Board 8 > Pokemon Sword/Shield Discussion Topic - Part 2

(+) Yeah! (+)

XIII_rocks posted...

Has anyone, ever, in the history of the world, not started a youtube video with "WHAT'S GOING ON EVERYONE"

Sure! Plenty of YouTubers also start with "HEY GUYZZZ"

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Good thing the player didn't find any Kyogre and Groudon fossils

https://twitter.com/akurahiharuka/status/1200583766885842945

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this game's pretty fun i have 4 badges so far hope to get more soon

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you'll be getting a lot more soon so no need to worry!

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My topic is super dead so i'll finally join this thread

And complain!

It took me 105 days of time-skipping to finally get Chipped Pot. I have 24 Cracked Pots already. Jesus fucking christ


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Got Sword today. Went with Sobble, which using my foreknowledge of his final evo I was able to name him Leon

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I don't really like naming Pokemon with nicknames that are actual characters in the game so that would bother me. >_>
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Well it got a Gentle nature so I'm sure I'mma replace him eventually anyway >.>

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ExThaNemesis posted...

When I eventually cave and buy Sword, I hope one of y'all has a spare Lv. 1 T-tar, Croagunk, and Sobble that I can use

The funny part about this post is that between when you made it and when you got the game, it became completely possible to have a level 1 Tyranitar.

I don't have any of the Tyranitar family yet, but I can get you that croagunk if you'd like.

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XIII_rocks posted...

Holy shit
Stop
This isn't how people talk

you must not realize it coz you live there and don't think anything of it

but yes it is!!

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Lolo_Guru posted...

The funny part about this post is that between when you made it and when you got the game, it became completely possible to have a level 1 Tyranitar.

I don't have any of the Tyranitar family yet, but I can get you that croagunk if you'd like.

That Croagunk would be dope. And I picked Sobble coz I have a buddy with perfect IV'd Scorbunnys that is gonna hook me up.

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IDK how far I have to get before trading is possible.

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ExThaNemesis posted...

IDK how far I have to get before trading is possible.

End of route 2 is when communication features become available.


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Lolo_Guru posted...

End of route 2 is when communication features become available.

Alright. Working my way there hopefully will be there soon

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@Lolo_Guru

alright that took longer than expected but I think I can link trade now. What's ur info?

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OMFG

MY FIRST SURPRISE TRADE

I GOT A DREEPY FOR A SKWOVET

lmfaoooooo I love this

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TWO DREEPYS.

Who are these absolute legends that are sending out their Dreepys en masse?

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ExThaNemesis posted...

TWO DREEPYS.

Who are these absolute legends that are sending out their Dreepys en masse?

Dreepy is probably the single most common Pokemon to get from a surprise trade because of his competitive value, so everyone is trying to breed 6 IV ones, and shipping out the rest. The ones you got are probably 4 or 5 IV, which is great anyway.

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Probably gonna make my team overpowered through the game but YOLO I'm not trying to take my time with the main story anyway

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am up to 3 Dreepys, 2 Charmanders, a Growlithe, and a Mimikyu. Along with a Level 60 Zigzagoon (Galar). All from Surprise Trades lol

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Sorry for the delay extha. Making an egg now.

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No worries man. I actually just shut the game down so we can do it tomorrow or something if you want.

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Or if you want I can hop back on and trade for it, whichever.

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Well, do you want it as an egg or should I hatch it first?

Either way, we can just set a link code to connect through trading. Like, 7392 or something.

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I don't know what that means. Do I gotta add you as a friend to do a trade? And just as an Egg is totally fine.

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Ok, just choose link trade in your menu and enter that 4 digit code (7392). It should connect you to me (my character will be named iris)

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Lolo_Guru posted...

