Sword & Shield **Official news only** DLC Crown Tundra 22nd October

Got the game now and I'm in the wild area. It's not bad. Some thoughts:

Overworld mons are neat.

Though there are sparkly hidden items, there's still some classic ones. I found a Fresh Water by searching a dead end in the professor's yard.

I like that raids don't directly give you EXP for winning, so you aren't forced to be overpowered for doing them.

Had a surprisingly hard time against a Mudbray, it was higher level than everything (15) so it was harder to catch, and I had to rely on Sobble's Growl to stand a chance. Even then Bulldoze was still ~3/4HKOing and my Water Pulse was kind of underwhelming. Also learned that Ball Fetch can activate at any time after you throw a ball, when I sacrificed Yamper and it got a Great Ball that I'd used earlier. When I caught it in the end, it gave a full level to Sobble, the last survivor (Level 12 to 13, 231 exp). After the fight I made 1 apple curry and it healed everyone to full.

Some menu transitions felt slow, some more than others.

You can run back and forth between areas and the music won't immediately stop and restart, there's some fadeout time.

The Wild area kind of reminds me of the Veldt in ff6 where it just has everything. I'm running with Run Away Nickit right now and the highest level thing I've found is a Level 60 Gengar. Farthest roadblock has been a guy who wants the Fire Badge. He did offer to teleport me back to the plot though.
 
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I'm really upset how Type: Null was handled in this game; just another cookie-cutter gift Pokemon with zero presence or lore in the game's story. They mentioned a third Type: Null that was developed before the events of SM/USUM, and after finding out that it was in the game, I was hoping that it could have been used for nefarious reasons by the main evil characters or something, perhaps forcing a new Gigantamax form on Silvally to help control Eternatus or whatever.

But nope. Here's a random NPC in the Battle Tower that just gives you one for free. What the fuck ever.
 
I'm really upset how Type: Null was handled in this game; just another cookie-cutter gift Pokemon with zero presence or lore in the game's story. They mentioned a third Type: Null that was developed before the events of SM/USUM, and after finding out that it was in the game, I was hoping that it could have been used for nefarious reasons by the main evil characters or something, perhaps forcing a new Gigantamax form on Silvally to help control Eternatus or whatever.

But nope. Here's a random NPC in the Battle Tower that just gives you one for free. What the fuck ever.
From the sword dex: "Rumor has it that the theft of top-secret research notes led to a new instance of this Pokémon being created in the Galar region". I suspected Maco Cosmos would use them as a fail safe for Eternatus, but yeah, kinda hope it gets expanded on later.
 
I'd warn you that making curry DOES make you incur into Arnie-like bonuses, so even though Camp/Curry are somewhat funny features, they will break your game if you use them often.
Thanks for the tip! I wasn't aware of this change to affection/happiness/whatever, but it does make sense when Camp is the new interaction minigame. I didn't mind those bonuses in Gen 6/7 at least.

Customization is nice. I bought a type uniform and was able to wear its parts individually. Visiting the salon had a surprise in store too. The 'makeup' option lets you change your eye colour, and towards the bottom of the list there's some fun options like a rainbow colour, or hearts/flames in your eyes. Worth the $1000.

EDITS:
I'm in the mine, and already I've found myself running back and forth down a 'hall' just far enough to respawn encounters, seeking out Drilbur. The grind lives on. I've had some fun though. The mobile box is really convenient for rotating a team, especially since it's in the party menu and not through the bag item. Put on set mode for the first time, but switched back to Shift since I find it more convenient to use what I want to use/choose to stay in, than take switchin damage or charge through with 1 mon.
 
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Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
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Now for post game shenanigans:

Back at home. Sure, I got that vision of the Slumbering Weald, but I'm the new Champion! And with how big and important people treat the Champion in Galar, and after spending the last 7 generations of getting no more respect from becoming the Champion, I was ready to backtrack throughout the entire region and bask in the cheers and awes of my now adoring fans!

Oh, there's the "Science is amazing" guy, he has anything new? No, but that's alright, I wouldn't want him any other way. Let's see what's going on at Hop & Leon's house. Hm, both aren't here, but Leon left me a present: a Gigantamax Charmander! Neat! But I know what place is up next: Wedgehurst! They know how to cheer on a Champion. And they still do, just one problem: many are still cheering for Leon as they did at the start of the game. Only character that mentions I'm the Champion is the Pokemon Center Nurse and the Haircut Receptionist (though oddly not the Clothing Store Receptionist). Still, Wedgehurst I feel would have been one of the most simple places to update, so things already aren't looking good.

Sonia is nowhere to be found though Magnolia is in her house but she already gave me the Master Ball before I even left my house.

Wasn't expecting the Wild Area NPCs to change, though I was surprised to see every Pokemon in the Wild Area was now Level 60! Well, I guess I now know where I'll be training up all my other Pokemon to fill the dex. Not to mention I'm able to catch many higher level evolutions so don't have to grind their lower stages for long. Raid Battles though are mostly 5 stars with 4 stars also mixed in, and the single player partners haven't upgraded to keep up. I've tried online and did get one Raid with three other players, though another time no one joined me. Also, the game LAGS hard, I was scared my game had froze a few times. Unless you're doing strictly Raids I wouldn't suggest turning on the online (though I may try doing Trades later, is there anyway I can request a certain Pokemon?).

Anyway, Motostoke next and the only difference I can remember is a guy who told me to come back later when I was Champion. So, what did this guy needed me to be Champion to do? He's the Steel Beam tutor... really? Why even lock this off till post game?

I do the loop around to Turffield and Hulbury but nothing there. Hammerlocke maybe? Nope. Found a Beast Ball in Stow-on-Side, that's neat though would have liked this before catching Eternatus who looks like the only Pokemon that would make sense to put in a Beast Ball. Nothing in Ballonlea. Morimoto will battle you in Circhester in a double battle and using a Dynamax Snorlax, surprised he didn't use the Gigantamax version. Nothing for Spikemuth.

