6.5 is a very fair rating IMHO If there was a rating between 6.5 and 7, i'd have given it that lol Story and region are bonuses in the grand scheme of a pokemon title. You don't want people to be done with it after a week or two. Longevity is important and when you've caught all the new ones and finished the story the game is suddenly very empty and ultimately less satisfying than normal. The lack of legendaries, the fact you are guaranteed to catch them, the single post-game mission to catch the pokemon on the cover of your version.. It's truly just an above average experience. No amount of pretty yet sub-par graphics and re-used models are going to make up for that

I'm enjoying it but less so than previous titles. Ultra Moon was better, Omega Ruby was more satisfying, Y was a bigger leap forward. This is very much an "Eh, it's okay" as opposed to a "Holy shit I need this!" I frankly expected better from the first ever console release. It feels like.. almost unfinished. Like Sun/Moon did compared to Ultra Sun/Moon. Like content is meant to be there but is missing.

Fingers crossed more content gets patched in soon ??

[webhead 519]

1 hour ago, Shade Aurion said:

The editor for the forums is terrible. You fixing my post is after I had to edit it 3 times in a row. If it was still broken, thats not on me since all I was using were spoiler tags, bolding, underlining and coloring. One of the times I edited it, it straight up didn't save my post so I had to rewrite the final verdict

I've never had any of the problems you just had with the editor.  I genuinely have no idea what happened to mess this up.  I cut the text out of the big fucked up spoiler tag, deleted the spoiler tag, made a new one, and pasted the text inside.  Fixed.  Were you on mobile?

 

1 hour ago, Shade Aurion said:

I'm enjoying it but less so than previous titles. Ultra Moon was better, Omega Ruby was more satisfying, Y was a bigger leap forward. This is very much an "Eh, it's okay" as opposed to a "Holy shit I need this!" I frankly expected better from the first ever console release. It feels like.. almost unfinished. Like Sun/Moon did compared to Ultra Sun/Moon. Like content is meant to be there but is missing.

Fingers crossed more content gets patched in soon ??

This kind of sounds like a problem of unrealistic expectations to an extent.  I haven't started playing so I'll have more thoughts after a while.

[MT 917]

I hear there's an evolution of Mr. Mine called Mr. Rhyme, and I've never been more interested in a Pokemon game

[Vic Boss 612]

6 hours ago, webhead said:

This kind of sounds like a problem of unrealistic expectations to an extent.  I haven't started playing so I'll have more thoughts after a while.

 

There's very few games that got people's imaginations going like the first legitimate mainline console Pokemon game, and Game Freak is not the company you expect to under-deliver up until they do. It's still Pokemon so it's still fun, but it's also still definitively the worst mainline Pokemon game for features. Pokemon Sun/Moon removed some features but kept more than it didn't, and the last game that removed Pokemon was Ruby/Sapphire in the move to the GBA, and they rectified that by re-releasing Red/Blue(Green) remakes, and the generation itself added and redefined modern Pokemon mechanics that are still used today, whereas for the most part, Sword and Shield have subtracted.

 

Now I'm a heavy-duty fan of Diamond/Pearl so if they release those and add a lot of the Pokemon they left out, I'll probably look on this generation more favourably.

[dr. b 492]

This is primarily a children's franchise, isn't it? People who have been playing the games since the GB/GBA days are 30+ years old now and perhaps have unrealistic expectations for what each new Pokemongame will bring. I don't think people of our vintage are the key target audience for these games. The games probably need to stay kid-friendly to continue growing the fan base with more kids over the years. And maybe that means not adding new mechanics, or even removing some.

[Vic Boss 612]

They're not unrealistic expectations in that Game Freak has for the most part delivered these exact features and standards for 22 games now (not counting the five Game Boy games). Pokemon has always been like Smash Bros, kid-friendly but there's nerdy underbelly you can push your glasses up at if you want to.

[dr. b 492]

Since I have very little experience with these games and basically no attachment to older Pokemon games, the "it was there before so it should be there again" arguement isn't very convincing to me. (Not trying to be dismissive or anything, I'm just more inclined to accept that these things can change since I don't have the same expectations.) I also suspect that the kids are less likely to care about the changes in the new games, and as long as the kids keep asking their parents to buy Pokemon stuff for them then Game Freak and Nintendo are probably happy. 

 

The people who were unhappy and expecting to be disappointed by the games should just not buy them-- I think that's the best way to send a message as a consumer.

[Revolver 27]

I think Mega Evolution is a letdown because that has been in the last three games and is a fairly large mechanic not to keep. Other features coming and going are not that shocking because that’s how it’s always been.

 

The games are selling extremely well. I think the largest backlash was from the most hardcore fans and it seems even they ended up buying the games anyway.

[Vic Boss 612]

Wait, why'd they take away the GTS? o.O

[Shade Aurion 54]

Because why not gut everything

[Eizan 126]

I'm okay with Mega Evolution being taken out, they don't need to keep piling every new mechanic in every game. 

 

It's just like Dynamax really shouldn't happen in any other Pokemon game....

 

I have all 8 badges so I can probably finish the game, but I've been just collecting pokemon in the wild area, but I realize Max Raid battles became really hard with NPC's. 

