Part 13: I Just Had a Good Idea, As I Tend To Do!
Update 14: I Just Had A Good Idea, As I Tend To Do!Chairman Rose's Theme - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST
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Rose Fan: OK. See you later, Chairman. o/~
Yes, they really did put in a music note there.
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As he leaves, Rose turns to face us.
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He wanders off.
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Hulbury - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST
And were back in control. Hulbury is a pretty sizable town with a few different sections, one of my favorite is a little farmers market set up off in a corner.
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Why is my favorite? One of the stalls here sells a holdable incense that doubles your prize money from battles
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God, I love it
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Gym - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST
But we wont face off against her gym quite yet, because we have someone very important to catch up with!
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He gives us a Lure Ball.
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Now armed with a piece of equipment we cant use, its time we face down the Water Gym!
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Some of the press around Gen 8 focused on how different its Gym challenges were from those of past generations, something which was partially true. Most generations forced to you to fight most (if not all) Trainers in the Gym before moving on, with the puzzles playing a secondary role, if often a frustrating one (looking at you, Sabrina and Koge). In Sword and Shield, solving puzzles comes first; for instance, I believe its entirely possible to beat the first Gym without ever fighting a trainer. But ultimately they all share the fundamental combination of battles and puzzles that have defined Gyms for over 20 years.
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Nessas Gym puzzle is one of a type you probably seen in other JRPGs if youre familiar with the genre. You clear obstacles blocking your path by pressing buttons that move multiple obstacles at once; the goal is to find the right combination of button presses to clear your path entirely. In this case, the obstacles are water jets, and your goal is to run from button to button and alternate them appropriately
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Like so. Im actually awful at this kind of puzzle. For some reason, I can never memorize the appropriate sequence and have to go off gut instincts, which really isnt a great policy for this sort of thing. But as has been frequently mentioned, this is a childrens game for children, so the difficulty level is a bit toned down from what you might find in other games. Its exactly at my preferred skill level
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By which I mean I finished the whole thing about five minutes. Maybe.
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Battle! Gym Leader - Remix Cover (Pokémon Sword and Shield)
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And here we are at the first Gym Battle worthy of the name (sorry, Milo). Granted, it isnt HARD, but at least theres enough here that I can point out a few things.
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First off, I opened with my Grass-type, which everything she has is weak to. When you Dynamax, it only lasts three turns, so I wait until I polished off her Goldeen before breaking out the transformation.
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Some quick notes about Dynamax moves I dont think Ive covered; each Type has a special extremely powerful move that overwrites every move a Pokémon has of the same Type, though it still runs off that moves PP (
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I do that. Just about every Dynamax move has that sense of scale, too.
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And now we have our last Challenger.
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And now he gets KOd. That Max Darkness there nearly took Chairman out of the fight in one hit (it took off a solid 2/3 of her health bar), though it wasnt enough to seal the deal before she hit him back even harder. Even if it had, I would have outlasted him; his moves probably wouldve been powerful enough to knock out one or two of my Pokémon through sheer force before it dropped back to normal and my remaining team overwhelmed it. Nessa really stood no chance here. But later on, that numerical advantage vanishes and Trainers get smarter about how they staff their teams until even monotype teams start getting dangerous; unless youre willing to sink time and effort into crafting a team just to counter them, youll probably only have one or two Pokémon that can tackle that type, and its easy for them to anticipate counters and roll out somebody with the right typed attacks to ruin your day. Unless you powerlevel, but thems the breaks.
There is also a secret about Drednaw and Dynamax, but that will come out in a much later battle.
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1:
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2:
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The incense has already more than paid itself off in this gym. We also get enough experience from the victory to evolve
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This creature.
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With that, we complete the second gym and are officially one quarter of the way through the Gym Challenge.
Hulbury - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST
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Yes, she really did come halfway across town just to order us to do something we were already going to do. Oleana is that kind of person. So lets keep her waiting until next update! The moment that post goes up is the moment I decide whether or not to include Toxel in the party, so make your voices known if you have an opinion and havent expressed it already.