Pokémon Master Sword and Hylian Shield - Which box legendary is best? (LEAK-FREE ZONE FROM PAGE 7 ONWARDS)

Balladeer wrote:

We've got less than a week until this launches.  With that in mind, I'd like to get some discussion going, and for that I'm going to declare this a LEAK-FREE ZONE for the foreseeable future.  That includes later details revealed by TPC itself: so no Galarian forms, no Gigantamax forms, and no new Pokémon revealed after the electric corgi thing.

With that in mind, who's excited?  I am!  It's my anniversary weekend this weekend and I can't wait to spend almost an entire day playing this with The Lady and not talking.  Still a bit annoyed about being lumbered with Shield though.

Double-posting to start a new, leak-free page!

Shield got the better exclusive Mon that we know and gym.

Ha! Stick that in your pipe The Lady! (Also, don’t smoke a pipe. Only geese should smoke pipes.)

I'm doing my old tradition that I started in Gen 4, I'll get probably shield here in Aus and import Sword from Japan, so that way I can play both

Ooh you big spender Shanks.

Also, very important: what are people’s nickname conventions going to be? I’m thinking of giving all my ‘Mons four-letter words for names (not that kind (probably)).

I don't give them names

I don't normally give them names but might this time with some of you lot or something

I called my XY squad after GNamer forumites. It was fun.

Also, without linking to any of it: the absolute state of Pokémon Twitter.

Honestly if they're raging over what I suspect they're raging over (wouldn't know, twitter is literally the most toxic place on the internet) I can't say I disagree with the sentiment.

I won't go into spoilers, but the things that have been brought to my attention are pretty dang unacceptable in a full-priced retail game.  A ridiculous amount of removed Pokemon for absolutely no gain (they claimed it was because of models, and yet the game reuses the 3ds assets).   The visual presentation is shockingly bad, normally mocking a game by saying "it looks like a ps2 game!" is hyperbolic, but the footage I saw showed graphics that indeed do look inline with a PS2-era game.  

There's a gif floating around of a late-game cutscene, in this cutscene (which takes place during a pivotal moment in the story) a canine-esque Pokemon moves by rotating on the spot while its walking animation plays.  It literally walks on the spot while rotating.  

Now in a world where they hadn't literally axed so many Pokemon I guarantee you at least half your favourites from each gen didn't make the cut I suspect people wouldn't be so angry.  Visually the game is one of the laziest games I've seen (I do not exaggerate when I say I've seen more technically-proficient games from extremely small devs on extremely small budgets), but what's set the tinder to the bushland is that they had the absolute gall to say that a vast amount of old Pokemon were cut because "they want the game to be the best it can be".  And remember that this is a full console-priced entry too!

There are other severe issues with the game as well, but as that information is gleaned entirely from leaks courtesy of people who got the game early (as opposed to everything else that used information from official material) I won't bring them up beyond saying that the visuals are not the only issue the game has.  

And if I sound highly critical, well.  Let's just say after taking a very measured hour to research what all the fuss was about what I discovered turned the game from a probable Black Friday shopping spree purchase to a "I'll get to it when I get to it, plenty of other better jrpgs in the ocean".  At least it made the choice for what Switch game I buy and play next very easy (its title starts with an X)  #Dexit

Didn't know Reddit changed its name to Twitter

A few points directly and indirectly on that.

1. I think that the Pokémon series has problems and that Game Freak have been jolly lethargic about fixing some of them.  Reading reviews, it seems like the same thing has carried on here.  However, from what I’ve seen all of those potentially valid points are being overshadowed by Dexit.  The two are not entirely independent but Dexit has some good reasons (see point 2), and at this rate Dexit feedback is all Game Freak are going to see because it’s so ubiquitous.  I reckon the sheer volume of National Dex complaints make it less likely that other points are going to be fixed, and more likely that Gen. 9 will use the same technically flawed engine/game with all the Pokémon in.

2. There are too many Pokémon.  This is only an opinion, I guess, but come on!  There are a thousand of the buggers now.  This leads to things like power creep, a ridiculous ‘Dex completion exercise for those who don’t have several previous games, and monsters being swamped.  It’s just bloated.  Gating the amount off on a generation-by-generation basis seems like the best approach, and if not, please suggest a better one.  I’m all ears, unless it’s ‘allow them all in the postgame’, which doesn’t solve the problems above.  This may not be the reason GF have given for their choices, which is a whole other matter, but the angry petty backlash on Twitter/Reddit started before their confused reasoning came out.  The fact remains that Dexit is not unequivocally bad thing.  As a competitive player I’d have thought you’d agree, Athers.

3. Because of the above I’ve come to associate the #Dexit hashtag with some of the worst and pettiest parts of Pokémon Twitter.  I’m afraid that hashtag is not a good look, no matter how valid the reasons.  Also, it’s a stupid term, but I am definitely part of that problem.

4. Game Freak has always been kind of lazy with updating engines.  This is not an excuse and they should be challenged to do more.  Still, anyone surprised at the lack of technological advancement, even given the ‘only’ 400 monsters, has to admit that perhaps they should have seen this coming.

5. While reviews suggest that the technology is indeed flawed, the specific dog example given sounds like Mas’ objection to the Xenoblade sandwich scene and made me chuckle.

I’m not trying to change opinions here because this is the Internet (apart from maybe that hashtag ), just present a counterpoint.  Ultimately the thing that you (Athrun) are doing, not getting sucked into the Twitter rage fest and simply not buying the game if you don’t fancy it, is the right thing to do.  As, incidentally, is playing XC2 first.  Belting game that.


