# Chapter Select, [[S6E4 - Pokémon Sword and Shield]] Transcript This transcription was completed on March 4, 2026 with the application MacWhisper on macOS. This was done automatically, without human input during the transcription process. The transcription used the Parakeet v3 model. My hope is that by offering this transcription – however accurate it may be done by a machine learning/AI – will help you, the listener. I’d love to offer full, proper transcription some day, but that is not feasible at this time. Thank you for listening and reading. I hope you enjoy the show and that this document was helpful. Enjoy. --- I always hate when the ghosts have levitate and they're literally levitating off the ground, like this Pokemon is a ghost type and it's levit hovering above the ground. *00:00* It's like, oh okay, then I think *00:07* I think this won't affect it then. *00:09* And then it does, yeah. *00:11* Because that's not the first time that's happened too. *00:12* I've done that. *00:14* I would d I would make the same assumption. *00:15* So you don't *00:17* I wouldn't even have thought that that was an ability, so. *00:19* Um let me hold on, I gotta bury you. *00:22* Bury me? *00:26* Yeah. *00:27* Why are you burying me? *00:28* Why *00:31* I'm getting better. *00:39* I don't like that the the I will say the one thing I don't like in particular is that when you go to your Pokemon that you have on your bench, it tells you straight up what all their moves would do against the one that's out currently. *00:42* That is ultra baby mode. *00:54* No, I love it. *00:56* That is ultra baby mode. *00:57* I'm getting better at remembering it though. *00:59* I in this game, the longer I played it, the better I was getting at remembering. *01:02* what each one did. *01:08* So I'm I would assume over the course as we play these, I'm just gonna start retaining this knowledge more and more. *01:10* So *01:19* I'm excited about it. *01:20* What is steel type strong and weak against? *01:23* That's you have to give me a minute. *01:26* Um *01:28* Clearly it's strong against your ghosty boy. *01:30* Or fairy. *01:34* Fairy was what your goblin was. *01:35* So that's something. *01:39* Um What would I fight with steel? *01:40* I don't know. *01:44* I'm getting better. *01:45* I didn't say I was good at it. *01:45* So *01:48* Rock or something? *01:49* I feel like rock is involved in there somewhere. *01:50* Steel's strong against rock, but Okay. *01:54* See? *01:57* Like it was in my brain. *01:57* Um, okay *01:59* Uh what about Scarlet and Violet? *02:02* I was just curious what you thought of the the Pokemon presents. *02:04* Not a direct, but the basically they've shown us the game. *02:08* Like we're getting the legendary pretty early, it seems like. *02:10* The legendary is a m motorcycle, an airplane, and a boat *02:14* Uh I still don't know what to think about it. *02:22* Everyone, open world, any order, play with your friends. *02:26* Yeah, I'm still not sure about all that. *02:31* I think it could either be really cool or it could be like an absolute disaster, to be honest. *02:33* Why is that? *02:39* Because they're doing like first-time things for all this stuff *02:40* And I think Pok I think one of Pokemon's great strengths is that it is pretty formulaic and I don't have any problem with that. *02:44* Um for them to go full open world do anything in any order. *02:51* Give you the legendary early, like all this stuff I'm like, I don't know. *02:56* Okay, so some of this is from Arceus. *03:00* Yeah, I do know that. *03:04* Like Arceus is open world as well, obviously. *03:05* And the whole flying boat um motorcycle thing, that's three different Pokemon in Arceus. *03:08* They've just fused it into one. *03:14* Well that looks too much *03:15* That looked too much like Breath of the Wild to me. *03:17* That I mean that those are function for function, the same thing in Arceus. *03:20* There's a bird, a deer, and a like a big dragonfish. *03:24* I've seen that. *03:28* Yeah. *03:29* I just don't know if I want that like if if Arceus or Arceus whatever is the new direction they want to take for the mainline games, then *03:30* Why isn't Arceus a mainline game? *03:38* Because when that came in, everybody's like, oh, is this a mainline game? *03:40* They're like, no, it's not. *03:43* This is its own spin-off thing. *03:44* And then you see Scarlet and Violet. *03:45* It's like, well, what is this? *03:47* It's just more of that. *03:49* Yeah, I'm I'm interested to see what like how it looks like. *03:51* I think it looks good, I should say. *03:56* Like I'm not like down on it. *03:59* I'm more just *04:01* What about I'm I'm holding reservation until I actually play the game. *04:03* So yeah. *04:09* What about the Terra *04:10* Diamond thing. *04:12* Oh, that looks horrible. *04:14* I saw some that I think dude does look terrible. *04:16* I saw some people competitively saying *04:19* It looks better than Dynamaxing because the type of the Pokemon changes, so you have to Oh, I need to go get my phone. *04:21* I'm an idiot. *04:28* I have my notes on my phone. *04:28* You can't pull your notes up on your computer? *04:30* No. *04:33* Log into iCloud. *04:33* com and go your notes there. *04:35* I don't have it linked via iCloud. *04:36* I have it linked via my Gmail, I think. *04:38* And I don't even know if it's linked right now. *04:41* Okay. *04:43* Well. *04:44* To be honest. *04:44* Get your phone and bring a cable in with you. *04:45* Dynamaxing at least looks sort of cool. *04:47* The jewel thing looks *04:51* Idiotic. *04:54* Visually or mechanically? *04:56* Visually, I don't care for it. *04:58* Like giving Pikachu. *04:59* No, no, but I mean I don't know how it's gonna work out mechanically, honestly. *05:00* They didn't just mechanically, it seems kinda interesting that *05:04* You could be switching type mid-battle. *05:07* That could add strategy. *05:10* See, I hate that. *05:11* I I hate that. *05:12* I don't like that. *05:12* See, I'm I'm and maybe we'll talk about it in this episode a little bit, but I'm against all these different forms and *05:13* type swaps like this is a it's a ponyta except it's fairy now it's psychic and fairy instead of fire it's like *05:20* I don't like that. *05:29* It's a meowth, but it's steel now. *05:29* Like I I've never been a fan of that trend over the past couple years. *05:32* And I think it's *05:36* I don't know. *05:39* They've been doing that. *05:39* They've been leaning too heavily into that. *05:40* Like, I'm a person who likes black and white a lot because black and white, they were just straight up like *05:42* Here's like 150 totally new Pokemon that we just created from scratch. *05:48* And this is the entire Pokedex in the game. *05:52* There's literally nothing from past gens. *05:54* Go. *05:56* And *05:57* That was it. *05:58* And it was just totally new Pokemon. *05:59* Front to back. *06:01* Other games that they've been doing like we talked about how the Pokedex is kind of weak in this game in certain regards. *06:02* Yeah, we would definitely the way they fill those gaps is they introduce new typings of old Pokemon. *06:09* They're like, but it's new. *06:16* And it's like, well, no, it's not. *06:17* I really don't want *06:18* A meowth. *06:19* I've had a meowth before. *06:20* I don't want another one. *06:22* That's just a different type and looks different and has a beard or whatever. *06:23* So Yeah, I just I guess I'm *06:28* I'm not as entrenched in all of it, so I'm just I don't really care either way. *06:33* Um, I'll tell you what, man, that just uh leaves more on the table to remember though. *06:39* 'Cause if Pikachu turns suddenly into a flying Pokemon, then I've gotta remember that Pikachu may switch, you know? *06:44* Well, it's gonna tell you that. *06:50* Like that's clearly *06:52* How they're doing things now. *06:54* You think it would tell you that this may turn into that? *06:56* I mean if it just told you *07:00* Oh, if it may I mean I don't think that needs to warn you that it could turn into something. *07:02* It'll tell you once it does. *07:06* It will once it does, but *07:08* you know, now you've got to theoretically operate under all of remembering all that. *07:11* And I'm not very good at that. *07:15* So anyway, I'm you know *07:17* I'm jazzed too eventually. *07:19* You're getting Scarlet, right? *07:21* And you like the motorcycle Pokemon more? *07:23* Yeah, I think so. *07:26* I will be playing Violet. *07:28* Yeah, my plan is to play Violet though, so *07:31* I don't know why everybody likes violet more. *07:34* I like purple more. *07:37* Gonna go with red. *07:41* Boo. *07:43* It'll be good to to get that later this year. *07:44* It's only a few months away, really, when you think about it. *07:49* So I'm glad that I'll probably have God of War done by the time that game comes out. *07:52* Because I think that's like the week after. *07:56* It is. *07:59* Er like a week and a half. *08:00* I think it's the 18th and God of War is the 9th. *08:01* So *08:04* It's like a we can need to start playing it right away. *08:05* But it'll be you'll have a clear plate and I'll be God of War slash babysitting. *08:08* So *08:15* Hello everybody and welcome to Chapter Select, a seasonal podcast where we bounce back and forth between a series exploring their evolution, design, and legacy. *08:16* This is our Pokemon season, and I am one of your hosts, Max Roberts, and I am joined, as always, by Logan Moore. *08:26* Hi, Logan. *08:32* Max, Team Yell is just a bunch of simps. *08:33* That's all they are. *08:35* They absolutely are. *08:37* They it will hold. *08:39* We've gone from Team Rocket, which is crime organization, to Team Yell, which is professional simps. *08:40* They that or annoying soccer fans for sure. *08:48* It's a mix of both. *08:53* They got the like Vu-Vuzuela things on them. *08:53* Oh my gosh. *08:56* They are truly annoying and *08:57* Honestly, major downside to this game, but we'll dig into that a little bit later. *09:00* We are talking about Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield in this episode. *09:04* The first *09:09* major Pokemon mainline game on the Nintendo Switch. *09:11* There was Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee, but those weren't mainline remakes of the first gen, so. *09:15* We are here with Gen 8 and playing on the Nintendo Switch, the first home console. *09:20* Big TV Pokemon RPG. *09:26* Step aside, Gale of Darkness, Coliseum. *09:28* Sword and Shield is here. *09:33* I mean Game Freak didn't make those games. *09:35* This is the first they did not home. *09:37* I don't think so. *09:39* This is the first home console Game Freak game, I believe. *09:40* Now I have to truly look this up. *09:43* This was that's not the Wikipedia I want. *09:46* That's a bulbapedia page. *09:49* Come on, Wikipedia. *09:51* Uh while you look that stuff up, I'm pretty sure I'm right. *09:53* Let's just uh dive right into it and get the broad details of Sword and Shield out of the way. *09:56* Pokemon Sword and Shield, developed by Game Freak, as I just mentioned. *10:00* Released on Nintendo Switch, came out in November. *10:03* On November 15th, 