#Also it's so frustrating because Legends Arceus is great!!

[maburito]

I know it's annoying but I'm not done thinking about Pokémon, especially Pokémon Legends Arceus. Like the game is already a breath of fresh air in the franchise but what's really frustrating is that I know it could have been the best pokemon game of all time if capitalism wasn't a thing and the Pokémon company let their developers actual time to make good games, rather than prioritizing the numbers of game coming out in short time.

Like they really really didn't need to have the 9th generation coming out this year, Legends Arceus could have had DLCs and I know people would have been all over it.

More than anything though, if Gamefreak developpers had as much time and means for Legends Arceus as the Legend of Zelda team had for Breath of the Wild, there would have been no need for a 9th generation to come out the following months it would have probably made enormous sales

I would rather wait for a well developed game that take me hours to finish then one that was barely scrapped together so the next one could be produced and so on.

#Pokemon #Pokemon Legends Arceus #Did the Pokémon presents disappointed me? Yes #Look I'm just!! I'm not blaming the developpers though!! It's the ceo that's responsible it's those above!! #How are you gonna have one game coming out than barely a month later announces another!! #This is not normal! #Also it's so frustrating because Legends Arceus is great!! #It has so much good in it!! #Many good ideas!! #But it could have been way way better #And no I'm absolutely not talking about the graphism coz frankly I couldn't care less about them #I have so many ideas of things I had wished had happened in Pokemon Legends Arceus #Like mainly in terms of scenarios and even quest for legendaries #Like seriously you could have made a whole scenario where Darkrai had put someone into a nightmare #And thanks to Cyrus's grandma Abra you could enter the dream and maybe even have some horror elements added to it! #And the fucking distorsion world !!!!!! Why didn't we got a moment in the story where we were taken to the distorsion world with Volo!!! #And an evil possessed Arceus or maybe just a fight between Arceus and Giratina! #OK I'll stop aidbakxbzl #Burito talk

[undercityrezident]

My Commentary on Pokemon Scarlet

Way back in—wait, when was it… April, May? February even?—whenever it was we saw the first trailer for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, I was gobsmacked because I absolutely did not expect to see a new Pokemon game so soon. I was taken so by surprise by it that I was almost confused. I was thinking to myself, “Man, it feels so soon after just getting done with Pokemon Legends: Arceus that I’m still coming down from it. And there’s already another one coming on the horizon. Is it too soon? Did they even have enough time to make this game?”

Yes, as a Pokemon fan, I was asking myself: am I getting too many Pokemon games too quickly?

It feels like there’s some measure of absurdity in that, but having read and written work about crunch time in the video game industry (not on this blog, but for school), I feel like the cost for Game Freak putting out another game would be too high. And I don’t mean monetarily. I’m sure they’re raking in the green, but I’m talking about other costs: the costs to the sanity of developers and the costs to customers on the quality of game they’re getting for modernly full-priced triple-A games. I could also cite the cost of Game Freak’s reputation but I don’t know if that’s worth mentioning in the same breath as the former two. Plus, I’m starting to worry the franchise and the Pokemon Company no longer have the esteemed reputation they once had for putting out great quality games.

Okay, let me try and turn the tracks on this train before it becomes a full-on rant on my annoyances with video game industry standards and my tendency to wax on at length about where the Pokemon franchise is going. I’m here to review Pokemon Scarlet. Yes, just Scarlet. I’m only paying for one of these games. I’m a student and don’t have money to burn on both versions. Given what I saw, especially toward the end of the game, maybe there are some differences in Violet that make for a different tone in the story, but I won’t be able to account for that in this review.

I should also list out where I am in the game so that folks know exactly where I’m coming from when I write this review so I can get flamed in the manner of: “Oh Rez! You need to do this, this, and this to get the full experience of the game!” I do think I’ve completed most of the actual substance in the game to make what I feel is a legitimate review. But, like my other reviews, this is largely something for me to just get my feelings about the game on some medium so I can properly look back at it later and either cringe or feel some sort of justification for my struggles, frustrations, or feelings of accomplishment. At any rate, listed below are what I’ve done so far for context so that you, my few-and-far-between readers, can see the context from which I’m coming at this assessment of Pokemon Scarlet. Suffice to say, from this point on, there’ll be major spoilers:

·       I’ve completed the main three storylines.

·       I’ve finished the Area Zero arc that comes after the three storylines.

·       I’ve gotten about 320 or so out of 400 pokemon in the pokedex.

·       I’m still working on the four ghosts Professor Raifort tasked me with finding.

·       I still need to find another Sweet Herb Mystica for Professor Saguaro.

·       I did my victory lap with all the gym leaders.

·       I finished my first School Tournament.

·       I’ve peeked into just about every nook and cranny in Paldea’s huge map.

Ok? We good on establishing where I am? Ok, let’s get to the meat and potatoes of this review.

The World of Paldea

Pokemon, especially in more recent generations, has been notoriously slow to start their games and hook me in. Lengthy tutorials and exposition are the names of the game with Game Freak. I can’t entirely blame them, as they have to make introductions that help new fans integrate into the game while also cementing established or new features for veterans. That said, it takes quite a while for us to get to a point where we feel like we’re finally being unleashed on this promised open world.

Pokemon Scarlet has this problem too, unfortunately. Grant you, I’m an obsessive explorer who has to see everything available to me—side content and every little hiding spot on the map—before I push forward in the plot. Still, I think streamlining the introduction up through to when the treasure hunt starts would make the start of the game feel a lot less dull for me. My interest wasn’t truly seized until I finally found myself starting on the game’s three main quests.

That said, this world is expansive and, at least at a distance, pretty to look at. Paldea has some great vistas and I definitely wouldn’t mind settling down to live there if I had the chance. Compared to other open-world games that can feel quite empty, this one feels pretty lively from the differing environment types and the fact that pokemon… are… everywhere. You won’t go more than 20 meters before you see another lone pokemon, or even a swarm, that either draws your interest or force you to change course to avoid them.

On top of that, Paldea has a littering problem that certainly needs addressing. There’s a wealth of items both visible and less so scattered around the region. If you’re one to build up your stock of potions and other battle-item essentials, you’ll barely have to spend money at stores, as the world itself seems to provide it in abundance for the obsessive explorer such as myself. I usually only had to restock on pokeballs at stores, mainly due to my obscenely bad luck with pokemon catch rates.

And exploring has other perks too,  such as how I was able to catch my adorable ghost pupper, Greavard, early due to a Tera Raid Battle in the first area. That was a nice find and a treat to start with.

Beyond the starting area, the game offers a diverse landscape. From grasslands to a scorching desert to a, chilling mountain, Paldea mixes up its environments. Admittedly, it seems mostly green and grassy at the start, but the diversity comes when it’s needed: toward the middle and the end of the game. Sorry, no fiery volcano level for you fire-type lovers, though the fire types themselves aren’t absent in this game, so don’t worry.

Of course, there are barriers to this exploration. Compared to some other open-world games, you can’t just go anywhere immediately, at least not without consequence to you and your feeble starting team. While you can choose how you explore, either east or west from the main city, or both if you want to be like me and inflate your playtime, the pokemon levels in the zones increase from area to area. I had hoped that levels would scale with you and the number of badges, titans, or squads you’d bested, but sadly, that level of dynamic world adaptation was not programmed into this game. I think it would’ve greatly enhanced the fluidity of game completion if you were able to truly go about and do this game in any order you wanted, but maybe there were some logistical issues that I wasn’t aware of that necessitated the existing system.

Barriers also exist in the form of what capabilities your ride pokemon, the legendary Koraidon (or Miraidon if you’re playing Violet) is capable of. While I don’t recall anything essential to game completion being put firmly off-limits (except for the final titan requiring surf) by these mechanics, it does open up new, more convenient, and more fun ways to explore the landscape. Once you’ve unlocked the ability to dash, high-jump, surf, glide, and climb, the world really opens up to you and you feel like an absolute badass as you explore even the roughest, most remote regions of Paldea… even though it’s your ride pokemon doing all the work.

That said, for all my praise, there are a few issues I find with this world.

I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss one of the big things that have been on everyone’s mind when it comes to this game: the graphics. I’ll try not to dwell on it too long, as countless people on the internet already have. But, as I said before, the game looks great… at a distance. Get up close though, and that’s a different story.

Like in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, the textures leave something to be desired, and the framerates for characters, pokemon—or any moving object in the distance, such as a windmill—are absurdly choppy until you get close enough for the game to decide to start rendering them at an acceptable rate. While I’d thought Legends would be a tech test for this generation and thus would improve on its performance, I found the graphical quality and framerate issues to be even worse in this game. I would even caution those with any sort of epileptic condition to prepare themselves for flickering lights in places where shadows keep appearing and disappearing without apparent cause. I know I found it a bit of an eye strain at times.

Admittedly, I recognize a lot of these issues stem from the fact Scarlet and Violet are ambitiously large games and their zones aren’t rigidly segmented like in Legends, but we’ve seen other games from earlier in this console cycle perform much, much better—cough, Breath of the Wild, cough. Again, I chalk this up to the obscenely short development time on the game. There are clearly optimization issues and other ways this game could’ve been smoothed out if the proper time and care had been taken. But Game Freak seems quite obsessed with the idea of putting out a Pokemon game every year. And this isn’t the only part of the world that suffers as a result.

While there’s a diversity in landscapes in Paldea, there’s very little creativity in the naming of these regions. The towns and a few specific areas get names: Glaseado Mountain, Asado Desert, and Casseroya Lake just to name the ones I can recall off the top of my head. But the great majority of areas and regions don’t even have a name. Now, if this were an unexplored, unestablished region, that would make sense. But Paldea, as noted in the game’s own history class, is a region that’s been inhabited for thousands of years by a once-powerful empire and is now a modern country. You’d expect some great naming conventions for the areas in-game. Instead, all we get are descriptors along the lines of “South Province: Area One” or “North Province: Area Two.” While I understand the Great Crater of Paldea being named Area Zero for dramatic effect and the idea that it’s generally been a place humanity has not been able to colonize or explore until recently, I don’t think that naming theme did any favours outside of that forbidding place. I think so much character could’ve been added if they’d named these areas properly. And yes, I know we’re talking about a franchise that routinely names areas “Route 17” or “Route 22,” but this is a game that’s supposed to defy standard conventions of the franchise with its open-world concept. The naming of its areas should reflect that initiative as well. Again, this lack of polish in even the naming smells of the limited development time the game was put under.

That all said, I do think Paldea is an amazing place and I’m happy to have been able to explore every little cave and cliffside. Exploration of the massive landscape is even encouraged from an in-game perspective, with flight points gained from finding Paldea’s ten famous landmarks. From Cortondo’s Olive Fields to Glaseado’s Peak, the world is fun to explore, and I actively encourage you to do so, especially if your goal is to fill your bag with potions or to fill your PC with mons.

How We Play in Paldea

The gameplay in Pokemon Legends: Arceus gave us a new way of looking at how a Pokemon game could play—or even should play. It was tailored for a new paradigm and design philosophy that I hoped the franchise would take: give the players the choice in how they approach exploring the world and catch pokemon. You could chuck an endless stream of balls at pokemon after creeping around in the grass and luring them over with bait to ensure a better catch rate. Or you could dive into battle and capture them the conventional way. It was liberating to have the ability to choose.

In that regard, Pokemon Scarlet took a step backwards.

I will wholeheartedly admit, discovering couldn’t catch pokemon in the same way as I did in Legends put me off the game at the start, probably contributing to my dislike of the game’s introduction. Instead, I was forced to get into a battle, weaken the wild pokemon, and throw balls until I get it while my poor team members soak hits for every failed catch attempt—not something enjoyable as someone with shit luck when it comes to catch rates. Now, I won’t say that the system in Legends was perfect, but, thinking Legends was a tech test for this generation, I figured that the system would be improved upon. The fact it wasn’t implemented at all was disappointing, considering how they decided to iterate on the open-world concept that Legends brought to the table. I got over it as I played, but the wish for this more dynamic way of approaching how I filled out my pokedex was something that teased the back of my mind the whole time I played. At least quick balls are still in the game, thank Arceus.

One thing that I’m fine with being left in the misty past of Legends was the new battle system. It was intriguing and a nice departure from the main series’ methods, but I found it rather unpredictable, especially combined with the absurd power and tendency towards revenge KO’s that littered Legends. The traditional way of doing battles still seems more balanced to me, though I’m not opposed to Game Freak trying their hand at the other system again when they inevitably try to do another Legends-type game. Maybe they’ll refine it enough next time that I’ll like it over the current system. But, in the meantime, the main-line battle system works well enough, and I still enjoy it.

Imported, to some degree, from Legends, is the ride pokemon system. While you had several different pokemon that could help ferry you around Hisui’s landscapes, in Paldea, you have one legendary pokemon you get near the start of the game. As you complete tasks in the titan pokemon storyline, your legendary ride, Koraidon, gains the ability to dash, high jump, surf, glide, and climb. What’s more, it ties almost neatly into the story being told in the titan storyline, making it feel both rewarding and helping to cement your bond with your goofy lizard on whose back you’re on the majority of the game. I have and will continue to advocate for the riding pokemon model, as it’s far superior to the HM system from the days of yore and fits very well into world traversal in Paldea.

