Is Wally a BAD RIVAL in Pokémon?
40:56
The appeal of Pokémon Snap
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9 ай бұрын
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28:15
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25:16
Пікірлер
@frogmouth2
@frogmouth2 Сағат бұрын
Humanity will be exploring other galaxies and still not know the answer to “what would Pokémon Z have been”
@Wolfman9211
@Wolfman9211 2 күн бұрын
Now that I listen to this 14:58 , the poke in leaks make sense. The stories about people and Pokémon and love? That’s right here in ultra sun and moon. Has no one else made these connections?
@qoganjacks146
@qoganjacks146 3 күн бұрын
8:56 it's definitely the situation I'm in right now. I didn't know I can find fiddlehead Fern in Secret Wood during Summer, now I'm suffering through those mother fcking Skull Caverns for that.
@irongrin99
@irongrin99 12 күн бұрын
I don't remember much from my first playthrough of Blue (I was 10-12 I think). Don't recall getting stuck on getting surf, probably because I've always had this annoying habit of sticking to the walls to make sure I never miss something in a new area (this goes for all games basically), I do a sweep left to right pattern basically. I might've had a physical guide book at some point, not sure if it was for Blue or later for Crystal (which I recommend next!). Didn't have overleveled starter (think my final team was Blastoise, Lapras, Snorlax, Sandslash, Pidgeot and I think Raichu (or Dragonite)). I think I did have an HM slave on and off though.
@prezmer
@prezmer 12 күн бұрын
I'm definitely putting her through crystal next, it's my favorite game in the series after all! And regarding surf, yeah, I was honestly surprised at how many people had issues finding it. Doesn't seem like something that would get that many people stuck, but alas, youtube videos on how to find it are thriving to this day lmao. Thank you for the comment, and for sharing your own experiences with the game!
@Defoozor
@Defoozor 12 күн бұрын
1:20:32 did you just smack his poor noggin
@prezmer
@prezmer 12 күн бұрын
LMAO! I prefer to think of it as a single head pat. Just, you know, went a bit overboard on the strength, happens to all of us.
@Taladar2003
@Taladar2003 17 күн бұрын
This game was easily one of the most stressful games I ever played. People keep telling you that you don't need to do any of that but I just can't see how it is relaxing to be severely limited by stamina and slow walking and passing out while getting a huge number of goals thrown in your face on day one like meeting literally everyone in the town. Not to mention that the NPCs are super-generic so meeting them feels extremely unrewarding.
@esecretlangel9130
@esecretlangel9130 17 күн бұрын
If I had the ability to alter two aspects of Sword and Shield, I would 1. Have the whole energy crisis been much earlier. - In the games, the crisis occurs 1000 years in the future, whereas in the anime, it occurs approximately 10 years later. 2. Have there be some legitiment reason as to why it could wait until after the match. - Have there be some reason as to why it has to happen, Something like a meteorite that's needed that will appear on the day of the match, and this is the only time it will appear before the energy crisis.
@Khalith
@Khalith 18 күн бұрын
Sword and Shield was my second ever pokemon game and I really did enjoy it and have fun. Zacian is the coolest legendary ever (in my opinion) and the soccer arena gyms were pretty cool. Also that gym leader battle theme goes hard. The wild area was horribly undercooked though which was unfortunate. Overall, im glad I played it. I even completed all the Pokedex entries for the base game and dlc’s.
@turkoositerapsidi
@turkoositerapsidi 19 күн бұрын
Mints do not change the pokémons nature, they change the natures effects on stats. And I think its good, because it would not feel right to make the pokémon change a part of its personality in my opinion.
@SaturnsHub
@SaturnsHub 19 күн бұрын
It feels like every few years now I see a video titled "Wasted potential of [Pokemon game title here]" sigh. they aren't wrong.
