- Gameplay -
These games changed the way you progress through the story. instead of a set path you can barely stray from, you can go basically anywhere, and there’s 3 storylines you can follow instead of the normal one. The first path is called Victory Road. This path is your normal eight Pokémon gyms, which you beat to get gym badges, with your friend/rival Nemona to support you along the way. The second path is called Path Of Legends, in which you and your friend Arven seek out the legendary titans, which you beat to power up Koraidon/Miraidon. The final path is called ★ Starfall Street ★ (yes, the stars are a part of the name) where you team up with Cassiopeia to break into the Team Star camps and defeat the leaders. Once you finish all the paths, they come together for what would replace the post-game, called The Way Home.
These games added a lot more side-quests, and made they are much more prominent in the game. As an example, let’s compare them to Sw/Sh, the most recent mainline games we got (that weren’t remakes or a had a major change to the way the game worked, or SV). There’s a good few side-quests for various items or Pokémon (like the type: null quest or the sort of spooky quest to get the reaper cloth) but you would only know where to start these quests if you looked it up or talked to every NPC in the game. Now, back to SV. Every person who has a quest has a speech bubble above their head, so already that’s an improvement. Also, there’s a lot more quests in general, but for mostly the same things. Items and Pokémon.
- New Pokémon -
The Paldean Pokédex has 400 Pokémon, 107 being new Pokémon, bringing the grand total up to 1008! 107 is a lot of Pokémon to talk about, so I’ll write a bit about some of my favourites! (Or some I just have something to say about *cough cough* Gholdengo *cough cough*
Sprigatito Line- My favourite starter of this generation is definitely Sprigatito. When I first saw the leak for this adorable little grass cat, I knew that would be the starter I would choose, and I chose right! Meowscarada, the final evolution of Sprigatito, is SO. COOL. (In my opinion) I love the whole vibe of it and its signature move is by far the best of all the starters: Flower Trick! A move that can never miss and ALWAYS is a critical hit!! It has a solid 70 base power as well which could be better but considering it can never miss and is always a crit, I think its still worth it.
Tinkatink Line- About halfway through my playthrough, I got myself a Tinkatink, and it was one of the best choices when making a Pokémon team I’ve ever made. Once I evolved it into its final evolution, Tinkaton, this thing was a BEAST. Tinkaton, like Meowscarada, has a signature move: Gigaton Hammer! It’s a move with 160 power!! Which, compared to other Pokémon moves, is A. LOT. The only bad thing is it can’t be used twice in a row, and it only has 5 PP (power points) so it can only be used 5 times. Regardless, Tinkaton is an awesome Pokémon! Pretty cute too, just uh… ignore its Pokédex entry…
Gimmighoul Line- Gimmighoul is one of my favorite ghost-type Pokémon, among Mimikyu and Sinistea. I have never used one in battle, but the concept of a chest filled with gold, but when you try to open it, the chest is alive? Its really cool in my opinion. Also, I’m a sucker for clever names (example: Mimikyu sounds like Mimic-You) so Gimmighoul, Give-me-gold but they use ghoul as well because its ghost type? Very cool. But one thing I don’t like about it is its evolution. Gholdengo.
Gholdengo was made to celebrate reaching 1000 total Pokémon. But, for being such a milestone, this thing just sucks. First, this thing is a pain to get. To evolve Gimmighoul into Gholdengo, you need to collect 999 Gimmighoul Coins. You get 50 Gimmighoul Coins from each Gimmighoul, of which there are 25 in the overworld. So, its doable, but it will take a long while. Then, once you get the dang thing, its design is just horrible. It looks like those flappy wind things outside of car dealerships, if you spray-painted one gold and gave it a weird belt. Also, its stats are TERRIBLE. AND its shiny is EXACTLY the same as the normal one! I like the idea of a Pokémon that’s a milestone for the Pokédex, but they executed it SO. BADLY.
