"The Gym Leader Battle Theme in Sword and Shield is the smartest song in the entire Pokemon series and one of the smartest songs Nintendo has ever made. Yes, I'm being serious: An Over-Overanalysis"

Sword and Shield, in my opinion, gets excessively dumped on. I think people went into the game pissed off by Dexit and were actively looking for negative things to indicate that it’s bad. Which is, honestly, pretty unfair. It’s not a perfect game by any stretch, but I feel like the overwhelmingly negative reviews people had of this game discouraged any sort of discourse, where it felt weird to defend it. So, I’m going to defend it! At least in one specific aspect: the music. And in an even smaller aspect: one specific song.I honestly and passionately believe that the Gym Leader Battle Theme in Pokémon Sword and Shield is the most genius song in the entire Pokémon series and one of the smartest songs Nintendo has ever made, ever. Seriously. I put this song on the same level of smartness as Flight of the Zinger in DKC2 and the Eight Melodies in Earthbound. That’s how serious I am.So, let's start with some definitions. When I say that a song is smart, that doesn’t mean I’m saying it’s the best. Picking the best song in Pokémon is a difficult process that’s ultimately subjective, and I’m not sure if the Sw/Sh Gym theme takes that cake. Hell, it’s not even my favorite song in Pokémon (wait, why do I hear a bassist going absolutely crazy in the distance…) But when I say a song is smart, I mean that it greatly enhances the player’s engagement/involvement in the game. It improves the player’s experience in a way that’s often times subconscious. Whether that’s by perfectly manipulating emotion, encouraging player engagement, or making you pay more attention to the overall game or characters, a genius song elevates your playing experience. And this is not an easy task. Any song can be a banger. It takes a lot to make a song smart.And the Sw/Sh Gym Leader theme is goddamn smart.So, now that I’ve used a clickbait title to get you to open up a 5700+ word essay on a song in a children’s game, I will proceed to overanalyze this rowdy, rowdy song. I think it’s worth pointing out that I really enjoyed Sw/Sh, in particular how the Pokémon League was set up and utilized, so if you are one of the strawmen that hold the mindset of “this game absolute trash with no redeeming qualities,” then this may not be the rant for you. I know that there are flaws, some of which I could definitely complain about, but hey, we’re here to talk about the positives.My goal is to talk more about the emotional/psychological impacts of the Gym Leader theme on the game and why it enhances the game as a whole. I hold no sort of musical degree, so I won’t provide ultra mega in-depth analysis of the chords/notes/stuff, just because I don’t know the theory super well. I also don’t have video game design experience; I just play video games for fun and then like to analyze them. So, the nitty-gritty stuff of game-feel and all that jazz won’t be discussed that much. Wait, I’m making myself look bad in this paragraph. Just… just trust that I know what I’m talking about, okay???I wrote this in three separate chunks, and then I will integrate them all in the end to make my final argument. I will be providing TL;DR’s at the end of each chunk for all the lazy jabronis who don’t want to listen to someone ramble about a song from a video game endlessly.Also, rereading what I wrote, I realized that I use the word “engagement” a lot, so lemme define it to get that out of the way. When a game is engaging, I mean that it draws the player in. It makes the player feel less like someone holding a controller and more like someone in the Pokémon world having an adventure. Most Nintendo games don’t go for this vibe (which is not a bad thing!), but when I say “engage the player,” I mean something along the lines of to “immerse the player” or “make you feel like you’re a part of the game.”And so, I will explain why the Galarian Gym Leader Battle Theme is genius, and how it impacts our experience with the battle, our interaction with Galar, and possibly how we view the entire franchise. Get out your whistle and get ready to chant. Let’s begin.THE PHASESA huge part as to why this song is unique is how it changes as the battle goes on. Depending on how the battle is going, the music will change to different version, which, while having an overall similar structure, is distinct. This is a pretty rare occurrence for an in-battle song, but it’s not the only one. For example, Pokémon Black/White’s Gym Leader theme changes when they get to their last Pokémon, and it’s pretty awesome. It’s important to note, that with the Black/White Gym theme change, it’s a different song entirely. This is not the case for Sw/Sh’s Gym theme, where the transitions have a better flow and there is a common thread amongst each phase. Having a theme that changes depending on the battle can totally change the battling experience, and, in this case, amazingly.This theme is in three separate parts. There is the first phase, where the battle just begun, the second phase, where you begin to take the lead, and the third phase, where the leader is on their last Pokémon. Each phase shares a very similar intro, but each has a