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

Vs. Kabu

Team Yell greeted me to town in Monsoke City  and Marnie challenged me to a battle. She used a slew of Dark amd Poison types including a powerful Hamster poke.on called Morpeko which kept morphing between a cute forme and an amgry looking forme. It was able to take out nearly my entire team, but Trash was able to tank a hit from it and RETALIATE in the coolest battle conclusion ever.

She wished me luck on my third badge.

I decided to go with pure power on this gym matchup. My team has one very particular counter to Fire in Drednaw, but other than that, I am lacking. I decided to choose reliable pokemon that can take hits and cause heavy damage. Trash is in there as my revenge-killer. Stufful can debuff with Bulldoze. Zorro is my booster.

This challenge had a unique task before hands. Instead of solving a puzzle and battling trainers, my job was to earn points by catching pokemon. The other trainers would not be fighting directly against me, but rather making it tougher for me to weaken  and catch the pokemon. It was fun to be sure, but an unintended side effect of the task itself is that now I had Stuffy, Trash, Zorro, Drednaw, Litwick and Sizzlipede as my gym team.

 

Ninetales takes out stuffy, but he has done his job by lowering its speed with Bulldoze enough so that Trash can Retaliate and take it out in one clean hit.

Trash has to eat an intimidate when Arcane is switched in, so I move Zorro into position for some boosting and snarling. It doesn't mind the burn that it picks up.

Nasty-Plot boosted Snarl brings arcanine to critical health, but Thievul is KOed in the end. Now it is time for Trash to Retaliate again. Another clean KO.

Trash has done her job now, so it is time for her to rest. His final pokemon is Centiscorch, who seems to be the gym emblem itself. Trash fires off a Baby doll eyes and faints in one move.

Drednaw may be a much lower level, but he has Centiscorch in a mismatch.  As a Rock/Water type pokemon, it can tank anything that Centiscorch could dish out. Max Rockfall takes him out handily.

Hitting my Stride

With the Water Badge in my grasp, it was time to travel back to the Steamy City Motostoke for my third: the Fire Badge. Apparently, this particular gymleader is known as a bit of a "rookie-stomper" who serves to weed out trainers who can't cut it in their gym challenge. With my pokemon team starting to reliably hit its stride, I look forward to testing the abilities of Cheeto, Señor Zorro, Chirpy, Stuffy, and the rest.

The big meeting with the chairman over lunch turned out to be much ado about nothing. Nothong new was revealed. No characters were introduced. It was basically a diversion that was meant to remind the player character that eventually the plot was going to happen and not to forget about the mysteries behing Galar, Dynamax, and the Legendaries. I had said earlier that this game doesn't jerk you around and I guess I spoke too soon. In this particular game's defense, there is less fucking around than in previous titles (I will never forgive you gen 5), but episodes like this, few as they are, make me a bit crazy.

Onward to Galar Mineshaft No. 2.

I was able to snag a few more pokemon along the way: Cutiefly, Sneasel, Noibat, and the pokemon that looks like an apple, Applin. I...have no words for it.

Here, I was able to defeat Bede again. After I defeated his four pokemon (he carried the Psychic Galar Ponyta from the reveal several months ago), he seemed to be much more gracious than last time.

He was still a dick, but he is definitely getting more used to the fact that I'm just plain better than him.

In the exchange, Snorkel evolved! I had already seen and battled Drednaw before, but I was still very happy to see him rank up like this!

Vs. Nessa

Riding a wave of momentum after my grassy victory, I blasted my way across Route 5. I picked up a slew of new pokemon along my way: so many that I am still sorting through them all in my head.  I got a fighting type Octopus from a raid battle and the bleached Galar variant of Corsola.  I am fully on board with all of the pro-environmental messaging that this game has and if this is how we get people to take human-caused climate change seriously, then so be it.

As soon as I made it to Hulbury City, I came upon Chairman Rose.  I didn't recognize him at first without his fancy outfit and I was honestly a bit put off at seeing an important story character so off-model in basically joggers and a teeshirt. I was instructed to get my Water badge at the gym and to immediately meet him at the seafood restaurant for what I assume will be boiled Krabby Legs.

The task before Nessa's water gym battle was a fairly standard switch maze.  I had to battle trainers and work my way forward whilst shutting off water pumps to open the way. I made it through fine, but Stufful came out of the task with some pretty sizable damage on her.

