thoughts on pkmswsh bc i beat the game ages ago and have only really gone into my thoughts about it lightly with friends

PROS: Fucking love the characters!! Character designs, character personalities, all of them are so well developed that after beating the post game, I was really sad I couldn’t interact with them more & for reference, the last official pkm title i played was xy, but in that game i found myself pushing through the main story specifically to see the dynamic between the three major established characters’ plot. I could give less of a fuck about everyone else in that game. rivals, gym leaders, etc, all boring. I was invested in Prof. Sycamore & his weird love triangle more than anything.

That said, definitely not an issue in pkm swsh bc I found every single character endearing regardless of how long I interacted with them. Even Hop. I love Hop. I really like his character arc and his character flaws being brought out on display.

Pokemon battles themselves are very satisfying, even the raid battles which can seem a bit nominations at times.

It was also the first pokemon game where I felt compelled to form a team made up of my personal type preferences/aesthetics & not just “these guys cover all type advantages and will help me sail through this game”.

I also developed my first fully rounded pkm oc??? That wasn’t just an awkward self insert. Good times. His name is Willow-Finch and I love him.

That said... CONS: now none of these are necessarily bad per say, just things I wish they had taken the time to expand upon further.

Fashion being the first one but like, that’s super minor and just a personal preference. I like switching my looks up dramatically through the game and the fashion available really hit a plateau early on for me.

All of the pokemon I wanted for my team really were not available until post game wHICH SUCKED!!!! But once I caught a Mimikyu i started breeding it for a shiny/perfect stats.

The hand holding used to never exist in the first few gens of pokemon games which makes me really confused as to why they are absolutely insistent about it now. I wandered into the restaurant in Chirchester or whatever and found the tapestry on my own while hoping to see if I could actually purchase stuff from the restaurant but no, of course not. They’ve done away with garbage picking and large shop fronts for wildly expensive items that you instead have to grind or or whatever but I just want to try out possibilities without modding my game :( But in terms of plot again, I was upset when they forcibly dragged me back into the restaurant after finding the tapestry on my own. There’s no mystery. There’s no allure, mystery, or challenge in catching the legendarily anymore and that’s upsetting.

I wish I could battle specific gym leaders without having to go through the tournament to achieve such. (& even then, have the time if you invite a specific gym leader, they end up getting washed before you even have the chance to battle them which is BULLSHIT). Wish there was more dialogue / reaction to me, the all powerful & mighty champion losing matches both during the game and after it.

There are a lot of elements that feel rushed and despite enjoying the game thoroughly & looking forward to the dlcs, I found certain elements of it definitely lacking. There’s definitely a great online community for it and I’m glad they’ve introduced things like the shiny charm bc I am definitely going to keep on shiny hunting. 

But yeah, I know I’m gonna keep playing this game for a long while, I just wish more time had been taken to really flesh it out into the game it had the potential of being, rather than the rushed mess we sort of got :(