Pokémon Sword and Shield are the first pair of mainline games to head to Nintendo's lightning in a bottle system, the Nintendo Switch, not counting Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee, because... urgh, those "games". Let's just leave it at that, shall we? Easily the biggest news since the reveal of these games is cut content: specifically, some 450 of about 800 Pokémon from the previous seven generations of Pokémon games were to be excluded from Sword and Shield, and hoo boy, if you weren't a "gamer" that's familiar with the internet, I don't even know how to aptly describe the anger and backlash of the internet at the news. There were petitions, polls, crying, whining, and straight up death threats to the director of the series, Masuda Junichi, so much so that the launch event for the games had to be cancelled in Japan; the first time in the series' 23 year history.
I bring this up not to insult your intelligence; because if you're even remotely interested in video games and Pokémon in general, backlash of this magnitude is impossible to miss. I bring it up because I believe that a lot of the general critique of the game stems from a deep seeded desire to hate the game, and thus most widespread criticism feel to me like excuses to feed the hatred, rather than genuine complaints. A tree's texture looking bad in the overworld? Boycott! The all new options to adjust sound volume for the background music, sound effects, and Pokémon cries are unlocked only after you get a Key Item early on in the game? Worst game of the year! So, just keep in mind that the general reception to these games aren't that favourable as we delve into the nitty gritty of the game.
I mean, seriously, who the fuck plays Pokémon for photorealistic, cutting edge graphics? Fucking morons, seriously. This tree looks fine!
Me personally, I welcomed the change, even though it does mean that I do suffer the loss of some of my favourite Pokémon I've come to know, love, and adventure with over several years. As a (somewhat) competitive player, I've always felt like the series has been needing a serious reset button, a slate wiped clean. With 23 years of evolution also comes 23 years of mistakes and bullshit, ones which never go away because Pokémon has made a serious commitment to inclusion ever since a similar debacle in the transition from Generation 2 to 3. This also means that the series has never had any serious innovation, any serious change to the formulae ever since the launch of Ruby and Sapphire all the way back in 2003. That's right: the basic way to calculate what stats your Pokémon have, how much they increase and decrease with modifiers in battle, etc., remains unchanged to this day. Because Ruby and Sapphire wiped the slate clean, they were able to expand on a familiar concept. They were able to introduce game changing elements such as abilities and hold items. They were able to introduce Double Battles. They even had some wizardry in Hidden Power, a move that could be of any type based on... things. All of these HUGE features continue to be a cornerstone of Pokémon, be it casual or competitive, so much so that the series struggles to break away from them. And with the fundamentals so firmly set in stone, the series has taken what I deem to be the cheap way out into making more enticing Pokémon in later generations: power creep. With each generation, the Pokémon they introduced and updated got more and more ridiculous in terms of power, and one needs only to look at Smogon's banlist for standard play over the generations to realise just how apeshit insane and fundamentally unbalanced the game is. Used to be that banlists were as simple as, "no cover legendaries". Then it was that and "no Garchomp and Salamence". Then it was "no Speed Boost, no Soul Dew, no Swift Swim + Drizzle". Then it was "no these Mega Evolutions, no Baton Passing speed, no..." you get the point. It was at such a clusterfuck that it was affecting the enjoyment I could get out of the games, but also how difficult it must've been for newcomers to adapt and learn the ropes, to absorb some 15 years of evolution and its assorted BS that it was inextricably packaged with. And the old formulae and systems that governed the game were visibly struggling to keep up with all the craziness. For example, almost all Pokémon who can change form or do what they advertise on the tin do so via their Ability, and to ensure these Pokémon can always perform as advertised, these abilities are immune to neutralisation with stuff like Worry Seed, Skill Swap, etc.. You thought you were super clever in trying to prevent an Aegislash from flip flopping between its two forms with Worry Seed? TOO BAD! U DED. Or how about the fact that you couldn't have Hidden Power Fairy, the new type introduced in Gen 6, because it would require rewriting how Hidden Power types are determined, and break every Pokémon carrying the move in the process?
