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Falconier111 posted:Also, I just found the most wonderful document. It turns out Motostoke really is Manchester! That makes me (someone who hasn't played the games) wonder if there is a Galarian Premiere League, or has all sports been replaced by Pokemon battling?
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Nov 6, 2020 18:13
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dotchan posted:That makes me (someone who hasn't played the games) wonder if there is a Galarian Premiere League, or has all sports been replaced by Pokemon battling? I didn’t include it in the LP, but there’s a guy in Motostoke who mentions being torn between spending his evening watching the League or a football match, so there’s at least one other sport profitable enough to broadcast on television. There isn’t much else about other sports, though.
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Nov 6, 2020 18:24
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I get the impression that in-universe, battling with a specific type theme is considered more skilled than going for an even spread of typing. This is emphasized by the fact that the Elite Four and Gym Leaders all have type themes, even if Champions often don't, so it comes off to me as both a deliberate handicap to show off how tough you are and a way to really get in sync with a single type's advantages. With that in mind, it's clear why Bede specializes, because he wants to come off as the most skilled and the most special, and why Marnie specializes, because of what her end goal is, and why Hop doesn't, because Leon doesn't and because he wants to have a good spread of aces.
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Nov 6, 2020 19:38
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dotchan posted:That makes me (someone who hasn't played the games) wonder if there is a Galarian Premiere League, or has all sports been replaced by Pokemon battling? In gen 5 there's some sport stadium places. You get to go there and have pokemon battles with footballers and baseballers and tennis players and stuff.
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Nov 6, 2020 21:42
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Update 11: I Heard That Trainer Was Hop's Rival Turffield - Pokémon Sword and Shield Welcome to Turffield, an idyllic place of yellow fields and JESUS CHRIST  Is that a beard or a cancerous growth? You tell me! Do you remember when Meowth was a petty criminal with an inexplicable Brooklyn accent? I’m not sure I do, this abomination wiped my memories of that character in the anime and replaced it with nightmares. When I beat this trainer, he assures me his Pokémon are in top condition. Maybe he should take them to a specialist first  . But speaking of the anime!  I’m betting the vast majority of you already know the basics of the anime-game relationship, but I’m betting a few you don’t and I like the sound of my own writing. The Pokémon anime introduced the idea of Pokémon only saying their own names; before that, they just made appropriate elemental or animal sounds. The anime proved enormously popular, so much so it led to the release of Pokémon Yellow, which packed in a few improvements to the original –  Excuse me, I have to take this. Anyway, it tightened up some issues with the previous versions, Red and Blue, plus adding a feature where Pikachu, the anime’s mascot, could follow you around on the overworld. Yellow set the pattern for future Generations; two (roughly) simultaneous releases followed by an improved version a ways later. Most Pokémon don’t do the name thing in the games, but as a consequence of its prominence in the anime, Pikachu still does. Hilariously, when Pikachu Dynamaxes (well, does a special equivalent I’ll cover later), its voice track changes and instead of saying its name, it says the first syllable long and slow, like it’s about to take a Dynamax-sized leak on the audience and wants everyone to know it. Fun facts: my dictation software recognizes the word Pokémon and spells it correctly; not too shocking, given the franchise’s popularity. Same with Pikachu, to a lesser extent. But Charizard? Pokédex? Helps me write this stuff out, though.  About halfway between the cave exit and the town itself, we get involved in the Pokémon equivalent of a car accident.   Hmmm? Oh, you must be one of those Gym Challengers, right? That’d be me, yes. Ahhh, I thought so. I saw you at the opening ceremony. My name’s Milo. I’m a Gym Leader and rather partial to Grass-type Pokémon. I’ve been itching to see just how good the Champion-endorsed Gym Challengers are… Let me find out at the Gym Stadium just had on through this route, and you’ll run right into my stadium. See you there! Come on now. Back to the stadium with you, too! We can’t keep the Gym Challengers waiting!The Wooloo makes its agreement known and they wander off together. By the way, as we make our way through the area, I would like to point out that the Route 3 theme is (I believe) partially a remix of the Pallet Town theme from Gen 1; as it was your character’s hometown and the first place you walked around in, it’s burned into a lot of Genwunner skulls (I’ll talk about the meaning of that word probably in another update). Nice to hear it just outside the very first gym.   Look! Just take a look at that, Gloria! That’s Turffield Stadium down there! The Gym Leader just returned, too. Milo’s his name. But the place’s jam-packed with challengers. It’ll be ages before our turn comes up… Oh, but Sonia was looking for you, Gloria. She wanted to ask you about something. She tried asking me, but I had no idea. She’s up on that what’s-her-face hill. You know the one. …How would I know that?And out of nowhere, Sonia’s Yamper shows up to guide us up the hill. Who am I to defy a dog? You know how the thread's been joking about how this directional handholding in-universe probably stems from people dealing with Leon? I’m not sure whether the fact that Sonia’s pet leads us around just as invasively as the MC employee earlier did proves or disapproves that. Sonia's Theme - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST   I had you come ‘cause I wanted to hear what you thought. Well, I think it looks like a geoglyph. That’s probably not what you’re asking for, though. Yeah, I could have phrased that better. There’s something a tad modern looking like it’s happening there. …Dynamax. That's a Pokémon undergoing the Dynamax transformation. It certainly looks like a gigantic Pokémon. I suppose people 3000 years ago could’ve just imagined this, but it looks to similar to Dynamax. It just can’t be coincidence. A long time ago… A great black storm covered the Galar region. Giant Pokémon ran rampant. But what was that black storm they called “the Darkest Day”? What connection does it have to Dynamax? Actually, probably none. What? I mean, Gudelic, the Kalosian Wars, Zacian and Zamazenta… That’s all within recorded history. These geoglyphs are at least 1000 years older, maybe two or three. They were first attested to by Unovan explorers before the Empire properly formed, even. They can’t be describing the same event. Dammit! All that for nothing… Shouldn’t be surprised – Wait! Wait, wait. How are these geoglyphs and the Darkest Day connected? Loads of sources on the Turffield ruins mention the Darkest Day when discussing local mythology… Do you think they conflated the events?