straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2026-05-09 08:01 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2026-05-09 08:01 pm
360 | pokémon shield, endgame thoughts!
I beat Pokémon Shield! Last weekend, in fact, but for various reasons (work, commute troubles, issues with my hands/wrists that have also been getting in the way of my desire to write fic sobsob) I haven’t had a chance to pull my notes together into an update until now.
My final main party, in the order I caught them in, their final levels after beating the Champion, and their movesets:
Inteleon (♂), Lvl. 63 — Sucker Punch, Snipe Shot, U-turn, Scald
Corviknight (♀), Lvl. 59 — Brave Bird, Drill Peck, Iron Head, Body Press
Coalossal (♀), Lvl. 61 — Incinerate, Heat Crash, Stealth Rock, Ancient Power
Galarian Corsola (♀), Lvl. 64 with Eviolite — Disable, Strength Sap, Power Gem, Shadow Ball
Galarian Rapidash (♀), Lvl. 59 — Dazzling Gleam, Psycho Cut, Stomp, Healing Pulse
I was pretty happy with my party! The first spot on my party was usually occupied by either Inteleon or Coalossal (the latter for when my strategy involved setting up Stealth Rock ASAP). My Corviknight got by far the least amount of use—which surprised me, because I had one in Scarlet that played a big role in my party—while I actually ended up using Galarian Corsola far far more than I expected! I ended up not evolving her, which wasn’t my original plan—but back when I was chatting with my brother about having added her to my party, he mentioned that Galarian Corsola was a fairly decent Eviolite user, and I decided that I wanted to try it out, figuring that I could always just evolve her later if it wasn’t working for me. Obviously, though, it very much ended up working for me!
Now, for the rest of my thoughts on my playthrough!
Overall: I loved this game! We’ll see how I feel with a bit more distance from the game, but right now, I absolutely rank it in my top three favorite main series games. The gameplay was so much fun throughout, the graphics (in terms of how pretty/striking the various areas were) were imo the prettiest the main series Pokémon games have ever been, there were soooo many excellent characters (so much so that I can’t even begin to chose just one to call out as my overall fave), I loved how the “villain” plot and the “Elite Four”/Champion part of the game were entwined, and overall I feel like both the overall story and the ending were very strong. Just a really great game, and one I had a lot of fun playing!
I’ve not quite decided what I’ll be doing next… I’m considering poking around a bit at the post-game, maybe even pick up the DLC if it really calls to me? Or maybe I’ll move on to the next game that catches my interest instead; we’ll see.
My final main party, in the order I caught them in, their final levels after beating the Champion, and their movesets:
Inteleon (♂), Lvl. 63 — Sucker Punch, Snipe Shot, U-turn, Scald
Corviknight (♀), Lvl. 59 — Brave Bird, Drill Peck, Iron Head, Body Press
Coalossal (♀), Lvl. 61 — Incinerate, Heat Crash, Stealth Rock, Ancient Power
Galarian Corsola (♀), Lvl. 64 with Eviolite — Disable, Strength Sap, Power Gem, Shadow Ball
Galarian Rapidash (♀), Lvl. 59 — Dazzling Gleam, Psycho Cut, Stomp, Healing Pulse
I was pretty happy with my party! The first spot on my party was usually occupied by either Inteleon or Coalossal (the latter for when my strategy involved setting up Stealth Rock ASAP). My Corviknight got by far the least amount of use—which surprised me, because I had one in Scarlet that played a big role in my party—while I actually ended up using Galarian Corsola far far more than I expected! I ended up not evolving her, which wasn’t my original plan—but back when I was chatting with my brother about having added her to my party, he mentioned that Galarian Corsola was a fairly decent Eviolite user, and I decided that I wanted to try it out, figuring that I could always just evolve her later if it wasn’t working for me. Obviously, though, it very much ended up working for me!
Now, for the rest of my thoughts on my playthrough!