So when Generation 8 seemed to wipe the slate cleaned again, I was actually excited for some Ruby and Sapphire levels of mind fuckery and innovation. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite that. In fact, it was exactly more of the same, except now with less Pokémon to play with. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, because culling the cancerous of the breed is still a plus in my book. It's just that it doesn't bring much new to the table, aside from the obligatory new species of Pokémon. Yes, Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing is/ are the shiny new feature(s) to Gen 8 (they're basically the same thing let's be real), but they seem more to me like the combination of the Mega Evolution and Z-moves that were cut from the series rather than something entirely new. I still have no way to explain to my casual player cousins and friends why the hell Psychic hits Poison super effectively, or why Bug resists fighting. The game and its mechanics I feel are still no easier to learn from previous generations for newcomers, the same games that emphasise a rock paper scissors style of gameplay, the fire water grass thing, the chuck a rock at a bird and it will die sort of intuitive gameplay. In fact, some of the most bullshit, infuriating mechanics I had hoped with all of my heart to be cut from the series were in fact, still proudly shown off as selling points in the game pre-launch: confusion and infatuation. Yes, Double Team and Minimise are still in the game and are unchanged in function. Yes, bullshit, luck dependent items that can totally destroy a skilled player in the hands of a filthy casual like Bright Powder and Quick Claw are still present and unchanged. Yes, you can still get Quick Claw Horn Drilled in the Battle Tower, or miss a perfectly accurate move with no counter play or foreshadowing.
But, you know what, my favourite Pokémon, Glaceon, finally got Freeze Dry, so I guess I can't be too too ma- ARRRGH *gets hit with a Quick Claw Fissure out of nowhere after I miss an Ice Beam*
All that competitive nerd speak aside, how does Sword and Shield hold up as a single player RPG? I feel it's... okay. Like, it's serviceable, but not amazing, yet at the same time, not awful. It's a very traditionally safe, fit for general consumption, kid friendly product Pokémon tries to be, and there just isn't much else to say aside from that. I think that so many people gravitate towards Generation 2 and its Johto region is because it was so chock full of personality that so closely parallels its real world inspiration; Kyoto of Japan. The Galar region of Generation 8 is, interestingly enough, based off of England, but I never feel like I'm in some exotic, foreign land with its own mystique, customs, and way of life, even if the setting does look the part. I've never been to England before myself, so I can't speak with any expertise on the matter, but the whole "we're in ENGLAND dayo!" feel is only conveyed via the grating overuse of the word, "mate", by the super annoying childish rival you have in the game, and the occasional mentions of tea you'll never have. There's never much distinction between each town and city in Galar, aside from maybe a few aesthetic differences. There's no back story, there are no unique customs or culture to each area, and the towns themselves, while each impressively wide and sprawling beyond what could've been reasonably expected of Pokémon games even just one generation ago, are mostly empty spaces with little to do and see in between. Remember Lumiose City in XY? Mauville City in ORAS? Now imagine cities of that massive scope, but applied to every urban town in the game instead of just one. It's a technological marvel to be sure, but mostly hollow and skin deep in essence, which I find a crying shame. If anything, it just makes traversing between landmarks in any given city longer than it needs to be. Instead of intriguing, memorable locales, towns in Sword and Shield can be boiled down to, "arrive, bop the local gym, leave".
Strange as it may sound, the first thing that comes to my mind when talking about British culture and flavour is their snark sarcasm, which I imagine is difficult to fit into a family friendly game, and impossible to express in text alone. Speaking of impossible, that conveniently brings me to the plot of Sword and Shield. The overall plot of Sword and Shield feels cobbled together from the broken dreams of XY, just like how the Z-moves of Sun and Moon feel cobbled together from the broken dreams of XY. Here however, what's rather disjointing is that, for the vast majority of the game, there IS no villainous team or person threatening the status quo; the villainous entity just shows up, pulls a legendary Pokémon out of his ass - sorry, arse, and leaves just as abruptly with as much resolution and satisfaction as a depleted toilet roll in a time of need. Rather, the plot is focused on the character development of the two or so characters you'll constantly bump into over the course of your adventure, which I don't find issue with; in fact, I find it an intriguing change, but I felt that more emphasis was due on the villianous entity, and I feel like that was the price to pay for the rather well done plot centering around the individual characters.