Wyndon both has some new things but also defaulted back for other things. Like all the trainers that were cheering for me right before the final match outside the stadium are back to being excited for Leon. However inside the stadium they're still cheering for me and there's even a kid who's excited to shake my hand so that's nice. Going over to Rose Tower, it's revealed Leon has turned it into this game's Battle Tower. Also, sudden Type: Null. Like, I'm glad I got it, but why? How? It's not like Gladion showed up and gave it to me, it was just a random Macro Cosmos staff member who gave it to me as congrats for becoming Champion. Is this a newly created Type: Null or was this the third one that Gladion said existed? Does that mean there's no more Type: Nulls?

EDIT: So turns out the Sword Dex entry for Type: Null reveals research notes were stolen to allow creation of more Type: Null/Silvally. It was probably Faba.

Well... that was disappointing. REALLY disappointing. I was genuinely hoping to finally have my character becoming Champion being treated as a big thing with people in the region actually reacting. Throughout the game they showed people getting excited when Leon showed up which got me excited to see the same thing happen for my character during post game. But no, GF couldn't even be asked to do that! I'm going to have to throw out the L work again: LAZY! GF this is super lazy, was changing a few lines of dialogue really too much to ask? *Sigh* Fine, I know where you want me to go, let's see how things go in the Slumbering Weald.


So in the Slumbering Weald I run into Hop who also got a vision to come here. We go to the alter to put back the Rusted Sword & Rusted Shield and Hop requests we have a battle. We have our battle and suddenly Professor Sonia arrives too, revealing she wrote a book about the two heroes and gives us a copy. Suddenly Sonia's Power Spot Detector goes off... and things get weird.

These two guys appear with incredibly stupid hair, one shaped as a sword and another shaped as a shield. The blue suit with the sword hair is named Sordward and the red suit with the shield hair is Shielbert. They claim to be Galar's new kings, the descendants of the hero of Galar, and furious that Sonia's book says the hero was actually two Pokemon. They're here to take the Rusted Sword & Rusted Shield to summon the Legendaries to truly see if the claims are true. They take the artifacts but Hop isn't having any of it and we take one each. I face Shielbert and defeat him, forcing him to hand over the Rusted Shield. However Hop lost against Sworward and both run off with the Rusted Sword. Hop chases after them while we go with Sonia back to her lab to figure out our next step.

At her lab we meet Sonia's new assistant and we're also told that all the leftover Wishing Stars that Rose had have been confiscated to brought to the lab for safekeeping. Anyway, Sonia has detected a power spot spike in Turffield stadium so we head over them. Inside we not only meet-up with Milo but also Piers, both were having a friendly match when suddenly a Dynamaxed Pokemon started causing havoc. Hop also comes running up, having lost track of the "Galar Kings". But we have to deal with the Dynamax Pokemon first so I, Hop, Milo, and Piers team-up to do a Raid. This is an awesome idea, though sadly they don't keep up with it as you'll soon read!

After beating the Pokemon that Milo takes guides back to its home, Sordward and Shielbert appear to insult us and revealed they're responsible for Dynamaxing the Pokemon. They reveal they want to see Zacian's and Zamazenta's true nature and plan on Dynamaxing more Pokemon, running off. Hop wants to chase after them but Piers stops him and says they'll possibly lead us into a trap, then reluctantly agreeing to come with us to hunt them down. Sonia meets us with us outside the stadium saying Halbury's and Motospike's stadium also had an energy spike. Piers gets worried about Spikemuth and Marnie though Sonia tells him there's no need to worry as Spikemuth isn't near a power spot. We head to the other stadiums and do Raids there, teaming up with their respective Gym Leaders.

Once done we get another call from Sonia, Sordward and Shielbert have appeared at the lab wanting the Wishing Stars. We head to the lab and both I and Hop have a double battle against the "Galar Kings", beating both of them. However it was just a distraction as Sonia's new assistant gives them the Wishing Stars, having been working(?) with them all along (BTW, the assistant is never given a name and it's not clear what he relation to the "Galar Kings" are, yet she's similarly dedicated to them like Oleana was to Rose). Sonia is upset at the betrayal but snaps back as the next 4 Stadiums are now having power spot spikes (Piers gets worry about Marnie and Spikemuth again only for Sonia to remind him they don't have a power spot, it's a running joke you see).

So, remember how cool it was that you're doing Max Raids with Hop, Piers, and the Gym Leader? Well this is when they drop the ball, for the next batch of Gyms we're told there are multiple Dynamax Pokemon so we have to do solo Raids. Only exception is Ballonlea where Bede had taken care of the Dynamax Pokemon so we instead have another battle with him. BTW, while this is all going on it's revealed the "Galar Kings" had run into the Hammerlocke power plant and closed the door and Sonia had been working to open it. Once you do all four of the Gyms you get a call from Sonia telling you to come back to Hammerlocke as she almost has the door open. Yes, she does this even if you're in Hammerlocke and she's just right down the hallway; GF there was ways around this, then again since you didn't do any of them I'm actually wondering if you even care?

Anyway, Sonia failed to open the door but her Yamper gives it a shock and it opens. Sad trombone. Inside we find the "Galar King" you take the artifact from (the one who represents the version you're playing) and a batch of his followers. He rants how they're the descendants of the true hero of Galar and the "old history" being better before starting a battle. Defeating him, the building begins shaking and the "Galar King" says he bought his brother enough time and lets us pass.

On the roof we see the other brother has summoned the other version's Wolf and empowered it with Wishing Stars, however instead of going crazy and attacking the city as they thought it would it attacks the "Galar King" instead. We step in and defeat the Legendary, but it then turns to attack Hop. However just then the Legendary Wolf for our version appears and stops it, forcing it away. Hop takes the stolen artifact and runs out of the power plant, meanwhile we then battle our wolf and catch it. After that the "Galar Kings" realized all the wrong they done and so Piers takes them into custody.

We then get a call from Hop that he's in Slumbering Weald with the other Legendary Wolf. We go to the Slumbering Weald to see that Hop was able to calm down the Legendary Wolf that he then captures! Well, I have a Legendary Wolf and Hop has a Legendary Wolf, so that only means one thing: one final battle with Hop using our Legendary Wolves! Now for the one using Zacian you just need to use the Fighting-type move it comes with to win as Zacian is faster then Zamazenta. If you're using Zamazenta, well it is the shield Pokemon so you'll be going on the defensive by healing it for the next 5 turns until Zacian runs out of Close Combats, but then you can use Behemoth Bash to knock it out.