@MewGamer-bj9in
@MewGamer-bj9in 27 күн бұрын
Yes
@ricetanooki8655
@ricetanooki8655 28 күн бұрын
I love Wally, but he is one of the worst rivals in the franchise due to how much potential he had. I mean, he is nothing. He barely appears through out the game. Outside of the people in his house and his uncles, there's no other mention about him until we fight with him. It's terrible. The remakes added a good chunk of elements that helped him, but it wasn't enough. In my opinion, he is just better than the rival from Gen 6, but not better than that. I like him a lot tho, he's charming as heck and Gen 3 is pretty nostalgic to many fans, so it's reasonable to hold him dearly.
@ingonyama70
@ingonyama70 Ай бұрын
One thing I noticed: The flowers in Wally's battle arena are Japanese red spider lilies, which are often associated with death, loss, and grief. I don't know what that means but those flowers are hard to draw, so including them feels like a deliberate choice.
@markgoldspink5109
@markgoldspink5109 Ай бұрын
Great fun, just got round to playing it. (No idea who will see this - but who was the woman leaving a door and locking it - if it was Veronica, why didn't she say anything?)
@islmokiboi
@islmokiboi Ай бұрын
How come they put X & y on the switch game?
@islmokiboi
@islmokiboi Ай бұрын
I like the all shinny pokmon
@Big_Dai
@Big_Dai Ай бұрын
@1:47:55 Why!? You can have your own opinion! You know? If anything, the fact that you think GameFreak owes YOU or anyone anything of quality is the thing that should be discussed. They own PKMN and if they don't want to put anything out, what are you or the community going to do about it? There's no alternative.. and if the release a turd, it is proven that people will buy it. They don't have to work hard and get paid a LOT. If anything, they should release the crap they make and stay quiet, instead trying to worm their way out of a "bind" with lies. Palworld comes out and is successful. And even though it barely resembles a PKMN game, GF and Nintendo's legal team will go for their throats.. because they don't want competition. Again, you don't "deserve better" and all this complaining won't do anything if you keep buying them and worshiping their awful products by all these "safe" statements because you are afraid your video won't be "liked and shared".
@kingarcadian
@kingarcadian Ай бұрын
looks solid will try it tanx 4 the rev
@enorma29
@enorma29 Ай бұрын
if i play the n64 one and i like it, and if i can find a used copy of the switch one for piss-cheap, then maybe i'll play it.
@Illusive1313
@Illusive1313 Ай бұрын
The main reason why pokemon games in general are getting worse is simply the fans buying every garbage. They could create Pokemon Turd and Fart and it would sell.
@KStarPR
@KStarPR 2 ай бұрын
My take is that both stories take place in their own realities and both come across as a bit forced, but I generally prefer Lusamine's unhinged abusive behavior in the original + Lillie's scenes with her. The decision to change that in the Ultra games really sorta muddies up her character & detracts from Lillie's, plus I feel as if a lot of the new stuff like the Ultra Recon Squad were sorta poorly mixed in to the game, being shoved in with little to no consideration for how it changes the story & experience. For all those reasons, I really can't bring myself to say the Ultra games are equal or even improvements, especially when considering Lillie & Lusamine as characters. Both definitely needed more time to cook, though. Sun & Moon feels unfinished & the Ultra games feel haphazardly put together.
@wijinsama
@wijinsama 2 ай бұрын
Imo, I think players say a rival like Wally is bad because "hEs nOt a JeRk rIvAl". It's still players with the narrow-minded notion that if the rival isnt an a**hole, then he's not interesting. Or if not in your face 24/7, then he or she isnt good.
@sleeplessbeauty86
@sleeplessbeauty86 2 ай бұрын
Just wanted to say I found your channel at like 4 in the morning when I couldn't sleep and saw your Pokemon X and Y video. It was extremely well done, so I can't wait to watch this one and all your other ones as well!! Also, Sword is lowkey one of my favorites in the series as crazy as that sounds. Part of it is because I hadn't touched a Pokemon game in years, and I decided to pick this one up after putting my sick dog to sleep and needing some comfort. I immediately fell in love with the lil fire rabbit and the rest is history. ❤
@prezmer
@prezmer 2 ай бұрын
Thank you so much for this comment, it really helped bring a smile to an otherwise terrible day. I'm really sorry to hear about your dog, and I'm glad Sword/Shield were able to provide you with the comfort you needed - as much as possible anyway, given that nothing but time really helps with the loss of a loved one. I hope this video does your opinion of the games justice. I really do like gen 8 as well, but like gen 6, it could've been a lot better. Perhaps when they get around to the remakes...