Nessa had three pokemon like I did. She led with Goldeen against Stuffy. Stufful had already accomplished her job in getting us here, so She gave off one last parting shot to critically damage the Golden before being taken out.

Now Señor Zorro has just recently learned the perfect move for a situation like this.  He's remarkably bulky as a recent evolution and as such, a move such as Nasty Plot is excellent for him. With two Nasty Plot boosts, his Special Attack triples: Golden stood no chance.

Neither did Nessa's second pokemon: Arrocuda (a barracuda pokemon that knew aqua jet).

When Nessa sent in her final pokemon, Chewtle's evolution Dreadnaw, I considered dynamaxing Señor Zorro, but I was unsure if doing so would reset his stat boosts or not. He's fast, though, so he outran the dynamaxed foe and brought its HP all the way down into the yellow. Dreadnaw retaliated with Max Geyser, which Zorro was barely able to hold on through.  However, I must have overlooked something because Max Geyser triggered rains and Dreadnaw must have the ability Swift Swim because he moved first for the remainder of the match.

Despite his speed, though, Dreadnaw was not powerful enough to defeat my Kaiju-sized Thwackey.

Vs. Milo

Pokemon Sword and Shield continue the trend set in Pokemon Sun and Moon of having a "task" to complete before the gym battle.  In this gym, the task was to herd 20 wooloo forward through several fields to unlock the path forward. I swear to god that everything about this game is designed to pump you up.

Bleppo the Dottler was able to make quick work of the Grass and Grass/Poison with its access to both Bug and Psychic moves. I'm getting sort of pumped about what its Stage 2 evolution is going to be like: Bug/Psychic is a new type combination if I am remembering things correctly.

I made it to the inner chamber and walked onto the field to challenge Milo to my first badge.

I led with Bleppo. Bleppo is remarkably bulky as a Stage 1 cocooned bug, so I figured that it would work as a good scout.

Milo sent in Gossifleur. I have experience with Gossifleur and I was able to take it out handily with Struggle Bug.

Milo's second and final pokemon was Eldegoss. Given the similarities in both name and form, I felt safe in my assumption that it was an evolution for Gossifleur. I felt confident in Bleppo's ability to take it out, but this is Cheeto's tale as much as it is mine, so I swapped in Cheeto for our very first Dynamax team-up!

Before I started Shield Version, I had decidedly negative feelings about Dynamax. I was on board with Mega Evolutions and I was in board with Z moves, but Dynamax was just the newest gimmick--and a lame one at that. 

I am still not sold on Dynamax, but the Kaiju matchup between Cheeto and Eldegoss was pretty cool to witness.

Pokédex:40/66

Current Squad:

Thwackey/Cheeto/lvl 19
Thieval/Señor Zorro/lvl 19
Chewtle/Snorkle/lvl 18
Corvisquire/Chirpy/lvl 19
Dottler/Bleppo/lvl 19

Stufful/Stuffy/lvl 16

On Rotation: Zigzagoon, Growlithe

Upon the Doorstep...

Emerging into the sun from the Mines, I squinted, cinched up my bag, and put on my big boy pants because it was nearly time for me to claim my first badge.

Along the way, I came across a Hardy Sea-Faring Meowth who knows naught of this land-lubbering life and I just had to adopt it as my Steel type. Yeah, I know, it's the best, grumpiest salty captain if the waves. And also it is a cat, so that is always a bonus as well.

My evolution streak continued when Chirpy the Rookidee evolved into Corvisquire. Corvisquire has a great design, but I think that the existence of "Corviknight" as an already established pokemon has spoiled the ending of this particular pokemon's lineage. I like the blue colouration on this pokemon.

Sonia took me to see a giant Kecleon marking in the hillside. She mentioned the "Darkest Day" where all the Giant Pokemon attacked as being somehow linked to Dynamax and this giant Kecleon, but decided that it was time that I run off to get a gym badge. The writers of this story definitely get what the player wants this time around. #gen5worstgenfightme #gen5toomuchdialogue

In order to make things difficult, I had decided at the start of my playthrough that I would be limiting my party size for gym matches. For my first badge, I decided that four pokemon would be a good number to bring along. I had done some recon and found out that the Gymleader Milo is a specialist in the Grass Type. By this, I mean that I was forcibly introduced to him earlier on Route 4.

