New Journey, New Generation

Yes, I realize it's been over a year since my last blog post. And what's even more shocking is that I didn't write anything yet for such a big year! For one thing, this was the first year a live action Pokémon movie came to theaters. But most importantly, this year was the release of a new generation with Sword and Shield. Big moments for sure.

Big moments also kept me from writing as much as I'd like. The beginning of the year was quite busy with new projects at work, and then I made a big move when I packed up for Arizona and got a promotion alongside it. There have definitely been some highs and lows as well.

Did you know that the Orre Region is based on Arizona? You're welcome for that useless fact.

I love my new job and am very lucky to work with an awesome team, but I'd be lying if I said every day was easy. There are certainly challenges working with a team in two separate locations. And yeah, I greatly miss my friends and local places back home. But with those lows, there's always the positives: the team at my office give it their all in their work and I'm slowly getting used to things in the area. Sure, I would love to have my old friends and other comforts like favorite restaurants on this leg of my journey, but that's not how life works. In a way, that's kind of how Sword and Shield was for me.

As you might have heard by now, not every Pokémon is available in Sword and Shield, even if you wanted to transfer them from past games. This is certainly a low point for the titles, and it almost made me question buying it -- this isn't the first time I debated whether to buy a Pokémon game or not. But with that, there are a lot of high points. I was able to get a great setup to stream the main story and beat the whole thing on launch weekend. The Pokémon designs are SPOT ON (please look at Dreepy below for an example). And Max Raid battles have been a fun way for me to reconnect with distant friends. I haven't even scratched the surface on the music, ease of building a competitive team, exploring the wild area, and the sheer joy of trying on new outfits and customizing your trainer. Long story short, Sword and Shield are great titles in the series.

Dreepy is amazing and you can't my mind about that.

Like life, leaving friends behind can be tough -- it'd be perfect if you could bring everyone along for the ride with you. But even if you can't, there's still things to look forward to as the journey continues. While initially a challenge, I'm glad to have taken the dive both with my move to Arizona and the Galar region.

Change is inevitable, but life is always a grand adventure.