… No. No, I don’t think so. A couple sources hinted that the Darkest Day might have been a recurring ritual or holiday. But… if they're referring to the same thing – which I think they are – it may not have been a ritual at all. It may have been a recurring event! There may have been multiple Darkest Days! Oh, that’s right brilliant, Gloria! Thank you! Don’t thank me yet. One day I’m going to write a thesis on this and it is going to MELT FACES. I need to catch a skytaxi back to Motostoke and hit up the libraries again, laters!(I won’t be going into this because it’s not going to come up in the narrative, as I doctored it, but in the original, Sonia’s revelations are… lackluster. Let’s just say they don’t reflect the sort of intellectual effort you’d expect out of somebody who presumably at least has some scientific qualifications. She comes across as an airhead who got in on nepotism sometimes, and I won’t be borrowing that.) You were standing 5 feet away the whole time, random tourist. What do you think of the geoglyph?   Turffield - Pokémon Sword and Shield Anyway, Turffield isn’t actually based on a real town or city, but on Stonehenge – or, more accurately, Stonehenge and the variety of smaller ancient ruins and landmarks scattered throughout the southern part of England. That geoglyph up there? The tourism pamphlet doesn’t mention it, but there’s a very good chance it’s based on English hill figures. Why is all this stuff laid out around the town? So they can put Stonehenge in the game.   Pretty place, though. Let’s hit the gym.  The Grass Gym Badge! I got it in one try! I reckon I’m just about the greatest when it comes to wrangling Wooloo… I’ve had plenty of practice at it, after all! I still don’t understand how you do it. I grew up on a Wooloo farm! How are you BETTER at handling them? I’m just that great  . But I’m sure you can win this one, too. After all, you are my rival!Gym Lobby - Pokémon Sword and Shield  Here we encounter the first instance of one of many people’s favorite features in the game; people recognize your progress and the progress of your rivals as you go through the game. More on this later…  … Because we have an old friend to greet!  Hey there! Thanks for rolling by to have a chat with your mate – the Ball Guy! As a sign of our friendship, let me give you a wonderful Pokéball!They give us a Pokéball that raises a wild Pokémon’s affections that the moment you catch it. We’ll talk about affection… Probably the next time we hit the Wild Area. Did you know that, canonically, Ball Guy has no gender? The original Japanese name is gender neutral and that no point did they use any kind of identifying language. As such, 70% of Ball Guy cosplay (and there’s plenty of it) consists of attractive women in ultra-feminine clothing wearing the head, while 70% of Ball Guy fanart (and there’s plenty of it) features shirtless, extremely muscular men wearing the head. I have no idea how to decode that.  While we’re in the gym lobby, we have access to a special shop that sells Type-themed uniforms. Unfortunately, you can’t wear them out on the field: instead, you’re expected to wear them as ordinary clothing, which sucks. I bought the Fighting uniform anyway. But enough faffing about! We have a gym to challenge! Gym - Pokémon Sword and Shield   Gyms have always been a major feature of the Pokémon franchise, showing up in every generation except Gen 7 (which still had an equivalent playing a prominent part). There are always eight Gyms in a region and each Gym always has a small group of Trainers lining a path that leads to the Leader, all of whom share their gym’s elemental theme. After the first few Gyms, the games introduce puzzles and gimmicks reflecting the gym theme, often making use of recently-obtained HMs (i.e. one HM, called Strength, could be used to push boulders around, so you can probably imagine the boulder-pushing puzzles that ensued). Just after the first season of the anime finished airing in the US, they released a series of Pokémon novels about good ol’ Ash Ketchum traveling to a Hawaiian-themed archipelago called the Orange Islands, which had Gym Leader-equivalents that challenged Trainers to competitions (like rockclimbing or sailing) instead of battles. Decades later, Generation 7 took place in a Hawaiian-themed archipelago called Alola, which had the local Gym Leader equivalents complete various challenges (like glorified scavenger hunts) before facing them. Coincidence? Actually, yeah, probably, those books never came out in Japan and there’s no reason to think the developers had even heard of them. E: I’m an idiot, those are based off filler made for the anime, but they genuinely seem not to have any connection other than thematic similarity. Still made me do a double take when I realized the parallel, though. Gen 8 split the difference. Like most generations, Gen 8 has Gym Challenges take place in an enclosed space with Trainers to face along the way. Like in Gen 7, each gym as a gimmick challenge you have to work your way through before facing the Gym Leader themselves.  Since Milo’s gimmick is being really into sheep, his Gym has us herd 20 Wooloos through a series of checkpoints (each of which has a Trainer overseeing it). Each checkpoint has a twist, first a Yamper that chases the Wooloos around like the world’s saddest sheepdog, then some hedges to complicate geometry, then adding another sheepcorgi to the mix. It’s honestly not that impressive, though it does look nice. I do love how every Gym Trainer’s like, “You’ll never get past me!” before throwing out one Pokémon five levels lower than the one in the front of my party. It’s adorable. Eventually I push my way through the last checkpoint and…  … Complete the challenge.     