Vs. Bede

I have been giving Trash the Zigzagoon a lot of attention recently. After my most recent teammate shuffle (henceforth called "the great purge"), I have been waffling with respect to the roles that I have pokemon filling. I have been curious about what Trash has to offer the team other than "Pickup" and those sweet face markings. Trash knows how to party, but she had yet to prove herself.

Bede led with the Psychic type Solosis. Trash was able to take it out handily with its STAB Payback. Hmm. Maybe Trash has a place here after  all...

His next pokemon was called Hatenna and my immediate reaction was just "what the fuck is that?" For some reason, I was seeing a blobfish in its design. I had no clue what type it should be, but my first instinct was water.

It had the ability Anticipation; ancitipation activates  on switch in and clues the trainers in that the opposing pokemon has a super effective move against it.

When I noticed that Anticipation activated,  I knew that something that Trash knew would hit it super effectively.

Trash's Moves: Payback, Headbutt, BabyDoll Eyes, Lick

Since Headbutt is normal and BabyDoll Eyes is a status move this meant that either the dark type Payback or the Ghost Type Lick were effective against it. Since Dark and Giost are effective against the same tyes--Ghost and Psychic--I knew that I could choose either move to hit Hatenna effectively.

Payback scored a huge hit, but Hatenna retaliated with Disarming Voice and sent Trash packing.

I had figured out that Hatenna was either a Psychic or Ghost type and decided to test this out by sending in Bleppo the Dottler for some recon. If Struggle Bug hit it for Super Effective damage, then Hatenna is a Psycjic type. If it hits it weakly, then it is a Ghost.


Just cross your fingers and take a big breath and...

Psychic

Sometimes a gamble pays off.

Bede sent out Gothita for his third pokemon and then it clicks all of the sudden.  He is a psychic type specialist.  For being the best pokemon trainer ever, I sure can be dense sometimes...

Pokédex:33/54

Current Squad:

Thwackey/Cheeto/lvl 17
Nickit/Kat-Kit/lvl 16
Chewtle/Snorkle/lvl 16
Rookidee/Chirpy/lvl 16
Dottler/Bleppo/lvl 16

Stufful/Stuffy/lvl 15

On Rotation: Growlithe, Zigzagoon

Finding Destiny!

In the lobby of the hotel is where I had my first run-in with the evil gang of the title: Team Yell.  Apparently their schtick is that they are the cheerleading squad for one of those two Special NPC's: the goth chick.  I ran them out of town and met her (Marley), ready to battle, but she seemed almost apologetic about her friends' presence.  I did recognize their symbol, though, as one of the gym leader symbols that I had seen at the stadium earlier...

I attended the opening ceremony for this year's gym challenge.  There, the Chairperson, Rose, introduced the challenger as well as the gym leaders.  I loved the ceremony of it all and it really built up the leaders as being worthy of battle. I would point out, though, that only seven of the eight were present.  I am curious as to whether or not Giovanni is visiting the Galar region.

With my first gym battle waiting for me across route three, I made off to meet my destiny...

Gym leader Slow Walk

BenJScar Slow Walk

And then destiny came to visit me instead when Cheeto evolved into Thwackey. I was worried for a bit that it would become less cute when it evolves. While it certainly is not what I would call  "precious" now, I would say that it is still cute--but in a cool way. I'm still really hype on these Gen 8 designs.

I made my way across Route 3, picking up Gossifleur, RolyColy, Growlithe, and others. As much as I wanted to add Gossifleur, I already have devotion to my dedicated Grass slot, so I put her in the box.
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Another addition in this game is PokeJobs. You can do a quick search for a part time job for your pokemon and send them off to manage it for a specified amount of time. I'll update what happens when I get Yamper, Wooloo, and Skwovet back tomorrow.
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At the end of Route 3 was Galar Mine. I was disappointed that Zubat could not be found there (yes you heard that correctly, Golbat is low key one of my favorite pokemon), so I suppose that he was on Thanos' list of cuts. I grabbed Drillbur, Roggenrola (hey I remember you from my White Version Playthrough!), and Woobat. I avoided catching Timburr because seriously fuck that pokemom.

After reorganizing my team, I stumbled across the jerk from the Gym Lobby--the one who told me off. He told me not to come closer unless I was ready to battle.