- Before getting back to the post-Spikemuth story, I went and caught myself a Mareanie—not for my main party (that had already been finalized at this point), but simply because I really like them and wanted to have one. It wasn’t until I read the ‘dex entry that I remembered that they canonically find Corsola delicious… and I have a Corsola on my party…. oops. Very quickly sent her to the box after that, haha.
- I ran into a ghost story side quest in Hammerlocke that I assume was meant for earlier in the game—it’s one of those “character asks MC to pass on a message to a peer, said “peer” turns out to be much older than expected, it turns out that the original message-giver was a ghost all along” type of stories, but I’m always a fan of that kind of thing, so I was glad to see it here.
- “the chairman’s all wrapped up in fretting over the future of our energy, apparently” oh Magnolia… if you only knew to what extent ahahaha
- Initially, I was so nervous going into the Dragon gym! Mainly because I (thought) I had zero type advantages on my team & only one resistance (via Corviknight)... I had managed to forget that Galarian Rapidash is not pure Psychic type, but rather Psychic/Fairy. Which I only discovered when I switched her in via U-Turn during one of the gym trainer battles, and the Dragon-type move that hit her had no effect. SO satisfying <3
- I was SO DELIGHTED when the Dragon gym turned out to feature double battles!! I am such a fan of double battles; I think they’re so fun. Also, my Rapidash had Healing Pulse in her moveset when I caught her as Ponyta, which I’d never replaced, and I got so excited about finally being able to have an excuse to use it!
- Also: Raihan as a weather team dragon user!!! I loved this character detail so much. IIRC, earlier in the game they were talking about how, in another region, he’d probably be champion, and it was only his stubbornness about wanting to beat Leon that kept him in a lower ranked position in this region, and I feel like giving him a team built around the type of strategy you see in real world competitive Pokémon did an excellent job of backing up that characterization!
- I don’t remember any details about my strategy/how this battle played out anymore, but apparently I chose Galarian Corsola as my Dynamax. Also, Raihan’s expression when losing was surprisingly cute <3
- In terms of character arcs, Sonia receiving the lab coat was a good moment! And it does look good on her… but that brown coat was such a look, that I couldn’t help but immediately mourn it.
And also have a moment of “quick no one tell her that lab coats aren’t actually meant to be worn outside the lab”, but lbr, that ship has long sailed in regards to Pokémon professors. - After that, I spent some time (a literal irl week, iirc) hunting for TRs for my Corviknight and Galarian Rapidash in order to fix the weaknesses in their respective movesets. The former was a success; the latter, a failure—I really wanted to give her Play Rough (I’d finally picked up a Fairy-type move for her, but it was special, and she’s a physical attacker) and potentially High Horsepower, but I could not find them, not in the raids nor in the dens. Meanwhile, I found the two moves I wanted for Corviknight being sold by the same Watt Trader on day two of my search, lol.
- After that, I moved on with the story, which required me to go to the train station and take the train… and Hop showing up going, “wait for me!” and “I had Raihan beat in no time!” ended up being unintentionally amusing, considering how much time I’d spent on those aforementioned TR hunts before finally going to take that train.
- But also: Hop and Gloria on the train together <3 <3 <3 I know I keep saying this, but I love them and their clear, strong friendship with one another, and how the game conveys it not just through dialogue but also body language.
- An NPC told me there’s a legend about how Galar would be doomed without Corviknight…. interesting…
- I kept having, “Coalossal seems like it wants to be petted” show up in battles while traversing Route 10, to which all I have to say is: awwwww! <3
- I was amused by how my running up alone to Wyndon then slid into a cutscene of Gloria and Hop running in together... but then I realized that it implies that they were actually travelling together through Route 10, which I really like!
- During the Marnie battle in the semifinals, I accidentally used Dynamax (on my Galarian Rapidash) too early oops… I missed that she still had one Pokémon left… But it ended up working out in the end.