Ok, just choose link trade in your menu and enter that 4 digit code (7392). It should connect you to me (my character will be named iris)

okay I just searched with that code. My character is named Jimmy

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ExThaNemesis posted...

okay I just searched with that code. My character is named Jimmy

I've done the same. It's not connecting us that fast. -_-
in fact I got someone else. eh.

maybe adding as friends will help too, I guess, but I don't know a direct way to just... trade with your friend specifically. It's all these link codes.

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Lolo_Guru posted...

I've done the same. It's not connecting us that fast. -_-

I think that might be because I'm in the Wild area? IDK.

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Found out I was only connected locally for some reason -_-

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Ok, got it to ya then. I rode it around most of the steps, so it shouldn't take long to hatch.

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Thanks man! Appreciate it! I'll take good care of this Croagunk.

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Connecting with other players is really flaky in the game. Always double check your trading partner if you are trading anything important since the game might just connect you with a random other person who happened to use the same link code.
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I have played through it all now and made myself a living dex missing only Zamazenta and Type: Null, both of which I'll trade over when I get Shield. It wasn't nearly as much effort as it has been before due to dexit and wild area. I'll sum up my thoughts.

Positives:
It should be mentioned that I love Pokemon, so it has overall been a very enjoyable game. There's no point in listing all the returning things I like, so it might seem like I enjoyed it less than I did.

-The gym challenge.
They managed to keep the classic format while keeping it fresh. Most of the gyms were also fun in themselves. I enjoyed all but the final two, which didn't have much substance, we'll get back to that. It was cool to see how getting the regional badges actually made you a known trainer in the region. I liked having sport outfits mostly because it harmlessly made no sense to change clothes and talk about being exhausted from a Pokemon battle where you just stand and name moves.

-The league
Very cool alternative to the elite four, even if it was obvious who you would face. I didn't mind it being interrupted quite a bit either in itself, this is a very welcome addition.

-The pace
I didn't really know what to call this, but what I mean it that it was a lot smoother to go through dialogue, which was a major issue in gen VII, where it took forever to get through the first island compared to what it had and I really appreciated that. Also really appreciated the Rotom Dex not being able to talk. This will make a billion times better to play through again.

-The New Pokemon
I think this is a solid bunch. Toxtricity is among the best they ever made imo and there are a lot more up there. There's also less than usual I dislike, so very good job overall.

Negatives:
Most of these can be summed up to "Not enough developement time", but there are some other points.

-Lack of substance in the overworld in latter half of the game.
Suddenly, the world was just much less pretty and there was a lot less to do. The early routets and citys had very cool backgrounds and it was pretty to look at. I don't care that the graphics are way below average for a Switch game, it looked good to be. But that sure wasn't the whole game. Early on you could also visit at least most houses. I see no point of these big citys if it's just a cover and they don't actually have anything at all. Wyndon and Spikemuth in particular were bad here.

-Lack of story and things to do.
As much as I enjoyed added focus to the gym challenge, this was a major step backwards. There was kinda sorta a story going on at times, but you were excluded from it until the league where it honestly sucked and yet I almost enjoyed it because we finally got something. The whole plot to get to Leon and Rose's meeting in particular was bad.

-Dexit
We spoke about this for many months before the game came out, but that doesn't make it better, especially when you consider the above things. I honestly doubt we'd have that much worse a game if they ported all the Pokemon. We know they straight up lied about the models and look at how they created them all from scratch back in XY and made a game with as much substance otherwise. It didn't have to piss me off that they removed so many Pokemon, but they handled it so horribly. Some of the moves they removed also sucked.

-Catch rates
I don't understand the slightest bit why this was necesarry. It is so easy to level up anyways, it's not like it would be broken to get something a level higher than your own Pokemon. The was extremely frustrating on a lot of new routes.