And with that you win. Hop says he thinks he knows what he wants to do now that he doesn't have the goal of trying to beat his brother to become Champion. Hop liked helping Pokemon when they're in trouble so naturally decides to become a Pokemon Range... Professor! Yeah, that's what I was about to say, he decides to become a Pokemon Professor to help Pokemon. And he's in luck, Sonia is looking for a new assistant! We then end the post game story with Piers and Leon guiding the "Galar Kings" to us as they wanted to personally apologize to us and says their giving their royal title to us, then running off. And after some encouraging words from Leon we all go home. The End.


Gotta admit, wasn't exactly where I thought the postgame would go. It kind of felt shoehorned in and I didn't really find the "Galar Kings" that interesting. However, that's not to say there wasn't anything good. First off, I like that instead of catching the Legendary Mascot as part of the story they instead sort of give it its own post game story where you then catch it. I also like it in this case you start with a battle with Hop using your "normal" team and then bookend it with a final battle with Hop using the Legendary Wolves against each other (if you chose to do so, but why wouldn't you? That said one has the clear advantage against the other and kind of felt anticlimactic Shield players need to win by healing out Close Combat; Zekrom vs Reshiram this ain't). I also liked the Raid Battles with Hop, Piers, and the Gym Leaders but, as I said, they only do it for the first three Gyms.

Anyway after this it's pretty much the normal Pokemon stuff to do now. Filling the dex (& curry dex), challenging the Battle Tower & mini-Champion Cups... and I guess that's it. Some bonus stuff that open up after the post game story is you can find Sonia and Hop working in the lab, you can challenge Marnie in Spikemuth, and can find Oleana in the Galar Mines to get Rose's Rare Trainer Card.

Speaking of which, got a complaint about those. After helping out the Gym Leaders they all give you their rare Trainer Card. But they also say "call me anytime you need me", and since we just did a pseudo Raid I thought this meant that the Gym Leaders would be available to do Raids with! But nope, their words and empty and meaningless as you're still stuck with the now seemingly outclassed NPCs you had before (including the one that uses Magikarp, Pikachu, Eevee, Clefairy, and Togepi; or you're unlucky and get one who Pokemon is weak to the Raid Pokemon). It was disappointing as it would address one of the problems I had with Raids if we were able to get stronger NPCs to help us, even if we could only use them once per day.

Well, with that all now done, guess I'll look through the Trainer Cards and the concept art to see if there's anything of interest to mention. Not sure if I would post it here or another thread, have to see.
 
That, to me, was GF basically telling us that Greta is doing the same thing, which is why I said they had balls with the storyline lol.
Game Freak doesn't really seem like the sort of company to focus their entire plot around taking a pot shot at a 16 year old girl
 
I mean, those activists as a whole, I'm the one taking a shot at her.
That doesn't make a lot of sense, though. From what frustratingly little detail we get on the problem Rose is trying to solve (like, c'mon man; at least say the word electricity or dynamax or something), it's still made clear enough that it's an energy crisis. Which arguably is also topical and important, but it's not the same thing as climate change.
 

Pikachu315111

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That, to me, was GF basically telling us that Greta is doing the same thing, which is why I said they had balls with the storyline lol.
I don't think they're taking shots at Climate Change activists. Here's the snippet from my complaint about Rose where I even mention Climate Change, or how they could have related it to the game's plot:

First, chop off a zero. Make it a hundred years instead of a thousand. A thousand years in the future is just long enough for it to be hard to imagine. All the changes that could happen between now and then, especially with how fast technology is evolving. Like, a thousand years ago from 2019 we were in the midst of the medieval era where swords & shields were top-rated military technology. No, a thousand years it too long for us to take Rose's concerns with any seriousness (because how does he know Galar won't find another power source between then and now?). 100 years would make more sense because, well, it would align more with the message being presented: just because it's not happening now doesn't mean we shouldn't take steps to prevent future disasters. You can relate that message to a lot of thing, though at this moment in time the most notable would be climate change where we won't really start feeling its effects in 100 years BUT we should be trying to prevent and fix damages now before its too late.
Yeah, Climate Change is happening within 100 years and we're even seeing the changes now (GF was glad to point an example via Corsola; though we've also had extreme weather if you want one that's affecting us right now). It's my main issue with Rose where he's worried about a span of time which is hard for a person to imagine.

Also Rose's worry is made vague, it's just about energy and they don't give a reason why he needs to awaken Eternatus as soon as he can rather then waiting and planning a way to properly control Eternatus (if they're able to awaken Eternatus now then why not wait at least until Champion Cup if your plan requires Leon?). We know why we need to stop Climate Change right now.


Though, it would be pretty stupid for GF to be criticizing Climate Change so maybe this is why Rose's worry was made so far into the future. And thinking about what Worldie said:

I think the focus of the game is actually as Pikachu315111 guessed, the passing down of the burdens to the newest generation: lot of the gym leaders are older people who look forward to the young trainers, some actually do want to find a successor as they know their time is done, and even the whole plot of the game resolves about not leaving the world in a screwed up state just because it hasn't happened yet.
Maybe the point of Rose isn't that he's a "take that" at activist but rather one at people who aren't paying attention to current events. Rose is so busy about what would happen in a thousand years he's not thinking about the state of the world they're leaving to their children or grandchildren. It's actually a sort of a version of the people who only think in the now and aren't worried about the near future & generations because they won't be alive. Now they didn't want to make Rose (a businessman who are the type of people usually depicted thinking that way) that way, so instead went to the other end of the extreme by having him fretting about a really far future concern which only someone like a super rich businessman like Rose could worry about (which goes back to what Siggu was saying that making Rose "relatable" wouldn't fix the issues with him, and they have a point as now I'm wondering if we're supposed to be thinking Rose's plan is so grandeur you're not supposed to want to support him if in order to do that he has to unleash the apocalypse). Heck, if Rose truly cared about the future, why isn't he actually trying to decrease Galar's dependency on a depletable energy and instead use his riches to focus on renewable energy resources? Nah, better keep on draining the space skeleton dragon that could cause the end of the world that you've already drained a thousand years worth of energy from. Drain baby drain.

That all said, while Rose is a bad example of an activist (who in a way isn't actually an activist), well they don't balance it out by having a good example of an activist somewhere in the game.
 
