A few words on SwSh… I wrote all of this on a particularly inspired night in December 2022 and I had to get this post off before I can talk about Violet!
Because it took me three years (I was determined to finish it before I could even think to purchase Violet), there’s not much I can remember about it, just the bit at the end. It was a solid story! Team Yell’s mission was a fun change. I think there’s something to be said about Piers’ reluctance to Dynamax his Pokémon and like, some global warming/renewable energy shit, but that’s a conversation for another time.
I haven’t beat Sun yet (or did I own Moon?), so I can’t definitively say this is a theme they explored before, but I really liked the way catching the box art legendary Pokémon worked! Usually the capture of this Pokémon comes after the Team [insert here] events arrive at their climax, and just before the Elite 4. ✨ In Shield, the legendary Pokémon you catch first is not even on the box. In fact, and this may very well be because I paid attention to no promotional media before the game, I wasn’t even aware this Pokémon had existed! Looking back, its power was probably hinted at the whole time — not as a tangible Pokémon, but as an act of god/nature.
✨ And I’m only talking about box art legendaries by the way! Pokémon Yellow, Blue, and Red had the starters on the box and who’s not to say they’re not legendary? Pretty powerful, can only be “encountered” once… 👀
And so I was thinking (because I was inspired and had a lot on my mind, lol): what makes a starter, a starter?Why are they so rare that you can only get one of them? Does that mean they’re an endangered species, or is there actually an Oshawott colony somewhere?
🔥 (Another side note, but Charizard is truly one of the best Fire-type starters out there. I recently stumbled across a picture of Pokémon from the first anime, and its design says so much despite being so simple. It’s a large, fire breathing lizard with wings — but it has the heart of a Dragon. No wonder it’s popular! Ken Sugimori really snapped with that design. There is a reason why no other Charizard form has caught on with me like the original… they do too much.
I think the design of Mewtwo succeeds in this way as well. Compared to all of the more natural (and sometimes mythological or supernatural) shapes of the original 150, Mewtwo looks hardened and bitter by its experience. You’re supposed to think that it was created by man, and it was. The newer legendaries nowadays, simply say too much. There’s a legendary Pokémon with a shield for a face…
But it’s not all hateration and holleration in this dancerie, I really liked the secondary legendary in Pokémon X/Y! And I could go on about legendaries and mythicals all day, but I’ve already digressed too much…)
The story of the obstacle before capturing either Nacian or Zamazenta was a little flimsy (Swordward? Shielbert? Seriously?), but I enjoyed that they made you work to earn that legendary (which I didn’t have to use my Master Ball to catch, thank you very much). In most cases the other box legendary would simply vanish in the wind, never to be seen or heard of again — unless you were blessed by a generous friend and a link cable. Here, rival Hop has the honor of catching it… and using it against you your final match against each other. I also have to say I really liked the way Sword/Shield wrapped up the relationship between the two. I don’t remember liking any of my rivals in X/Y, so this was a welcome improvement.
I was also constantly blown away by the graphics; I can’t say I remember much of Sun/Moon, but the environment was lush and getting to see the Pokémon in the Wild Area was always delightful (I remember wishing that there was more wild area, but Scarlet/Violet has taught me that may be too much of a bad thing…)
I can’t say I was a fan of Dynamaxing or the Game Freak tradition of eliminating old Pokémon mechanics… again. It simply didn’t provide enough visual differences like Mega Evolutions did (which greatly made up for the fact that not all Pokémon were Mega eligible). A Gengar was just a Gengar, unless you managed to get lucky and find one with obscenely open maw.
Speaking of getting lucky, I found raids to be a miserable experience. Sometimes there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to succeeding in defeating a Dynamax Pokémon, even with type advantages or a level difference. I started going out of my way to avoid them. And let’s not speak of the CPU trainers…
I also don’t know how I felt about the Champion’s Cup. Beating a gym leader once used to mean something!
Overall, it was a great game! Way too criticized for not having a complete Pokédex, but I think the game makes up for it in other ways. I wish I beat it sooner so that I could spend more time playing the DLC and completing my Pokédex.