In fact, I daresay that Sword and Shield are the first Pokémon games that sets a firm first impression for me on a character, only to slowly erode away and change that expectation it has sowed in me. I know it sounds incredibly basic, but this is still mind blowing to me, in the context of a plot in a Pokémon game, as they usually have one character/ agenda and stick with it regardless of what happens over the course of the game. Blue is always going to be a jackass. Team Rocket will always be evil for the sake of it. Team Aqua and Magma are ass clowns. Cyrus is... weird. N is by far and away the best character in a Pokémon game and I am still waiting for someone else to come along and challenge him for that title. The Team Flare boss whose name I don't even remember is in an unfinished game and is as compelling as a math textbook sawn in half. Team Skull is... uh... there, I guess? But the rival in Sword and Shield, and his journey, is something I actually feel compassion and interest in, and dare I say, emotionally invested in, which is more than the, "you're in the fucking way and I need to clobber you to advance the plot" type of fights as is with previous games and their characters. Now, the reason why I bring up the plot right after I mention, "impossible to pull off", is because... well... how do you write a compelling plot around an invincible, all conquering powerhouse of a person, devoid of any character? That character being you, the player? In my opinion, you can't. And I find it such a shame that, no matter how beautiful a garden the plot is tending, I will be asked to trample all over it, cheapening and disregarding all of the hard work. I feel bad for the other characters. I relate to some of their struggles. But at the same time, it's so hard to sympathise with the plight of someone else when they ask you for a battle and you 6-0 them in five turns flat, you know? I've personally felt like there were some really good moments during the plot of Sword and Shield, ruined by the fact that I need to destroy all the weight and atmosphere of the moment by pulverising someone in a battle. Maybe if I ever felt mildly threatened in every in-game battle, the plot would have worked. But the simple fact of the matter is that, as a competitive player familiar with the mechanics of the game, who makes sure he fully explores what he can before confronting a boss, that difficulty is just never going to be there. And if it were, it would be unfairly hard for a more casual player. I know it's an insane ask to balance gameplay between these two very different groups of players, and I'm not asking for a change, but moreso lamenting my... uh... cold, power hungry heart that has given up on seeing Pokémon as individual living creatures, but more just easily editable code to beat the shit out of others.
With all my criticism about the battle mechanics and the plot, it's safe to say that the vast majority of the enjoyment I get out of this game comes from the... uh... gameplay, of the game... Bah, you come up with a better term for it after I'm done describing it if you're so smart. One of the new gameplay features proudly shown off before launch was Pokémon Camp: a mini-game akin to that of Poké Amie of XY where you touch your Pokémon and play with them to gain their affection. Yes, it's about as enticing as it sounds on paper. However, Pokémon Camp isn't a replacement to Amie, but rather, adapts the gameplay of Amie and integrates it into its own unique feature. Yes, you still get to touch your sweet lil' Pikachu all over its body in 3D and play with balls. Yes heart shapes still float out their arse when they hang on for dear life in battle wishing for praise you can never give them. Yes they still do the stupid head turn and hop and spawn cheesy text that only serves to waste time in every battle. But what I love about Pokémon Camp is that it serves as a less expensive and more entertaining way to heal your Pokémon mid journey between towns: cooking a pot of curry at camp, if done well, is akin to a visit to the Pokémon Centre because it fully heals your party, and ingredients for cooking can be found respawning in the overworld, which makes them more economical than spraying a Hyper Potion into the eyes of your Pokémon. Yes, okay, maybe with Fly, it's actually more time consuming than actually visiting a Pokémon Centre. But Camp I find is a nice distraction, a way to punctuate the monotony of kicking NPC ass and getting whittled down in the process, by letting you have a more involved and entertaining way to heal your Pokémon other than mashing the A button in the PokéCentre for the millionth time. There is a curry dex to fill up as you experiment with different ingredients to further incentivise cooking, but the curry dex is, sadly, a rather shallow and meaningless list only meant for the obsessive, compulsive completionist with no real reward (as far as I can tell, anyway. I mean, what the hell are golden utensils good for?)