slight variation to it. The whole song is fast-paced, and features primarily electronic instruments, giving it a techno feel. It’s very energetic throughout. I love it.This is a good time to talk about one of the major purposes of music in video games: create, enhance, and/or manipulate emotion. The music you hear can influence you to feel a certain way towards the situation you’re in. When the game wants you to feel an emotion, the music will “nudge” you in that direction. HeartGold/SoulSilver’s Wild Pokémon theme wants you to feel encouraged and excited, Pokémon X/Y’s Lysandre theme wants you to feel terrified that you’re about to fight a literal Nazi who might have just loaded a gun in the beginning of the track, and Sw/Sh’s Zacian and Zamazenta vs Eternatus theme wants you to feel like an anime protagonist. This all happens on a subconscious level: your brain naturally begins to feel this emotional shift when the music starts. Obviously, there will be songs where you will consciously go “AWW YEAH LET’S GET HYPE,” but regardless, there’s this innate feeling that video game music can provoke. Video game designers need to be good at this: when done right, the player is emotional putty in your hands. All three phases in the Sw/Sh Gym theme pull this off.The first phase is aggressively fast and upbeat. It grabs you by the collar and yells “GET HYPE” from the first note. A loud, powerful intro that leads into a pushing/pounding beat. Without you even realizing it (or with you totally realizing it), you’re being forced to feel excited. The music is so strong that it naturally gets you moving in your seat. Phase one is about generating and maintaining excitement.The second phase keeps up this fast tempo, but adds some more flavor. This phase comes in-and-out, sometimes going back to the first phase when the opponent is up. If you Dyna/Gigantamax, this theme completely takes over. The new intro is immediately different: it’s in a major key. For those of you who don’t know much about music, there are major keys and minor keys (and other keys that someone who knows more about music can tell you about). Major keys are peppier and “happier.” Pokémon Black/White’s Rival theme features major chords, conveying a more uplifting battle experience. Meanwhile, Pokémon Sun/Moon’s Elite Four theme features minor chords, conveying a scarier/more threatening time. The second phase to the Sw/Sh Gym theme is in a major key, adding a new level of emotion to the battle: confidence. The music wants you to notice how the tide is turning in your favor. You’re doing it! Feel the hype!This is a good time to mention the hidden “phase” of the song. Okay, it’s not really a phase, it’s more of a variation. When a Pokémon gets knocked out and you’re selecting a different one, the music turns into this muffled bass part with a bass drum beating like a heartbeat. It’s like you’re plugging your ears and you can only hear parts of the song. This change is designed to be nerve-wracking, and it totally is. You genuinely feel uneasy when this bop suddenly is muffled and you hear a heartbeat. Your heartbeat. The next Pokémon you send out can win you the match… or cost you the match. This part is telling you that this is serious stuff. It wants to make you sweat. So, by isolating the player, trapping them with the bass of the song and a heartbeat, you’re raising the stakes. And it works.The third phase… hell yes. That hype explodes to the millionth degree once that crowd comes in. I’ll be talking more about the crowd later, but if the first phase shook your collar to let you know to get excited, the third phase hits you in the back of the head with a 2x4 to let you know. This is where the game basically says “it’s Dyna/Giganta time,” and then Ice Mommy cuddles with her Pokéball before yeeting it yonder. And then you yeet yours yonder too, because that’s goddamn awesome. And the crowd LOVES it! It’s near impossible not to smile the first time you hear the crowd cheer. The Gym theme wants you to be at maximum excitement, and what better way to do it than with a screaming crowd?You see what the song did there? From the very beginning of the song, it wanted you to feel excited, and it increased the excitement as the song/battle goes on. The first notes prepared your brain right away that this will be an exhilarating battle. Your brain subconsciously got you ready to get hype. In the first phase, the table was being set and you sat down. The second phase gave you confidence and got you going. The third phase gets you unbelievably excited. Without even noticing, you’re PUMPED. Hell, even if you did notice, you’re still PUMPED. The game created excitement and multiplied it by a billion, just by the music. Combine that with the gameplay, the visuals, and the gym leaders themselves, and it’s difficult not to smile.TL;DR: The song’s usage of different phases is designed in a way that increases your excitement as the theme goes on. Each phase adds a new layer of flavor that helps create an emotionally exhilarating experience through music alone.So, you’re emotionally charged. Now what? The Gym theme doesn’t stop there. Now for part two:THE MELODIESThe Pokémon series as a whole likes to play with melodies during their battle themes. The usage, structure, and instrumentation