Many Welps

This is a rare event indeed. Not only did I buy Pokemon Shield but I played it all the way through with very little breaks. Yes, my dear friends, I have become the Pokemon Champion of the Galar region in just a few week’s time!

This year (or rather last year) my wife and I got each other a Switch for Christmas. You see my wife only likes to play “cute” games and who has cuter games than Nintendo? No one that’s who. I, on the other hand, wanted a pokemon machine. Ok, and a play indie games on my couch instead of at my desk machine. Not nearly as catchy of a title though.

Ever since I played Pokemon Blue on my cousins’ couch at 9 years old I’ve been hooked on Pokemon. I was a child of the late 90s and early 2000s so I didn’t stand a chance from avoiding the Pokemon hype train. Those were some prime Pokemon years. It was everywhere and every kid in elementary school was watching the show, trading the cards, playing the games. Oh, and of course there were the spin-offs. Remember Pokemon pinball? Pokemon the Trading Card Game The Game? And who could forget Pokemon Snap?

But you know, as great as it was to pretend to be Ash I always wanted to play Pokemon on my TV. Even in the old days with 2d sprites and 8 bit music I always the experience would be enhanced if I could just play it on my TV. Also not having to change batteries and having to find a light source you had to angle just right to see the Gameboy screen would have also been a plus. Man handheld gaming was hardback in the day.

Then there was Pokemon Stadium for the N64 and that really gave me a taste of what I wanted. But that wasn’t enough for me, oh no, I wanted a mainline Pokemon game on my TV. You know what I got instead?

• Pokemon Stadium 2
• Pokemon Colosseum
• Pokemon XD
• Pokemon Battle Revolution

Sadly, I’ve had to wait 19 years for a pokemon adventure I could play on my TV. And you know what? It was worth the wait!

To tell you the truth, I had fallen out of love with Pokemon games ever since finishing Pokemon Y. Pokemon y was the first time I experienced 3d pokemon battles in a mainline Pokemon game. That alone had me hooked until the end. Pokemon Alpha Sapphire did not inspire the same level of excitement. Neither did Sun and Moon. I’ve bought these games but I lost interest about 2 hours in.

Things I Liked:

I think that break helped to make this Pokemon installment that much better. I was constantly discovering Pokemon that I’d never seen before only to find that they were a generation or two old. I only found one pokemon from this newest generation I wasn’t a fan of (Carkol I mean it’s a cart full of coal with eyes…) but I thought the rest were solid additions. My favorite by far was Centiscorch which had a place on my team ever since I found her. Oh and can we please talk about Sirfetch’d. This pokemon right here is the reason I have to berate my friends with Sword to trade with me.

The graphics worked for me. I was pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t 3DS pokemon blown up to TV size. I had no issues with the way the pokemon looked or their animations. It all made me feel like I was in a season of Pokemon ripped from straight from 90s TV.

The length of the game was perfect for me. I completed it in just over 21 hours and througholy enjoyed my whole time with it. I haven’t done the post game story yet but I’ll get to it eventually. I never was into the endgame of pokemon. Grinding EVs to battle online and looking for shiny’s never did it for me.

The way the story was presented as a tournament was a nice change of pace. I liked the way the “Elite 4” of this game were just the same Gym Leaders with stronger pokemon. At the same time, I did miss not having the Elite 4 to take on at the end.

Showing which moves are effective against the type of pokemon your facing.  I lost track of strengths and weaknesses in like…Gen 3. So this was a welcome addition. Of course, you have to fight the pokemon once to have this show up.

Character customization. Tacking on dress up to a pokemon game was not something I knew I wanted until I had it.

Things I Didn’t Like:

The difficulty: I don’t expect a lot of challenges from a Pokemon game but I expect to have some close calls and need to level a little bit. I tore straight through Shield without doing any leveling and was always a good 10 to 15 levels ahead. I lost once at the end of the tournament to the Champion. That was the only time I had a total party wipe. Though this could be because I wasn’t cheap this time around and spent money on potions and status restorers

I could take or leave Dynamaxing. While it was cool the first few times, after a while, it was just kinda there. Oh that gym leaders on their last pokemon? They’re gonna Dynamax and we’ll have to finish the match with the big pokemon. It was hilarious to Dynamax Inteleon. He’s already tall and when he’s Dynamaxed most of the time I couldn’t see his head.

Other Stuff

The team I used to beat the Champion:

• Inteleon – because I have to keep my starter always
• Centiskorch – my favorite out of this gen
• Heliolisk – because I’ve never used it before
• Eternatus – Because I have to use the legendary even if it is basically a god. Props to the developers putting in a line about the strongest trainer using the strongest pokemon when you face the Champion.
• Tyranitar – Found her at level 60 but she didn’t end up being that useful
• Drifblim – Ended up being one of the staples of the team. His description in the Pokedex though  “It grabs people and Pokemon and carries them off somewhere. Where do they go? Nobody knows.”

On a side note, I didn’t realize the internet was all up in arms about this game until after I finished it. Mostly of the “they sold us an incomplete game” variety. Even more, so that DLC was announced. I felt this was a complete game even without 800 pokemon. 400 pokemon is plenty of variety for me.

On the side side note: This lack of screenshots brought to you by the Swtich being a pain to get screenshots out of without an SD card.