2019, uh it had two expansions that released the following year. *10:06* The first one was The Isle of Armor, which launched in June of 2020. *10:12* And then we had the Crown Tundra, which launched in October 2020. *10:16* The game's director was Shigeru Omori. *10:20* The producers were Junichi Masuda. *10:23* Hitoshi Yamagami and Takanori Soa and the music was done by Minako Adachi and Go Ichinose. *10:26* The game's metacritic average was an 80 out of 100 for critics and I don't know if we need to mention user scores because this game's been one of those games that's been *10:35* Uh blasted by fans. *10:46* It's got a 4. *10:48* 6 user score, but it's also been prone to mass review bombings and things like that, so it's really not reflective of what *10:49* I think a lot I mean, people are divisive on this one, but it's it's also this is they're trying to intentionally drag the score down. *10:56* So *11:03* Uh Metacritic user score doesn't matter much with this one. *11:04* What did you find with your research? *11:07* We never talked about it. *11:09* Both games were developed by someone else. *11:10* Genius Sonority? *11:12* That's what I thought. *11:15* And they made those two games. *11:16* They made Troze, Battle Revolution, and then they made Pokemon Shuffle and Cafe Mix. *11:17* Those are the only Pokemon games they've made. *11:22* So yeah, not Game Freak at all. *11:23* Blowing my mind. *11:27* Yeah, Game Freaks only really develop the handheld games, which I think is why everybody was very partially mad about this game, because it has some problems as a home console video game when it's not *11:28* The best. *11:41* We'll just say in some aspects, which we'll touch on and dig into more here in a second. *11:43* Uh before we do start talking too much about the game though *11:48* What's our own histories with it, which I am sure there are not extensive ones. *11:52* This game is not even three years old, so there's really not a lot we can touch on here. *11:57* But *12:02* It uh our histories are actually fairly similar for this game. *12:03* I obviously had never played it. *12:07* Again, my history with Pokemon has been established. *12:08* I've really only played Blue and Diamond. *12:11* up until this season. *12:13* So I didn't touch it. *12:14* Um, you know, saw it, came out, was like, Pokemon on Switch. *12:16* Logical, logical next step. *12:19* Uh *12:21* Always passed it by. *12:22* I did find it interesting that this was the first Pokemon game to not do a second version, you know, a year or so later and instead opt for DLC. *12:23* So instead of a a crystal or a platinum or even a a black and white two type sequel thing, ultra whatever DLC. *12:34* So I did find that interesting strategy for the company, but *12:41* Beyond that, didn't even touch it, look at it, think about it more than whenever Nintendo talked about it. *12:45* Yeah, I mean my real my only real exposure to this game outside of um *12:51* I mean yeah, it came out a couple years ago. *12:57* I picked it up at launch, but I didn't play it until now. *12:59* So I've just been sitting on this and it's been in my backlog for *13:01* Two and a half years. *13:05* The only other thing I really remember with it is playing this game at Nintendo's E3 booth in 2019. *13:06* So that was *13:13* Uh I gotta look at it behind closed doors early. *13:14* And I think the demo they had us play was actually the second gym. *13:18* They just let us run through that gym and fight her name. *13:22* Yeah. *13:26* Yeah, and so I wasn't the one playing that. *13:27* Uh shout out to Tomas Franzisi, who I think is gonna join us on this season on an episode in the future. *13:29* Um yeah, he ran through that and he played that. *13:35* So I got to check that out and see some of the new features and things like that early. *13:37* But otherwise I'd never played the game for myself until now. *13:41* And again, I've been meaning to for a bit, but *13:46* I guess my real history with this and the thing that I can throw out there is that I've kind of become a lapsed Pokemon fan. *13:49* Like I went from playing *13:55* Every single one of them to I didn't play Sun and Moon. *13:57* I didn't play this. *14:01* Um at the time we're recording this, I still have not played Pokemon Legends Arceus. *14:02* Uh so I have this is the first *14:08* newer Pokemon game that I have played in probably the last five years or so. *14:10* Um I skipped out on the Hoenn remakes as well. *14:16* I never played those. *14:20* Um *14:21* The last thing I played, I think, was X and Y. *14:22* So from X and Y till this, this is the first time I've really gotten back into Pokemon. *14:25* Um, since that time, since X and Y came out on 3DS. *14:32* So yeah. *14:35* On that note of this being my first game back to Pokemon though *14:36* Um, I have to say I really enjoyed this game overall. *14:40* And I'm not sure if the same is said for you because we've talked about this *14:44* I mean, very broadly with one another before doing this podcast, and I think I mentioned something to the effect of I'm really enjoying this, and you really didn't respond and say anything, so I have a feeling that *14:48* You did not care for this game as much as I did. *14:58* Um I don't think this is the best Pokemon by any means, but I have to say that I really enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would once I really got into the weeds of it and was *15:01* Playing around with some of the new Pokemon and stuff like that. *15:11* It took me a while to land on the team that I wanted and the Pokemon that I used, and maybe we can talk about that a little bit later. *15:13* But I do think I enjoyed this game quite a bit. *15:19* Especially more than I was expecting. *15:23* So what about yourself? *15:25* I was not a huge this game annoyed me. *15:27* There the some design decisions annoyed me. *15:32* It feels shallow. *15:35* They're the depth that I *15:39* n am familiar with from the original gen and and diamond and pearl feel stripped out of this. *15:43* A lot of that falls onto Team Yell and the villain type angle of this game. *15:50* Yeah. *15:56* It's really all Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim. *15:57* I like that, and I'll tell you why in a second. *16:00* Okay. *16:02* And then the postgame is Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim. *16:02* That I don't like. *16:06* So I'm at at the time we're recording this, you've done more the post-game than I have. *16:07* I'm still dealing with swordburton *16:11* Uh or Swordword and Shieldbert, I think their names are. *16:14* So I'm dealing with them and cleaning up that mess. *16:18* So I've not done the entirety of the postgame, but *16:21* I've gotten to the point where I cleaned up the first gyms and then I fought them again, and then it was like, oh no, now there are more gyms under turmoil. *16:23* And I'm like, okay, I don't want to do this right now. *16:31* Yeah. *16:33* Um so *16:34* It feels just while it is laser focused in what it wants to deliver, it feels sparse in previous at least the offering I'm familiar with. *16:35* And so I just found that weak. *16:46* A lot of that was Team Yell, I think, in particular, and just the whole villain side of this game, while Chairman Rose is obviously up to something. *16:49* That's not really fully revealed and explored until the very end of the game. *16:59* And even then it's not done well. *17:04* Like you still don't really have a good idea of *17:05* Why is he doing this? *17:07* Yeah, and they rip bed out of I'm pretty sure it's BD. *17:09* Okay. *17:13* Well, you know, he's *17:13* plucked out of the story mid-game and then Sword Bert and Shield or Shield Bert and Sword show up post-game. *17:15* Like I feel like if they were introduced earlier and they were kind of this threat throughout, maybe that would have been a bit more interesting *17:23* And then the whole wild area bit feels unnecessary. *17:29* I don't know about you. *17:34* I didn't engage with any of it. *17:35* I mean I ran around a little bit, but not uh like it wasn't something that I did a lot, and I know that was one of the big selling points of the game prior to release. *17:37* It's like, oh, we have a sprawling area where there's all kinds of Pokemon. *17:45* I do think that's cool *17:48* in a general sense. *17:50* I think that it's novel that you have this expansive area where there's all kinds of Pokemon and if if you are just think about it from this perspective. *17:51* If you are really trying to complete the Pokedex and you are trying to cat gotta catch 'em all *17:59* uh then it's cool that you have this expansive area where you can just roam go up and down the map and catch all these different Pokemon and slowly build up your Pokedex and things like that. *18:04* I think that's cool. *18:14* I I like that in a broad sense. *18:15* You can so I have played Arceus and *18:18* This is obviously where that game like this idea was tested out and you know what works, what doesn't. *18:23* And then Arceus is a way better execution of this concept. *18:31* That's right. *18:35* So for me, it's a regression. *18:36* I was like, this is not the same thing. *18:37* Those little hotspots for Dynamax Pokemon. *18:39* Clearly that was meant to be like team up with your friends. *18:42* I didn't engage with that at all. *18:45* There's all this currency. *18:47* There's battle points. *18:48* There's the the watts. *18:49* And then real money. *18:51* It just feels at the time we're recording this too, like Scarlet and Violet's going full co-op multiplayer. *18:53* So it's it's clear that they were trying some things out with like the Dynamax too. *18:59* Like, what are more ways we can *19:02* Get you to incorporate your friends or do things with friends and it's it's it's the centered around these raid battles, which I don't think are yeah, they're not *19:04* Great by any means. *19:12* Um I don't think the wild area is anything phenomenal and it's nothing I spent a lot of time with again. *19:13* Um but I didn't think it was *19:20* Horrible. *19:24* I didn't think it was like egregious. *19:25* It was like, okay, I see what they're doing here and I see what they're trying to build. *19:27* I think my larger issue, and this is something that we can get into *19:32* Maybe not a lot, but the game has some very massive technical shortcomings. *19:37* And I don't know if that's I I don't think it's because of the Switch. *19:42* I just think it's because *19:45* Is game freak I I don't know. *19:47* Maybe it is because of the Switch, but there are some insane pop-in and draw distance problems in this game, and I think that hurts even that uh I I think it hurts way more in the wild area because you're trying to *19:49* You know, run around this air this expansive uh part of the game and see what's out in the distance and you don't you can't really see *20:01* What is around that you can explore and look at because the pop-in is so abysmal. *20:09* Like the draw distances are horrible in this game. *20:15* So you really don't know what's around each corner until you are right up there and it's in front of your face, and that's a problem. *20:18* Um It's a major