Part 2: Did You Already Know About Type Advantages?!

Update 2: Did You Already Know about Type Advantages?!

Last time, Lee was going to give us a present.

Postwick - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST



: Right then! The greatest gift from the greatest Champion… It’s showtime everyone!

I can’t really do justice to the following comedy routine here, but this video should do the trick.



Anyway, we now have our pick of the standard selection of Starter Pokémon; three adorable neontenous animals that one day may become imposing titans of the battlefield. This Generation, we have a choice between a Grass-type monkey with a stick, a Fire-type bunny rabbit, and a Water-type… whatever a Sobble is supposed to be. Let me tell you, I nearly went with the monkey because of


^(Source)

But the fact that the bunny evolves into a soccer player won me over. Well, that and:





Fuck yes.

: So, it’ll be Scorbunny for you? Nice one! Think of a name yet?

:… I think I’ll be calling him Bruce.

: … Bruce.

: He looks like a Bruce, doesn’t he?

: Not really.

: Well, that tears it, Bruce it is.

: Then I’ll go with… Grookey! You’re mine! I’m aiming to be the next Champion, so be ready! You and I’ll be doing some serious training! I’m thinking… John Bonham!

: Wait, like, the drummer? You don’t even like Led Drifblim.

: No, but Lee does.

: Come on, Hop, I appreciate the gesture, but you should name him something you care about!

: But I do care about it. Like you told me, he was the best. And by the end of the summer, I will be too.

: Ha! Good answer. I bet you will be, Hop. That’s why I brought along these Pokémon for you and Gloria. So the two of you can battle and train and grow stronger together… to try to reach me!

Leon approaches the sad-looking Sobble.

: And you’ll come with me! Charizard will show you the ropes. He’s strict – but real strong and real kind, too!

Sobble chitters happily, like this is a good thing.



One of the Mums: Dinner’s ready, children. Bring along your Pokémon, and let’s all eat!

After dinner…

:… It just kept slipping my mind! I MEANT to, but…

: I’m disappointed in you, Hop.

: I’m sorry! I just… I know I should prepare for my future and everything, but that’s my backup plan. I KNOW I’m going to be the next Champion. I spent all that time studying battle, and, and, and –

: You HAVE to have backup plans, Hop, we talked about this. What happens if you don’t have them when you’re a Trainer?

: Yeah, you lose the moment things get out of control.

: I’ve seen your A-Level scores in maths and the sciences. There’re plenty of programs you can get into.

: Not with the REST of my scores.

: Look. At the end of the summer, Sonia and I will both swing by and help you with getting in on Clearing.

: If I’m not Champion by the end of the summer.

: You’ll try…

The next day…

: You spent the whole night with that new partner of yours, right, Hop? You two getting on all right? Understanding one another? Maybe even built up a bit of love?

: Course I have, Lee! Gloria’s made fast friends with “Bruce” too.

: Then listen up, new Trainers! Believe in yourself and your Pokemon! If you trust in one another and carry on battling side-by-side long enough, then someday… you might even become worthy rivals for me, the unbeatable Champion!

: What’re you looking at her for, Lee?!

Harsh.

: I’m the one who’ll be coming to challenge you! If you think Gloria might be able to challenge you, then I guess she’s my first rival! But I’m not planning to lose to her and miss out on my chance to beat the unbeatable Champion!



: Proper Trainers raise their Pokémon up to be first-rate in battle, too!

: Oh, and you think you’re worthy of calling yourself such a proper trainer already, Hop? Guess I’ll be the judge of that! Let’s see how you handle yourself in a battle against your friend, if she’s up for it. What you say? Willing and ready to take Hop on in the first-ever Pokémon battle of your life?

:

: Believe in your partner Pokémon! And care for them, too, with all your heart. Do those two things, and I’m certain you’ll learn to choose the moves that suit your Pokémon. And more importantly… to have a champion time battling with them!

: I can’t believe you made that a thing.

: Perks of being a Champion. Looks like everyone’s on board, Pokémon and Trainers alike? Then let’s do this!

: I’ve read every book and magazine he left behind at home, too! I know exactly what to do in order to win!

Pokemon Sword & Shield - Hop Battle Music



All right, I promised I’d make this as accessible as possible, but I assume most of you at least know the basics of Pokémon gameplay, so I’ll try to keep it short (and I won’t go into everything yet). “Short” is a relative term here.



This is the battle screen. The camera keeps zooming around to get different angles; I remember when this was just a pair of sprites staring each other down. It’s almost like the interface… evolved . Anyway, we have seven important elements here:

• HEALTH BAR: self-explanatory. The color changes from green to yellow about halfway down and from yellow to red at a quarter health, at which point it starts blaring the most annoying noise to let you know you’re in trouble.
  
• BALL COUNT: right next to the health bars; it probably has a proper name, but I don’t know it. You can have up to six Pokémon in any given flight; this counter lets you know how many you and your opponent have total have been knocked out and how many of them have been knocked out (the balls are grayed out).
  
• INFO: lets you real quick look at the stats, moves, etc. of either of the Pokémon you have out. This is the only part of the interface that’s new to me; it wasn’t present even in Gen 4, to my knowledge. You used to have to go into the Pokémon screen to look at your troops up close, and you could look at your opponent’s at all.
  
• POKÉMON: lets you switch between party members midflight. You switch out automatically when one of your Pokes gets knocked out, but you can do it manually from here. They can get a free shot in if you do, though, so it’s worth playing things carefully.
  