("Roundabout" plays in the background)

Signups for the Gym Challenge

With nearly every pokemon in my box knocked out or at critical health, I dragged myself through the gates to Monsoon City. Not since Pokemon Red version and my trek through Mount Moon have I been in such a desperate need of healing my pokemon. Back then, my excuse was Raticate (shudders): this time, I have no excuse.

After taking a stop at the Pokemon Center, I decided to put my Gym Challenge Signup off whilst I went shopping. I got a new haircut, some new digs, and customized my Gym Challenge Card with a cool Ultramar pose. This game allows you to be extra. Game freak must have been reading my live journal.

The portrayal of the Gym Challenge in this title is a lot like a sporting event.  The gyms are akin to soccer stadiums and the challengers all wear numbered Jerseys (oh, I was even able to choose my Challenge Number for my jersey). There are endorsements as well as sponsorships.  One NPC even seemed to imply that the Champion's cape is a rental spot for ad-space.  TOO. REAL.

The overall effect of all of this though?  A world that seems real and lived-in.
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The gym challenge signup location was filled with other challengers.  Hop and I were signed-up on Leon's endorsement, but we were far from the only ones in the lobby.  One NPC mentioned that everyone in the lobby was part of the group of challengers, so I went around to scope out the competition. There was the regular crown of unnamed NPCs, but there were two specifically unnamed NPSc each identified as "???".

One of these two was a cool looking goth chick with a black hamster pokemon.  The other was a curly-haired asshole.  He claimed that he was endorsed by the chairperson from the game's introduction and he told me to bother someone else.  It will be nice to beat him later on in the game.

Gym Types? Psychic, Fairy, Dragon, Grass

And apparently we are FULL STEAM AHEAD WITH THE PLOT because as soon as I made it to the next area, I was set upon by the Professor's assistant, Sonya.  She was there to tease the game's plot a bit.  Apparently, in "the olden days" there was this knight who saved the Galar region from a troupe of giant pokemon.  She said specifically that he used a sword and a shield and that apparently nobody knows what type of sword or shield he used.

Gym Types? Fire, Water, Ghost, Ice

Yeah, I'm calling this one right now.  There is no way that that would be an important detail unless it was to be a deliberate misdirection.  His sword and his shield were pokemon, weren't they?

Pokédex:22/33

Current Squad:

Grookey/Cheeto/lvl 15

Nickit/Kat-Kit/lvl 14

Chewtle/Snorkle/lvl 14

Rookidee/Chirpy/lvl 14

Dottler/Bleppo/lvl 14

Stufful/Stuffy/lvl 14

















On Rotation: Zigzagoon, Stunky, Tyrogue

Into the Wilds

Professor Magnolia and Leon gave Hop and I one final gift before ushering us out of town and onto the road to our first gym battle: a Dynamax Band.

Dynamax is the new mechanic in Pokémon Sword and Shield. Just like Black and White added Triple and Rotation battles, X and Y added Mega Evolution, Sun and Moon added Z Moves, now Sword and Shield has added Dynamax. The Pokémon franchise is definitely no stranger to gimmicks.

I haven’t performed a Dynamax evolution yet, but from what I know of it, it makes your Pokémon much larger and allows you to use super powerful moves. I am not yet sold on this as a game mechanic. I definitely will need to see how it works in-game later on.  It was just a matter of time before Gamefreak decided to capitalize on the recent Pacific Rim/Godzilla/Game of Thrones hype with Kaiju-sized Pokémon.
 

I found a female combee  in the wild area. One thing I really like is that you can choose what Pokémon you encounter by sneaking up on them. Random encounters are a thing of the past and damnit they can stay there, for all I care.  Just think about this for a second. The spawn rate of female combee is 1/8. This means that finding a female combee in a previous generation game would involve random encounters where the Pokémon itself has a percentage chance of showing—and then the specific gender would be rolled on top of that. Getting a female bee in gen 6 took me the better part of an hour. In this game, it took me ninety seconds.

Being able to choose which Pokémon you are able to battle is an obvious, but useful change. It makes just walking around battling and catching fun.

 I fought an over leveled onix and was able to beat it with Snorkle the Chewtle. I was not however allowed to catch it. Apparently over leveled Pokémon in the wild areas are not uncommon, but you can’t catch them. This is a little fucked up, but isn’t bad enough of an issue to harsh my ease.

