So, an friend gave me an copy of Sword the other week and I'm standing in front of the fifth gym, right now. So far, I want to say that it's been an mostly uneventful ride. Only real drama that I've seen is that effeminate kid kicking the crap out of Hop and destroying that mural; I actually like him because they've included an recurring asshole in the games, for once. But anyways, I find it hilarious that I have to fight my way through an hoard of obese simps and the music is kind of underrated, especially the Gym Leader's theme...Which brings me to just how forced Dynamaxing really is, in this game. You can only use it within certain areas and it's basically an OP version of Mega Evolution. Only thing that keeps it even is that it's temporary.
My only real complaint is that the Wild Area (and Dexit) was overhyped and that the only place where the game actually goes by your system's clock is the Wild Area, for some reason. Sure, it screws with the opportunity of catching monsters with Dusk Balls; but it's just another non-issue that I have with the game, along with being unable to catch much of anything interesting within that vast expanse of land when it's first introduced.
But since I'm still talking about the critters, I haven't really been able to piece together an reasonably good team because: The main routes barely offer anything out of the ordinary until you've get past the third gym, and that the difficulty curve is kind of forcing me to grind here and there.
Overall, it's reasonably good and the mons that are lurking within the Wild Area are an decent replacement for the natives; it's just that the pacing is rushed and largely uneventful until an certain point. All I'm doing is larping as an archeologist, at this point. And the game is more linear than most of the series, I'm so used to having stuff being locked behind an giant boulder that I have to move instead of being within arm's reach.