That said, crossing Paldea is not without its own set of pitfalls, and not due to the adverse weather conditions you’ll face—and believe me, with the majority of your battles, even gym battles, taking place outside, you’ll be dealing with plenty of that. I’m talking about, yet again, something that’s taken the internet by storm: the glitchy and scuffed way you interact with the world.

Now, I knew going into this game that it wasn’t polished, so I set my expectations low. I also knew that the internet has a way of blowing things way, way out of proportion. I’m pleased to say that I didn’t encounter anything game-breaking, nor any goofy character model glitches, and I had only full-on game crash (though plenty of slowdowns that had me spamming the save feature for fear that I was on the cusp of one). I didn’t even fall through the world once! But I did freak out when I saw a whole squad of Golduck come out of a cliff wall to try and assault me. And there were plenty of times I saw pokemon simply standing partly inside a wall, reminding me of poor Han Solo in his slab of carbonite from The Empire Strikes Back.

I wasn’t always completely fortunate in avoiding glitches and issues though. As battles tend to reposition your character for space, my character was placed on a slope that ended up having me slide ingloriously into the sea after the battle was done, and there were plenty of times I couldn’t even see my pokemon battle since it spawned into a wall as a part of the battle arrangement. And I can’t forget the time I skidded around Levincia City on Koraidon stuck in his downward falling animation until the game decided to black out and reset me. I’ll be honest, all these instances made me laugh out of the sheer absurdity of it. None of these glitches caused me too much delay or caused a loss of progress, but these are all things that could’ve been handled so much better and allowed me to immerse myself in the game that much more deeply if the game had been allowed to bake for another six months to a year.

Another thing that could’ve benefitted from that time is something I find a lot more damning and frustrating though: the user experience. What do I mean by this? Well, to start, menus were laboriously slow to load sprites of pokemon, particularly in the box menu. Considering how often I went into this menu, I feel like I could’ve shaved several hours off my play time for time spent loading the pokemon in the boxes. As well, I found myself rarely changing my look and clothing because my character model took twice, or even thrice as long to load as my pokemon in their boxes. I find myself confused by why menus are so slow, considering that they have nothing to do with the world, which I imagine is what takes up most of the processing power. Again, this might be an optimization issue that isn’t as easy to resolve without more time. Worse yet, sometimes menu elements would overlap in annoying ways, such as experience screens popping up over status bars in double battles, or prompts overlapping pokedex text when I’d caught a new mon. And then, on top of this, about 10% of the time I picked up a new item and it popped up a text box to explain what it was, it would disappear before I pressed anything else, leaving me no chance to read it and have to play a game of “What’s this new item that’s popped up in my inventory!” Not fun when your back is stuffed full of goodies already.

But another thing I should mention that frustrated me was how the world didn’t pause when you did. I found it interesting, and perhaps even charming at first, to bring up my menu to muck around with my team while wild pokemon wandered up to me and made their cute little noises as they looked at me with all their curiosity and wonder. But later in the game, I found it an absolute pain, since most pokemon were aggressive, and would actively camp your spot while you were paused, so that the moment you vacated your menu, you would be thrust into a battle you didn’t want. Heck, even during battles the world continued to move around you, which I have to admit, was kind of cool. I loved the idea of drawing a crowd of pokemon to witness our battles in the wilderness. But even that got tiresome as the fifth Tauros charged me immediately after I finished with its companion’s battle, leaving me in a chain of endless battles that, more likely than not, left my team a wreck as I tried and repeatedly failed to run away from them. In a sense, it almost resembled griefing from MMOs I used to play, and that didn’t leave a great taste in my mouth.

And you know how that problem was solved in Legends?

You could—quite literally—move your character in battle and run away physically. How amazing would that have been? This was another feature inexplicably absent from Pokemon Scarlet that I loved. Moving your character in battles, even to the degree you could have yourself being knocked over by standing in the way of moves, was goofy and fun: feelings I have and want to continue and associate with the Pokemon franchise. It would’ve likely solved most or all of the problems I had with griefing pokemon and the weird battle position issues.

But, all of this aside, the classic core gameplay of pokemon is still present and still works very well. But that’s the thing: it’s just the classic stuff. In terms of gameplay, we had something great on our hands in Legends, even if it was an unpolished gem. I had so desperately hoped it would be refined and made to gleam in this game. But alas, that is not what we received. I’m hoping, as time and the series goes on, that we can revisit these new ideas and implement them into the main games to help the series evolve beyond the standard that’s been repeated for nine generations now.

The Distinct Stories of Paldea

Much as the introduction of the game is mired by a slow start in terms of gameplay (i.e. the delay of the true appearance of the game’s open-world nature), I found the opening of the game’s story to be equally underwhelming. I won’t say that I ever expect much in terms of story from the Pokemon games. The series has never been too well known for that sort of thing, barring a few exceptions like Gen 5’s attempts to cast a shadow over the concept of pokemon battling and ownership with N and Team Plasma. That said, even from the first trailer explaining the concept of the school academy angle the story was taking, I was not a fan of the idea. Having finished the game, I’m still not fond of the school angle.

While it’s certainly possible that a school setting can make for exciting narrative works, it fell flat for me here, and frankly, I don’t think it’s a great fit for pokemon games in general. It worked to a minor degree in Pokemon Sun and Moon’s anime, but I still would’ve liked Ash to have just travelled around Alola more as opposed to resetting to the school all the time. But this isn’t about what Ash did in the anime. This is about what school means for these games. And I think it really was wholly unnecessary since we ended up leaving school for an independent study/journey anyway.

To me, the initial school arc of the story was fodder, and all it did was set the stage for us to travel around the region on our treasure hunt and introduce us to the characters. Setting the stage for our adventure and introducing characters are admirable goals, but we didn’t need all the lengthy pageantry that came with our enrolment in school to meet these characters. Hell, we met Nemona, our rival and precious battling-obsessed cinnamon roll, at her house minutes after we set foot out of our own house and we didn’t need much more than that to realize what her character was about. I would’ve been just as fine with meeting Arven through a sandwich shop that could’ve doubled as a good way to tutorial us through the picnic system and learn about the titan/herb mystica quest from there. As for Penny, it’s harder to integrate her storyline without the school setting. Maybe the school could be a resource used on the side rather than being forced through it and the Starfall Street quest line could’ve been what introduced us to the school as an option for additional tips and interactions. I do love that the school seems to function on post-secondary rules in terms of when and how you enroll and how you take classes. As such, emphasizing that quality by making interacting with the school an option rather than something forced and contrived would’ve felt a lot better and more interesting to me.

That said, I do love all the teachers at the academy. They’re all rich with personality and zest, and it was perhaps the sole redeeming quality of the whole school concept. Feel free to let me know which professor you liked the best, and why it was Professor Raifort.

But, once you’re past that nonsense and finally get the chance to travel Paldea, the school angle tends to fall a bit into the background. Yes, you’re still on your treasure hunt, but the school angle is played down on two of the three questlines. The school setting constricted us, but thankfully, the freedom of travelling for our independent study feels a lot more liberating. I just wish we’d gotten to it a bit faster.

But, as I mentioned, and as most of you have no doubt heard from trailers and the like, the game is split into three quests. Now, in the way I played the game, I chose to complete the challenges levied by each questline in batches based on their area and level range. I’m not sure if you could zip through a single quest line without rapidly falling behind on your required levels, but it seemed to me that completing these quests a little at a time and swapping to another seemed to be the best way of going about the game while levelling at a steady pace. Swapping also helped to pace out each story, since there wasn’t a whole lot to each one: there are eight gyms, five titans/herbs, and five gangs affiliated with Team Star. Not quite enough to make each one feel like a deep, rich narrative if you chose to hyperfixate on one to the exclusion of all others.

But that’s fine! I feel like the intended method was to space out these encounters so that you could take in Paldea one province at a time and dip into these storylines little by little. I think it’s very much to the benefit of the game’s story to have separated these ideas into three distinct narratives because it gives some much-needed focus on certain story elements. The previous iterations of the Pokemon series lost out on this opportunity due to these elements being subjected to a homogenized blend of badge collecting versus intermittent interference by the games’ villainous teams. It made each of these smaller stories a little richer for it.

“Victory Road,” the game’s quest for collecting badges, pits you versus the gyms as you have in most previous Pokemon games. It’s simple, tried and tested, and true to form. And you get to see the lovable Nemona time and time again. There were times I wondered if she was stalking me, and there’s even a one-off comment she makes that plays on that worry, which did make it feel pretty funny in the moment. But that doesn’t stop Nemona from being endearing and adorable and one of my favourite rivals for her sheer exuberance and energy. You also get to talk with her a lot more than most of your rivals historically, so that in itself helps make her a more relatable and enjoyable character to see grow with you. Or rather, she tends to watch you grow and keeps testing you along the way, given she’s already at the top of her game. It’s an interesting angle to take on a rival, and an actively supportive one compared to most friendly rivals in previous games, and one I enjoyed very much. Also helps she’s cute as heck.

As to the gym leaders themselves, I’m happy to say that Game Freak has continued with the tradition of making interesting personalities and main/side-gigs central to their characters. There are some big hits and small misses in my opinion though. Iono is a standout for me, with her gym challenge showing off her personality and her very transparent need to get more views and subs as a streamer. In her case, I’m not sure if she was written like that to be a reflection of what the developers think of people in that profession or as a parody, but she’s easily one of the most memorable gym leaders.

Though… Grusha… I love that man. He’s so cool… But no really, the fact his background has him lecturing you about being reckless as a trainer as a way to emphasize the lesson he learned after an injury led to the end of his snowboarding career—and subsequently being so cold about it… haha—really speaks to great characterization in my books. It’s especially apparent when you beat him a second time that it was a hard lesson for him to learn and something hard for him to overcome.

And if we’re talking about personality in a gym leader, we definitely need to mention Ryme, the MC of RIP! She’s fantastic but suffers from what Piers did in Sword and Shield, that is to say… she, and a lot of people in this game, really need some voice acting. Especially when it comes to these musical gym leaders and characters, there’s so much awkwardness in seeing character swing and lip-sync to a beat but with no actual sound or song to back it up.

On the other end of the gym leader theming spectrum, I found Tulip to be an odd choice for the psychic type. The link between her personality, motivations, and the psychic type didn’t stand out for me as much as that with other gym leaders. Also, I think Tulip might’ve been abusing her friendship with Professor Dendra to get her to run the psychic gym challenge, but I might’ve been reading into it a bit much.

Also, on a minor note, I felt some of the gym challenges lacked the depth they had in Sword and Shield. I know that isn’t saying much, but a few of them felt… almost tacked on compared to others. Again, I bet this was a problem due to the limited development time.

Of course, at the end of this storyline, we had to take on the Elite Four and the Top Champion: Chairwoman Geeta. This was an interesting challenge in itself because it started with an interview where you had to pick a gym leader you had the hardest time with. For me, it had been Larry, the normal-type gym leader. And guess who was the third member of the Elite Four: LARRY! I thought, for certain, this meant that your choice in those questions actively influenced whom you’d meet in the Elite Four as your third challenger. Suffice to say, I was crushed when I found out it was a mere coincidence. I thought it was an absolute stroke of genius that these questions might influence how your elite four fight went since it was so odd to have an interview before the battles. The idea of disguising that one choice with all these other questions seemed so clever to me, especially for a Pokemon game. But nope… it was just Larry all this time. Which is fine, I love the guy, but how brilliant would it be if they brought in the gym leader you had the hardest time with? Ah, well, for a little while, I was awed at the idea of Game Freak doing that.

As an aside, I do want to compliment Pokemon Scarlet on the idea of making champions a level of trainer, rather than a distinct, singular trainer in this region. I think it makes a lot more sense and I hope it’s an idea they carry forward into future games.

But this game doesn’t just have the gym challenge; next, we have “The Path of Legends” questline featuring Arven, a young man who I was decidedly not a fan of to start until we learned his secret. That secret: he’s a softie for his dog for whom he’s going on a whole mythical quest to save. There’s a lesson here in narrative: if you ever want to make a character more sympathetic and relatable, have them pet a dog. No, but seriously, the moment we learned about Mabosstiff and Arven’s dedication to that big, good doggo was perhaps one of the most tender and heartfelt moments in the game. And then we got more of that as our dark-type dog friend got more and more of its vitality back with each new herb mystica we found. On top of that, each time we found one, it felt well-earned because each of the titans’ fights felt pretty epic, or at least fun and well-earned. It definitely felt reminiscent, perhaps even a bit old-hat, as it felt like we were fighting a mix of an alpha pokemon and a totem pokemon. But the encounters added more variety to the world and the story itself. And learning about Mabosstiff merited enough motivation on my end to look past the gimmick central to this storyline.

