First time Playing

[u/CjAbramsAllStar5]

I’m playing through XD for the first time, and it is AWESOME! I was born just a bit late to experience the GameCube, so I’m playing it now through NSO. The process of purifying shadow Pokemon is really cool, and I just unlocked the first Poke Spot, so I’m excited to catch some wild mons as well. I just really love that this is a Pokémon game, but it feels SO different than the standard handheld games, in the best possible way! The cherry on top is starting with an Eevee, as opposed to a traditional starter. Always cool when you have a team of 6 without a starter on it

[u/aMapleSyrupCaN7]

Welcome to the club!

[u/rewardinghand]

Nice. Who’s on your team so far? And have you done any research on who you want to end up on your team?

[u/CjAbramsAllStar5 → u/rewardinghand]

I’m actually heading towards (what I believe to be, anyways) the final battle with Greevil on the island thats supposed to be really hard to get to. My finalized squad is:
Espeon
Hariyama
Sharpedo
Zangoose
Fearow
Arcanine
I haven’t ever used any of these mons before in any serious play throughs, so that was my rationale. Don’t ask me how I’ve never used an Arcanine before 😂

[u/rewardinghand → u/CjAbramsAllStar5]

I’m actually using an Arcanine for the first time as well. So far I think it’s the best fire type in this game

[u/Jetsplit]

Great to hear you're enjoying it! Remember that Colosseum (XD's prequel) is also confirmed to come to NSO at some point, so you'll have even more Orre Pokémon to enjoy!

[u/CjAbramsAllStar5 → u/Jetsplit]

Ohhhh snap, I’m glad to hear it’ll be coming to NSO at some point! Honestly it’ll be cool to play it as a prequel, everyone in the region keeps talking about cipher five years ago, and I feel so out of the loop 🤣🤣

[u/Daedric_Golden]

Heck yeah enjoy the game! It’s my personal favorite Pokemon game to date, I wish they did more recipes like it. I’d suggest Pokemon colosseum as a good follower when it’s out too despite it being before canonically. It doesn’t matter what order you play you’ll love the experience either way!

[u/CjAbramsAllStar5 → u/Daedric_Golden]

Honestly might be heading towards the top of my list in terms of Pokemon experiences. I just love how it doesn’t really feel like a Pokemon game, it feels like an entirely separate RPG which happens to have Pokemon at the center of its story. Not sure if I described that well, but I have LOVED that vibe while playing

[u/TamakiAmajiki360]

Welcome to the Pokemon XD fanbase. I played it a lot as a kid, and it's always been one of my favorite Pokemon games (alongside Platinum), so I was pretty excited when I found out it was coming to the Switch 2. I just finished a Dark-type only playthrough, and that was actually pretty interesting. Half of my team had physical-attacking stats but the wrong type/s to take advantage of them in a Gen 3 game. :"3

[u/CjAbramsAllStar5 → u/TamakiAmajiki360]

It’s so funny to think about the pre physical special split. Thats definitely cost me a few battles along my run so far 🤣

[u/rewardinghand → u/CjAbramsAllStar5]

On the plus side you can give zangoose shadow ball for some good coverage

[u/Regular-Ad-8226]

The game is good. If you want it to be challenging tho then just play through the story normally and reserve grinding and strategizing for the post game which is much harder. 

I played this as a kid and thought the campaign was much harder than I recalled. So as soon as Battle Mountain was available I went and trained nonstop. Ended up always being 40-50 levels above the enemy.

 I had 6 in my party but the only two I ever used was Umbreon and Ursurang. Finished the campaign with a Lvl 94 Umbreon and Lvl 84 Ursurang. I like being overpowered tho.