problem. *20:24* Um I will say *20:26* Like me noticing it eventually goes away. *20:29* Just I guess you mind. *20:32* Yeah, it's nothing that impacted my enjoyment of the game, but it was one of those things that consistently the whole time I was playing. *20:35* Like even late game, I was like, oh wow, this is really bad. *20:41* Like even in some of the cities you'll go to, you will get you will have to get very close until other characters pop in and you can see them. *20:44* Like it it's it's very *20:52* noticeable and it's yeah, I I I don't know if that's something that'll be improv I'm hoping that'll be improved very much so with Scarlet and Violet because *20:55* That's a full open world Pokemon game. *21:04* So if they have just as much tech uh character pop-in problems and stuff like that, then that's going to be *21:07* troublesome with that video game. *21:14* I I think the more offensive technical issue is the frame rate. *21:16* That I noticed a lot and did *21:21* Did you play on your TV? *21:24* Played on my TV um 95% of the time. *21:25* Total inverse. *21:29* I did not play in not handheld mode. *21:30* Total handheld game for me. *21:34* Interesting. *21:35* Every I respect. *21:36* So okay. *21:37* Well, I was on the TV 100% of the time and *21:38* It's choppy, man. *21:42* It gets really sluggish. *21:44* It battles running around. *21:45* Uh I was not surprised, but it was slow. *21:47* It had some slowdown. *21:54* I could see it. *21:56* Yeah. *21:56* So Yeah, I I played solely on handheld and I didn't really notice frame drops too much. *21:57* There was a couple times, uh, during battles and things like that, but it was stable for the most part. *22:02* It was the main technical problems were *22:07* the things we've already mentioned. *22:10* To go back to the wild area really quick. *22:11* Yeah. *22:14* I think this might help transition a little bit, but *22:14* The other problem I had with it is design-wise, the game only forces you to go through it twice. *22:18* Yeah. *22:25* I thought it would be more integral as in *22:25* almost the wild area is the central hub and then maybe every town or gym is sprawled off of it. *22:28* And so every time you were going there instead of traditional routes per se *22:33* You're going through this wild air, exploring new parts, being strong enough to go through. *22:38* And there's one area of it you specifically can't get to early. *22:42* Like if they would have had more branching paths unlocked as the game goes on. *22:45* From everything else. *22:51* Because once you get to the main first city, the three gyms are beyond that. *22:52* And on main routes that you just go through caves and and things like that. *22:56* And then when you move to the you gotta loop around back through the wild area. *23:00* So it feels like *23:03* Uh we didn't have to engage with it and therefore I didn't engage with it because But if you don't like it and you're not being forced to engage with it, I mean that's a roundabout way is a good thing, it's a positive thing. *23:05* Sure, it didn't make my enjoyment of the game worse, but if it was so 'cause that was a part I remember being promoted so heavily and obviously a new innovation for the series, and to see it not used so much, it feels a little *23:17* Yeah, what were the big so the big new features of this game, that maybe to if we want to talk about the other big thing would be the dynamaxing and the gigantamaxing and *23:32* Or whatever, however you say it. *23:41* Yes. *23:42* That's the other big new aspect of Sword and Shield. *23:43* Do you have any strong feelings about that whole system? *23:48* I didn't really engage with it. *23:53* The only time I engaged with it would be in the gym battles when every *23:55* Last time you really can use it. *24:01* Well the gym. *24:03* Yeah. *24:05* But the they would their last Pokemon, they would always Dyna are Gigantamax, and then I would just do it *24:05* simply to have enough power to counter. *24:12* Sometimes I didn't even bother with it, but it was not something I saw as a strategic play. *24:14* I didn't really want to use it or feel like I needed to use it. *24:19* So *24:24* It was just there. *24:25* It made them big and changed your moves. *24:26* I wasn't I wasn't a huge I wasn't a huge fan of turning huge. *24:29* Yeah, it's not something, again, similar to the wild, how I felt about the wild area. *24:35* It wasn't anything egregious, but it was nothing that I really loved. *24:40* The process of *24:43* uh getting di Dynamax and getting your Pokemon big was just too long. *24:46* Like the animation was too long to the point that I didn't want to *24:51* And do it sometimes because I knew that oh I can just kill this thing if I just stay in my normal size and I just use an attack here and uh I'll be able to take this down without having to go through the whole 15 to 20 second animation of *24:55* dynamaxing. *25:07* So I would opt not to do that just because I'm lazy and I want to save time. *25:08* I think there are different we you and I played a fight before doing this. *25:13* And I think competitively, I think there are some interesting *25:17* ways that you can use Dynamaxing, especially if you do double battles or something like that online. *25:21* I think there are some interesting strategies that you could implement and um *25:27* I think competitive wise there is a little bit more depth to it. *25:32* As far as the base game itself goes, yeah, not a lot to really *25:35* uh convince me that this was a great addition to the game by any means and it's something that again Scarlet and Violet is coming out in the future, in the coming months at the time we're recording this. *25:40* And it's not bringing it back. *25:51* They're introducing a new form change system instead, but uh it's not anything that I am wanting to see implemented in all Pokemon games moving forward, and I'm glad it won't be coming back because I just *25:53* Would like to see them do something else or I I don't know. *26:05* There it it's not it's not great enough to where it needs to be in every Pokemon game moving forward, I guess is what I'm saying. *26:09* Yeah. *26:14* I'm I what was it in Sapphire and Ruby that they did? *26:15* Omega something? *26:19* Or what was it? *26:21* But what was it in X and Y? *26:23* They had a thing in there too. *26:25* I can't remember. *26:27* I guess we will find out when we play them. *26:29* But they kind of like move gimmick *26:31* in each of these games, at least from the 3DS onward, and and maybe even in the DS ones that I didn't play. *26:37* And and that's been one of my big problems with Pokemon in general, and I think that's why I fell off for a while, is that *26:43* They've become really obsessed with form alterations, whether that be Dynamaxing, or whether that be here's the Alolan version of this Pokemon, or here's the Galarian version of Meowth that's a steel type and it *26:48* It's got a beard and it looks different. *27:00* It has different evolutions. *27:01* Like they've been really obsessed with form changes for a while now. *27:03* And that's not anything that I have really. *27:08* Loved. *27:11* And I know they've been adding new aspects to Pokemon games for a long time, whether that be I don't know, eggs and things like that or *27:11* Um I I don't know. *27:20* They've been slowly building this out for quite a long time with how how they introduce new Pokemon and how you can get Pokemon and *27:21* things and things of that nature. *27:28* But I I really am a traditionalist in the sense that I just like them to introduce no new Pokemon. *27:30* I like them to evolve into different Pokemon from there. *27:35* And then that's about it. *27:39* I don't I don't love the *27:40* trend of oh I have a meowth well what type of meowth and what's it gonna evolve into it can either evolve into a berserker or it can evolve into a Persian depending on which version you have and *27:42* This version of Diglet has hair and this version of Diglet doesn't have hair and it's a good thing. *27:51* Some of the some of the designs I like just visually. *27:56* They're they're cute or funny. *27:59* Yeah. *28:01* The coughing with top hats. *28:02* Very good. *28:05* Yes. *28:05* But it looks funny, but it's just strange. *28:06* So the other part of this, as someone whose knowledge of Pokemon really is Gen 1 and 4 *28:11* I at least appreciate that I can identify most Pokemon, or a a handful of them. *28:18* That just helps me ease me into learning this new stuff. *28:24* If you want to introduce a Pokemon that has a large mustache and like smokestack looking hats, I guess I just don't understand why you wouldn't create a whole new Pokemon centered around that idea rather than repurposing a wheezing, is what I'm saying. *28:27* If you want to create a cat that is a steel type, why are we repurposing Meowth rather than just creating a new Pokemon altogether? *28:41* That's my logic behind it. *28:49* And I get like you said. *28:50* It's because familiarity for people like you, the original 151 is ingrained in people's brains above all else. *28:52* Even if you're somebody who's gotten into Pokemon late, like when Pokemon Go was a huge thing and that blew up, like *28:59* Just as the only the original 151, because those are the ones that people know the most. *29:04* And so I think they do want to keep leaning back on those old ones because there is *29:07* nostalgia and familiarity, and I think it's easier to rope people in, be like, look, we're doing things with the Pokemon that you know the most. *29:13* But as somebody who has seen those Pokemon for *29:20* over 20 years now. *29:25* Uh probably close to what twenty I mean twenty-five. *29:26* Um because I've been playing this series since it started and I've played those games so many times to see *29:30* Diglet come back and the only change is it's got hair now and it's a slightly different typing or something like that. *29:36* Like that's just not really alluring to me in any manner. *29:42* So *29:46* But again, I played Pokemon differently than most other people, so Yeah, I my thing with all of this kind of comes down to just the Pokedex in general and *29:47* Picking a team and engaging in the game. *29:59* This particular Pokedex just felt weird to me. *30:01* A lot of *30:06* I felt like a lot of Pokemon only evolve twice, or at least the ones that I saw and engaged with on my team. *30:07* You mean evolve once or evolve yeah, they have two *30:13* Evolve once. *30:16* Um there's the start and then the final evolution. *30:17* So I'm I apologize there. *30:20* And the the typing in this game, you and I have talked about this as we've both played it. *30:23* The typing in this game is all grass and a lot of ghost and fairy stuff. *30:28* It's it just feels way lopsided. *30:35* And I ha I struggled coming up with a team for this game that felt balanced. *30:39* Now I'm sure if I had poured hundreds of hours in, used Pokebank, brought Pokemon in, you know, like done all the stuff *30:43* Or used other Pokemon from past games too, because the Pokemon's is obviously like I uh I mean we put toget we put out a video for bonus for members if you want to watch, uh