Finally, we come to “Starfall Street,” the third storyline featuring Penny, our adorable friend with their eevee backpack. Now, never let it be said that pokemon did anything with any sort of subtlety. This storyline’s twist is easy to see from a mile away. After encountering Penny when she’s accosted by Team Star thugs trying to be a bit pushy about getting her to join, we get a mysterious call from someone named Cassiopeia who puts us on a quest to dismantle the various squads making up Team Star: five in all. We take on the extremely entertaining and goofy personalities of the leaders of these gangs (Mela, Giacomo, Atticus, Ortega, and Eri) to have them surrender their positions as leaders and essentially dissolve the squads one by one. As we go on, we learn an intriguing and, at times, touching story about a group of students who were victims of bullying who come together to fight their oppressors. As someone who was bullied, I absolutely loved this idea and could only dream of something like this happening. It turns out they succeeded, but at a cost that had their big boss—no not the one from Metal Gear—disappear on them and leave the squads to grow out of control and become something of a menace. We learn more and more about these five leaders’ precious friendships and, in the end, I almost felt guilty for having to continue along our path and end Team Star.

Now, remember that plot twist I mentioned earlier? As it turns out, Cassiopeia was their big boss. And in another big, though easily foreseen twist, Cassiopeia was revealed to be Penny herself. As a shy, computer-savvy type, we got to see her little by little over the course of the story as someone who gave you supplies during your quest to end Team Star. Given this character development, it was easy to see that she would’ve been Cassiopeia, but it didn’t make the story any less impactful for me. Her bond with her allies made the final battle with her all the more enjoyable and climactic. Also, an all-eeveelution team? Ballsy, but I like it! Goes nice with your backpack, Penny!

I have to say though, one of the standout moments of that questline was the incredibly transparent attempts of Director Clavell, the school’s headmaster, to disguise himself as an outrageously pompadoured student. The fact the game lets you poke at the disguise through dialogue options was a great touch.

Now, despite having these individual questlines, if you want to reach the end of this game and Area Zero, you need to complete all three. I like this because all these stories diverged near the start of the game, and I love the idea of them converging again to help finish it off. Moreover, the new friend group formed by your character, Nemona, Arven, and Penny, has some quirky clashes in personality and dialogue that makes me want to see all four of them go on more adventures together. It makes me want to go out and find fic for all four of them just being goofy on their off-time.

However, despite this high note of companionship, the story’s ending left me feeling a bit off. The revelation of Sada’s work in the crater bringing back pokemon from the distant past (the incarnations of those pokemon very are cool and I love them) using a time machine felt a bit jarring after everything leading up to it. It felt like a bit of tone and genre whiplash to me, especially when the game revealed that Sada we’d been interacting with was an artificial intelligence of all things, even going as far as to say in dialogue that we don’t possess that technology yet, but the resources in the crater made it possible for all these things to happen.

Again, I know not to expect too much from a Pokemon narrative… but really? This felt so… forced and contrived. I don’t know… like… someone was forced to write this under really tight time constraints? Oh right, just so many other things in this game. I should’ve expected even Pokemon’s writing would suffer under those conditions. Now, for those who played Violet, and got to see futuristic pokemon and Professor TRON MAN, I imagine that this seems more on theme for a story involving the future and advanced technology (assuming it had the same story beats, I have no idea if it did or not). But for Sada and the theme of prehistoric pokemon… this seemed way off base for me. At the very least, the clash between your Koraidon and the opposing Koraidon that ousted it from the crater had a heartwarming ending, especially with it getting strength from your companions’ encouragement. But overall, the final moments of the main story felt unfulfilling to me after so much hard work put in to recover from the terrible start the game had in its story.

Overall, the story had many ups and downs. Still, for the most part, especially concerning the titan/herb questline and Team Star, there was more to sink my teeth into than in a lot of previous Pokemon games. I’m glad I was able to endure the start of it to get those parts, but it’s just a bit sad that the ending flopped for me. But it’s not just the story we’re here for when we play these games, is it? It’s the pokemon!

The Pokemon of Paldea

So having 400 pokemon in this game’s pokedex seems like a pretty good haul to me, honestly. I haven’t been privy to any debates, so I don’t know if there’s a fuss being made online about how not all the mons are in it again like they did for Sword and Shield. Whatever the case I’m pretty happy with the lineup we got… except for no Heliolisk and Helioptile. I got lucky with them in Gen 8, so I guess I’ll be thankful for that and their presence in New Snap.

That said, I love a lot of the new variants and mons that we got in general. I won’t dive too deep into all of them because this review is already getting long enough as it is, but I’ll say that when I played, I went for all new pokemon that were added in this game for a variety in my final teams.

They were:

·       Skeledirge

·       Pawmot

·       Arboliva

·       Squawkabilly

·       Garganacl

·       Mabosstiff

·       Rabsca

·       Tinkaton

·       Veluza

·       Annihilape

·       Clodsire

·       Cetitan

·       Baxcalibur

Not only did I have fun using all of these, but I thought most of their aesthetics and designs were top-notch. But I used plenty of others throughout my journey and loved all of them too. I won’t mention them all here, but shout-outs to my new favourite pun pokenames: Capsakid and Scovillain. My favourite new designs and concepts (aside from the above) were found in Naclstack, Lokix, and Brambleghast. Overall, I loved all the new additions and variants. Except for the new Dudunsparse… I mean, I’ve seen so many fan-evolutions of it that looked so much better and more creative than making it bigger and adding more sections to its body.

The prehistoric variants were killer though, especially Great Tusk, Scream Tail, and Sandy Shocks (I always had wondered what the magneton line would look like before modern times, if they even existed). Also, have you ever heard of a more metal name than Roaring Moon? Probably not. And I’ll admit, I still think Koraidon and Miraidon look goofy to me, but given that I’ve formed a bond with Koraidon over the game, I’ve been able to overlook it.

The Music of Paldea

I always have to talk about music in new Pokemon games. It’s practically a genre unto itself for me and one of my favourites to boot. I do like how they tackled overworld music in this game. They made a theme for each of the four provinces and then had different remixes and reorchestrations of it in different regions of each province, including towns and named areas like the Asado Desert. Some might think this could be lazy or uncreative, but I think it was well-executed, such that I enjoyed most iterations of each province’s tune. Heck, even the wild pokemon’s theme in that area was adapted from those themes too, which made musical transitions so smooth. I loved it!

Except for the south province’s tune. I got tired of that one very quickly. And I could see how people could easily get tired of any of the ones I liked if they spent too much time there or had negative experiences associated with the zone.

That said, you cannot hate the West Province’s theme. It’s objectively amazing in all its forms and you cannot convince me otherwise.

Of all the gym themes from previous generations, this one took me the longest to warm up to. But I did, and I’m glad they kept the final crowd-chanting version when the gym leader’s down to one pokemon as they did in Sword and Shield. However, while there generally is a crowd around your gym battles, I feel like the crowd chanting suited the big stadium settings of Galar more than it did here, so it didn’t feel like it belonged as much. That said, it didn’t detract from the experience.

Meanwhile, the Tera Raid theme was a banger (and one of the ones that Toby Fox contributed, from what I understand), as were most of the battle themes throughout the game.

Overall, the array of music in this game was very solid and well-composed. While many musical pieces were derived from each other, they helped link the world together and made for a fantastic experience for the ear that synced up to what you saw and did.

My Final Thoughts on Paldea

So, we’ve been through it all. The gyms. The titans. The squads. The sandwiches. Admittedly, I didn’t do much picnicking, but that’s something I might do more of later, but the few times I did it were charming.

Actually, that’s what this game has in abundance: charm. And I don’t mean the fairy-type move.

This game has a lot of faults, I won’t even try to deny that, nor should I. The fact that Nintendo has been offering refunds for this game is a damning spotlight on the poor condition of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet on its release. I didn’t go into this game with much hype at all because, funnily, we have too many Pokemon games. Almost one a year it seems like. It’s way too much. There’s something to be said about building up anticipation. Hell, I don’t even remember seeing this game very heavily promoted, which might speak to how crunched they were to get this done. I imagine they barely had time to do anything to advertise it, let alone finish it properly.

But below all that scuffed, unfinished woodwork that makes up this game, seemingly teetering on the edge of collapse as you see it creaking and bending sometimes, there’s a lot of heart put into it. Every time I play a Pokemon game, I can see that the developers behind it love what they’re doing it shows in the soul of the game. From the goofy pics you take after every major game accomplishment—Kofu’s stands out to me in particular in my mind—to some of the more ridiculous dialogue that either had me facepalming or laughing hysterically, there’s a charm in this game that I can’t ignore.

That’s what keeps me coming back. That’s what makes me love these games and put up with the other nonsense I’ve ranted about throughout this review. It speaks to that child in me and makes me smile as I sit on a couch in these cold winter months looking for entertainment.

Is this the best example of a top-tier Pokemon game? No. Is this the best example of what a Pokemon game could be? No. Pokemon Legends: Arceus still holds that prize for me. But it’s part of what I hope are just growing pains for this franchise as it struggles to transform into something new and incredible. I wonder how much more fun I would’ve had if I could’ve played this game like I’d played Legends.

But I still did have fun while playing this game. I did my fair share of shouting at the game for bullshit too, and some eye-roll moments at some technical nonsense, but that’s nothing new for this franchise. Hell, it’s nothing new for me with video games as a whole. But in the end, I did have fun.

What I want is to have more fun. I want to see this franchise take what it’s learned from SV and Legends and make a truly stellar game out of it next time.

And. I. Want. Them. To. Take. Their. Time. Doing. It.

That’s how we’ll get the incredible, technologically impressive, open-world Pokemon game that so many people have been pining for. And I’m willing to wait for it.

#Rez Rambles #Pokemon #Scarlet and Violet #SV #Pokemon: Scarlet and Violet #SV Spoilers #Long post #Go figure I talked about this one even more than I did about Legends #It is a bigger game I suppose #Again I'm not writing this to force my opinion on anyone #Despite a few gags to the contrary in there #This is to get my thoughts on the game out there on something #Despite doing 7800 words in one day though #It was actually quite fun to write #For those with the patience to read this #I salute you and appreciate you

[kevincow]

My top 10 games of 2022

1) Splatoon 3

I usually don't do well with online shooters. I tried the first two Splatoons and had to put them down because I just got too frustrated. After trying the Testfire and giving up after two matches, I thought this game would be the same, and didn't think I'd even get it.

But I did, for some reason. And somehow, it clicked with me this time. It quickly became my most played game of the year. I still have to put it down occasionally if I go on a particularly bad losing streak, but having Salmon Run always available helps keep me coming back even when I'm not feeling like PvP.

2) Pokemon Legends Arceus/Scarlet & Violet

I can't really justify giving Pokemon two spots here - especially games with such glaring flaws - but I also can't choose just one of them because they both have ways they're better than the other. The action RPG stuff in Legends was great, but so was the open world of S/V. Legends wasn't nearly as much of a technical disaster, but I thought S/V had a more interesting story and characters. Legends had cool boss fights, but S/V actually had a whole selection of new Pokemon and not just a handful of regional variants. The Pokedex in Legends was really interesting, but I also loved how S/V just gave you a bunch of objectives and let you loose to tackle them in whatever order you want.

Between the two, this is the freshest Pokemon's felt since I was a kid. The finally delivered the game that I imagined I was playing on my Game Boy in 1998.

3) Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope

If this was a less ambitious sequel, it probably still would've made my list. Just the first game again, with a different set of Rabbid-ized Mario characters and villains? Going by the first game's DK DLC, that would've been an easy recipe for success.

But they didn't do that. They went the extra mile. Completely reworked the battle system, ditching the grid and letting you run freely around the battlefield. Fleshed out the Mario + Rabbids world to really be its own thing - not just Rabbid versions of Mario characters in Rabbid versions of Mario worlds, but original characters and locations that capture the general vibe of both Mario and Rabbids.

This easily could've gone wrong, but they pulled it off. One of the 3 new characters, for example, is one of these original characters, and that easily could've left a bad taste in my mouth, made me say, "Man, I really wish we'd gotten Daisy or even Rabbid Daisy instead of this dumb original character." But I didn't, because Edge is great.

And on top of that, they addressed just about every complaint I had about the first game. There's more substantial side content. Worlds are more interesting to explore. Characters are more customizable. Your party isn't stuck with Mario in the lead and always forced to include a Rabbid. There's more incentive to experiment with your full party instead of sticking to the characters you feel comfortable with.

And I've already written enough, so I won't get into how great the music is. But it's great.

4) PowerWash Simulator

This would've probably made my list even if it'd just played the whole thing straight. Give me a bunch of dirty stuff, powerwasher go brrrrrr, 10/10.

That's all I thought this was for like half the game. Then I started actually paying attention to the text notifications that pop up. And wait, what, this game has a story? And it gets really weird?? And it actually has a really satisfying finale???

So yeah, this was my most played PC game of the year by far.

5) Sonic Frontiers

It's weird. As I was playing this, I felt like I constantly had complaints and frustrations. A lack of polish here, a questionable decision there.

But thinking about the game after the fact, I mostly remember how much fun I had. How great it felt to run around the open world. How the cyberspace level encouraged me to actually go for good times and collectibles in a way other Sonic games never have. How the combat is actually kinda okay. How epic the Super Sonic fights were.

I think this is the 3D Sonic I can praise with the fewest caveats. It's not just good for a Sonic game. It's not just good for its time. It's not good but way too short. It's just straight up good.

Please, Sonic Team, don't try to reinvent the series again next time. You have something good. Really good! Now for the next game, polish up this style and make it something GREAT.

