Let's Play Pokemon Sword, Part 9: All Capes Are Off

So finally, we get the champion battle against Leon and... and I dunno, it sort of feels a bit underwhelming? Like this odd cap-off after the huge Dynamax plot that interrupted the original tournament? Leon's still got a pretty kickass battle tune, though, and I do like how he starts off his fight trash-talking us, before tossing his cape away.

Leon has a very respectable level 62-65 party, which... is still a bit lower than mine, but on average it's a bit more of a challenge. I also sort of try and fight him without using dynamax, which actually does make it significantly more difficult. Leon's first Pokemon is an Aegislash, a Pokemon near and dear to my heart since my brief forays into competitive battling in Generation VI. It's sort of a cat-and-mouse game between my Boltund and Aegislash as I sort of try to predict when he's going to use King's Shield, but eventually a Crunch takes the Aegislash down.

Leon's second pokemon is a very respectable Rhyperior, which gets one-shotted by my Inteleon's Snipe Shot. Leon then sends out Haxorus, a mighty dragon... that faces off against my Frosmoth. It's a bit of a gamble, because Frosmoth's fragile as shit, but it somehow survives the Poison Jab (I'm not sure if it's one of those happiness/curry thing) to retaliate with a OHKO Blizzard.

Leon's fourth Pokemon isn't a familiar face -- it's Dragapult, and my god what is this thing, it's glorious! It's a weird floating ghost-newt whose head is tapered off into a stealth bomber and it apparently launches its babies at the enemy. This is our pseudo-legendary, and after looking at its design a bit I figure out that it's Dragon/Ghost thanks to that casper-like tail. Dragapult takes out my Frosmoth with a Flamethrower. My Boltund fails to take the Dragapult out with a Play Rough, and it takes my doggy out with a critical Shadow Ball. Eventually it's my Sirfetch'd that manages to survive a hit from the Dragapult and finish it off with a Steel Wing.

Leon's fifth Pokemon is the predictable type-effective starter, Rilaboom. Who is a leafy hairy gorilla with a drum! That's... that's actually pretty spot-on to what I expected Grookey to evolve into, actually. I have been saving my Corviknight for this, who drill-pecks the monkey to death. Leon's final Pokemon is the gigantamax Charizard. Inteleon comes out to play, outspeeds the Charizard and takes it out with a single Hydro Cannon.

Kind of anticlimactic, but that Dragapult was pretty dang troublesome!

And with that... that's the main story of Pokemon Sword over as everyone sort of hails me as the champion, having captured Eternatus, saved Galar from President Rose's vague plans of vague evilness, and defeated the undefeatable champion Leon! Roll credits! The credits has a neat little sequence of a little music show made by Rilaboom, Obstagoon and a bunch of Toxtricity, and it closes off with a bunch of Wooloos rolling across the screen. It's cute.

Also, I genuinely do find it interesting that the main story ends without us having the chance to even capture the cover legendary Zacian (or Zamazenta, if you play Shield), and the little showcase of the ruins in the Slumbering Weald does hint that the post-game story is going to feature mainly on the cover legendaries.

But... after that whole thing, I ended up going off to take a break and just sort of explore and catch Pokemon. After finishing the main story I also basically decided that my little anti-spoiler bit is over, and I decided to take a little gander throughout Bulbapedia and Serebii about all of the new Pokemon in the generation. My playthrough has basically shown me almost all of these, and I've been spoiled about the existence of some others, so here's my quick thoughts about the new creatures that I haven't met yet (or have missed) in my playthrough:

• I don't remember meeting Greedent at all, but the pokedex says I did. I guess it's just that unmemorable? Unlike previous early-game rodents, Skwovet's line really isn't as ever-present in Galar, huh? 
• I really should've known if I took a closer look through the in-game Pokedex, but it's kind of an odd feeling to get confirmation that, say, Eldegoss and Thievul and Grapploct and whatnot are just two-stage Pokemon. I sort of expected them to be a bit more, but at the same time I'm not like, super-disappointed. 
• Applin has an alternate-game evolution called Appletun and it's d'awww so adorable, this little apple pie sad dragon boy. I still am a bit iffy on the fact that we have apple-dragons, but I am also tickled by the fact that we have apple-dragons. 
• GALARIAN CORSOLA IS A DEAD CORAL! And its evolved form CURSOLA! Cursola is the perfect English name for a dead coral Pokemon. It's amazing. This entire line is Shield exclusive and I need it. It's a pretty great design and has got a neat lore. See what you have wrought, Toxapex. See the fruits of your labour. 
• Mr. Rime is... it exists. I don't hate it. It's got a mustache. 
• I'm surprised Galarian Darmanitan and Galarian Stunfisk didn't have evolutions. I half-expected Stunfisk to, actually. 
• So Galarian Yamask evolves into Runerigus instead of Cofagrigus? It's got some disturbing pokedex lore. The painting takes over the human ghost, what the fuck.
• I also looked up how to turn Yamask into Runerigus and holy fuck yeah there's no way I'm figuring that out, what the hell.
• There are way too many Alcremie forms holy shit. I thought Vivillon was over the top but this is over the top. 
• I completely missed Eiscue. This odd ice cube penguin is apparently Stonjurner's version counterpart, and both earn a solid 'wut' from me. I'm not sure if I'm ever going to get used to them. I like a vast majority of the creatures in this generation, but I'm not sure if I'll ever really ever get used to these two. I don't even find them "cool I guess in a way" the same way some of the more iffy past designs do, y'know? 
• I've seen all four fossil combinations and they are truly unholy, and I'm actually surprised we don't get a 'purified' form for any of them. 
• Dreepy and Drakloak are neat! In addition with Dragapult, they're a very solid pseudo-legendary line. 
• No legendary trios, or any other 'bonus' legendaries outside of Eternatus, Zacian and Zamazenta. So I guess we're having a "many legendaries, only three legendaries" thing alternating then? Generation V and VII had a fuck-ton of legendaries and Ultra Beasts respectively, whereas VI and VIII had a minimal amount of them. 

There are also a fair amount of new Gigantamax forms that I haven't seen quite yet:

• No Gigantamax forms for any of the Galarian starters or legendaries, which is surprising!
• Also no Gigantamax form for Frosmoth! I know G-Max Butterfree exists, but you'd think that the Mothra reference would've been an obvious one. 
• Likewise, I'm surprised Hydreigon didn't get a G-Max form. After being one of the few pseudos to be cheated out of a Mega Evolution, you'd think that they'd give ol' three-heads a kaiju form. 
• G-max Kingler is unexpected, glorious, looks like a wacky mutant deep-sea Alaskan King Crab and he's got a glorious mustache and I love him. I didn't quite realize just how much I like Kingler until this moment. 
• I actually saw G-Max Lapras in some publication material, and apparently Gordie's mom uses one in the Shield version. It looks neat. I like the little musical note aura it has around it. 
• Regular Snorlax blocks the route. Gigantamax Snorlax IS THE ROUTE.
• Gigantamax Orbeetle is a fucking ladybug UFO and it's so stupid but so awesome at the same time. Honestly, Orbeetle is low-key starting to become one of my favourites of the region.
• Gigantamax Appletun and Flapple are the exact same thing, and it's basically just, uh, Applin poking its head out. I'm not a fan, and I prefer all three of the non-Giga forms over G-max Appleworm. 
• Gigantamax Melmetal and Toxtricity are still unavailable and no one's got 3D models of them yet, apparently. From the sprites, Toxtricity goes four-legged and looks pretty badass looking as this monstrous giant lizard, while Melmetal, uh... goes super-rigid or something, I dunno. 