- There was something bittersweet about defeating Hop in the semifinals—because the game did such a great job of selling me on the Hop & Gloria friendship, it then also made it hit harder that, by defeating him, she was the one putting an end to his dream…
- The interview afterwards was fun! And I found Hop jumping in to defend her / tell them to leave her be so she can eat and rest to be very sweet <3
- When chasing after the league staff member with a key, I had a moment (two battles and three Pokémon in) where I was wondering, “...is everything he has weak to fire?", and after the full three battles & six Pokémon, the answer turned out to be: yes. My Coalossal just swept on through his party like nothing.
- Okay, I was delighted and charmed by how even the Zigzagoon were head-banging to Piers’ impromptu concert <3
- “M-my bonus… My dream of finally affording a house of my own…” asdfghjkl; way to make me feel bad for the villain grunt!!! potentially the most relatable character in the entire franchise tbh
- Oleana’s FACE. God, I loved her expressions during that battle… she looked like a horror ghost, and the way her face shifted between utterly unhinged to forced calm and back again… I admit that I wasn’t and still am not particularly interested in her, but I did really enjoy that.
- Her Milotic, though… when she sent it out, I immediately had flashbacks to all my Cynthia’s Milotic-related trauma, and I WAS NOT WRONG TO BE CONCERNED. I did eventually beat it down, but it gave me so so much trouble.
- Leon was soooo relatable in that cutscene, haha. He basically said what we were all thinking, which is to say: ‘I understand the concern, but why is a problem ONE THOUSAND YEARS IN THE FUTURE so vital that it can’t wait one fucking day???’ (Obviously paraphrased; they did not use the word “fuck” in a Pokémon game, lol.)
- Hop used the phrase “Butterfree in my stomach”, and omg, what a cute idiom <3
- I loved how Bede was incorporated! In general, I reallyyyy like the set-up of the semi-finals (allowing us to face Gloria’s rivals one last time) and the finals (powered-up gym leader rematches!!!), but, of course, Gloria has three rivals, and I like how they used this interruption to allow her one final battle with Bede as well.
- In my battle with Nessa, I still didn’t have anything super effective against water types on my team, so I chose Inteleon to Dynamax against her Drednaw… and then we both used Max Darkness against each other as our opening move. I was amused.
- I really liked seeing the tournament brackets! I didn’t know precisely who I’d be facing, so it was exciting to see the results of the different match-ups. I was absolutely most invested in Piers’ side of the bracket, in that he kept getting matched up against my fave of the gym leaders (first Kabu, then Raihan… to be clear, Piers is also a fave. And I enjoyed that moment between him and Marnie in the waiting area!)
- Raihan referred to his team as “my lovely Pokémon”.... cute <3
- Rose omfg: ‘you forced my hand leon, because you refused to listen!’ ALL HE SAID WAS THAT YOU SHOULD WAIT ONE SINGLE DAY TO TALK
- Leon: “Did he really pull this crazy stunt to solve some problem a thousand years in the future?!” lol I love that the ridiculousness of it all is also being acknowledged in game!
- also was amused by Leon’s heroic speech being followed with Hop going, ‘but you’re terrible at directions, what if you get lost along the way???’
- Also amused by Sonia (almost) completely missing the apocalypse / only finding out about it because Glora happened to run into her.
- I really enjoyed the section in the Slumbering Weald! That whole area has such a great vibe, and the area with the sword and shield in particular is so pretty, and I really enjoyed the sense of history and legends, and seeing Hop and Gloria take on those historic roles. (Though… in my game, Gloria took the Shield, because obviously that’s the version of the game I have, but I think I’m slightly more into the idea of her having the sword and Hop the shield?)
- Raihan ALSO roasting Rose: we all love to see it <3
- I loved the Rose battle!! His intro battle animation (and tbh all the animations) were so good…. and the battle music was also excellent! Coalossal was really the MVP on my team for this battle, due to all the Steel types on Rose’s party. I also really enjoyed seeing Rose’s reaction to his loss!
- Eternatus has a fun design! Bone dragon vibes.
