…but we all know that the decision of which version to play isn’t quite as important to the decision of your starter Pokémon….

So, which starter did I choose?

When selecting my starter, I usually go for water type… but I wasn’t really vibing with Sobble. The decision between Grookey and Scorbunny was a tough one… they are both so cute! Knowing my luck, I figured that if I picked Grookey my rival (Hop) surely would have picked Scorbunny and I would have just been in for a rough ride… also, the first gym ended up being a grass type so having a fire type on my team from the beginning was probably the smartest decision to start my journey. Oh, and Hop ended up picking Grookey as his starter (dumb kid, do you even know how types work?!), which was great since I had a fire type to destroy him with… although, it did make me pretty sad to destroy that adorable little grass monkey over and over.

Now, let’s talk gyms.

So why would have I chosen Shield over Sword if I had have known about the gyms? Well, every trainer has their weaknesses, and it just so happens that fighting type and rock type Pokémon are mine. I feel like if I had chosen Shield I would have had a much less frustrating time getting through the gym challenges… but that’s kind of the whole point of your Pokémon journey, right? I mean, are you really worthy of that Pokémon Champion title if you didn’t overcome your greatest challenges on your journey?

Dynamaxing: Amazing or Lame?

Now, I’m not gonna lie, when I first heard about Dynamaxing I thought it was the stupidest thing… I thought “here we go, it’s Mega Evolution all over again”… but when I started using the Dynamax feature in my gym battles and in raids I discovered that it is actually pretty damn cool. I am glad that it’s not a feature that can be used all the time like the Mega Evolution in previous games – it can only be used in power spots, which are only found in gyms and in certain Pokémon dens in the Wild Area. So I admit, I was a little pre-judgemental about Dynamaxing, but now after experiencing and understanding its significance to the overall storyline, it’s a huge tick from me.

The Wild Area and Max Raids are possibly the best addition to a Pokémon game and I don’t even know where to start with these!

If you’re one of those Pokémon trainers like me, then you will be setting out to fill your Pokédex… and the best place to do that is in the Wild Area. This is a HUGE open area that has a multitude of Pokémon and various spawn zones that are controlled by weather, and it seems that the weather changes daily, which makes the Pokémon hunting experience so exciting.

Also, in this Wild Area you will find Pokémon dens, which are little red hexagon-shaped things… now there are 2 types of dens; there are the red dens that will give you watts which you can purchase items with at the watt traders around the Wild Area, and there are the dens that have beams shooting out of them which are Pokémon raids. These raids will not only give you the chance to battle and catch some strong Pokémon, but you can join these raids with Pokémon trainers from all over the world, which I think is pretty freakin’ fantastic!

But the Wild Area fun doesn’t end there! You can set up camp and talk to your Pokémon to see how they are feeling, play with them to bond, and you can cook! And cooking doesn’t only serve the purpose of feeding your Pokémon… you can cook different foods depending on what ingredients you use to fill up you Currydex. Yes, you not only have a Pokédex to fill, but you also have a Currydex!

I honestly think this is the best addition to a Pokémon game to date, and with the ability to join raids and even trade Pokémon with trainers from all over the world is amazing. With this, the game developers are so close to having a MMO (massive multiplayer online) Pokémon game… I don’t think we will ever have that, but could you imagine how amazing a Wild Area where you could not only join other trainers for raids, but also battle other trainers from around the world would be?!

The End?

Now, we all know that after you become the champion and finish the main story you enter the end game where you catch your legendary and you have free play to go catch Pokémon and fill you Pokédex… but Pokémon Sword / Shield seems to be the game that just keeps on giving!

It turns out that there is a whole end game story line! 😲

So I’m now about 13 days into game play and it looks like I’m not even close to finishing, which is so exciting! I was so sad when I saw those credits roll because I thought it was all over, but this really is the game that just keeps giving. I can’t wait to see how this end game story unfolds… and I can’t wait to share this next chapter of my Pokémon Sword adventure in the next instalment of my Pokémon diaries.

Until next time…

– MuffinBear 🐻

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