@harley3211
@harley3211 2 ай бұрын
Your accent switches between rhotic and non-rhotic at an alarming rate
@AmberyTear
@AmberyTear 2 ай бұрын
The first 2 times I tried to play the game, lack of information was most stressful. Nowadays only the time makes me tense but everything else is fine. Luckily, I'm not a perfectionist.
@RougaRouKJun
@RougaRouKJun 2 ай бұрын
I love and play this game, I don’t take it very seriously, I don’t talk to villagers, I have most of my community center done and I’m on year 2, I guess I just don’t care if I experience every single bite of content in the game. I’m also a rpg guy so I get what this type of game really is, it’s relaxin of you let it. Nothing in this game is forcing you to do anything, that’s your ambition driving the bus
@St0nk5
@St0nk5 2 ай бұрын
i replayed this recently on a emulator to help with the grind, fun times. my only issue was some digimon being locked behind eggs
@killerdoogz2019
@killerdoogz2019 2 ай бұрын
I love how stress inducing this game is
@stagelights_
@stagelights_ 2 ай бұрын
the original sun and moon have a better story but usum is a better experience as a video game to play i think. i wish there was a game that had the best of both worlds though.
@one_smol_duck
@one_smol_duck 2 ай бұрын
I think what I love about Stardew Valley and what I find so relaxing is that it discourages perfectionism. I'm typically very prone to perfectionism, but somehow Stardew Valley pulled me into a more relaxed mindset the minute I opened my first game. I didn't want to speedrun, I didn't want to minmax, I didn't even want to fish until Willy suggested the training rod tbh because that was hard and I wasn't having fun. The game is just so forgiving when you mess up. I also find the seasonal system relaxing rather than stressful. If I miss something one year I know I'll have a second chance next year. None of this is to shut down people who find the game stressful, to be clear. Just giving my perspective. Everyone has different preferences and play styles.
@Flower_Mom
@Flower_Mom 2 ай бұрын
I loved the story in Sun/Moon. I feel like it was pretty dark, at least by Pokemon standards. Lillie is probably my favorite character in the entire series. I've never played the Ultra versions because of the story changes even if those versions have a lot of improvements.
@FrostLotto
@FrostLotto 2 ай бұрын
I enjoyed this video and your way of talking through the story. I loved SWSH when it came out because it reignited my love for this franchise, the game although their mistakes and flaws was super fun to me, and the pokedex being amazing, the gym challenge being my new favourite thing was a lot of fun. I agree that this game has some missed opportunities and wasted potential. One thing I don't agree is the thing that your character isn't involved in the story. I think it's a different approach. I've seen a lot of complaints in videos and comments about other gens being you the one who saves the region instead of the gym leaders or the champion. Like, why Cynthia nor Looker help much through the story in gen 4, why both champions in gen 3 do nothing when there are 2 evil team organisations? It’s something that doesn’t bother me, but I’ve seen quite a lot of criticism with this topic and in this one, adults and the champion act like a champion. Leon goes around the region saving people and helping to make you focus on the gym challenge that for once was actually important to the region and made into a big deal. I understand that it's different from other games and makes your character seem less important, but this also enhances the champion's strength. He is the most dominant champion ever and delivers in his actions as the most important trainer on the region. When you become champion, you are the one that takes on everything, enhancing the name of the champion. If this was the case of every game it wouldn’t be as good, but for this game I think it works pretty well, because of how strong the champion actually is. It’s not perfect by any means, but if there is a generation where this could work is gen 8, having important adults that take care of the region and the strongest champion ever. What I feel you can’t do is talk how this is a game, not the real world and because it’s a game they should let you go deep into the story, but when talking about the storming of Rose Tower you bring it to the real world because storming the CEOs office would get you fired, when it’s a game and it works well this way. If you weren’t capable of entering