is used in various ways to convey theme, content, or emotion. For definition’s sake, the melody (in video game music) is the “main” part of the song: it’s the string of notes that is the forefront of the track. It’s the part that you hum along to. There are a lot better ways that someone who knows more about music can define it, but just keep in mind, it’s the part of the song you’d hum along to. A good example is the trumpet part in the Rival theme in Pokémon Emerald: notice how it’s the part that gets stuck in your head? That’s the melody. There’s more complex music theory involved here, but I am not at all qualified to talk about that.In Pokémon, melody can be used in a myriad of ways. One of the most common ways it’s used is to “set the stage” of a battle: the speed, signature (major or minor), and instrumentation of the song helps set up who you’re fighting. For example, the rival theme in Diamond and Pearl is upbeat and has a lot of major chords: you’re in a tussle with a friend. So, have some fun! Meanwhile, the Plasma theme in Black and White is more threatening and with more minor chords: these jabronis will mess you up if they win. They’ll ruin your whole weekend. Melodies can also be used for things like leitmotifs (which is a whole ‘nother conversation), but for most part, the melody will help guide you towards how the game wants you to feel about the battle.But there is a downside to a great melody: it might distract you and snap the immersion. For some players, if a melody is too prominent, it may pull them out of the game and they will just be listening to the music. Here’s an example. Let’s say a player is getting ready to take on Archie in Alpha Sapphire. The battle begins, and his absolute banger of a battle song plays. Some players may suddenly become someone absolutely bopping to that brass while playing a Pokémon game, as opposed to someone completely immersed who’s getting ready to take on Pirate Daddy. This obviously isn’t the case for every player, I personally can bop while staying engaged, but there’s a bit of that risk when you make a song really really good. So, there’s an alternative: a NOT prominent melody. Something quiet and repetitive, or no melody whatsoever. You’re not really humming along, you’re just vibing with the background music. It’s still a great song, but there’s nothing about it distracting you.The softness/absence of a melody can have an important function: it encourages you focus on what’s in front of you. Like noted earlier, the music can influence your mood. This can be done without a strong melody. In songs where the melody is soft, repetitive, or hidden deep by the rest of the song, it still drives emotion, and it does so while keeping you engaged and not just listening to the music. An example of great usage of a minimal melody is Lusamine’s final battle theme. The melody in this song goes from being soft and subtle to not being there at all and back again. This encourages the player to be drawn into what’s in front of them: a goddamn TERRIFYING battle with Monster Mommy. The music still drives this sense of uneasiness, and the visuals/situation is what really scares you. They want you to feel the intensity of your situation. This is the case with many big bad bosses, in some cases forgoing a melody entirely (GHEEEEEEEEEEEETSIS). You feel less like someone playing Pokémon and more like you are a Pokémon trainer fighting to, ya know, not die. The music is priming your mind to take in the world around you.The Sword/Shield Gym theme does this, but in a not-scary way. As noted before, the different parts of the battle have different structures/instruments. In phase one, there really isn’t much of a melody for the most part (aside from the intro, which does, but it’s brief and not the focus of the overall song). The music itself is catchy, but there’s no “hook” to it. This draws you in: it orients you to the theme/vibe of the battle. It lets you take in the environment around you. You see the cameras in the crowd, the jumbotron in the background, and the personalities of the leaders themselves. It achieves this perfectly. Without an overly distracting melody violating the immersion, you feel like you, the character, are involved in this battle, as opposed to you, the player holding the controller. But, it doesn’t stay melody-free the whole time.Phase two, suddenly, there is a more evident melody. The key is, the melody is repetitive and fairly simple. Normally, you’d be now distracted by the melody in a way that pulls you out of the game, but the setup of phase one’s music keeps you drawn in, making the melody feel like less of a melody of a Pokémon battle theme and more like your theme. It’s so woven in so well that it feels like the music is helping push you forward. You don’t really realize this consciously, it’s definitely more of an unconscious thing. But it’s there! You are not only a part of the battle, but a part of the music. And, like mentioned in the previous section, it feels like you’re building all this momentum in battle. And then…Phase three, which now features everyone in the stands coming to life. At this point, you are fully engaged with the battle. You are in. And then, the crowd starts singing, giving the track a definitive melody. But it functions