That’s why I try to keep the Gym mission challenging, but… That didn’t stop you from completing it, Gloria! Proper job! Sure seems like you understand Pokémon real well. This is gonna be a doozy of a battle I’ll have to Dynamax my Pokémon if I want to win! E: Originally, my treatment of this fight was very flippant and dismissive. The thread didn’t like that and when they explained why, they brought up some good points that I am probably should address – especially since they'll be coming into play for the rest of the LP. First of all, one of Gen 8’s defining elements is the spectacle of its Gym Battles. While most mainline Pokémon games portray them as scaled up ordinary fights, Galar’s Gym Battles are massive spectacles that cross football matches with light shows. The problem is… Well, only some Gyms ever live up to that concept (some of the later Gyms host some of the most interesting and challenging fights in the game; I’m especially looking forward to/dreading Melony. But I find the early Gyms so underwhelming I struggle to take them seriously. Milo’s is especially bad; I find the Wooloo herding puzzle really basic (and this is as someone who often struggles with puzzles) and the battle with Milo disappointing. I haven’t been grinding for a while now; I haven’t even used any of the XP candies I got earlier. All I’ve done is fight every Trainer along the way, and that’s as much to get money for clothes as anything else. In spite of that, I won this battle so fast I didn’t end up getting more than a couple screenshots. It took me three rounds to beat both his Pokémon, which is as long as Dynamaxing lasts in non-Raid battles. It’s hard to respect something that’s over in under a minute. This’ll change, though. Nessa’s Gym, for instance, features one of my favorite puzzles in the game, and though her fight isn’t much harder, it has enough substance to deserve real commentary). It’s not like there’s anything wrong with the gym on its most basic level, I just don't care about it. Second of all… I really don’t like Milo. He’s my least favorite Gym Leader. I mean, he’s a fine character, but I hate writing for him. You may have noticed I like intellectual banter, but while Milo’s perfectly intelligent, I don’t enjoy trying to mesh his canonical voice with my writing style. That’s what made me burn out on my last writing project. I was unconsciously trying to move past him as fast as possible so I wouldn’t have to risk wading into that, and that’s due to my weaknesses as a writer and unwillingness to try and force it. The fact that I wasn’t fully aware of that doesn’t make my writing on the topic any better. I’m treating Milo’s Gym more harshly than it deserves, definitely. That’s on me. But I will be handling the next Gyms and Leaders better. Anyway, back to commentary.   As proof that you have defeated a Gym Leader for the Gym Challenge, allow me to present you with your very own Grass Badge! Gym Lobby - Pokémon Sword and Shield And there we are! Milo accosts us on the way out to tell us that we should head out to the next town where the map was already pointing us. This is getting a little aggravating – I think I could go indefinitely without it driving me off the game, but I really wish the game would let up. It’d be a lot worse if the directions were preventing me from going anywhere interesting, but…  Off we go anyway. Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Nov 9, 2020 |
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Nov 7, 2020 05:52
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Falconier111 posted:
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Nov 7, 2020 06:15
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Blaziken386 posted:I know he's the first gym battle and not exactly challenging, but it seems kinda wrong to utterly brush off the fight like that, and not even mention his pokemon. Especially considering that the gym challenge being a big overblown spectacle is the main focus of the game this time around. You know, that’s fair, and I really shouldn’t have done that. I will say I’ve more lined up with Nessa and her fight but... it’s been a long week and I didn’t think that one through 
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Nov 7, 2020 06:25
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quote:Just after the first season of the anime finished airing in the US, they released a series of Pokémon novels about good ol’ Ash Ketchum traveling to a Hawaiian-themed archipelago called the Orange Islands, which had Gym Leader-equivalents that challenged Trainers to competitions (like rockclimbing or sailing) instead of battles. Decades later, Generation 7 took place in a Hawaiian-themed archipelago called Alola, which had the local Gym Leader equivalents complete various challenges (like glorified scavenger hunts) before facing them. Coincidence? Actually, yeah, probably, those books never came out in Japan and there’s no reason to think the developers had even heard of them. Still made me do a double take when I realized the parallel, though. Is calling Episodes 81-116 of the anime "a series of books that Japan probably never heard about" some kind of joke? Actually, I own a few of those book adaptations of anime episodes - though the only one I have from the Orange Island arc is the 2000 Movie adaptation. MightyPretenders fucked around with this message at 07:44 on Nov 7, 2020 |
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Nov 7, 2020 07:34
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PetraCore posted:I get the impression that in-universe, battling with a specific type theme is considered more skilled than going for an even spread of typing. This is emphasized by the fact that the Elite Four and Gym Leaders all have type themes, even if Champions often don't, so it comes off to me as both a deliberate handicap to show off how tough you are and a way to really get in sync with a single type's advantages. With that in mind, it's clear why Bede specializes, because he wants to come off as the most skilled and the most special, and why Marnie specializes, because of what her end goal is, and why Hop doesn't, because Leon doesn't and because he wants to have a good spread of aces. Sometimes, sure, but the gym leaders in particular mainly seem to specialise in whatever type matches their hobby, especially in later games. Also Milo's gym is probably one of if not my absolute favourite throughout the entire franchise. It's just so adorable. Obligatory  post: there's a yearly televised sheepdog competition called One Man And His Dog (title is not intentionally sexist, it's from the old folk tune 'One Man Went To Mow'). It used to be prime-time evening entertainment when I was a kid but now they only seem to show the highlights late at night on some random channel, which is a shame because it's a very cute show with a lot of very clever good boys and girls chasing their sheeps around.Of course, corgis are more properly cattle dogs rather than sheepdogs. Which is interesting because they're a Welsh breed (divided into two sub-breeds, Pembroke and Cardigan; the Pembroke is the one people typically think of when they think corgi) and Wales has a lot more sheep than cattle, but the Welsh sheepdog is now a very rare breed.