6) Patrick's Parabox

I haven't had my brain destroyed by a puzzle game like this since Baba is You.

7) Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Kirby finally makes the jump to 3D, and it's… basically exactly what I imagined Kirby would be like in 3D. Basically a kid-friendly character action game. Baby's first Bayonetta. But more than that, this game just has passion and creativity that's been missing from the series for years. It's not just Return to Dream Land with a new gimmick. The levels don't feel like they were made in a level editor. Combat practically feels like baby's first Bayonetta. And they somehow took Needle, a power that I've always avoided, and made it my favorite one in the game.

8) Neon White

I don't know how to really explain why, but this looked like a game that would really frustrate me, so I avoided it for a while despite the praise. Something about having to discard weapons to use movement abilities while precisely aiming at enemies just sounded like it would get overwhelming. But the recent GMTK video on it made me give it a shot, and I was happy to find that the it isn't nearly as unforgiving as I worried.

It's a first-person platformer with an emphasis on speedrunning, encouraging you to replay every level at least a few times to get a Gold or Ace medal. It's fun and addictive, and it feels great to find a good shortcut that the game doesn't even tell you about. Though it starts to get less fun later in the game, as levels get longer. Doing a 30 second level a few times isn't bad, but doing a 2 minute level a few times? Eh…

The story, though… well, it's told almost entirely through really cringey visual novel sequences that go on for way too long. Thankfully the game lets you fast-forward them (but not outright skip, for some reason) - but then the game just feels like a level pack with no story. So you either let the dialogue waste your time so you actually know what's happening, or you play the game with no motivation or connection to the world. Just seems like a weird place to drop the ball in an otherwise masterfully designed game.

9) Marvel Snap

A collectible card game with bite-sized matches. An addictive game loop that encourages experimentation with new cards and new types of decks. Marvel characters, both popular and obscure. I don't really play mobile games and I've never really been into card games so this wasn't even on my radar, but I gave it a shot when I saw people talking about it, and it took over my life for a month.

10) The Last Clockwinder

I tried this game on a whim when looking at recent VR games and being a bit depressed that the space isn't as ambitious and experimental as it was when VR was new and exciting.

This is a VR game that feels ambitious and experimental, and actually has somewhat decent production values.

At its core, the game is like a Zachtronics assembly line puzzle game, but in a way that could only work in VR. You record yourself doing a short action - like picking a fruit and tossing it - and then a robot clone appears and repeats that action infinitely. Then you record yourself catching the fruit that was tossed and depositing it in a bucket to harvest it. Repeat until you have a room full of robots harvesting fruits. And if you want to challenge yourself, every room has efficiency goals, so you can try to produce more than X amount of fruit with fewer than Y amount of robots.

And a game that was just a series of levels like that would already be pretty cool. But Clockwinder goes beyond that. For one thing, your robots keep collecting fruit when you're in other levels, and harvested fruits are used to open new levels, where you can get more seeds, which you can use to speed up harvesting in another level - so it's got a bit of an idle game element. But it's also got kind of an adventure game thing going on. Rooms aren't entirely independent. You'll find a room that's askind for blue fruits but has no plants, and you have to find the room to grow blue plants before you can progress. You'll have multi-room puzzles where fruits collected in one room aren't immediately harvested, but instead sent to another level, where you have to complete another puzzle to actually harvest them.

This might all sound like a lot, but it's introduced gradually enough that it's not overwhelming. Tying it together is an actually okay story, told mostly through audio logs with voice acting and writing that surprisingly don't make me cringe and mash the Skip button, a rarity for VR games.

Honorable mentions:

Panic Porcupine: I feel weird mentioning this since I know the devs and playtested it, so I'm obviously really biased. But it's a game I've played a bit of here and there over the past few years, and I was happy that it finally came out, and I had a lot of fun with it.

Grapple Dog: Just a thoroughly solid platformer with fun grappling hook physics and a cute dog.

God of War Ragnarok: There was a time in my life when this would've probably topped my list. It's well-made, very polished, looks amazing, every character's performance is great, and overall I enjoyed it… but I dunno, it just didn't excite me. It made me say, "Yep, that was a pretty good game."

Stray: There are a lot of things I think this game could've done to better capture the premise of playing as a cat. But at the end of the day, Cyberpunk Cat Game was still plenty cute and charming.

Lunistice: A 3D platformer that's short and to the point with a price to match.

Tinykin: What if Pikmin, but a 3D platformer? A great premise, and an overall cute and charming game, but I just wish it had more substance. The strategy elements of Pikmin are almost entirely absent, the platforming is basic, there are no enemies or really any threats at all, the puzzles practically solve themselves… it's decently fun to explore the worlds, but it definitely feels like a game that could've been something more.

Melatonin: Rhythm Heaven, but it takes place in the dreams of a burnt-out Millennial. Fun, but it does make me realize how much of the appeal of Rhythm Heaven comes from that uniquely Nintendo charm.

Hell Pie: A 3D platformer with really cool and fun movement mechanics that might have placed in the top 10 if its aesthetics and sense of humor didn't disgust me. And I don't mean "disgust" as just an exaggeration for dislike, but it's a game full of gross-out humor, and it just doesn't land.

Games that seemed pretty cool but I didn't play enough to place them:

Sports Story: I liked Golf Story but never beat it. This game is also fun, but it came out so late in the year and I've been playing so many other games that I'm not very far yet.

Ragnarock: A VR rhythm game about vikings racing longboats. The music selection really makes you FEEL like a viking drummer.

What the Bat?: What the Golf?, but in VR, and everything is baseball because your hands are bats. I've only played a bit, but I loved What the Golf, and this game has also made me laugh a bunch.

[gospelaccordingtosuperheroes]

Review for Pokémon Scarlet/Violet:

After all these years, we finally have a new Pokémon generation of games that is open-world with Scarlet and Violet, which is super exciting! Now you can travel a world, gliding and climbing around, and hunt for Pokémon as if you were in the real world.

Except this world just looks so terrible. As I was climbing mountains and looking out to the wild blue yonder, I was expecting a tranquil scene, such as those from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild which would make me feel calm and at peace. Instead, I got something far less magnificent that reminded me of playing games from over a decade ago.

What makes this particularly frustrating is that the game could have looked better. Even with all the discussion of repeating trees, Pokémon Sword/Shield looked great, especially in comparison. Those games had a terrible storyline, but the open-world aspect of the Wild Area with the Dynamax dens were actually really fun, and the only thing that kept me going in those games. Even Pokémon Legends: Arceus with all its bugs was still fun to play and look at, and while I am still finishing it up, it is still my favorite Pokémon game to date. Scarlet/Violet could have been the same. It should have been really.

It really is a shame the visuals of this game aren’t better because while it is lacking behind Sword/Shield in that department, it is far superior when it comes to its storyline. In fact, the storyline is truly worthy of Gospel according to Superheroes. There were a lot of emotions going through the story, and unlike Sword/Shield, your character doesn’t get looked down on just because your character’s a kid. The only thing that marred the story, in my opinion, was the lack, at times, of good boundaries with the teachers at your school (though to be fair, the game is still rated E, so nothing illegal happens).

Scarlet/Violet also improve on the Dynamax gameplay in Sword/Shield with Terastallizing. While I personally hate the visuals (they make me feel like I’m getting a migraine), having your Pokémon get stronger and take on different types is a lot of fun, and the game improves on a lot of the issues with Dynamax dens.

Pokémon Scarlet/Violet had the potential to be the greatest Pokémon game of all time. Instead, it feels unfinished, like it was rushed through before they could make it perfect. While the storyline is great, the visuals are atrocious. I didn’t even get to the bugs and the lack of creativity in adding the Paradox Pokémon as separate entries to the Pokédex. I’m not sad I played this game. I just wish it had been made a little bit better.

Review:

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

Gospel: ✝️✝️✝️✝️/5

#pokemon

[ink-man-sam]

Well, I may not know that much about ADHD and autistic traits, but I think I'd definitely go straight up to the kid who was pretending to be a pokemon trainer, BECAUSE HOLY GUACAMOLE THAT'D SOUND SO FUN TO ME!

Also, I don't know if "first" also means "favourite" in your case, but pokemon x and y are my favourite games! They and Black and White (what I want to ask by telling you this is... what is your opinion on all the games?)

oh golly, my opinion on ALL the games? that's a tall order lol

okay, so:

the kanto games (including let's go and remakes):

very, very boring. sure, they're classics and all, but that's all they've got going for themselves. I do not have any nostalgia connected to them at all, so playing them is mainly just a chore

gold/silver/crystal:

never finished them, but I really like it so far! I'm playing the crystal port for the 3ds and I love how spooky the vibes of these games are

ruby/saphire/emerald/oras:

very fun, amazing music, great pokemon designs! but also more or less the beginning of pokemon's "downfall" since it introduced most of the formula that restricts the game series these days (story relevant box legendarys, mandatory evil teams...) I have a lot of nostalgia for omega ruby and oras really were the best remakes pokemon games ever saw

diamond/pearl/platinum:

I haven't finished pearl yet, but I find it very underwhelming so far. very slow-paced and I don't really care for the characters. I obviously love the lore those games introduced tho and the music is amazing! I would even say it has my favourite soundtrack out of all the games

black/white:

fucking amazing. best pokemon game I've ever played. peak story, peak characters, peak soundtrack, peak gameplay, peak pokemon designs. may everyone who hated those games and made gamfreak stick to the boring old formula meet a terrible demise. I love those games so much!!!

X/Y:

done so dirty. I know exactly that if they had more time, gamefreak could have made that game so mucn better. obviously I love them bc X was my first pokemon game but saying that they're the best just wouldn't be true. they have a lot of flaws, but they will always have a special place in my heart

sun/moon/usum:

straight-up amazing! they got a lot of hate back in the day bc they didn't have gyms, but that hate was so unwarranted. the cutszenes could be kinda annoying sometimes but the actual storry made up for that. very nice artstyle too! i want to eat it.

Sword/shield:

doesn't deserve a lot of the hate it got. I had a lot of fun with it and the artstyle is my absolute favourite out of all the games! I connect a lot of good memories with it and they're much better then the games that came after (exept legends arceus, that is the best switch pokemon game)

Scarlet/violet:

a fucking mess. pokemon designs are great, the story is great, the character designs are great, the music is great, but the overall shittyness of it completely destroyed all my enjoyment. I'm not a big graphics guy, I don't care about how a game looks as long as it's fun, but these games aren't fun. the graphics make me want to rip out my eyes. the laggyness makes me want to vomit. the crunchynes makes me want to rip my skin off. I've gotten itchy just from looking at the screen because the entire game lookks so uncomfortable. I really hope they playtest their games next time, because scarlet and violet have made me cry from frustration only because I walked around on the overworld. very bad and I will not waste my money on the dlcs unless the visuals stop being vomit-inducing :(

sorry for responding to this ask so late, I had a lot to do and I have a lot of opinions to sort through

and sorry for getting ranty at the end too, I have very strong emotions regarding scarlet and violet

#inkmansamoriginal #anon ask #pokemon #pokemon opinions #autism

[shiny-meowstics]

some extended thoughts on gen 9 since i was gifted the game as an unintentionally late birthday gift 🤔 warning: it's long

context: i'm basically halfway through. i've gotten 4/5 titans, 4/8 badges, 2/5 star bases. my team's late 30's/early 40's. i do have a mew, but considering i got it at level 5 it's basically on the same standing as the rest of my party/obviously is not game breaking because this game doesn't give out TMs like candy like gen 8 (which, good choice tbh. kind of stinks that the TMs aren't infinite use, but I haven't used them enough to be that bothered by the choice. getting materials is easy enough, anyway)

also i've been ignoring the tera raid dens, for the most part. i've done like 2 of them solo, and? they're fine. a good way to make money if you need it since they drop things like pearls. probably easy to exploit for exp candies if you know what you're doing, but i'm not about cheesing games on my first playthrough of them

positives:

the music's alright! i miss having dedicated route themes, but what the game has to offer is fine enough. the smooth transition between area/battle music is a Very Nice Touch. some tracks are depressingly underused (looking at you, rival themes) but everyone knows that. the gym theme is a bop (aside from the one that plays at the end but. my thought on that are in a later section)

the auto battle feature?? also pretty good, i definitely prefer it than having to fight things one by one for exp. it's also extremely funny to see one of your mons just go absolutely ham and decimate a whole squad of pokemon. siccing mew at tauros that keep fucking running me down: cathartic

also not a point for or against the game but i've already found 3 shinies, lmao

mixed thoughts:

the balance of difficulty is fine (though this is with hindsight/knowing the "correct" order for the badges beforehand. if i went in totally blind, i would be singing a different tune). nothing's too strong or weak in a given area so long as you're in the correct level range, and the sheer amount of items you find lying around means you will not be wanting for potions or pokeballs, or even money. evo items are easy enough to find once you learn where they spawn. pokemon variance per area is also good and gives a good amount of options to pick through

however, if you are playing blind, it would be extremely easy to wander into an area or fight that is far above your level range, and that can be a frustrating experience. the game is paradoxically open world while having an absolute, linear path that players are expected to take (and usually don't). the nurses do not guide you to the next objective with your level/badge count in mind, they just tell you to go to whatever objective is closest iirc. would be a lot better if the badges had true scaling instead of fixed levels/difficulties

exploration/traversal leaves a lot to be desired. maybe it's because the map is already filled out at the start, maybe it's because aside from a few areas most spots look samey, maybe it's partially me not being great at keeping mental maps of areas (aphantasia), but getting around has basically amounted to "wandering around kind of aimlessly just so i can snag centers for later." i might've enjoyed it more if my progress for exploring was a little more tangible- like, let me see the map, but grey out the areas i haven't been to yet and fill it in with color/give a little notif ping that says when i've discovered a new (to me) area

