#it). but still. you think the swsh dlc was better??? when it had the fucking isle of armor on it? you literally have to be joking

[moonscape]

pokemon fans are fucking insane like ofc you can think whatever you want about the sv dlc but im seeing people say that the swsh dlc was better and no offense but what the fuck is wrong with you

[shima-draws]

Why?

Why are the pokemon games becoming more and more of a clusterf*** as we proceed through gens?

I wouldn't go so far as to say THAT;; The last couple gens certainly have an abundant amount of flaws but there's a lot of replay value in them too. To this day I'm still mystified as to why people hated SwSh so much, I know some of the graphics were lackluster but? Honestly imo the actual towns and routes in SwSh are better designed than the ones in SV, especially when you're looking at Hammerlocke and Ballonlea. And the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra DLCs were a blast to play through if you decided to pay for them. SwSh's story was super lackluster but so far SV's storylines have knocked me flat on my ass with how good they are.

Pokemon has always been hit or miss, it really just depends on what aspect of the game you like the most that will determine how "good" it is in somebody's eyes. As for me, I love games that are more story driven, so yes I definitely prefer SV and SM over SwSh and XY, whose plots don't really fit my standards of being a well-written story arc. Some people just like games that are more fun, so they might prefer XY and Swsh for their mechanics over other games.

I definitely do think that SV was rushed, at least on the graphics front; they could have easily let it bake for another year and released a gorgeously rendered game, but we can't win at everything lol. And yeah, there's a good handful of designs in Gen 9 that could use some improvement, but there's a lot of designs that absolutely slap too.

The main issue now is that Nintendo and Gamefreak KNOW that Pokemon is the most popular franchise in the world. They're going to make money off of their games no matter how, or when or in what condition they release their games in. So obviously they're going to rush development at the cost of quality, and at the cost of their own employees, so that they can make bank every year with a game release. At least, that's what I think is the issue? When SV's release date was announced I know a lot of people said holy shit, THAT soon? It was definitely rushed. That's why there's so many lagging and rendering issues lol

But, my philosophy has always been this: You can thoroughly enjoy a piece of media and still criticize it for its flaws. SV may be buggy and glitchy as fuck but I've had an absolute blast playing through it. I already know I'll be starting a new file and replaying it sometime down the road. The problem now is letting Nintendo know that yes, we love Pokemon, we're going to play Pokemon no matter what, but at the very least we should get a say on how much work should be put into these games. (And, in SV's case, it was clearly not enough.)

Anyway sorry for the super long ramble lmao I clearly have some Thoughts about this. But idk. I'd rather be spending my energy enjoying myself and having a good time than being super negative and trashing on the game at any given chance. And yes I do have some criticisms but that's just how these things go

[unrelenting-usurper]

I’m surprised it had to get to this point before people realized that Pokemon is on a downward trend. If you could seriously look at SwSh with all the cut pokemon for “performance issues” and the steep DLC to put some of them back in and not think that was a bad sign I don’t know what to tell you. This is another in the growing line of actions that Nintendo is doing to milk as much money as much money from the franchise that they can and fans are only enabling and supporting their greed by continuing to buy the games despite this. If you REALLY want Nintendo to do better then you need to: STOP. BUYING. THEIR. SHIT. Seriously, they are a business, and money is the only language they understand. Most of you posting on here are grown ass adults and responsible for the companies you support with your money too, if you continue to buy the games while still complaining about them then you need to realize you’re contributing to these shitty titles. I would gladly wait 5+ years for an optimized Pokemon title with love and heart in it and not one they had to lash Gamefreak with a whip to code.

(Also I want the ability to turn off the fucking XP share and make the game harder. I beat Blue when I was fucking 5 years old, I’m sure kids aren’t as bad at video games as Nintendo wants to think they are.)

[anti-anti-a-la-bi-bi]