If I had to guess
Leon is supposed to be the good counterpoint, since he disagrees with Rose's methods (because they are objectively insane, which I guess is fitting for a business mogul to sidestep renewable energy like solar, electric and wind power straight for INFINITE ENERGY DRAGON) but agrees that something should be done, offers to work with him on it after the championship and he gives a small spiel after you beat him about leaving it to his younger generation of adults (not that's that much older than hop, i'd assume). And judging by the battle tower he takes over for some of Rose's junk.

But like everything else about this plot it's rushed and has no focus. Leon's pretty smart and has a lot of influence but we don't see him formulate a plan. No one talks about the energy crisis after the eternatus thing happens. And before Leon's talk with Rose, it's not like we see this conversation broached ever with, well, anyone. not even a throw away mention on how Galar uses coal mining as one of their primary resources but Kalos, which is presumably not very far away geographically, has a giant desert devoted to thermal, wind and hydroelecric power alongside a general power plant, and how they should start copying that. Or...anything, at all.
 
On Rose, I ran into this tweet showcasing his battle pose


I know I'm probably a lone voice, but even though it's executed somewhat poorly, I really like Rose's design.

He's not evil in any way. He really only wanted the best for everyone. His way to prepare for the battle is a clear "why did it have to come to this".
He knows he's going to be remembered as the bad guy and not the person who saved humanity as he wanted, even if his plan ended up succeeding, due to how much "morally gray" stuff he's done, like manipulating Bede and Oleana in doing his biddings, and keeping everyone except Leon in ignorance of his plans and concerns.

Tecnically, if Leon didn't fail at controlling Eternatus (which is a big if obviously, but it makes sense that he'd entrust the undefeated champion with the task), he would have succeeded in his plan to provide an endless source of energy for Galar.

Sadly, like a lot of things in SwSh (but then, it's GF, why should I be surprised), even Rose is a "good but not great" design.
It's innovative. It's (almost) relatable. It has connection to the real world.

But it feels as its plot was really rushed to get it out on time.
My thought is that originally, they wanted the "gym challenge" to be the big, flashy part, while you slowly learn of what's going on in the background, learn with Sonia of the history of the heroes, and eventually summon them to prevent the calamity.
However by the time they got to design Rahian's Gym they realized that they are at the 8th gym and literally nothing happened so had to slot the big reveal plus battles in the last tournament day...

Leon definitely is built up about being "dumb but good". He's always there to "save the situation" when stuff goes bad, even if he would get lost anywhere without his Kantozard. I suspect they purposely made him have a significant level jump over the trainers before him, as well as actually giving him solid movesets, to show he's not the champion without a reason.

Also something else I noticed: this game lacks one feature that was present in (i believe) every single game before it:
There's no Victory Road. Even though you go through the Champions League (lol) before the Champion Battle, there's no huge cave with labyrinth or puzzles. You just walk all the way to the final town
Which I mean, isn't a issue by any mean, but it's a feature that I believe had never been missing in previous titles.
 
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Also something else I noticed: this game lacks one feature that was present in (i believe) every single game before it:
There's no Victory Road. Even though you go through the Champions League (lol) before the Champion Battle, there's no huge cave with labyrinth or puzzles. You just walk all the way to the final town
These are the first games without anything resembling one, but Sun and Moon were the closest to lacking one as it's very short and has no trainers whatsoever.
 

earl

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These are the first games without anything resembling one, but Sun and Moon were the closest to lacking one as it's very short and has no trainers whatsoever.
Poni Gauntlet, or whatever it was called, was pretty close to being a victory road
 
Hey here's a minor thing I think kind of goes unmentioned because, well, there's so many bigger fish but pertains to Galar's history that Sonia outlines and bugs me
OK so here's a quick run down of Sonia's trip to becoming a history professor
-Encounter in the Weald
-Geoglyph depicting darkest day & dynamax
-Hero statue (one, singular hero weilding the sword & shield) of the hero who saved Galar at Budew Drop Inn
-The art vault in Hammerlocke depicting 4 tapestries of two heroes raising a sword & shield to combat the darkest day
-Ugly mural in Stow-on
-ugly Mural was actually covering up statues of the kings and the wolves
-A burnt tapestry bought at an antique that a resatuaraunt had in Circhester depicting the kings putting the sword & shield to rest in the Weald
-The hot springs the heroes rested in
-Rose's eternatus darkest day eternamaxing jamboree
-POST GAME the royal twins want to smear the dogs as the true heroes, reveal they made the mural uring the process

So

What is with the Hero statue

The game itself even brings this up as a thing. After you see the tapestries Sonia even comments "But if there were 2 heroes, why is the statue at the Inn only depicting 1?" as if it's some mystery, like a lost truth to galar. But nothing follows up on that, at all. The vault is public knowledge & studied. The hotsprings mentions heroes, plural, in its placard. And even in the post game there's nothing explaining it.The royal dweebs covered up the wolves, because they want their line to be the true heroes of galar, but have no mention of the statue; and they're twins and mention the original twin heroes so it makes little sense for them to cover up the wolves by having a single statue.

It's such a minor sticking point but it feels like there should be an explanation but just isn't unless I completely missed something. It probably wouldn't bug me as much if the game itself hadn't pointed out the contradiction.




Also dumb is you don't get to read Sonia's book
 
As of now, I am right before Gym 3 and they did the thing where they change the time to match what's happening in story (going to sleep). I thought all the realistic time stuff would be left behind in the plot beginnings like Gen 7. Then again Gen 7 did that again late in Aether Paradise or someplace.

I've been playing slow but still having fun. Still barely keeping up with the level curve with barely any grinding/killing wild pokemon, as said in the thread catching things = EXP, and the wildmons are competently leveled. I didn't even see any level 2 wilds on route 1. I've taken more damage from trying to catch things than some trainer fights. Even then, sometimes I leave a type disadvantage out and get OHKO'd for my autopiloting. The exp also comes from the fact that there's a lot to catch, variety is pretty good this gen. For now I've mostly opted towards main route catches instead of wild area. Just the recent water cave gave me 8 new species, plus there's more new stuff right after. Speaking of catching, the pokedex was a lot less helpful than it could've been. Only shows one fixed area's recommendations as far as I can tell, and I don't know anywhere else to see encounters per area ingame. Early on I actually flew back to Route 1 just to catch Wooloo so it would update.