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Nov 7, 2020 09:33
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There's another cute gimmick about Milo's gym. Defeating the trainers makes their Yamper go over to them and stop moving, which I guess is supposed to make a tradeoff? (you can skip the trainer but if you do the herding challenge is trickier). In practice I've never really understood why Pokemon game design tries so hard to make mechanics about skipping trainers, when most players view getting to fight them as a reward. The herding is more fun with the Yamper around though, I like to get them through first and then double back to fight the trainer(s) afterward. I second the comment that I'd prefer if you showed slightly more of the gym battles, even if they're not terribly interesting.
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Nov 7, 2020 16:27
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Where is Milo's nose?
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Nov 7, 2020 16:58
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I’ve been pondering the threads input and there’s a lot valid there. I wrote it like that for several reasons, some of which I stand by, but not all of which were good. I’ll be going back today and re-writing that section today to make what’s going on there clearer and less flippant.Robindaybird posted:Where is Milo's nose? He’s a member of the same human subspecies as Krillin.
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Nov 7, 2020 17:23
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Robindaybird posted:Where is Milo's nose? It got flattened to his face during a fight on a Young Farmers Association night out, probably.
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Nov 7, 2020 17:25
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Robindaybird posted:Where is Milo's nose? We now see Turffield's true analogue in the UK: Norfolk  (For those not familiar, there's a long-standing stereotype of people from East Anglia and especially Norfolk of being inbred. It is not entirely untrue; there's a lot of people with odd traits around there.)
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Nov 7, 2020 18:07
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I went back to the update and replaced the  with more in-depth commentary. I may or may not be removing chunks of that later; I tried to write it with an eye on keeping it in to illustrate where the LP is going, but we'll see how well it works. I'd appreciate input on whether that answers questions/is satisfactory.Man, that sounded more passive-aggressive than I meant it  Also: Tenebrais posted:We now see Turffield's true analogue in the UK: Norfolk Black Robe posted:Obligatory Permission to add both of these to the post listing?
Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Nov 7, 2020 |
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Nov 7, 2020 19:59
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Falconier111 posted:Permission to add both of these to the Oh sure, be my guest! Although just to be clear Turffield isn't actually meant to be a reference to Norfolk; you're still welcome to reference the stereotype.
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Nov 7, 2020 20:14
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Ongoing permission for any of my dribbling that seems worth linking to.
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Nov 7, 2020 20:55
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Falconier111 posted:I went back to the update and replaced the I feel like if they were going to have the gyms be more prevalent, they should've, I 'unno, pushed them back a little? IE - in every pokemon game the first gym is mostly a tutorial of "did you know grass can catch on fire? did you know that rocks can get punched??", and that's kinda at odds with the game's presentation. Like, they could've had a "tutorial" gym as part of the entrance ceremony, extended the mine into a proper dungeon, and then had Milo be the first real battle alongside his Gigantamax Appletun. But SwSh is a baby game for kiddos, so instead, we get to roll around with the sheep for a bit. Cute sheep, mind, but not very intense. Falconier111 posted:It’s hard to respect something that’s over in under a minute. This’ll change, though. Nessa’s Gym, for instance, features one of my favorite puzzles in the game, and though her fight isn’t much harder, it has enough substance to deserve real commentary). It’s not like there’s anything wrong with the gym on its most basic level, I just don't care about it.
