I don't know why I was so dead set on getting Grimer at the Trainer's School, but I finally got one with a decent nature and Poison Touch.
Hala was actually kind of a bitch to fight just because I was so scared of overleveling that I didn't do any wild battles for training and just stuck to the trainer battles. His Machop got four consecutive crits (Revenge, not Karate Chop) after a Focus Energy, so that sure made me sour. Nice little bit of challenge though, and at least I know I don't have to be too afraid of overleveling (?).
Right now I've got:
Brionne Lv. 17
Rockruff (Dusk) Lv. 16
Grimer Lv. 15
Pichu Lv. 17
I'm usually the kind of guy who plans a team in advance and sticks to them, but that was becoming a bit stale for me. This time I'm just going through and grabbing everything I see, then keeping the Alola stuff I want to raise. It's cool to see the new inclusions in the regional dex, but also I only plan on using Alolan Pokemon or Regional Variants sooooo I dunno. Dex entries are rad too. Honestly one of the best things about the game is that they redid all the entries. This needs to continue for future installments. Deliberd giving bugs to people to eat is hilarious. Also this is the first time it's directly implied that Drifloon isn't just"spiriting people away," but it's actually eating their souls.
I will also say that the complaints that it's virtually the same game in terms of progression/story/script are pretty warranted so far. It's literally just the Ultra Recon folks pasted in various places, and like a handful of changed dialogue/cutscenes. I'll wait a bit until the later half of the game to decide more on this, but it's not a good look.
Overall, it's Pokemon. I usually replay Pokemon games many many times, but I intentionally held off on replaying Moon in anticipation of this game. That, plus the strength of Alola as a region and the great designs of the Pokemon here, are making this pretty enjoyable. I'm really looking forward to taking some time going through this game. But it's still incredibly disappointing to see that this really is basically a filler release, and with two versions no less. I'm aware that this is a third version, and I'm not pegging the future of the series on how this has been developed. That doesn't make these things not worth pointing out, though.
Somehow it's become a controversial opinion to simultaneously enjoy and love Pokemon games while also expressing frustration that TPC refuses to put their full heft behind the series. But that's where this game has me right now. I'm as sure as ever that the battle systems, flavor text, Pokemon designs, and heart of this series are all very special to me. However, it deserves so much more in terms of presentation, richness/breadth of content, and scope.
Anywho, gonna evolve some Pokemon to read these fantastic dex entries.
:O
Was this just straight up SOSing? I'm gonna have to try for a couple since I've got that more or less down to a science now.