The level curve is something but everyone has probably noticed that. My rotating team has actually fallen a bit behind in levels. The game has moved kind of fast from gym 2 to gym 3, there's 2 areas between and even then the wild Pokemon levels manage to increase. I've always had Sobble2 in the party at least, and even through the bench EXP she takes the lead at ~30. I'm pretty sure it's at max affection too so that's another boost. There are some nitpicks I have, but at this point I feel like I could easily break the game already so I don't mind anything holding it back. Level up learnset is kind of lacking, I've been rolling with Swift/Water Pulse offenses for a while and I couldn't even use my Scald tutor. Bind was just replaced with U-turn since earlier I turned down Sucker Punch with its 5 PP. In my experience it's less good at taking hits, and it's also the only option I have to catch high level wilds, so those scenarios can be interesting but usually catches have been easy (except looking for Leek Farfetch'd). Tearful Look is a pretty good debuffer at least.

Despite all the favoritism I gave, it had a tense fight against Nessa. I ended up setting the rain for Drednaw and took 2 boosted Max Geysers in a row, living at 15 HP even with maxed out Dynamax level. So well played to gamefreak, if I was a normal player I would have died and that caught me off guard in a good way. Maybe a normal player would use a grass move, I don't know if that would OHKO, though a little kid mightn't have. At the least my neutral Water Geyser was about a 2HKO, so the next Torrent + Rain one would probably have been more than overkill.

The game has had its ups and downs of difficulty but yeah a lot of it is your choices. I spoiled myself on the power of stone evo relearner moves and immediately gave my Shiftry all the coverage + a Throat Chop TR, got a Sirfetch'd with monstrous attack, and gave my fish Drill Run and Waterfall. Arrokuda was still a base mon tho so it wasn't immediately OHKOing but it was a noticeable difference over Aqua Jet and whatever. Farfetch'd was a grind to get a Leek for, but I was satisfied. I named mine "M'llardy" and evolved it against Hop, teaching Attract and coming in clutch to survive Corvisquire. Peck/Pluck took me to the red a few times. Now I've seen Sirfetch'd's learnset and it's a shame the good stuff comes so late. I'm not sure about how late it'll be but I'm still sad Meteor Assault isn't its evo move after the prerelease focus, though that would probably be too much. I thought of getting Night Slash quickly with the egg move tutoring, but my Linoone with it is female so it wasn't convenient. Could catch one in the wild area but it's not that high of a priority, just a passing idea. I really grinded the wild area for raids and items early on but now not at all, and now with a bike + fly checkpoints it feels kind of small.

In the end, I actually benched these guys (except Arrokuda) and for some time, put in some weaker stuff I wanted to use like Drilbur and Yamper. Now Yamper felt weak for a while. It barely had any moves (Tackle/Bite/Nuzzle) and its stats were meh. But getting Volt Switch and learning Spark helped, especially at the water gym. It wasn't a god but I liked using it in a scenario where it could do some work. I taught Drill Run to Drilbur too, since that's its whole point. It's definitely stronger than I'm 'supposed' to be, but this time I felt justified. You see Drilbur only had Mud-Slap as his natural STAB for a while, not even learning anything new, and that felt off to me. I swore it was better than this in BW. So I look and I find out they moved Dig from Level 19 to Level 32. But actually, Drilbur evolves at 31 so Excadrill learns Dig later at 34 and its other ground moves are at the end of its learnset. For this, they moved Sandstorm and Hone Claws down in exchange + moved Crush Claw to levelup. As much as I like evasion I am not going to play with Mudslap for half the game. I don't know if any other pokemon got shafted like this.

Now I did bring back Shiftry (L24) just in time for Marnie. Turns out Leaf Blade only 3HKOed Morpeko and I almost got bit to death. I guess what I'm saying here is that I like using OP stuff, but in this game I restrained myself (mobile boxes very helpful) and sometimes I underestimated the enemy quality. There was a Team Yell double battle in the mine that had evolved mons and it wasn't an easy stomp as I expected from their past battles. The game even stealth heals your party after it so I guess they're the (mini)bosses of the area.

On another note, I got a freshly bred Dreepy off of Wonder Trade early on and thought "this would be nice to use", not knowing anything about it except that it's the pseudolegend and Dragapult was pretty good on PS. Now today I finally checked its evo level/learnset and I was very disappointed. At least teaching it Thunder Wave has made it useful for something, and it's from Japan so it has those EXP boosts. Hopefully it evolves before the point I can find it in the wild.

Speaking of Wonder Trade, that is the only online feature I really got working consistently. Gamefreak really took some steps forward, but other steps back as always. No GTS? Come on. The code matchmaking is there and all, but I don't understand how to find public/non friend raids. One time I was able to join someone else's Pokemon Camp successfully and that was a treat. You get to have your lead there along with the host's party and you can even get a dialogue box out of the trainers. Cooking curry is much easier too, was actually able to get to maximum fire level and even with the other guy stirring wildly and spilling everything we still got 5 stars. Surprised it worked so well, when joining camp in the first place is so hit or miss.

Another new feature I didn't really get was pokejobs. It physically takes the pokemon away from your box slot and even if you have the same slots open they seem to go back in reverse order or something. They could have done it like wonder trade where you get a padlock on your pokemon, maybe let you move its position but not do anything with it.

To sum it up: I like the game, it's been alright so far, though I wouldn't be driven enough to pay more than the $80 retail price. There have been memorable moments. I've used the gamebreaking stuff, but not all the time, and some fights are still fights. Online can be better. What I've played reminds me of that one interview where they talked about focusing on kids that play phone games.
 
Hopefully it evolves before the point I can find it in the wild.
I am afraid that checking the level at which it evolves might disappoint you.
(That said, it's only findable in wild area AND it's a rare encounter in specific weathers, so unlikely you'd run into it without luck or actively searching for it)
 
I am afraid that checking the level at which it evolves might disappoint you.
(That said, it's only findable in wild area AND it's a rare encounter in specific weathers, so unlikely you'd run into it without luck or actively searching for it)
Especially hurts that its evolution seems to have an actual level-up learnset that'll only be seen through relearner. I'll still keep going but at the time I thought I was getting a cool breedject with a full set of egg moves. Well now I appreciate that I got one on the wonder trades at all, since it's female maybe I'll breed some more.