so much more as just a melody. As previously mentioned, the melody can set the stage for how to feel (in this case, hype). The song made the battle achieve the best of both worlds: you have the emotional pull of a melody while not taking you out of the game. During nearly everyone’s first gym battle against Milo, they’ve had the thought “are they cheering for this Noseless Himbo or are they cheering for me?” That’s a difficult thought to get the player to think. And damn, if this theme doesn’t do it wonderfully. You’re so immersed in this battle that you have become a bona fide Pokémon trainer on a huge stage and you didn’t even realize it: it just happened right under your nose (unless you’re Milo, in which case, sorry for two insensitive jokes in the same paragraph).TL;DR: The game’s usage of a less prominent melody in the first phase increases player engagement, while the second and third phase add the benefits of a melody without pulling you out of the game.Voila. So now, the music has 1) gotten us excited in the strongest way possible and 2) has sucked us directly into the game. The Gym battles are finally hype! But that’s not all. There’s another piece of this puzzle that makes this song go from smart to brilliant. That’s right. Crush your pregame beer. Paint your face. Jump through a table. It’s time to get rowdy.THE CROWDThe last phase of the song, where the crowd starts singing, is what elevates this song. The cheering has become somewhat of a meme, and to begin discourse on screaming in the background of a song feels unusual, but I’m not kidding when I say that adding a singing crowd took the feel of the entire game to another level. This isn’t the only time vocals have been used in a battle theme (I will not tolerate any slander of the guy who says “cool cat” in Guzma’s theme), and this isn’t the first time we’ve fought a Gym leader in front of a cheering crowd. In Pokémon Black 2/White 2, Elesa’s gym is a runway (which also features vocals in the background music, interestingly). But, without a doubt, this is the most involved a crowd has been involved in a battle, at least until we get deeper in the tournament.We all know that the Galar is based on the United Kingdom, and the Galar Pokémon League is heavily based off of the Premier League. I’m American, and a huge sports fan, and I can tell you that Premier League fans are absolutely wild in the most beautiful way. They have entire songs that they sing in the stands, which I love so much. As far as American sports go, we really don’t have many songs (other than “Fly Eagles Fly,” and yes, I am an Eagles fan, fight me) but we do have crazy superfans. Sports are, without a doubt, interwoven in culture. That’s the case of the Pokémon League in Galar. Everyone is talking about it all the time, and every Gym you go to is a sold-out crowd.In the prior generations, the Pokémon League is just kinda… there. Obviously, each relevant town has a Gym and it’s big and important, but there’s never any fanfare around it. In fact, most Gyms don’t have a place where anyone could even sit. I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine that many Driftveil City fans want to go miles underground to watch me dunk on Clay’s team with a duck. And you get to the Champion, and… it’s just a room. Like, is there a hidden camera crew over anything? Without an active, noticeable fanbase, the League feels like it just exists to exist. So, there’s really nothing to get emotionally invested in (other than your Pokémon, obviously). There are exceptions, like if you check a TV and they talk about the League, or the ticker in a tunnel in Black/White may say that someone beat a Gym. But, at least in my experience playing through all the games, I never felt like the Pokémon League was more than just something I wanted to do, and that’s only because the game told me to want to do it. And honestly? Sometimes it pulled me out of the game. I became a person looking at a screen.Obviously, I was still having fun, because Pokémon, but it felt like I had nothing tangible to relate to. Pokémon is a very escapist game: you obviously get to make you own choices with the Pokémon and stuff, but for the most part, you play it because it’s a game to play. A really fun game, but a game nonetheless. It was rare for me to have a moment where I lost myself in the game. I mostly felt like a player. I think the main reason for that is because there’s no real-world comparison to a Pokemon Trainer. I don’t spend much of my time daydreaming about what it’s like to go into an actual gym and beat up the owner, or what it’s like to stop an evil terrorist/genocidal fascist organization from taking over the world (seriously, we don’t talk enough about how Pokémon X/Y gave us a genuine Nazi who advocated genocide in a children’s game). And let me make this clear: this isn’t a bad thing. It’s just what it is. There just isn’t a clear real-world equivalent for us to relate to in the Pokémon world, unless you’re really into dogfighting.Pokémon Sw/Sh, in particular the Gym battle theme, gave us something that is in the real world: fame.I’m obviously not trying to say that people can relate to what it’s like to be famous. I’m also not saying that everyone wants to be famous. But it’s something a lot more tangible