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Nov 7, 2020 22:11
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I think Nessa's gym has my favourite puzzle/gimmick thing of this game, it's the one that felt the most like a proper gym puzzle in the mould of earlier games. And we're definitely running afoul of the issue Pokemon games nearly always have: the mechanics are quite deep but because the games need to be accessible to young children there's never any challenge that makes you need to care about them (especially when you consider how much EXP the games throw at you). I've really taken to playing on Set mode rather than Switch in recent years, especially when doing challenge runs, the game's a lot more fun when you remove that huge cheat in favour of the player. I don't love the Nuzlocke challenge rules, they're awkward and feel incongruous to me, but it's telling that something like that came about, and they do often make you consider things you'd never otherwise have touched (I did a Sword Nuzlocke a while back and actually needed to use an X Special Defence in the champion battle in order to avoid a death, it felt so bloody weird when I realised that was the solution to my predicament). I should reiterate: I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing these games are easy! Even aside from the accessibility and friendliness of these games (which is far from nothing!), it's one of the things that makes them so prone to customisation and replayability: if you can win with any team, it means you can use any team you want to, and really make it yours. I do like the idea of delaying the first gym more so they can make it more of a fight, I don't think that would have interfered with the pacing too much. (Also, in general, Dynamax is quite overpowered, and I found myself defaulting to the limitation of "I can only Dynamax if the opposing trainer has already done so" because AI trainers always wait until their last pokemon to use it and it's too late by then.) Completely unrelated to the above, to return to a prior subject, Rose isn't Poke-Trump. This is Poke-Trump. (I didn't really feel comfortable linking to this over the past couple of days, I wasn't in a mental state to find it funny and thought people here probably wouldn't be either. But things are at least slightly less stressful now, and it's one of the best impressions I've ever seen, it captures his mannerisms perfectly while having him rant about Pokemon like a Genwunner.) https://mobile.twitter.com/shrimpJAJ/status/1324036720870985729
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Nov 7, 2020 22:58
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Update 12: It’ll Be a Scream Route 3 - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST Let’s start this update out right – television!  Reporter: …A Pokémon battle, course! Cameraman: Good Pokémon and Trainers really shine on-camera!  As I mentioned before, you often run into double battles when you’re alone; if so, you just send out your first two Pokémon and things proceed as normal. These games have an uncomfortable number of moves tweaked specifically for double battles, which is baffling, since they tend to be pretty rare. Here… would be picture of the Pokémon Daycare, but I think I forgot to take it and can’t do so yet; I’ll go back and upload/edit it in later. Pokémon Daycares have been around in various forms since the beginning, and they started out as a solution to the XP grinding issue. If there was a Pokémon you want to trained up but you didn’t want to bother grinding with them, you could head to the Daycare, drop it off, and run around doing other things. While it was there, it would gain one experience per step you talk, which was also extremely slow but at least it let you do other things. In Gen 2, they not only let you drop two Pokémon off, but if you did (if they were the right genders and Pokémon types), you’d eventually come back and find an Egg, which you could carry around until it hatched (after taking up a slot in your party the whole time, the bastard). The process of producing and hatching eggs in different circumstances to get different results is called Pokémon Breeding, and it’s a whole complex world I won’t be indulging in unless there’s some huge demand for it in the thread. After several generations (probably as they made leveling easier), they dropped the XP gain aspect from them and renamed them Nurseries, as is present in Galar. When we stop in to take a look around, some rando we start pestering casually hands us a Toxel, a Pokémon rare enough you probably shouldn’t be handing them out to people you don’t know the first time you see them. What should I name it, should I or should I not include it in my party, and if I do, what Pokémon should it replace? There’s a current party list in the OP. Those of you with post/voting credit (I believe Black Robe, Megane, and Tenebrais) can use it to overrule everyone else if they like.Team Yell Appears! - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST  Team Yell Grunt: We’re gonna use that bike to chase around Gym Challengers! It’ll be a scream! ???: How barbaric! It wouldn’t work anyway. You don’t even have a Rotom with you! Hey, young Gym Challenger! They’re trying to steal my bike! Please, if you could give them a good thrashing, I would be in your debt!  Team Yell Grunt: Oi, we’re not tryin’ to steal the bike! Only borrow it! We’re going to use it to chase after Gym Challengers and make ‘em all tired! And what happens if you catch up to them? Team Yell Grunt: I dunno, yell at them a bit? We’re tryin’ to tire ‘em out, not hurt ‘em. And what happens if you hit them? Or if they trip, fall, and hurt themselves?Team Yell Grunt: We’ll be careful – Or if you wreck the bike? Are you going to give it back like that? Or what if you managed to hurt yourselves trying to help her? Marnie wouldn’t like that.Team Yell Grunt: Oh yeah? And how do YOU know what Marnie wants? We’re friends. She spent an hour texting me about textile manufacturing this morning. Team Yell Grunt: That DOES sound like Marnie, maybe she’s telling the truth.. Well… Maybe this wasn’t the best plan, yeah. But we ain’t stoppin’ yet! You haven’t seen the last of us!  Route 3 - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST ???: Thank you, young lady. It was looking a mite dangerous there. All in a day’s work, sir. ???: And I see you have a Pokédex, two! That means you have a Rotom with you! Fantastic! I think I’ll give this bike to you, then. Better you have it then Team Yell! … Just like that????: Absolutely! Now, you know that Rotom love motors very, very much, right? Enough to jump right into machines that have motors! So, that got me thinking… If I attached a motor to a bicycle, then maybe I could get a Rotom to pop into that as well! Come now – give it a shot! Enjoy cycling together with Rotom to the fullest.  And now we have some new wheels. Bikes are an old Pokémon tradition, something you acquire a couple Gyms in that lets you travel at a respectable speed. Back in Gen 1, they had yet another subplot where you had to hunt down a voucher to buy a bike that would otherwise cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for some reason, but they quickly dropped that. As time passed, they started experimenting with different things they could do with bikes; in Gen 3, for instance, you had bikes that could speed across railings or bunny-hop over obstacle courses.  