For some more general thoughts... Once I told the skilled digger to stop digging early, and a few attempts later he stopped after 1 find, but 'revived' himself and immediately started a new run. The score was still saved as 2, the new amount and not the total of both.

I got a card from a Japanese player and the back was also in Japanese.

Leftovers dropped from a berry tree. Maybe that's why ripen activates for it, lol.

I continued my game for the first time instead of suspending. Very straightforward to get back in, no continue menu now, though there is a short loading screen of the map + your next objective when leaving your current area. I don't know if that's more for loading purposes or just a quest reminder.
 
An update on the website went live but was quickly taken down (i was literally on it as it went down lol), but this twitter archived most of the artwork (at this point probably the real thing we're interested in) and descriptions.
https://twitter.com/PLDHnet

Includes: the rest of the gym leaders, Sandaconda/Centiskorch, their G-Max forms and end-date for that event (January 5th), Stonjourner, Esicuse, Glaraian Darumaka, Darmanitan, Corsola and Cursola.
 
Now for post game shenanigans:

Back at home. Sure, I got that vision of the Slumbering Weald, but I'm the new Champion! And with how big and important people treat the Champion in Galar, and after spending the last 7 generations of getting no more respect from becoming the Champion, I was ready to backtrack throughout the entire region and bask in the cheers and awes of my now adoring fans!

Oh, there's the "Science is amazing" guy, he has anything new? No, but that's alright, I wouldn't want him any other way. Let's see what's going on at Hop & Leon's house. Hm, both aren't here, but Leon left me a present: a Gigantamax Charmander! Neat! But I know what place is up next: Wedgehurst! They know how to cheer on a Champion. And they still do, just one problem: many are still cheering for Leon as they did at the start of the game. Only character that mentions I'm the Champion is the Pokemon Center Nurse and the Haircut Receptionist (though oddly not the Clothing Store Receptionist). Still, Wedgehurst I feel would have been one of the most simple places to update, so things already aren't looking good.

Sonia is nowhere to be found though Magnolia is in her house but she already gave me the Master Ball before I even left my house.

Wasn't expecting the Wild Area NPCs to change, though I was surprised to see every Pokemon in the Wild Area was now Level 60! Well, I guess I now know where I'll be training up all my other Pokemon to fill the dex. Not to mention I'm able to catch many higher level evolutions so don't have to grind their lower stages for long. Raid Battles though are mostly 5 stars with 4 stars also mixed in, and the single player partners haven't upgraded to keep up. I've tried online and did get one Raid with three other players, though another time no one joined me. Also, the game LAGS hard, I was scared my game had froze a few times. Unless you're doing strictly Raids I wouldn't suggest turning on the online (though I may try doing Trades later, is there anyway I can request a certain Pokemon?).

Anyway, Motostoke next and the only difference I can remember is a guy who told me to come back later when I was Champion. So, what did this guy needed me to be Champion to do? He's the Steel Beam tutor... really? Why even lock this off till post game?

I do the loop around to Turffield and Hulbury but nothing there. Hammerlocke maybe? Nope. Found a Beast Ball in Stow-on-Side, that's neat though would have liked this before catching Eternatus who looks like the only Pokemon that would make sense to put in a Beast Ball. Nothing in Ballonlea. Morimoto will battle you in Circhester in a double battle and using a Dynamax Snorlax, surprised he didn't use the Gigantamax version. Nothing for Spikemuth.

Wyndon both has some new things but also defaulted back for other things. Like all the trainers that were cheering for me right before the final match outside the stadium are back to being excited for Leon. However inside the stadium they're still cheering for me and there's even a kid who's excited to shake my hand so that's nice. Going over to Rose Tower, it's revealed Leon has turned it into this game's Battle Tower. Also, sudden Type: Null. Like, I'm glad I got it, but why? How? It's not like Gladion showed up and gave it to me, it was just a random Macro Cosmos staff member who gave it to me as congrats for becoming Champion. Is this a newly created Type: Null or was this the third one that Gladion said existed? Does that mean there's no more Type: Nulls?

EDIT: So turns out the Sword Dex entry for Type: Null reveals research notes were stolen to allow creation of more Type: Null/Silvally. It was probably Faba.

Well... that was disappointing. REALLY disappointing. I was genuinely hoping to finally have my character becoming Champion being treated as a big thing with people in the region actually reacting. Throughout the game they showed people getting excited when Leon showed up which got me excited to see the same thing happen for my character during post game. But no, GF couldn't even be asked to do that! I'm going to have to throw out the L work again: LAZY! GF this is super lazy, was changing a few lines of dialogue really too much to ask? *Sigh* Fine, I know where you want me to go, let's see how things go in the Slumbering Weald.


So in the Slumbering Weald I run into Hop who also got a vision to come here. We go to the alter to put back the Rusted Sword & Rusted Shield and Hop requests we have a battle. We have our battle and suddenly Professor Sonia arrives too, revealing she wrote a book about the two heroes and gives us a copy. Suddenly Sonia's Power Spot Detector goes off... and things get weird.

These two guys appear with incredibly stupid hair, one shaped as a sword and another shaped as a shield. The blue suit with the sword hair is named Sordward and the red suit with the shield hair is Shielbert. They claim to be Galar's new kings, the descendants of the hero of Galar, and furious that Sonia's book says the hero was actually two Pokemon. They're here to take the Rusted Sword & Rusted Shield to summon the Legendaries to truly see if the claims are true. They take the artifacts but Hop isn't having any of it and we take one each. I face Shielbert and defeat him, forcing him to hand over the Rusted Shield. However Hop lost against Sworward and both run off with the Rusted Sword. Hop chases after them while we go with Sonia back to her lab to figure out our next step.

At her lab we meet Sonia's new assistant and we're also told that all the leftover Wishing Stars that Rose had have been confiscated to brought to the lab for safekeeping. Anyway, Sonia has detected a power spot spike in Turffield stadium so we head over them. Inside we not only meet-up with Milo but also Piers, both were having a friendly match when suddenly a Dynamaxed Pokemon started causing havoc. Hop also comes running up, having lost track of the "Galar Kings". But we have to deal with the Dynamax Pokemon first so I, Hop, Milo, and Piers team-up to do a Raid. This is an awesome idea, though sadly they don't keep up with it as you'll soon read!

