The Darkest Day

The finals are mow at an end and the last one standing has earned the right to battle Leon.

Hop met me in the locker rooms  beforehand and wished me luck. I walked onto the pitch, ready for the grand finale. It is the same group as what I used in the previous round: Cheeto, Trash, Snorkle, Eurypyro, Kituguma, and MmeTrunks. I know that his Charizard is going to be the one to Dynamax, so I should have Drednaw ready to tske on that role for me. Although, Kitiguma might give us an early lead if I find the opportunity...

Just as we were about to begin, Leon and I were interrupted.

Chairman Rose appeared on the screen and announced that he was unleashing all the Dynamax energy that is company has been collecting. His aim is to block out the sun and bring about "The Darkest Day" in order to save Galar's Future.

I have absolutely no clue how this makes sense.

With the end of the world potentially at hand, Hop and I decided to try to do something. Noting the connection between the Darkest Day and how we started our journey, Hop suggested that we go home to scope out that mysterious pokemon that we encountered in the fog.

Hop and I returned to the Slumbering Weald to seek out this Sword and Shield Pokemon that we saw on the game's box art.

Taken just before I failed to catch a Raid Charizard

Sonya met us there and informed us that the pokemon in question were named Zacian and Zamazenta because the creators of this game were losing at scrabble and needed high point words. Hop was very sure that the two of us could awaken them by finding the original sword and shield that the two pokemon used.

We stumbled out of the fog and into a magical clearing straight out of The Legend of Zelda. Here would surely be Master Sword. Or, in this case, a rusted shield for me and a rusted sword for Hop.

With the mcguffins in hand, Hop and I set off to confront Chairman Rose in the Dulynamax Powerplant in Hammerlocke City.

All the Way to the Top

The final altercation has seemingly escaped us again, because after storming Rose Tower, battling all of the henchmen, and defeating Chairman Rose's aide in battle at the top of the skyscraper, Chairman Rose just let Leon go.  He didn't even monologue at us or anything.

Like, come on Sword/Shield. I know that the emphasis is the gym challenge this time around and you do a great job with that,  but you can't keep shoving the story back into the closet like this: we are at the end of the game and we only know that there is *something* going on with dynamax and that Chairman Rose is at the center of it and TWOHEROSDARKESTDAYSWORDPOKEMONENERGYCRISISDYNAMAXDARKESTDAY.
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The final test to see who should get the right to face off against Leon involves battling the gymleaders again in a tournament. However, against expectations, Bede arrived on the battle pitch to challenge me to a fight. Given his uniform and his new title as "Gymleader Bede", he seems to be doing well for himself now.

He unleashed an all out Fairy-typed assault on me. I was glad to have brought Mme.Trunks to overpower him with Sheer Force.

My first official finals battle was against Nessa and her water types. She told me that I would never battle the Champion because she would defeat me on the spot. Ultimately, her Golisopod, Barraskewda, Seaking,  Pelipper, and G-Drednaw were no match for Cheeto's power and Trash's ruthlessness.

My second match was against Allister the ghost trainer. I lead with Chirpy to scout and U Turn. His Dusknoir was tough, but Snorkle took care of it handily. Following this, I had Drednaw Dynamax in order to gain momentum against his next pokemon: polteageist and Chandelure. I came out of it with a burned turtle, but a clear lead.  His next pokemon was Cursola and his final was G-Gengar. Cheeto was able to barely hold on against Max Ooze in order to lower Gengar's speed with Drum Beating enough so that Trash would easily stall and then outrun it with Obstruct and then Night Slash.

The final match would be against Rihain again. I look forward to regaining my pride after our last match. I placed Cheeto in my second slot next to Chirpy just in case we would be doing another Doubles match.

This concern was for nothing as he battled me one-on-one. Against his Turtle Torkoal, I used my own, Snorkle. This ended up being the wrong choice as he uncorked a one-turn solarbeam on me. Trash was able to clean him out for me, but now I was fighting from a deficit.

I guess this one is going to be another tight match.

His Turtonator was playing coy with Shell trap, so I took a turn to revive Snorkle and send him back in. I dynamaxed him on a whim and used Max Rock to deal damage and to boost my own special defenses as a rock type in the sandstorm. Turtonator used sunny day, so I reset the weather the next turn with another Max Rockfall.

I have one Dynamax turn left and it is against Goodra. If I go for the sure Ice type  KO with Max Hailstorm, then the sandstorm will be replaced with hailing weather, but if I use Max Darkness, the KO isn't assured...I decide to play it safe and use the rock move...

