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.

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.

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!

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!!

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.

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.

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.

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