After beating the Pokemon that Milo takes guides back to its home, Sordward and Shielbert appear to insult us and revealed they're responsible for Dynamaxing the Pokemon. They reveal they want to see Zacian's and Zamazenta's true nature and plan on Dynamaxing more Pokemon, running off. Hop wants to chase after them but Piers stops him and says they'll possibly lead us into a trap, then reluctantly agreeing to come with us to hunt them down. Sonia meets us with us outside the stadium saying Halbury's and Motospike's stadium also had an energy spike. Piers gets worried about Spikemuth and Marnie though Sonia tells him there's no need to worry as Spikemuth isn't near a power spot. We head to the other stadiums and do Raids there, teaming up with their respective Gym Leaders.

Once done we get another call from Sonia, Sordward and Shielbert have appeared at the lab wanting the Wishing Stars. We head to the lab and both I and Hop have a double battle against the "Galar Kings", beating both of them. However it was just a distraction as Sonia's new assistant gives them the Wishing Stars, having been working(?) with them all along (BTW, the assistant is never given a name and it's not clear what he relation to the "Galar Kings" are, yet she's similarly dedicated to them like Oleana was to Rose). Sonia is upset at the betrayal but snaps back as the next 4 Stadiums are now having power spot spikes (Piers gets worry about Marnie and Spikemuth again only for Sonia to remind him they don't have a power spot, it's a running joke you see).

So, remember how cool it was that you're doing Max Raids with Hop, Piers, and the Gym Leader? Well this is when they drop the ball, for the next batch of Gyms we're told there are multiple Dynamax Pokemon so we have to do solo Raids. Only exception is Ballonlea where Bede had taken care of the Dynamax Pokemon so we instead have another battle with him. BTW, while this is all going on it's revealed the "Galar Kings" had run into the Hammerlocke power plant and closed the door and Sonia had been working to open it. Once you do all four of the Gyms you get a call from Sonia telling you to come back to Hammerlocke as she almost has the door open. Yes, she does this even if you're in Hammerlocke and she's just right down the hallway; GF there was ways around this, then again since you didn't do any of them I'm actually wondering if you even care?

Anyway, Sonia failed to open the door but her Yamper gives it a shock and it opens. Sad trombone. Inside we find the "Galar King" you take the artifact from (the one who represents the version you're playing) and a batch of his followers. He rants how they're the descendants of the true hero of Galar and the "old history" being better before starting a battle. Defeating him, the building begins shaking and the "Galar King" says he bought his brother enough time and lets us pass.

On the roof we see the other brother has summoned the other version's Wolf and empowered it with Wishing Stars, however instead of going crazy and attacking the city as they thought it would it attacks the "Galar King" instead. We step in and defeat the Legendary, but it then turns to attack Hop. However just then the Legendary Wolf for our version appears and stops it, forcing it away. Hop takes the stolen artifact and runs out of the power plant, meanwhile we then battle our wolf and catch it. After that the "Galar Kings" realized all the wrong they done and so Piers takes them into custody.

We then get a call from Hop that he's in Slumbering Weald with the other Legendary Wolf. We go to the Slumbering Weald to see that Hop was able to calm down the Legendary Wolf that he then captures! Well, I have a Legendary Wolf and Hop has a Legendary Wolf, so that only means one thing: one final battle with Hop using our Legendary Wolves! Now for the one using Zacian you just need to use the Fighting-type move it comes with to win as Zacian is faster then Zamazenta. If you're using Zamazenta, well it is the shield Pokemon so you'll be going on the defensive by healing it for the next 5 turns until Zacian runs out of Close Combats, but then you can use Behemoth Bash to knock it out.

And with that you win. Hop says he thinks he knows what he wants to do now that he doesn't have the goal of trying to beat his brother to become Champion. Hop liked helping Pokemon when they're in trouble so naturally decides to become a Pokemon Range... Professor! Yeah, that's what I was about to say, he decides to become a Pokemon Professor to help Pokemon. And he's in luck, Sonia is looking for a new assistant! We then end the post game story with Piers and Leon guiding the "Galar Kings" to us as they wanted to personally apologize to us and says their giving their royal title to us, then running off. And after some encouraging words from Leon we all go home. The End.


Gotta admit, wasn't exactly where I thought the postgame would go. It kind of felt shoehorned in and I didn't really find the "Galar Kings" that interesting. However, that's not to say there wasn't anything good. First off, I like that instead of catching the Legendary Mascot as part of the story they instead sort of give it its own post game story where you then catch it. I also like it in this case you start with a battle with Hop using your "normal" team and then bookend it with a final battle with Hop using the Legendary Wolves against each other (if you chose to do so, but why wouldn't you? That said one has the clear advantage against the other and kind of felt anticlimactic Shield players need to win by healing out Close Combat; Zekrom vs Reshiram this ain't). I also liked the Raid Battles with Hop, Piers, and the Gym Leaders but, as I said, they only do it for the first three Gyms.

Anyway after this it's pretty much the normal Pokemon stuff to do now. Filling the dex (& curry dex), challenging the Battle Tower & mini-Champion Cups... and I guess that's it. Some bonus stuff that open up after the post game story is you can find Sonia and Hop working in the lab, you can challenge Marnie in Spikemuth, and can find Oleana in the Galar Mines to get Rose's Rare Trainer Card.

Speaking of which, got a complaint about those. After helping out the Gym Leaders they all give you their rare Trainer Card. But they also say "call me anytime you need me", and since we just did a pseudo Raid I thought this meant that the Gym Leaders would be available to do Raids with! But nope, their words and empty and meaningless as you're still stuck with the now seemingly outclassed NPCs you had before (including the one that uses Magikarp, Pikachu, Eevee, Clefairy, and Togepi; or you're unlucky and get one who Pokemon is weak to the Raid Pokemon). It was disappointing as it would address one of the problems I had with Raids if we were able to get stronger NPCs to help us, even if we could only use them once per day.