*just as a disclaimer, i don't dislike open world game design. even though the areas were more like larger hubs, i think legends arceus had a pretty good balance, and i enjoy exploring in botw. in this game it's like. glaringly apparent when they're trying (key word being "trying") to keep you from getting to certain higher level areas via blocking the areas off with skills your bike dragon of choice will get later. which, i mean. if you don't want the player wandering into a level 50+ area when they're only level 14, just... don't put the level 50+ area a stone's throw away from the starter area? Just A Thought)

negatives:

i'm sorry. everyone says it. everyone knows this, but i have to say it too. oh my god this game runs like absolute butt cheeks. i am usually pretty tolerant towards spotty game performance so long as the experience as a whole is relatively stable, but this game runs like complete and utter poo poo. slow downs are constant and it's almost headache inducing when it's bad enough. i made the unfortunate decision to explore a water-abundant area. i am not going back there until i can get the titan, and after that i am never going back there ever

also FUCK veluza, me and my homies HATE veluza, that bitch needs to Fucking Leave. i'd threaten to filet it but it'd probably enjoy that

the music's fine, but the sound effect design is kind of shit. the little "ding" that plays when you navigate menus is really sharp, and i have to put the SE volume at a minimum so that it wouldn't be so grating to the ears. visual design of the game also leaves a lot to be desired, but again, nothing new and low-hanging fruit. the kind of cartoony/saturated look of the environments does not mesh that well with the semi-realistic textures of the pokemon. also i'm sorry, but i hate the finale/tera gym theme (the one that plays when the final pokemon is sent out). it's trying to be galar so bad with not nearly the same amount of charm or forethought

the lack of any real buildings/npc dialogue in towns outside of shops is palpable and as disappointing as i expected, smhh. none of them really stand out to me that much, and navigating through the larger ones are kind of annoying (but that could absolutely be a me thing, [gestures at section about exploration] )

it's extremely aggravating that this game's almost been out for a year, and aside from a handful of inconsequential bugs/one game breaking bug that they literally could not ignore, the game is still basically in the exact same state as it was at launch. this is genuinely embarrassing

#rah rambles about random crap don't mind her #gen 9 talk #hopefully this doesn't come off as bitching. i have plenty to bitch about but i'm giving the game a fair shot here #tldr: handful of good concepts. good ideas. bad stinky execution for most of those ideas #it's barely passable. this is definitely not a $60 game and it shows lmao

[umbrahighpriestofgiratina]

Umbra Plays Pokemon Violet Bonus 1:

as promised. a lot of thoughts about Pokemon Violet and it being my first Nuzlocke:

OK I have a lot of thoughts about how this all turned out that I wanted to scream about. And I am going to split it in two parts: the game itself and the nuzlocke aspect

The Game: -Let's get this out of the way: I enjoyed this a heck of a lot. It's probably not one of my absolute favorite Pokkemon games but it's definitely up there and when it does something I like I REALLY like it

-The Iron Treads in the room is the graphics and performance. I had relatively little issues playing on cartridge, and moving update data to my system memory + a recent patch meant I had even less issues. I understand that wasn't the case for everybody, I'm sorry that took people out of the game because to quote a friend of mine neither they nor the game deserve that, but it still frustrates me when people overemphasize those aspects because there is genuinely a great game under that jank. Should this have been pushed back with Arceus as our 2022 game? Absolutely. These games deserve more dev time. But what we got is still better than some people are giving it credit for. 

-This probably has one of my favorite stories in a Pokemon Thing. I doubt anything will top BW because that was a coming of age game for me and N's character had a very pronounced effect on me but it quite possibly edges out Sun and Moon. And I REALLY liked Sun and Moon's story. The character writing in particular has been on point as it has been for a while now. 

-As for how it compares to Legends Arceus... I think qualitatively Legends Arceus is still better. And they did bring over a decent number of QOL features from Arceus but there were some missing I REALLY felt the absence of. But paradoxically this is closer to the kind of Pokemon experience I WANT. Just in terms of the actual game and features and gameplay structure besides the QOL stuff it's more of what I would want. I do think combining more elements of this and Arceus is good. Bring over more of the Arceus QOL features, remove the jank, bring things like actual sidequests back and this could be my perfect Pokemon game. Also Violet doesn't lock important things behind meticulous Pokedex quests or last second Dark Souls bosses so that's a point it has over Arceus. (The Arceus postgame scarred me OK?)

-I once again maintain that splitting gym bullshit, evil team bullshit, and legendary bullshit into separate plotlines was a good idea. It gives them so much more room to breathe. My one disappointment was they didn't do more with the Victory Road path - storywise it feels like a cheap fast food hamburger served next to some fine steaks and is only saved by the great stak sauce that is the great character writing I've mentioned earlier. It IS the most of a fun challenge due to the Terastalization mechanic gameplay-wise so I can't complain too much, especially when the other routes compensate for story

-Speaking of Victory Road I know I kept making fun of Geeta's design but it's grown on me and now I think she's kinda hot. I appreciate she's not evil or anything she just has a Weird and Intimidating aura. -The new Pokemon designs and names are really good. I wish I got to meet and do stuff with more of them myself. (more on that later)

-The open world is big and fun to explore and screw around, even if this run didn't give me much incentive to do that. (more about that later, again)

-Doing multiplayer has been a blast with my IRL bestie. And pretty smooth too. It helped me get in the "screwing around" quota I was missing doing the kind of run I was.

-Once again, overall, I had a blast, there is a great game here under the jank. 

The Nuzlocke: 

-So this was my first ever nuzlocke, and a wonderlocke/suprise trade nuzlocke at that. I mostly had a good time! Even if I had to cheat a little. Would I do this again? I'd be very open to. Would I do this as a first playthrough again? More debatable. (Ignore I tend to not have time or energy for multiple playthroughs anymore -looks awkwardly at his Brilliant Diamond egg run he still needs to finish-)

-See doing this as a first playthrough meant missing out on a lot of the exploration and discovery this game has to offer. I had no reason to screw around and find new Pokemon and catch them all because I could only catch the first Pokemon on each route. Going in blind was a great idea and I want to keep doing it going forward but some of the magic of it was ruined by finding a cool new pokemon and going "man I wish I could catch this but i'd need it to be my first encounter or gotten in a surprise trade"

-Also the difficulty curve of the Nuzlocke was... weird. At first it was about what I expected but then I slowly got... better at keeping my team alive? I was hoping for more of the deaths to be freak accidents like Denny and not the game being unfair to the point I had to bullshit clause it but as time went on I got less of either and no one really died much at alland it basically wasn't even a Nuzlocke anymore even before the point it was SUPPOSED to not be a Nuzlocke anymore? And I felt like that was boring to read? I don't know. This is my first Nuzlocke so tell me if this kind of thing is like... normal. 

-Overall though it was a really fun experiment with some fun moments and I'm open to doing it again! Just maybe I need to tweak some things... maybe as a second playthrough yeah... and maybe make Bullshit Clause less merciful, like, one Pokemon from those incidents still needs to be Suprise Traded even if not all of them do... that sort of thing. I definitely have increased respect and appreciation for Nuzlockes for sure.

#umbra plays pokemon violet #pokemon scarlet and violet

[cutekittenlady]

You know what would be a big plot twist, the villain is somehow Volo with a different name.

I'm not quite certain how that'd work tbh. I mean, I assume you mean he'd be like an alternate reality Volo or something?

I know I've seen some fun idea on tumblr about Volo actually being immortal and using that to go into the future and use Emmet to sorta get revenge on the main character/try his hand at meeting Arceus again, it's not really something I want to do myself.

I mean, I love those ideas, and I'm excited to see where the artists and writers go with it, but the idea of Volo as an immortal isn't really one that appeals to me.

To be clear, I haven't played the post-game of legends Arceus yet. I've been dragging my feet filling out the pokedex rather than completing the main story so I'm not sure if maybe there's some character moment or something that implies Volos immortal or something. Still where I stand currently I prefer the idea that Volo is a purely regular mortal man who has become dangerously obsessed with meeting Arceus to the point of Villainy. I like this both because it draws some fun parallels between Volo and Cyrus in the original Sinnoh games, and because it just makes Volo's character a tad more compelling for me. Again, this is just me.

Beyond that, I also have the fun idea of Volo actually helping out when it comes to dealing with the fallout surrounding Emmet's actions. I mean these events are taking place between the end of the main story and the end of the post game so the big reveal about Ingo's realy intentions haven't happened yet and, in fact, I can imagine all this rigmaroll with the disappearing nobles is wrecking hell with Volo's plans.

Like, Volo wanted the player character to collect the plates for him so he could take them and use them to encounter Arceus. With all this junk going down as a result of Emmet and Elesa showing up no one is looking for the damn plates. A fact that probably frustrates the shit out of Volo.

If nothing else Volo is looking off in the vague direction of this (likely oc) villain and flipping them the bird while vowing to "kick them outta my territory" or something like that. Volo's got his own villainous shit going on and this half-baked extremist from the future is ruining his plans.

So yeah, there's that.

Beyond that tho I imagine the villain who brought Elesa and Emmet into the past in the first place is largely motivated by an obsessive view of history, or more specifically a very misplaced view of it. I think he views "the future" (that the is the present state of the pokemon world that the player character, Ingo, Elesa, and Emmet are all from) as flawed and imperfect. He views the people of the future as weak willed, driven by their emotions, and lacking knowledge and conviction that the "ancient" people of Hisui had. I even see him, in some villainous speech, using Emmet and Elesa's own actions against them. Claiming that Emmet's misdirected conviction to find his brother and Elesa's feelings of friendship for Ingo and love for Emmet made them both incredibly easy to manipulate.

He points out that the nobles "gave up" all their great power after the people of sinnoh started living closer and closer with pokemon and started needing the nobles power and protection less and less. "Allowing themselves to disappear, be chased out, or become the merest pet of wayward children" is how he describes it.

His whole evil plan is to, essentially, take the past nobles of HIsui to the future with him and use their power to "change things back to their more ideal state" or whatever.

(and just like that over the course of a post I figured out hte villainous motivation lol)

There are holes in this plan big enough to drive a truck through obviously, but tbh I kinda consider that more a feature of villainous pokemon teams plans at this point more than anything else to the point that I'm almost convinced it could be considered a thematic element.

But no yeah, I don't really see Volo being the big bad behind this whole thing in this au. Not when he has his own stuff going on.

#putting in a read more cause this go looong #e&e #e&e in hisui #e&e au #emmet and elesa in hisui #pokemon #pokemon black #pokemon white #pokemon black 2 #pokemon white 2 #pokemon legends arceus #legends arceus #volo #pokemon volo

[manchasama]

Pluck it.  I’mmana do it.  I’m posting this basically raw from my notes file.  This is how I got dragged into submas, because my brain went tripping down this idea.

Here is the FNAF:SB background post and all

--

Might as well put this self indulgent stuff here.  This is the fnafsb meets trainmuppets stuff

So this would be post "AI chip theft attempt" in my story.  Timeline wise….

So Gregory is 10 at fnafsb.  I'd say he's about 11 or 12, probably 12 when the breaking happens.  But during that first year or so, he gets his hands on a left behind DS and the black&white pokemon games.  (Listen, he waited a full month of it being in lost and found before he absconded with it.  It was an old system, so they probably consider it trash anyway).  So he plays the game to death, and really likes the challenge of the battle subway and trying to fight the twins.  Thinks they're silly but cool.  (They kind of remind him of Sun and Moon tbh)

So breaking happens, life goes back to mostly status quo.  Not sure if the sentience of the animatronics has gotten very far in the rumor mill yet, but it's definitely not widespread yet.  Probably just with the technicians at this point.  Gregory probably watches the anime, and really likes it when the twins show up in it (among other things of course).  Since Gregory lives with people who are designed to be a bit silly and have no shame about "cringe" stuff, he does end up being a lot more comfortable with liking things "too young" or "too dumb" or the like.

The animatronics figure out a way to buy Gregory a gift.  They probably loop Vanessa in, who signs up for some freelance contract work but the bots are the ones doing the actual work.  Technically illegal if she gets caught but she's kind of beyond caring about stupid things like that anyway.

So the idea probably comes from Moon (and Sun?), but they all help out to get it.  They get him a switch and the latest Pokemon game, Legends of Arceus.  Gregory is overwhelmed (though he tries very hard not to be, but god dang this is the nicest thing anyone's done for him basically ever).  And he plays the game, and has a great time, and then he comes across Ingo. 

