All living through both versions
Well, it took long enough!
The time has come where I can say that I’ve conquered Pokemon Swordand Shield, like Sunand Moonbefore it. Just like before this was an entirely “living” (where all of the creatures are in the bank, not just unlocked as an entry) effort, and I played through copies of both versions on my own without trading with anyone else.
What did I learn? Thank God for the Switch date swap option in the core menu settings. Some of the Wild Area creatures are extremely finicky, to the point where they only come out in certain weather with a 1% chance to be found as a random encounter. If you had to rely on the passage of time it would be grueling, but changing the dates (you can swap to the first of each month in 2020 to turn all weather into one icon) lets you game the system a bit.
Feebas was another pain in the ass (a 1% chance in one specific spot while fishing), and took me an hour to find on its own. Getting all three starters (by restarting my secondary game three times) was a minor pain, as you’re required to unlock trading each time, which takes 30 minutes. I’ve pretty much memorized all of Hop’s opening dialogue at this point.
Other slight annoyances include anything I had to breed (add Ditto and an evolutionary line creature to a daycare, sometimes with specific incenses) and specificallyIndeedee. Although it’s a fair 5% spawn inside Glimwood Tangle as a random encounter, it took me nearly two hours to even track it down through dumb luck. It feels like every Pokemon since the first I have that lasttroublemaker. It all started in Red/Bluewith Tauros, who was my 151st.
I realize a lot of people already finished up their Galar ‘Dex, but doing it live felt pretty special to me. Now that it’s all said and done, would I appreciate the National ‘Dex? Sure. I mean at this point the Home app is overdue, and when it comes, it’s kind of going to arrive with a thud given that there’s no National ‘Dex to strive for. Hopefully Game Freak and Nintendo can keep us busy as we wait for another generation to arrive.