Can you rant about pkmn sword? Rants are enjoyable to read

Alright, so it took me a bit to get my thoughts in line. Lets start with how I feel about the pricing: I am all for having 30 euro DLC over a third version for the full price, however, I do think that if they do that, as well as with the dex cut, they should quit with having there be two versions. Nowadays, with internet communication, it doesn't really do much for social interaction, it's just another hurdle for those of us who wish to complete the pokedex(and especially when they remove the GTS and make you pay for it later). It's still a scummy tactic, and no one will complain if there's just one version+DLC. It makes a big difference in the pricetag, since being forced to buy nintendo online, or two switches and two games to trade, are both mandatory payments to make in order to achieve one of the encouraged goals within the game. Furthermore, people within one family will likely be using the same cartridge, so if there is only one version, all in all, it'll make a huge difference for people who use a whole switch as a family as well. Also, I do not think that sword and shield are worth 60 euros. I think they're worth 30 at most, since the base game is worse than x and y/sun and moon. They also locked following pokemon behind a paywall, which is bullshit and yeah, fuck that. I think swsh are enjoyable, but not when they sell at the same price as games with way more content, games that look much better, and usually both combined. For what the switch can do, swsh look really bad, actually. There are a few pretty spots, but that's the exception, not the rule. To add on to things that I think are horrible; the raid battles, especially the more difficult ones, in single player. I don't have switch online, and as such, I need to do all raids alone. But, the raids are near-impossible in a lot of cases unless you get really lucky with the npcs and ai. I got two gmax Toxtricity by using wide guard with Zamazenta for over four hours until I finally got lucky for each. This is both to blame on the ai, and the horrible selection of pokemon. Pokemon that should have evolved at level 60, well, they are still in their first form, so you have magikarp and mudbray at a 5 star raid. At least have them evolved. They have good moves, yes, but their base stats are so low that it doesn't matter. Also, the shield mechanic. It is predetermined how much damage you can do, and if you land a supereffective hit, it's not unlikely for it to only do a sliver of damage and then the shield goes up. It's annoying, makes battles extremely difficult because a lot of npcs just won't attack while the shields are up, and it just becomes a waiting game if your pokemon is just there to act as support(such as my Zamazenta with wide guard to prevent Toxtricity from 2-hit ko-ing all my teammates). Also, the fact that even if you beat a gmax pokemon, there is still a chance not to catch them. It often takes ages to even defeat them, and then, 'Congratulations! You just wasted over half an hour of your life! Get fucked!'. I had this happen with Applin t w i c e. Also, the wild area is... It's okay, really. Nothing exceptional, my immersion is ruined by the sheer amount of pop-in, something that happens even when there aren't a lot of models on-screen, the Onyx in Motostoke being a rather infamous example. The trees look like shit, the berry trees look like they don't belong, to put it bluntly, it looks like something a student would make in unity. You'd expect something better from the highest grossing franchise in the world. The ai of the pokemon is often pretty bad, with them just moving in circles, I have seen so many synchronized pokemon at this point that it's just... Egh. Also, the customization options are still so limited? Can't choose eyeshape, can't choose clothes that actually make your character stand out, and you can't even choose your challenger uniform after you become the champion. Why does Leon get a special uniform? I have never seen a pokemon game so set on making you feel like a celebrity after you win, yet you don't get to have much of an identity in the game even after you win. It didn't have to be difficult, just a customization screen inside the dressing room of the Wyndon stadium, perhaps some extra clothing options? As for things I like: I like the atmosphere. The music, though sometimes repetitive, does help my immersion. The gym leader theme is dynamic, shifting with what happens in the battle, making me feel like I'm actually standing there, and the ambient themes work well as well, though those were rarely encountered at all. I love the characters, the trainer cards giving you some backstory on them, they are, together with the Unova leaders, the most present gym leaders today, with a history of their own. It felt amazing to just read the trainer cards(and I enjoyed making my own as well). The towns have their own themes, and while I can't remember the names, I do remember each location well. But. There was so much wasted potential. The castle in Hammerlocke? The large building in the east? Hammerlocke's castle: the vault, 1 room and a roof. The large building? Nothing. You don't even get to see the attraction inspired by the London Eye. Wyndon is so small??? It has a small shopping street, the stadium and the inn and that's about it. Castelia City was bigger than that. Overall, the game feels rushed. The gym challenges at the start were cool, but by the end it's more of "battle these trainers in a row haha". Also, the animations. Gamefreak claimed to need to remake all models(they did not, the 3ds models were used with better textures), and to make better animations(only for newer pokemon, most pokemon used their pokemon amie animations and further animations from the 3ds titles). The animations are still bad, especially for something as powerful as the switch. I enjoyed the lore behind the region, but I really, really dislike Dynamax. I like gigantamax because the pokemon usually changes in a way that is distinguishable, but regular dynamax... Nah. Give me mega evolution back, perhaps update its mechanics so it changes the gameplay more and requires more strategy, but Dynamax just feels like something that is so low-effort. Pokemon but beeg. The curry making, on the other hand, I love. Pokemon should not be a cooking game, but it made me feel like I was actually bonding with my pokemon, that they were present in the mc's daily life. I would love to see more additions like that, the possibility to become the kind of trainer you want. Enjoy swimming? Perhaps go for a swim with your pokemon? It doesn't need to be complex, but I'd just love to see my pokemon interact with each other and with my actual character more. The routes are too linear. The last route is literally a straight line with some trainers, with next to no effort in it. I also think that the handholding needs to be talked about. When you get to Motostoke and have signed up for the gym challenge, a staff member will lead you to the in, which is literally one screen to the left. Such examples are found all over the game, and I hate it. They do let you skip some tutorials, which is a welcome change, but characters are so willing to force you to stop with whatever you're doing and make you listen to their speeches that it still often feels like a slog, especially because you don't get to do shit besides gyms until the very, very end, in which the fucking champion tries to catch a legendary in a regular pokeball, not even a great or ultra ball. The lore is great, but the actual story is so nonsensical that I just didn't bother to pay attention. Hop literally recycles Hau's animations. I would love for him to have his own, so he'd feel more separate, because they ARE different characters, with different goals. But Hop is even more annoying than Hau because he just won't shut up. You walk 5 steps and he shows up somewhere, for no reason at all. Meanwhile, there's this big event going down, a crowd has gathered, you get there and... Leon has already resolved it. You just get a picture, that was what you wanted, right? That sums up most of the game 'the adults will deal with this!' . The picture doesn't even look good. Swsh is fond of just showing you pictures, for example, right before the climax when Rose and Leon are talking. There's no background music or anything, just pictures and the sound of the textbox. It feels so low-effort. Also, if you have a character that is a singer, and he uh, he sings, it MAY be a good idea to include VOICE ACTING. They had someone sing in Black and White 2! Surely they can do it on the fucking switch, several years later? The mouths flapping about just feels incredibly awkward. I would recommend the game if you can find it somewhere for cheap, not for the full price. There is enjoyment to be had, but it's subpar in comparison to other games for the same price. I may rant further depending on how much time I have.

