Pokémon Sword and Shield Megathread

[phoopes]

I know I shouldn't have expected much but good lord the story might be the worst we've seen so far

[Heather]

It's not just choice items that don't lock you in when Dynamaxing @Dopple. G-Darm's Gorilla Tactics ability no longer restricts you when you're in Dynamax, and I believe you're able to select freely for the first turn after it ends as well. Not sure if Dynamax lifting choice effects is intentional, but, yeah, there is no reason to not run Scarf on this bad boy. A neutral icicle crash is just devastating, and when it's fast to boot at no extra charge? Hoo boy.

[phoopes]

if you use a move before you Dynamax, you're not locked in during the Dynamax but are locked into the same move once it's over

if you Dynamax to start with you're not locked into a move and then once it's over you can pick any move and then that's your locked in one

[Emi]

You also don't get the Choice item buffs during the Dynamax period.

[Doppleganger]

Zen Mode might be the best Dynamax abuser if Dynamax doesn't revert the Zen Mode.

-Switch into Stealth Rock (-25%)
-Substitute on the switch (-25%)
-Zen Mode activates
-Dynamax

You're now protected by a sub, get the HP buff, dual 130 BP Ice/Fire STAB and Precipice Blades for coverage. Burns go away in Zen Mode.

Life Orb still boosts damage output in Dynamax form while only shaving away 5%, so yeah.

[phoopes]

Seems like the games are selling incredibly well. Guess there'll be no incentive to improve quality of future titles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouVezpjh6yo

[Emi]

Maybe, just maybe, the games are actually pretty good for Pokemon games.

[Doppleganger]

We're only a week in. SM had a spectacular launch but tapered off.

LGPE got a massive boost in the USA from the Detective Pikachu trailer which aired a week before launch.

These games are under promoted and have been receiving mixed reviews. I would be shocked if isn't the worst selling mainline game, LGPE excluded.

[TheKnightsFury]

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

We're only a week in. SM had a spectacular launch but tapered off.

LGPE got a massive boost in the USA from the Detective Pikachu trailer which aired a week before launch.

These games are under promoted and have been receiving mixed reviews. I would be shocked if isn't the worst selling mainline game, LGPE excluded.

Except the game has sold 6 million units in its opening week, fastest selling switch game so far. The only thing that will limit sales on SwSh is possibly a lack of people with Switches. Pretty much everyone I know with a switch has already bought or is intending to buy the game.

[phoopes]

So apparently they tried to make an even rarer form of shinies but they screwed up in programming it

lol

[Doppleganger]

It's programmed in. They're actually not that rarer, though.

In the wild, if you hit a shiny, it has 1/16th chance of giving stars, and 15/16th chance of getting squares. But through breeding, if you hit a shiny, you have 1/16th of getting squares, and 15/16th chance of stars.

If I'm not mistaken. It's possible to get two of each although...why would you.

Originally Posted by TheKnightsFury

Except the game has sold 6 million units in its opening week, fastest selling switch game so far. The only thing that will limit sales on SwSh is possibly a lack of people with Switches. Pretty much everyone I know with a switch has already bought or is intending to buy the game.

I stand by what I said earlier. Fast sales don't matter if everyone finishes the game and floods the secondary market with used copies.

At the very least, I'm expecting this game to do better than LGPE (the lowest bar ever), but not beat the 3DS. We'll see, it's only been...4 days?

[phoopes]

Yeah my point was that I'm fairly certain squares are supposed to be rarer in all cases but they accidentally flipped it for wild encounters. Oops.

And I think it is supposed to be *that* much rarer. Like the intended odds:

Normal shiny: 1 in ~4369
"Squares" shiny: 1 in 65536

[Doppleganger]

Pretty lame that the only cosmetic difference is the type of shine. If the Pokemon had a different colour morph it would be a bit more interesting.

SS is filled with really superficial stuff like that. Like the (female) player customization is so extensive, this might as well be a Barbie game, but it seems to have come at the cost of a decent postgame and any storyline whatsoever.

[Ironthunder]

Decent postgame and any storyline whatsoever? Well, tbh most of those things have been absent for a while, or in case of the latter have been bad enough to a point where we wish they were absent, so I'm not really complaining. I don't recall any Pokemon game having a decent postgame, or indeed any kind of postgame that wasn't just some form of battle facility and a bunch of arbitrary legendaries to catch, and frankly the latter part of that is why I was glad to see them get wiped.

[Emi]

BW2 and HGSS want to know your location.

[Ironthunder]

HGSS Kanto was a heap of steaming shite and BW2 didn't have that good a postgame, it was just a fuckton of arbitrary legends, a few rematches and the shitty corner of the region opening back up to be cleared in the best part of half an hour.

[sixdragons_in_atrenchcoat]

XY's postgame was better than the story in my opinion
especially if you're trying to fill the pokedex

[phoopes]

Originally Posted by Ironthunder

HGSS Kanto was a heap of steaming shite and BW2 didn't have that good a postgame, it was just a fuckton of arbitrary legends, a few rematches and the shitty corner of the region opening back up to be cleared in the best part of half an hour.

I take offense to HGSS, you have no idea how many hours I put into the Pokeathlon okay >

but to get back on topic the SS post-game is all sorts of ??? like it almost seems like a parody with how weird/bad the characters are

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by Emi

BW2 and HGSS want to know your location.

Also, Rainbow Rocket.

[Blastoise]

Originally Posted by phoopes

but to get back on topic the SS post-game is all sorts of ??? like it almost seems like a parody with how weird/bad the characters are

Spoiler: show

How do these assholes think they can command a country when they can't even command the respect of their barber?

I kind of like the story's focus on sports drama with the evil team taking a bit player role as a change of pace from the usual Pokemon plot, but it feels like they got into a time crunch near the end and were all "aw fuck we gotta squeeze the cover legendaries in here somewhere."