Man, they really took their time getting to the 1st Gym, though once you do you get through the first three at a quick pace (then you have to venture through the latter part of the Wild Area). The Gyms had a bit of the SM Island Trials mixed in, unlike past games you need to complete the "Gym Mission" once you start it or have to start it over if you quit. I like this and now that we have an actual trainer battle after we're done it feels like the Island Trials done better.
For the first three Gym Missions I liked Milo's the best as rolling the herd of Wooloo around was both fun and funny (if not a bit simple, but then again it is the first Gym). Nessa's was probably the most traditional of them, it was essentially an opening/closing door puzzle but the doors were geysers; it was alright and did get me thinking ahead at the end. Kabu's mission I'm not sure if I did correctly but I did pass it on my first try. I "competed" alongside Gym Trainer (who this time were actual trainers working for the Gym instead of just random Trainer of various Trainer classes you fight in the Gym which was neat to see, hope they keep that idea) to be the first to catch/knockout a wild Pokemon... and all I did was inflict them with Paralysis (Toxel & Toxtricity are new faves of mine) and threw a Great Ball at them which caught on the first attempt. And while Milo and Nessa weren't that difficult to battle, Kabu surprised me as he started throwing around Will-o-Wisp and his Arcanine was bulky... though was able to OHKO his Gigantamax because 4x weak to Rock).
And then when you're about to set out for the next leg of the Wild Area they had a cute scene where Milo, Nessa, and Kabu get together to cheer you on. It actually made it feel like these Gym Leaders were indeed giving you guidance and support instead of just a tougher trainer that stood around giving you the next key to progress through the story.
Going off on a quick tangent here, I love how the Gyms have a shop which sells the uniforms for the other 10 Gyms that were regulated to the unseen minor League. While it's a shame you don't get to battle them it is neat to see what their Gym Uniforms would have looked like. Not that I wore any of them, infact I didn't find myself buying any clothes. I wanted to, but nothing really stood out to me so ended up going through the game with my default clothing. And, if you couldn't have guessed, my Gym uniform number was "315".
So, back in the Wild Area though I first did a quick round around the Lake District getting my revenge on all the Pokemon I was previously underleveled for but now they were underleveled for me! MUAWAWAWA! I then proceeded to the next part of the Wild Area where I got my comeuppance by once again running away from all the higher-leveled wild Pokemon (though at least this time I had a bike). Neat they put a Nursery in the Wild Area (though kind of feels odd you don't go inside it (and you technically don't need to go inside the other one either), I guess it does save time). After I had my fill of catching all that I could & doing some Raids which were now getting difficult (or rather the NPC trainers they give you are becoming less useful and even a hindrance) I head to the Dragon Palace city, Hammerlocke.
I'll admit I don't remember anything major happening in Hammerlocke aside seeing the tapestries in the vault revealing there was two heroes instead of one. So off to Stow-on-Side which is the first version exclusive Gym, Shield has Allister. I was curious if this also meant version exclusive Gym Mission... and no. While they're themed and colored differently, both are that pinball/spinning seat puzzle. Oh well. Beat Allister (and his G-Max Gengar...) where I then see Bede destroying a monument wall raving he must get Wishing Stars for Rose. No surprise, we stop him. But big surprise, Rose and Oleana come running up and disqualify Bede from the Gym Challenge! Wow, someone doing something wrong and it having consequences, that's rare to see in Pokemon. And that's followed by a comedic moment where Sonia hopes the wall will survive the incident... only for it to then crumble apart. But it's a good thing cause it reveals there's statues behind the wall that shows the two heroes were helped by two Pokemon wielding a sword and shield, le gasp! Maybe this mystery would hold more water if the mascot Legendaries weren't on the box cover.
Off through Glimwood Tangle and Sonia we need to talk. If you remember, Glimwood Tangle is where Sonia setup that 24 hour livestream and we saw a whole batch of Pokemon. Well, don't know where she setup the camera, but there are no Pikachu, Cottonee, or Morelull in that forest (though there is Shiintoc, one which I added to my team cause Spore and strong against Dragon); also Swirlix is only in Sword while Shield has Spritzee. Not only that, there were WAY more interesting Pokemon like Morgrem, Hattrem, Sinistea, and Indeedee (there was also Passimian and Oranguru).
Getting to Ballonlea, well first thing first I deliver a letter I was given by a little girl to a friend of her. However an odd thing about the letter was it was old. And the person she's friends with is an old man who then tells you that its from a childhood friend of his who he got into an argument with because she had a sickness and they stopped talking. Yup, we've got out ghost of this game. If that wasn't strange enough, I then met the Artist trainer class of this game which are horrifying looking men and this one thought he was a Fire-type Pokemon and wanted us to dress in fire-themed clothes, doing so giving us TM78 which is Acrobatics, a Flying-type move.
Get to the Gym and you find out its Gym Leader, Opal, is looking for someone to replace her. She's using her Gym Mission as a sort of interview, you battle three trainers and are asked questions getting a stat boost if correct or stat decrease if wrong. They start out simple but she then asks a trick question at the end, not that it wasn't hard to win regardless. Then it's the actual Gym Battle and to my surprise the interview questions continues and all of them are trick questions! Think her favorite color is Pink? Nope, it's purple but since she's a Fairy-type trainer she just likes to see pink on other things. Say she's 88 years old, she admits it's true but didn't like you were to blunt (she wanted you to tell her she was 16) so decreased your Pokemon's stats anyway. As before, nothing that was hard to overcome and is kind of a funny gimmick that makes the battle memorable. After that it's back to Hammerlocke either via warping there with Opal or getting their on your own (I decided to go with Opal as I had no reason to backtrack).
In Hammerlocke you meet up with Bede who's frustrated he's been disqualified. He asks if you're there to mock him and you have a choice of saying yes or no; I said "no" (in my head my character is a nice guy who's just being pushing along this crazy ride) and he actually seemed a bit thankful I wasn't judging him. No matter what we battle of course and I win, and that's where things get uncomfortable. Opal comes onto the scene and, seeing Bede's purple-pink coat and liking his "combat pragmatist"-attitude gets up into his personal space and decides Bede will be her replacement. Bede is obviously freaked out but she convinces him by saying Oleana just used him to collect Wishing Stars and she'll give him what he wants.
After that it's off to Circhester and, wow, this is a rather big city! I explore all that I could, probably took maybe 30 minutes(?), and went to the Gym for the second and final version exclusive Gym. In Shield it's an Ice-type though, like with Stow-on-Side, the Gym Mission could easily be swapped to being a Rock-type which is what Sword has. You basically use Item Finders to try and avoid falling down hidden pitfalls walking over a field of snow. It was fine for the most part and only at the end was I kind of confused where it wanted me to go without falling into a pit. But to the end I got and battled & defeated Melony. After the battle I then met with Sonia (and Hop, who had this whole story going on about how he lost to Bede before getting to Hammerlocke the first time that put him into a depressed funk) and we found out more about the heroes and "the Darkest Day".
It's now down to Spikemuth though before we do we finally get the Water Bike upgrade! I then spend my next play session backtracking to see where I could use the Water Bike, including in the Wild Area; notably the Lake of Outrage (I see what you did there GF) which spawns a random Eeveelution on the overworld to catch everyday!
