Neutral
- Characters: Not bad, not good. Was not particularly interested in any character. Wound up being forgettable. Enjoyed Clara in Isle of Armor more.
- Plot: Felt little satisfaction in figuring out what to do. (Is not much of a puzzle person.) Got stuck on "Investigate the Statue". Spent ages searching everywhere else. Discovered it eventually. Appreciated the adventure hints from Peony outside of that.
- Footprint hunting: Better than Diglett hunting. Required some attention to spot. Struggled more in grassland, however. (Found 10+ without even seeing them.) Hardly considered it fun, even with improvements.
- Returning Pokemon: Shrugs. Never cared much for legendaries due to never using them. Same for the popular psuedo-legendaries. Reintroduced very few others.
Negative
- Star Tournament: Cannot easily be the proper level for this. Probably winds up being a massacre one way or another.
- Legendary hunting: Nuzzle
. False Swipe
. Send in the punching bag
. Chuck 10-20 balls
. Would not describe this as a legendary battle.
Positive
- Dynamax Adventures: Singlehandedly salvaged this region.
Felt mixed initially. Trained up tons of Pokemon. Wanted to use them. Forces rental Pokemon onto you.
Fixed a lot of complaints about Max Raids, though. Removed shields. Allowed utility like Life Dew and screens to have a purpose. Hoped for this style for all Max Raids. (Note: Did not fix spread moves being overpowered, however.)
Played it more. Realized the balance between rentals. Cannot pick the Pokemon by species. Must evaluate them on type, ability, and moves.
Example: Signed up for (Complete Form) Zygarde
. Saw Beartic
. Selected them instantly. Looked closer: Slush Rush. -Attack. Knew Body Press, Blizzard, Frost Breath, and Brine. Relied on base 70 Special Attack, largely.
Needed any Ice-type. Had to keep them. Chose Wise Glasses from a Backpacker. Carried the battle versus Zygarde
, thanks to getting the Dynamax and Slush Rush. Actually succeeded with this thing after several failures.
What about the attempt before that? Chose Mr. Mime
with Reflect, Light Screen, Helping Hand, and Psychic. Barely attacked. Felt valuable nonetheless. Had to make a hard choice between Leftovers and Eviolite too. (Picked the former.)
Experienced other nice moments, such as Serene Grace Dunsparce
(two Ice Beam freezes that run) and Analytic Magneton
(with Quick Claw for Light Screen versus Surf-spamming Palkia
. Activated at just the right moment to finish Palkia
, possibly one move before losing). Cannot forget the clutch full heal + Light Screen cheer from teammates (murdered by Kyogre's
Origin Pulse) to save the run either.
Might have been the most fun in Sword/Shield so far (outside challenge runs).
Overall
Slightly positive, solely due to Dynamax Adventures. Unexciting otherwise.
there. Realized the potential. Competes with the legendary, admittedly (given a successful run and uncaught legendary).
before the second boss. Awarded 6 for investigating the den and 6 for playing Endless.)