[inikavulpixelreviews]

Let’s Talk About Pokemon - The Rolycoly Family

837: Rolycoly

OHHHH!!!! OH OH!!!!! THE COAL MONSTER!!! THAT I PUT ON MY WISHLIST! OH How I instantly fell in love with this little guy when it was first revealed. This design is so neato in its lovable simplicity. At first glance it's little more than a chunky hunk of coal with a single eye. Oh, but they eye GLOWS as if it has coal burning on the inside! That on top of its general body shape makes it look like a living miner's helmet! Hah, how clever and original for a little coal critter!

It even has a unique ability that has it interacting with Fire and Water, boosting the Pokemon's speed if its hit with moves of those type! Cool! And how I LOVE that grumpy little visage it has. It's just a single eye but it still lends so much fun personality to the thing. But Rolycoly comes with a little something extra:

It's on a WHEEL! It has an entire wheel-shaped shard of coal on its underside that allows it to roll around like a unicycle! That is PRECIOUS! And boy howdy has the excitement for what this thing could possibly turn into get me pumped. So many neat Fakemon ideas floating around. That and I absolutely KNEW I was gonna be using a Rolycoly once I started playing the game myself. I just HAVE to see what this coal dude turns into!

Personal Score: 10/10

838: Carkol

Oh, well... hrmmmm. We're not off to a fantastic start, I guess. My instant turn-off on the other side of that evolution screen was that Rolycoly instantly lost its cool cycloptic eye in favor of a much more regular looking face. Why does it just look like Golem's face??? Like I can't stress this enough. If a Pokemon has a unique feature, especially one that is a rarity like a single eye, or a droopy face, or having shaggy hair cover the majority of its face, or even a complete LACK of face, it absolutely should NOT lose these features unless it has a compelling enough reason to, like fulfilling a design theme. There are so little Pokemon that are cycloptic that it's SO ANNOYING that it instantly fails at step 1.

I also don't really like that's already SORTA lost the wheels. They're there, and they function as wheels, but they're behaving a lot more like legs most of the time. It doesn't even keep its glowing eyes. They light up during certain animations but that's it. Nor do I like that a pile of coal is precariously going over its back. It makes it stop looking like a coal monster and just that it's a monster that carries coal. The shape of its back should evoke the look of a mine cart filled with coal and not BE a mine cart full of coal, if you get what I'm saying?

Even if it was just the face that was redone, I would've taken it. But if I could do a little tidying up and redoing of Carkol, it wouldn't take a TON to do it. The basic shape is fine to me, just good lord please give it its face and wheels back.

Personal Score: 5.5/10

...But not all hope is lost just yet! There's loads of Pokemon with a good beginning, and low middle, and a good end. Awkward teenage stage am I right? Even if its face isn't just a single eye anymore, at least it's keeping the wheeled theme! In fact, you could really build off of that! Like making it a train! A TRAIN POKEMON, LIKE ON MY WISHLIST AGAIN! That'd be knocking out two birds with one piece of coal! Surely they couldn't possibly think of ditching that aspect of this line, especially since it's been present in two stages so far! Surely the least possible thing that could happen would be if this almost literal mine cart Pokemon had suddenly lost all its wheels and miraculously turned into a generic bipedal dinosaur that walks like literally any other Pokemon out of nowhere. That’d be like, the worst case scenario. But that wouldn’t happen, right?

...

...Right?

839: Coalossal

Not to come off as blunt right off the gate here but this did it. I didn't think it was gonna be possible. Gallade is no longer my least favorite Pokemon of all time. Because in the end, as much as you could say Gallade sullies the Gardevoir line's unique take on a knight just by association, you can at least IGNORE Gallade. Just evolve your male Kirlia into a Gardevoir anyway because Gardevoir is just better than Gallade in every way anywho. Gallade? Literally WHO??? But Coalossal is impossible to ignore if you were a fan of what Rolycoly was putting down. And even Gallade had a FEW merits to it. Coalossal has almost systematically taken every little bit of what has cool and unique about Rolycoly and thrown it out the window in favor of being an all-around copy-paste job.