-Dynamax
This might be controversial, but I really think the gimmick this gen failed. There's a fine idea in there somewhere and I do appreciate how any Pokemon can use it and without use of an item, but it's severely broken. It's no fun at all. Smogon is probably banning it already. In game it was awful as well, it's a shame it probably took too much focus in developement. There's no fun in it really, not helped by how it's extremely predictable. Why do the gym leaders always have to use it with final Pokemon. I get they want to show off the Gigantamax forms in most gyms, but could they at least then not necessarily use the Pokemon capable of that as their last one? It's also insanely time consuming, being the only real flaw in the otherwise great pace. All in all, I have not enjoyed it at all.

-The creation of TR:
Something I haven't seen mentioned a lot, but this was to me a great step backwards from where we got to in Gen V. Most TMs are completely worthless, the good ones come very late and they aren't that good. The TRs are all the things you want, but they're locked to the wild area where it's tedious to search for specific ones, because it depends on you finding and beating the right raid if it's there, or hoping that one of the sellers are there. But their prizes are ridiculous for you until you become champion.

Some ambivalent things:
Some things I'd like to talk about I don't think I can call neither good nor bad.

-The rivals
I appreciate having more than just one rival and that was fun. I also appreciate them trying to give the tival some storyline of his own, but Hop was pretty terrible honestly. I enjoyed Hau mostly last gen, but Hop was mostly just annoying, same thing with Bede. Marnie was fine enough.

-Raid battles
I love the idea in principle, but it sure doesn't work as I had hoped. It's fun if I can get to do raids with my brother and two roomates since that's local, but online functions horribly and playing alone hands you the worst teammates you can imagine. There's certainly room for improvement if they keep this feature around and dynamax wouldn't really have to stay for this to stay, they could simply handle it Pokemon GO style.

-Wild Area
I appreciate the idea of making a lot more Pokemon available early on, but I also think the Wild Area is a big reason for lacking routes during the rest of the game, so it doesn't feel as too much of an addition honestly. It's a shame how many things are exclusive to some specfic weather. In particular two of my favorite Pokemon, Clefable and Mimikyu, being locked to postgame was a darn shame. You can change the date to no negative consequence, but that's really just a simply exploit and not something they intended to do. Also, for as wide as it is, it's very empty. A lot of areas have close to nothing unique to find and the raid battles didn't have to be distributed to this much space really.

All in all, I really just hope the next games will have had the necessary developement time more than anything, then I can look past everything else. If that means no Pokemon games in 2020, then that's fine with

I miss the Rotom Dex talking to me. I'd take the Rotom Dex 100000 times more than Hop showing up every 10 seconds.

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Zigzagoon posted...

I miss the Rotom Dex talking to me.

what

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Nice breakdown, ctes - I think our feelings on the game are quite similar. I also wasn't fond of Bede, and I'm surprised at how much praise that character received; I couldn't stand him, personally. (I also hated Silver in Gen II, for similar reasons.)

I actually don't mind the raid CPUs. Light Screen and Reflect are a godsend for making them viable partners. I swear at them far less than the damn Digging Duo... >_>

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We're going to get a glorified DLC next year for full price. At least this one doesn't have a story that it'll ruin like USUM did.
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You got partners using those moves? 99% of my AI raid fights give me Wobbuffets who contribute nothing or Helping Hand Eevees. Very few of the AI are any good in Raids and Raids altogether arent really any fun anyways after like 15mins tops lol

HashtagSEP posted...

what

I loved the idea of a rotom being able to talk to you through technological advances. Sure it could have been done SO much better but the idea behind it is really neat to me. Plus I think Rotom in general is pretty adorable.

Much better than random rival telling you where to go and what to do every 20 steps.

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Gotta disagree with Dynamax being negative
I mean, if we are talking competitive...then yeah, maybe, I don't know, I don't play competitive and not going to

But in-game for Gym Battles and the epic battle against Eternatus ...I liked it, a lot
The music pumping up when the opponent is Dynamaxing it's Pokemon, the Switch rumbling (in Handheld mode) and the absurd animations - they all made the battle more epic

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Dynamax and raids were my two favorite things about these games to be honest.