the tower you would complain that they don’t let you in, but when they do, it wouldn’t work in the real world. It feels a little hypocritical to me. And don’t get me wrong I get your point, and as a player of course it’s better to play an active part on the story, but if there was a game in the franchise that could do this and make sense is swsh. I also get the frustration of the story's climax because it seems so stupid, with the 1000 years into the future premise, but after playing the game a couple times and thinking about it, I think Rose wasn't as concerned with saving the region as fast as possible, and wanted to see if Leon felt the same way as him and if the region was a second thought for him or was a priority like it was for Rose. I believe that his character motivation to unleash a new darkest day was driven by this line of thought and the 1000 years into the future was just a bad line of dialogue. The manga like you said clears the plot quite a bit to make it, at least, make sense.There were a lot of better ways to write a story like this, that made more sense and had more cohesion. It's a low in this game for sure. The "postgame" was stupid, the bad hair guys were atrocious and easily the worst part of the game. Thank god DLCs were good, especially The Crown Tundra, which was amazing. Another note you made is that how is this game the first one that doesn't feature a Victory Road, and it's something i personally dont like because i like to explore dungeons, but your excuse to "In a game where battles are a sport how can there not be a victory road?" it's a lame excuse. In a region where the battles are the most important thing, it makes no sense to have a cave where no one is going to see those battles, that's why the "league" is anime style and it's made of a tournament instead of 4 consecutive battles that no one will ever see. It makes more sense lore wise to go straight to the televised matches instead of a random ass cave with some trainers nobody cares about. Let me also correct you in a phrase you said. You said that the anime and manga are concrete evidence of how much is missing in the game and it’s not correct. The game came out first and it has a mediocre to bad story but anime and manga complete what the game started not the other way around. It’s not that is missing a lot in the game due to anime and manga. If this was the case, gen 2 or 3 anime and manga would be the same case because of much sense they put into the story and motivations of archi and maxie and wrap up the story that it make sense. The game has missing bits of story, that’s a fact, but stating that they are incomplete because of the anime and manga it’s not true. Answering your question about voice acting, to me it would've made a bad impression. I don't need it. The was only a moment in Piers presentation that made sense to have voice acting but it wasn't something that took me out. This way i can imagine what there voices would sound and add more personality to their characters. This said, if they implement this in future games, good if not good as well. Wait people hate Hop?lol why he’s the best written character in the game and the best, if not one of the best written rivals in the franchise. Good analysis on Hop’s character arc. I commented things that are just nitpicky, i agree most things you commented, like the story plotholes, lack of exploration or dungeons (like why is the powerplant where you fight Rose not a dungeon?) and more but there are some of your complaints that feel so forced and needed to comment them. I hope I wasn't to harsh with the writing. Good video.
@ReelRai
@ReelRai 2 ай бұрын
Personally I think X and Y had the perfect artstyle, it still had that classic charm of the older games, while having this really cute 3D aspect to it.
@lordinfernape4753
@lordinfernape4753 2 ай бұрын
FRLG are good but they couldve been so much better
@lordinfernape4753
@lordinfernape4753 2 ай бұрын
Saying "its a ruby/saphire remake, not emerald" is so stupid imo First of all, the fact thay we let gamefreak slide with the fact that they remake the worse versions of a game is crazy And second, even if ur gonna use the worse version titles, why tf wpuldnt u include the upgrades of the deluxe verion (Emerald), aint that the point of remaking a game?
@TeamZapperz
@TeamZapperz 2 ай бұрын
Likely every kid won't know that we can't catch 'em all in one version... We need to buy 'em all to catch 'em all! Edit: I hope you and your gf stay together forever, like Ash and Pikachu!