Okay, for a moment, let's pretend Rolycoly and Carkol never existed. Coalossal was just a single-stage Pokemon on its own in a cave somewhere or whatever. What about Coalossal is individually unique to it and it alone? Sincerely close to absolutely nothing. No single individual aspect of this design is unique in any way. Want to know the major reason why? Because Coalossal already existed. We've already had Coalossal for about ten years now. But back then, we called it Rhyperior.

I'm personally not a gigantic fan of Rhyperior either, but look at this. This is absolutely comedic. They're the fucking same. They are the SAME creature. Coalossal is nothing but an off-color Rhyperior. Like come ON. At least Rhyperior has the benefit of having is rough body serve a visual motif where it's wearing construction gear, with sound-canceling headphones, complete with wrecking ball tail. A solid rock monster design, even if I personally prefer Rhydon. I can confidently look at Rhyperior and see that it’s gone through revisions, redraws, and polishes to make it unique even in its own evolutionary line.

Can I say the same for Coalossal? I honestly can't say I do. With Rhyperior fresh in mind, what's Coalossal's visual motif? It's made of coal, I guess? Its face SORT OF looks like a cowcatcher on a train. But here's a question, why doesn't it look MORE like a train if train was clearly a motif they wanted to go with? If it's a train monster, why is it bipedal in the first place?

The only bit of its design that's even a little eye-catching is the pile of coal clumsily piled onto its shoulders, but I already said why I don't like that. It makes it look like Coalossal itself isn't a coal monster, it just carries coal around. Besides, most well-done designs aught to still have at least some value to them even if you took away one aspect of said design. Rhyperior with a plain tail with no wrecking ball is still a funny construction site rhino man. Even Carkol with no coal on its back would've still been a weirdo mine cart monster. Coalossal without the pile of coal is just naked Rhyperior.

Things only get worse when you add Carkol and especially Rolycoly back into the equation. Rolycoly's unique features were that it was a coal monster with one eye, riding on a wheel and it's shaped like an object. Carkol at least continues most of this, mostly ridding of the single eye thing. Coalossal gets rid of all that's left. No more wheels, no more object shapes, no more fun, it's just a coal thing now. Literally the first thing that comes to your mind when you think “I want to make a coal monster.” A rough draft in monster design form, printed and published for the full release.

I have to wonder, how many questions of whether this looked good or not the decisions to make in a train monster but also a bipedal dinosaur-thing was a well enough thought-through idea? Is being a dinosaur with a cowcatcher on its head visually interesting? More visually interesting than its previous stages, where it had far more visual motifs going on? Was it a conscious decision to say yes or was there a time crunch where they had to settle on a “close enough” design to pad out the Pokedex?

And you know what's more than likely the thing that murdered this line? Time.

I feel bad for possibly implying it was going to be nothing but smooth sailing this Gen when I made my little Sword and Shield pre-review. Because the more I've dug into Gen 8 the more I've realized how many designs in here are heavily flawed. And I can only blame the very evident drop in quality on the clear lack of time Gamefreak has these days. Generations are getting shorter and shorter and it's starting to show. Had SwSh not happened for another couple years, I guarantee I wouldn't be making this rant right now. This kind of blunder is simply so uncharacteristic of Gamefreak's art department. Like say what you will about the games themselves but Pokemon's been running strong from Gens 5 to 7. It's hard to believe the same company that made creatures like Mimikyu, Buzzwole, Sigilyph, or Pumpkaboo churned out Coalossal here.

Here, I'll embarrass myself and share a bit of concept art of a personal project of mine. These designs aren't too terribly spectacular, are they? That's because they're just the rough drafts. The very first instance of me drawing a creature in order to have their design idea on paper, because I can flesh them out later. They’re very wonky looking, weirdly generic at best because later on, “Ash Wolf” there would later become...

“Billowolf”. And heck, it’s plenty possible that it’ll go through one more redesign or so before I’m fully satisfied with it. Coalossal feels like the former. A sketchbook doodle of a “coal dinosaur” base idea that was meant to be more fleshed out later but wasn’t given the opportunity.

And I'm noticing more and more that this is gonna be a repeat complaint going into Gen 8. Lots of ideas with decent or even excellent potential not being lived up to because the designs haven't been through enough revisions. We're well aware of an internal approval process that happens within Gamefreak for these Pokemon to get accepted, and I can only wonder if they just settled with “good enough” designs simply because they were running out of time. Like for PETE'S sake this annual release schedule needs to stop. I hope this new trend of DLC will alleviate the Pokemon Rush. Hell, I'd encourage it so long as they're fairly priced and maybe even bring in a handful of new Pokemon designs each. It's not quite a year off the constant Poketrain but DLC is a lot easier to make than an entirely new game or even a “deluxe edition”. I don't care if we go back to a release schedule of one generation per major Nintendo system. Just let these guys have the time and leeway to do their dang jobs without the stress of ridiculously tight deadlines. There's still so much talent within Gamefreak and it's maybe easy to forget that they're the ones that made the more beloved entries in the series back before they forced a game out almost every year.