Which turns out to be the wrong choice as Goodra uses Rain dance anyways. Snorkle shrinks back down to normal size and nets a KO with Ice Fang. Now I'm back ahead again. Plus, all in all, Rain would benefit me as well. Rain will at least boost the damage of my move Liquidation.

Which is SIMILARLY moot because his Flygon uses Sandstorm the next turn. WHAT THE HELL, MAN?!

His last pokemon is Duraludon. There is no way that I am going to take it out before it boosts up with Dynamax moves, so my goal here is to lower its speed enough with Cheeto's Drum Beating so that Bewear could KO with Hammer Arm.

The strategy plays out without a hitch.

Vs. Oleana

I led with Chirpy and decide to take out her Frosslass with Steel moves. I sure don't like that burn, but Chirpy is able to take her out. The next pokemon is Salazzle. Salazzle is a mismatch for me, so I decide to Uturn out of there and WAIT I FORGOT HOW FAST SALAZZLE IS.

Because of my error in judgement, Chirpy takes a huge chunk of damage as I swap in Snorkle. I am able to sneak away with the KO without losing Chirpy, but it didappoints me to leave damage on the table like that.

Tsareena is another mismatch, so I waste a turn swapping in Centiscorch. I made another mistake here because it gets an Atk drop from Tsareena's trop kick and then gets messed up a bit by acrobatics.

I'm really off my game now.

Apparently, Centiscorch and Tsareena have a speed tie, so Centiscorch sneaks in one more Flame Wheel. Cheeto is able to finish off Tsareena and then Milotic with ease.

Her final pokemon is Garbodor. It promptly Gigantimaxes into a nightmare out of toy story. I decide to lower its speed with Drum Beating.

This was a third mistake. Garbodor's ability if Weak armour, so it comes out of the turn with -1Def, +1Speed.

I want to get snorkle in there to take advantage of the sandstorm, so I decide to have Cheeto Uturn out as Garbodor uses its G move.

Finally U have chosen correctly. Cheeto holds on and Snorkle gets in safely.

Dynamax: Max Darkness. Clean KO.

The Missing Champion

With the Tournament completed, it is time to move on to the final chapter. Leon l, Hop, and I are set to gonout ajd celebrate my victories.

However, Leon is missing--and Hop is getting worried about it. Piers the Gymleader has agreed to help us find him and is coordinating Team Yell to gather intel by causing a ruckus.  The chairman's assistant Oleanna is keeping us from him for some reason. I think that this makes them the bad guys.

I suppose it is time for the plot to start happening again.

Team Yell causes enough of a distraction to get Hop and I to Rose Tower. The music began to swell up as Hop and I ascended, battling off s3curity personnel along the way, together.

Honestly, this was one of the coolest moments of the game. Most of the reason for this is because of the way I view Hop. My real life little brother sometimes reminds me of him and I was considering what it would be like to have a team up with him like this. He and I with the hero music playing, ascending Rose Tower and taking on the world? That is a situation that is sure to get you pumped.

Oleana waited for us at the top.

Finals: Vs. Hop

And here we are at the final match. I thought back to the first battle I had--when I first met Cheeto: he was able to defeat Hop's Wooloo and Sobble handily. All he knew how to do was Branch Poke. Now he knows the grass move "Drum Beating"...look at how far he has come now...

I led with MmeTrunks against Hop's Dubwool. Dubwool would be faster than me no matter what, so I decided to use Revenge to double the damage in return. MmeTrunks is able to gain two consecutive knockouts when Hop replaces Dubwool with Snorlax. I could count on her to gain us an early advantage. Hop sends in his third pokemon...

What the fuck it that? No seriously, it's definitely a sea urchin, but what is that? Does it evolve  from Pyukumuku? Is it something new entirely? Well it isn't taking much damage from Iron Head, so it must be a water type...

And then it uses Thunderbolt, so I'm very confused now.

I use the next few turns to exchange positions with Uturn. Cheeto and Corviknight form a solid duo at this due to their complinentary coverage. Chirpy sure looks strong these days! I'm glad that I brought him back to use against the Fairy Gymleader and I'm glad that he is still here supporting Cheeto and the rest.

Bewear wears down Corviknight with Baby Doll Eyes and Pain Split until it is safe to Hammer Arm it out of existence. Kitiguma is so strong now. I remember how quickly it improved after it evolved. I used to bring Stuffy around when I had no other perceivable options. I can still count on it now as well.