@prezmer
@prezmer 2 ай бұрын
@@TeamZapperz True actually! I certainly had no idea I couldn’t find them all in one game as a kid. Though I have to say it didn’t come up with my gf’s playthrough, she was happy with whatever she could find. And thank you so much for your heartwarming edit!!!
@thelegendofxander
@thelegendofxander 2 ай бұрын
Thank you Pris' gf for her noble sacrifice. This video is amazing, Pris, so thank you too! I know I'm heavily biased but I think making her play Dark Souls would be so sick.
@prezmer
@prezmer 2 ай бұрын
No, thank YOU for watching!!!!!
@luisrufini1013
@luisrufini1013 2 ай бұрын
I had the same trouble with getting to Saffron when I was a kid as well. Five year old me didn't understand english,so I was stuck after Blaine for like a week. My Charizard was very high level. Guess it's a common problem for brazilians. But gen 2 was even worse. I had no idea how to leave Violet city,so I was stuck with a bunch of level 30/40 mons in the start of the game.
@prezmer
@prezmer 2 ай бұрын
I had the same experience at the same age lmao only difference was I never got to blaine before Saffron because I found the water before I found surf. Both were huge hurdles for me. I'm curious to see other replies on this because I have a feeling even native speakers were stuck when they were kids... the game doesn't really give you a good hint about where to find the drink for the guard. The best I could find was the celadon mart saying there were vending machines at the rooftop but that's super obscure. And regarding Violet, that's so interesting! How were you stuck? It's been a while but weren't you just required to finish violet gym to progress?
@luisrufini1013
@luisrufini1013 2 ай бұрын
@@prezmer The Saffron thing seens to be the standard. I just asked my wife and she had the same problem we had. Her brother knew how to get water. About Violet,I didn't know I had to pick up the Togepi egg. So I had no clue what to do. I was stuck beating Sentrets for some time.My friend got the egg randomly one day. We felt like we were so smart.
@prezmer
@prezmer 2 ай бұрын
@@luisrufini1013 Oh yeah!!! The togepi egg! I completely forgot about that! I'm planning on putting my girlfriend through crystal soon, that video's thumbnail might just be "How the heck do I leave Violet city?!" lmao
@luisrufini1013
@luisrufini1013 2 ай бұрын
@@prezmer Lol that's cool. Hope she enjoys Johto,it's my favorite gem.
@TheEternalBlackHole
@TheEternalBlackHole 2 ай бұрын
Yay Prezmer uploaded :D
@prezmer
@prezmer 2 ай бұрын
Thanks for the excitement!!!
@TheEternalBlackHole
@TheEternalBlackHole 2 ай бұрын
@@prezmer no problem, this video was really fun to watch. If you and your girlfriend were thinking of doing another video similar to this in the future I would recommend any Gen 2/Johto game just to go in order of release haha
@prezmer
@prezmer 2 ай бұрын
@@TheEternalBlackHole That's the plan! Going to put her through Crystal soon, just not yet sure if it'll be the next game or if I'm trying a different franchise so she can have a rest from pokémon between games. 10+ pokémon games in a row has got to be tiring lmao
@Scarftail
@Scarftail 3 ай бұрын
I don't actually have a problem with Lusamine being turned into a flawed hero. The way it was _executed_ was atrocious. Instead of writing a whole new script like Masuda implied during the reveal, all the altered or new lines of dialogue in this game were surrounded by mounds of copy-pasted dialogue from the original games, so it naturally leads to sloppy nonsense like Lusamine saying "Calling me mother? I don't have any children!" followed by "My fathomless love will save even someone like you!" There's also the matter of Lusamine fighting so hard to try to retrieve Nebby when the Ultra Recon Squad _already had a Solgaleo/Lunana that you ended up using to open a wormhole after Necrozma left with Nebby._ It's such a mess. Like, you can tell the Sun/Moon story was specifically written around Nebby and the Aether Foundation while the new elements in the Ultra versions were simply shoehorned into it. I think I was always going to prefer the original story and its focus on dear friends helping each other through their problems instead of one that was centered around stopping a wronged Legendary Pokémon like so many other entries, but it would've been more acceptable to me if it was genuinely original.
