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Pokémon Sword & Pokémon Shield (2019, Switch)

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2 gyms down now. And I just need to gush about a Pokémon I just got. It's no. 311 in the Galar Dex, so don't click if you haven't seen it yet and want it to remain a surprise.

Spoiler

Toxtricity is a Poison/Electric lizard that strums it's chest like a guitar and I love everything about it!

Best Gen 8 Pokémon so far! I'm so drawing this thing!

The soundtrack is really experimental so far. I'm digging it! Shout out to the funky Gym Leader music that actually develops each time you knock out a Pokémon. Very cool.

Edited by Glen-i
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I've sunk just over 3 and a bit hours into my copy of Shield so far and I'm enjoying it but I definitely see whether the potential issues of overleveling come in. I'm still in the wild area after getting off of the train from Wedgehurst, catching all manner of Pokemon and partaking of some of the dynamax battles and I've got a full team of lvl 18 'mon before I'm even at Motostoke and the first gym.

Think I'll stop with the levelling or possibly switching out some Pokemon to try other mixes (I've caught about 40 odd Pokemon so far so plenty of choice so far) otherwise I'll just be steamrolling through the early parts of the game at this pace.

Currently running with:

Spoiler

Drizzile (Sobble's evo)

Thievul (Nickit's evo)

Yamper

Dottler (Blipbug's evo)

Corvisquire (Rookidee's evo)

Butterfree

Definitely need to change some out to cover some more bases team wise but as I say, the wild area has given a huge swathe of Pokemon to choose from so shouldn't be hard to settle on a more solid early stage team that is a bit wider in range.

But yeah so far enjoying it. I do invariably end up getting tired of the Pokemon games as I go on so it'll be interesting to see whether my interest will remain high as I go on. I'm hopeful at least but this'll probably end up as a pick up and play game after the weekend, just wanted to put in the hours early to get my feet under the table so that might help limit the burn out.

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@Ugh first aid got a Ditto!

She caught it with a Great Ball, I use an Ultra Ball and it escapes. Which is bloody typical.

Which means we can breed all the starters for @S.C.G (and anyone else) now.

So if anyone wants the starters they don't have this evening, give me a shout of which ones you want, and I'll get you an egg of them.

Edited by Glen-i
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I wouldn't mind a Sobble and Grookey. Can trade some Sword exclusives if you need anyway, but I have no idea what's exculsive to what.

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2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

@Ugh first aid got a Ditto!

She caught it with a Great Ball, I use an Ultra Ball and it escapes. Which is bloody typical.

Which means we can breed all the starters for @S.C.G (and anyone else) now.

So if anyone wants the starters they don't have this evening, give me a shout of which ones you want, and I'll get you an egg of them.

Oh snap! Nicely done to you both. :D

I guess I should get to the part in the game where I can actually trade, I only ended up putting an hour or two last night as I've been sorting out video and audio stuff, all good though. :smile:

I tell you what... I only really need a Sobble and Scorbunny for now please, my brother will need two starters as well at some point but... if I already have three starters then I can just get to the point in the game where you can breed them and capture a Ditto, right? Especially as he likely won't be starting the game until December.

I'll try my best to make some more progress before this evening then, also are there any Pokémon either of you need from Sword version in return that I could be looking out for?

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I still need a Grookey and a Scorbunny but I don't have anything I want to trade right now as I only have one of each Pokemon out of not wanting to gain too much experience during the game.

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Is there anyway to stop this game from automatically using local wireless every 2 seconds? Whenever I return to the Switch home screen while this game is running I notice that I’m disconnected from the internet. :hmm: It’s really annoying.

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So the data mines were true and some TMs are 1 time use only, except Game Freak tried to be sneaky and called them "TR"s (Technical Records?). Seems you get them either spending Watts which you collect in the Wild Area or participating in Raid Battles. As I thought, it seems the better moves are now TRs, for instance I got Shadow Ball for doing a Duskull raid. So it seems you should be able to get more than 1 but some may be harder to get than others.

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1 hour ago, RedShell said:

Is there anyway to stop this game from automatically using local wireless every 2 seconds? Whenever I return to the Switch home screen while this game is running I notice that I’m disconnected from the internet. :hmm: It’s really annoying.

Yeah, I noticed this... especially annoying as I disabled wireless because I use the Switch exclusively in wired mode unless forced to do otherwise by the game for whatever reason.

Monster Hunter Generations did this and thankfully you could turn it off moreorless immediately but in thid game, it's tied to getting a certain item.

Once you get the Y-Comm apparently there is an option in there which will let you switch back to online mode or something similar to that to make it how it was before.

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4 hours ago, Ike said:

I wouldn't mind a Sobble and Grookey. Can trade some Sword exclusives if you need anyway, but I have no idea what's exculsive to what.