His final pokemon is Intelleon. Even though it is dynamaxed, Trash is able to come in and chunk its health down to critical levels. Retaliate is just that good and I have always been able to count on Trash, specifically, to serve revenge.

It is now Cheeto vs Intelleon: the battle of rivals once more. I see them, briefly, out of the corner of my eyes as they were before: a playful Grookey and a timid Sobble. Grookey turns back and gives me a determined look. I blink and the vision is gone. The smile I have still remains and Cheeto understands why I am smiling.

He plays us off to victory with his Drums. It has truly been a great journey.

Semifinals: Vs. Marnie

After learning the true usefulness of Dynamax from Rihain in my battle with him, I was ready to apply my knowledge right away.

My first match of the semifinals would be against Marnie. In previous battles with her, I would play out the match too long, but on this occasion, it was time for Hyper Offense.

Time to steal the entire tournament on turn one: Dynamax.

I turn my pink teddy bear into a giant pink teddy bear immediately and have him start firing off Sky Fists. Because Bewear is a monster and her lead pokemon is a dark type, I am able to coast to +3 Attack power (x2.5 of my base stat) in three turns. Because of the boosted power of the dynamax moves, the KOs were given and because of the increasing base stat power, Kitiguma was even able to even steal the One Hit Knock Out against Marnie's Toxicroak on Turn 4 even though Toxicroak resists Fighting moves. Bewear just could not be stopped, even after its dynamax turns were over.

If you have to win in a one-sided match, then it really must be as spectacular as this all out blitz.

On to the Finals.

The Gates of the Pokemon League

I worked my way north through the icey wastes of Route 10 and I swear the very same Mr. Mime chased me the entire way. Just as soon as I thought I had escaped, I would round a corner and he is already chasing me. I ended a trainer battle: Mr. Mime. Picked up an item: Mr. Mime. Turned the game on: Already a Mr. Mime there. Wake up at night to get a drink of water: Mr. Mime is inside my house in the closet and I'm still in my nightmare.

I finally made it to Wyndon City which is definitely not London, so stop saying so. The giant Ferris Wheel and Clock Tower are design coincidences.

I stopped and consodered where I was and what comes next. The next item on my list is to work my way through the Gym Champions Tournament. After that, I could finally steal Leon's title and give him his first loss. He's a sympathetically written character and I am prone to empathizing with NPCs, but this is one victory that I am looking forward to.

I have a new view on Dynamax as well. I finally understand the mechanics: I can see that the boosts and debuffs and  weather effects that Dynamax gives are the key to success--less the damage aspect.

Now the question is who to bring with me. My party in its totality includes all of the following:

1. Rillaboom/Cheeto
2. Drednaw/Snorkle
3. Corviknight/Chirpy
4. Bewear/Kitiguma
5. Centiscorch/Eurypyro
6. Golisopod/Guzma
7. Copperaja/Mme.Trunks
8. Thievul/Señor Zorro
9. Salazzle/Dazzle
10. Obstagoon/Trash

Leaving any of them behind would be sad, but I have to consider only six. Cheeto is obvious and so is Drednaw. For power, I want Bewear and Copperaja. I need Trash to be there as my revenge killer. And my final slot comes down to a coin flip. I decided to go with Centiscorch in the end to round out my Fire/Water/Grass core. Plus, the rest of my team is Fighting Weak, so having a bug type in that slot gives me a key resistance. 

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I bought some new digs and made my way to the stadium. No matter what comes next, I am content in knowing that I had a wonderful and exciting journey through the Galar region--and a grown appreciation for the real-world creatures that are the inspiration for the creatures that I have experienced in this game.

Time to take the Championship.

Vs. Rihain

With the gates open and my 7th badge in hand, I made my way west for Hammerfell again. Apparently the plot has been happening behind my back: Leon has been running around defeating Wild Dynamax  Pokemon that have started appearing around the island. He told me not to worry about them and to challenge his rival Rihain for my 8th and final gym badge.

This task was straightforward: to defeat Rihain's three acolytes in Doubles battles. Luckily, Doubles is my specialty.

The Battle with Rihain was also a doubles match: Gigalith and Flygon up front and Sandaconda and Duraludon in the back.

Gigalith activated Sandstream, but I was able to take it and Flygon out handily. Duraludon and Sandaconda came in. Duraludon dynamaxed and started firing off Max Knuckles. These hurt my pokemon, but they also boosted my foe's attack. The damage racked up. The stat boosts racked up.

And...I lost.
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Honestly this hurts. My core was solid. My pokemon were strong enough...How could I have lost? I should be better than this, doubles is my THING. I ranked in the Sinnoh Cup. I've won tournaments.

