The Path to Sword & Shield: Launch Day!

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Today is the day! After 9 months waiting the games are finally here, Pokémon Sword & Shield are now available worldwide!

We hope everyone has enjoyed not only our countdown with The Path to Sword & Shield, but also spending the past 9 months (and longer!) on the site with us. We’ve grown significantly this year and we’re so happy to have shared every step of the way with all of our fantastic readers!

Just because the games are released doesn’t mean our journey here! With still got tons of content lined up for everyone, all from the fantastic team members we’ve got here on PokéJungle! Stick around!

Hopefully most of are readers are already enjoying the game and those of you that aren’t can get to play soon enough! We want to hear your thoughts on the game so far. What Pokémon are currently on your team? What’s your favourite thing about the game so far? Any tips for other trainers?

Giveaway

To celebrate the release, we’re starting the first of two giveaways we’ve partnered with Meccha Japan to hold! Remember, using code PKJ5 will net you a 5% discount when buying from their online store! We’re very grateful they’ve offered these plushies for us to give to you and they’re a great option if you want to buy Japan-only merch!

The prize: Band Festival Pikachu!

To cover ourselves in case of unforeseen circumstances, I need to remind you that this prize is worth $0 USD and we have the right to cancel the giveaway at any time for any reason.

How to Enter:

Use the form on Gleam! We do it this way so that we can most easily track people’s entries and choose fairly. Good luck!

PokéJungle & Meccha Japan Band Festival Pikachu Giveaway

Starter Giveaway Winner:

https://twitter.com/WheresTheChum/status/1194051023704383490

Happy Sword & Shield Launch Day!

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Supporters

Nick F

Smearg

Foil Island

Conglome NERD

alcremie sundae

Radiant Blutle

Zachery

Dragoniteo

Austin John Plays

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357 thoughts on “The Path to Sword & Shield: Launch Day!”

  1. My thoughts on the story:

    Imo the story experience in these games is one of the best (behind unova) but probably not for the right reasons.


    1. There isn’t a story. It’s the thinnest stories ever since X and Y probably and nothing before that was as bad. However this also means that there aren’t any lengthy cutscenes with endless dialogues and unskippable movies (looking at you USUM) The game doesn’t pretend to have a good story and that’s it’s best strength.
    2. Team Yell is a worse “ruffian for comic relief” team than team skull and their entire arc is the worst written, with all flat characters except Marnie and Piers. Chairman Rose’s plan is good in that it is mostly relegated to the end climax of the game. This, just like point 1, means that you’re able to breeze through the gym challenge without much interruption.
    3. The focus of the story is the gym challenge itself, instead of being some nefarious plan afoot by some evil organisation that completely sidelines from it. The championship feels larger than life and moves your character forward in strides in terms of character development.
    4. The lack of imposed story along with the wild area, max raid battles and point 3, means you can actually narrate your own adventures in the wild area with your Pokémon, giving them immense personality and character growth.
    5. I do wish for a game with an actually deep, Engaging and immersive story about Pokémon and their mysterious origins, a fantasy/sci-fi world full of mystery wonder and adventure without a stereotypical villain and team with no moral ambiguity but this is the next best thing. At least it’s not a mediocre story for the sake of having a plot.

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  2. I’ve thrown well over 30 Ultra Balls at Grapploct and it still hasn’t been caught…and half of those didn’t even shake once. Am I secretly fighting Mewtwo right now?

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  7. It really sucks that we got 6 canine pokemon this generation and the only felines are the abominations that are galarian meowth and perrserker.

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  17. I just have to say this… WTF is up with Obstagoon’s learnset? Poor thing can’t learn Brutal Swing, False Swipe, Tail Slap, or god damn CRUNCH, but can learn Whirlpool, Grassknot, Icy Wind, and Seedbomb?

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    • After being ready for another mediocre pokemon game, this one actually kinda blew me away. Yes theres problems, but I think it does a whole hell of a lot right.

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      • Yeah, I have to admit I’m really liking the implementation of the wild area, and hope they are able to expand on it for future games.
        Also the region looks a lot bigger than I initially thought.
        Getting rid of random encounters is by the far the most prominent thing as i’m watching these playthrough, especially in caves and while surfing.

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  24. I beat the 8th gym so I’m going to spend some time today in the Wild Area catching everything in sight and participating in plenty of Max Raids. Question, will I be able to see the blacked-out sprite of a Gigantamax Pokemon before a battle or do I find out if it’s Gigantamax after the battle starts?

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  25. What Gigantamaxes have you guys been able to find?

    Ironically enough, I’ve caught Gmax forms of three of my teammates: Centiskorch, Sandaconda, and then Drednaw. Just missing Alcremie (although it wouldn’t be the right flavour) and Toxtricity (event only). Sad face at the Galar starters not Gmaxing, it’d be good as you need to go out of your way for every other Gmax so having one by default would be cool.

    Also didn’t notice all of my team but Rillaboom had Gmax counterparts lol

    Reply

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