EDIT: This is, I think, good.  It doesn't exonerate Game Freak, but only Game Freak the publisher's shareholder: it emphasises the developer is beholden to the behemoth that is The Pokémon Company, and the Pokémon merchandising train, and that is fair.

Anyway, my copy hasn't arrived yet, which is good because I want to start it with The Lady and finish Floor 7 in Luigi's Mansion 3 and write more and aaaaaaaah this evening.  Can't wait for the weekend though!

I've just reached the 4th gym. I'm liking the game so far but not got my team really down as I'll soon get a Ponyta which I could trade one for farfetch that would mean two Mon would drop also lacking a fire type which meant I did struggle against the grass gym.

The game is fun play and sometimes does look great but the wild area along with some textures aren't pretty. The thing is we know the Switch can do more when you see BotW, Witcher 3 and DQXI are available for instance.

The fact that the 'Dexit' argument has been so strongly linked with animations not improving (since they said that was the reason for cutting pokemon and people have jumped on it), means surely that Game Freak or their paymasters have taken note of that. If they are going to choose to address it that is.

Don't know if it has had any noticeable impact on sales - like the game was always going to sell very well regardless and would be further boosted by the effect the Switch has on series, but maybe there's a chance it didn't hit an expectation they had prior to the furore. I don't know. Although when I picked Sword up at Game there was quite a queue for it (note: not the midnight launch), which I haven't seen personally since I was queueing up to order a Wii way back when. Granted, I don't visit Game or game shops much in general these days.

Want to be clear here though: I don't begrudge Game Freak at all, personally. Have been guilty of calling them somewhat lazy/greedy myself in the past but, well, I got the game and have been enjoying it, and I read that enlightening Twitter thread. Don't want to get too bogged down into it since all the points have been made already, but of course there are legit criticisms of the game and if people want to boycott the game to send a message or because they don't think they'll like it then that's fine.

I was sort of cold on the game before it released, but like with a lot of games all it took was watching a little bit of a playthrough to give me a nudge. It does take after Sun/Moon, but those are some of my favourite Pokemon games. Graphical issues aside I like the aesthetic and little flourishes. And all the trainer customisation options... Spent a lot of time just dolling up my avatar, as well as most of my pokedollars.

Only a little ways past the first gym since I play these games at a glacial pace. Talking to every person and doing every little side thing and then talking to them again in case they have new text or because I forgot I talked to them. Not even caught all that many pokemon I don't think, though I have been trying to catch every new one I see. As well as doing some max raids with people and customising my trainer.

My trainer is all in black and looks like prime hipster material, apart from his solid gold backpack. The female trainer options are much better.

I am seeing some signs of rushed development here. The prime one is the cut-scenes, which look a lot like they were meant to have voice acting, but don't so they're a bit rubbish and also un-fast-forwardable. There's also the rather dull flat layout of the Wild Area. BotW's Hyrule it ain't. This is all TPC's fault, natch, not GF's, as discussed above.

However, my big grip remains the same as it has for everyone generation except three: there is no reason to allow veterans not to skip the catching tutorial and it makes me patronised and infuriated to have to sit through it. This is 100% Game Freak and there's no way it'll ever get addressed given the furore about unimportant things like Pokémon being cut. (That said, they cut Pokémon and decided to keep the Timburr and Roggenrola lines? Christ. )

Anyway, I have a team of six new monsters. Nickit's my fave, Gossifleur is just there for team balance. There are some good new designs and some really bad ones (Sizzlipede ). Same as always. I'm enjoying it! I just have gripes.

Oh, and the nicknaming convention became English cricketers.

You can skip it though

Yeah the catching tutorial was automatically skipped for me as I had already caught some pokemon by that point.

Y’wot? I’d swear I didn’t get this option! I wasn’t even able to capture Pokémon pre-tutorial. How did you find the skip option Mas?

Caught Pokémon like Krik said but I'm sure either way it asks you.

Also my girl looks great.

Can't remember when exactly, but your mum gives you some pokeballs before it. This is how it played out for me:

https://clips.twitch.tv/CuriousTawdryAubergineNerfRedBlaster

I've got a favour to ask one of you.

A trade:

First impressions (based on the first ten hours) are that this is enjoyable, but I'm not seeing much that's new. Still, the core formula has been class for twenty years now, so I don't think that's too big an issue.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I've got a favour to ask one of you.

A trade:

First impressions (based on the first ten hours) are that this is enjoyable, but I'm not seeing much that's new. Still, the core formula has been class for twenty years now, so I don't think that's too big an issue.

If you still need it traded I'll help. I have my own pumpkaboo I want to evolve too.

Kriken wrote:

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I've got a favour to ask one of you.

A trade:

First impressions (based on the first ten hours) are that this is enjoyable, but I'm not seeing much that's new. Still, the core formula has been class for twenty years now, so I don't think that's too big an issue.

If you still need it traded I'll help. I have my own pumpkaboo I want to evolve too.

Aye, please! If we can arrange a time over the next couple of nights, that would be magic! My Friend Code is SW-5081-5767-0807 

Cool cool, I'm free the next couple of evenings. Can do about 7pm or later tomorrow.

That would be great! I'm going to be free between now and 10pm!

Cool, ready to trade with you now. I think I sent you a friend request.