And like.  He should be happy about it.  These characters he really liked…well this character he really liked showed up in the game.  It's pretty cool that something so old would be brought into the newest game.  It is.  But…there's something restless in his chest.  The things Ingo says, about remembering a precious partner.  But he also doesn't really know what to do about it.  He can't /do/ anything about it in fact.  

It bothers him enough to be noticeable to the others, but not like super distressing.  Just occasionally his thoughts circle back to it and he gets frustrated and sad.  Freddy is of course there for him, and he loves the comfort of papa bear.  But he doesn't really think he can articulate it to any of them.  Except maybe…Sun and Moon.

It's easier with moon.  With the low lighting, just to climb into Moon's lap.  It's reassuring, and Gregory needs all he can get because he still doesn't know how to process what he's feeling.  He /knows/ it's just a dumb game.  So why does he feel…. (like his heart is breaking, heavy empathy)  It's probably partial trauma from what happened to the bots and specifically sun and moon.  Being ripped apart from each other literally in their case, and how horrible it was for Moon left behind.

Anyway he spills the beans on what he's feeling to them, and they help him process it a bit.  Sun is the one who searches online for stories and pictures others have done, showing Gregory that he's not alone in his feelings, in his desire for a reunion of the brothers.  

If I have done the cross over with gravity falls and dipper, can use something magical to explain what happens.  But otherwise I have no idea what happens that sends Gregory to the Pokemon world.  Whatever it is, Sun and Moon will have the ability to follow him in a bit.

Anyway, Gregory is pretty damn good at rolling with the punches that life gives him these days.  Getting transported (away from his family) to a new location really should be chump change.  (He ignores his pounding heart, that he is alone again, that he has no home here, that he will be on the streets again).  And as he wanders along, he comes across the subway (purposefully or not).  And he overhears whispers that Ingo has been gone for x number of years.  And he sees Emmet, with his empty smile as he tries to hold up the world alone.

(Potentially there is a language barrier.  Gregory went through a phase of trying to learn Japanese, and can be okay at it, but in his panic and frenzy he can barely remember how to string english words together)

He doesn't even remember moving, doesn't remember much but grabbing Emmet's sleeve and his attention and just blurting out that he knows where Ingo is.  (It strikes a spark in Emmet's eyes, desperate hope that doesn't fizzle out the entire time Gregory tries to explain)

Emmet brings this strange child to his house, where Gregory through a series of pantomimes and broken Japanese manages to get across the concept that Ingo is in ancient Sinnoh.  (getting paper and a pencil to try and visualize things.  Making a crude map and asking where, until Emmet brings up a map of the regions and Gregory can figure out which is Sinnoh.  Making a line, a clock, a crude drawing of gregory meeting emmet and them arriving in the house and where they are now.  Dragging a finger along the line, seeing if Emmet is understanding he means a timeline, passage of time.  When he thinks he does, dragging his finger as far as he can and pointing off into the distance, then pointing to Sinnoh.  Does Emmet understand? (Emmet does get the gist of it.  He doesn't know how or why, but he trusts.))

Potentially this is where Sun comes in, or Gregory had the game on him and pulls it out.  Shows Emmet his brother in the game.  Emmet taking the console and just staring at his brother.  Not real, obviously cartoony, but it could be no one else.  I think then Sun could come in.

So however Sun and moon manage to follow, they are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of their depth here.  They should be hiding from people, because they are not in the pizzaplex any more, and what will these people do to them, but they need to find Gregory.  They have a ping from the watch (proximity with the build in hardware), and have been following it.  People have stared, pointed, but they don't look angry or particularly scared.  (They probably realize Sun is not a pokemon, but what on earth is going on?  Is it a performer?  What a costume!)

Tempted to have Sun interact with people.  He and Moon can speak Japanese (among other languages), and of course he loves kids.  Maybe even interacts with some of their pokemon.  But he is still searching for Gregory, so it's not much of an aside. 

Once Gregory realizes that Sun is there, once he's wrapped in familiar metal arms, something in his chest loosens.  He's not here alone.  And while having his full family would be good, at least he has these two.  (He honestly trusts their common sense a bit more than the glams anyway)

Settle back in with Emmet, and Sun acts as a translator (Gregory in his lap, because again comfort is needed.)  Emmet is unbothered by talking to an animatronic, is unbothered by the strangeness of the story, doesn't really need the clarification but appreciates the effort.  Ingo is alive, and hurt (lost memories), and needs Emmet to find him.  He believes this strange story.  (It is so much better than wondering, to believe this.  Even if it hurts, it is hot coals compared to broken glass.)  So Emmet will go.  Somehow.

Gregory gets crash tutored by sun and moon on the language, and he's a clever kid who is now immersed in the language so he picks it back up quickly.

Emmet getting to know Gregory and Sun and Moon.  Gregory is taking the lead, as he usually does with the animatronics.  But Emmet knows the world better and leads the Quest as it were.  They are all basically driven by manic energy (trauma *jazz hands*).  

Sun and Moon don't even bother bringing up trying to get home to Gregory.  They know that leaving this situation as is, not seeing it through to the end, would hurt Gregory far more than the dangers of staying in this world.  Physical damage can be avoided, protected against, and healed.  Mental damage on top of what's already there would be there forever in a way.  Besides, the way home is waiting for them whenever they want to take it.  (Whatever it is sobs)

At some point Emmet brings up Gregory catching some pokemon.  Gregory turns it down.  As cool as it is, he couldn't safely bring them back to his world, it would be far too dangerous for the pokemon and the unsuspecting humans.  There's no way to take care of them.  He can't hide them in the pizza plex, and he won't leave his home.  And he won't befriend them just to leave them behind.  Emmet is proud and impressed at the maturity of that decision, though disappointed he won't have a chance to battle Gregory ever.

So the trick is to get to ancient Sinnoh.  The right time period that Ingo is in.  Trying to hunt down a pokemon god is certainly doable, but I'm thinking if the way Gregory arrived was spell related, that gives enough flexibility.  Gregory casting it not really knowing what it does?  Possibly.  Sun and Moon having to try their hand at /magic/?  Why would magic work for an animatronic?  It's not like they have souls or anything, right?  (it totally does work tho)  And then too it lets Gregory take Emmet outside the Pokemon world to crash in at another point in time/space.  Using Emmet as the pivot point, his connection to Ingo.  They will arrive the same relative time to Ingo.  Like two trains that have diverted onto separate tracks, you can't just reconnect the current track to track so far behind you.  Or rather if 2 years passed for Emmet they can hook up with Ingo who lived 2 years in Hisui, but not Ingo who just arrived in Hisui.  The connection has to be there, and there's too much distance between Emmet who lived without his brother and the time his brother only just arrived.  Idk im tired i hope i'm articulating well enough for future me.

So yeah, to ancient times, reunite the bros.  I don't have any particularly new ides for this, so the usual will do.  Ingo will for sure remember Emmet right away, bc I need it.

Hmm, I'm wondering if the way they travel is actually hopping back to Gregory's world.  Yeah, that actually might work.  So Gregory brings Emmet back to his world.  Gives him time to check in with Papa bear and all, who is probably verrrrry worried at this point.  The other animatronics can't come with because of their need for a charging station.  Sun and Moon charge off kinetic energy, so they can go.  But if they are missing (again for much longer) then there might be some bad repercussions for them.  Scrapping when they return and all.  It's not going to /stop/ them, but

But Emmet also realizes that they are putting themselves at risk for him.  And he stops them there, safety first and all that.  Surely they can plan a better route.  (Even if the delay hurts, he wants to go /now/).  But Gregory still has to figure out how to adjust the time/location of the transport spell back into the Pokemon world.  Doesn't take too long tho.  Basically they coordinate it for a shutdown (where the plex closes for a few days), and the maintenance team is convinced to cover for a brief absence.  They think Sun and Moon are going outside, and while nervous are kinda gung ho about it.  Stick it to the man, you funky robos.  Then they make it back to Ingo and all.

Once affairs are wrapped up, now they need to get the brothers home.  I think the problem is that they misjudge their return, and end up crashing into the center of the crowded atrium during open hours.  With some quick thinking, they manage to pass it off as an event/show.  Maybe even have one of the pokemon out as an "animatronic please do not touch".  Emmet and Ingo are very showboaty, and while out of practice Ingo manages.  Language barrier might be an issue, if I do keep that.  Hmmmmmmm.  (Idea, that while Emmet and Ingo start it off, Sun jumps in to direct the show as it were.  Flipping over their heads, aided by the rope, he announces himself loudly.  "Helllllo!  Did you miss me?" etc etc and basically ad-libs Ingo and Emmet as guest day care attendants.  Their black/white theme does sort of match Sun and Moon so it's pretty buyable) 

Anyway they are stuck for a few days, because a bunch of things happen.  Sun and Moon's absence was covered, the other animatronics helping cover their shifts perhaps in between their own stuff, so management is not the wiser.  But the technicians also have a surprise for them.  See, originally they were meant to be two animatronics.  And taking into account some of the "wishlist" upgrades the two wanted, the recent success of the pizzaplex, the technicians managed to budget in new (separate) bodies for them!  Sun and Moon are…horrified!  :)

It's after hours, and the technician has just revealed the news to Sun.  Sun who goes into supreme anxiety mode.  Who backs away, runs away back to (safety) the day care.  The lights are out and Moon climbs to the darkest furthest corner to (hide) protest.  They do not want to be separated (they are terrified).  

The technician(s) are crushed, because they wanted to do something nice but it totally backfired.  They aren't going to force Sun and Moon into it, they'll figure out something to explain to the higher ups.  But then Emmet strides forward and starts climbing the netting toward where Moon is.  (Freddy shoos everyone away, but doesn't have the heart to fully remove Ingo.  Nor Gregory, who is leaning heavily against his side while they sit and wait.  Gregory has adopted aggressive contact as a comfort model, so lap sitting and leaning into people are his go-to)

Emmet talks to Moon.  Or rather, listens to Moon rant.  It gets to the point where Moon has worked himself into enough of a frenzy and accuses Emmet from having no idea how it felt.  And Moon stops himself because while it's true, it's not true, and it's not fair.  

Still, Emmet is still smiling, as he always does, but he tells Moon.  Tells him of the gaping hole in his chest of the absence of the one who'd always been there.  Of the near madness of not knowing what happened.  And then he tells them of the time where people started to point the finger of blame at Emmet.  He was the last one who saw Ingo.  He lived with him.  Was it possible Emmet had done something?  The rumors didn't last, anyone who was anyone knew how close the brother were, but it killed something in Emmet.  /Had/ he done something to send Ingo away?  While he knew now that he did not, that it had been out of their control, that time was worse than just Ingo being missing.

So maybe Emmet didn't understand exactly.  But he understood all the same.  And the recoupling of their train and how it wasn't the same but was still good.  There were repairs to be made.  It would probably never run exactly the same.  But it wasn't bad.  

(I probably had better ideas for this part but i am running on too little sleep to remember)

Anyway so that's how Sun and Moon are convinced to go in the separate bodies.  Their old body is set aside as a backup if one of them is ever too damaged or something comes up etc, rather than recycled for another animatronic.  It's disturbing but comforting, knowing that nothing wearing your old skin will be walking around.

Not sure if I want them to have an eclipse mode before hand.  If they did, then it's a copilot type situation with a mismodge of settings.  Possibly it lets the back AI come to the front instead without the necessary light requirements.  But after maybe the technicians designed their two bodies to have the ability to combine, because they /know/ how much being together means to sun and moon.  And while they can't have it all the time, it does give them an option (supposed to be for security purposes, but you know they'll use it when they need the comfort instead)

I had something else but I have no brain for memory right now.  It involved a way for them to go back and forth at will, so you could have that event for realsies maybe with Emmet and Ingo, or you could have Gregory have an opportunity to raise a team since he has free access to the other world.  

#fun times ahead #submas #fnaf: security breach #*puts face in hands* #it was extremely self indulgent but #i hope someone enjoys it #gonna go die of embarrassment now

[belltrigger]

Bonds Forged Long Ago ~ Chapter Two

Hisui AU. I forgot to mention this last chapter! Because this exists after Pokemon Legends: Arceus, it will most definitely have spoilers for events during the game. It will mostly be in offhand commentary or narration, but it's still there!

We continue on!

There were several things he found himself grateful for, if he took time to think about it.

Ingo was grateful for Lady Irida, truly. She remained patient with his inability to explain his past, and despite it had even let him care for one of their clan Lords.

Having such a position allowed him to regain memories regarding raising and caring for pokémon. He surprised both himself and others around him with how much he knew about pokémon in general. While there were several pokémon that he didn't seem to have any information on, helpful insights came freely and he managed to retain it all. He shared what he could to make the lives of those around him filled with less fear. Being faced with an alpha did not shake him, so he was frequently called when one decided a popular route now belonged to the wild.

He was grateful for other members of his clan, especially the other Wardens. While he knew how to care for Pokémon in general, there was a certain method to being an adequate Warden, let alone a stellar one. While all of their clan's Lords and Ladies had their own requirements for care, he couldn't simply ignore the importance of the ceremony involved. The other wardens, while having reservations towards him at the start, came to understand the diligence and enthusiasm in which he enacted any task he was given.