I took a break from the game and took stock of what happened. I had control of the field until the very last two pokemon. I didn't have weather, but the weather didn't aversely affect my party. It all started to go down when Duraludon dynamaxed...

And then I finally got it. Up until this point, I have been viewing Dynamax as I did Z moves: I have been viewing the three Dynamax Turns as three turns of powerful attacks. I have been focusing on the damage. I should have been focusing on the effects. Duraludon was using Max Knuckle in order to boost its party's attack. The damage matters less than the effects.

If Duraludon could do it, then I could. I came up with a new strategy. Give Snorkle the Choice Scarf and have it Ice Fang everything--Rihain's pokemon all take either neutral or Super effective damage from it and it gets a boost from Strong Jaws. And Dynamax Mme.Trunks as soon as Duraludon hits the field to absorn MaxKnuckles and retaliate with Max Knuckles of my own. This will make Snorkle's Ice Fangs hit even harder.

I charged back in, filled with purpose. I came back out five minutes later with the eighth and final badge: the Dragon badge.

Vs. Piers

As soon as I entered Spikemuth, I healed my pokemon and then started to explore.  There was a big Team Yell presence here and I wanted to get the scoop on it all. I stumbled across a Team Yell grunt standing behind a kiosk, thinking it was time to buy some TM's or Ultra Balls. As it were, he was there to greet Gym challengers and my challenge for the 7th badge had just begun.

I guess we're doing it live.

Because I stumbled upon this gym challenge, I had to use whatever was in my pouch at the time.  All in all, I wasn't ill prepared considering what I could have had with me. I decided to teach Chirpy the TM U-Turn for the time being in order to adapt to the circumstances.

I made my way through the alleyways, fighting off Team Yell ambushes all along. And finally came across Piers, a grunge musician with an agressive hairdo. Without a Dynamax center, Spikemuth apparently doesn't bring in many gym challenge stadium spectators. That is why the town is so derelict. The stadium is an asphault pitch surrounded by chain link fences.

With the mood set, the match began. I led with Chirpy so that I could scout and U-Turn to an appropriate counter. I play with SET match rules, so switching out always costs me a turn (rather than playing under SHIFT options which ask you if you wand to switxh out qhen the opponent sends something else out) and pivoting with Uturn is an excellent way to do this without wasting momentum.
His Scrafty has Intimidate, which hurts, but I am able to KO it by monitoring my soeed to keep the damage of my foe's Payback in check.

His next pokemon is Malamar, who takes x4 damage from U-Turn since Psychic Types AND Dark Types are weak to it.

His Obstagoon is next. Since I have one of my own, I know what moves to expect and my first read is that it is going to use Obstruct. Obstruct has the same mechanic as Protect, but it also lowers Defenses if activated, so I decide to use Coil to get a boost to Attack, Defense, and Accuracy out of the turn whilst  I avoid the Obstruct Defense drop.  He can't use the move twice in a row to great effect, so essentially my goal was to boost and stall him out. I didn't know that it would be the Accuracy boost would be so useful in the end...

He defied my wxpectstions and used Counter. The next turn, he Obstructed my Bug Bite.

I'm having some trouble with my predictions apparently...

Now I am sitting at +1 atk, -1 def, +1 Accuracy. Also, he is a fadter pokemon than me. I need something big here and I get it when I get a lucky critical hit whislt hewhen uses counter next turn. I steal away the KO on a coin flip.

His last pokemon is his Skuntank. At +1 accuracy, I decided to risk a 50% accuracy Inferno. My luck holds out and I nail his pokemon burn it in one turn. this allows Centiscorch to shrug off a Sucker Punch and carry us to victory on 100 tiny legs.

The Hidden Gym

On my way out of Circhester, I ran into a guy who upgraded my bike so that I could drive on water. I don’t think that this makes sense based on where the center of mass of this particular bike is and also how do the wheels turn into paddles and maybe I’m over thinking this. Sometimes I regret having gone to an engineering college...
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One thing that sun and moon started is the removal of HMs. In that game, you had ride Pokémon whom you could summon to move rocks, help you surf, or fly you around. This game has doubled down on the same concept and replaced Surfing with the aqua bike and Flying with the Corviknight taxi service. There have been no STRENGTH puzzles and no bushes to CUT. There have been no dark caves which need to be lit up with FLASH. I like how streamlined this game is, but I do miss some of the puzzle aspects of previous games. I don’t think that strength puzzles make sense in the modern Pokémon games as a concept (they are definitely an artifact of the Game Boy Era wherein large round boulders don't look out of place in the overworld...frankly because the over world looks like a veritable mess to begin with on the tiny game boy screen), but I miss that smaller aspect of environmental puzzles.
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I made my way across the frozen seas and came upon Spikemuth—the place where I would be seeking my next gym badge. Apparently, however, Spikemuth was closed.