than being a Pokémon master. Every person at some point in their life has wondered what it’s like to be a superstar. When someone watches an actor walking down the red carpet as cameras flash, or a performer singing their heart out in front of a screaming crowd, or an athlete holding up a trophy while confetti rains down, every person, at one point, has had the thought “what if that was me?” And whatever follows that thought is their own, but they still had that thought. By making the Pokémon League ultra-famous, people are getting that itch scratched, even thought they didn’t even have an itch. It’s a completely new element to Pokémon.It creates a new layer of engagement. By adding a real-world touch to the game, you’re giving the player something that they can see themselves in. This abstract concept of “Pokémon master” now is tangible in the form of “superstar athlete.” The player has something they can “grab on to:” there is now a more personal touch to the series, since, well, now you’re a person. It’s easier for someone to envision themselves as a rising star athlete than as a Pokémon trainer, just because we don’t have a real-world equivalent to Pokémon Trainer. By making it easier to relate, you’re engaging the player without having to force anything. We still get all the Pokémon-y goodness we crave, but in a way where we feel more human.And, as you might have guessed by now, the singing in the Gym battle theme is what kicks it all off. The phases off the song got you excited, the melodies got you engaged, and now that you’re here, the cheering throws you right into the shoes of a superstar. Suddenly, not only are you pulled into the story, you’re free to truly imagine what that’s like, because you’re experiencing fame. You are standing in front of thousands who came to see you, and you can genuinely feel that! It’s done so beautifully. You’re a celebrity for having fun with Pokémon, and the Gym battle theme set it up for you without you noticing.If everything else about the song was still there except the crowd, we’d have a super energetic song that gets us focused and excited for the battle. It’s the singing crowd that lets us feel the gravity of the situation: you’re on a field in front of thousands, and thousands more are watching at home. Our whole world becomes focused on the two Pokémon in front of you (or four if you’re fighting Raihan, that jabroni). It’s full engagement without having to force a single thing. And a singing crowd/one guy blowing a whistle is what does it. Welcome to Galar.TL;DR: It’s easy to imagine what it’s like to be a star athlete because we have star athletes in the real world. By having a singing crowd, it puts us in the shoes of a star athlete, giving us a new, relatable level of engagement.BRINGING IT ALL HOMEEvery battle song in Pokémon has some sort of intent behind it. Every song means something. There will never be a single song in a Pokémon game that’s just “thrown in there” (yes, I’ll look the other way for Sw/Sh’s Battle Tower for everyone’s sake because yeah, it slaps). But also, it’s important to note when the song takes place in the game. There can be very smart songs that appear after we’re already fully invested. For example, Oleana’s theme and N’s Final Battle theme are both very smart songs at conveying what they want to convey, but they’re very “localized,” for a lack of a better word (Oleana’s theme is great at highlighting her character, and N’s Final Battle theme is great at highlighting the theme of the game). Sw/Sh’s Gym theme, however, is placed at the beginning, so it needs to be memorable.There’s a huge difference between beginning your Pokémon League challenge and beating your first Gym Leader (at least in Sw/Sh). When you start your journey, you’re thinking “okay cool I’m gonna go be the Champion!” Meanwhile, when you take on your first gym, the thought becomes “oh I gotta put in the work to be the Champion.” This is a pivotal moment. In Pokémon games where the Pokémon League isn’t highlighted, it doesn’t really matter. In Sw/Sh, where the League is popular, this is crucial. The way you introduce this focal point of the game is so important, because if you mess up the introduction, the League becomes an afterthought, like it has for every other game. And given how important the League is to the plot, you can’t squander this opportunity. So, they had to make a genius track. They did.Their first goal was to give the player a reason to care about the first Gym battle. How do you do this? You hit them square in the face with a banger. The song has to be as exciting as you want the Pokémon League to be. You want a hype League? You need a hype song. So, by giving not just an upbeat track, but a dynamic upbeat track that changes as the fight goes on, you’re answering that call. Combine this with keeping the player drawn in via the melodic structure, you suddenly have the player in the palm of your hands. So, what do you do now? You give them a reason to be involved. By showering the player with applause, they now have something to keep fighting for. You hooked them!And now, you let the rest of the world take it from there. You threw them into Galar face-first, and when you got them engaged in the gym battle, you got them engaged in the Pokémon League, which got