I decided to avoid the next story obligations and went on a Pokémon catching and battling spree. Besides the aforementioned onix, I was also able to encounter overleveled diggersby, vespiquen, and one MASSIVE Galvantula that had my squirrel shaking in its furry boots. I caught Bunnelby (Bunnelbro), Machop, Roselia, Tyrogue (Rogue), Stufful (Stuffy), and Stunky (Stonks).

Nope. Run.

I always train myself into a corner, so I stopped and checked what my team looked like.

Grookey, Rookidee, Nickit, Purrloin, Zigzagoon, Chewtle, Dottler, Stufful, Tyrogue, Stunky, Skwover, Bunnelby.

...yikes, time to make cuts.

Pokédex:

Current Squad:

Grookey/Cheeto/lvl 15

Nickit/Kat-Kit/lvl 14

Chewtle/Snorkle/lvl 14

Rookidee/Chirpy/lvl 14

Dottler/Bleppo/lvl 14

Stufful/Stuffy/lvl 14

 
 On Rotation: Zigzagoon, Stunky, Tyrogue

Spooky Wolf Forest

With the plot on the run, Hop and I took off towards the Spooky Forest. I was mostly happy to get to start training up Cheeto. He learned a move called Branch Poke and eventually also Razor Leaf. Mine has a Quiet Nature (which has boosted Special Attack), but Grookey seems to be heavily favoring physical moves and stats, so my first guess is that this wonderful monkey is gonna get eal jacked up real fast as he evolves.

I battled the squirrel Pokémon that PokeTips Mike had predicted would be in this game based on the trailers. It is an adorably chubby-cheeked Pokémon named Skwovet. I also battled a cool looking borb that was named Rookidee. I want one.

As we trekked deeper into the fog, we were set upon by a red and blue wolf Pokémon. It was remarkably similar to the Pokémon on the box for the game. I could not communicate this through the fourth wall to my player character though, so he set upon battling it. None of Grookey’s moves had any effect on it and it kept making the fog thicken...
________________________________________
I am really liking the Pokémon designs in this game. There don’t seem to be any that Ihave found that seem half-assed (*cough* Pansear/pour/sage, Cryogonal *cough*) like all of Gen 5 was (fight me). Later on, I would encounter Blipbug, Chewtle, and Nickit and I really like how they are just complicated enough. There are no wasted details and the colour and shapes match what one might expect to see from nature. There are just enough extraneous or alien details in order to keep he creature fantastical-looking. The only Pokémon whose design I really dislike is Yamper, but I know that I am in the minority there. Plus, even though I dislike its design, I think that it is effective and simple and smart.

I am very happy that I have been able to keep myself completely spoiler free on this game. I hope that I can continue to remain unspoiled in the weeks to come. I don’t want to rush through this game and we know that YouTube in general is out to get me and expose all the Pokémon to me in the worst, most clickable thumbnails. Wish. Me. Luck.

_________________________________________
With the spooky forest subplot at its dead-end for the time being, my character was ushered off to meet the professor of the moment, Magnolia. I also met her assistant Sophie who apparently has some history with Leon. Whether this is just history or sexy history is yet to be seen, but I mean look at him it’s definitely sexy history.

I caught Kit-Kat the Nickit, then Kit Kat the Nickit, then Kat Kit the Nickit because I kept finding stronger or better versions of them as I explored. I may just lean in and make this an all Dark types team because between the three Nickit and the Purrloin and Galar Zigzagoon that I found, I’m really deep in the dark already. I caught a Chewtle as a water type (I love its silly overbite), caught a Blipbug and evolved it already into the Bug/Psychic type Dottler, and then Skwovet.

Beat Up: the most ruthless move in Pokémon.

I also caught a Rookidee (Chirpy), which is a PURE FLYING TYPE (mind fucking blown). This is only the third Pokémon in existence to have this typing, the other two being the legendaries  Arceus and Tornadus. I am wondering if all starter birds are also retroactively being classified as pure flying. I wonder if Swellow is now just a Pure Flying type...

One other thing I have noticed is that the exp share is always on. I wonder if this will become bothersome as time goes by...

Pokédex: 14
Current Squad:

Grookey/Cheeto
lvl 13
Nickit/Kat-Kit
lvl 11
Chewtle/Snorkle
lvl 10
Rookidee/Chirpy
lvl 11
Dottler/Bleppo
lvl 11
Zigzagoon/Trash
lvl 10