How an entire town could be “closed” is a bit beyond me, but there it is.

SpikeMarnie let me in after I battled her in a TIGHT match that required me to control the speed amd get crafty with Trash's Obstruct and Retaliate. Cheeto uturn.

The town gate being down bothered Marnie. She gave me the League card of the GL, but she didnt tell me that apparently he is her older brother. As soon as I proceeded, the team yell boubcers had me change into my gym attire. Apparently this dilapidated mess of a city IS the gym.

That means that whatever I have with me is...my...battle team...

Checks bag...

Vs. Melony

The path north to Circhester took me through rocky ruins and snowy plains. Along the way, I encountered weird new Pokémon like Falinks the fighting type and Snom the ice larval bug. While Snom is sore of basic, I am interested in seeing what it may become in its imago form, Falinks is a bit off the rails in its design, but I respect it.
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Bear vs Bear

I know that Pokémon sword and shield are somewhat polarizing the fan base, but by now I have seen enough of the Pokémon to be able to confidently weigh in on the overall design sensibilities. Gen 8 so far as I have seen it has had a healthy blend of cool and cute designs as well as a healthy blend of  “animal like” designs and “what the fuck is that”. Honestly, I haven’t felt this positively about a generation since Gen 2 or Gen 3. Gen 7 had a lot of island themed Pokémon which definitely fit the game’s overall mood and setting. However, it didn’t offer much in terms of the weird or gnarly. It waltzed the bird-fish-mammal tropical waltz, but most of the Pokémon were fairly predictable in their designs. Gen 6 was filled with very specifically chosen animals and plants from the natural world. Basically all of the Pokémon were directly lifted from nature with very little modification or personalization. This isn’t bad, but it offers little to improvise with, creatively speaking. The rest of the Gen 6 additions were random fairy types that were included to pad out the rosters of that newly-introduced type (I’m looking at you, klefki and carbink). Gen 4 added...mostly a lot of bugs and plants. There were some truly unique or interesting mons, but Gen 4 was diluted in its cast of characters with the sheer numbers of evolution Pokémon it added in. Most of these evolutions, I might add, we’re not even obtainable until the endgame. When you add 100 Pokémon, but withhold 30% or more till the endgame, then you really haven’t added much at all.

And Gen 5? We just don’t talk about Gen 5...
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By the time, I arrived in Circhester, Hop had already lost his gym match with the resident Ice Type leader Melony. Ice types may be strong attackers, but they have a large number of really common weaknesses and they don’t typically have the coverage moves to handle a barrage of attacks, so I came into this challenge fairly confident of my ability to sweep.

I like how in these games, the lobbies of gyms are filled with NPCs that are gossiping amongst themselves about how they saw you battle on TV and are cheering you on. It really helps to pump you up for when you sweep through everything with Bewear’s Hammer Arm move. The gym leader used Frosmoth, the apparent evolution of Snom, as well as the Galar form of Darmanitan and the penguin Pokémon Eiscue. The later of these has an ice cube for a face. I might have found my first lazy design of Gen 8...

Ice, like I said, is a generally weak type, so I didn’t encounter much resistance until I encountered Melony’s final Pokémon, Lapras. She immediately Gigantimaxed it and took out two of my Pokémon in as many turns.

My final Pokémon is Ollie the Copperaja and Max Steelspike is not dealing enough damage to take Lapras out in two hits. Lapras' Gigantimax phase ended and I saw a glimmer of hope.

And then Lapras puts Ollie to sleep with Sing.

Yike.

The Proper Shade of "Pink"

Opal was impressed by my battling, but said that I didn't quite have the shade of "pink" that she was looking for, so she escorted me back to Hammerlocke. We immediately found Bede and Opal seemed so smitten with his tortured version of "pink" that she spirited him away back to Ballollea for training. Crisis averted: I can't quite see him coming back as a villian now...

Although that is truly an awkward way to tie up a plot thread...maybe something more will come of it.

As I wandered East, some more explosions started to happen around town. However, the Sonya/Leon "scooby squad" told me that they had it covered and that I should focus on just playing the videogame for a bit until they were ready for me to intervene. Essentially, this was a reminder that "yeah, eventually there will be some story wrap up, but it ain't yet.