And to be clear I DO NOT mean to say all this to shame whoever designed Coalossal, even if they themselves are proud of it. Nor am I shaming anyone that does like Coalossal (just given I’ve gotten comments before acting like I’m being the opinion police with this review series.) Alarmingly enough, my taste isn’t law! And that’s fine. I’m just wondering if the higher-ups on the art team have given Coalossal a pass under less time-constrained circumstances? Or would they have sent it back in to go a few more rounds in a feedback loop? The basic point of this rant is just

Obviously, I'd want this line to follow through on the train motif and have Coalossal actually be a goddang train. And of course keep the single eye.

I do hear one of the defenses of Coalossal being dinosaur-shaped being that “it's a fossil fuel coming back to life.” If that was the intention, that should've been the theme from the very start instead of the rolling wheel idea. (Even under this light, I still wouldn't call Coalossal a very good design. It's far too generic to be doing even that cool idea justice. If that WAS the idea, I’d say it’d be way cooler to do a monster that’s moreso crudely trying to imitate the look of a dinosaur.)

...Awkward thing is, Coalossal wound up sticking in my team for the whole game. Mostly because I wasn't sure if any more new Fire types would be coming afterward (there weren't) so. My Sword team has my least favorite Pokemon on it. I still love ya though, Obsidius. It's not your fault your design wasn't finished. ):

Personal Score: 1/10

I'm sorry if it feels like I'm just dunking on Pokemon after Pokemon here. I PROMISE there's some Pokemon I'm excited to talk about coming up later. In fact, oooh, Applin's next! Applin will be a good palette cleanser, yes.

G-Max Coalossal:

Oh yeah, Coalossal has a G-Max form too. It's better, I'll give it that, and it SORTA brought the wheel thing back but only in having tire-shaped thighs. Pbbbth. The scale is imposing and at least its eyes look a little bit cooler again. I can't bring myself to like it much better just by association with Coalossal. It's fine, I guess. I'm not even gonna rate it. I just don’t like it. It’s fine. Eh.

[Archive]

[authoratmidnight]

Maybe it’s just cause Im an old fart and I’ve been here since the beginning but like, the SwSh stuff-like not every pokemon being available at the beginning-doesn’t bother me?

Like, it was WAY worse in earlier gens.

When Gen 3 first came out you couldn’t complete the National Dex right away, the rest of the games that you needed, aside from the opposite core game hadn’t been released. And the first of those games, Fire Red and Leaf Green, wouldn’t be released until a year later!

Gen 4 was the same, you needed all the gen 4 games (for version exclusives, and again, they weren’t all released at the same time so you had to wait a bit for HG/SS to come out to get the rest of the Gen 2 pokemon) and anything remaining would need to be transferred forwards from the past games, which you needed to have.

Same thing with gen 5, needed all the gen 5s for version exclusives and needed to use the transfer function (thus requiring you to have the past games) to bring forward the remaining mons if you wanted a hope of finishing the Dexes. And let’s not forget that in Black and White they decided that Zorua and Zoroark were to be stuck behind events FROM THE PREVIOUS GENERATION (the Celebi event in HG/SS for Zorua and one of the Shiny Legendary beast events in HG/SS for Zoroark) so you couldn’t even complete the REGULAR pokedex unless you had a past gen game. Luckily B2/W2 fixed this by making them just straight up obtainable in game.

The Gen 6 games still required a fair number of games to complete the dex, but the inclusion of Wondertrading (and a more accessible internet and connectivity was hit or miss on regular DS games cause it just, wasn’t often compatible w/ the commonly used security settings) makes it easier to get shit.

Basically, we’ve been spoiled in that ever since Gen 4, every game has had some kind of backwards compatibility built into it allowing pokemon to move forward from old games to new (Gen 2 to 3 didn’t have that option b/c vastly different hardware systems + just how things were programmed into the games/the pokemon). We got away with it cause the DS/DS Lite hung around for a Long ass time and the 3DS was similar enough. Meanwhile the Switch and Switch Lite are *very* different systems so you can’t just, connect them up easily.

Making SwSh the first games since Gen 3 to NOT be backwards compatible right away.

And man, can you IMAGINE the shit storm that would have happened had Nintendo released Swsh, with a full National dex of all 800+ available pokemon, before Pokemon HOME was released, meaning that while yes a National Dex would be there it would be totally impossible to fill w/o backwards compatibility.

Like, people would have raked them over the coals worse than they did. Despite the fact that.