I've also been capturing and evolving a bunch of the creatures I have in my box as I go through the Wild Area. My feelings about the raid Pokemon still stands and I still don't really like the raids, particularly how repetitive they've became. The fact that you actually have to grind through them to get some of the best resources in the game (EXP candies; powerful TR's; resetting the dens to spawn gigantamax pokemon) doesn't help my feelings either, but I've simmered down just a little. I do plan to at least obtain a Gigantamax Orbeetle, Kingler, Centiskorch and Butterfree in my collection, but I'm not sure if I'll last that long or if I'll just give up in frustration. 

It's also genuinely interesting seeing the sheer extent of the Pokemon they kept for Galar and the Pokemon that they didn't keep for Galar. I actually do respect the Pokemon Team a bit that they keep a relatively varied cluster of selections, instead of just picking the most marketable ones. I do really like the random encounters with the overworld pokemon in the Wild Area, too -- randomly meeting a Vikavolt, or a Steelix, or a Gardevoir, or a Drednaw, or a Ribombee... all neat stuff.

I tried to do a couple of the G-Max raid battles, but the Drednaw and Butterfree I beat ended up breaking free of their pokeballs after all the effort I put in to sit through all the cutscenes of AI trainers bungling their turns, while the battle goes on and on with the stupid barriers and whatnot. Y'know, I probably wouldn't have minded it if the fights were actually interesting, if there were actual moves or strategy involved. Say what you will about mega evolutions or totem pokemon or whatever, they were a lot more exciting than the raid battles here. I've said my piece in that previous segment, though, so eh.

I've also taken to re-exploring some of the earlier areas and going through Galar Mine 2 and Route 3 with surfing abilities. It doesn't quite unlock a whole slew of inaccessible secret areas in the same way that older GBA/DS era games did, but I did appreciate that they at least programmed in some extra little areas for exploration. I've also been training up my Toxtricity, Orbeetle and Toxapex. Out of the B-team, I think I like those three the most, although Galarian Weezing, Grimmsnarl and Obstagoon do give those a run for their money. Orbeetle's a bit irritating to use due to its defensive stats, but Toxapex's fun and Toxtricity's huge sound-moves-boosting ability allows him to rock out with Boomburst and his signature move (?) Overdrive, allowing me to see awesome animations while also dealing a ton of damage.

Anyway, after that, I ended up going back to the Slumbering Weald, where Hop's just sort of hanging out and looking at the shrine and stuff, thinking about... stuff, recent events, and what he's planning to do in the future. This being Hop, this ends up leading to a battle with his significantly leveled-up team, all of whom are around level 60. It's still the same ol' team of Dubwool, Corviknight, Cramorant, Pincurchin, Snorlax and Cinderace, though, so after my Sirfetch'd Swords Dances twice, it just literally sweeps through the entire team. Yes, even the birds.

It's at that point when Professor Sonia shows up, and apparently she's written a book about our exploits... and asks if we're returning the rusted weapons. We apparently do so, but then surprise random new antagonists out of nowhere! What is this nonsense, Bleach? It's a pair of dapper gentlemen with hairs modeled after a sword and a shield, which, uh... frankly, is pretty dang ridiculous even in Pokemon character design standards. They're called Squidward Swordward Sordward and Shieldbert, and they are apparently the descendants of the ancient Galarian kings and they're oh-so-terribly-miffled that us mere plebians dare claim the glory that's rightfully theirs in defeating Eternatus, quite quite. Absolutely love the random mention of how they totally wrote a scathing, one-star internet review for Sonia's book because of how inaccurate it was in the eyes of royalty. My god, these guys are certainly extra, aren't they?

Shit, y'know what? In like, two or three conversations, these guys end up feeling so much more punchable than any other character in the game except for Bede, and they talk up a game like they're going to plan... something or other. They make for better antagonists than the vague Rose or the toothless Team Yell, as ridiculous as they are. Time will tell if they will last long enough to leave an impression, but after laying down some posh-as-fuck smack talk, they fight! And something that genuinely caught me by surprise considering the tendency of this game? The lack of healing between the Hop and Sword Dude fight! Surprising and very welcome.