where I talked about how I constructed my team for this game and one of the things I always like to do is *30:49* I want a team of wholly new Pokemon that are from that new gen specifically. *31:03* Because I want they've put new Pokemon in the game, so I want to use the new Pokemon. *31:07* And going off of that, specifically in this game, yeah, it was hard to put together a team because *31:11* Uh we went sh mentioned specifically if you didn't choose Sabble at the beginning, your options for a water Pokemon in this game were very, very limited. *31:16* Like there are only a handful of new water types in this game. *31:26* Pre-DLC. *31:30* Yes. *31:32* There yeah, because my water type that I ended up going uh through was through with was the evolve form of cubfu. *31:33* Because you can evolve it to where it becomes part water type. *31:40* And I was like, okay, cool, that'll be my and I'm happy with that decision, but like that's kind of a *31:42* bizarre one to choose, I think. *31:48* Like they have the Barracuda thing. *31:50* They've got the turtle, the dreadnaw, I think it's called. *31:52* And then there's a there's a bird, uh Cramorant, I think it is, and then there's r there's a couple of other like pseudo-legendary types that I think are water types too, but uh there's really not a lot else. *31:57* And that and that's reflective of *32:08* I I think though to throw this out to real quick too, sorry, before you say what you're gonna say, I think this is a problem with every Pokemon game. *32:11* Every Pokemon game indexes too hard into one *32:18* type uh into a couple types. *32:21* Like the I like uh I mean Hoenn is probably the best example of this with oh too much water. *32:23* Like that is a real problem with that game. *32:28* Like that game is largely centered around water and there are a ton of water types in it. *32:30* Um *32:35* In this game's problem, I don't know if there's one single typing like similar to with water, but there are a couple more than others that are very, very uh *32:36* commonly springing up in this game. *32:46* Dragon's another big one. *32:47* There's a lot of dragon types in this game. *32:49* I don't know if you spotted a lot of them. *32:50* If you look with the latter half of the Pokedex, like a lot of those fossil types that you can revive, those are all dragon types. *32:55* You've got the Applen, you've got the *33:02* the ghost dragon thing that I had, I forget what it's called, the what Dreepy evolved into. *33:04* Um I mean there are always dragon types in these games, but there's even more I feel like in this one. *33:10* So um *33:15* Yeah, it just made building a team or discovering new Pokemon not as fun. *33:17* There was a moment I saw this anchor Pokemon floating around, and I was like, uh *33:23* It's like a spooky ghost looking thing. *33:28* Maybe it's ghost water. *33:30* Like that sounds interesting. *33:31* It's a water Pokemon. *33:32* Get rid of this dreadnaw. *33:34* Because I really was never quite happy with dreadnaw. *33:35* And then you fight it. *33:38* find out what it is and it's grass ghost. *33:39* I'm like, well, I've already got Rillaboom and I've got Golurk, which is a ghost type. *33:42* Like now I'm now my typing is overlapping so much and I don't want that. *33:47* I want some diversity. *33:52* And it just it didn't feel like the good team decisions where it felt unfair to choose what *33:54* to put in and put out. *34:03* It's like I like this Pokemon, but I like this too, the typing. *34:04* It didn't feel like one of those good decisions where it's like, what am I giving up here? *34:07* It was just like *34:12* Why is this this I wanna use this but it matches and I can't get rid of it. *34:13* I don't know. *34:17* It just didn't feel good. *34:18* Yeah, I think the Pokedex largely has problems. *34:19* I mean that's *34:22* That's the big controversy with this game too, other than some of the technical problems we mentioned. *34:23* I know a lot of people, in addition to us, were like, oh, this game is not great Game Freak for a home console game. *34:27* That was one of the problems I know people had when this game came out. *34:33* And the other one was obviously the whole *34:35* Hashtag save the national decks or whatever. *34:37* Like there is a very specific Pokedex in this game, uh, which is slimmed down to not include all 800 something Pokemon that are in the entirety of Pokemon now. *34:40* Whether or not that comes back in Scarlet. *34:50* I keep referring to Scarlet and Violet at least. *34:53* By the time you hear this, that game will have been out for a bit. *34:55* So we'll obviously have answers to all these things in the future. *34:58* Um *35:01* But yeah, there's a very specific Pokedex in this game as well. *35:02* Um Yeah, I I I don't know. *35:06* The the Pokedex as a whole, even outside of the fact that it there's no national decks. *35:08* I do think it just has shortcomings, uh, especially with again the original what is this, Gen 8 Pokemon that are in this. *35:13* Yeah. *35:22* So I I just think the g new m new Gen 8 lineup is *35:22* Not enough wholly new Pokemon. *35:27* The ones that are wholly new, there's too much crossover of types. *35:29* Um I I think the best thing I can say, and this is one other thing that we talked about before doing this. *35:33* Uh the Pokedex really feels like they came up with ideas for types that they could do. *35:38* Like what are what are some *35:45* uh type uh dual typings that we haven't done a lot of in the past. *35:47* Like, okay, uh we haven't really done too many rock water types. *35:51* Okay, well let's work it backwards. *35:55* What would a rock water type look like? *35:56* And then you get dreadnought. *35:57* Oh we haven't really done a whole lot of uh *35:58* Rock fire types recently. *36:00* Okay, well let's do Colossal and come up with that. *36:02* We haven't done any dark fairy really. *36:05* Like okay, what would that look like? *36:08* Here's a goblin, Grimmsnarl. *36:10* Like it felt like they were *36:12* Matching up typings that they haven't used very prevalently in the past, and then they would work backwards and create a Pokemon that would fit that mold of the dual typing that they wanted to use. *36:13* Um that's kind of the sense that *36:25* I got from this at least. *36:27* Like even Eternatus is another good example of that. *36:28* Like it's a I think it's part poison, part dragon, which is rare and something you don't see very often. *36:30* It made it interesting, I suppose, just to see that, but *36:36* But definitely heavy on the grass. *36:39* I like I like the new I for the for the record, I should say I I do like them coming up with new typing mixes, new dual typings. *36:41* Um I think that's a good idea for the most part. *36:47* Um but then there are even some odd *36:50* Like exclusions like the the grappelock, the octopus thing, like that you can catch in water. *36:53* It's just straight fighting type with no water type. *36:59* It's like, well, why is this *37:01* It can still teach it water moves and it's basically a water type, but it's not. *37:03* Okay, that's kind of strange. *37:07* Like I don't know, just a lot of odd decisions like that were made, uh, in my opinion. *37:09* So I would agree with that. *37:15* I wanna talk about a couple *37:16* Things that I did like about this game, um, and some things you mentioned uh before that you really didn't care for, like with Team Yell and stuff like that. *37:19* I like that this game really does not have *37:27* an overarching bad guy per se until late because I think one of the *37:30* Um I think one of the cliches of Pokemon or one of the things they've always leaned too heavily on is there's an A storyline, which is *37:38* Beat all the gems and become the champion. *37:45* And then the B storyline is, oh no, there's this nefarious group in our region that's ti trying to pull off this evil plan. *37:47* And it's been that *37:54* Going back to red and blue with Team Rocket. *37:56* Like there's always an evil group, and then there's always you are trying to become the the champion of the given region. *37:57* And they've leaned on that for so long. *38:05* So when we get in this game and the team, the quote unquote villain group this time is just *38:08* They're not even really villains, they're just against simps for one of the challengers in particular. *38:14* I like that that was totally different. *38:19* And again, eventually a villain does rise up near the end of the game and you have to face off against Chairman Rose, and I called *38:21* one gym into the game, I was like, okay, Chairman Rose is gonna be evil. *38:28* I can see this coming a thousand miles away. *38:31* Um but they really *38:34* I'd like that there's not this constant presence of a Team Magma or a Team Aqua, Team Rocket, whatever. *38:37* Like I I like that there was not a singular, like, villainous group that or an organization in this region that is trying to *38:44* uh push forward their own motives and uh I guess eventually there is one because Chairman Rose's whole macro cosmos organization or whatever it's called is sort of that. *38:52* But it's not in your face the whole time. *39:03* And I that that felt fresh to me at least, that it wasn't leaning into these old um these old patterns that we've seen in the past. *39:04* I'm okay with that conceptually, like le just leaning more into a one-sided story or dabbling a little bit of the B along the way. *39:13* But I think the execution was shallow. *39:22* There wasn't enough to the plot of going to these gyms and fighting your way to the top. *39:27* that I thought that that that storyline of become the best, defeat the undefeated, there wasn't enough there because you would just go to town and go straight to the gym. *39:35* There wasn't *39:47* In in previous games that I have played, you would get to town and maybe there's some of that B plot there, or getting into the gym there was a puzzle, or, you know, I've gotta go here and find this key, or I've gotta go here and unlock *39:49* I've got to go learn cut, so I gotta go to the man on the ship and get cut from him before I can get into this gym. *40:02* Yeah. *40:08* I feel like if there was just more *40:08* I get more padding to getting to the gym, more of a struggle, and getting, you know, inside the gym, also really getting to the gym leaders not a challenge either. *40:11* And I think we'll talk about that when we get to more gym focused discussion, but it just *40:20* It was so brisk. *40:25* It was like you've got eight gym badges like that. *40:26* Well, I do like the briskness of it. *40:29* I think we both did. *40:32* I marathoned this game and I went I went uh to to I mean to just throw this out there *40:33* Uh the day we're recording this is a Saturday. *40:38* On Friday, uh I it was yesterday morning when I started playing this game, I was at the third gym. *40:41* I had beat it by the time I went to bed. *40:47* So *40:49* I like that it was pretty and it that's still a lot of hours. *40:50* I played the game all day long for like twelve, thirteen, fourteen hours in a day. *40:53* But still, um *40:58* I like the briskness of it. *40:59* Personally, I