To be a Warden filled him with purpose, where he would have otherwise drifted off the tracks, filled with loneliness and a regret for something he couldn't place. The fulfillment he felt when he completed his duties as a Warden pinged a familiar feeling in his chest. When Lady Sneasler put her chin on top of his hat, arms draped over his shoulders, he knew he was doing well. He could go to the home they had provided him and know he had done his job properly.

Why it was so important to him that he had a difficult but fulfilling job still had not revealed itself. It likely had to do with the memories that were held out of his reach. But even that could not remove the feelings of personal satisfaction he had when he completed a task with precision and efficiency.

He was grateful for the young girl, Akari, who was thrown out of her own time and place much like him. She was still so young, in her late teens at most, and yet she faced the unknown world with all of her might, energy and determination radiating from her like a powerful aura. While it was true that she had not lost her memories as he had, he found her insistent presence a great comfort.

Perhaps they were even from the same time; the idea anchored him whenever he thought to give in to the amnesia, let the memories that floated outside of his reach fade forever. Her circumstances mirroring his so closely also allowed him to know for certain that his experience was real. The feeling of being so far out of place in Hisui was not just simply of his own making, not a result of his memory loss. It was real, the truth he lived in, and that meant there was somewhere he felt right.

There was somewhere he felt whole.

Yes, perhaps most of all, he was grateful that the doubts had been cleared from his mind. He still faced an overwhelming fog, one that seemed to actively and intentionally obscure precious memories and people from him. But it would no longer be the obstacle it once was, aided in its fight against him by his own doubt and fears and frustrations.

When he had first met Akari, he'd immediately felt comfortable enough to describe some of the fleeting dreams to her. Somehow, telling her had worked. It was not a large amount of information, only a smile and a partner wreathed in flames, but it had come out without effort and, most importantly, he still remembered it now.

She had gone on after that day to be forced into temporary exile, to fight multiple Pokémon on the level of gods, fight what probably was God, and save more than just Hisui. Still, she visited him at the training grounds and considered his skill worthy of fighting. Still, she lost to him on more frequently than he would have expected. Still, she wanted to spend time with him and talk.

One such visit came at the end of a rather uneventful day. They'd sat down together, sharing some potato mochi she'd brought him. The pouch even contained some extra pieces for 'the person he sets it aside for.' She'd laughed lightly at his furrowed brows, but he found himself placing the extra into a handkerchief without even thinking about it.

While they ate, she began to tell him about her experiences regarding the Pokémon she had faced. He had not prompted it, but it was clear she wanted to speak about it to someone. Their shared situation made him the perfect candidate, and when he told her that she didn't need to push herself, her answer was simple.

"We're friends. If you had your memories, wouldn't you want to tell me?"

She also told him about Arceus, the One who was probably God, and how he'd sent her here. The strange device that they both agreed was a "phone," felt familiar and also amazed him. Arceus, apparently, spoke to her with relative frequency.

When he'd asked if God knew how to send them back to wherever they were from, her eyes had taken on a strange glow, and multiple voices, like a hum, overlapped hers. One simple sentence came from her mouth, her voice eerily tangling with the otherworldly hum.

~Your job is not yet done here.~

Her eyes then returned to normal, and she looked put out, shutting her eyes with a exasperated groan. "Sorry, that must have been weird," she said, voice back to hers alone. She fiddled with her side-locks with her eyes still closed.

There was a long beat of silence between them, Akari becoming more visibly flustered the longer he stayed quiet.

"Was that..." he started. Based on the stories she had recounted to him, there was really only one answer, but it still felt beyond him. He felt infinitely smaller than whatever was at work around them.

Akari sighed and played with one of her side-locks. "That doesn't really happen a lot but, yes. I guess that means there really is something you're here for." A soft, guilty look sat firmly on her face.

"While I do wish I was given more information than that, it would seem so." He tried to absorb the words that had come from outside of his friend, words that were vague but set something firm in his heart. In all honestly, he didn't think he had done much worthy of being applied to a job from God. But to know that he was here for a reason, and not simply dropped somewhere empty of meaning, it was more than he could hope for.

"I can help you!"

He had started staring off into space, stuck in his thoughts, but turned his gaze back to her. "I couldn't think to ask such a thing of you. You have already been responsible for so much." He would, of course, appreciate the company as well as the support, but didn't she deserve to rest? If he could not find his way, perhaps he would ask her then.

She hopped up from her seat, clasped her hands behind her back and gave him a wide smile. "So what's one more adventure then?" She stuck her tongue out cheekily with a wink.

"Lady Akari-!" He was at a loss for words, so she simply grabbed his hands and tugged him to stand up. He was significantly taller than her, and more muscular by far, so it was quite a feat.

"Come on, we can go talk to Professor Laventon, and then get started on our journey!" She dug into her pack, pulling out a pokéball to release her shiny psyduck partner. It skipped around her legs before settling to her left side. The sight tugged the edge of a memory, but loose strings of familiarity were all that came from it.