I fought Hop again and crushed him loudly again.  I'm really starting to feel bad for the guy.  This might be the first time in the pokemon series where the rival character is so sympathetic.  If he quite pokemon battling because he can't beat me, then I'm going to feel pretty bad about myself...

Maybe this is what Opal meant by "pink". Someone who is cheerful, yet twisted by their own sense of doubt. Strong, but rotten. Maybe I'm the villain of this game.


Pokedex: 165 caught / 258 encountered




On Rotation: Copperajah, Corviknight, Toxtricity, Sandaconda

Vs. Opal

Marnie met me in the gym lobby (before I got my pump, wth?!) in order to tell me that she considers me to be her primary rival and that she would meet me in the finals for sure. She also mentioned that her Morpeko seemed to like me. I think this means we're dating...

Corvisquire had evolved somewhat recently, but the last time that I had actually used him in battle was several gyms ago. His newly Steel-ed wings may have grown a bit rusty since then. I led with him in the gym warmup to help to him stretch his feathers.

Opal, the octogenarian gym leader (this is foreshadowing for later) and Fairy Type expert awaited me within. She is apparently looking for a replacement to serve as the new leader of her Fairy gym. As a result, the gym task was organized as an audition. Battles were performed on stage and interrupted with Fairy-themed quiz questions. Correct answers would give my pokemon a stat boost. Incorrect answers meant that we would have to fight from a deficit...

I found several identical looking older women...or perhaps the same woman every time (it is hard to say for sure with these NPC's). By the end of it, Chirpy the Corviknight was all warmed up and ready to anchor the team.

I led with Eurypyro against Opal's Galarian Weezing. I didn't expect that the quiz would continue into the gym battle, but it did. Right off the bat, Eurypyro (the Centiscorch) was kneecapped by a quiz question. Since he is a centipede and he has 100 legs, this was a particularly effective kneecapping. He was taken out handily in two turns due to my inability to give him the support that he needed.

3-4

The questions continued and I was completely stumped and unable to assist my pokemon in crucial moments. EMF was able to overpower Weezing despite this. Against her Mawile, I misread another question  and EMF was handicapped just like my previous pokemon. He was able to take out Mawile with Discharge, but his stats were nuked by my quiz answers.

3-2

Togekiss started turning things sour for me right off the bat. It outsped my quiz-weakened Toxtricity and actually got the universal +1 boost from Ancient Power. I was finally able to get one quiz question right when I flattered Opal by saying that she looked 18 rather than 88. It pays sometimes to have tact.

This small victory, however, was short lived as Togekiss got a second Ancient Power stat boost. (This is a 10% possibility for each, remember). Toxtricity is unable to secure the KO against Togekiss.

2-2

Cheeto comes in and is able to finish Togekiss off with a lucky critical  hit. Her last pokemon is Alcremie (pronounced like "alchemy"). Cheeto gets a huge hit against it, but Alcremie Gigantimaxes and takes  it out in one hit whilst restoring its own HP as a bonus effect.

1-1

Corviknight stretched its Steel Wings. It is Gigantamax Alcremie vs Dynamax Chirpy.

Chirpy gets the KO with Max Steelspike! Welcome back, old friend!

The Return of an Old Friend

The Glimwood Tangle is a dark maze of a forest covered in shimmering phosphorescent mushrooms and filled with Fairy and Psychic type pokemon. They seem to be drawn to its ethereal magic. I caught Indeedee, Spritzee, Impidimp, and the beautiful Psychic typed Galarian Ponyta along the way and emerged into Ballonlea Town, ready to compete for my Fairy Badge.

Except that I have a very weak team for this matchup. Most of my team is Dark and few pokemon even have a move that would hit neutrally on the variety of potential foes that I would face in a Fairy-typed matchup. Unless the gymleader uses four Azumarill, bait for Cheeto to barrel over, I am screwed.

EMF (Toxtricity) is a good matchup as a poison type, but could struggle against a lot of different pokemon. Plus, relying only on one pokemon is dangerous in a pinch. I needed to bring back an old friend for the battle.

To be continued...

Scheduled Slacking-Off

Whenever I get deep enough into a game to start to really get it and get into the world and the setting, I like to run off and explore. Breath of the Wild found me filling in my map (and my stamina wheel) with trial locations. Skyrim found me collecting Daedra Hearts and Gold Ore for smithing and alchemy projects. Phantom Hourglass found me using the DS stylus to draw tits on the area map. These escapades are not always materially useful to my journey, but they are always good for either my immersion or at least my own satisfaction.