- me watching the cutscene: LEON WHY DID YOU USE A STANDARD POKEBALL. NO WONDER IT FAILED TO CATCH
- I feel like the sword & shield dogs did all the work in that battle, lol. My Rapidash got immediately KOed by Max Ooze (I acknowledge that sending her in was a risk, & while it paid off in phase one of the Eternatus battle, it did not in phase two), and by the time I got my Corviknight out, used a Revive on my Rapidash so that she wouldn’t miss out on EXP, and was ready to land my first damaging move of the battle… Eternatus was already down -75% HP lol.
- I used an Ultra Ball to catch Eternatus, even though I knew it didn’t matter/would be an auto-catch, because I’d just criticized Leon for using an ordinary Pokéball and I didn’t want to be a hypocrite, haha.
- “couldn’t dream of a better challenger to increase my winning streak!” I see that Leon is very modest!
- Okay, so, I think I’ve mentioned before I prefer for my main party to comprise of five Pokémon rather than six! Generally, when I go to face the Elite Four/Champion, I then temporarily fill that final slot with whatever legendary was caught throughout the course of the game. Of course, in this game you don’t have the title legendaries at this point… but it occurred to me that I did have Eternatus! So I put it on my party—and was fascinated to discover that, if you do this, the game notes it and Leon will actually have (what I presume to be) extra lines about the fact that Eternatus is on your party now!
- I set up Stealth Rock with my Coalossal at the very start of the battle, which led to the most satisfying moment of Leon’s Charizard’s HP immediately going down by half upon being switched in!!
When I was still early on in the game, I watched a video about a competitive Pokémon player’s analysis of the best fire types, and what he had to say about Gigantimax Charizard had me going “oh no” / spending the rest of the game feeling Concerned about that part of the battle (and reassuring myself with “at least I have the water starter!!” haha), but in the end, I Dynamaxed my Inteleon, shot off a water move, and knocked out his Charizard before it could even land a single hit on me. Again: sooo satisfying <3 - I love how sincerely happy Hop looks for Gloria when she wins ;_;
- I couldn’t help but notice that, alongside the expected Pikachu and Eevee, Gigantimax Meowth had an extra voice credit…. what did I miss???
- lol, the Wooloo rolling over the end of the credits <3
Overall: I loved this game! We’ll see how I feel with a bit more distance from the game, but right now, I absolutely rank it in my top three favorite main series games. The gameplay was so much fun throughout, the graphics (in terms of how pretty/striking the various areas were) were imo the prettiest the main series Pokémon games have ever been, there were soooo many excellent characters (so much so that I can’t even begin to chose just one to call out as my overall fave), I loved how the “villain” plot and the “Elite Four”/Champion part of the game were entwined, and overall I feel like both the overall story and the ending were very strong. Just a really great game, and one I had a lot of fun playing!
I’ve not quite decided what I’ll be doing next… I’m considering poking around a bit at the post-game, maybe even pick up the DLC if it really calls to me? Or maybe I’ll move on to the next game that catches my interest instead; we’ll see.
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“the chairman’s all wrapped up in fretting over the future of our energy, apparently” oh Magnolia… if you only knew to what extent ahahaha
I laughed out loud. And the refusing to listen to reason was over one more day??? Amazing! He's a chairman... Surely he should know being able to schedule a meeting in a day is generous...
Raihan and Leon both sound really fun, and I ended up charmed by them! Also wow stealth rock sounds useful!
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And the refusing to listen to reason was over one more day??? YES. It's so funny. It wasn't even that Leon was refusing to listen... all he said was something along the lines of, 'I understand the situation, but the Championship match is tomorrow & I want to focus on that first, so can we wait until that's over before we talk about it?' But no... Rose mentions earlier in the game that he's an impatient kind of person, but I think that's underselling it, haha.
Raihan and Leon both sound really fun, and I ended up charmed by them! I'm glad to hear it! <3
Stealth Rock usually only does a small amount of damage to whatever Pokémon is switching in, but the thing is... Charizard has a x4 weakness to Rock. Which I did know, but I didn't expect the results to be that dramatic. I was so so shocked, but also VERY delighted.