[Vic Boss 612]

Stopped in front of the fourth gym (want to wait until nightfall to get the Lemon Cream version of the Pokemon I'm evolving). 142 Pokemon caught. Team's rounded out to be Rillaboom, Toxtricity (I always read it as "Toxicity"), Malamar, Centiskorch, Bewear, and whatever Milcery will evolve into tonight. Fire-types are an issue with my team though, Bewear might get replaced at some point to cover that.

[webhead 519]

Yeah it seems like they phoned it in for this one a little even if kids still also want to play it (regarding cutting features and Pokemon).  Kids will play pretty much anything.  Look at Fortnite the lootbox buying simulator.   That's not what I'd want them to measure by.  Good games are good games and kids will still play games that have good stuff in them (likely ignoring the added layers of complexity).

 

It obviously is a pretty game though.  Better than a handheld is easy with the power of a console so I was expecting a little more.  Not awful or anything though.

[Shade Aurion 54]

On 11/23/2019 at 6:10 AM, webhead said:

Yeah it seems like they phoned it in for this one a little even if kids still also want to play it (regarding cutting features and Pokemon).  Kids will play pretty much anything.  Look at Fortnite the lootbox buying simulator.   That's not what I'd want them to measure by.  Good games are good games and kids will still play games that have good stuff in them (likely ignoring the added layers of complexity).

 

It obviously is a pretty game though.  Better than a handheld is easy with the power of a console so I was expecting a little more.  Not awful or anything though.

My only complaint with the graphics is it's below Breath of the Wild in fidelity. BotW set the bar pretty high though but it is a 3 year old game. I agree though it's pretty pretty. The new way they do lighting and textures is great. That's the main thing that rounds out this game graphicswise. If you take Ultra Sun/Moon in Citra, pump the resolution to 4k or even 1080, throw on hardware shading and max out the antialiasing it looks pretty great but it's the new lighting and HD textures that really clean it up and make it glorious. Still disappointing that they halfassed the line up by reusing old models and making nicer textures for them but only because I wish they did it for all of them because dayum gurrrl

[Vic Boss 612]

190ish Pokemon, in the Champion's City now

[Eizan 126]

I've finished the main game, I'm doing the quest after the credits now. 

 

I have like 240 something pokemon.

[webhead 519]

Played for a few hours.  This sure is a Pokemon game.  Lol.  I never really use the other Pokemon except my starter at the beginning though so ya know.  We'll see how it goes.  Got a free Pikachu because I played Let's Go Pikachu and yeeted that other shitty rando electric Pokemon into a box.

[Shade Aurion 54]

1 hour ago, webhead said:

Played for a few hours.  This sure is a Pokemon game.  Lol.  I never really use the other Pokemon except my starter at the beginning though so ya know.  We'll see how it goes.  Got a free Pikachu because I played Let's Go Pikachu and yeeted that other shitty rando electric Pokemon into a box.

If its the purple baby thing, it evolves and gets strong af

[Nick 38]

Purple baby thing?

[dr. b 492]

Probably Toxel

[Shade Aurion 54]

Yeah, it has different evolutionary forms based on its nature. Both are pretty powerful

[Nick 38]

Aah, gotcha.

 

...I need to get back to Sword sometime. Got to the Wild Area for the very first time, then got distracted by a bunch of other stuff.

[Vic Boss 612]

Toxel became my main Pokemon after it evolved

[Shade Aurion 54]

Same, though I vastly underrated Centiskorch because damn that thing wrecked house.

 

My endgame Sword team was:
- Toxtricity (Amped Form)
- Corviknight

- Centiskorch
- Hatterene
- Frosmoth
- Flapple

My team in Shield now is
- Toxtricity (Low Key Form)
- Coalossal
- Cursola

- Mogrem
- Eldegoss
- Baraskewda

I'll probs switch out Eldegoss for Dragapult later though lol

[Vic Boss 612]

I had nothing in my party that was effective against Fire Types, so I'd just send out Centiskorch and its ability would completely nullify fire attacks.

[dr. b 492]

To this point (only 3 gyms in, so obviously things will get tougher) Drizzile has been able to take care of almost everything for me even without type advantages. But I also like variety so I try to rotate even if I don't need to. I've used Boltund and Thievul quite a bit. Eldegoss and Carkol get cameos if I need a grass or fire type ability. And Noctowl brings the flying/psychic moves when they're useful. Probably quite a bit of turnover coming up for my team though. Too many different Pokemon to try out!

[Eizan 126]

My final team:
Toxtricity
Corviknight (Did a lot early, but not wasn't very useful for me late) 
Hatterne 
Dragapult
Rillaboom
Golisopod

 

Now I'm just catching things in the Wild Area. Everything is level 60 plus now. 

[webhead 519]

The thing I traded out was a Zigzagoon.  I'll definitely be on the lookout for this Toxel dude.

[Eizan 126]

I have 313 in my pokedex. I've also been replacing pokemon with the level 60 ones, just because it's easy XP and well just because I don't have much else to do in the game. 

[Vic Boss 612]

That money exploit sure works

[webhead 519]

[Shade Aurion 54]

[Shade Aurion 54]

This is the quickest new generation pokemon thread to die easily.

Still, if anyone needs any new pokemon bred, HMU

[Nick 38]

I'm making my way through Sword. Though I keep going for stretches of time only playing mobile games. Right now, my team's Drizzile, Carkol, Toxel, and FarFetch'd. Wanting to have a team with just new pokemon, though I'm making an exception for Galarian FarFetch'd.