And frankly the lack of a National Dex doesn’t bother me. I mean, we didn’t have one in Sun/Moon either. Yes all currently released pokemon were available, but there was no National Dex, just the regional one. I don’t recall people bitching about there being no National Dex then. The lack of a National Dex means it’s actually relatively feasible to complete the Dex and get the Shiny Charm. Before it meant you need multiple games and systems (and in some cases games beyond core games) to do, and with over 800+ pokemon that’s uh, damn near impossible.

Also, I’m seeing some complaints about ‘whaaa the rest of the pokemon are behind a paywall’. Pray tell, how is 30$ DLC for more pokemon/regions, any more of a paywall than them making a whole new game containing this stuff, that you’d have to buy? YOU WOULD STILL BE FORKING OUT MONEY. Hell, this DLC is cheaper than if you bought a whole other game.

Plus, they’re really not, while yes the expansion pack is dlc you need to pay for (as expansion packs always are), there IS a free patch you’ll be able to download that’ll allow you to obtain the new pokemon in your game (via trade and stuff). So you can still get them (it’s just that w/o the paid dlc you won’t be able to get to the new places and all that). Without paying. If you think people won’t be breeding and surprise trading stuff once it comes out you’re wrong.

But again, how is this any more of a paywall than dropping money to buy a third core series games like Emerald, or Platinum, or Black 2??? Ya’ll ain’t got a problem with dropping money for a whole new game, this ain’t that much different. Except that it’s *cheaper* and it’s adding on to the game you have.

Really what needs to happen is to let Nintendo and Game Freak go back to being allowed to take a couple years to make the goddamn games-cause it used to be the norm that we had a 3 or more year gap between core game releases, then suddenly it was every year a new game. You want a better game? Stop being fucking impatient and demanding new games every year and let them take a couple years to work on one. I know I’m fine waiting for new games, esp if it means 1) no time crunches 2) gives them the time to make it as good as possible.

[nuttyrabbit]

I'm pissed off at this poor management from Game Freak -- first, they cut the National Dex from Sword and Shield because they fucked up, then they decide to say that they won't put the cut Pokemon in as DLC, before shipping the announcement off with said DLC packs. Are they trying to make people upset now? Also, the DLC is like, 30 bucks for both sets? Yeah, no thanks, not after the games costing 79 bucks already.

Okay, gonna clear this up really quick because I keep seeing people spread misinformation: the bundle  with both pieces of DLC in it is 30 dollars. The DLC is purchasable on its own and probably for around half of that. I’m tired of people spreading the “It’s 30 dollars per piece” thing when it’s not

Anyways, that aside, yeah I kinda agree it’s shitty to say that you won’t release the cut dex as DLC, then go ahead and do so anyways, though tbh I was expecting them to do something like this post-release, and at least you don’t have to actually pay for the Pokemon themselves, just the regions they’re in (So if you don’t buy the DLC someone can still give you say, a Gible). Also at least this is being sold as DLC and not an entirely new game that we have to pay another 60 bucks for, so at least it’s somewhat better than say, another USUM situation.

And in a weird way, this actually gives SWSH one of the biggest in-game obtainable dexes, since by the time Crown Tundra comes out 600 Pokemon will be obtainable in game without having to transfer/trade, something you wouldn’t be able to do in prior games.

But even taking all of that into account, it is still shitty we got to this point. Not as shitty as it could’ve been, but just kinda crappy all around, though I think if they had been up front about the National Dex to begin with, the backlash wouldn’t be this severe

[motherhenna]

THOUGHTS ON POKÉMON SWORD/SHIELD

Firstly, I really like most of the new Pokémon: pretty great stuff, imo. And can I just say that the Galerian forms are objectively nicer to look at than most of the Alolan forms? Raticate and dugtrio were fucking horrible. In hindsight, a lot of the Gen 7 designs were mediocre, and I especially hated the ultra beasts—they looked like fucking digimon. So I’m glad that the designers seem to be going back to simpler roots: most of the new mons have a lot more in common with Gen 6 mon, the aesthetic of whom I mostly loved.

Like sorry dexers but SWSH is actually a more than decent game; obviously the cut sucks, but I’m sure there will be DLC or something that will reincorporate them. Though there are definitely things that can be improved and things that were left out, I honestly enjoyed this game more than I enjoyed Alola, Sinnoh, and Unova, and I think the replay-ibility is pretty good. I finished the main story in two and a half days and really enjoyed it. Very aesthetically pleasing, and nowhere near as hand-holdy as some past games.