I think what is easily Sword and Shield's strongest feature is the Wild Area, a huge, expansive, all encompassing area that you get access to early game, and remains relevant AND enticing all the way into the post game. Heck, it's so good that the vast majority of my hundred hours of gameplay thus far is spent there, and it makes me genuinely wonder why the hell wasn't the entire game just one huge Wild Area. To understand why the Wild Area is so bloody amazing, it really helps to have played Zelda Breath of the Wild before, because I feel that this game borrows quite heavily from BoTW, and it's most apparent in the Wild Area. The Wild Area is a huge break from tradition from Pokémon games, in that it gives you free reign and free roam over a seemingly boundless area, instead of forcing you to go from A, to B, to C, in that order, preventing you from accessing what the game doesn't want you to access via arbitrary roadblocks. In the Wild Area, that shackled linear experience is (mostly) thrown out the window. Hell, it's so open that on my first playthrough, I was so beWILDered (aha aha aha aha...) by the sheer freedom that was suddenly thrust onto me, that, while I knew WHAT my next destination was, I didn't know WHERE it was. And, you know what, while that might sound like a complaint, it's actually praise, coming from me, because I LOVE the freedom, I LOVE the ambiguity (as long as I'm not rushing to save my family being burned at the stake whilst I'm lost). It has been so long, too long, since I've felt genuine wonder at the world I find myself in. It has been so long, too long, since I've felt like a kid, excited for life and what it brings. It has been eons (well, ever since BoTW anyway) that I have felt such a strong compulsion to explore the world and the limits that govern it, which I feel is something only an interactive medium like games can pull off, yet is so criminally under utilised. Yes, with that freedom also comes with the first sense of threat I've lamented for being generally lacking in the game's storyline, because once the game stops holding your hand, you have every right, every power, and every possibility of wandering into the wrong neighbourhood, to butt heads with strong Pokémon you have no way of handling at any given stage of the game. You always have to be cognizant and observant, and that very welcome sense of threat only adds to and enriches the sense of adventure and wonder to the world I found sorely lacking anywhere else. Yet, at the same time, the obstacles in the way, in this case those strong Pokémon, aren't absolute like a boulder you can't push with your Machamp or a sea you can't cross with your Lapras in previous games; these Pokémon are obscenely overlevelled relative to where you are in the game, but they are still mortal, they still have their weaknesses, and they can still be defeated in theory. And I cannot tell you how insanely satisfying it is when I took down a Rock/ Ground type Onix twice the level of my Water type Sobble with a STAB x4 Super Effective move in the rain, and the Experience Points I got from bopping something twice my level. The roadblocks are essentially enticing challenges rather than to impede your progress, which I feel is an approach more, if not ALL games should adopt. And if Pokémon of all the kid friendly, hand holdy games can pull it off, I have very, VERY high hopes and expectations for the series going forward. Yes, I want the entire game to just be a Wild Area, and I will not accept anything less. I want to be able to sneak my way into and get decimated by the Champion with my Level 5 starter Pokémon, a la Breath of the Wild speedruns. The bar has been set and I frankly see no excuse as to why it couldn't, or shouldn't, be done.