This time around, we start out with a nitro ability that I honestly barely use, but we’ll be gathering upgrades for much of the of the game. Unfortunately, I’ll probably avoid using it. Why? That uniform. The game forces it on you every time you go for a ride and won’t let you take it off. It’s painfully gauche. The bridge the Team Yell goons were talking about really is long; it’s designed to make you want to use the bike and build up a little bit of experience as you go. Of course, that means you don’t always see the Hop at the end of the bridge waiting to fight you.  I’m warning you, though… Any closer than that and we’re going to have to have a battle – you and me!Fortunately, the game doesn’t force you into a fight and gives you a second to catch your breath/rearrange your team. Normally, I find the cushioning this game provides you with a bit much, but I like the way they laid out this area. Not that that means I’ll go easy on Hop.  This is the perfect training!Pokémon Sword and Shield: Hop Battle Theme Remix   I, of course, get too caught up in writing this update and forget to heal up my Pokémon, but it doesn’t matter much. Hop still has the same team as last time, though he has levelled them quite a bit (and evolved his Rookidee and Bonham). It isn’t the clean sweep I’ve had before; none of my Pokémon are really in danger, but they do take hits and lose some health.  Bonham is also looking pretty nice, now evolved and with a level comparable to much of my party. He even survives Bruce’s most powerful attack and deals a dozen HP of damage to him, probably the most of any Pokémon so far. Unfortunately, he goes down in the next hit, but we’re seeing some definite improvement. The game never becomes hard, per se, but it does ramp up over time, and we are finally seeing the pace start to pick up.  In older games, HM moves like Strength could only be learned through the relevant HM. Now, you just learn them leveling up sometimes. I also only just now realized that Murphy knew Rock Smash, another old HM move, back when I caught her, since I haven’t changed her moveset since. I love it. Route 3 - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST You’ve gotten a lot better since last time, mate. Not as good as you. Just means I have more to train before hitting up the Water Gym. Hulbury’s just a bit up the road, want to walk the rest of the way together? Why not? So, did you run into the interview crew back there? The what? There was a GBC camera crew back near Turffield city limits. They gave me an interview, seeing as how I’m a Challenger and all. You loving wanker, you stole my spotlight! I’m supposed to be the famous one!  I swear, they weren’t there when I left town. I bet they came out just to find me .  … … Well, one of the first things Marnie asked me about was what kind of boys I liked. Ouch. Yeah. But when I said that didn’t apply, she asked me a bunch of questions about it that were kind of blunt, but more “I’m being really direct” than “I’m judging you negatively”, I think. D’you think they were “I’m realizing something about myself” questions? My gut says no, my heart says yes, and my brain says “you’ve never been attracted to someone who wasn’t straight”. Well, you can always hold out hope. Nah, I’m gonna let it go. We’re still texting each other like mad and it’s not like I NEED –Hulbury - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST    Oh, we’re here. I think I’m going off to the Center, get my team healed up. You coming with? Nah. I think I’ll be scoping the town out for a bit. Then see you later, mate. Same to you.... Wait… ...Is that Bede?
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Nov 8, 2020 03:49
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Ah, Bede and his Bede-y little eyes.
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Nov 8, 2020 06:21
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Falconier111 posted:What should I name it, should I or should I not include it in my party, and if I do, what Pokémon should it replace? There’s a current party list in the OP. Those of you with Falconier111 posted:Back in Gen 1, they had yet another subplot where you had to hunt down a voucher to buy a bike that would otherwise cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for some reason, but they quickly dropped that.  for a sec, the price of the bike wasn't that unreasonable, if you converted it to yen. Yes, it was still the equivalent of around $8500, but... that's not out of the ballpark where professional mountain bikes are concerned. And, when you consider the fact that "taking the gym challenge" equates to "travelling across the whole drat region," you're essentially a walking(?) advertisement, showing that the bike is top-quality enough to actually do that. Gen 2 and 3 expand upon this and make it canon - in Gen 2, the bike shop owner calls you up after a few gym badges and says "keep the bike, sales figures are through the roof because of you", and in Gen 3, an NPC on Cycling Road comments that every inch of your bike features Rydel's name and logo. ...Actually, now that I type all that out, it's kinda weird that that isn't the case here, and you get it from a random mad scientist. You'd think they'd lean into it, considering the fact that Leon's cape is literally covered in advertisement logos, but no! Falconier111 posted:
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Nov 8, 2020 06:51
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I hate the cycling uniform too. You can change its colour in the Wild Area but they all look bad. On the Isle of Armor you can change it to something more monochrome, which helps a bit, but I still never used the bike except for Wild Area races to grind watts. I didn't like the pokeride uniform in Alola either. This game is focused on dressing up, stop making me cover up my clothes dangit. The cycling helmet is fair enough, or would be if any other gens cared about safety in the slightest, but full professional Lycra is going a bit far. If nobody else wants to name the toxel, how about Sid Vicious? I wouldn't leave it on the team permanently but giving it some candy offscreen so it's available if you need it probably isn't a bad idea. And it should get a chance to Dynamax at least once after it evolves just because it looks cool. Maybe in a den raid just to show off. I like Hulbury. Reminds me of Portsmouth and the Solent. Not sure if it's actually based on that area or if it's more inspired by some of the northern ports, the guide you linked to earlier didn't mention it.
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Nov 8, 2020 09:01
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I vote we name the Toxel Rockabye for...reasons.  Re: a lot of moves being finetuned for double battles, I think a part of that is because the official Pokemon VGC is held in a doubles format (to discourage fights from getting too long, apparently!).
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Nov 8, 2020 20:59
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limeicebreakers posted:Re: a lot of moves being finetuned for double battles, I think a part of that is because the official Pokemon VGC is held in a doubles format (to discourage fights from getting too long, apparently!). so of course it's increasingly rare in the main game for Reasons
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Nov 8, 2020 22:17
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Blaziken386 posted:it is! it's also the much more interesting battle style, because you can justify having moves like light screen or whatever. What I wouldn't give for a game like Colosseum and XD but updated with all the modern moves and mechanics...