@regionfuego6
@regionfuego6 3 ай бұрын
You know, what's funny is that I really just can't stand the pokemon manga, because while it fixes a lot of characters, it also has a weird plot that in my opinion, most often than not ruins the game's plot. Or at least just does things that isn't "pokemon"
@regionfuego6
@regionfuego6 3 ай бұрын
Here's my perspective. First of with why Lillie is dressed up like Nihilego in USUM: Is just reused assets, I think we can confidently just agree this is just GF being lazy on how they present the story. And to my perspective with Lusamine, she's turning to a different outlet to cope with grief. As other people have pointed out, Nihilego could be an allegory for alcohol and abuse. Lusamine in SM could be argued to be an allegory for an abusive parent that's struggling with addiction. And that was really powerful for a lot of people. Now, I don't blame people for liking this version of Lusamine, and even relating to Lillie, just like I don't blame them from expecting these characters to be the same in USUM. But I think the core difference is the outlet that Lusamine took in USUM. Perhaps instead of Nihilego she encountered the Ultra Recon Squad and that gave her another coping mechanism. As I interpret USUM, she's not an abusive parent, but rather a neglectful one. She's hyper focused with work and claims to be doing all of it for her family and Alola, but in doing so she's losing track of what's important. In my eyes, USUM is NOT an abusive parent, she's neglecting her children (and I know is a form of abuse but that's not the point) and turned into a workaholic. As I said, I understand why some people think is bad that in USUM Lusamine is "forgive", but I think the context is what's important here. One Lusamine was aggressive and controlling to her children, directly putting them through stress. The other wasn't there, focusing on her job to save the very family she was losing behind her back.
@rockmanfan5104
@rockmanfan5104 3 ай бұрын
Whats wrong with the artstyle in lets go?? How smooth brained are pokemon fans? So smooth its mind blowing
@prezmer
@prezmer 3 ай бұрын
I actually like the artstyle, it was just a common complaint back during release for some reason. But I think public perception shifted over time to some degree, nowadays I see a lot more positive comments.
@InsertFunnyThingHere
@InsertFunnyThingHere 3 ай бұрын
Accidentally made wall of text again but TL;DR Rose plotline is bafflingly stupid literally any other way to go about it would have been better and there's no way this thing got through the development process unless it was rushed out last second. Another thing about Rose just summoning eternatus for no good reason is that you could have simply madeit so the energy crisis was coming earlier (maybe something like 5-10 years, or you could instead imply that in 10 years or so there'll just be "no turning back" and the crisis would be guaranteed to happen pr something) and had Rose say something along the lines of "hey man I'm not gonna be chairman forever i wanna like leave a legacy and stuff imagine how good it'll look on me to be THE GUY that prevented an energy crisis by taking down a giant murder dragon". Alternatively you could ditch the energy crisis excuse entirely and make it so Rose pretends eternatus "just showed up out of nowhere woopsie" when the whole thing was just a publicity stunt to make either himself or Leon look better, and based on that you can either take the easy way of making Leon not know about it and make Rose be some sort of crazy PR manager, or you can take the harder high effort route and make Leon be in on it and potentially have them frame the whole incident as the Player's fault since Rose and Leon feel threatened that this new rising talent could upstage Leon and his unbeatable status so they want to tarnish the player's reputation/talent. Or you could make rose have his own player, maybe make him some sort of Rose nepo baby, and since he's not good enough to compete rose wants to practically cheat by framing the other players (but mostly Leon) including our Player Character for random crimes sp they'll be banned from tournaments and Rose's nepo baby or inside worker could succeed. That would also sorta vaguely tie into the whole Legacy theme (calling it a theme is an insult to themes everywhere but i digress) that the game sorta tries to have. Like so many characters have half their motivation be wanting to have some sort of legacy or failing to live up to the expectations set up by said legacy (either their own legacy or someone else's) so having a villain character try to tarnish other people's legacies and try to cheat their way into gaining a positive legacy/reputation, and you could have Hop say something corny like "oh golly i might not be the best battler but i would much rather be a bad battler and have fun trying my best than cheat my way to success! That is like so wack yo!!" to have a nice if generic moral of the story for The Childrens ™️ And I came up with that in like ten minutes, there's probably infinite ways to make it infinitely better, and even with the absolute worst execution known to mankind it'd be much better than this