Well, with that all now done, guess I'll look through the Trainer Cards and the concept art to see if there's anything of interest to mention. Not sure if I would post it here or another thread, have to see.
Actually, some of the NPCs, the ones that have a speech bubble but can’t press A, actually do acknowledge you as champion.

One thing that annoys me though is the Flower Shop in Turfield Stadium. The woman blocking it mentions Milo loves to Flower, but she is blocking the way. So I assume that once we beat Milo, we’ll be allowed in, but no, she just blocks the way for eternity. It just really annoys me that this building that clearly exists for the sake of flowering can’t be explored. It’s a reoccurring problem throughout the game, such as the cathedral in Hammerlocke.
 

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Hey here's a minor thing I think kind of goes unmentioned because, well, there's so many bigger fish but pertains to Galar's history that Sonia outlines and bugs me
What is with the Hero statue

The game itself even brings this up as a thing. After you see the tapestries Sonia even comments "But if there were 2 heroes, why is the statue at the Inn only depicting 1?" as if it's some mystery, like a lost truth to galar. But nothing follows up on that, at all. The vault is public knowledge & studied. The hotsprings mentions heroes, plural, in its placard. And even in the post game there's nothing explaining it.The royal dweebs covered up the wolves, because they want their line to be the true heroes of galar, but have no mention of the statue; and they're twins and mention the original twin heroes so it makes little sense for them to cover up the wolves by having a single statue.

It's such a minor sticking point but it feels like there should be an explanation but just isn't unless I completely missed something. It probably wouldn't bug me as much if the game itself hadn't pointed out the contradiction.

Also dumb is you don't get to read Sonia's book
That's a very good point which has me having several thoughts:

1. First, I don't think the Royal Dweebs were responsible for the cover-ups, infact it sounded like they were convinced their ancestors were the heroes. All the cover-up happened during ancient times which raises a few questions on its own.

2. There's something about Sonia's conclusion that actually bothers me: it completely ignores the twin heroes presence. The tapestries are about them, when the mural in Stow-on-Side collapses and reveals the statues they're behind the wolves, and the Royal Dweebs I guess are proof they actually existed. Also, when Eternatus was causing Darkest Day 2, both wolves only appeared when Hop and the player used their relics and teamed up with us. That all tells me is that I think Sonia is wrong about her hypothesis, or rather it's not complete. The twin heroes were two humans, BUT what has been lost to time was that to stop the Darkest Day they required the power off Legendary Pokemon. Going back to the tapestries, we see the story unfold: the Darkest Day happens, the two heroes receive a Sword & Shield, they stop the Darkest Day and become royalty, and finally they put the Sword & Shield to rest. What that tells me is it did start with two humans seeking a way to stop the Darkest Day, gaining the assistance of Zacian and Zamazenta to stop it, however both wolves completely exhausted themselves and enter into a deep sleep. While at first the heroes, now kings, wanted to honor their comrades, they realized they wolves needed to be hidden away to fully restore themselves so began covering up their existence. The wolves instead we turned into symbols, a Sword & Shield, and the only statue depicting the wolves was hidden behind a thick slab of stone which was made into a mural so no one would want to knock it down.

3. And this all comes back to the statue. Why does the statue only depict one hero and not two? While this if obviously a fan theory, I'm going to guess the statue is maybe an early idea the twin kings were going to use to cover-up the wolves: it was a single being with a sword and shield that assisted the two heroes. But that would still hint to their being another being part of the story that people would want to seek out, thus was discarded yet the statue was never destroyed for some reason. It's an accidental hint that there's something wrong with the story about the twin heroes.

4. Another theory is that the statue is maybe symbolizing a third Pokemon that's connected to Zacian and Zamazenta, possibly one that combines their power together.

Unreadable Book: What I don't understand is why even make it an item if we can't do anything with it.


Speaking of catching, the pokedex was a lot less helpful than it could've been. Only shows one fixed area's recommendations as far as I can tell, and I don't know anywhere else to see encounters per area ingame. Early on I actually flew back to Route 1 just to catch Wooloo so it would update.
Yeah, earlier I praised the Pokedex for this but after running into this problem I take back that praise. Had it just told you the Pokemon still available to you in the area that you're in (and if you caught all the Pokemon in that location shows another locations you've yet to catch all the Pokemon in) that would have been fine, but it only focusing on one location (usually the Wild Area) drags it down. Habitat List/Den Nav still has not been adequately replaced.

Actually, some of the NPCs, the ones that have a speech bubble but can’t press A, actually do acknowledge you as champion.
I actually just discovered that today in Stow-on-Side and, while nice, I was hoping for more of the interactable NPCs to have new responses for the new Champion walking right up to them. You know, like how Leon being someplace caused the nearby NPCs to stop what they were doing and go "hey, that was the Champion"! The speech bubble NPC that said that for me just kept walking by, not as satisfying.

One thing that annoys me though is the Flower Shop in Turfield Stadium. The woman blocking it mentions Milo loves to Flower, but she is blocking the way. So I assume that once we beat Milo, we’ll be allowed in, but no, she just blocks the way for eternity. It just really annoys me that this building that clearly exists for the sake of flowering can’t be explored. It’s a reoccurring problem throughout the game, such as the cathedral in Hammerlocke.
Not to mention there was an entire city/town to Turfield, Motostoke, Hammerlocke, and Spikemuth yet you only got to explore one side of each.

In addition to the flower shop & cathedral, just in general there were many stands and storefronts that served no purpose. You could interact and get some flavor text what they were about, but that's all you could do. The ones which stood out to me the most was the Record stores (a storefront in Motostoke and a stand outside Wyndon stadium). With TRs being a think I thought maybe this was a place you could buy TRs with money or sell them for money/Watts but, no, those aren't the type or records they're talking about. Another stand outside Wyndon's stadium was one that sold Trainer Cards but there was nothing to get there.

Oh, and then there was the Restaurants which I recall their being 5 of. However, only in three do you battle in and it's only with the restaurant owner. The other two only exist for story purposes and outside of that a small fetch/delivery side quest in one of them which is post game (yet gives out what I consider a standard trainer item, the Lucky Egg). You couldn't have made any of these like XY's Lumiose restaurants, ORAS's Mauville Food Court, or Gen VII's Battle Buffet?
 

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