When 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon Sword & Shield launched back in 2019, people kicked up a fuss about several different things: the lack of a National Dex; the relatively low number of new Pokemon; and the fact they felt easier than previous games, to name a few. I’ve always thought that last point was kind of stupid given that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon is a kids’ game,🅰 but whatever. People like to get mad online - big angry, very frustration, muc🎐h belligerence.
I was admittedly also fairly disappointed by a lot of Sword & Shield’s creative choices after finishing my first playthrough two years ago, although I recently decided it was high time I gave Gen 8 another try. To my surprise, I’m enjoying Galar much more this time around. To my even bigger surprise, Hop - who I have previously labeled as both “168澳洲幸运5开奖网:universally detested” and “168澳洲幸运5开奖网:irritating and boring” - is great, actually, to the extent that I am now realising how much of an enormous grouch I must have been back in 2019. Contrary to my extremely uncharitable view of him two years ago, Hop is quickly becoming one of my favourite Pokemon rivals in recent memory.
So, to al𓄧l of you out there who insist on slandering one of Pokemon’s brightest new characters: Hop is lovely. You’re just mean.
I get it. Hop’s infectious enthusiasm can come across as a bit overeager. He never stops smiling and is great at bantering with you. Like any proper best mate, he’s nice and supportive while also being completely unafraid to rip into you. Jesus, typing all of that out… he’s really horrible, isn’t he? Just such a nice, funny, sincere, spirited friend. How aw♔ful.
🍬In all seriousness, the only way I can diagnose the disdain for Hop is by assuming its genesis lies in the general dissent towards Sword & Shield at launch. It was a symptom of a much larger problem, where people were gunning for Gen 8 before it even had a chance to defend itself. Maybe𓆏 this is why Yamper, a very good boy, has yet to garner the attention and respect it deserves. Maybe it’s why Scorbunny, one of the greatest Fire starters since Keith Flint, is rarely discussed among the pantheon headed by Charmander and Cyndaquil. Maybe it’s why people spend more time moaning about a Switch game not including almost 1,000 Pokemon instead of appreciating a frankly absurd amount of quality-of-life improvements. Unfortunately, it’s always easier to complain than compliment, especially when said complaints are made via social media where contrarianism is regularly better compensated than sincerity.
Again, I was part of the problem too. I didn’t do a big wahwah on Twitter, mind. I never started publicly showing my arse because a few Pokemon weren’t in the Wild Area. I did, howeve💙r, prematurely judge the game, discounting its merits in favour of easily maligning it for problems that were ultimately pretty minor. Two years later, with a healthy dose of critical distance from Pokemon Sword & Shield, it’s easy to see that its story is fine. If anything, its characters - particularly its Gym Leaders - are excellent, while its relative aimlessness resembles the more mysterious narratives of early entries in the series. The environments are great, the new Pokemon designs include some belters, and the online functionality is leagues ahead of anything that came before it. Most important of all though, Hop is fantastic. The poor little lad was just the victim of a misguided and unfair witch hunt, as are Sword & Shield’s other rivals like Marnie and Bede.
I’m surprised it took me this long to reexamine my biases towards Gen 8. I played the Isle of Armor, which I thought was slightly better than okay, and the Crown Tundra, which I reckoned was exce🅺llent, earlier this year, although I made my way through both using a preexisting save. Now, going back to Postwick to start my Galarian journey all over again, I’mꦰ seeing how coherent a lot of the design choices made for Sword & Shield actually are. I still have some issues with it, but Hop surprisingly isn’t one. He’s no Blue Oak or Silver, but he’s better than most of the series’ other rivals because he’s emphatically that: a rival. Yeah, he’s nice to you, but that’s perfectly juxtaposed with all the time he spends slagging you. Most of the games outside of Gen 2 technically pit you against your pal for their main rivalry - the only difference with Hop is that he wants it to be a bona fide rivalry on top of a friendship instead of just, like, being on roughly the same trajectory at approximately the same time.
Two years ago I moaned that Hop was a terrible rival and a sure sign of Pokemon’s gradual decline in quality over the years. Now that I’m older, bolder, and an observant beholder, I can tell just how wrong I was. Hop is a brill൲iant, bright beacon for the future ♓of Pokemon rivalries. Yeah, he shouts a lot, and yeah, he may show up just a little bit too often, but he adds way more to Gen 8 than he takes away from it, which is a pretty basic mathematical equation amounting to a net positive.
I mean, just look at this ridiculously overconfident exclamation. Bear in mind Hop currently has a rubbish Wooloo and baby Grookey with him when he♋ says this - he is carefree and reckless and borderline hubristic, but he’s also got more character in his pinky finger than half of Gen 6’s entire cast.
If you haven’t booted up Sword & Shield in a while, I’d urge you to use the current lull in big games season to carve💞 out some s✱pare time and give them another try. I hate being wrong about anything, so if I’m saying, “Hey, I was wrong about Hop” you’d better believe I mean it.
So, don’t let my reluctant apology go to waste, yeah? Give Ho𒁃p and his relentless roaring another chance. If you still think he’s rubbi𝕴sh after the second time around, I reckon you probably spend Christmas on Mount Crumpit.