manlethotline

[prof-peach]

Hey Prof it's a been a minute. My neighbor is keeping her distance thankfully and my mons are loving the plants you brought! Funnily enough though, I think it attracted an interesting mon. I have a highly territorial female excadrill, and lately she seems to be getting wooed by the most interesting excadrill I've ever seen. Its claws seem to be made of obsidian rather than metal. I was just wondering if you knew anything about courtship in this species, she's never expressed interest in a mate but so far she hasn't attacked this one and I wouldn't mind adding him to mine or my wife's team if it comes to that. I just don't want either of them to get seriously injured because I wasn't paying attention to particular signs.

I'm glad to hear things have calmed down in regards to the neighbour, no one needs that stress while in their own home.

Now, this cool dude who's come to investigate your Excadrill, its defo not a hybrid, no related pokemon would mix with them to make obsidian looking claws, they've adapted to something, probably softer earth or faster battle times. Without further information on the fella I couldn't precisely say why it happened, either way, Obsidian can form far sharper blades to the steel of a normal Excadrill, so he should be quite formidable. That said, Obsidian will break faster than steel, and chip into sharp fragments.

As for mating behaviours, this species will come above ground tentatively in new territories to try to show off to a female (they are a monogamous species usually). They can exchange the odd attack, once or twice, to compare strengths, if one is too strong, the other may be frightened off, they do search for equal battle partners, as once bonded, they work together to defend one collective territory, usually selecting the area that is better for feeding and nesting. If one part of the couple is very powerful, it usually becomes more difficult to double battle evenly. Both parties will collect nesting material and take it underground, to build a burrow, should they strike up a romantic relationship.

Hostility is clear if they don't get along, and usually occurs pretty fast, these can be rather territorial pokemon. If your pokemon isn't aggressive then its a pretty good start, but watch closely, if they start to fight it can be to the death and you should either return the pokemon, or scatter the wild one with a bigger, meaner species, with as little damage done as possible.

I guess play this one by ear, at this point in time theres no fighting, which is pretty good. I'd keep a close eye on that new guys move set, if its leaning into Rock moves, and not so much ground ones, then it may have different typing to your average of its species, which i'd say is a strong possibility considering its obsidian-like claws. Diet wise they may need a tailored mineral content to the food, but if its wild it'll be handling that itself, they have such a good sense of smell, and can pick out the foods they know their body is in need of.

[doubleddenden]

Day 2 with Pokemon Sword.

[[MORE]]

I am starting to see areas of improvement. Some moves do genuinely look updated, like Dark Pulse.

The beginning was rough around the edges, but I feel like starting at gym 2 things start picking up quality wise. I have to admit, gym 1 was the easiest shit, so I went into gym 2 under estimating Nessa.

She almost sweeped me. I went in with Thwackey and some lower level pokemon just to handicap myself, but good god did I handicap myself to HELL. The first two pokemon weren't anything to write home about, but Dreadnaw ripped through most of my team. It even withstood Dynamax Toxel- although to be fair Nuzzle is weak af. I just barely survived with a Japanese Sobble I got in Suprise Trade that tanked a hit and came in with a clutch Water Pulse. Serves me right I guess.

The part after is a lot better balanced I feel- although Hop needs serious tweeking. His team is actually weaker than some wild pokemon. Also Team Yell is still annoying. Are they ever going to do anything?

Gym 3: suprising challenge. It was deceptively simple. I felt like I would have to go through a few more rounds of it but apparently one round is all you need. Funny enough, I was struggling to find Sizzlepede until this challenge, and now I Have Centiskorch. Anyway, Kabu is interesting but wasn't too difficult- although I am thoroughly convinced I desperately need Gmax Centiskorch now. Carkol and Drednaw took care of him.

The castle town is huge and cool looking, although I do question why one particular area doesn't seem to have anything in it. Oh well.

