#my granddaughter drew this! it was her favourite anime!

[7kakjyoin]

My granddaughter drew this! It was her favourite anime

Insert hazbin hotel song here

[kyndaris]

Pokemon in the United Kingdom

One of my first memories related to gaming began with a series about catching monsters and watching the associated anime on the television (unfortunately dubbed). Pokemon took my imagination by storm in those early days with its simple mechanics and addictive gameplay. And on my Gameboy Colour, I explored the entirety of the Kanto region with my trusty Squirtle at my side as I tried to “catch ‘em all.” Fast forward twenty or so years, and I had purchased Pokemon Sword and was waiting to play it on my Nintendo Switch. While I did skip Black and White, and struggled to finish a few others, this was the first time a mainline Pokemon would grace our television screens. Bursting with excitement, I settled down to explore the Galar region for a good long while.

Unlike previous entries, this time I chose the Grass starter. Though Sobble stole my heart and Scorbunny seemed like an excellent addition to the team, there was something about the monkey that drew me to it. But I was so torn between which one to choose that it was not until I had to choose that I settled on Grookey. In fact, I had already chosen names for each starter. If I had picked Sobble and it had turned out to be male, I would have named it Fleming. Female: Vesper. A male Scorbunny would have been Beckham. Whereas a female Scorbunny would have received the name of a female footballer.

As for Grookey, though, I was a little stumped. If it had been male, I would have called it Silverback. Why? Because Rillaboom was a drum-beating gorilla. Yes, Donkey was an option, but I thought I would take the more sophisticated route. Instead, though, I was saddled with a female Grookey. Scrambling, I simply chose Weaver - after Sigourney Weaver for her excellent portrayal in the film Gorillas in the Mist. 

Names aside, the first few hours of Pokemon Sword provided enough breadcrumbs to whet my appetite for more. What were these mysterious creatures in the Slumbering Weald? Who would serve as the primary antagonist? Would Hop please calm down? How did these Wild Areas work and why couldn’t I catch that level 26 Onix right from the start? Nor did it seem right that my playable character was only ten years old. They had to be at least in their teens, right? If they were ten, how did any of these parents allow their children to go out into the wider world? 

Yet, as the game continued, much of the story developments were simply swept aside with comments like: let the adults deal with this even as we provided insights into the legend of Galar that Sonia, the granddaughter of Professor Magnolia, was tasked with uncovering. How anyone never connected the dots before remains a mystery, but please don’t be so condescending as to tell me to just focus on the Gym Challenge. This was made all the worse with the lack of voice acting. After so many years, it would have made sense for the human characters to have voices. Instead, I supplied terrible accents for the first hour or so before I grew bored. 

Still, Pokemon has never been about deep story lines. Nor should one question why a ten year old was the one that had caught the cause of the Darkest Day and could very easily destroy the world if they so chose.

As for the gameplay, not much has changed. While they introduced Dynamax-ing, much like Z-moves and Mega-evolutions from the past, it felt very much of a gimmick to differentiate the current generation of Pokemon with the handheld titles. Pokemon Sword also had several quality of life changes. From the very start, all Pokemon in your party were able to receive experience points. In addition, experience points were also bequeathed to your Pokemon when they were caught. Consequently, it made it much easier for me to level up all the Pokemon I wanted to experiment with in a more timely manner. Gone were the days of grinding each and every Pokemon to ensure that they all evolved. This was further aided by the Dynamax raids and the exp candy that could be acquired. 

While I managed to catch a hefty amount of Pokemon, I was able to also watch all of them evolve from the very beginning. The abundance of stones also made it easier to obtain a Ninetales, Heliolisk and Froslass in short order. Other Pokemon proved much more difficult to evolve and it took a while for me to obtain Sir Fetch’d, the Galar region exclusive evolution to one of our favourite ducks with a leek: Farfetch’d. 

The music in Pokemon Sword was also a delight. Though I didn’t like the spectator sport that were the gym battles, the cheering in the background still had my heart pumping as I utterly destroyed my opponents by being clever with my type choices. The remixes of several iconic themes as well as the introduction of new themes made it a joy to listen to as I hunted for all the 1% possible Pokemon along the 10 major routes of the Galar region (as well as the Wild Area).

Pokemon Sword and Shield does not change much of what a veteran player of the franchise would be familiar with. There are a few additional gimmicks that serve as worthwhile distractions, but overall, the experience stuck true to the formula many people knew. The story, as well, as a little underwhelming and Chairman Rose’s motivations felt a little muddled in the grand scheme of things. Why was he so insistent that there be a perpetual source of energy right now when they did not need to worry about the supply and demand of keeping Galar alive for basically another millennium? Surely, people could find an alternative source in those years. It seemed a little heavy handed in creating unnecessary conflict.

And, if there was one other plus to playing through Pokemon Sword, it was that the lack of voice acting made it incredibly easy for me to catch up on quite a few Critical Role episodes, along with UnDeadwood.