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Nov 8, 2020 22:20
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Update 14: I Just Had A Good Idea, As I Tend To Do! Chairman Rose's Theme - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST  Our sincerest apologies! The chairman is quite busy at the moment… Everyone, please disperse! Please leave now!Rose Fan: OK. See you later, Chairman. o/~ Yes, they really did put in a music note there.   I’ll even give you my Pokémon League Card! We need the support of our fans to keep doing what we’re doing. Chasing them off like that… Aren’t you being a little too harsh, Oleana? Fans are very important, of course. That’s why you need to keep doing your work – for their sake. But sir, I believe Bede would like to speak with you. Thank you, Ms. Oleana. I promise to do everything in my power to assist you, too, Chairman! Of course you will, Bede, but you should be focusing on the Challenge. Tell me: how are your Pokémon doing? Well, sir! We already have the Grass Badge and ready to challenge Nessa! Have you lost any battles since we last spoke? Yes, just one, against Gloria. What did you learn? She has a wide variety of powerful Pokémon, but not all of them seem to like her very much. I think she caught them in the Wild Area and hasn’t spent much time with them. Do you have a plan laid out for your next fight with her? Not yet, sir. I had a few ideas, but… Then why are you here, talking to me? I-I wanted to ask you for – Oleana has me handled. You don’t need to worry about assisting me. But – I know my faith in you isn’t misplaced. So go out and prove it. Yes, sir!As he leaves, Rose turns to face us. And speak of the devil! I believe I’m speaking to Gloria. Is that right? Y-yes– This is her, Chairman. Excellent. I admit I’m curious about Leon’s reason for endorsing you. I – Ah! I just had a good idea, as I tend to do! You’re going to face Gym Leader Nessa soon, yes? If you get a Gym Badge from her, I’ll hold a celebration. I’d like to get to know you a little better, after all! Chairman, we should really be going… Y-yes, sir. Please do your best, for the sake of Galar’s future!He wanders off. The chairman will be heading to the Captain’s Table when and if you succeed. Win the Gym Badge and join him there at once. Do not keep him waiting.Hulbury - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST And we’re back in control. Hulbury is a pretty sizable town with a few different sections, one of my favorite is a little farmers market set up off in a corner.  Why is my favorite? One of the stalls here sells a holdable incense that doubles your prize money from battles  . I’m not actually certain how cost-effective it is, but I’m gonna buy it and slap it on to Chairman, who as a Grass-type is going to head up most of the fights I have in Nessa’s Gym. There’s also a marina, some nice architecture, and to prevent us from getting ahead of the plot…   God, I love it . Unfortunately for us, it looks like Nessa’s out of the gym at the moment and hanging out by the local lighthouse. Everyone seems to know me today. That interview of yours aired on national television. Oh. Oh, that would do it. You’ve become something of a hot topic amongst the Gym Leaders. Let’s head to the stadium. I love fishing, but I love Pokémon battles even more and I’m itching for a battle with you! Walk with me. Okay… I wager you’ve met the chairman by now? Yes. Well… He’s… An arrogant arse, yes. But he is a genius, and a very powerful one. You aren’t likely to get on his bad side unless the situation changes dramatically, but when you have to deal with the League in an official capacity, I recommend you go through Leon first. He runs it almost as much as Rose does. Wait, Leon? The man who gets lost on the way to the loo? I know, it surprised us too. But the chairman knows how to pick his subordinates, and he’s almost as good an administrator as Rose. Oh – but we’ve arrived. Go ahead and get changed, I’ll be waiting for you further in. Best of luck to you, Challenger! Gym - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST But we won’t face off against her gym quite yet, because we have someone very important to catch up with!  I see you have a Fishing Rod! That case, I’ve got the perfect Pokéball for you!He gives us a Lure Ball. If you manage to catch a Pokémon using your Fishing Rod, then it’s time to use that Lure Ball! It’s the absolute best Pokéball for people who like Pokémon that live in the water. Pokéballs are just full of surprises, don’t you think?Now armed with a piece of equipment we can’t use, it’s time we face down the Water Gym!   Some of the press around Gen 8 focused on how different its Gym challenges were from those of past generations, something which was… partially true. Most generations forced to you to fight most (if not all) Trainers in the Gym before moving on, with the puzzles playing a secondary role, if often a frustrating one (looking at you, Sabrina and Koge). In Sword and Shield, solving puzzles comes first; for instance, I believe it’s entirely possible to beat the first Gym without ever fighting a trainer. But ultimately they all share the fundamental combination of battles and puzzles that have defined Gyms for over 20 years.   Nessa’s Gym puzzle is one of a type you probably seen in other JRPGs if you’re familiar with the genre. You clear obstacles blocking your path by pressing buttons that move multiple obstacles at once; the goal is to find the right combination of button presses to clear your path entirely. In this case, the obstacles are water jets, and your goal is to run from button to button and alternate them appropriately…   … Like so. I’m actually awful at this kind of puzzle. For some reason, I can never memorize the appropriate sequence and have to go off gut instincts, which really isn’t a great policy for this sort of thing. But as has been frequently mentioned, this is a children’s game for children, so the difficulty level is a bit toned down from what you might find in other games. It’s exactly at my preferred skill level…  By which I mean I finished the whole thing about five minutes. Maybe.   I think you already realize, but I’m Nessa. Sorry to have made you look for me. I don’t doubt my humble mission’s difficulty… Yet you cleared it. Your mind as a Pokémon Trainer must be quite refined. No matter what kind of plan your refined mind may be plotting, my partner and I will be sure to sink it.Battle! Gym Leader - Remix Cover (Pokémon Sword and Shield)  And here we are at the first Gym Battle worthy of the name (sorry, Milo). Granted, it isn’t HARD, but at least there’s enough here that I can point out a few things.  