@InsertFunnyThingHere
@InsertFunnyThingHere 3 ай бұрын
Ok so I wrote a massive wall of text by accident so TL;DR this game is everything wrong with pokemon and it's still ok 5.8/10 Too much -water- lack of dev time. Sword and shield seems like a victim of lack of dev time in a more subtle way than Scarlet and Violet but in a much worse way imo. To me it's clear that they had passion for a lot of this game and wanted to make it good, but at some point they wanted to do too many things at once in the plot and just sorta in general. Now in a mormal game they'd be able to hold it back a bit to solve these creative issues and decide what path to focus on, but here they realized they had to release this within a deadline, said "fuck it let's just get this done we'll make a good game next time" and just sorta did everything at once without really caring about how to make it all fit. Now pretty much all Pokemon games do this to an extent, they try to appeal to millions of different people at once and end up doing very little that amazingly, but this one feels special because instead of trying to focus on multiple aspects at once that different people enjoy about a pokemon game, they sorta do like multiple different takes on the same things at once?? Like you simultaneously have the pseudo open world wild area gameplay and the hallway-esque normal routes, you have the plot dividing itself between a low stakes tournament plotline and a high stakes "pokemon are randomly Dymamaximg and shit's gone wild off screen" plotline and an even higher stakes but incredibly stupid "i am summoning a world destroyer because climate change" plotline, and you can even see this in the Pokemon designs since around half of these are wacky guimmick mons with insane proportions and designs and the other half feel like "generic animal except cartoony and sometimes painted a different color" reminiscent of older gens. As a whole Sword and Shield is hilariously unfocused and lacks direction, in a charming way to me honestly. It feels like it wanted to transition into open world games but was just scared of alienating the playerbase by suddenly going full open world. Can't really blame them though even if a lot of people want pokemon to change half the time they actually change something a large section of players end up hating it. Sword and Shield feel almost like a perfect example of what's wrong with pokemon as a whole: tries to appease everyone at once and be ambitious but due to a lack of dev time or focus it gives up halfway through and seems almost unable to do anything above "good" to save it's life with some major exceptions here and there, refuses to properly use it's great formula and when it tries to change it said changes need to be one comically small step at a time, it'll just add some flashy sorta cool guimmick to the game that isn't nearly as much of a gameplay changer as it pretends to be (but isn't even close to inconsequential so if you dislike the guimmick then good luck, better be luckier next gen), it directly forbids you from participating on the story (only ocationally letting you serve as a hitman or muscle for the characters that actually matter) and it will still somehow be fun enough and have enough new and improved good content in it to feel more than worth the purchase for most people (me included, even though i don't think I've legally played a pokemon game in my life lmfao) despite being such a rushed unfocused clusterfuck 9 times out of 10. But like if i can be completely honest, though i just called it "an example of everything wrong with pokemon" I can't really bring myself to hate or even dislike this game. Kinda like the franchise as a whole it still does quite a few things right here and there, a lot of it's bad parts aren't bad enough to be major detriments to my enjoyment of the game, and the downright awful stuff is so incompetent it gains tons of ironic value while becoming interesting topics of discussion It's practically impossible to call this game "good" without blatantly ignoring it's many flaws, but it's also hard for me to call it straight up bad. What i can say is that it's just a waste of potential due to a lack of dev time, and it's unfortunate that pokemon is seemingly never moving away from this tight schedule of releasing a new mainline game every 2.5 years and a whole new gen every 5 years because this franchise could truly be something absolutely amazing, but we have to settle for "pretty good but flawed", and even then put an asterisk on the word "good" there.