Strangely enough, the Wild Area, perhaps as a testament to how good a concept it is, is the only area in the game where you get to partake in Max Raid battles, a prominent feature shown off pre release that sees you teaming up with three other trainers to battle and capture Dynamaxed Wild Pokémon. This feature is... urgh. I like the concept, but I feel that it could've been done way, WAY better. I find nothing but bullshit and fault with these battles, because it's all so arbitrary and unfair, both adjectives you should never find yourself describing a game with, let alone used together. Max Raid battles are, by no counts exaggerating, sheer, unadulterated, unapologetic, pure bullshit. The basic premise of these Max Raid battles is that you have a turn limit of 10 turns, and a KO limit of 4 on your side of the field, averaging to each player's Pokémon fainting once. So, time is of the essence, and so is surviving. The logical, fair parts end here. Wild Pokémon here can launch multiple attacks in a row. Why? Because. Wild Pokémon can use their regular moves in addition to the Max moves Dynamaxed Pokémon are restricted to. Why? Because. Wild Pokémon here have way more than 4 moves to work with. Why? Because. Wild Pokémon here have their HP bars divided into 2 or 3 in the higher difficulty Raids, and no matter how strong your Pokémon are, you cannot deal damage that eats into the next HP bar. Why? Because. When wild Pokémon hits this invisible cap on their HP bar, they employ a "mysterious barrier" to protect themselves. Why? Because. This mysterious barrier takes only 1HP damage of possibly SEVEN I've seen with any attack, regardless of effectiveness or strength. Why? Because. Multi hit moves like Icicle Spear only takes 1 shield HP per turn instead of working as advertised. Why? Because. The mysterious barrier, if left intact at the end of the turn, fully heals all non volatile status conditions like sleep and paralysis, yet not volatile ones like confusion and infatuation, completely throwing strategy out the window. Why? Because. The shield blocks all stat drops and status effects while it's active. Why? Because. The shield prevents Max moves from triggering their secondary effects, like preventing Max Geyser's rain even if it successfully inflicts damage, but doesn't prevent normal moves' secondary effects like Flame Charge's speed boost. Why? Because. Wild Pokémon here can just decide to reset your stat changes and nullify abilities on your side of the field at no cost whatsoever, further cementing that you really shouldn't bother to do anything but attack. Why? Because. Ally Pokémon that faint and contribute to the KO count revive after one turn. Why? Just so they can add to the KO count again and get you kicked out.
Now that all the cards are on the table, please allow me the pleasure of sharing the absolute worst experience I've had with Max Raid battles: It was against a 5 star Obstagoon, the evolution of Galarian Linoone, and of a Dark/ Normal type. Being a 5 star Pokémon, its HP bar is divided into three thirds, calling in a shield to protect it when switching over to its next HP bar. For some dog shit reason I can't fathom, its shield has SEVEN HP, requiring seven hits to break, or, in the best case scenario, 2 Max hits and 3 regular attacks in 2 turns. It has the Defiant Ability, which raises its attack stat 2 stages each time it receives a stat drop, adding 100% to its attack. Oh, by the way, the shield breaking harshly lowers its Defence and Special Defence, which instantly gives it +4 Attack due to Defiant, or 3x its Attack stat. It has a signature move in Obstruct, which functions as a protect that harshly lowers the Defence of any Pokémon that makes contact with it while Obstruct is in effect. As a protecting move, it has +4 priority. As a Max Raid opponent, it can use several moves in a row. So imagine this: it's using priority Obstruct that protects it for the whole turn, and can use 2 or 3 moves immediately after, effectively making all its moves +4 priority while it's completely fucking invincible with a 10 turn limit. Now, protecting moves usually have a severe chance of failing if used in succession, but because it follows up Obstruct with other moves, it can protect itself at no risk and no cost EACH. AND. EVERY. TURN. I'm sorry, but what the fuck is this bullshit, and how am I supposed to beat it?