I also really liked a lot of the characters; they were simple and to-the-point, but not cardboard-cutouts. For one, Hop is not a Hau clone; he’s honestly a vast improvement, and way more of a compelling rival. Like I legitimately felt bad for him when I beat him, and his moments of insecurity and frustration were way more realistic than Hau’s constant blank positivity and pluckiness. As much as I liked Lily’s arc in Alola, it got really tiring to watch the only main female character be so limp and timid and have to be rescued by the guys constantly; so while yes, Marnie wasn’t quite as developed, I actually prefer her. She’s soft-spoken but determined, and worked hard to rise beyond her impoverished hometown. Plus she’s an adorable little punk with a cute northern English accent (I think) and I love her. Sonia’s arc was basic, but effective, as I think a lot of millennials can relate to her plight: directionless young adult unsure what she wants to do who feels pressured by her family to be more productive and start a career. I think we’ve all been there. Unpopular opinion tho: I fucking hate Leon lmao what a cocky, boring tool—I couldn’t stand him within minutes of encountering him, and COULDNT WAIT to wipe the floor with him at the end. What kind of douche walks around with a champion cape? Felt so good to kick is ass, though it WAS a tough fight. Bede was refreshing just because I miss having asshole rivals—like yeah he had a tragic past but I kind of loved that he remained an asshole for the entire game???

The gym leaders were really aesthetically pleasing, and I wish more of them were better developed. But I fucking LOVE Opal omg I cant get enough of weird old ladies, and her gym challenge was pretty funny. And Nessa is HOT as hell can I just say?? Piers is adorable too—his gym was the hardest for me, but I love his design and the theme of financial inequality implied in the state of Spikemuth and his lack of access to Dynamaxing. But fuck his obstagoon wrecked my ass, dynamax or not. Team yell were endearing too: more well-rounded than Skull, in my opinion. Just a bunch of well-meaning hooligans who just want to make their hometown better. I liked that the villains were people in power—it was realistic, and more subtle than Alola. Wish we could have heard more about Rose’s motivations and that the final battle with him could be more difficult, but it was still fairly compelling. The finale felt too short, though: I would have liked to see it drawn out a little longer.

I also think the games need to work on difficulty scaling: it tends to be very erratic. I’m NOT a fan of the mandatory exp share, as it made me end up being 5+ levels higher than all other trainers—I one-shotted nearly every Pokémon on the gym leaders teams in the championship, as they were STILL in the low to mid 50s. However, the difficulty spike between them and Leon is pretty severe: I went from sweeping everyone with my level 62 inteleon to just BARELY beating the champion with only 2 Pokémon remaining (granted I have a no item rule to make the battles at least somewhat challenging). I wish everyone had been at least ALMOST as hard, as I felt legitimately proud after beating Leon. While I’m glad I don’t have to grind anymore like in the old games (bc let’s face it: nobody wants to spend two hours knocking out gravelers in victory road to get remotely close to elite 4 level), they need to find a happy medium, and the permanent exp share is not it. At least in Gen 6/7 you could turn it off! USUM had a similar problem: most of the trainers and kahunas were insanely easy, but then the totem battles were stupid difficult and unfair (I have literally screamed during the togedamaru fight—it’s such bullshit). I think the two games that nailed difficulty scaling were ruby/sapphire/emerald, and the spin-off game Gale of Darkness. While there were of course pushover trainers, those games were really good at keeping fellow trainers close in level to you, and boss battles legitimately challenging. My opinion is that unless you go out of your way to overlevel, you should be able to progress organically through the game while staying no more than two or three levels higher than most opponents.

[to be continued]

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

baratrongirl replied to your post “Really do not understand why GameFreak took out the Hall of Fame...”

I'd be interested to hear what you don't like about Sword/Shield. For me, it's quite the opposite. I played the hell out of the 3rd and 4th Gens, then struggled to finish White and didn't buy White 2. Didn't finish SoulSilver, or whichever of X or Y I got, and became completely bored about 10 hours into Alpha Sapphire despite being all motivated to play the game with my original Sapphire team only now I know what I'm doing. Didn't even BUY Sun/Moon.

Then I hung out with my Pokemon friends over Sword/Shield launch weekend, watched them playing on the TV, and had to immediately borrow a spare Switch so I could play too. By the end of the weekend I'd bought the Switch and paid to download my own copy of Shield. I have a few issues with it, mostly relating to the lack of clothing options for male characters, but otherwise I'm finding it the blast of fresh air that I needed to get back into the Pokemon games.

I’ve heard a lot of people say something similar, that SwSh was a nice upgrade from the past couple gens. I started slipping around XY - didn’t wanna buy a 3DS and didn’t until Omega Ruby came out, since Ruby was the first one I’d played - and after I finished the Team Flare plot of X I just gave up for three years and only last year finished the 8th gym and the league. I honestly don’t remember much of playing OR. I think it was a weird kind of frantic nostalgia-fueled haze but I genuinely cannot comment on what I liked about that game. It’s a blank in my memory. Really enjoyed Sun and Moon, like Sword but get bummed the longer I think about it. But I did buy it because I did see a ton of people saying it was a change they were enjoying, quality-of-life upgrades, fun new features, etc. Different strokes and all.