• BAG: lets you access items. I’ll get into these later.
  
• RUN: lets you flee a fight. Only a fight with a wild Pokémon, though; you can’t run from Trainer battles. Mostly used to run away from undesirable Pokémon in my experience.
  
• FIGHT: by far the most important option. Picking it pulls up your move menu. Moves are what your troops do in battles; each Pokémon can have up to four and they do a variety of things. Bruce here has two; Tackle, which does damage, and Growl, which lowers Attack (I’ll cover stats in a later flight). You can also hit Y while in the move screen to bring up the info screen on individual moves.
  

Well then, let’s try this out.





Sometimes, you’ll land a hit unusually hard, dealing double damage. Shocking right?

: A critical hit? What kind of beginner’s luck is that?!

The kind where the game is rigged in your favor, I think you always get a crit here. Alright, let’s attack again:



Welp.



Every downed Pokémon gives the downer a burst of exp, like you’d expect from any other RPG. Used to be that only the Pokémon who participated in a fight would get experience, splitting it between participants; this made training anybody up a chore where you had to start out every fight with a weaker Pokémon and immediately switch it out, giving the other side a free shot on the follow-up. Your only other option was an exp share, an item which gave whomever held it a bit of experience even if they didn’t participate. In Shield, every Pokémon in your party gets a bit of experience from every fight, and I believe participants get proportionately more than they used to. It makes absolutely no sense, but it’s such a quality-of-life movement that I can’t hold it against them.

As you’d expect, once a Pokémon gets enough experience, it levels up, raising its stats (which, again, I’ll explain later. This always happens. Sometimes, though…



… They learn new moves. Every type of Pokémon has a unique move list they can learn as they level up; usually they have the chance to learn them whenever they hit the appropriate level, but sometimes you have to meet certain conditions. In this case, the condition is “reach the appropriate point in the tutorial battle”.

: it’s not over yet! It’s about time I break out Bonham!



I said I’d edit them into the posts. I never said that editing would be good.

Anyway, this fight is just as unbalanced as the last one, but in a different way; Bruce has a type advantage over Bonham. I’ll get into type advantages the next time we get in a fight where it matters (this post is long enough), but suffice to say…



It hurts.

: Did you already know about type advantages?!

: Oh no.

: What? I’m just making sure you know everything you need to win!

: Come on!

: I wasn’t sure if you’d learned about them yet!

: I said it two bloody years ago, Hop.

: Quick – what happens when you hit a Steel/Flying type with a Psychic attack?

: Wait, uh, shit!

:

: Oh god, this is going to become a thing, isn’t it?

:

But yeah, Hop is shafted.



Also you get money for beating trainers; while I think the currency has its own name, it’s basically PokéYen. Hop gave us 400, which works out to maybe 3 ½ bucks.



: You and your Pokémon all fought hard. Made me almost want to let out my Charizard and join in on all the fun! Good effort out there, Bruce –

: Hey Leon?

: Yeah?

: Bruce’s hurt.

: Yeah, that happens in battles –

: Can you heal him?

: Sure! Just let me get Bonham back up first –

: Can you heal him.

: Better do what she says, bro.

: Alright, sure.

Leon fully heals all of their Pokémon. Right there on the spot. That’s new; the only place you got full heels like that up through Gen 4 were Pokémon Centers. The game isn’t shy about breaking these field heals out, either.

: Sorry, I just… I was fine when they were fighting, but when it was over, he was hurt, and…

: It just means you really care about your Pokémon! Gloria, you’ve got real promise! In fact, I got a favor to ask you… Be a real rival to Hop, would you? Push him, and make the both of you stronger!

: I already want to get stronger and stronger! You’ve seen the battle now, Lee, so come on – you gotta let me take on the Pokémon Gyms!

: You think you’re ready for the single greatest competition in the Galar region? If that’s really what you want to do, you two have a whole lot you need to learn about Pokémon. Especially you, Gloria. You should be able to answer that question off the top of your head!

:

: Before you think about getting Gym Badges, best to think about getting a Pokédex.

Leon gives us a brief lecture on Pokédexes here, but this post is already long enough so I’ll save it for another day.

: Looks like it’s off to the Pokémon Research Lab for you and me, Gloria!

: That’s the kind of enthusiasm a Trainer needs! I’ll let the professor know to expect you.

: I’m going to be the next Champion, so completing a simple Pokédex will be nothing! Just another page in the tale of my legend! You should probably go tell your mum that were heading out, though. Hey, I’ll walk with you. I’m to jittery to sit down, anyway.

:… You realize Leon was implying you shagged your Pokémon, right?

: Wait, what?

: “You spent the whole night with that new partner of yours, right, Hop? Maybe even built up a bit of love?”

:…

: And you confirmed it!

: Shut up!

: “Course I did!”

:

:

Good Lord that was a post and a half. I’m throwing the post up very early just because I can; don’t expect me to be able to pump this out this fast in the future. That said, since we’ll be traveling through the equivalent of the Scottish countryside, why doesn’t someone tell us something weird and/or interesting about Scottish culture? The sort of thing you learn when you actually live in it. Let’s say, first two people to answer get their pick of the two options in the OP’s. Currently up for naming are Hop’s Wooloo, Leon’s Charizard, and anybody in the next gym leader’s roster (remember, rosters don’t count as spoilers), plus the Pokémon of any trainer you happen to know of already.
E: also if you could check me on whether I used the right syntax when talking about admissions I’d appreciate it.