If you've been paying attention to my nerdy rant thus far, you might be wondering, "well, if there's no point in crippling the opponent with status, and if there's no point in setting up buffs for myself, then what else am I to do but attack?", and you'd be exactly right in that thought. Max Raid battles in essence boil down to: sit here and click attacks until the battle ends one way or another. A huge disservice to the sheer complexity and strategy focused gameplay of Pokémon. About the only non damaging move you might even remotely want to consider are Reflect, Light Screen, Aurora Veil, and... Attract. What I find extremely infuriating is that, if you're the kid that nobody wants to play with in school, if you're the nerd that's into hobbies nobody else is into, then you're shit out of luck with Max Raid battles that involve 4 players. That's not to say you CAN'T play Max Raid single player, but what I'm trying to say is... you can't play Max Raid single player. See, if playing alone, the game assigns three other NPCs to "help" you fight the opponent, but most of the time, they do absolutely nothing but die, contribute to the KO count, revive, and die again. Most of the time they're woefully underlevelled for the monstrosities you're trying to face, and deal negligible damage, if even at all. They are also pulled randomly from a preset pool of trainers, without regard for typing, so you can very well get an ass clown who brings a Fire/ Poison type in Salazzle to face off against a Gigantamax Water/ Rock Dreadnaw. Oh, and by the way, NONE OF THESE AI FREAKS CAN DYNAMAX. These ass clowns are so infuriating that it's no stretch to say that you'd be better off alone, even with how bullshit Max Raid battles already are. It makes me want to stab them in front of their Pokémon each and every time we cross paths.
It's unfortunate, but given how bullshit single player Max Raid battles are, it makes online Max Raid battles seem... evil, just by proxy. That's because online play on the Switch is now a paid for service, in contrast to online play on the Nintendo DS and 3DS, both of which were absolutely free of charge. Now, I'm not saying that paid online services are evil, but in the context of Max Raid battles, it can be easily viewed as the player being forced to pay to win these Max Raid battles, which I am strongly against in any game, with any context. I used up my free 7 Day Nintendo Online trial on this game, and even then, I can't say I'm impressed one bit: the servers were overloaded at launch and had to undergo emergency maintenance OVER THE WEEKEND. Maybe the bean counters over at Nintendo actually took the boycott threats seriously, HA! Even with functioning online play though, the experience is... retarded. To illustrate, here, take a screenshot with your Switch. Doesn't have to be of anything specific, doesn't even have to be with Sword and Shield. Just a screenshot you can identify will do. Now try to export that screenshot onto your computer. Go on, give it a try. I'll wait the full seven years for you to figure it out.
......
Done? I take it that you've had the customary experience of screaming at your Switch and wondering why the hell no one at Nintendo can design an easy to understand menu. The same carries over to Sword and Shield. I swear, even with the shoddy early release "guides" on the internet, I could not for the life of me figure out how in the HELL to join others when they're seeking partners for Max Raid battles. And that goes a LONG way in explaining why no one ever joins me when I host a Max Raid open invitation, because I imagine no one even saw the damn thing. Each invitation lasts only for three minutes, and it takes about 30 seconds to join and select an appropriate Pokémon for the opponent at each instance. The problem is that the system that lists these open invites refreshes like, what, once every three minutes? Instead of every three SECONDS for a system like this to function well. That means you need to know exactly when the list will refresh, and send an invite just before the list will refresh for everyone, and from there you can only sit there and stare at a lobby screen for three minutes, unable to do anything else, with no guarantee of finding anyone (competent). Scintillating. If you want to join others, it's also much of the same story. Annoyingly and ironically I'm aware, lobbies other host, especially of extremely rare and high value targets, get filled in SECONDS. If you want to join someone hosting a Five Star Ditto or an extremely rare Gigantamax Pokémon, you will literally, not exaggerating, need to sit in the menu screen and hit refresh rapidly until the list ACTUALLY refreshes. You'll then need to quickly sift through all that's present on the list, and join the lobby with the Pokémon you want to catch. Even when doing this, there's still no guarantee you'll make it into the lobby before it fills, in which case you're stuck looking at lobbies you can't join for another solid three minutes. This system is fucking appalling, and it's genuinely baffling how you can take a game with SUCH a wide player base; enough to give your servers grief, and do such a piss poor job at bringing them together. A fucking blender would've done a better job at this, and I'm not even sure how sarcastic I'm being with this sentence.