They got stale pretty quickly but I mean, I still played like 60-70 hours of the game. Better than Sun and Moon where I was probably done after like 30.

Without Dynamaxing and raids I would have spent 15 hours on this and then been done.

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I like Dynamax in raids + the campaign. It's bloody ridiculous for serious battles though.

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Zigzagoon posted...

I miss the Rotom Dex talking to me. I'd take the Rotom Dex 100000 times more than Hop showing up every 10 seconds.

I didn't like Hop either, but I think the key differnece is that he wasn't there constantly when I wasn't story progressing. When you like to spend 60-70 hours on the game, that becomes a huge difference.

TheCodeisBosco posted...

Nice breakdown, ctes - I think our feelings on the game are quite similar. I also wasn't fond of Bede, and I'm surprised at how much praise that character received; I couldn't stand him, personally. (I also hated Silver in Gen II, for similar reasons.)

I actually don't mind the raid CPUs. Light Screen and Reflect are a godsend for making them viable partners. I swear at them far less than the damn Digging Duo... >_>

Thanks! Yeah, seems like it. Bede was super flat and annoying most of all. I had no issue with Silver back in the day, probably because characters just made less of an impression, but I liked the idea even if he'd probably have disappointed a bit today.

I suppose you've been more lucky with partners. Maractus using Solar Beam is one of the better things I have gotten and it breaks a shield only every other turn of it's not dead before that.

Nanis23 posted...

But in-game for Gym Battles and the epic battle against Eternatus ...I liked it, a lot
The music pumping up when the opponent is Dynamaxing it's Pokemon, the Switch rumbling (in Handheld mode) and the absurd animations - they all made the battle more epic

I enjoy it in raids and in the spoiler tag part, but in gym battles it was a lot more time consuming than fun imo. It could have been better without changing any mechanics, though overall I'm still no fan. But as I said, it was probably controversial and it's not bad enough for me to be sad about if I'm the minority.

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Champion beated.

My final team upon clearing was:

Cursola, lv 63
Rillaboom, lv 61
Dracovish, lv 59
Corviknight, lv 61
Grapploct, lv 60
Frosmoth, lv 62

It took me two tries to beat Leon. I didn't look up any info on his team, so aside from Charizard I didn't know what to plan for. Things went south when I used Frosmoth to counter Dragapult, not knowing I was sending it out to a fiery death. From there I was just dumb and thought "Oh Rillaboom has Darkest Lariet, I'll use that next" completely forgetting that I literally just lost a Pokemon to Flamethrower. After that I couldn't recover and take back the lead (I didn't want to use items). Second try I used Grapploct with Ice Punch to take down Dragapult and from there everything went way smoother.

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Dynamax seems to work well in competitive Doubles. However, I've heard it's completely busted in Singles.
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Team Rocket Elite posted...

Dynamax seems to work well in competitive Doubles. However, I've heard it's completely busted in Singles.

It is. Ditto is being used on every third team or so now, more than almost everything else.

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Team Rocket Elite posted...

Dynamax seems to work well in competitive Doubles. However, I've heard it's completely busted in Singles.

Smogon is already looking at banning it in singles.

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/np-ss-ou-suspect-process-round-1-boom-boom-pow.3657265/
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Finally got around to beating the game. Final team:
Cinderace lv. 75
Toxtricity lv. 71
Orbeetle lv. 71
Corviknight lv. 68
Barraskewda lv. 67
Appletun lv. 50 (for the vast majority of the game this was a rotating slot to evolve stuff for dex completion).

I was pleasantly surprised with the game for about the first half, but near the end it was obvious as fuck that they were told the game needed to be ready for the holiday season and they had to just rush to get to the bare minimum to be able to publish.

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swordz9 posted...

I have Sword. It took 6.5 months worth of days to finally show up lol

My record now is 2 years and 3 months. For a single Gmax to show up. This RNG is great.

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