like I like how quick some of that went. *41:01* Um let's talk about the gems because I I this is the one aspect of the game that I did really like. *41:03* And it's that they put a central focus on *41:09* the gems and the champion and becoming the champion of the region and how that is like a huge prominent thing to be the champion of a given region. *41:13* I think a lot of times in some of the previous Pokemon games, even just looking back at *41:22* uh Fire Run Leaf Green, which is the one we've already played in this season, and this is true in a lot of the other Pokemon games I've played over the years, is that your goal to become champion and beat all the gems *41:27* It's never something within the larger region that I think people are really um *41:38* They don't they come off like they don't care like it's just this activity you're doing like oh I see you've got badges you're attempting to take on the Pokemon League that's cool like no one really *41:46* cares that you're doing it. *41:57* Galar region, it's like this is the thing that everybody cares about. *41:59* Everybody's super invested in. *42:04* the Pokemon League and the gyms and it it is like a spectator sport and it is a huge event. *42:06* It is a these gym battles are huge events that the people of this *42:11* region love and everybody you talk to in the game is very they're all focused on the Pokemon League. *42:16* They're all talking about Leon the champion. *42:21* You're introduced to the champion early which is a huge difference and that's kind of cool because *42:23* When you get to the very end of the game and you do eventually fight him, it is this thing that has been building up over the course of twenty-something hours, uh depending on how fast you play the game. *42:27* Um *42:36* I liked that the Pokemon League in this game, I guess what I'm saying is in some of the previous games, the gym stuff and becoming the Pokemon League champion is always presented as the A-plot. *42:37* And then the B plot is often the villainous groups that we talked about. *42:49* But in reality it feels inversed a lot of times. *42:52* Like the things that the people will talk more about in the previous Pokemon games is dealing *42:55* More with the the B plot and then you're just kind of doing the Pokemon League stuff on your own and it's just kind of your own character's personal journey. *43:00* This very much felt like the opposite where like *43:09* Eventually a villainous thing does rise up and you have to take it down, but no, the entire focus of this game for once is on the Pokemon League and you becoming the champion and your rise to greatness and taking on all these gems and um *43:12* I have some other things I could say about this too, but uh but yeah, I I it felt refreshing in that sense that there was *43:26* Yes, taking do you doing the gyms and taking down all these gym leaders and stuff is something that you've always done, but there was such a r a heavy emphasis and focus on it in this game that it felt like *43:34* something that actually mattered and was important other than im being of importance to you. *43:46* It was important to everybody else in the region, I guess if that makes any sense. *43:51* I love the sport angle of this. *43:55* I've the stadiums with the crowd chanting, incorporating that into the music too. *43:57* There's an energy when you go into these fights. *44:02* I wish there was just a bit more buildup to each individual gym. *44:05* The build-up to the semi-finals and the champion battle is great because it is over the course of those 20 hours. *44:09* I wrote in my notes *44:17* While lackluster and plot depth, making it to the semifinals feels electric and the sports spin does work, there is *44:20* Hype, their energy to this, and it's fun. *44:28* It reminds me of a kind of a plot line in Mega Man Battle Network 3 *44:31* Where you're training to become the best, and there's you fight your way to the top. *44:36* Those stories work as you feel like you're kind of the underdog. *44:40* And I really enjoy it in this game. *44:44* There it that part does pay off *44:46* The one other thing I really like too, um, that I think added greater I think it answered questions people have had about some of the previous games as well, which is like, well, why are these gym leaders just totally content with *44:49* holding down their respective gyms and these towns and just fighting whoever comes through them. *45:01* Like, don't they have greater aspirations? *45:05* I was I I I I was expecting to get to the end of the game and there'd be some sort of Elite Four or something like that. *45:07* And no, it is *45:12* Literally, not only are the challengers from the gym like Marnie and Hopp and your own character, not only are they there *45:13* But the gym leaders themselves are vying to become the new champion of the region themselves. *45:22* And the gym leaders also talk about how they can have other gym leaders step in like *45:26* you get that with the fairy type old woman who's like I need somebody new to take over my gym because I don't want to do this anymore. *45:32* I can't do this anymore for the ri forever. *45:38* So like *45:40* They are openly vying for the champion as well. *45:41* And I thought that was super cool that they have Pokemon training aspirations outside of just *45:45* fighting whoever comes through their front door to their gym. *45:51* They are trying to train up their own Pokemon and become stronger so that they can try to become the champion and then they can instill maybe one of the challengers that has come along. *45:54* Like, for example, let's say *46:02* The the the first gym leader, the plant dude, the grass guy, the farmer man. *46:05* If he becomes the champion, then he could pass off his gym uh *46:10* his gym to one of the challengers that had beat him previously. *46:15* He could say, okay, I'm champion now, but you're gonna go run this gym because you've proven yourself capable by beating me previously. *46:17* I just thought that was a really cool wrinkle into all of this is that *46:23* You get to the end of the game and not only are you facing off against the other challengers, but then you have to prove again that you're better than the gym leaders that are should have stature in this region because if they're the *46:26* If they are running the gyms, then they are the best of the best. *46:38* And not only do you have to beat them once, but you have to beat them again to because they're trying to become champion as well. *46:40* I just thought that was a cool twist to everything and uh makes their role in the game that much larger for once. *46:46* No, that worked really well. *46:52* I I did enjoy the sport stuff. *46:54* It felt cool and good. *46:57* What did you think about the beginning of each gym, which was some sort of mini-game or small puzzle? *46:58* Yeah. *47:03* Instead of and and you would fight some trainers along the way, uh in some of them, or not really all of them. *47:04* Most of them. *47:10* I think most of them. *47:10* But each one was pretty much a mini-game *47:11* Essentially, to get to the gym leader. *47:14* And that's how they always have been, but these this was obviously way more blatant with the mini game stuff than past ones. *47:16* Um or maybe not all of them, but I think about like again from Fire Red and Leaf Green, like *47:23* uh Koga's gym like with the invisible walls and stuff like that and you have to snake through in a certain way. *47:28* That's like a sort of mini game, but not really. *47:33* Um *47:36* I did not like most of them. *47:38* It just felt like kind of busy work and like they were throwing things in there for *47:41* Uh no real reason. *47:45* Especially like I think of the fire one where it's like your goal is to catch or defeat Pokemon. *47:46* It's like, what the heck? *47:51* Okay, I guess. *47:52* Uh I thought the pinball one *47:53* Was not very good. *47:55* That was pretty annoying. *47:57* The one where you're you gotta roll the sheep into the pen, the wools into the pen. *47:58* That's the very first. *48:02* That's at the ghost area, I think. *48:06* Uh I'm yeah, I'm talking about the first one. *48:08* That one wasn't good either. *48:11* And then you even had the fairy gym, the old lady who's just asking you questions. *48:12* Like there was really nothing to that one. *48:16* I like that one though because it wasn't it was different than everything else. *48:18* It was more paying attention and and fighting people to get to the top. *48:23* But there was also like and I get that it's supposed to be *48:26* funny but then when you fight her she's like how old am I and there's an option between like 16 years old and 88 years old if you say 88 she's like well you're wrong but that was rude and then your Pokemon stats drop it's like what okay yeah *48:29* It's i th that was an interesting gimmick. *48:42* I would have preferred maybe more fighting people along the way. *48:44* Maybe that's a spot you could have fought more of your kind of other challengers along the way. *48:48* Like you could *48:53* Every time you went to a gym, like Hop was already done with it. *48:54* There was no you fought him outside. *48:56* It would've been cool to see some matchups or tension created that way, but *48:58* Overall, the sport angle did work. *49:03* I think if it was fleshed out more or the villain stuff *49:06* You know, if we're going all in on sports, I wish it was fleshed out a little bit more and maybe the villain stuff just scrapped entirely. *49:11* Because th we could have really had kind of an underdog rise-up story type scenario. *49:17* Um, but instead we kind of gotta push over all to the top, so to speak. *49:24* How did you feel about the *49:30* uh the rivals in this game, whether it be Hop or even Leon, I'll say, because he had a way bigger I like Leon. *49:32* Is it Leon or Leo? *49:39* I thought it was Leo. *49:41* I think it's I think it's Leon. *49:42* His brother just calls him Lee. *49:43* Oh, okay. *49:45* Yeah, you're probably right. *49:45* Lee for short. *49:47* Hop. *49:49* Oh hop. *49:49* Um this is something that you've expressed in the past. *49:51* Basically, kind of over the fat past few gens, I believe. *49:54* Again, I haven't played these yet. *49:58* They intentionally try to make your rival weaker than you? *50:00* Like oh nuts, I was surprised. *50:03* Grookie Ulchu Soble. *50:05* It's like I do I was surprised at that. *50:07* So every time you fight Sab, I fought Sabble. *50:09* It was a one-hit kill and no tension there. *50:11* But I just don't like when you and Hop's like, you're my rival, but there's no animosity might be too strong, but there's no *50:14* Grudge or tension there, they're all buddy buddy. *50:24* Hop is super nice. *50:27* Even when you beat him and he becomes a sad boy, he like bounces right back with positivity. *50:28* And I'm I wanted a true rival. *50:35* And I think Well they kind of have that as beaties in the game. *50:38* Even that's weak though, because they're plucked out mid-game and *50:42* their arc was so weird with I'm assisting the chairman and then I'm pulled out. *50:47* I really I think if these other characters *50:52* were actual challenges to fight and their characters were a bit more interesting, that could have been leaned into the sport thing. *50:56* Like if the kids you grew up with in your town was actually your rival *51:05* That could have made for a great plot, I think. *51:11* But instead, everyone's kind of a pushover. *51:15* No one's really tough. *51:18* Even Marnie with her team Yell fans is just *51:19* Eh. *51:23* Well, this is a larger problem I think I have with the game as a whole, and this is something I've been I've wanted to bring up here for a bit, is that level scaling is way whack in this game. *51:23* Um and I mean that from the perspective of I've so I'm somebody who's not enjoyed the team-wide XP share stuff for a bit now, which is something for the for the hash games. *51:33* I'm sure you're *51:43* Yeah, I've not been a huge fan of that for a bit. *51:44* Um it's nice to help train up some of the like like when my friend traded me a level one dreepy about halfway through at this game, it was very nice to level that up quickly. *51:47* um because they had the team wide xp share thing on. *51:58* But even outside of that, the level scaling is *52:01* Like, I think it scales with your own Pokemon pretty well through most of the game. *52:06* I'd say through about the first five or six gems. *52:11* When you get to the gym leader, their Pokemon are within a couple levels of your own Pokemon *52:14* By the time you get to the semifinals and the finals and the later aspects of the game, again, I know you are a little bit under-leveled compared to me, but my Pokemon were all *52:21* mid sixties or so, and all the other people's Pokemon were like high forties. *52:31* Like the disparity is *52:38* Vast. *52:40* Like it there just becomes a po there just becomes a point late in this game where they stop having the Pokemon scale pretty equally with your own. *52:41* And I don't understand that. *52:49* Like even in Fire Red and Leaf Green, like *52:51* I I I could beat that game, but when I get to face Gary at the end, he has Pokemon that are much higher level than my own. *52:53* This game's the total inverse where *53:02* I was twelve to fifteen levels higher than some of the Pokemon that I was facing off with near the end of the game. *53:05* And even same thing with Leon. *53:11* Like he's supposed to be the *53:12* Big final challenger. *53:14* I was probably 10 levels cleared of most of his Pokemon in that final battle. *53:15* And maybe that's just because I trained mine up more than normal, but I really don't think I did. *53:19* I didn't face anybody else that *53:23* Like I wasn't. *53:27* I mean I I guess I I did do the Isle of Armor stuff. *53:28* That would be it. *53:31* Um Isle of Armor is the one DLC that I did *53:32* play. *53:35* I did not touch Crown Tundra. *53:36* Same. *53:37* But I played I played Isle of Armor I should say before I played what level were the Pokemon finish the base game. *53:38* Uh, but they weren't high because yeah, that's the thing, is that the Isle of Armor Pokemon, to my knowledge, maybe I'm wrong about this, but I was looking it up online, is that *53:45* The Pokemon in the wild areas in Isle of Armor and in the General Wild Area don't uh drastically go up levels *53:53* until you beat the champion. *54:01* And then I think it increases the levels maybe a bit. *54:03* You can still find the ones that are absurdly strong, like when it warns you about when you first go to the wild area. *54:06* It's like you might come across a very strong Pokemon, and then you need to run *54:10* Uh, because I know you can still in the wild area at any point you can run across Pokemon that are level 50 or something like that, and you might have a team that's only level 20s. *54:14* Um *54:25* So that was still happening, but yeah, other than that, I didn't really train outside of just the traditional Pokemon trainers and gym leaders that I was running across. *54:26* There's no there's no challenge difficulty wise in this game. *54:34* It was a pushover. *54:38* Did you lose once? *54:40* No. *54:41* No, never blacked out or whited out. *54:43* They also give you a lot they also give you a lot more money, so it's easier to buy potions and revives and things like that if you need that as well. *54:46* Yeah, there's just no training challenge per se. *54:55* I wasn't really grinding out levels or bringing things up. *54:58* It just *55:02* It was kind of a cake watcher, which added to the briskness. *55:04* I I like there being a sort of tension and difficulty too *55:07* these games. *55:11* Like that's something I've said for a long time that I think I like that I got to the Elite Four and Fire Ren Leaf Green and I didn't beat it right away. *55:12* It took me a bit. *55:17* And even when I did *55:18* I had to go buy a bunch of hyper potions and revives and but me in me doing that I cleared out most of the money I had on my character to go buy that mini. *55:19* Right. *55:27* And yeah *55:28* if they were a bit more tough, it could have added to the sports narrative. *55:29* Sometimes you're you know, the only real like sport narrative challenge that way was Leon's undefeated. *55:33* So it's you clearly have had someone who's done a lot of fights and never been beaten before. *55:39* But everyone else wasn't there wasn't scale to the difficulty. *55:44* I would have liked a real challenge. *55:48* I think the closest probably was the eighth, the gym leader, and blanking on his name, but he was the dragon type. *55:51* Rayon or something like that, right? *55:56* Yeah. *55:58* Something like that. *55:58* And I liked the way that he integrated environment environmental manipulation. *55:59* and then use that to chip away at you. *56:05* I thought that was an interesting strategy. *56:08* I didn't I didn't have a problem with them at all. *56:10* It wasn't a problem, but I did think if you could have *56:12* Brought that. *56:15* I'm just saying I didn't even I guess I didn't even notice what you're mentioning because I just blew through them. *56:16* So Yeah. *56:21* Okay. *56:22* It was just, yeah, I was a bum I was a bit bummed at the difficulty in this game. *56:23* This is a common thing that I've mentioned many times, and this will I think one of our friends has told us that ultrasun and ultra moon is much more difficult, but I have personally found that the last *56:29* Everything post-black and white has been pretty easy to beat. *56:40* And it's not been one of my it's been something that has proven to be why I stopped playing newer Pokemon games, I guess I'll say *56:45* We talked about post-game a little bit again and we've touched on the DLC. *56:53* I don't know if we want to bring up anything else about those uh in particular here. *56:57* Um neat that they opted for DLC instead of making a whole new game. *57:03* Yeah, I think that should be the trajectory of the series moving forward, honestly. *57:08* No reason to *57:11* Make people shell out another sixty dollars for another version of the game when they've already bought potentially two others. *57:13* Um *57:20* I I I think the two-version system really uh is really kind of wearing thin at this point anyway. *57:21* They're gonna keep doing it because it's always been how Pokemon's been, but even that is kind of *57:26* uh getting a little bit stranger as time goes on in my opinion. *57:31* Well I did think the I found out that you and I have at least two different gym leaders. *57:34* And it sounds like the Isle of Armor you and I have different *57:40* rivals on the Isle of Armor based off our discussion. *57:43* I think that's kind of interesting, and Scarlet and Violet are playing with that with different professors. *57:46* So *57:50* That's fun-ish. *57:52* Yeah, if they can just if they can justify it a little bit more, then I'm fine with it. *57:53* But it's more just about that justification, I guess. *57:57* Yeah. *58:00* Yeah, we've no uh the postgame is one thing we've really uh you've played more than me. *58:00* I mentioned that I'm *58:04* squaring off with the funny hair people right now, and I'll probably see that through, but I don't really have any strong feelings on that at the moment. *58:06* I assume that'll just result in me catching my given legendary doggy *58:13* at some point. *58:17* Um and then after that it's just roam roam around and have fun. *58:18* And the Crown Tundra DLC is something else we can't speak to because neither of us have done that. *58:22* Um there's just these games are large and we don't want to play every single piece of content that is in these before we record these episodes because this season would just be *58:28* inordinately, like way too long. *58:38* Um, so if you want to hear what we have to say about Crun Crown Tundra or stuff stuff like that, sorry. *58:41* I guess the one last thing is the music. *58:46* is the thing to mention here. *58:49* Um because I feel like we've naturally touched on pretty much everything. *58:52* Or actually before we touch on the music, let let me *58:56* The story. *58:59* Let's let's go back to the story just real quick. *58:59* Because I did want to ask what you thought about *59:03* Just the story we've talked about how the story is so central with the gems and things like that and I we've touched on that element a lot, but did you have any strong feelings about the *59:07* It really drags towards the end, I guess is the thing I wanted to mention with because you get to the champion and you're ready to fight and then, oh, you gotta go. *59:17* Uh the ch Leon's gone to the Rose Tower and now oh this there's this guy and he's he's got sunglasses and he's got the key to the monorail and you gotta get the tower for *59:26* Like that whole I was like man this game is really artificially lengthy in itself here and like for a game that we mentioned felt so brisk at times and was like you're doing one thing and then the next and then the next and it had good pacing *59:36* Things really came to a halt there in the back portion of the story, I felt. *59:48* That's where the A and B plot thing totally collides because you're on this A train. *59:53* Flying, you're ready to face the champion and become Galar's champion, and then they just slam the brakes so hard. *59:59* And you combine that killing of momentum with the sudden, the sudden spike in *01:00:09* world ending drama that really like was hinted at, but it ramps from zero to a hundred immediately *01:00:17* And they don't this is to speak directly to Chairman Rhodes, they don't really explain what or why he's doing what he's doing in a group. *01:00:27* And *01:00:38* I think it's So he revives an ancient evil god Pokemon. *01:00:39* Yes. *01:00:44* And never really realizes that he's wrong about it either. *01:00:45* um admits that maybe that speaks to his true villainy. *01:00:49* I think he turns him I think it mentions that some they mention after you thwart his plan that he like turned himself in or something like that. *01:00:52* I think they might mention that. *01:01:00* I wish if this was gonna build up properly, that maybe the energy crisis was acknowledged a bit sooner in the world or something like *01:01:01* Yeah, they hint like that