The desert route and town looks rather decent, although sort of like the wild area, there's some textures that need fixing here. However the Diglett ruins are a nice touch, reminds me of the river valley from Pokemon Snap.

The next town is really aesthetically pleasing, although some colors kind of hurt my eyes. Bea is a cool gym leader by design but unlike the others before her, there's not much build up for her. Decent challenge but overall not much of a fight. She took out Corvisquire much earlier than I thought she would, but Toxtricity saved the day with Toxic and Venom Shock.

Now the mushroom forest and town? Easily the most aesthetically pleasing parts of the game. I love me some glowy shit, and this shit be glowy as fuuuuuuck. It's a shame certain parts of the game seem so bland compared to this and the desert. Also, I finally got Corviknight, which is AMAZING, but I do feel bad that I might replace my current one for one that can gmax. That part still doesn't make sense, GF, minus points.

Now Opal. I was freaked out by her. I was getting cocky again. She proved to be the BEST gym fight I've had so far. Her quizzes are genuinely hilarious and out of nowhere, and each wrong answer handicapped me further with lowered stats AND I LOVED IT. She too about sweeped my team. I had to bust out REVIVES in a gym fight, something I haven't had to do for mainline games in YEARS. Even Corviknight had trouble with her. Even Perserker had trouble. Centiskorch and Dreepy def did. I actually Dynamaxed for the first time since Nessa with Drednaw- big MVP lately- and STILL had to revive my girl Corviknight. The fight kept going for several turns AFTER our Dynamaxes ended. I had an amazing time fighting her, and it felt so rewarding.

Opal definitely secured herself as my favorite gym leader so far, especially with a certain... scene in the castle town.

Now before I get too ahead of myself, I gotta point out a gripe: the trading in this game sucks ASS. Every game we stray further from PSS's light, I swear. A friend of mine and I struggled to trade for a solid 45 minutes or more because it just wouldn't connect us, or from my end, people kept sniping the code. In the end it worked, and she now has a boy and girl G Farfetch'd and I have a boy and girl G Ponyta now, but... seriously, Sun and Moon at least had a friend search option. It doesn't make a lick of sense to not only get rid of GTS, but to also replace general trading... with this .

This being said, I think I may genuinely have to say, despite the national dex, the move cut, the lies from GF, the piss poor pr, the ugly designs of some new mons including Inteleon and Eiscue, the weird decision to make gigantimax exclusive to very particular pokemon, how annoying Hop is, the bad texture work, baked in exp share, and the god awful irredeemable piss on the poor shit stepping excuse for the trading system... I'm having fun.

I genuinely think that if they just kept the national dex, this game probably would be a lot more enjoyable and beloved. Or, at the least, if it came out instead of Let's Go, it'd be more understandable for its flaws. I think that there's definitely justified criticism here, but to say these are the worst games is kinda pushing it when Let's Go exists.

I'd say the main thing SwSh is guilty of is not pushing the envelope enough for the console it's on, and for it being a victim of A. A yearly release cycle, B. Corporate greed to push out the games quicker and to charge ransom money for Home, less your pokemon be deleted. I'd also say it's very guilty of this: Making use of controversy to keep it relevant.

Let's be real, if I didn't know the national dex was gone, this game would be just like any other pokemon game. I'm still pissed about it and the thought is always in the back of my mind whenever I find something I like about this game, but I do have to face the fact that I am having fun. I could easily see why anyone that doesn't bother transferring would love this game simply as a stand alone title. This does not change my discrepancies with the game nor does it justify all the removed content, but I understand from a fan perspective- not so much a consumer perspective, but I did wait to buy used for my own reasons associated I guess.

This being said, I'm not sure what the plot is yet. I'm not even sure if there is one tbh. And I'm still constantly annoyed by Hop. Just. Leave me alone, dude, let Bede or Marny be my rival for a bit, take a hike until the end plz.

Tomorrow I might beat it if I keep up the current pace. I'll give my full thoughts once I've beaten it.