I wholeheartedly agree with you on that~ *feeds Aster a pot full of gigantamix-enhanced curry so he'll have a very plump, cuddly umbre-tummy*

I've never had curry, so I have no thoughts on that.

Same actually but I've always wanted to try it~

Huh, that's actually a good point. Did Sun/Moon lack that feature too? I didn't change my clothing often when I played Moon.

I don't remember, but I didn't like the clothing in Sun/Moon because from what I recall it was pretty much impossible to not have shorts or capris, which I hate. But I mean, you can favorite league cards, and those are completely useless, so why not be able to favorite something that's actually useful.

It's really odd that you cannot just change outfits that you own other than at stores or some rando's walk-in cabinet. Some oddly specific rules. <X3

Well the target audience is children, and they probably don't want to encourage changing your clothes in the middle of the street. They only want to encourage setting out on perilous adventures where you'll probably die instead of going to school.

I don't know. I mean, they could at least have it as a function for your tent. It's not like the kids go to their parents and tell them: "But Pokémon doesn't want me to change cloths inside our tent, mommy." XD

It would be nice, especially if you want to really get into roleplaying the experience, and want to treat each camp as a transition into a new day, or something in the game happens that would realistically leave you filthy so you want to change.

Reminds me a little bit of "Final Fantasy XV"'s campsites where the party sat down together and one of them does cook a meal for everybody to enjoy.
I guess Pokémon is sadly cutting a bunch of corners when it comes to animations and aspects of immersion. We're still not yet at the point where characters can actually interact with their Pokémon, objects or each other and at loads of points in the game they prefer to fade the screen to black and have a text box pop up. <:3

Honestly, I feel like the worst part of the immersion in the games is your character's unwavering expression. This was especially true in Sun/Moon, when shit starts going down with Lusamine and your character is just standing there with an idiotic smile while everybody else is freaking out. Sword/Shield is a little bit better than that, but oftentimes I feel like the character's expressions to what's happening makes them seem like they're just totally oblivious to what's going on, which would be fine if not mixed with the scenes trying to be cinematic. Simply having your character look like they're actually ready for battle when engaging a major foe such as a gym leader can go a long way.

The biggest problem with this is that the games have always felt as though they're trying to make you as a player develop a connection with your Pokemon as you go on this grand adventure, but the developers seem to have no idea of how to actually do that effectively. Honestly the older games do it better because the inferior graphics leave more to the imagination.

The best game that made you care about your party members in the franchise are likely still the PMD games by SpikeChunsoft. In the main games your character often seems to be such a blank slate that the story does just unfold around and without them. in the newest game that's even worse since you basically always get send away when something adventurous happens. Would be nice if your Pokémon would actually be used for cutscenes or you'd have some impact on what the world and people are like in the game. The presentation is just such an awfully mixed bag. ^_^'

Well that's because the evil masterminds behind the Mystery Dungeon series thrive on sucking you into their world, then ripping your heart out.

I honestly think that's compassionate world and character building that the mainline games could need a slice from. I play Explorers of Sky and feel attached to even the smaller teams in the guild, get some backstory even to enjoy personally in bonus chapters. Pokémon Sword/Shield needs the anime, trainer card texts and alternate manga expositions to remotely give interesting concepts for a region, its lore as well as the characters a remote layer of depth. It's all say, don't show. ^_^'

And honestly things like the manga and anime don't really add anything because those stories take years to tell, when you already beat the entire game in a couple weeks.

I kinda disagree. If anything such interpretations of the characters get their character traits properly explored and make people appreciate the idea behind the characters more. The whole reason why such stories take so long to be told is because the producers take their time to think about all such aspects while on the other hand the games of the mainline series mostly just deliver the initial concept, and the fast food platter of a Pokémon fix for the hungry fans to get anything Pokémon.

What I mean is that the depth of character provided by the anime/manga are moot when it comes to experiencing the game because you've already finished the game sometimes years before the characters are ever touched upon in another medium.

Well, that depends on how much you like to engage with the lore and characters. It often is a shame that people might look at something as like the Pokémon commercials or clips as like from "Twilight Wings" and hope to get more of that inside the game when there isn't anything substential of the sort available afetrwards.

"Umbreon looks like it wants to be petted..." BUT I CAN'T PET UNBREON!!!

That's just the game teasing you.

That would be a good idea.
I would also enjoy the dlc more if they had added more towns and places to visit.. with storyline. And lore.

They feel far too short

The story in both areas is clearly just flimsily tagged on only because people would complain if there was none at all, when in reality all the DLC really cares about doing is giving you more reasons to grind.

Honestly it should not be dlc. It should have been post game.
Or even part of the main story, would have been great to have
A martial arts master train you for the championship.

They should have added more story.

Well it was either spend $30 for DLC, or wait another year or two to spend $60 for the same thing to be released as a special edition version like past generations, complete with the added privilege of needing to transfer everything over to the new one.

What the game really needs is for the functions of X and + to be swapped, so that + opens the pause menu like literally every other game

I can't stand when an RPG uses any button other than X/Y/Triangle (depending on the controller) for the menus. The game can be 80 hours long, and by the end I'll still be pressing the wrong button every time I want to open the menu. Start for the menu is fine in any other game, but RPGs specifically have programmed me to expect certain controls be associated with the genre. Just like how if you're playing an FPS, you expect the fire button to be a shoulder button, but if you're playing a 2D platformer you expect it to be Y.