he's uh oh he's got all these companies and he generates all energy for Galar, yeah. *01:01:10* Yeah, he they talk about how he everyone has energy, but the the crisis that he is w so worried about *01:01:16* isn't brought up until he's gonna be able to do it. *01:01:22* And it doesn't help it doesn't help that the thing that's prompting him to do this is in a thousand years we'll all be screwed. *01:01:23* It's like, well a thousand years *01:01:30* Everybody's gonna be dead currently any like I mean I get that that's short-sighted, but it's just a very bizarre like even Leon's like when he's talking to him, he's like, Well yeah, that's a thousand years away though. *01:01:32* Uh *01:01:43* I think for one battle. *01:01:44* Yeah, I can't wait for just us to have this championship match and then we'll figure it out afterwards. *01:01:46* Like Yeah, the way they slam the brakes at the end of the main campaign really really gives you some whiplash and *01:01:51* I was very frustrated with it. *01:01:59* How did you feel also about uh I I ca I don't know the legendary doggy's names, I'm sorry. *01:02:01* Zee Zamayaka. *01:02:07* Zamenta Zamayaka. *01:02:09* Yes, I don't know. *01:02:11* Something. *01:02:12* Uh how did you feel about their involvement? *01:02:13* And then I guess the just the through line story of oh the darkest day and uncovering this history of the Galar region, which I feel like is something common in all these Pokemon games where it's like *01:02:15* Oh, Palkia and Dialgla. *01:02:25* Dial Gifty. *01:02:27* I feel like they've always got those storylines. *01:02:32* Sure. *01:02:35* I that's fine, like just hinting at this lore to the Gali region is cool. *01:02:36* I just think that the dogs are some of the dumbest. *01:02:41* Looking legendaries in a hot minute. *01:02:45* Because even if I haven't played the Pokemon games, I know what the legendaries look like. *01:02:47* They put them on the box every time. *01:02:50* And I really don't care for *01:02:52* sword and shield dog. *01:02:55* Now, I do find it hilarious that the dog carries a sword in its mouth. *01:02:57* That's pretty cool, and that's actually why I chose sword. *01:03:02* Over shield, but the dogs are quite dumb. *01:03:06* They only appear at the beginning of the game, the final battle with uh final. *01:03:10* And then the postgame is all about um them. *01:03:17* It's Zacian and Zamazenta. *01:03:21* Yeah. *01:03:24* There wasn't just I I wasn't a fan of the dogs themselves, but that the plot *01:03:25* around them is is fine. *01:03:30* You could insert any Pokemon there and it w uh the same story would have worked. *01:03:31* So I just wish for I wish for better designs. *01:03:35* What about you? *01:03:39* Yeah, they're fine. *01:03:40* I I I think as far I I do like them being these defenders of this uh I I I like that they weren't the Pokemon that created the region, because I feel like that's so often the thing that happens is oh Kyogre and uh *01:03:41* ground on. *01:03:54* They created the land and the water. *01:03:55* Fire. *01:03:57* Yeah, they created everything that comprises Hoen and blah blah blah. *01:03:58* I feel like that's usually how it is. *01:04:02* This time it was just like, no, these dogs are just they just prevented a bad thing from happening one time. *01:04:04* And since then they've gone into slumber and no one knows, and you don't even really find that out until the very end, obviously, that that's the case, but *01:04:10* Um I I I like that that's the twist on it, that they're sort of these hero legendaries that only emerge when they're needed and an hour of darkness for the Galar region. *01:04:18* Um *01:04:28* But yeah, other I I don't know. *01:04:29* They're fine. *01:04:31* The designs are okay. *01:04:33* I agree that the sword one is way better than the shield doggy. *01:04:36* for the most part. *01:04:39* The sword dog yeah in uh the sword dog's also got like wings on it in its form too its battle form shield dog just has *01:04:39* Big shield plating on its sides and front and stuff like that looks kind of goofy. *01:04:47* Um But yeah, I figured we should talk about those two just because it's *01:04:51* They're on the box. *01:04:56* They're a prominent element of the game. *01:04:57* Yeah, they're on the box. *01:04:58* Um and you played sword and I played shield, so in that sense we did get it. *01:04:59* I mean so far we've been playing the opposite versions of each other, and we likely will for Scarlet and Violet. *01:05:04* I wonder we'll have to discuss off air what the future What are you playing for the next one? *01:05:11* Silver or gold? *01:05:16* Gold was the one I bought. *01:05:18* I think gold's what I have too, but I can't remember. *01:05:19* I can't remember. *01:05:23* Actually, no, I have silver. *01:05:24* Never mind. *01:05:25* It contains So we'll be I think we'll be opposites again. *01:05:26* Uh let's talk about the music. *01:05:29* I kind of tabled this a bit ago. *01:05:31* Um *01:05:33* What did you think about the soundtrack to this game in a general sense? *01:05:35* I liked it. *01:05:38* There were some songs that stood out. *01:05:40* I wrote some down, but I overall liked it. *01:05:42* Um the battle theme started to wear on me by the end, just the generic one. *01:05:44* Yeah. *01:05:49* But there were the other there were some other songs that I really liked, mostly in the towns. *01:05:50* The fourth gym, in my game, that was the fighting gym. *01:05:55* I don't think that I think that's one of the switches that you and I have. *01:05:59* There's some strings and winds, it's kind of in a deserty area. *01:06:02* Reminded me of like um a Square JRPG. *01:06:06* I wrote Octopath, kinda sounded like that. *01:06:08* The Snowtown. *01:06:11* Snowtown's excellent. *01:06:13* Yes. *01:06:14* I wrote that Sir Chester theme. *01:06:15* Sirchester. *01:06:17* It reminded me of Thousand Year Door a little bit when you go to that snow town. *01:06:18* So that was a really great *01:06:21* There's when you battle with Hop the especially toward the end like the piano just comes in and is shredding while you're fighting him. *01:06:23* That made Hop feel more like a rival than he actually is because he's all Mr. *01:06:29* Positive. *01:06:32* Yeah, Hopp is great *01:06:34* uh chairman's goes hard with the choir and all of that, but that also felt like artificially inflating the severity of that. *01:06:36* I *01:06:44* Again, if his arc had built with the game a bit better, I think that would have felt more satisfying to listen to. *01:06:44* So yeah, there's some really the stadium and gym battle music *01:06:50* I mentioned it kind of earlier with the chanting incorporated into the music. *01:06:54* That lended itself to the energy of a stadium feel, so I I liked that. *01:06:57* Overall. *01:07:02* A good soundtrack. *01:07:03* I'm excited to explore the rest of the Pokemon soundtracks. *01:07:04* I'm obviously most familiar with the first game and Diamond and Pearl. *01:07:07* I love Diamond and Pearl soundtracks. *01:07:12* So I'm excited. *01:07:14* I I I like this one. *01:07:16* I'm excited to see where the rest of these go. *01:07:17* Yeah, I total agreement. *01:07:19* I think the soundtrack is excellent. *01:07:20* I think that's not a surprise because most Pokemon soundtracks are quite good. *01:07:22* You mentioned a lot of my favorite songs as well. *01:07:26* I think the BD theme music is also very solid. *01:07:29* My favorite song in the entire game though, I believe, is the Galar Minds music. *01:07:32* I think the Mind. *01:07:37* music is choice in this game. *01:07:39* Uh which is a surprise because I usually think some of the cave themes and stuff like that are some of the weaker uh pieces of music in a lot of the other Pokemon games, but the *01:07:42* Mine music in this, the gallery of minds, is so good. *01:07:51* It's got this slap bass in it, which is just it's really funky. *01:07:55* It almost sounds not to use a *01:07:59* trite comparison, but it sounds per like persona almost in some senses. *01:08:02* Like I feel like it's something you would hear from persona rather than Pokemon in some ways. *01:08:06* Um *01:08:10* But that that's really good. *01:08:11* And then some of the champion themes at the very end. *01:08:13* Like even when you go into the champion the stadium or whatever, there's some wonky music there that's very different than everything else you hear in the game. *01:08:15* Overall, I think the soundtrack is very, very good. *01:08:23* I I some of the town themes I think hit way better than others, like we mentioned Sirchester or however you say that. *01:08:26* I think that that one stands out quite a bit. *01:08:33* And then there's another theme that stands out. *01:08:35* I think it's the first town you maybe go to, the grass gem town. *01:08:37* Um, I forget what the name of that one is, but I remember that song off the top of my head as well. *01:08:41* Um so some of the town themes and route themes and stuff like that, they aren't all *01:08:45* uh the best across the board, but the songs that hit really hit and are some really top-tier tracks in my opinion. *01:08:50* So shout out to again composer of this game *01:08:59* Uh the composers were Minako Adachi and Go Ichinose. *01:09:03* Good work. *01:09:09* You did the Pokemon franchise. *01:09:10* well, I think in in this game, especially with its long storied hist history of uh having some of the most iconic video game music ever. *01:09:12* Is there anything else you would like to say about this game broadly, maybe before we get into our legacy discussion here and begin wrapping up? *01:09:21* What did you think about the theming of the overall world of Galar? *01:09:28* It's *01:09:33* United Kingdom, Britain, correct? *01:09:34* It's very clearly it's very clearly British. *01:09:36* I I think they lean more heavily into it than normal too. *01:09:38* Like even with how some of the people speak. *01:09:41* Like I heard some *01:09:44* Hop especially. *01:09:46* Yeah, there's people say mate or oy or like things like that. *01:09:47* Or I think one of the TMLE people even said *01:09:51* I'm not even kidding. *01:09:54* I think it maybe at one point they said governor or something like that. *01:09:54* Uh there's like stuff sprinkled like that throughout. *01:09:58* It's clearly supposed to be modeled after the UK this time around, but *01:10:01* In the past, I think some of these regions have clearly been modeled after real-world locations, but they haven't been so *01:10:05* Blunt with it, I felt like this game was a little bit more trying to tip its hand like, yes, this is supposed to be the UK. *01:10:12* What here you go. *01:10:19* Um, yeah, what what about you? *01:10:21* I I thought it was fine. *01:10:24* It wasn't my favorite type of theming. *01:10:26* It's interesting though to go through the countryside or a seaport town and then the big cities and things like that. *01:10:29* So that was kind of fun. *01:10:35* But overall, it was it's fine. *01:10:37* It wasn't my favorite. *01:10:40* It it felt like it felt pretty traditional in the sense that like, oh, here's your *01:10:41* Your f your town in the fields or your town near