 

3 hours ago, S.C.G said:

Oh snap! Nicely done to you both. :D

I guess I should get to the part in the game where I can actually trade, I only ended up putting an hour or two last night as I've been sorting out video and audio stuff, all good though. :smile:

I tell you what... I only really need a Sobble and Scorbunny for now please, my brother will need two starters as well at some point but... if I already have three starters then I can just get to the point in the game where you can breed them and capture a Ditto, right? Especially as he likely won't be starting the game until December.

I'll try my best to make some more progress before this evening then, also are there any Pokémon either of you need from Sword version in return that I could be looking out for?

Righto, I'll get started on that. I'll be on that in an hour, I'll post in the trading thread when they're ready.

They'll be eggs, so you'll have to run around with them a bit, but at least they'll be under your name.

As for what to give me in return, don't worry about it, I don't know the full extent of the exclusives, but once we finish the game, @Ugh first aid will have me covered on the Sword exclusives. Well, except maybe Sword Dog Cover Legendary, I hope there's a way to get a second one like in Sun/Moon.

Maybe give an item to the Pokémon you trade and chuck it my way?

3 hours ago, GenericAperson said:

I still need a Grookey and a Scorbunny but I don't have anything I want to trade right now as I only have one of each Pokemon out of not wanting to gain too much experience during the game.

If you're worried about EXP gain, you can always catch a Pokémon through Max Raids. They don't give EXP to the Pokémon that takes part. You get candy instead, but you can choose to not use them.

Edited by Glen-i
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Quote

- Engine is an evolved version of Let's Go.
- Wild Area is big, surprisingly high foliage density and nice bloom effect.
- City design more in line with Sun and Moon's standard than Let's Go "grid based" design.
- Locked camera in city helps performance.
- Shadows improved over Sun and Moon, now proper shadows are present outside of battles too.
- Over 400 Pokémon cut, Z-moves, Mega and many online features are removed for increased quality...
- ... but environments are mostly static ("window dressing"), huge repetition of rooms and decorations.
- Texturing is generally of poor quality highlighted by the low camera angle.
- Dynamic shadow system is impressive, but it has a lot of flickering.
- Pop-in is a huge issue, rendering range is extremely limited and almost comical.
- Human character higher detailed than ever, but contrary to Game Freak's pre release statements the Pokémon models were not reworked.
- Lighting and material interactions are sensibly increased over the 3DS, but it does not explain the huge cut of Dex. Why are Pokémon from Let's Go missing if they were already reworked?
- Compared to BotW and Xenoblade 2, the game is "in a lower league".
- Docked res: 1080p indoor, dynamic res outside (864p worse case scenario). Game is more demanding than Let's Go so it justifies the lower res.
- Portable res: 720p dynamic, dynamic res outside (576p worst case scenario).
- Zero AA
- No graphical differences beween portable and docked.
- Performance is 30 fps and it's stable most of the time. Switching into battles momentarely drops the framerate in the 20s and dynamax battles can drop too.

It's actually not a bad showing for Game Freak here really. It's still on the lower-end of what Switch is capable of, but it's a huge step up from where they were on 3DS with X/Y, compared to its contemporaries. X/Y literally looked like DS games and in many ways, actually looked worse than Golden Sun Dark Dawn (while running significantly worse); a game that was released on hardware literally one generation behind the 3DS.

Sun/Moon was a big step up from X/Y, but was still marred by horrendous technical performance; with battles frequently running at a miserable 15FPS and with the game not supporting S3D at all (outside of the Pokemon photo scenes, which run hilariously terribly).

While Sword/Shield aren't going to be setting any benchmarks for Switch performance, I'd definitely put it comfortably above the likes of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It's far from the Switch's best, but the IQ is generally good, the performance is basically a locked 30FPS and it has some nice effects like bokeh depth of field, decent lighting/shadowing & reflections, decent levels of geometric complexity on the environments (not so much human models though) and generally looks pleasant on the eyes. The UI especially is just fantastic, super well designed! With more than a few shades of Persona 5 in there.  I think that's been the most surprising thing about this game to me from a visual standpoint, I wasn't expecting such a slick UI from Game Freak!

The only real complaints I have with the game from a visual standpoint is the pop-up on NPCs, the mediocre texturework/2D backgrounds and the low quality of the human character models, which are pretty low poly and look pretty blocky (the Pokemon themselves are fine though; they're obviously the same models as on 3DS, but they were future proofed and look just fine here).

As far as visuals go? Game Freak have really come leaps and bounds. Sword/Shield do genuinely look good; despite not being top-tier for Switch. And that's just fine.