While Pokemon doesn't offer a great deal in terms of collecting ore or drawing tits, it DOES offer something equally addictive: capturing pokemon and bolstering the pokedex.

I finally added Cuphant, the elephant, to my team! Elephants used to be my favorite aninals, so adding this Steel-typed "Copperderm Pokemon" to my party. This brings me back up to ten pokemon, but as long as I stay on top of my leveling and my abuse of PokeJobs, things should pan out. What is more is that I found an Adamant one with a supermassive Attack stat, so this was meant to be. Bonus points: caught it in a premier ball.

Cheeto evolved into his final stage: Rillaboom. I have ambivalent feelings about this pokemon. It is a cool design and all as a silverback drummer with cool hair, but it is less cool looking than Thwackey and less cute looking than Thwackey. It isn't even close to the bottom of my list for final atage starters (those spots are permanently reserved for Emboar, Samurott, Chesnaught, and Infernape), but it is definitely not at the top (Greninja, Decidueye, Swampert, Sceptile).

I have completed enough Max Raid Battles, by now, to weigh in on them. They're...fine. I find them to be somewhat tiring and repetitive. Every once in a while, I have a fun or interesting matchup--usually against a Gigantamax pokemon or an interesting higher tiered foe--but the lion's share of my matchups involve me rushing through the match so that I can get the rewards and the capture. This is great for filling the Pokedex and the excitement as you approach the beam of an active raid den is something akin to what rushing down the steps for christmas presents feels like. However, The process is quite repetitive most of the time and has little bite to it. It needs more teeth.

Playing with friends certainly makes things more fun: my brother, his brother in law,  and I were able to defeat a Gigantamax Corviknight together. While only one of us was able to actually capture it (hint: it wasn't me), it was a fun experience.

My brother about to send out his Shuckle

Plus, if nothing else, raid battles are slowly getting me used to the mechanics of Dynamax...which may be useful for competitive play later on.

Pokedex: 122/185







On Rotation: Cufant, Toxtricity, Sandaconda

Vs. Bede Rematch

As soon as I left the gym, Sonia met with me to take me to the town mural. The plot must have noticed that we were ready, so all of the sudden we heard a large explosion and we rushed towards the mural.

Bede was there with a huge elephant pokemon that he identified as belonging to Chairman Rose. He mentions that he is still collecting more and more wishing stars and that he is there to stop me from getting any for myself.

BATTLE START!

I led with Arbuk to test him out. His position in my team is only semi-permanent and he DOES know a dark move, so I decided that a neutral matchup like Duosion would be an excellent way to test its staying power. Arbuk was able to take it out easily.

Bede's next pokemon was Hattrem, which must be the evolution of Hattnea.  It was a lot bulkier, faster, and stronger than I had expected and was able to take out much of my team before Trash put a stop to it all at once. I am still surprised at how reliable she is. I used to love Linoone back in the gen 3 days and the cool new design is just choice.

From there, Sizzle was able to bug bite the remaining pokemon to death. Neither Ponyta nor Gothorita could stop him. Sizzle is remarkably bulky, albeit a bit slow. I have Flame Wheel as his main fire move right now, but if he could get Flame charge then that would be ideal.

After I defeated Bede, the Chairman, his aide, and two Gym Challenge referees came upon the scene and declared Bede disqualified from the competition for trying to destroy a historical site. Yeah, I guess that terrorism would disqualify one from sports now that I think of it.

Bede seemed pretty incredulous...and also pretty upset...I wonder if he will be showing up again somewhere as a villian.

All of the sudden, the wall collapsed, revealing an inner cave with two wolf statues in it.

Cue “Roundabout”...

Vs. Allister

Stow-and-Side is a city with a lot of personality: almost straight out of an Indiana Jones story or a pulp fiction with a marketplace on sandy stone walkways and people battling in the square. The gym sat at the top of the hill.

Allister specializes in the Ghost type. As such, I decided to bring in my own nightmarish team.

The task of this gym was to board a giant rotating disk and to guide it through three pachinko-like mazes. I am very happy that I wasn't made to use the motion controls.
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 3 vs 4

I led with Guzma the Golisopod because I figured that its priority moves in Sucker Punch and First Impression combined with its ability Emergency Exit would make it an ideal scout. Allister led Yamask. I had caught one recently and its regional variant was dual typed with ground, sooo...

RAZOR SHELL.

3-3 tied up

This must be the evolution of the regional Corsola. It used curse, so Guzma's Sucker Punch fails. I switch in Zorro and Nasty Plot up. The next turn I pick up the kill with Snarl.