the the woods and here's your ice town and here's your desert town. *01:10:46* Like it felt pretty traditional in that sense. *01:10:52* Yeah. *01:10:55* Um so nothing really *01:10:55* stood out too greatly. *01:10:58* The one I think the one of the most unique locations I would say is the one in the woods or the forest. *01:10:59* ballaloon or something like that. *01:11:06* It's all tucked away and under the this neon glow of iridescent mushrooms. *01:11:08* It's very cool, funky. *01:11:14* That's one of the most unique ones. *01:11:16* And then that tongue connects to nothing. *01:11:17* It's like, oh, this is a dead end. *01:11:18* Time to go back to the central hub cities. *01:11:20* Uh so yeah, I I think I I I I do agree that I I think the wild it would have been cooler if the wild area kind of interconnected all these towns and things like that. *01:11:22* Um that would be the one stylistic or overlay change I would have made to this game. *01:11:32* Um and it it's also way more disjointed than a lot of the other Pokemon games. *01:11:38* You've got kind of southernmost region where your hometown hometown is. *01:11:41* You've got the middle region where the first uh main town is, and then you've got the *01:11:45* upper region where the Pokemon championships are and stuff like that. *01:11:50* So it's very segmented compared to some of the other games. *01:11:53* Which isn't bad, I don't think. *01:11:58* Um it's different than having them be so interconnected with one another. *01:12:00* Um But yeah, it's a little bit more disjointed, I would say *01:12:04* Let's do legacy. *01:12:09* Uh I think it's hard to talk about the legacy of this game uh in some sentences because it is so fresh, but I do think we *01:12:10* touched on before the big element of this game the thing that I think it will be remembered for, which is stuff like the wild area and stuff like the *01:12:17* form changes with Dynamaxing and stuff like that. *01:12:27* I I think this game is very much and it's also the first home console Pokemon. *01:12:30* I think there is *01:12:35* A lot of experimentation in this game, and that's what's going to be remembered for. *01:12:36* It laid the groundwork for Arceus, which then kind of *01:12:40* what looks like it's laying the groundwork for Scarlet and Violet in the future. *01:12:45* Like there are some things that they're testing out in this game. *01:12:49* Uh we mentioned the Dynamax battles before, how that's like *01:12:52* They're trying to incorporate more co-op and multiplayer elements. *01:12:56* Like, there's a lot of things in this game that you can see that have come up in the more recent Pokemon games. *01:12:59* Like, oh, now. *01:13:04* Arceus has expanded versions of the wild area. *01:13:06* This is a really fully fleshed out version of what the wild area was was in Sword and Shield, and Scarlet and Violet looks like it's taking that to a whole nother level now with like full co-op implementation and things of that sort. *01:13:09* Um and again we'll t we'll talk play those games in the future, uh Scarlet and Violet at least, and see how a lot of those things evolve um from what they have been here in *01:13:19* Sword and Shield, but I do feel like this game's legacy very much will be that it was the first home console Pokemon and what the series eventually became kind of started with ideas they began toying around with here in this entry *01:13:31* I think some of it, all of that, I agree with what you said there. *01:13:45* Another part is definitely the *01:13:49* player review bombing and feedback. *01:13:53* There's uh negativity that surrounds this game. *01:13:56* The national next stuff. *01:13:59* Yeah. *01:14:00* That stuff. *01:14:00* Not that that really *01:14:01* seem to bother you and I all that much, but it it is a it's attached. *01:14:03* It's kind of a cloud that's loomed over this game for a little bit. *01:14:06* Th it also, I could be totally wrong here, but I feel like this is probably *01:14:09* one of, if not the longest, gap between mainline games. *01:14:15* Sword started out here on the Switch and we're getting Scarlet and Violet three years later. *01:14:20* Briefly looking the gap between like Sun and Moon was 2016, Ultrasun, Ultra Moon 2017. *01:14:25* So two, three years, I suppose there. *01:14:32* It just feels overdue for a new one. *01:14:34* Uh in my mind, and maybe that's because the release pace was so high, and as these games get bigger, more technical, that gap just naturally grows. *01:14:38* That's totally fine. *01:14:47* But I do think that's a part of it as well. *01:14:49* And so yeah, it's just a it's the first Switch Pokemon game and it's kicked off a whole new era for them as far as *01:14:52* One console, home console, TV, play, things like that. *01:15:02* So For sure. *01:15:06* And again, a lot of those things we've seen in the past, but just not in this way. *01:15:07* It it feels like it's *01:15:10* growing pains for game pro game freak in some way and hopefully they can they can only just improve from here. *01:15:12* So *01:15:20* Well, I think that does it for our Pokemon Sword and Shield discussion. *01:15:21* Thank you so much for listening. *01:15:25* Um you can follow the show on Twitter at Chapter Select, and if you'd like to support the show *01:15:27* You can become a member, uh, get access to longer episodes with bonus content and extra video content. *01:15:33* Like for Pokemon Sword and Shield, we've got a battle. *01:15:39* Logan walked me through building his team, so that's some sword and shield content specifically for you, but you can go to chapterselect. *01:15:42* com slash join and check that out. *01:15:49* You can follow Logan on Twitter at Moreman12 and his writing over at comicbook. *01:15:52* com. *01:15:57* And you can follow myself on Twitter at Max Roberts143 and my writing over at maxfrequency. *01:15:57* net. *01:16:03* And until next time, adios *01:16:03* Chapter Select is a max frequency production. *01:16:06* Chapter Select is supported by you. *01:16:10* You can gain access to longer episodes and bonus content by going to chapterselect. *01:16:12* com forward slash join. *01:16:17* This episode was research, produced, and edited by me, Max Roberts. *01:16:19* Season six is hosted by Logan Moore and myself *01:16:24* Season six is all about Pokemon. *01:16:27* For more on the season, go to chapterselect. *01:16:29* com forward slash season six. *01:16:32* You can follow the show at Chapter Select and check out previous seasons at chapterselect. *01:16:34* com. *01:16:39* I do have to say I was thinking about this earlier. *01:16:41* And it's hard to transfer Pokemon from one game to the next, so that's kind of what's putting me off of it. *01:16:44* But it is *01:16:49* Uh kind of fascinating to me that we're playing through all these games and we're not really trying to max out our Pokedexes and then eventually transfer them to our games on Switch and have like really *01:16:51* full extensive Pokedexes. *01:17:02* And I guess we really haven't wouldn't have come wouldn't have thought of the show. *01:17:03* Yeah. *01:17:08* Well we wouldn't have thought of doing this until now because the one we just played was a Game Boy one, which is really *01:17:09* You could get that on Switch, but it would be very, very hard, I think, nowadays. *01:17:15* I think I think you need black and white too to make the jump to three D. *01:17:20* You need black or yeah, so you would have to go from *01:17:24* GVA to diamond or pearl and then transfer that to black and white and then black and white can go to three DS and then three DS can be a little bit more than a little bit. *01:17:29* Like I would like to do that. *01:17:36* Like that would be so hard. *01:17:38* You can do it. *01:17:40* I would like to try it, because we do have all the pieces. *01:17:41* Like I think it'd be kind of cool. *01:17:44* But here's the problem. *01:17:47* And well this is well no, the problem I was gonna say is like Diamond Pearl, they don't give you that until you beat the game *01:17:48* So unless you want to play another r run of Diamond and Pearl on DS. *01:17:56* But you had through the you still would have your copy, which would have your save data, so like you could do it. *01:18:01* I cannot. *01:18:06* I don't own the I guess I could *01:18:07* But then you need a top bottom Nintendo D S light. *01:18:09* Uh do you not have a DS light around? *01:18:13* I have one at home. *01:18:16* There you go, you're fine. *01:18:19* I have a DS light. *01:18:20* And I don't know if my I don't know if my Pokemon diamond data is at the end. *01:18:21* Probably is. *01:18:26* This is the other thing, and this is the also why I've been thinking about this. *01:18:27* Because now we're gonna go play silver and gold. *01:18:30* I probably have a banger team on my silver gold version, and I'm like, man, I'm about to wipe all late 80 levels. *01:18:32* You don't have to do that. *01:18:40* You can back it up. *01:18:42* It's not hard. *01:18:43* You just have to homebrew your DS, which takes 20 minutes. *01:18:45* Listen to me. *01:18:48* If you don't want to lose that data, you genuinely don't. *01:18:49* Well here's the thing. *01:18:53* I'm about to play through them all again, so it's not like I won't play through it all again if you care about it. *01:18:54* If you care about it, you could do it. *01:19:01* It's not hard. *01:19:03* Or I could just trade them over to black and white and then trade that from there. *01:19:05* Actually that wouldn't be the worst idea because black and white we're gonna do last. *01:19:11* Too. *01:19:16* So if I do just start consolidating everything towards black and white that I really care about, and then before we do that next year, I'm like, okay, cool, now we throw them to Switch. *01:19:16* But I don't know if you can still do that. *01:19:25* You'd have to move it to 3DS. *01:19:27* Yeah, that's the problem. *01:19:30* That's not a problem. *01:19:31* I would just need a lot of DSs or two D You just need two. *01:19:33* You have your three DS and you have a DS. *01:19:36* You're fine. *01:19:37* I actually might have two. *01:19:38* What do you need two regular DSs for? *01:19:41* I might have two three DS. *01:19:43* If you have two three Ds. *01:19:45* I have I have both the Zelda special editions. *01:19:47* Oh I only have the Majora's Mask 3DS new 3DS. *01:19:50* I have the Link Between Worlds ones too. *01:19:53* Ooh, I almost bought that. *01:19:55* Back in the day. *01:19:58* I saw the Ocarina of Time 3DS today. *01:20:01* It's like, ooh. *01:20:04* I saw the Standee for it. *01:20:05* What, the one that I tweeted out? *01:20:08* Mm-hmm. *01:20:10* Yeah, I did see that. *01:20:11* You do? *01:20:13* Yeah, it looks cool. *01:20:14* I could ask, but there's like I'm you'd have to drive it back. *01:20:16* Yeah, there's no I don't mean I actually I mean I want it, but I'm not saying please go ask the man for it. *01:20:20* Okay. *01:20:28* I'm just saying it's cool. *01:20:29* I used to have a Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon stand from Kmart. *01:20:30* I still have a NBA 2K16 standee at my parents' house. *01:20:34* It's of Steph Curry. *01:20:40*