First off, I opened with my Grass-type, which everything she has is weak to. When you Dynamax, it only lasts three turns, so I wait until I polished off her Goldeen before breaking out the transformation.  Some quick notes about Dynamax moves I don’t think I’ve covered; each Type has a special extremely powerful move that overwrites every move a Pokémon has of the same Type, though it still runs off that move’s PP (  ). They always also have some other effect, whether raising or lowering a stat or changing the terrain (read: makes moves of that Type more powerful). Once she tosses out her second Pokémon…     I do that. Just about every Dynamax move has that sense of scale, too.      And now we have our last Challenger.    And now he gets KO’d. That Max Darkness there nearly took Chairman out of the fight in one hit (it took off a solid 2/3 of her health bar), though it wasn’t enough to seal the deal before she hit him back even harder. Even if it had, I would have outlasted him; his moves probably would’ve been powerful enough to knock out one or two of my Pokémon through sheer force before it dropped back to normal and my remaining team overwhelmed it. Nessa really stood no chance here. But later on, that numerical advantage vanishes and Trainers get smarter about how they staff their teams until even monotype teams start getting dangerous; unless you’re willing to sink time and effort into crafting a team just to counter them, you’ll probably only have one or two Pokémon that can tackle that type, and it’s easy for them to anticipate counters and roll out somebody with the right typed attacks to ruin your day. Unless you powerlevel, but them’s the breaks. There is also a secret about Drednaw and Dynamax, but that will come out in a much later battle.  1:  2:  The incense has already more than paid itself off in this gym. We also get enough experience from the victory to evolve…  … This creature.   Continue to seize victories in the Gym Challenge with your Pokémon. You have an incredible spirit that may even be strong enough to challenge the champion. You and your Pokémon are indeed deserving of this Gym Badge. With that, we complete the second gym and are officially one quarter of the way through the Gym Challenge. Hulbury - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST   Don’t be late.  Yes, she really did come halfway across town just to order us to do something we were already going to do. Oleana is that kind of person. So let’s keep her waiting until next update! The moment that post goes up is the moment I decide whether or not to include Toxel in the party, so make your voices known if you have an opinion and haven’t expressed it already. Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Nov 14, 2020 |
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Nov 9, 2020 00:26
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I just want to say that I love the gym leader theme in this game, it kicks rear end.  Especially because after this line, it transitions to the second half of the song, and the intensity ramps up. (note: artwork for video spoils(?) a gym leader, but it's one of the alternate timeline gym leaders from sword, so whatever.) Also: Nessa's gym is really good, and it seems like one of the most polished gyms. Which makes sense, considering the fact that this section was essentially the E3 Demo.
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Nov 9, 2020 01:11
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quote:Wow, Oleana has some shoes. I'm  about the Toxel, though.
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Nov 9, 2020 01:11
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Blaziken386 posted:I just want to say that I love the gym leader theme in this game, it kicks rear end. Yeah I gotta admit I always get a little hyped when that part of the song kicks in. This game's soundtrack in general is pretty good, even if nothing quite reaches the lofty heights of Team Skull's theme from Sun/Moon for me.
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Nov 9, 2020 01:15
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I love the gym leader music in this game, but I've mentally associated it with the way Jim Sterling has used it in videos (doing a silly dance while making fun of Bethesda) and I can't unsee that whenever I hear it. It's something of a problem. While the Luck Incense is no doubt going to pay off, you can get a free Amulet Coin that does the same thing according to serebii it's in Motostoke Outskirts, I'm not sure if it's available right now but if not it should be soon. Also, it seems likely to me that Hulbury is probably supposed to be based on Hull, though the resemblance isn't exact.
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Nov 9, 2020 01:56
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Troxel is amazing. Well after it evolves. It's kind of terrible before that. You should use it anyway because it starts adorable and ends punk.
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Nov 9, 2020 02:14
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Keep the toxel!
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Nov 9, 2020 03:30
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I would also suggest the nickname dietrich for toxel's name in honor of this beautiful line.
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Nov 9, 2020 03:53
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FoolyCharged posted:I would also suggest the nickname dietrich for toxel's name in honor of this beautiful line. I second this. Dietrich is the best Shaman Bro.
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Nov 9, 2020 04:58
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I can get behind this. Dietrich it is?
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Nov 9, 2020 05:32
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The only question is, who should he replace?
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Nov 9, 2020 06:04
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I would like to nominate Surge Tankian for Toxel's name, due to it's evolution.
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Nov 9, 2020 08:52
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Awww yeah the gym music is super hype and I love it. I also vote for Dietrich for Toxel, whether you use him or not.
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Nov 9, 2020 13:12
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| # ? Jun 10, 2024 20:33 |
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Falconier111 posted:
Yeah, Dietrich is definitely a great name for our to-be-punk Toxel.
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Nov 9, 2020 16:35
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