Oh, and by the way, you want to know how rare are these "high value" targets I mentioned earlier? You can only get Gigantamax Pokémon in these Max Raid battles. Gigantamax Pokémon have special forms when they Dynamax - or in their case, Gigantamax, and have a special G-Max move only Gigantamaxed Pokémon in their Gigantamaxed forms can use. No other Pokémon, even of the same species, can Gigantamax, and there's no way to "teach" or otherwise impart the ability to Gigantamax to a Pokémon that cannot do so. Gigantamax Pokémon cannot breed AT ALL, even if they have genders, so you can't mass produce them once you've been lucky enough to catch one. I will say this again because it bears repeating: you can only get Gigantamax Pokémon from Max Raid battles, so you're stuck having to deal with all the assorted bullshit it comes packaged with. How rare are these Gigantamax Pokémon? Well, when you come across a "Den" in the overworld, there is a 10% chance of the den pulling from its unique list of "rare" encounters. In the post game, "rare" encounters range from three to five stars, with five having 4 guaranteed max IVs and are almost always the fully evolved forms of their evolutionary lines, and quite a decent shot at having their Hidden Ability as well. Gigantamax Pokémon are all five star encounters, and even within the list of possible 5 star encounters, they have... wait for it... a 5% chance of appearing.
So, to quickly crunch the numbers with my sawn-off math textbook, the probability of you using a paid for Wishing Piece to initiate a Max Raid battle are:
Rare Den: 1 in 10 chance, *0.1
Five Stars Encounter, 1 in 3 chance, *~0.33
G-Max Encounter, 1 in 20 chance, *0.05
0.1*0.33*0.05
=~0.00166%
To put it in English, you have a less than 1 percent chance of encountering a Gigantamax Pokémon each time you initiate a Max Raid battle. You have a one in SIX HUNDRED chance of-... okay I'll stop trying to sound smart, because I have no idea how the hell to calculate probability. Oh, and each Wishing Piece costs in game currency, so in effect, you're gambling for a CHANCE to catch a rare Pokémon. No, you don't get to soft reset for the mon you want, because one: Sword and Shield HAS NO SOFT RESET WHAT BLASPHEMY IS THIS, and two, the game mandates saving with each Wishing Piece use. Like, hello, they don't even mandate saving in the FUCKING BATTLE TOWER anymore, and THIS is what they mandate saving over instead. Oh, and you know how regular Max Raid battles have ridiculously high rates, considering you have to fully defeat the Pokémon you're trying to catch? Yeah, well, G-Max mons DON'T GIVE A SHIT EVEN IF THEY'RE DEAD, and will happily break out of any ball you chuck at it, even Dusk Balls, which I'm not even sure have their 4x catch rate in these dens. So, you spend all the money gambling, you spend all the time in trying to get this damned thing to show up, you carry your AI partners better than Noah's Ark on four heavy lift choppers, you wade through all the bullshit of a Max Raid battle and you kill the damn thing, aaaaand... your ball doesn't even rock once before the Pokémon gives you the finger and flees. Yes, you only get ONE SHOT at catching it. ONE.
I'm sorry, but I'm supposed to find this fun?! For real?
I don't know. I'm so legitimately confused. I seem to dislike and find underwhelming most of the things in Sword and Shield, and yet, I find them to be the most enjoyable in the series to date. Maybe it's because I've long since outgrown Pokémon, but I struggle to see why even a casual player would be inclined to stick around for long. I don't understand why so many people are heartbroken that their friends for ten years can't join them in Sword and Shield, and I wish I could share in that sentiment. All I see is competitive Pokémon, and even that is in fucking shambles, with Dynamax being so broken of a mechanic that Smogon, the
In spite of all this, I really enjoyed it for the first obsessive week I've played it, but... I don't understand why.
Maybe it's the cute Lass. She's so hot I think of destroying her in bed every time she does this angry pout when she loses and I actually can't handle it.