Journey? She was all ready to go on a journey, and he had yet to chart the course to an unknown station. Unable to argue with anything convincing, he allowed her to drag him through town to prepare for their now-two person journey.

~~~~~

Scattered pebbles clattered down the rocky face of the cliff as he placed a scuffed white shoe on the ledge. He tugged his cap down to block some of the glare of the skyline, and his coat whipped violently around him in the wind. He scanned the horizon, silver eyes firm.

*-'You have to relax your guard sometime.'-*

"And when I don't?"

*-'You will. And then we will find our brother.'-*

#blankshipping #Hisui AU #submas #ingo #Sneasler's Japanese name sounds so cool #Oonyūra-sama #I play as Rei/Teru instead of Akari/Shō but it seems the fandom is the reverse #I wonder why #Oh before I forget #PLA spoilers #Shiny Psyduck my beloved #Pokemon Akari

[leejungchans]

— the great debate.

set on december 14, 2020 during ateez’s christmas vlive

juliet’s masterlist

a/n: (very mediocre and very low quality 💀) gif by me!!

warning: a lot of butt discourse 🤡🤡🤡 also this is all just in good fun so don’t take it too seriously, i’ll still love you even if you think we have two butts 🤩

oh no 🤡🤡🤡🤡

we all know what happened in this vlive

okay but before we get into That™️ 💀

let’s just start with the wholesome shit!! 🥰

baby sat between jongho and san

she watched san break the ornament and went 😳😒🤨🧐😟😕 but he gave her a pleading look so she didn’t say anything

she’s not gonna expose him 😔 at least when they’re not playing a game and there’s no competition/prize involved

but it’s useless bc hongjoong saw too 🤡

yunho and san commented that the ornaments looked like pokéballs/master balls and she literally went 🤩🤩🤩🤩 POKÉMON?????????

“giratina!” “giratina!” “GIRATINA!!!! :DDD”

literally never mention pokémon in front of her bc she’ll go on forever 💀

“i trained mine up to level 100 to sweep the elite four 😎”

seonghwa was big confusion

san: you don’t know this?????

yunho: you don’t know arceus?????????

2young: [very offended]

seonghwa: [didn’t watch pokémon and didn’t have a nintendo]

juliet: .....i’ll educate you when we get home 😩😩

okay let’s stop with the pokémon talk bwhdjhwjs i miss my nds hwjshws those were the good times

san put wreaths on jongho and juliet’s heads 🥺🥺🥺

wooyoung: [does a double take] oh you two look pretty 🥰

juliet: really? 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

yes bby u look like an angel 😔

hongjoong: [complaining about how wooyoung wrote his initials as ‘hg’ instead of ‘hj’ on the ornament]

wooyoung: [too busy taking photos of jongliet to care]

wooyoung give us the pics 😠😠😠

meanwhile poor hwa was struggling to put the star on top of the tree :(((

juliet: [finally notices] oppa, u good? 😟😟

seonghwa: [gives up]

juliet: it’s okay we can just put u up there since ur a star 🥰🥰🥰

... okay anywAYS!!

everyone minus sangjongliet: [busy decorating the tree]

yeosang: [filming jongliet singing to santa tell me] why aren’t you two helping though 🤨

juliet: we’re working hard to give you a quality performance wtf do u mean we’re not helping >:(

save yeosang

smh not ateez complaining when they were being serenaded by the 4th gen vocal legends 🙄🤚

when seonghwa made the ornament his earring though 🥺🥺

juliet: ur so pretty!!!! 🥺🥺🥺🥺

wooyoung: [exposing hongjoong for ordering him to get his meal ready]

wooyoung: that was the first time someone treated me like this. it was attractive

juliet: 👁👄👁 should you be saying that on live

that’s rich coming from her when she’s literally the same person who tweeted “no feet pics” 🙄🙄

okay let’s get into the ✨great butt debate✨

for the record, juliet is team ‘one butt’

seonghwa: of course it’s two

juliet: YOU WANNA SAY THAT AGAIN 😀

jongliet were judging him so hard 😭😭😭😭

san: WE ARE ALL BUTTS

juliet: is that your way of saying we’re full of shit

yunho: [starts gesturing butt cheeks with his hands] 😭😭😭😭😭

ateez: 😃⁉️ HANDS DOWN WTF

yeosang: i’ll draw and explain :DDDDD

ateez: ⁉️‼️❗️⁉️‼️⁉️NO DON’T PLS NO WE LITERALLY JUST SAID— ⁉️‼️❗️⁉️‼️

meanwhile she was really going at seonghwa

“IT’S NOT THE LEFT BUTT AND THE RIGHT BUTT WTF THEY ARE CALLED BUTTCHEEKS”

yeosang: we have two nostrils but one nose right? so we have the left and right cheeks but only one butt

juliet, to woosan: why are you two disagreeing??????? he’s literally right?????????????

sangliet intellectuals 😔✨

team ‘one butt’: yeo, joong, yunho, jongho, juliet

team ‘two butts’: hwa, woo, san

juliet: [scoots away from san] the three of you can pack your bags bc i refuse to be in a group with people who think we have two butts 😃🔪

she’s kidding 😔😔 she loves the three of them with her whole being but she absolutely disagrees with them in this situation

hongjoong: does a straw have one or two holes

ateez: [panics]

ah shit here we go again—

jongho: of course two??????

yeah that was the day juliet lost all faith in humanity

she was this 🤏 close to leaving ateez 💀

“JONGHO YOU TOO??????? I’M NOT GOING TO SIT BETWEEN YOU AND SAN ANYMORE I’M GOING TO SIT WITH YUNHO HE’S THE ONLY ONE WHO UNDERSTANDS ME”

yeah rip jusan and jongliet <///3

wooyoung: if it’s one hole it wouldn’t be open all the way 😠

yunho: it’s one hole BECAUSE it’s open all the way

“yunho-oppa i love you so much yes king!!!!”

a very offended wooyoung: JULIE YOU THINK THERE’S ONE HOLE????

juliet: people cut holes in mountains to build tunnels going through them right? but people don’t call it cutting two holes through a mountain to build a tunnel, they call it cutting one hole

san: AHHHH WHY WOULD YOU CUT A HOLE THROUGH ME???!! 😿😿😿😿

get it?? bc he’s san aka mountain??? 💀

THE WAY SHE INHALED SHARPLY BC SHE’S SO DONE WITH HIM AHJEHDHWKJDH

papa joong to the rescue

hongjoong: yah yah minyoung it’s just a friendly discussion don’t get mad don’t get mad

wooyoung: ur cute when ur frustrated 🥰

“well then i’m about to get really adorable 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀”

is it that serious 😭😭😭😭

hongjoong: here it says that according to the national institute of korean language we have one butt

team one butt: WOOOOOO PARTAYYYYY 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

san: you know why it’s one butt? bc 9 makes 1 team. we’re a butt

“STOP CALLING US A BUTT WTF”

hwa: in my heart it’s still two butts 😞

juliet: gtfo 😀😀😀

rip hwaliet </3

san: my father calls me his heart, you know?

so the term he used can refer to either ‘heart’ or ‘chest’ 🤡 so this happened...

yunwoo: DO WE HAVE ONE OR TWO CHESTS ?!^*??¥>^*^

juliet: T W O

hongjoong: OKAY LET’S END THINGS HERE WE’LL DO THIS LATER

so what did we learn today? juliet is team one butt and team one hole 💅🏻 it’s okay if you disagree so don’t worry she’ll still love you :3

different story with her members though 💀

even after the vlive ended she was still debating with the others 💀💀💀💀💀

“MANAGER-UNNIE YOU THINK A STRAW HAS TWO HOLES????????? I AM GOING TO CRY I DON’T LIKE LIVING IN THIS UNFAIR WORLD”

she probably texted felix, somi, ryujin and the two chans that night asking them “one butt or two butts? one hole or two holes? give the wrong answer to break the friendship ❤️”

them: 😟😟😟😟

don’t worry, she was only half-serious 😔

a/n: fully on the same train as juliet ahjwhsjw tbh i thought a long time about the straw dilemma but then i thought of the tunnel-mountain analogy and now i’m fully on board with the ‘a straw has one hole’ train 🚂 as always please leave feedback and chat with me!!! 🥺❤️ i’d love to hear about your take on the butt and straw debate hajshajsjak 💀

#scenarios.juliet #ateez 9th member #ateez ninth member #9th member of ateez #ateez oc #ateez addition #ateez imagines #ateez au #ateez female oc #ateez female addition #ateez female member #kpop imagines #kpop oc #kpop addition #kpop au #kpop female oc #kpop female addition #kpop female member #female idol oc #female idol addition #idol oc #idol au #idol addition

[crystalelemental]

I’ve had a chance to actually play Arceus a bit.  My wife had been playing, but I got some time with it.

The big thing to talk about is just...overworld map.  It’s huge, and it’s kinda Breath of the Wild in that sense of a lot in it.  And as you may know...I do not love Breath of the Wild.  At all.  I kinda don’t like it at all in fact.  I’m not a huge fan of these big open world kinda things.

But this kinda works.  I think a problem with BotW was having almost nothing in its world and therefore little to do while spending forever traversing areas.  But this game’s research tasks actually encourage constant application of catching a bunch of Pokemon and gathering materials.

Which is another issue: I’m not a fan of crafting systems broadly when it comes to games.  I feel like a lot of the time, crafting systems are...bad.  They’re arbitrary and slow down the game.  This is generally true, but there are systems I can appreciate.  I do play the shit out of the Atelier games after all.

Scarcity and generalizability are the two factors.  Scarcity is just...how rare is the shit I need?  While still early game, it’s easy to gather a metric ton of materials out of trees and gemsones around the opening area, and I’ve never felt like I was short on materials.  Generalizability is more what makes Atelier tick, where a ton of materials are “you just need any kind of wood rather than a specific type,” but Legends does not have this.  It’s always specific.  So it’s not a perfect system, but I do appreciate that the materials I need are pretty common broadly.

Capture mechanics also scared the everloving hell out of me.  Let’s Go was unplayable because of the need to aim.  But the game has a lock-on feature that standardizes the movement of the toss, and your only concern is the type of Pokeball you’re using.  Heavy Ball doesn’t go nearly as far, but is more effective if you hit them from behind.  Feather Ball flies farther and is good for things that may run or fly.  It makes it a lot less frustrating and actually pretty entertaining.  Because your capture system can actually be a lot faster if you sneak up and catch them from behind rather than engaging directly in battle.  But some Pokemon are really hard to keep still so you need to bait them with berries or something, and some are super aggressive and you pretty much have to fight them regardless.  But it’s a more interesting system that makes each Pokemon stand out a bit more.

Individual battles are...not great.  Trainers have been super easy and only have one Pokemon.  Which is apparently a thing?  Rei talks about how no one has a full team of six, but I didn’t expect so few battles and for all of them to be one Pokemon.  But it works.  It’s a game focused on exploring and capturing and helping with research rather than direct battle.  Trainer battles are rare as a rule, and that’s a better system than Let’s Go trying to simplify every battle to like one opponent and lowering levels but still expecting you to grind.

You big threats are the Alpha Pokemon and the major boss Pokemon.  Alpha Pokemon just exist on the overworld and are super high level threats that are a pain, but you can beat even if you’re under-leveled.  The boss structure is interesting.  I haven’t played it but I watched my wife play it.  Since your player can be hit, your objective is to dodge around and evade attacks until it can be battled, then do a quick round before continuing to weaken it.  It’s a pretty novel system, almost like something the Totem Pokemon could’ve been in Alola but weren’t because they were still stuck on keeping everything identical to before but with new titles.

I think a point of frustration is story, honestly.  Like, I can’t believe this is an isekai.  But moreover, it bugs me when the game bends over backwards so much to make the player out to be more important than they need to be.  “Oh wow, you caught three whole Pokemon in a single outing?!  No one’s ever done that before!  No one has a team of six Pokemon!  These things are so scary!”  Okay.  The scary aspect is interesting, and I’m find with the idea that people in general are more scared of them than in the future.  But at the same time...no one has caught three?  Really?  Going out is like...catch 20.  Catch 30.  And you’re telling me no one has caught three?  Just three?  And no one has a full team of six?  It’s just so weird that this is possible given the structure of the world.  I really don’t know how you all aren’t dead.

Moreover, the professor at one point mentions that Wyrdeer is like “the ride Pokemon of Alola.”  Which indicates that other regions are already living more harmoniously than they are in Sinnoh.  So is Sinnoh just abnormally hostile as a region?  Apparently the answer is yes, but like...I dunno, it’s strange to me.

I’m really enjoying the game overall.  Still a lot to see before I make final determination.  But we’ll see what happens.

#pokemon legends arceus

[pokesception]

Re: today's pokemon presents (8/16/21):

g4 remakes: Still look nice, but maybe not enough of an upgrade on the 15 year old originals to really justify full new game prices. That said, it's nice to see the underground back & even expanded a bit, and I do feel this sort of art style is a better aesthetic fit for 3d pokemon games than the direction the main series games have been taking. I actually really like how the remakes look, even if it's hard not to notice how much batter that sort of style was done in the link's awakening remake, at least imo.

That said, restricting online features to a separate discreet area that you need to independently contact your friends outside of the game to coordinate, and where you can't do anything /other/ than the typical trade/battle online features while you're using it, will always be a massive step down from gen 6's PSS system. Seriously, the g6 games solved the problem of how to handle online functionality back in 2013, I will never understand how the series backslid so badly since then.

There was also no sign (at least not that I noticed) of a battle-frontier type setup. Between that and ranked VGC staying in sword and shield, I'm worried these games might not have much postgame at all, at least not at release. Ranked VGC in sword and shield also possibly implies that we won't be able to import any of our existing pokemon into the g4 remakes, which would be frustrating.

Still, I liked g4 when I got around to it, and I know it still has a lot of fans, so it's nice to finally see remakes. Still kind of on the fence whether I'll get one of these or just replay platinum when they come out. It mostly depends on whether any or my friends & family buy in, and I won't be pushing them one way or the other.

Legends Arceus: Definitely looks way, way better than the original trailer, but I remain skeptical of Gamefreak's ability to pull off this sort of game. I'll be waiting on review for this one, but I will be watching with interest, because seeing GF try something so different with the franchise is exciting in and of itself, whether they succeed or not.

Not much more to say here yet, other than the handful of new and variant pokemon designs being great, as usual. Monster design remains one of the saving graces of the franchise overall. The growlithe variant in particular is adorable.

The Rest: A bunch of mobile/gacha/moba/microtransaction slot machine exploitation business that I can't even work up enough interest in to be mad at anymore.

#pokemon #pokemon presents #bdsp #legends arceus

[smb3]

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet thoughts

God DAMN gen 9 this year! That’s wild. But I think mostly because we just got a remake in BDSP and then a... mainline-esque spinoff within like a three month time period? I think a lot of people expected gen 9 would be next year because of Legends: Arceus but I guess not!

Honestly, I don’t know what to think.

Sun and Moon were my favorite mainline games but then Sword and Shield, while still fun, were a bit disappointing--I don’t even give two shits about not being able to get all the Pokemon in a game. I just thought the setting, story, characters, pacing, writing were all pretty bland/uninspired or in some cases borderline obnoxious. Let’s Go was a fun departure, obviously bit into my nostalgia bone and then BDSP were... not great! They weren’t bad, but after so many QoL changes from XY, SuMo, Let’s Go and SwSh, to go backwards in a lot of ways felt bad. Not to mention gen 4 just has a lot of issues too with lack of variety in Pokemon, pacing, etc. Wish we’d gotten a Platinum remake instead because that apparently fixed a lot of problems gen 4 had but oh well! Plus, the chibi artstyle took all the wind out of that game’s sales, even if it was cute. Link’s Awakening remake was still cute but knew how to pull off a story that could make you cry at the end though so it’s possible.

Anyway, my point is, I’ve been a bit mixed on Pokemon in recent years. SuMo again, was my favorite but then the subsequent THREE games were all pretty varied in limitation/quality.

Until Legends: Arceus. Good lord, what a game. SuMo did away with so many conventions of the series like gyms, it broke new ground with Ultra Beasts, the evil team was fun and well-written, the setting was lovely and the Pokemon fit into it so nicely, its ensemble cast wasn’t too big and they were well developed. 

Legends: Arceus follows this all up beautifully. No gyms, the game is about completing the Pokedex, giving it a bit more focus. The new setting of Hisui, Sinnoh’s past, also means that there would naturally be less cities and trainer battles, two things I never noticed slowed down the experience so much. No longer do I need to go to the next town, hit a route and find it littered with unavoidable trainers I have to struggle through. There are probably less than 100 trainer battles in L:A and the game is all the better for it.

Catching Pokemon is fun! You have more strategies to catch Pokemon, you can try sneaking up on them, whipping them will balls, hitting them with mud to stun them, getting backstrikes, etc. You can even go into battle, run from the battle, heal outside of battle and then re-engage and they’ll still be at whatever health you left them at! Nothing is more frustrating than keeping a Pokemon at low health only to have it wipe your team and you can’t revive+heal them fast enough.

Everything is so much snappier, too! Battles have new depth with the agile/power style system, the new turn order shakes things up and makes them interesting again, giving you more control both for winning battles and for keeping a wild alive to catch. There’s no transition to go into a battle, no random encounters, no Pokemon spawning inside of you. You get to pick and choose your battles and if you want to run, you can just leave the battle area and it’s over! The QoL changes in this game are staggering.

I know it’s not a “full” open world game, but it’s got five or so mini open-world and the game just lets you go explore them at your own pace. You get new mounts as you go too which lets you explore more and/or explore more efficiently and it’s just a joy to get around. I choose which part of the map to go to based on what I want to find and what I feel like doing. I’m not being railroaded into going to fuckin’ Chartreuse Village to get my 6th collectible pin so that I can be 1/8th closer to challenging the Amazing Four. I’m doing what I want to do! And that makes a Pokemon game feel really fun and special.

All this to say that while I’m excited for gen 9--I like the names, the starters and the setting--I’m a bit hesitant to be over the moon for it. Legends JUST came out last month and I JUST completed the Pokedex so I was really hoping for bigger DLC for that game--new areas, new Pokemon (or old, you know what I mean) and the like. Gen 9 is going to be all new but will it be as fun as Legends? I don’t mind things being different but will I be able to whip Pokeballs at wild new Pokemon while I sneak around? Will wild Pokemon attack me? Will I be free to explore to my heart’s content? Will completing the Pokedex be fulfilling? 

I don’t know.

Right now there’s not much info to go off of so I shouldn’t get so anxious about it but...  honestly I’m just hoping we can get Legends: Celebi or something in the future.

I’ve been debating making a video about what I love about Legends: Arceus but I have so little experience in video editing and stuff I’m not sure I’m up to the task. I know I’m capable of it but... would anyone even care?

[selenityshiroi]

I've been playing Pokemon Legends Arceus heavily since it came out.

Because I'm a 'do all the RPG sidequests' girl I haven't finished it yet (I'm due to go to the Snowlands next) because I've been busy exploring and taking care of requests.

I absolutely love this game. It's pretty much everything I wanted with only a few drawbacks (and they are the sort of drawbacks you can tolerate and give them wiggle room for because this is their first attempt at this style game).

The worst bit, in my opinion, is the battling which I don't think is as good as it could be. I've seen people criticise the ATB system, but I think that is fine (although agile style doesn't seem to make enough difference on the turn rate). But the balance of attack and defence seems off (all the pokemon seem really frail) and not being able to send out more than one mon against multiple opponants is a bit weird.

It's nothing a bit of adjustment can't fix, tbh, and it isn't a game breaker.

The graphics are also a little rough around the edges. The character and pokemon models are pretty amazing and everything looks great from a distance. But up close a lot of the textures are scruffy. Some of this is due to the limitations of the Switch (the performance of the game is very good with very little lag, so they obviously sacrificed some detail in order to not suffer from similar issues to games like BOTW). However, the game is so immersive that I don't really notice the edges of mountains and distant water looking like copy pasted panels.

The things I was worried about, though, they nailed.

The exploration is fun and the world is full of things. Collecting materials doesn't feel hugely grindy, nor does filling the pokedex. And the requests are interesting and not just rinse and repeat fetch quests.

The boss battles against the nobles are fun and challenging without being too frustrating. Also very nontraditional.

The story is actually pretty good. Certainly a step above some of the other stories.

The alpha concept adds a dash of spice to exploration and gives you a rush of adrenaline when the music kicks in. And they provide a good challenge. Plus they are something new to collect.

And as for collection, the shiny hunting is so cool.

I've come across three random encounter shinies, four mass sighting shinies, one shiny alpha (that I had to fail because I was barely two hours in and it wouldn't stay in any ball and I couldn't fight it) and the quest reward. Which is pretty satisfying.

All in all, I can see myself sinking many more hours into this. Shiny hunting is fun and not much of a chore, farming for materials doesn't feel grindy, there are plenty of side quests to keep me occupied...if we get any sort of DLC I will snatch it up.

Plus, I truly hope they plan more games in this style. I'm sure, with the reception this game has had, it's guaranteed now. But even if we get games like this AND more traditional style gen games, it would be cool for them to incorporate some of the concepts. The wild areas in Swsh were obviously a trial run at this sort of game play, so it would be nice if they managed to do similar in the next gen, but with the improvements made by PLA.

Anyway, I love this game. Good job, TPC/Gamefreak.