Edited by Dcubed
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Just hatched my very first egg (ever). It's a Joltik (with a grass move), which I didn't specifically plan with the upcoming (water) gym in mind, but it obviously helps. Currently I've put an ugly Meowth and a normal Meowth in the nursery. I already have an egg, I'll find out what's inside after the gym. I'll train my Joltik a little bit more, it had to start from scratch obviously, but my main team doesn't have a type advantage against water (though no disadvantages either). I'll also catch some spare Farfetcheds for trading at the same time.. I know those are exclusive. Oh just looking at the info.. I see another Pokémon that's exclusive that's in the area, I'll catch those as well.

After the gym I'm going back to the hometown and retrace my steps and watch out for Pokémon I missed. I've noticed the Pokédex actually let's you know which ones you've missed. I'll also explore the Wild Area, I didn't do that the first time around as I encountered 2 Pokémon who kicked my ass back then, so I just headed for the town.

 
  • Leon / Drizzile
  • Bolt Bug / Joltik (temporarily replaced Leviathan / Gyarados for the gym)
  • Falco / Corvisquire
  • Shaun / Dubwool
  • Felicity / Thievul
  • Stitch / Dottler

Edit:

I'm also up for raid battles tonight, though I'm not sure how I can join others.

Edited by Sméagol

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42 minutes ago, Sméagol said:

I'm also up for raid battles tonight, though I'm not sure how I can join others.

First of all, once you connect online with the Y-Comm, there's an option at the bottom of the screen called "Search Stamps" if you select that and choose to filter by "Friends Only" the game will prioritise pop-ups from friends above all the others.

As for joining a raid battle, when you see a stamp on the left of a person pointing at a sihouette of a Pokémon, that means that person is hosting a raid.
Open the Y-comm, move to the right and select that person's message. It should take you straight to the room for that raid.

Careful though, if the host has more badges than you and is fighting a really strong Pokémon, you might not be able to join.

Edited by Glen-i

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21 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

First of all, once you connect online with the Y-Comm, there's an option at the bottom of the screen called "Search Stamps" if you select that and choose to filter by "Friends Only" the game will prioritise pop-ups from friends above all the others.

As for joining a raid battle, when you see a stamp on the left of a person pointing at a sihouette of a Pokémon, that means that person is hosting a raid.
Open the Y-comm, move to the right and select that person's message. It should take you straight to the room for that raid.

Careful though, if the host has more badges than you and is fighting a really strong Pokémon, you might not be able to join.

Ah, I tried that before when I saw your stamps yesterday, but it didn't work.

Also that search stamps barely works, it often doesn't find anything when I search for friends only..

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3 minutes ago, Sméagol said:

Ah, I tried that before when I saw your stamps yesterday, but it didn't work.

Also that search stamps barely works, it often doesn't find anything when I search for friends only..

It's possible that because I have 5 badges, the raids I were doing were too high of a level for you to join. It might be better if the person with the lower amount of badges starts one.

That feature only shows stamps done quite recently. After about 5 minutes, the stamp will disappear. If there's no stamp a friend has done in that time, the filter will fail. Once you get it working once, it'll stay on the Friends filter until you go offline or change the filter.

Edited by Glen-i

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Following video contains a Pokemon spoiler for anyone who hasn't played the game yet. But yeah, I'm posting all the gym fights as videos on Youtube.

 

 

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46 minutes ago, GenericAperson said:

Following video contains a Pokemon spoiler for anyone who hasn't played the game yet. But yeah, I'm posting all the gym fights as videos on Youtube.

 

 

Is that a Edgar Allan Poe reference? If so, I like it.

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Quoth? It's meant to be the name of a Raven from Discworld. My team is British fiction names, which is why I also have James Bond, K9 and now Lancelot on the team.

 

Oh yeah, speaking of which, I have a Sirfetch'd on my team now. Unfortuantely I had the evolution method spoilt by reading the comments of a tweet from @Serebii but in more surprising news K9 the Yamper has evolved. Interestingly it's the exact same level Rockruff evolves.

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59 minutes ago, GenericAperson said:

Quoth? It's meant to be the name of a Raven from Discworld. My team is British fiction names, which is why I also have James Bond, K9 and now Lancelot on the team.

Hmm, I think Terry Pratchett got some inspiration from The Raven. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48860/the-raven

Or The Simpsons like where I learnt it from.

 

Is an obscure method to evoke Farfetch'd?

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4 minutes ago, Ike said:

Hmm, I think Terry Pratchett got some inspiration from The Raven. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48860/the-raven

Or The Simpsons like where I learnt it from.

 

Is an obscure method to evoke Farfetch'd?

Yes. You don't need to level it up, just achieve a certain criteria in one battle.

 

On another note, I need to know for team planning:

 

Does anyone know if the Galarian Stunfisk evolves?

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