My biggest gripe on Sword is that the world feels pretty empty. Besides the Wild Area, and its few secluded corners, though it’s really a straightforward place, there’s nothing to explore. The plot grabs you by the hand and pulls you to every location. There’s nothing off-the-way that you don’t go to for the main plot. There’s nothing like Kanto’s Power Plant, or Alola’s Power Plant - which I didn’t even realize was there on my first pass through, and then I was like “hey what’s this little place, OH MY GOD WHAT THERE’S MORE STUFF HERE.” The region is a linear loop. There’s no weird little caves that aren’t plot relevant that you get scrambled up in. There’s nowhere that’s locked until you beat the League, like the other half of Poni Island or those last upper bits in Unova or the Battle Frontier in Sinnoh. I had canvassed the Wild Area for everything by the time I went to the final tournament. There’s nowhere else to go. Sure I went back through the Wild Area to catch more stuff to fill out my Pokedex, but new places? Nothing. There’s nowhere to go back to once you can cross water except the little lake by the professor’s house. Not like in Sun/Moon where there’s bits on prior islands to go back to with Lapras. That cave underneath the starting island to go check out I’m thinking of. Galar is a pretty bare-bones region and the Wild Area doesn’t fully compensate.

Which ties to my other biggest gripe, which is, there are three legendary Pokemon in the game and one of them is the opposite version’s exclusive that you can’t get. Two legendary Pokemon! Two legendary Pokemon you can catch! And you catch them both in the course of the plot! There’s nothing like the Regi trio hidden by batshit puzzles, or Cobalion/Terrakion/Virizion tucked in out-of-the-way corners. No wandering Lati@s or beast trio. No Tapus or anything. You can catch two legendary Pokemon.

I think we really peaked back in Gen 3 with its visual Braille puzzles and Gen 4 with whatever the everloving fuck the Turnback Cave was on about. The weird locations that hurt your brain. I miss those. I miss the tricky caves you get lost in and spend time figuring it out. Galar didn’t have caves. The mines were basically a straight shot, yknow? When I’d like to go deeper and have more to explore instead of feeling like I’m taking a walking tour of the whole region.

And the DLC looks like it’ll deal at least with that point with more legendaries, which really grinds my gears. In all the discourse about whether or not the DLC is good or bad or neutral, whether the price of video games has needed to go up or the DLC is cheaper than a third version but some people wait for the third version, which I didn’t seek out said discourse but saw pass me by on Twitter, I saw no one mention that we’re paying to get more than two legendary Pokémon and I felt like I was losing my mind for a little while there. I feel like I’m paying extra for something that’s been in every game since the beginning of time, that being more than two legendary Pokémon that I can catch.

And my lesser little gripes: level balance of the game felt a little wonky with the wild Pokemon toward the end higher leveled than all the trainers except Leon, and the always-on exp share made it worse because when I dragged out the plot by catching everything in the Wild Area, my team got way overleveled for the back half of the game and I could curbstomp everyone that passed me. Team Yell were an egregious roadblock and while Pokemon has always had those, the prominence of Team Yell was exasperating. I prefer environmental roadblocks, like water and back when we used to have other HMs, those feel a little better than two dudes standing in the middle of a wide road.

And why, oh WHY, did GameFreak downgrade after XY and only have fitting rooms in boutiques instead of also in Pokemon Centers? I don’t want to fly to another town to change my clothes! Not every town has a clothes shop but everywhere has a Pokemon Center! I was crusading on this point through Sun/Moon and I will not be stopped until GameFreak puts changing rooms back in Pokemon Centers! (They will probably never do that but I refuse to stop. Forget Dexit; this is the real issue of our time.)

I didn’t mind the limited Pokémon at release because I never transfer my teams thru the games anyway - I’m a sentimental anxious idiot afraid of decisions and commitment and I can’t commit to the one-way transfers to move my teams up to new games. And that plus the Wild Area having trade-evolution Pokemon walking around made me feel like completing my pokedex was actually attainable. So I did!

I don’t hate the game, but I am disappointed by it. I’ve never been a Battle Tower or shiny-hunting person, but I’ve ended up doing those because I don’t know what else to do.

So that’s my opinion on why SwSh has bummed me out more as time goes on, since you were curious.

(Joker from Mass Effect 2 when you ask him for gossip about your teammates voice: “But that’s just my opinion, no need to go spreading it around.” ;) I’ll gladly chat with friends but the poke-discourse got too intense on twitter and I am not inviting that kind of bad energy into our lives. None of us deserve that.)

I’ve still got a lot of endgame stuff for Sun and Moon, UB hunting and I haven’t made it to the Battle Tree yet because my Moon team is getting its ass kicked by everything because I turned the exp share off and overcompensated in the wrong direction and am chronically underleveled. There’s a certain charm for me in being underleveled because I used to have endless patience to overlevel my team to extremes because my childhood anxiety was something like “if I die in the game I die in real life???” and I was terrified of losing and now I’m like “blacks out twice in a row in Moon as I go toward the postgame stuff yolo”. So when I feel like playing Pokemon I’ll probably spend more time in Alola, when I’m not trying to hatch that damn shiny Rookidee because I accidentally committed to that.