Sordward fights me, while Shieldbert apparently beats up Hop off-screen (to be fair, I just beat up his team), and despite only having four Pokemon, Sordward actually poses a decent amount of a challenge, and I do really love that his team is based around 'knightly' Pokemon. His Sirfetch'd actually takes mine out with a new move called "Meteor Assault", which I think is like a Hyper Beam style move? Presumably it's Fighting-type? It takes my Sirfetch'd out in one critical hit, but when it's recharging my Corviknight murders Sordward's Sirfetch'd. Swordward's next Pokemon is a Doublade, which my Centiskorch murders with a Fire Lash, and then my Corviknight deals with his Golisopod. Sordward's final Pokemon is a Bisharp, which survives my Centiskorch's Fire Lash and returns fire with the 4x effective Stone Edge, but gets taken out by... uh... someone else in my team or whatever.

Anyway, Swordbutt and Shieldjerk bugger off from the Slumebring Weald, having stolen the Rusty Shield from Hop and is off to do... some evil scheme or other, presumably involving corrupting Zamazenta. I dunno if I'm just so ready to latch on to any story with better build-up than the silly Chairman Rose one, or if this is just so much better, but regardless, I am excited to experience the post-game story!

Random Notes:

• Apparently, Eternatus's weird spiral-UFO form is called an "Eternamax" form and while it's registered into the Pokedex, as of now there's no way to actually access it in-game. 
• I just recently traveled to the "Lake of Outrage" sub-area of the Wild Area and it's pretty hilariously named. 
• The sheer amount of random larger Pokemon like Mudsdale and Crawdaunt and Bewear that'll simultaneously pop up into existence in Axew's Eye is a great visual treat. 
• There's a G-Max Snorlax event going on at the moment, but I'm not sure if I need the Nintendo Switch online membership stuff to make G-Max Snorlax spawn. Not that I'm super-enthused to hunt it down, mind you. 
• I got a G-Max Charmander from Leon's room, because he leaves one for me. So I guess some Pokemon are just able to Gigantamax since birth, like this Charmander? Bede might not be a hacker, I guess, and his Hattena might just be able to G-max since birth like this little Charmander.
• There's a random dude in Motostoke who tells me to see him after we become champion. Apparently he is a move tutor for a mighty base-140 special Steel-ype move called Steel Beam. This is, like, the fan-made move from a Corocoro magazine or something, I guess? \
• I'll try and get the first "Gotta Review 'Em All" article for Generation VIII somewhere up around early February or thereabouts. I'm still a bit baffled how I'm going to order this since we've got both Galarian forms that are just standalone, as well as Galarian forms that evolve into brand-new Pokemon. It'd feel odd taking pokemon like Runerigus and Cursola and Sirfetch'd out of the numbering system, but at the same time it'd be a bit odd to cover the Galarian forms separately with the knowledge that I'm going to talk about their evolved forms in the next page. 
• And that's not counting Gigantamax forms either! At least unlike Generation VI, a significant amount of native Galar Pokemon gets to show off their Gigantamax forms, but it does make it a bit confusing whether I'm going to cover them all in a single page like I did mega evolutions, or if I'm going to lump G-Max forms with their base forms.
• And I also kind of want to do a once-off revision of all of the previous Gotta Review 'Em All segments -- I feel like I didn't quite get into the groove of actually reviewing the creatures based on their design and concepts until I'm all the way into around Generations IV-V, and I do feel like I might have to take a look back and slowly do a bit of a re-review and rewrite of some of them. In particular I feel like I ended up being a bit of a GEEWUNNER with some of the first-generation Pokemon, and might be a bit unfairly too harsh on some of the Generation II and V creatures (and mega evolution) in particular. I'm not sure when I'll have the time to do so, though, and I think I'll do Generation VIII first.