them engaged with the whole region. Like I mentioned earlier, the Galar region is obsessed with the League, so you walk out of the arena and you still feel that energy. There are people in the lobby who saw your battle and say stuff about it. These NPC’s were just as invested in the match as you were. That momentum-high that the player is riding after the first Gym carries them to the next Gym, and so on, and suddenly the Gym Badges aren’t Macguffins anymore: you want to collect them because that meant you conquered the Gym in front of the whole region! Our engagement isn’t one of just having fun in the Pokémon world, it’s having fun in the Pokémon world while completing your now super-hype mission of being the Champion. In previous games, the objective was “beat the game,” whatever that means. In Sw/Sh, it’s “become the Champion,” and that excitement permeates the whole game. You may have gotten into this League by nepotism, but it’s time to show the world that nepotism works, goddammit!There’s this immediate payoff when you beat a Gym. When people recognize you on the street for being in the League saying how great they thought you were, it’s an awesome feeling! You get compliments for beating one Gym, and it only gets stronger from there. Compare that to the past games, where the difference was Nurse Joy saying “Welcome, Champion!” instead of “Welcome!” You associate that with beating someone else in a Pokémon battle in a room. When someone recognizes you in Sw/Sh, you associate that with stardom. Maybe because I’m a big sports fan, but I had an absolute blast with this. I would imagine what my fans looked like: painting the letters of my name on their chests, buying shirts with my trainer number on them, holding out their babies for me to sign, etc. In my Champion battle, I intentionally saved my main Pokémon until the end, so that they could take on Leon’s Charizard, even though it was Alcremie and therefore not very effective against Fire-types. I did it because I wanted it to be an awesome moment for the fans (who aren’t real, mind you). This mindset wasn’t just mine, either: I had a friend tell me that he wondered what his fans were like, too (we decided that our fans would get drunk and fight each other after matches).No other Pokémon game has had this kind of effect on me. In every other game, I just felt that I was the Champion, which was a good feeling! But in Sw/Sh, I felt like a star. I felt like my love of Pokémon is known to all, and the fans love me for it. And suddenly, I’m viewing every Pokémon game like I have in-game fans. When you carry this feeling of being a celebrity to the other games of the series, it carries the layer of engagement as well. Now, I always imagine there’s a camera crew behind you during the whole Elite Four run. I always imagine people reading magazines that talk about the Pokémon League and how you’re doing in it (League Illustrated?). What if there’s Fantasy Pokémon League, where people pick Pokémon from trainers’ teams and get points, like “I have /u/marshmallow_figs’s Vileplume, and whenever they get a KO I get 5 points” or something? Your mind is free to wonder. There’s a bigger, better world that forms around you when you play the game like this, one that you’re a part of. You don’t need to stop Team _____ to feel like you have an impact on the region. You are in the game. You. Not the person holding the Switch, or the 3DS, or the DS, or the GBA, or the Game Boy Color, or the Game Boy. You.And it all started when you stepped on the pitch in Turffield, squared off against Milo, and heard the song.Honestly, this might not’ve happen if the Gym Battle theme wasn’t as strong. A weaker theme wouldn’t be actively detrimental, but it would make us all miss out on this opportunity. The placement and usage of the song is huge. It draws you into that first and then every Gym battle and gets you emotionally fired up. You’re fully engaged. You’re standing on the field with your Pokémon. And there’s a screaming crowd that welcomes you. Suddenly, the world forms around you. I couldn’t stop bopping my head every time I heard this song. I sang along at one point. But it was doing so much more than just being a great song. It was opening up a world for me, and I didn’t even notice. I’m sure that many of you had this feeling without even knowing. It occurs on a subconscious level. This battle song is getting your brain firing on all cylinders, gearing you up for the battle and for the world. It creates a level of engagement never before seen in Pokémon. There’s no word for that other than “genius.”TL;DR: The Gym Battle theme uses its qualities of generating excitement, encouraging engagement, and world-building to orient you to the game and the region of Galar. It creates the mindset of “you’re a part of this world,” as you now see yourself as a rising star Gym challenger, as opposed to a random Pokémon Trainer. Then, your mind is free to expand the world around you, now that you feel as though you are a genuine part of it. This mindset carries you through the game, and can even shape the way you view the other games in the series.STILL TL;DR: ah aH uh AAAAAH ah uh AAH ah Ah uh AAAHuhhh ah uh Ahhh ah aH uh AAAAH ah uh AAH ah Ah uh AAAHuhhh Ahuhuhhhhh via /r/pokemon https://ift.tt/3gr7mM1