3-2 lead.

Mimikyu is a mismatch for me, but I'm not ready to send in Guzma again...and I forgot about Mimikyu's "Disguise". In previous games, Disguise as an ability prevents all damage for the first  attacking move.  In this game, it must have been debuffed because it still took some small nominal amount of damage.

I am able to whittle it down a bit before it takes me out with Slash. Guzma comes in for Sucker Punch and nets the revenge kill.

2-1

Allister's last pokemon is Gengar and he immediately causes it to Gigantamax. Guzma gets off one more Sucker Punch before Gengar annihilates it with G-Max Phantom.

1-1.

With the match tied up, it all comes down to whether or not Trash can take the hit. Trash will get the KO with Max Darkness but it won't be able to outrun Gengar. It's time for Trash to get her first Dynamax: hopefully it gives her enough bulk to survive Gengar's last move: G-Max Ooze. If she can take the hit, then I win...

And...she lives!!

Rivals Real and Imagined

My travels through Hammerlocke had me meeting the person who is apparently the 8th gymleader: Rihan the dragon user. It was he who was in the opening cutscene in battle with Leon. One girl that I met around town said that the reason that she likes watching Rihan battle so much is because he always loses to Leon and it makes her happy to see him lose.

In addition to this, a little plot happened. Sonya was there and she mentioned something about how there may have been two heros rather than the one with the sword and the shield. However, as I have already established, the sword and shield are likely to have been pokemon anyways, so this little development is only surprising to plot-driven NPCs and perhaps also babies.

One thing I have really grown to like is the dynamic between the player character, Hop, Bede, and Marnie. At the start of this episode, Bede beat Hop pretty embarrassingly in battle and Hop has been moping and second guessing himself ever since.
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Similarly, my real life little brother and I had our first battle together. He took a commanding lead and paralyzed most of my pokemon, but made one mistake near the end which allowed me to pull ahead and win at the last minute.  He seemed pretty down on himself about it and I told him to cheer up and that it was a great match. This equivalency with what is happening in the game's story, though, is leading me to feel legitimately bad for ole Hop. I hope the rest of this game isn't just me beating up on him until he breaks...

_________________

We went West from Hammerlocke through the deserts towards the fourth gym and stumbled across Team Yell cheering on a delughtful looking snake pokemon named Silicobra lying in the road. They may be eccentric, but they sure  are lovable.

Hop and I took them on, but he's dealing with some stuff, so he lost and I had to fight them both.



On the way to the town I picked up Helioptile, Yamask, Axew, Maractus, and my own Silicobra. I named it Arbuk and I'm testing it out a bit for a team position. It's a ground type.

Pokédex: 102/180
Current squad:

On Rotation: Toxtricity, Silicobra

Catching up to Myself

With the fire badge in my grasp, I set off back into the wilds.

And then I was sent back to the pokemon center because my team was so underleveled.

And then I was sent back again

And again...

And a fourth time.

Yikes, when did this happen?

And it doesn't fucking help that every pokemon has leech seed or synthesis or recover or some fucking bullshit like that. I wasted 28 Great Balls on a level 27 frillish.

I DID manage to nab a uniquely typed Poison/Electric pokemon named Toxel.  It looks like the baby from the old Dinosaurs sitcom. I have an affinity to poison types, hit if it looks this stupid when it evolves, it is out of my team.

So I took the opportunity to train. I was able to take down some overleveled pokemon in the wild area by using pokemon with a hugely supereffective move. Finally, I dragged my entire team up to level 30.

And then everything in my team started evolving...
Stufful evolved into Bewear and can finally hold its own in battle.
Meowth evolved into Perrzerker and has gone from Sailor to Viking.
Sizzlipede evolved into Centiscorch and was able to defeat a pokemon 15 levels higher than it with its powerful fire moves.
Toxel evolved into Toxtricity...and it looks like an absolute creep, but I love her!! She has a unique typing and a brand new ability called "Punk Rock" which boosts the power of voice moves as well as lowering the damage of voice moves used against it.

I may have left Monsoke City in despair...but I entered Hammerlocke in triumph with a brand new team identity.

Pokédex: 48/88
Current Squad:

Thwackey/Cheeto/lvl 30
Thievul/Señor Zorro/lvl 30
Drednaw/Snorkle/lvl 30
Linoone/Trash/lvl 31
Centiscorch/Sizzle/lvl 30

Bewear/Kitiguma/lvl 30

On Rotation: Toxtricity,Perrzerker